#23 Send more mail to people I love/care about – check!
19 cards of various kinds are ready to go out in the mail tomorrow. I figure, this will be one of those things I try to do all year.. so I’m going to keep a tally.
Feels good to get started on the list though. Direction.. that’s always a good thing, right?
My friend, Dim of Snarky Sister, has been working on her 30 by 30, which inspired me to give it a try. Her blog is awesome by the way… if you’re not reading it, I don’t know why not… and you should probably just give up now.
Anyway, I have about 13 months before I hit 30. That’s 13 months to do 30 things which I’ve put together and will list below. Many of which are food-based, things I’ve been too scared or too lazy to try, or just for fun.
30 by 30 list (in no order):
1. Graduate (seriously, I’ve been working on this thing forever and it needs to be over… now?)
2. Debone a chicken (everyone says it’s so easy… let’s hope they’re not lying)
3. Learn how to do eye makeup really well (the key there is ” really well” – I’m proficient, but I’d like to be much much better at it… then maybe I would wear makeup more than twice a year?)
4. Throw a four-course dinner party (want to come? please?)
5. Kill/cook a lobster (I’m a firm believer that as a meat-eater I should be able to kill whatever it is I’m eating. I love lobster, but have never had the responsibility of killing and cooking one… so we’ll see…)
6. Learn to cook some Indian food (love to eat it, never cooked it.. you get the idea)
7. Make jam or jelly (so that I can do #8)
8. Can jam or jelly (so I actually follow through on canning things other than blueberry syrup)
9. Completely surprise Dave with something fun (this will probably be one of the hardest because I get really excited about surprises for him and they rarely stay secret)
10. Make yogurt (Dave’s brother gave us all the things to make yogurt for a wedding gift, so I have no excuse not to make it…)
11. Make a piece of clothing that I can actually wear (and will want to wear)
12. Make a recipe journal
13. Have a guest blogger (any volunteers? you could talk about whatever you wanted)
14. Host a pig roast (I really want an excuse to buy a whole pig down at the Farmer’s Market – really really! – also, it’s probably a good thing you don’t live closer, Susanna, or pig on the pig could kill our friendship, huh?)
15. Write something substantial (I’m leaving this one kinda vague because I haven’t decided what “substantial” means yet)
16. Make ice cream from scratch
17. Master yeast bread (or at least make one really nice loaf)
18. Eat vegetarian for a week (Dave was distressed to hear this one because it probably means he will also eat vegetarian for a week)
19. Plant an herb garden
20. Get a stamp in my passport (hopefully next month!)
21. Finish a quilt project (I keep starting new ones. I should really put “finish all the quilt projects I have going right not” but I’m totally chicken.. so I’ll settle for 1 of 25)
22. Have a picnic in the park
23. Send people I love more mail (I used to send a lot of mail, but I’ve been slacking off lately and that makes me sad)
24. Make hollandaise sauce (I tried this once and it went horribly wrong)
25. Go to an apple orchard (never been before but really really want an excuse to go)
26. Bring order to the craft room (accountability! I’m writing it here so I *HAVE* to do it)
27. Make a successful souffle
28. Visit the wineries up North (we toured a few several years ago and I would love to go back and do it right)
29. Make macarons
30. Use public transportation (before you make fun of me.. bear in mind I live outside of Detroit where public transportation is the SMART bus that very few people use. I’ll either have to figure out the SMART bus schedule or visit a city that has more methods of public transportation)
So that’s my 30. I’m hoping that it’ll inspire me to blog some more, too. Here’s to hoping I get any of it done….
So I started a new job in August and pretty much the rest of my life has been put on hold because I have never been this busy… ever, but not for the last week!
The major plus of working in higher ed is holiday time off. Dave and I have been off for the past week. Dave has used this time to work on our bathroom. A small leak in the shower has resulted in the need to rip out the entire shower area and rebuild it. He’s been working really hard though and is up to tiling – yay!
I’ve spent this time trying new recipes and stocking our new upright freezer… also, doing lots of laundry as our washer crapped out a couple weeks ago and we finally replaced it (someone should have warned us that being adults sucks, although almost 30, we were not prepared for this)!
And, I also spent some time reading about botulism. Here’s the thing, I’ve always wanted to can. I’ve watched longingly as friends gave away delicious and beautiful canned goods and I even invested in books and canning equipment. The thing that has always stopped me is the fear of botulism. I mean, who wants to share a creation with a loved one and accidentally kill them? So, I read these books almost cover to cover:
And, I spent a substantial amount of New Years Eve grilling a close friend about her canning habits. And… I’m not afraid anymore! And today, on my last day of vacation, I took the plunge and tried my hand at blueberry syrup.. and…
I know blueberries aren’t in season, but they were on sale and I needed something where if I screwed it up, I wouldn’t cry.
And guess what, the sound of the little metallic “ping” as the jar lids vacuum-sealed themselves is literally the best sound ever.
Anyway, hopefully there is more canning in my future and more blogging, too!
