Almost-Vegan

This post is in honor of Lauren and Matthew who bought me the Forks Over Knives cookbook a couple of weeks ago. Yes, they are possibly the most thoughtful people on the planet. Love and thanks to you two! 

On Friday night, I attempted to make vegan white bean chili from scratch. Spoiler alert: I ended up ruining the vegan component by dumping a handfull of mozzarella in the bowl before I ate it, but it was a pretty decent effort.

I diced almost-all of the vegetables by hand and minced some fresh garlic, while simultaneously talking Dad through a complicated iPhone procedure. So, Lauren, that's why my the onions aren't all in perfect squares -- I can almost hear you gasping right now. 

I cheated by adding canned tomatoes and pre-packaged vegetable broth. Don't judge me.

 

I rinsed the beans (yes, I added black beans to my "white bean" chili), and noticed there was a rogue kidney bean in the mix. I don't know about you, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that is some kind of good luck:

And then I mixed it all together, and let it cook:

The result was nothing short of ah-mazing. I am attributing much of the success to the lemon juice and lime zest:

Oh, and the cheese, of course.

Here's to eating almost-vegan-homemade-chili alone on a Friday night and writing a blog post about it. Procrastination is a beautiful [and delicious] thing.

Ryan

Weekend Wrap Up

It is getting to be that time in the quarter where I eat, sleep, and breathe school. While we did not so much as pick up a hammer this weekend, we did make a trip to Fort Yargo -- the purpose of which was to gather images for an upcoming project. Here are a few moments from the day:

Here's to a productive week, and may "R.O.T" never end up on any of our tomb stones.

Ryan

Home Sweet Construction Zone

I lovingly refer to our house as the 'construction zone'. I've gotten quite accustomed to weaving through boxes on my way to make coffee, and keeping all of the doors closed, so the cats don't accidentally rub against a saw, or step on a razor blade, or swallow a screw, etc. However, I have to say that I am excited for the day that I can have guests over without having to give the 'our-house-is-a-construction-zone-please-don't-judge-us' disclaimer. It gets old, and even I am getting sick of hearing myself say it.

And no, I did not stage the above shot. I was photographing the formal living room this weekend, and almost leaned back on this death trap. Jeff claims that he was testing the nail gun on this scrap piece of wood, but I'm hard pressed to believe that it took him ten tries to figure out that it was working properly.

Anyhow, the whole living-and-working-in-the-house-you're-remodeling thing is not as glamorous as HGTV led me to believe.

Literally, every corner of the house is being occupied. Be it a rug, a curtain rod, or a power tool -- there is something resting in every available nook in this house. It is nerve racking as I constantly feel that any one of the numerous piles-of-stuff that we have stacked to the ceiling could come crashing down with one false move.

Anyhow, in less dangerous news, something else I've noticed about living in a construction zone: I can't live without my iPad. It is, hands down, the most brilliant product I've ever owned (besides the mothership, of course) -- and I don't know how people survived this whole remodeling process without being able to carry a beautiful baby TV with them from room to room.

Let's not even talk about the carport. I dream of the day that our cars will have shelter from the rain.

And yes, I'm pretty sure our neighbors can't wait for that day either. 

The thing about remodeling a house that you just moved into is that everyone wants to "come see the new place", or "come see what you've done so far" -- and let me just tell you, it ain't pretty. Half of our house is covered in construction-grade paper, the other half is holding the furniture and stuff that will eventually go on top of the floors that are currently cover in construction-grade paper. It's a mess, people; and it loses it's charm after about 10 minutes when you realize there is no where to sit down -- because, apparently, every chair we own is also occupied.

I don't want this to discourage any visits as I have gotten really good at "giving the tour" when people come over -- not to mention, I started a blog to document the remodeling process, so I obviously don't have any secrets. However, if you want to come visit, you must (1) bring alcohol and/or your working gloves, or (2) take us out to eat ... which we've discovered is our parent's trick -- and. it. works. every. time.

Here's to our home, sweet, home construction zone. Happy Thursday!

Ryan

The Mothership

The mothership arrived last week, and Leo and I are in iHeaven -- just thought you should know. 

Happy Wednesday, all.

Ryan

Weekend Wrap Up

This lovely-three-day-weekend was something of a circus at our house. Not surprisingly, we worked on a myriad of random projects and didn't finish a-one-of-'em. Apparently, we are just not a "one-room-at-a-time" type of couple. I've decided that we work in phases, and that we are in the process of finishing Phase One; a metaphorical [and somewhat literal] sweep of the entire house.

Since I have no final reveals to share, I thought I would just give an overview of some of the projects we worked on over the last three days. The one I'm most excited about is my office; Jeff painted the ceiling "Persimmon Red" -- it's not finished, but here's a sneak peek:

Jeff also gave an extra coat of "Powered Brick" to the formal room, and I continued to work on the trim-that-never-ends:

I also painted the front door gray one night when Jeff was at work. It's just a first coat, but I kind of love it. In the coming weeks, I'll take the door off of the hinges, paint the final coat, add new hardware, and photograph it properly -- but for now, here's a shot to give you an idea of where we're at:

Oh, and perhaps my favorite project from this weekend is the guest bedroom curtains. We found them in the attic when we moved in, and I was this close to throwing them out -- but Mom encourage me to save them. They look to be from the late 50s or early 60s, and I'm pretty sure they were custom made for the guest bedroom windows specifically. Mom and Dad surprised us by having them dry cleaned as a Christmas gift, and I finally got around to finding some hardware that would allow them to hang properly. The only problem is, I underestimated how much hardware I would need - so, er, I was only able to complete one window this weekend. Here's a peek at the fabric and the rigged hardware: 

Custom curtains are no joke, people.

In other-more-nerdier-news, Jeff is knee deep into his aquarium adventure. This weekend, he started the process of cleaning and assembling the tank:

Oh, what is that you say, you didn't know Jeff was into this sort of thing? Well, he is, and we are about to have a 90-gallon-salt-water-reef-tank in the man-cave to prove it.

To be fair, underneath all of my eye rolling, I am super impressed that Jeff even knows what any of this stuff is; no less, how to make an entire ecosystem grow inside of it. 

Random fact: Jeff also served as my muse for a project that I'm working on for school:

So yeah, on top of painting and hanging curtains and cleaning out a pump system in our carport, Jeff also did some hand modeling this weekend. What a trooper. 

More on all of these projects to come. Happy MLK Day, all!

Ryan

It is all a ruse.

School is officially back in full swing, and I haven't picked up a paint brush since Sunday.

With that being said, procrastination is king tonight -- so, I thought I would come up for air and share a few moments from my week that made me smile. 

Honestly, this post is just a ruse to get you to come back and visit the blog on Monday, when hopefully I have some home-improvement updates to bring to the table.

These photos are pretty mysterious though, right?

In other news ... tomorrow is Friday, and I feel fine.

Have a great weekend!

Ryan