Leah's Favorite Things

I made pizza for dinner.
The coolest part about canning is making a meal and realizing a large portion of it is from your garden. 
The canned pizza sauce and bell peppers are from the garden.
Awesome

Husb bought me these pretty flowers Saturday.
He says they came from his garden…
also know as the local grocery store Safeway.

Pizza and flowers…seems like a good day right?
WRONG!
I had four people tell me a couple weeks ago that I had to get a crock pot.
I finally decided they were right and did all the research to find the perfect one.
It came in the mail today.
BROKEN
And actually, it wasn’t even the one I ordered. 
I ordered a cute one not an ugly one.

I’m just a little irritated.
And…while I’m at it…I’m irritated that you cant find The Torkelsons on DVD
Did any of you guys ever watch that Disney show?
About the single Mom in Oklahoma just trying to make ends meet with all her cute southern children?

Robert Iger…please copy it to a DVD and mail it to me! PLEASE!

Ok…enough ranting.
I’m going to go watch Heroes with my husb.
Who knew a crock pot could get me so worked up?

Hi Friends!
Sorry I’ve been a lame blogger.
It’s pretty bad when people start texting threats because you haven’t been blogging…Kristel! Ha!

I just haven’t had much to offer lately.
I imagine readers can only take so many posts about vegetable gardening and canning.
And that’s pretty much been my life over the last couple months.
I am planning a wedding shower…but I cant blog about that because the sweet Bride reads this blog!

However, I did have a little adventure today!

Meg and I went to Trophy!
It’s a cute cupcake store in the sweetest Seattle building.
I’ve wanted to go forever and today was finally the day!

It’s not really a public school…its a shopping center.

They had these fall themed cupcakes…so cute!
I love the one decorated like a pumpkin.

Meg got red velvet, I chose lemon coconut and we got Husb chai cardamom.
And just incase you are wondering…Meg footed the bill.

Husb and I are on day 23 and haven’t spent a dime eating out!
I’m so proud of us!
As a result of this challenge I’ve come across some new recipes I want to share with you guys tomorrow!
Hope your having a great Wednesday!

Update: I just ate my cupcake. It was DANG GOOD!

Update on our NO SPENDING MONEY ON EATING OUT challenge.
We have been successful! So far…not a cent has been spent!

Last week I canned with friends from 10am to 7:30pm.
I almost caved and ate Arby’s fast food with my friends.
Then husb called literally 2 minutes after I accepted the Arby’s dinner invitation and said “I’m on my way home…what are you making for dinner?”
I confessed my attempted sin and went home.

I’m not sure about our waistlines…but we are seriously saving money.

Which I spent today on a new pair of tennis shoes.
More motivation to get to the gym…right?

Also, if you have any plum recipes let me know.
As you can see I have then coming out my ears!

Hope your having a good one!

My favorite radio show, TBTL, got canceled. How lame is that?

Totally lame!

Starting Monday they will be strictly podcast. Time to bust out the Zune.

However, my car stereo is going to be in some serious mourning between 7-10pm each night.

Luke, Jen, Sean…thanks for being Too Beautiful To Live!

Last week K and I went to the beach

and had a picnic.

It was windy but the sand was nice and warm.

and despite the t-shirt….we didn’t break any rules

and had a great time.

By the way…all you locals…they tore down the pier at Edmonds beach. Hannah, this makes the picture you painted of it even more special.

of our NO EATING OUT challenge.  So far so good!

Although, I must tell you that husb had a dream on night 1 that he went to starbucks and ordered a drink and only remembered the challenge as he was handing the barista his card. Honestly, he really did dream about it.

But it was only a dream.

Today I bought groceries and went “shopping” in the garden. I don’t think this weekend will be too much of a struggle. Hopefully. However, I have been tempted to stop at one of the coffee stands and order a chocolate yogachinno. They are so good!

And, to be clear about our challenge. The rule is that we can’t spend any of our money eating out. However, it is acceptable for husb to eat take-out at work which the company buys. He has had 4 take-out meals this week!!!! You can imagine how I feel…eating left over chili at night.

Serena and I entered some of our canned goods into the fair.

I entered 5 cans. There were 642 entries.

But I got some ribbon stickers!

And then they did this to me!

Serious! “Thank You Please Enter Again”…were they that bad?

It’s okay. I bounced back. Serena…next year we are going to show them what’s up!

Speaking of Serena…my canning partner is crime.

She brought out the best She got second place in the Ball competition.

Way to go girl!

We have to give Lucie a shout out. She is our Mr. Miyagi. We couldn’t have done it with out her. Except the pickled jalapenos, which we did do with out her. We all know how that turned out.

is my favorite thing about summer!

I love walking through the big tunnels that take you to the admission gate.

Once your in…I suggest going straight for the purple cow.

It’s so good that you will forget to take a picture of it. Sorry. It’s basically a blackberry ice cream float with Sierra Mist instead of root beer. It’s beautiful and wonderful and great! And NO, we didn’t get a free purple cow this year.

The people behind us did! So close.

There are all kinds of chickens

and bunnies

Lunstrum ladies…is this bringing back memories?

I love baby pigs. And big mama pigs.

This sweet girl offered to pose with her sheep so I could take a picture. Gotta love her for that.

This guy has funny ears. I kinda like that about him.

The fair has lots of cows.

His Christmas presents keep getting more and more expensive

FOOD is the heart of this place. So much variety. I went for the Walla Walla cheeseburger minus the Walla Walla’s. Yeah, Yeah…I know.

Husb went for a Philly cheese steak, extra peppers.

Now, the rides are not my favorite part of the fair. I love how they light up the sky at night with all the pretty lights. But…they make me wanna barf. So, I just stand to the side and let the pros have at it. In this case the pros were husb and 2 year old.

As if us girls even had a chance of skipping past the dirt bike exhibit with our crew.

I love this picture. I wish I would have noticed the other little guys when I was taking it….I wouldn’t have chopped off their little heads.

We were walking past this ride on our way out and it caught my eye. This is one of the rides Michael Jackson had at his creepy ranch. I heard on the radio last week that the company that owns and operates the rides at the fair bought it.

I love the Evergreen State Fair. It’s so well rounded! Sure beats that icky Puyallup Fair! Ha!

to not spend any money eating out. That is what husb and I have agreed to!

We don’t eat out THAT much but we can definitely cut back. I’m going to suffer mostly on the weekends…I tend to feel those are my days off from cooking.

It will be interesting to see how much money we save and how many pounds we shed.

I’ll keep you in the loop as to how it’s going! Friends…feel free to invite us over for dinner. Just not OUT to dinner.

Day #1 – good so far…but it’s only 10am