095 - Tennessee in the Fall

If you don't like trees, you won't like this post.

We made it here just in time to catch the tail end of the fall color change. It is absolutely gorgeous to drive down the roads and look around at all the yellows, oranges and reds. I don't even know which are my favorite anymore. I initially went with red, because red is usually always my favorite, so vibrant... but I think the yellow might be winning because the sun shines on the leaves and wow, they just pop. There was a hill that looked like gold. Then there's orange... it's a mix of both and it's stunning too.

For those of you who don't understand why we want to be here, I present you with the following... and if you still don't understand... you're hopeless.

Cotton fields in Georgia. Cotton is really kind of pretty.

I told you there would be trees.

Cool bridge in Georgia.

Fall in Tennessee!!!!

Thought it was neat how the roads made this almost look like a bubble.

0094 - Unadilla

So here we are in Unadilla, GA. It is the first time we've been able to use our RV timeshare membership to get a free stay since we signed up. Today's trek wasn't bad, it was only five hours, and tomorrow should only be around six.

We were (obviously) delayed a bit... don't know what it is about Florida, but it seems like all of our things break there. First the RV, then the truck. This time our radiator went kaputsky, so that prevented us from moving to the next campground and delayed us by a day. Then when they road tested it to verify that the new radiator worked, the water pump stopped working. Kiss another day goodbye. Our warranty company reminded us how much they suck. They look for the lowest price they can find, and that's what they pay. In this case they found a reconditioned radiator on the internet and authorized $539 for parts and labor when the shop quoted us $900 to replace it with a new one. I told them I want another dispute form, we were stranded and didn't have time to sit around waiting for something to be shipped... and what shop does business that way anyway? They don't order crap off the internet. It's stupid.

So we left this morning. Honestly, it was good that we did stay overnight at the campground. The blinds on the wall by the dining room table (where they replaced a wall panel) didn't stay up, our surge protector was missing (about $500), and the ring that protects our power cord from water (where it plugs into the RV) was also missing. Where these things went, we don't know. That's in addition to the fact that they removed our capture plate and we had to have them replace that and fabricate another piece of that that was missing. They replaced everything and fixed it, but we would have been supremely pissed had we left the park and then realized it. I guess it boils down to pride in workmanship and responsibility... once again it is an indicator of how lacking that is these days. And we did get two free nights in the park, so two of our three nights didn't cost us anything, just the one night we stayed in the hotel. They would have let us stay in the parking lot, but there were no hookups and the park had already closed so they couldn't pull us in that night.

Tomorrow we should be in Tennessee. Home. I look forward to seeing our friends, touring some houses, seeing the leaves all pretty for fall, and cooler weather. We were supposed to meet up with one of my former co-workers from NASA, but the delay made that impossible. We can try again another time.

I am extremely concerned about the upcoming election. People keep saying that one term isn't enough to accomplish anything, so we need to give Obama more time. The fact that he still has supporters shocks and mystifies me. Is Romney the perfect replacement? No. Is he better? He has the potential to be. I would rather take a chance on the unknown than continue down this road. I posted this on Facebook and got a lot of positive support, but here and there someone always steps up and dissents. They're entitled to their opinion as long as they express it in a non-confrontational manner... I just don't agree.

"Obama was our first multicultural president. He, more than any president in the history of our nation, had the opportunity to bring us together. Instead we are more divided than ever. Any dissension is called racism; apparently freedom of speech and thought has become nothing more than a racial slur. How many other presidents have faced opposition? All of them. It has nothing to do with race but he needs somewhere to place the blame, so in addition to Bush and republicans, his supporters have added the citizens of the United States to the list. He should have embraced the fact that he is biracial and squelched the racial talk altogether. He is a great disappointment to me."

I hope whatever direction the election takes, our country survives it. Guess we'll find out soon.

0093 - Mountain Road, Take Me Home

We're leaving for Tennessee via Florida tomorrow morning. It's going to be a long trip, made even longer by the fact that both of us are a bit under the weather, coughing, with maybe a little bit of a fever. But it's good, I got some generic Mucinex and it's helping. And we get our house back, and we get to spend a little time in Tennesee. We should also be able to look at houses while we're there, which I'm really, really excited about.

We're planning to go for about twelve hours tomorrow. It's easier without the RV, we can drive for longer periods of time, move faster. Then that leaves about 5-6 hours the next day. We get to use our "free stays" for the first time, and I've already got three sites reserved for us. That makes it nice, saves us money.

We need to figure out where we'll be taking the RV from there... whether we should find a spot near the main office in Dallas, or take it on the road as Mike goes. Hell, we may just park in TN if he's going to be out east like he was this time around. It's all up in the air. I just want to be able to see him more than once every three weeks, but even that is better than three months at a time.

Anyway, it's bittersweet. I've kind of gotten used to seeing Brian's grumpy arse in the mornings. He's been a good roommate and guinea pig for my cooking experiments. And he was wonderful for taking us in, it really saved us. He probably won't read this, but it needed to be said, and I will tell him too... he just doesn't take thank you's so well. We have that in common. :)

I went a little crazy and started putting a business plan together for a food truck... what goes into the recipes... how much it costs... containers... population around us... competition... startup costs... I still don't know if I'm daydreaming or serious, but I'm having fun.

0092 - Marketing Ploys

My whole life I've had oily skin, and I've been at war with my skin for as long as I can remember. I've thrown chemicals of all sorts at my face in a futile attempt to stop it from breaking out... antibiotic pills... topical gels that caused my skin to get red and flake... even Accutane - and when one didn't work, I moved on to another one. As a result, years of antibiotics destroyed my gut flora, and I can't use Eyrthromycin anymore; it simply stopped working. The gut flora I killed still haunt me to this day, and on top of my digestive issues, there seems to be some evidence that lack of beneficial gut flora can cause obesity.

It was also ingrained in me, by my dermatologist, that I should avoid products containing oil as this would only exacerbate the problem.

So what I did next was crazy.

It must have been three or four years ago that my friend Kato wrote a blog post about her skincare routine. She said that she rubbed olive oil on her face, massaged it in for a few minutes, then ran hot water over a washcloth that she then used to remove the oil. That's it. That's how she cleaned her face. It sounded insane. And yet, it piqued my interest because she said she never broke out and her skin never felt better.

At that point in my life I was willing to try anything, but I was also interested in more natural ways of doing things. So I tried it. I'll be honest - it felt disgusting. As I said, it was ingrained in me for years that oil was bad, so I went into it expecting it to be bad. The weird thing was, after I massaged the oil in and wiped it off, my skin felt clean and soft. Not oily at all. And I didn't break out.

I did this for about a week before I succumbed to marketing ploys and decided to go back to another skin care routine that worked for me. I can't even explain why, because it was working just fine. The routine I switched to was a Triclosan-based antibacterial soap, followed by a toner, and a high content alphahydroxy lotion. In my quest to figure out what happened to my thyroid I've since learned that "Animal studies are showing that [Triclosan] is an endocrine-disrupting chemical with a penchant for disrupting thyroid hormone at the level of gene expression." (Article here)

So I have once again been forced to re-evaluate my skin care regimen and I'm back to oil cleansing. I used to follow that up with a 'toner'... which is basically a couple of drops of tea tree oil on a cotton pad that I run under the water for a second to dilute it. I figured that would get rid of any remaining oil residue, and it's an anti-bacterial, too. But I have started using a mix of castor oil and olive oil and find that I don't even need the toner. Maybe my skin is changing, or maybe it's just that my mindset has.

I have finally realized that there is credence to the 'oil removes oil' school of thought.

I am trying not to be a victim of marketing anymore. Just as I am trying to tear myself away from storebought cleaning products if I can make some of my own that are just as effective. It's not necessarily that it's easier to buy them ready-made, it's just that I have been conditioned to do so. I am a victim of pretty packages (hi Mike)... I love browsing the aisles at a big HEB, grabbing the fancy soaps in the health section... the Watkins... the Meyers... I *do* judge a book by its cover before I open it up to examine the pages. Sorry, but it's true. But I'm also trying to become more healthy, and that appears to be so much more than what goes into my mouth. Skin is the largest organ in the body, what you expose your skin to can affect you just as much as if you swallowed it.

It only took me 39 years to figure that out.

Progress Report:

The shampoo smells heavenly. It doesn't lather up very much, and it's so thin that I have to pour it directly onto my head, but my hair feels clean. The most expensive part of it is the baby shampoo... we drink coconut milk, cook with olive oil, and the essential oil will last a long time (I chose grapefruit), so those are very low cost items. I don't know how long it will last since it's watery and I use probably 1/4 cup to wash my hair, but I think since it doesn't have a preservative (unless you use the vitamin E), it's probably best not to keep it around for too long anyway. I keep it in the empty bottle of Dawn that I emptied to make another cleanser. Yea for me. I'm recycling. :)

The laundry detergent smells won-der-ful. I broke down and used the two bottles of Purex Crystals. It makes a TON of powder... I filled the two Purex bottles and there is more than 1/3rd of a Tidy Cats litter bucket left. Anyway, I used it today and my clothes were soft and the smell was very light and clean, not overpowering - I was a little worried because the powder in the bucket has a very strong smell. In fact, mix it in the garage, not in the house... I had to open the windows. All in all it ended up costing me around $25 (without coupons), but I used a generic version of Oxyclean. The hardest part was finding the Borax (not at Target, not at Walgreens, not at Family Dollar, not even at Walmart... I found it at HEB) - and after I did find it, I kind of wondered what the difference between Borax and Washing Soda is... they say the same thing on the front of the box... sooooo... hmmm... The pink Zote smells like Ivory soap... I don't know what it's made of, there are no ingredients on the package. Out of curiosity, I smelled some Fels Naptha, and it has a milder scent so it's up to you, that and Kirk's Castille are all supposedly interchangable - just pay attention to the ounces. I know it's stupid, but I kind of like the way the detergent looks with the strips of pink and pearls of purple scattered throughout (and I hate pink...), so... it's not so bad.

Homemade Febreze is easy. Smells a little less intense than storebought, but for the price, I'm cool with that. I doubled the recipe to fill a Febreze bottle. And I had to google how to open the bottle because it doesn't just screw off... if you submerge the pump end in hot water for a couple of minutes and twist... for some reason it magically comes off. Brian bought the real thing and it was $4.64 at Walmart... mine hardly cost anything because the bottle of fabric softener will make tons more.

Blessing in a Bottle didn't clean as well as I'd hoped. I tried it on soap scum and used the sponge side, not the scrubby side, I guess because I thought it had magical properties. Soap scum - 1, BIAB - 0. It's soapy, you can probably deduce that from the amount of Dawn it contains. I will try it again on something else, but even with the laundry detergent, it smells too vinegary for me (I also used a scented Dawn). I think I will try the citrus infused vinegar and see if that's any better.

0092 - This is not a post :)

This is not a post so much as an excuse to paste a copycat Chuy's Chile Relleno recipe onto the internet so that I can pin it to Pinterest.

I made Mexican food tonight. Taquitos with Cilantro-Lime Rice... and salsa:

It went over BIG. I was elated to have finally made salsa that tastes like restaurant salsa... not just restaurant salsa, because I am often disappointed in that, but great restaurant salsa. I even used the raw onion - which will shock anyone who knows me - I just diced it really, really fine, then I poured water over it and popped it into the fridge while I finished chopping everything else because I've heard that takes the bite away. Have I mentioned how good it was? Oh my god it was good. So even if the rest of the meal had sucked, I wouldn't have been sad at all.

I. Mastered. Salsa. (!!!)

It was chunky, but delicious. When I get back to the RV we'll see how it works when it's blended into a more salsa-like consistency... but I'll be honest, it was fine as it was. Brian took one bite and for the past three hours has been giving me kudos, claiming it was the best meal he's had in months and calling it gourmet. I wouldn't go that far, but it is nice to hear. I've never made taquitos before and they did turn out well. Yea me for having good luck in choosing recipes!

It made me revisit the restaurant idea again. I know for a fact that there is no Mexican food that Mike or I consider acceptable for 60 miles. I say 60 miles because there is a Chuy's in Murfreesboro, which is about 60 miles away, (Nashville is about 90 miles away). The market we'd be vying for would be more of a 20 miles radius and primarily a 10 mile radius. Gainesboro seems to have a steady lunch traffic because it's centrally located to about 10 cities. Most of the restaurants are home cooking. There is the one crappy Mexican restaurant, three bbq joints we haven't tried, and one Italian restaurant that we liked, which is more of a pizza place but they have a selection of other things. And a Subway. And a Dairy Queen.

What's wrong with the Mexican food, you ask (I know you did)? The salsa tastes like tomato sauce, unless it's the kind that has oregano in it - which is just wrong, wrong, WRONG. The nachos... they swim in a bland cheese sauce which is more soup than sauce. The chile rellenos are pathetic. I don't even eat them, but I know there is more to one than a small sliver of green chile. Fajitas... I've had decent fajitas there, but even then they're mediocre. Green sauce? What green sauce? I can introduce green sauce and/or jalapeno-ranch and blow their minds.

Anyway, I get excited about the idea, and then I get scared. I have no experience in the restaurant industry, but then again, in a rural area it's a little easier than it is in a large city or even in the surrounding suburbs... the crowds are smaller and a little more forgiving. I've seen people from all walks of life build successful businesses that way... the guy in Mississippi that only sells hamburgers "with or without" (onions)... the lady who runs the B&B we love so much who started cooking because she saw a need, she said there are restaurants in the area but nobody had anything good to say about them... the little Mexican grandma who ran the restaurant in Florida... I think if you find the right vendors, the right location, treat people well, and make good good for a decent price, you can succeed.

So anyway... recipe:

Generic picture I found...

CHILE RELLENOS

10 ea Poblanos, roasted & peeled
10 oz Longhorn or Jack cheese

BATTER

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 cup milk
2 eggs, slightly beaten
Oil for frying

Cut cheese into 1/2" thk slices the length of the chili. Make a small slit in chili just big enough to insert cheese. To make batter, combine flour, baking powder, salt and cornmeal. Blend milk with egg; then combine milk and egg mixture with dry ingredients. Add more milk if necessary for smooth batter. Dip stuffed chilies in batter. Fry until golden brown. Drain and serve.

0091 - I should be sleeping...

I was wondering why Facebook traffic has slowed, and then I took a look at the clock... it's 1 AM... on a school night... Somehow my body clock readjusts if I have too much time off and I will stay up until 3 or 4 am, waking around 10 or 11 am. Not to intentionally create a pun here, but when it happens - it's like clockwork. Right now I'm not tired at all...

I've been cooking for the past couple of weeks. So far, so good. I've lost about nine pounds and eaten a greater variety of food (Guiness beef stew, a chicken casserole, and beef stronganoff so far). The sleep may be helping... I never got enough sleep before, and now I'm not setting any alarms so I wake up when I wake up. I also started exercising a little bit because as much as I hate being fat, I hate being weak even more. I've never been weak and I don't like it but I noticed that my strength and endurance suck lately. Along with recipes and decorating tips, I've started to pin exercise routines on my Pinterest boards that I can do with no equipment, or those I can do with a resistance band.

I can't eat it every day, but this is my favorite food hack... take one box of angel food cake and mix it with any other flavor of cake mix you want... strawberry... lemon... devil's food... chocolate... whatever floats your boat. They call it 3-2-1 cake. You take 3 Tbsp of the combined mix, add 2 Tbsp of water, and microwave it for 1 minute. Voila - you have individual cakes like the Betty Crocker Warm Delights - but for a fraction of the price. Seriously, you can make probably 50 cakes for the cost of two boxes of cake mix, versus 50 cakes for around $2.50/ea and cooked in plastic that probably contains BPA. Me likey.

As you may have guessed, I'm on a homemade stuff kick. I've been meaning to get around to it for months now, but I wasn't finding recipes that I liked. Sure sea salt and baking soda works as a toothpaste... but I don't particularly like it. So when we get the RV back and I have my bag of bentonite clay and my stevia extract, I'm going to try this recipe. It has no fluoride and I control what goes into it. Fluoride is bad for you, it affects your thyroid, and it causes infertility, among other things. Glycerin, "an ingredient in some toothpastes, can interfere with strengthening your teeth. Glycerin layers your tooth in a sticky film that keeps minerals in your saliva from interacting with your enamel to strengthen it." Supposedly your teeth are just like any other bone, and given the opportunity (i.e. the right nutrition and non-interference with their natural cleaning processes) can heal and be strengthened. It makes sense to me... I never stopped to think that teeth are made of bone just like your leg - which can break, and knit itself back together.

And... I'm almost out of shampoo. Shampoo is not only expensive, but it is chock full of chemicals as well. I'm not ready to go 'no poo'... which is washing your hair with baking soda and then conditioning it with apple cider vinegar - even though... proponents claim to love it once they have gone through the greasy hair transition period (your body is so used to compensating for the oil that shampoos strip out of your hair that it goes into overdrive until it goes through a reset period, or so they say).  I can't stand it when my hair is greasy... not for one day, much less 28 of them. So... I'm going to try this formulation which does have a little bit of shampoo in it, but it's baby shampoo and they suggest organic so it shouldn't have all the fragrances and sulfates. I have a lot of coconut oil to use, so why not? If I don't like it I haven't wasted much because I have most of the ingredients already.

For chemical avoidance, and (okay it could be equally for) frugality reasons, I'm also jumping on the homemade cleaner bandwagon. My favorite find is this homemade laundry detergent that you can use in HE washers. I haven't decided if I'm going to add the fabric softener to it or not, it seems sort of contrary to the reasons I'm making it, and Mike's skin appears to be sensitive to fragrance, but anyway... I like the price... instead of buying detergent at $10 a pop and getting maybe 40 loads, this stuff supposedly makes enough for 2,184 loads at around $28... I, personally, think it costs a little more than that but still, it's quite a savings.

And then there are all the basic cleaners... window... all purpose... bleach... and my favorite - homemade Febreze. Febreze is incredibly simple, and you can make a larger variety of scents because it's just water and liquid fabric softener. I've always found the real stuff to have a slightly chemical smell mixed in with the 'fresh' scent, and maybe this is a way to alleviate that (and yes, I realize there are still chemicals in there).

Citrus infused vinegar is another option for cleaning and supposedly it smells like oranges, not vinegar. Homemade color catchers, if you use them would save tons of money. Foaming handsoap, much cheaper than ready made. DIY room fragrances are so, so easy (I'm thinking cinnamon and clove). And DIY baby wipes... you don't have to have a baby to use them, they can remove makeup, clean your hands when you can't get to the sink, take a sponge bath if water isn't available, etc. They aren't septic safe though, so no flushing...

There are several food mixes I want to try too, but I'm waiting on the 5'er for those since I have a lot of the ingredients already... onion soup mix (have done this one actually, and Mike said he preferred it to Lipton's for making onion dip)... ranch mix... homemade bisquick... pancake mix... pudding mix... cocoa mix... spice mixes (taco seasoning, etc.). There are so many neat ideas out there to save you money and stop the extra ingredients and fillers from getting into your system.

Enough of that.

Mike is still on travel, somewhere in Arkansas on his way to Missouri. After this stint we're going to retrieve our house... tired of being without it. When we could take off any time to go get it, it wasn't ready... the minute Mike gets a job - poof! It's ready. Hopefully we'll be able to stop by Tennessee and look at a couple of homes we're interested in on the way back to Texas. For the foreseeable future we'll be somewhat Texas-based since the home office is in Dallas, but we hope to eventually transition to another office that will put us where we want to be. Because yes, we still want to be there. Speaking for myself, I want to be there very badly; I hate even the little bit of traffic we have here in Georgetown.

I'm trying to figure out how to get him healthy foods on the road. If we can take the 5'er and he comes home at night it's not really a problem. If he's gone on multiple night stints and can't come home I have ideas but haven't tested them yet. They didn't occur to me until he'd already gone... :(

As for me, I have a couple of potential job possibilities in the works. If either of them pans out I will be a happy camper. I don't know that that will be the case, but I will keep my fingers crossed. One could happen any day. The other wouldn't start until the new year but I will know more at the end of November. Both would be good opportunities, so I really can't lose if either of them come to fruition.

Okay, so now that you're caught up, and you have been loaded up with DIY stuff... I'm going to try and find the sandman because we need to have some pillow talk. Good night!

0090 - You *can* take it with you

Mike is officially 40 now. To celebrate, we went to see Willie Nelson at Floore's Country Store in Helotes, TX.  I figured a) Willie is something of a hero to Mike, b) Willie is not getting any younger, c) Helotes was "only" two hours away and is a somewhat smaller, more intimate venue and d) 40 is a special year. It's interesting to be in close proximity to an icon, they just sweat charisma, and yet you recognize that they are still human. It was almost less like a concert than a backyard barbecue, very relaxed. People around us were cool and we all watched out for each other and defended our little area, but eventually it gets crowded and you have to go to the bathroom (Mike this time - not me!), so we decided to give up our little oasis and walk around.

The opening band really impressed us. They are that blend of bluegrass and Celtic rock that I really enjoy. And it was cool to see young people (god I feel old saying that) playing a mandolin, a banjo, an upright bass, a harmonica... In short, Dirty River Boys might be my new favorite band.

I've finally succumbed to Pinterest. I've heard people talk about it, I've even considered the fact that it could be a useful tool, but I was damned if I was going to become part of another social networking fad... sigh... After we found the house we are hoping to buy in TN it suddenly seemed sensible to browse ideas and have a way to keep them organized. And so... I am on Pinterest, and... I am an addict. That's the first step to recovery right? Admitting that you have a problem? So on top of home decorating ideas and eye-catching recipes I've found, I've also started pinning some of my own interests. One of those is food that won't be available in a nearby restaurant anymore... Carrabba's... Outback... Chuy's. So I've found some copycat recipes that will hopefully help with those cravings. Murfreesboro has most of the restuarants I love, but it's 90 miles away, so whenever I want Pollo Rosa Maria it's probably best if I just make it myself.

We ate at Salt Lick yesterday and their bbq sauce was unique, spicy, tart, sweet, thick. I had a  difficult time finding a copycat recipe, much less one that looked right. So I have to post it here in order to pin it to Pinterest (I know, I'm pitiful). I found it here, but it's mired down in forum posts so I'm making it easier on myself:

Salt Lick: Lauren’s Spicy Recipe Bar-B-Que Sauce

• 1 cup finished sweet and sour dressing (recipe below)
• 1/3 cup prepared mustard
• 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbs Vizcaya brand Habanero sauce (red NOT the orange)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• ½ tsp black pepper (fresh cracked if possible)
• ½ tsp cumin
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp Chinese 5 spice
• 1 Tbs Honey
• 1 Tbs brown sugar

Place sweet and sour dressing, mustard, Worcestershire, and all spices (from salt to Chinese 5 spice) in pan and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Take off of heat and add 1 Tbs of honey, 1 Tbs brown sugar, and 1 Tbs Habanero sauce.  Stir until well incorporated. Cool to room temperature then store in a squeeze bottle or any other container in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before use.

Sweet and sour dressing

• ½ cup apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 6 oz Dole 100% pineapple juice
• ¼ tsp ginger
• ¼ tsp garlic
• 1 Tbs cornstarch
• 1 Tbs water
• ¼ cup oil

Place all ingredients, except cornstarch and water, into a pan over medium heat. Allow mixture to simmer about 10 minutes. While this simmers mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Add this to the sweet and sour mixture and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to come to room temp.  Put in sauce in blender and while running drizzle oil until dressing thickens.

And with the sauce recipe, I can make the potato salad which was also very tasty.

My Pinterest boards are here: http://pinterest.com/kleblanc1313/. And now you know the extent of my problem. :)