The Calm before the Storm

I realized yesterday that August has 31 days so my social experiment will begin tomorrow. Last night, we invited some friends over for dinner and they were really psyched about this experiment! Somehow it evolved into seeing how far we could go without buying any food/groceries for the entire month.

"What about lack of fresh vegetables", queried an inquiring mind.
"Our little garden should suffice. See what I picked two days ago?

It isn't much but if we get desperate, my parents have a successful garden of their own. We shall also glean our greens from them."

"Arrghh matey, but what about potential "problems" when your supply of fruit runs out", arrgh'd Captain Doubty-Pants.

"Blimey, scurvy and constipation are a great concern of ours, but we picked 12lbs of blueberries this summer that is sittin' pretty in the cozy freezer. Plus, we currently have 1 pomegranate, 1 chermoya, 2lbs of clementines, half a giant watermelon and 4 avocados in our fruit supply. I think we shall be fine."

"Protein?" wondered a healthy Korean male.

"We have plenty in the form of beef, chicken, duck, seafood, tofu, eggs, and beans. In fact, I took out a whole chicken that I bought a few weeks ago and took it apart. The leftover bones I put into a pot with some filtered water and leftover vegetables to turn into pure liquid gold (aka chicken stock)."







"Dairy/calcium?" inquired a medically educated friend.

"We have a Costco pack of string cheese, about 8oz left of yogurt, and some soy milk. Also, leafy greens and bone soup (see above) also provides plenty of calcium and minerals.

"What if you run out of food" posed a responsible wife of 10 months.

"My Parents-in-Law own a noodle manufacturing company. Not spending money doesn't mean not using one's resources! Besides, my fridge and freezer still has a lot of random "rainy day" rations in the form of wontons, dumplings, shao long baozi, zhongzi, scones, butternut squash ravioli (homemade), and the aforementioned protein."





With a good natured chuckle and an open invitation on September 15th for dinner (or whenever our supply runs dry), my friends encouraged us to give this social experiment a try. They did plant one seed into my head that perhaps unfairly alters my plan just a tiny bit, which is...to run to store and stock up before night falls on August 31st! Although I only intended to get flour and coffee, I emerged with $32.58 worth of additional supplies later. On the other hand, I now feel confident that we can go an entire month without buying food and still eat very nutritiously.

So what exactly does $32.58 buy? This.



Soy Milk
Organic Coffee (if I don't brew my own, I will spend money to buy it.)
Organic Kefir (probiotics are my friends)
3lbs Naturally raised ground beef (because it was on sale)
A dozen eggs (certified humanely raised)
Organic whole wheat flour

Thus armed with everything above, some ingenuity, $32.58 of supplies and $38 worth of gas...we venture into September.

A Social Experiment

A few months back, I read a blog about this couple who conducted a month-long experiment to see if they could survive on $1/day (per person) on food. I don't want to do what they did (subsisting on Top Ramen) but I am curious to see how frugally we can live. Part of this social experiment is because we got bombarded with a lot of expenses over the past two or three months. Between tuition, weddings (5 this summer + 1 requiring travel), routine car maintenance, property taxes, unexpected expenses etc etc...we really need to tighten the belt.

So...beginning tomorrow, I will account for every last cent that is expended over the course of 30 days, excluding our usual mortgage/utilities. The goal is to spend as little as possible without sacrificing on our usual standard of health. This means no Top Ramen and yes to organic chicken. On the other hand, I have a well-stocked pantry and freezer and a mini-vegetable garden so I would love to go through this entire month without having to purchase any groceries.

Alright...let the savings begin!

Random Musings

The Bed.

The hubs & I decided to cancel our order after all. Much as we'd like the nice bed, it wasn't really that high on our list of priorities. The money is better spent (or in our case--saved) elsewhere. Elsewhere being lots of vacations and travels before we start a family! Next year, we plan on going to Europe and Asia. If/when hubby starts a new job, he's going to take a month off just to relax. Getting married while being in school is the craziest thing ever. It's been a year now but what a stressful year it has been!

When you're not looking

It was hard to curb my enthusiasm for furnishing our home but we've done a decent job stretching it over the course of the year. Most of our living area is furnished now but our bedroom could use some sprucing up. We splurged on crystal orb lamps and a nice dresser and bed tables but our bed is still on metal castors bereft of any dressing. Almost a year ago, we fell in love with this Collette bed from Crate and Barrel. We both liked how it was klutz-proof so even if I do bang my shin against it, it probably won't hurt as much as it would against sharp wooden corners. I guess we also have a thing for cream colored curves with nailhead trim because it's pretty much just like our sofas haha. I dislike the look of matchy matchy stuff but I think it's far removed from the living room enough that it won't look like we bought a set yet close enough to unify the decor.



Anyway, over the course of time, I've stumbled on the Collete but at $1800, we just couldn't stomach the price. I found a similar one on Overstock a few months back but it was still $1100. I decided to switch tactics and searched for headboards only instead of a platform bed. There were plenty of tufted upholstered ones but they still cost $400 or so for the ones that I liked and it still seemed wasteful to spend $400 on a piece of fabric covered plywood.

So what did we do?

Nothing. Dismissed it. We decided after our harried dining table adventure that we wouldn't rush into things. (In our defense, we had to get a dining set quickly because hubby's grandmother wanted to have dinner at our place before she went back to the East coast after our wedding). I digress. Tonight, tired and bored, I felt the urge to look at Target and found Collette's twin, Rochelle.



For about 1/3 of the Crate & Barrel's Collette, free shipping coupon, a bing 10% discount and a forgotten wedding gift card (Thanks Dan!), we got it delivered for just under $450! Is it risky to buy online, sight unseen? Nah, in this case, it's actually "Return to Target Store" friendly!

Now that we can handle! And it will be ours very soon. I cannot wait!

Table Re-Do

When hubby and I moved into our first house, his parents gave us an old dining set to use. At first, it was meant to be a makeshift temporary nook table but as time went on, I found out that hubby is secretly very attached to the table. This dining table belonged to his parents and they've had it for over 20 years. This table has been well loved and the finish has worn to bare wood in many places over the decades of repeated use and wiping. Long scratches mar the surface and the style is most definitely of the 80's variety. There was hope though--the set was solid hardwood which made it durable, light, and best of all, refinishable. (Is that even a word?) I digress. The chairs were still in good condition--the finish was still shiny but the cushions were stained in some places. As a compromise to replacing the set altogether, hubby agreed to let me refinish it and re-upholster the chair cushions.

Now...I took construction in high school and loved it so I had some idea of how to proceed. I didn't have a lot of the tools for a truly professional looking job but luckily, the "craftsman" style is in so a few nicks and bumps along the way just adds to the character. Here is the before:



Most of the wooden furniture in our house is a deep brown and leans more towards the classic/romantic look but there is no way that I could give the little table a deep stain and still have it look legitimate. It'd look like it was trying too hard to be something it is not. No...I examined the table further and realized that it has some Pottery Barn-esque possibilities. Small. Cute. Shabby Chic. Kind of like this:



Oooh...when I see this, I automatically thought of summer and sunshine. All this torrential rain makes me long for sunshine. So I thought...what if I painted the set white and redid the cushions in a summery yellow like this?



After some hemming and hawing, I decided to go for it. It doesn't really match or serve as a cohesive transition from the great room to the kitchen, but it's such a cute little table. Here it is, after 2 full days of sanding, priming, painting, glossing, and covering.



I'm hoping I did the right thing. There is no question the table needed to be refinished but I'm not 100% sure the white & yellow works inside. It'd be great for the outdoor patio that I am dreaming about though. It's too late to redo it now and I'm too exhausted to even contemplate another go around so I guess we'll just keep it as is.

Total cost: $20
Time spent: 25 hours

The breakdown:
Paint: free, all leftover from previous owners
Brushes/Supplies: n/a since the brushes were leftover from previous painting projects. Sure got our moneys worth!
Sunbrella outdoor mod yellow fabric: $20

Furnishing the Great Outdoors

The forecast for the next week is going to be gloomy, wet, and rainy but that isn't stopping me from imagining warmer days ahead! We had a BBQ over the weekend but spent most of the time indoors because of the weather. I have been longing for warmer weather and since it should arrive any day now, I am looking forward to spending lots of quality time outside. The benefit of buying an older home is that the landscaping has had a chance to mature and grow. In all but winter time, the leafy branches on the trees along the backyard create a delicate screen that provides us a lot of privacy from the neighbors behind us.

In order to enjoy the yard though, we do need a bit of furnishing. I'm sure that most people by now have heard of the design concept of "bringing in the outdoors" via plants or similarly hued colors. Our house has plenty of houseplants now...in the living room alone, we have one tree that is taller than I am, one palm, and seven varieties of houseplants. Even when we decided to do an indoor wedding, I still found a way to bring in plenty of chiffon draping and real trees decorated with fresh orchids.

A twist to bringing in the outdoors is to create rooms in the outdoors. The thought occurred to me during our multiple wedding planning brainstorms. I loved the plush outdoor "lounges" created by cascading filmy fabric on canopies and fancy sofas and chaises that were all the rage for weddings. Now, I am starting to see outdoor "rooms". Wouldn't this be an absolutely lovely place to sit and read on a warm summer afternoon? Or having friends over for an evening of cocktails and 'smores?



It looks like all they did was add some fabric and colorful accents to turn an ordinary covered patio into something exotic and alluring. The illusion french doors and windows were pure genius.


This picture is of a Portland porch. Again, a little bit of fabric and thoughtful furnishings went a long way into making this a cozy retreat. What a great place to sit and have afternoon tea!



For something super simple and festive, why not stake some bamboo poles into the grass ( or in pails filled with concrete) and drape fabric over it for an instant tent? Add in colorful print tablecloth for a much cuter and more comfortable way to picnic in the backyard. No more numb legs from sitting or sunburn from overhead!

(source for pics)

All in good time :) Probably not this summer unless I score some killer deals but someday.

Serendipitous Finds

Last fall, I tried my hand at making okonomiyaki, a type of Japanese bar food that is often given the misnomer of "Japanese pizza". It's actually more like a Chinese Egg Foo Young or Jewish latkes in theory but kicked up ten notches with goodies like shaved bento flakes, kewpie mayo, a tangy sauce, green onions, and dried seaweed flakes.



In some regions of Japan, it is made with yakisoba noodles in it but I preferred to keep it lighter.The result is a slightly crispy, chewy, veggie and seafood pancake. The ingredients were readily available, including the bonito flakes, but I could not find plain seaweed flakes for the life of me! I found furikake rice seasoning stuff but I could not find plain seaweed flakes. The aisles of the Japanese market had absolutely no rhyme or reason to it but after several rounds, I came upon this tin of seaweed powder.



Thinking that it was perhaps the same thing, I went ahead and bought it. It was evident when I got home that it was not the same thing and I ended up using rice seasoning on the okonomiyaki after all. It has been nearly a year hence and I totally forgot about the little tin of seaweed powder until today. To my delight, this is what I found!

"Kinjyo Jirushi Konbu Cha won awards from the Ministry of Aquaculture of Japan and Osaka City Government.

This is a savory tea made from dried konbu (seaweed) powder. You can drink it by just adding hot water. Since it has a touch of saltiness, some people use it in cooking to replace salt. The konbu (kelp) is known for containing an abundance of fibers, iodine, calcium, minerals, vitamins and iron. The charm of the Japanese women's black hair and skin is said to be related to the hormones secreted by the thyroid gland. Drinking this tea on a regular basis will help to regulate your hormone production and keep your skin and hair beautiful. Drinking Konbu Cha is believed to lower blood cholesterol, decrese constipation, and recover from exhaustion. In Japan, Konbu (kelp) is often seen at celebrating occasions to symbolize felicity. This is because the sound 'konbu' is similar to the word 'yorokobu' which means 'to rejoice' in Japanese." (source)

Very cool. My mom often made us a seaweed soup called "fa(1) chai(3)" that looks like black hair and told us that it'd make our hair darker and prettier. She also made us weird black dumplings filled with black sesame paste for the same reason. I used to think that all east Asians had naturally black hair but when I moved to SoCal, I discovered that there is a small minority of east Asians with naturally light hair ranging from honey brown to reddish brown. Even my full-blooded Chinese nephew had dishwater blonde hair for the first 2 years of his life that is only a deep brown even now. Maybe there is some truth to the seaweed after all.

Either way, I am happy that my little mistake yielded something new and fun for me to try. Use in place of salt? Why yes, indeed.