Put A Star On Your Chart

Remember how when you were a kid they had those charts with chores and you got a star if you did one of your chores?  Yeah I never had one but I sarcastically tell Nick to "Put a star on his chart" every time he does something useful.  However, lately I seem to have become a nagging wife.  I dunno where it came from but out of nowhere I just can't stop myself from nagging him.  It's like word vomit.  I don't mean to be so irritating - I swear.  But seriously I just wish that we had a clean house and when he is playing computer games our house is not getting clean.  And to be honest I get a little bitter.  I know I'm not the only one here....

However, Nick swears he does the same if not more than me!  Therefore I devised...

Put A Star On your Chart!  

The DeCourcy Family Chore Sheet

It's an excel document to keep track of who's done what.  Annnnnnnd it really brings out the competitive side of him.  Which is totally useful.  Oh no honey I can't believe you've scored higher than me on the chore chart again!  Damn it *wink*wink*

The chore chart is in trial stages at the moment but if you think such a chart could help you deal with your lazy husband/wife/life partner, let me know and I will share it with you on google docs.   

Oh and also I would like to give a shout out to my favorite of all housewives (even if she isn't technically a wife) Martha Stewart for creating some stellar cleaning charts, which mine is loosely based off of.  

Anniversary Round 2

Yesterday was our anniversary.

Two years.

I'm not gonna lie now, last year when I wrote a really super mushy post about how fabulous married life was and everything I was kind of lying....

 I mean I just found the first year pretty hard, and not that fabulous.  

Even though I was in love with him and everything.  

I just hated England, and I was unemployed, and we were poor,

 and I missed being an independent woman.  

(And by independent I mean living with my friends 

and calling my parents up whenever I needed a bank refill.) 

But anyways being married is soooo much better now.

But it's still annoying sometimes, for instance yesterday when Nick got me gardening books for our anniversary.  I like gardening, but he had told me that he was shopping for my present in a jewelry store, and had also told me that he took time off to get his passport renewed the week before.  

This is when my imagination starts running wild.... 

Needless to say... my face looked something like this when I opened my pressies....

And then I threw a major bitch fit.  

He's still getting hell for it now actually.  

Luckily after two years I have learned a little something about forgiveness.

And I try not to be a huge bitch.

Even though I fail most the time.

In fact I'm probably failing right now 

since I am sharing this anniversary drama with the world wide web.

Oh well.  I want you readers to know that I love him.  

Even though he messes up sometimes.  

Cuz I mess up even more than him and he still thinks I'm cute.  

And he's nice to me 99.9999% of the time.  

And he is awful at holding grudges and he forgets why he is mad at me really quickly 

which is great for me because if I were him I would be mad at me for weeks at a time. 

 And I guess that is what I've learned about this whole marriage thing this year.  

Forgiveness is super important.  

I love you, Nick.

The First Feast

This is me.  Holding zucchini like a creep. 

A happy creep.  Finally all our hard work has paid off. 

Actually its not that hard.  It's pretty easy.  All the little seeds needed was a bit of love and water.  

And this is Heidi.  Looking at me like I'm crazy.  

I've had requests for her to feature more on the blog (hi beans) so here she is.   

Can you believe we have a patio under all those weeds she's standing in?

Ugh, our vegetables get all our attention ...

Anyways we picked the two biggest ones today.

And we dug up enough potatoes for two.  

And took cliche dirty potatoes in our hands pictures.

And this is what I made with them.  I sliced the zucchini into 1/4 inch rounds, placed them in a non stick grill pan over medium high heat, and grated some good Parmesan over the top.  When they got nice and melty I flipped them over and did the same on the other side.  So they had a good crust.  I tossed them into a spinach salad with a bit of balsamic and olive oil, walnuts and salt.

I made a tangy mint sauce for the potatoes.  While they were boiling I chopped an onion up and cooked it in some olive oil until it got translucent.  They I added some boiling water and a few large handfuls of finely chopped mint (also homegrown from seed) to the pan.  I let it simmer down and reduce before adding salt and lemon juice.  It tastes kind of like that mint chutney you get at Indian restaurants.  Sooooo good.  

Everything was absolutely delicious. I kept wondering whether the food just tasted better because I grew it myself, or if it was actually better.  I think it was actually better.  The potatoes were much sweeter, and the zucchini had the best texture.  I don't know how to explain it.  Just go plant some things.  and water them.  And watch them grow.  And eat them.  It is the best feeling ever.  

In other news : We took Heidi to check out an obedience class Monday.  We start in 2 weeks.  I'm scared shes going to be the class dunce....  I don't think I'll ever be ready for parenting. 

I went to Leeds with my friend on Wednesday night and saw Bright Eyes.  It was some really deep shit.  I've been feeling a little emo since then.  

I got a Groupon for osteopathy a few weeks ago and it has been awesome.  But Friday he did something called Applied Kinesiology on me.  Anyone done it?  It was weird.  He put a magnet on my stomach and then put test tubes of different things in it and apparently he can diagnose me from how my muscles reacted to the test tubes.  So apparently I have a fungus in my intestines and I need to take nettle root pills.  This fungus is making me eat sugar too.  So that's cool.  I can blame the fact I just ate a brownie on a fungus and not on my lack of willpower.  Also according to him I am NOT gluten intolerant.  Hooray... except why do I feel so shit after eating it?  But he says I am sensitive to chocolate, sugar, and alcohol.  Balls.  

Victory Garden

Hi Friends,

Gardening is this new hobby I have.  And I'm so addicted.  I feel like a loser but actually I think gardening is in right now.  So maybe I'm one of those hipster kind of losers.  hell yes.  Goal in life fulfilled.  Anyways I don't really care about pretty flowers, they're beautiful and everything, but they seem so vain and fickle.  We have a few in the front yard and I tend to let them die.  My adoration goes almost entirely to my utilitarian kitchen garden.  What can I say.... lately when I'm not eating food I'm trying to grow it.  Check it out...

My strawberries were doing really well until Amy came for the week and we didn't water them.  Oops.  There are still a few hangers on but I doubt they'll amount to much.

Being from the Midwest I just gotta grow corn....

 as Nick would quote the infamous Kid Rock, 

"Skinny Models, you can keep those!  I like big corn fed Midwestern ho's."

Heres the window box herb garden plus a little salad.

Here's a view of the whole shebang.  

Tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumbers, corn, eggplant, zucchini, peppers.  

There are some potatoes, radishes, and spinach just outside of view as well.

I'm currently trying to decide whether to pick and stuff these zucchini flowers with some cheese and fry them... or let them grow to proper zucchini size.

Here's another view of the set up.  

It's dog proof.  

Heidi loves the organic fertilizer, which wasn't working out for my plants.  

So I made Nick build a fence.  Ahhh husbands are so useful sometimes.

Oh and here are my little tomatillos.  I know I shouldn't have favorites, but I am dying to make salsa verde and no one in England knows what a tomatillo even is so it's really important these are a success.  Seriously the only salsa they have here is mild Old El Paso.  Bleh.  Sorry but it just doesn't cut it.  

I just can't wait to make my own!

In other food news, this week is Sheffield Food Week, and today Nick and I had a nice lunch in a pop up restaurant but I found two black curly hairs in my food.  Which was pretty unfortunate, but at least they comped the bill and I could see a man with an afro making my food because seriously who knows where that could have come from!  Also tomorrow night we are going to a food foraging lecture, which I'm super excited for!  Foraged food recipes to follow.

We also attended our first scuba diving class last week, which was cool.  We got a great deal on Groupon.  Does anyone have a scuba certification?  We are trying to decide which certification to go with.... like the one where you can go it alone or the one where you still need a guide.  Any tips? 

Also I just joined Daily Mile and need more friends.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller? Bueller?

American Flag Cow Girl Boots

These are my American flag boots.  

Stolen by my younger sister, the one and only LV.  

I've been salty that I can't wear them all day long.

Ughhhhhhhhhh what a statement they would have made when I went to WORK today.

Unlike all of you in the USA, believe it or not, England does NOT celebrate the 4th.

Go figure.

I'm a lil bummed about this.  

Speaking of which I've been considering dual citizenship lately.

Does that make me less patriotic?

I'm most defo proud to be an American....

But, truth be told....

I'd like to have the back up of the National Health Service in case I ever got super sick and my American insurance didn't pay for it.   Like I got sunburned really bad yesterday since the sun finally showed up here and my skin was in shock like whoooooooooa sunshine! and I think this might be the sunburn that puts me over the edge and into melanoma territory.  But at least I'm not pale now.  Ick.  But anyways if I ever did need NHS service cuz I'm pale as hell and prone to skin cancer that would be useful right?  Thats what I thought!  And it would be useful for having babies.  Cuz I hear that shits expensive!  (or not having babies, cuz that adds up too.)  In England they even pay you extra money to spend on fruit and veggies when you're preggers so you have healthy babies.  Is this even relevant?  I dunno but people seem to be popping them out lately so it's been on my mind.  

Anyways.  I miss you America.  I miss you a lot.

Happy 4th of July my friends and compatriots.  

Party in the USA for me, ala Miley Cyrus.  

 Oh and sing that "Proud to be an American" song.

It always gets me fired up.

Amy Comes to Visit!

Last week my dear friend and co-favorite college roommate, Amy, came to visit.  And we had some much needed girl time. Truth be told I'm still lacking in the girl friend department in England so I am pretty sure I talked Amy's ears off.  Yes both of them.  But luckily, seeing as she is our 12th visitor to England, I'm getting pretty damn good at this tour guiding thing.  If only the British weather would cooperate a little better.  

Here's a rundown of our week in pictures....

The first night we went for a sundown walk in the Peak District.

Picturesque, No?

Then we went to Chatsworth.  Again.  

I love Chatsworth though so thats OK.  Especially the gardens.  

They don't get old.

The of course we had to go to London.  

We stayed in a very cheap girls only hostel which I can highly recommend

 for poor female travelers called Piccadilly Guest House.

 The plan was to see the major tourist spots, but England had other ideas.  

So shortly after this was taken we headed off to Harrods where they were having a sale!  

Hurrah!

We had dinner at my favorite restaurant in all of England, Bumpkin, then we went off to the West End to see Dirty Dancing. Ohhh Johnny!  No one puts baby in the corner!

When we came back to Sheffield I took Amy for a little more English countryside action.  

I love the Peak District.  

It's God's country (according to the locals anyways.)  

I must say I agree... at least when the sun is shining.  

I made a lil picnic.

 But then we had to go home because my hair was just not cooperating.  

Forrealz.

But not before Heidi pissed off a herd of sheep.  Eeeeeeeeeek!  

Sheep are creepy sometimes.

But then we saw these cute little baby horses on the way home.  

Awwwwww.  I love country life.

And then Amy and I passed out.

Note:  While we were curled up uncomfortably on the couch Heidi was in my bed.  

Typical.  

I take this to mean I was a successful tour guide.  

ps.  I didn't include pictures of our spa day at Harrogate Turkish Baths .  (this is due to the fact that there were looooooooooads of naked ladies wandering around and taking photos would have been totally inappropriate... fyi the English are so much more comfortable than Americans with nudity.)  But besides the fact that Amy and I were somewhat uncomfortable with nudies, and we creepily checked out the more ample hair styles sported by the very self assured British ladies, we had a wonderful time at the beautiful spa and this is certainly going on the guest list itinerary.  

Miss you already, Amy!

And thanks to Mr. and Mrs. N for buying her plane tickets!  What would we do without our parents?!