A quiet, rainy day...

It's turning out to be a quiet, stay-at-home kinda day today. It's a little chilly, and has been raining off and on all day... definitely not the kind of day you want to be out in the world! It's too bad though, I had planned to hit the Riva farmer's market this morning to catch and kill a pumpkin! Maybe I'll run over to one of tomorrow's markets (downtown Annapolis or Annapolis Mall).

I've got my third round of bread from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day going. This method is brilliant. Really good bread with almost no effort! I switched to the 100% whole wheat recipe after my first try, and wasn't completely happy with it. So back to the master recipe! We all loved! the master recipe, so why mess with success? Even though the book was very clear that the flour used should be unbleached and not King Arthur brand (an issue with the gluten content, apparently), my first round used bleached King Arthur and it worked out just find. This time I've got organic, unbleached, so we'll see if it makes a big difference.

I'd had the first major issue with the dryer balls this morning. They only work if the last person to use them returns them to the laundry room! Not sure I can fault the product itself for this issue, but it does make it difficult to use them. Never had that issue with the dryer sheets! Hopefully they can be liberated from the "kid's" room sometime soon. I poked my head in and quickly ran back our for fear of infection or being attacked by something he's spawned in there.

4 eggs for breakfast, so 44 to go.

Dryer balls: a review, and an awesome sandwich

I've been slowly trying to move towards natural laundry products over the past year or so. This hasn't been that hard for me since my oh-so-sensitive skin has never allowed me to use any of the "fun" laundry stuff. Dryer sheets, fabric softener? Not so much. About 6 months ago, I started using vinegar in the fabric softener slot, and I've really been happy with it. No issues with smelling like a salad - at least not that anyone's mentioned to me!

We've still been using an anti-static dyer sheet though (with 5 cats, we need something!), which I don't like at all. Aside from the cost, it makes me nervous that I don't know what's in them. And, yeah, it's another thing to throw out, but the thing that really annoys me is that I find them laying around everywhere. Apparently it's very difficult for boys unnamed household members to pick them up when they're done with their laundry. So this weekend I picked up some Dryer Max™ Anti-Static Dryer Balls. I thought I was buying Nellie's brand, honestly, but hey, it's what I found at the store. I can't speak for the longevity of the product just yet (which was what the Amazon reviews didn't like) but I've been pretty pleased with them so far. I wouldn't say it stopped all of the static, especially on a fuzzy fleece pullover, but it's a pretty good alternative to dryer sheets so far.


In the meantime, I've been trying to focus more on local foods and seasonal flavors. I'm usually pretty terrible at this, my stomach wants what it wants. And it's usually pretty random and unhealthy. Seriously, for a few months, I was obsessed with Pei Wei (a PF Changs - version of take-out chinese) and I could (and did) eat there 3-4 times a week. Switching to local and seasonal foods is a lot like electroshock therapy re-training my stomach. I've started doing this by focusing on high quality ingredients. Last week I ordered an amazing smoked swiss cheese and some freshly cured, thick bacon as part of my weekly milk and eggs delivery from South Mountain Creamery. Last night, I thought about doing a simple cheese, crackers and apple slices dinner, but figured Jay would ask where the real dinner was after we finished. So, I grilled up some a paninis using the swiss, 1 1/2 slices of bacon each, thinly sliced granny smith apples and a teeny, tiny bit of honey. It was out of this world.