tricky ways we use leftovers.

my granny makes the best vegetable soup. the best. my granny is also a tricky lady. tricky because she makes this veggie soup without buying any extra produce. she does this nifty thing where she keeps a ziploc bag in the freezer that she slowly fills with leftover veggies after dinner. a few peas here. a little bit of corn there. some leftover squash. some leftover carrots. and eventually she has enough to throw together a very yummy soup. isn't that just so smart? i want to be smart and tricky like her.

i decided to put my own spin on granny's tricks. as you may know, we get a big box of produce delivered every week. it's my super convenient & affordable way to be healthy. unfortunately, at the end of some weeks {like this one, where we were out of town for a few days} there's some leftover produce. i am not one to throw out good food, but there's only two of us. i've been pretty creative with my own version of granny's tricks if i do say so myself.

little trick number one:

chop & freeze. so easy, right?

whatever veggie i have leftover, i chop it up & freeze it in a ziploc. spinach, broccoli, and potatoes are good veggies to save like this. i can throw together a ton of meals with chopped spinach. potatoes are great frozen because i can toss a few in a pan to roast or i can make a soup out of them.

little trick number two:

freezer-to-crockpot meals.

sometimes, i can find a crockpot meal on pinterest that i can throw together with my veggies. i put in what i have and then write what i'm missing on the outside with a sharpie -- so it might take a few weeks to actually complete the meal, but it keeps me from wasting a squash or an onion here and there. and when it's done, voila! easiest meal ever!

little trick number three:

canning!

you might be slightly afraid of canning, like me, but it's the best way to use up extra fruit. last week, i decided to live on the edge and make some preserved oranges {not to be confused with orange preserves}! i know i'm so wild but when i'm feeling less edgy i do it the easy-non-scary way: freezer jam. i'm very resourceful with jam, i like to smush and stir in whatever fruit we have around. raspberry-peach-pear jam? oh heck yes. ben and i go through so much jam it's not even funny -- my man loves some pbj sammies & jam-topped-waffles, so jam-making has been a definite money saver.

of course, i don't do all of these things every week. i'm not martha stewart, okay? but a little bit along the way saves us time and money, and that always makes life a little happier  {especially if i can use that saved money to buy a cute straw fedora with a black band, i'm just sayin'}

also, to help you out, here's a list of resources that i used for my nifty tricks:

freezer-to-crockpot meals

making preserved oranges

freezer jam recipes

a non-freezer jam recipe

a picture-heavy grandparent's house post.

the school year seemed to quickly come to an end and with that comes suddenly all the loose ends that need to be tied. parent conferences. graduation preparations. finishing assessments. and a million other “housekeeping” tasks that teachers have to deal with at the end of the year.

aaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh.

thank goodness for long weekends.

we packed our baggies and headed to my grandparent’s house for a couple days. my grandparents live in a tiny south georgia town surrounded by miles-and-miles of farm land and fields. no internet, limited phone service, and all the gnats you never knew existed.

so, how did we entertain ourselves?

1. baking caramel cake!   

 i learned the secret recipe for my granny’s famous caramel cake! The recipe was passed down from my papa’s mom and the cake is a staple demanded at every family gathering.

we licked the caramel icing straight from the bowl and slowly slipped into a deep sugar coma. kidding about the last part but, hey, it could happen!

2.     kittens.  

lucky for us, my granny’s cat just had the cutest litter of kitties. 

thanks to my husband, the cat whisperer, and his kitten-catching-skills i got to hold them and play with them all weekend. cuteness overload.

3. old pictures.     

we flipped through lots of old pictures and heard a lot of good stories.

 like about how i was a mean baby that pinched her brother when my granny was trying to take a cute picture.

and there's my mom.

 

 my papa in his cornfield. i really like this picture.

 

my great-grandpa, my granny's dad, walking down the sidewalk. history lesson from my granny: photographers used to take pictures of you walking down the sidewalk in cities and then sell you the picture. what a neat idea! i love it!

my dad, asleep. too funny. 

merry christmas from 1988! we keep it classy.

 that's me rocking 'heavy bangs' years before they were in. oh wait, i think they were "in" back then too. it's just too bad i didn't get the funny face memo.

i wish i could say this is the only picture of me, sleeping in a weird position, that i found. 

4.     plus, we did a lot of this.

throw in a lot of really, really good food, a little wine, and some small town gossip and that was our weekend. 

and you know what, it was pretty darn refreshing. 

who need internet anyways? 
{says the girl writing a blog post, catching up on other blogs, checking facebook, twitter, and email}

i just love food.

day twenty-one: my ten favorite foods:

so easy: all food. okay, okay fine i'll narrow it down.

1. goat cheese.

2. jasmine rice.

3. dark chocolate.

4. fresh, ripe bananas.

5. honey-crisp apples.

6. spicy turkey sausage.

7. avocado, specifically, with lime and salt.

8. brie en croute

9. macaroni & {pepperjack} cheese.

10. pizza. white pizza with extra garlic & broccoli. 

linking up @ boy oh boy.

i'm a fashionista. okay, right.

you know what makes me happy? some new clothes. oh, you didn't know i was that shallow? well, now you do. 

when it comes to clothes i like to buy a lot simple, basic things. cardis in different colors. solid white t-shirts & tanks. neutral colored sandals. then, i like to mix and match plain things with funky accessories. that's just what works for me.

but sometimes, i like to add a few funky pieces to my wardrobe. you know, to spice it up a little. this weekend my mother-in-law bought me some fabulous-ly crazy shorts that i couldn't get over at atlantic station on friday. 

 i paired them with my bright orange scarf & black ssekos for a night out with friends.

then, my mom and i went shopping for shoes for her and we both couldn't get over these adorable mustard heels. she decided that i must have them. i always agree with new shoes.

these may not seem too crazy to you but you have to understand that i wear heels about, oh, three times a year. max. but now that i'm a grown-up and almost twenty-four years old, i think i'd like to be better at wearing heels. it does seem pretty dumb to never wear heels when i'm only 5'2" {and my husband is 5'11"}. heels, welcome to my life!

the bottom line:

1. my mom & in-law-mom are the bomb-dot-com.

2. clearly, i am a fashionista. {ha!}

3. mustard is probably my favorite color.

three generations of kerrs on a friday night.

when i first heard about this atlanta food truck park i was so ready to go try it out. friday was their big ribbon-cutting, live-music, highly-promoted kick-off and, to us, that sounded like the perfect date night.

lucky for us, ben's parents were itching to come down to atlanta and hang with us & celebrate ben's mom's retirement {woot, judy!}. they were immediately on-board with our food truck plan & we love sharing our weird adventures. they even brought along the grand-kerrs -- who were completely out of their element but still had tons of fun.

what i learned quickly about this food truck park, is that you wander around reading chalkboard menu after chalkboard menu and struggle to make any kind of decision. when the price is right and the descriptions are just mouthwatering, it is so hard to decide what you want. it's the perfect place to go with a crowd of people who don't mind sharing and tasting each others' food -- and that was us.

i finally settled on a rosemary-mint-garlic lamb burger with tomatoes & feta cheese. i wanted something a little crazy. for a side, i stopped at a different truck a got a slice of tomato pie {tomatoes, crusty-crust, goat cheese, & pesto}. 

 

 

 

ben had to have a cajun po'boy and a side of sesame fries. all of it was simply delish, people. i can't even remember what all the other kerrs got, but let me just tell you, it was good.

we topped the meal off with some gelato. perfectly creamy goodness.

who knew such good food could come from a truck? well, i knew, remember how much i loved all that carnival food? yep, that's truck food too. i guess i'm an expert on greasy, carnie, truck food. it's a great thing to be an expert about, right?

we ended the night by introducing the grandparents to atlantic station and i think they liked it. cheesy beatles cover band and all {called the buggs, clever, right?}. cheese picture of me and ben, well that's a bonus just for you.

 just a regular old friday night with the kerr clan.

the meaning behind "intangible goodness"

blog challenge day 18: what is the meaning behind your blog name?

to me the words "intangible goodness" mean all the happy, wonderful things in life that simply can't be bought with a price.

i want my blog to be a journal of my life adventures. the small adventures {like planting a little basil sprout in my windowsill} to the big adventures {you know, like marrying my best friend}.

the idea was to write a blog about the good things in life. i don't dwell on the bad, i'm a positive thinker.

and don't call me some rose-glasses-wearing-hippie, if you can't think of any good and wonderful things in your life then you need a serious reality check. 

i love life and that's what this blog is about.

linking up @boy, oh boy!

my day.

blog challenge day 15: a timeline of your day

you know, this might be the most boring post ever but it's reality. sometimes my life is boring.

5:15 -- initial alarm goes off. snooze button.

5:36 -- eventually, drag myself out of bed and get ready for the day.

6:30 -- breakfast with my man. lately, it's been two waffles with pb&j with either a morning star sausage or a scrambled egg.

7:15 -- arrive at work.

8:30 -- circle time, reading group centers, music, snack, math & science centers, outside time. whew. i'm tired just thinking about it.

12:15 -- eating a delicious school lunch. i really do like my school's food.

1:00 -- go home to chill for my hour break. i mean i literally plop on the couch and chill after that morning.

2:00 -- back to work. planning, planning, planning.

3:00 -- more centers, more outside time.

4:15 -- clock out!

4:45 -- sweat out all the day's stress. biking with ben, running in the park, or the elliptical.

6:00 -- make dinner & watch a show on netflix with my man.

after that, something relaxing and fun. blogging or crafting. sometimes cleaning.

9:15 -- head to the pillow and bam. i'm out. less than eight hours of sleep is not conducive to working with small children.

{linking up @boy oh boy!}

if i won the lottery..

after reading my friends' posts about the thirty-day blog challange {at boy, oh boy! }, i really wanted to jump on this bandwagon. i'm only fourteen days late!

nevertheless, here i am.

 today's prompt: "if you won the lottery..."

so, if i won the lottery {and could only do irresponsible things with the money} this is how i would spend my monies:

1. first, we'd take a trip to greece. i'd eat my body weight in greek food (lemon-y, olive-y lamb-y goodness) and we'd hike around all the ancient ruins. of course, i'd have to watch sisterhood of the traveling pants before leaving home to be even more inspired.

 

2. second, we'd buy us a cute little house, a craftsman foursquare to be exact, with a cute little yard. with a cute little garden. and i'd throw in a cute little dog too.

3. third, i would drive around in this.

of course, throw a few frivolous purchases in here and there and i'd be set.

when friends get engaged.

if you get me talking about my wedding day, i would probably never shut up. i'd talk about how wonderful it was. how happy it made me. how much fun we had. how great the food was. how much i enjoyed planning it. 

but most of all, i'd tell you how amazing it was to have so many people do "their thing" to help make our wedding day all kinds of wonderful. my dad cooked our food. my granny & her friends & some of my friends arranged our flowers. ben's aunt & mom quilted our table toppers. his brothers played the music. my godparents let us borrow their car to "drive off." i could literally go on and on, but the point is this, we were so blessed to have our close family & friends take a special part in our wedding day. so. blessed.

our friend trent was one of those close friends. he designed our invitation layout and he was our d.j. -- talk about having good {and talented} friends! wait, did i mention he also played guitar during the ceremony? now, trent is engaged to the lovely anna and i was so excited to do something for them, to "pay them back" for all the hard work they put into our wedding. when they asked me to do pictures, i was pumped!

 we met in atlanta and they gave me free reign to drive them all around town for pictures -- that's why i love doing pictures for friends, you can just haul them around to all the good locations. 

don't they look great? they had all these great details that i couldn't get over.

 and these are just the first few shots. i can't wait to go through the rest, but i need to give my eyes some sleep.

thanks for such a fun day, trent & anna!