Mini Pizzas

Mini pizzas have become one of our favorite quick, go to meals lately.

They take about 10 minutes to make, are easily adaptable, and delicious.

The best part is everyone can have their own with their favorite toppings. For example, I cannot eat pepperoni (as seen on the mini pizza above). I get horribly sick if I eat it, but my husband loves it so, he can have pepperoni and I can have stuff he dislikes on mine.

Here's what you'll need to make
Olive oil and herb bread rounds
Olive oil
Cheese (Parmesan, Asiago, Mozzarella, ect.)
Pizza Sauce
Toppings (meat, cheese, veggies, ect.)

Set the oven to 375 degrees, while it is preheating gather all your ingredients and split the bread rounds in half, so you have 2 thin rounds instead of 1 thick round. Brush each round with olive oil and pop them in the oven for 4-5 minutes depending on how crisp you would like them to be. After they have been toasted in the oven, pull them out and make your pizzas.

I use Trader Joe's pizza sauce ours. I then put homemade bruschetta spread on mine and cubed or sliced pepperoni on my husband's and top them with Asiago, Parmesan, and Mozzarella.

I then put them in the oven for 6 minutes. After that you have delicious mini pizzas that you don't have to share with anyone.

Laundry Detergent - Making vs Buying

This fall, I started making my own powdered laundry detergent using this recipe from shelterrific.

Prior to that, I had been using a dye free, scent free store brand liquid laundry detergent from Target.

Both of us are sensitive to certain laundry detergents, so an easy to make homemade detergent seemed like a cheaper alternative. Powdered detergent is also a lot easier to store. Last year, I stocked up on liquid detergent when it went on sale from $8 a bottle to $6. It is was really hard to find room for 6 bottles of detergent in our apartment.

The shelterrific recipe is really simply: washing soda, borax, and shredded laundry bar soap.

I ordered the washing soda and borax from alice.com and was able to find Fels-Naptha laundry bar soap at HyVee.

Using those ingredients and the recipe of 2 oz of laundry bar soap (shredded, using a free shredder I got at the grocery store), 1/2 cup borax, and 1/2 washing soda, I made 6 batches of powdered laundry detergent, which came out to approximately 2 quarts. There was just a little extra shredded laundry soap, so I threw it in for good measure as I couldn't find laundry soap in 2 or 4 oz bars. I stored it in 2, 1-quart plastic sherbet containers because they seal well and I had them on hand.

I then started making a tick mark on the lid of one of the containers every time I did a load of laundry. Tonight I did my 64th load with the homemade powdered detergent.

So, I did a little math to compare costs between the detergent I had been using and the homemade detergent I'm using now.

It costs me $8 to buy store brand laundry detergent at Target. The bottle contains enough liquid detergent to do 64 loads.

It cost me ~ $4 to make powdered laundry detergent. So far I have done 64 loads and have enough left to do at least 10-20 more loads.

That alone shows that it costs approximately half the price to make my own powdered detergent. So how much is that per load? 12.5 cents per load for store bought detergent compared to 6.25 cents per load (or less once I find out the exact number of loads I can get out of 6 batches) for homemade powdered detergent.

So, if you have 5 minutes to spare every few months I would highly recommend making your own detergent.

Thrift Store Finds

Generally, I don't have much luck at thrift stores. I love the concept, but I have trouble going to them and actually finding clothes that fit and are reasonably priced. I have much better luck finding new clothes on the clearance racks or in the clearance section of online stores.

My best clearance rack finds ever were a $50 denim skirt I got for $1 and a cornflower blue button front shirt for $3. I found those items on the same day and have never been able to top those bargains. I have gotten good use out of both those items, which were purchased in 2003. The skirt I shortened in 2006 or 2007 and then a year or two later gave to a charity thrift store and I still have the cornflower blue shirt.

I recently hit a few of the fabulous thrift stores here in Iowa City and had a change of luck. I found exactly what I wanted at reasonable prices.

I found this dress at Stuff Etc., a store I've been selling some clothes and shoes at, but haven't had much luck finding clothes at. I went in there to get the balance on my account earlier this month and found this gem. I had been trying to find another fall/winter/early spring dress and was excited to find this one and used part of the balance on my account to buy it. I'm hoping to wear it to a work event next weekend.

On Friday I decided to stop by Revival, a new and gently used clothing store on the ped mall downtown. I found a dress, shrug and a sweater/jacket amongst their gently used merchandise.

I love this dress! It is my style and in the colors that I love. I can't wait to wear it. I'm hoping to pair it with blue tights, a cardigan, and my slouchy brown boots this fall/winter and will wear it a lot this coming summer.

Something similar to this has been on my to-find list all year, so I was happy to stumble upon this. I have a black, sleeveless cocktail dress that I wore to wedding last year that I will be wearing to an important fundraiser for work in February and I need to look nice, dressy, but not too showy. Since the event is in February in Iowa I've been trying to find a jacket or fancy sweater to wear over the dress. This fits the bill perfectly. It will also work with a new black, sleeveless sheath dress that I bought this summer (on sale for $12).

I just thought this was fun and would work with a lot of tops and dresses I have.

Gothic Novels

Once a year I read a gothic novel.

I have been reading gothic novel since I was a teenager after stumbling upon several collections of them at the local public library in my hometown. The library had a large selection of Madeline Brent and Victoria Holt books left over from the 1960s and 1970s. Later, I ended up purchasing a number of those books when they were withdrawn from the library. In fact, I found out that I by me reading them I had saved them from being removed from circulation for several years.

Although I generally prefer less formalistic fiction I have a special place in my heart for gothic novels.
 
Last year, I read "A Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters.

This year, I read "Lord of the Far Island" by Victoria Holt.

Gothic novels are very formalistic and generally have a lot of the same plot points, so much so that you would think they were all written by the same person, regardless who wrote the novel. I once discovered a (now former) co-worker was a fan of gothic novels and that we had read many of the same ones. We ended up having a lively debate about the formalistic nature of them and how despite that they are enjoyable to read.

A gothic novel has any number of these characteristics:

• Poor relation or other in-between social standing.
• An Inheritance.
• Said inheritance will be received at age 21.
• Guardianship.
• A companion or relative close to the same age as the heroine.
• Mysterious accidents involving boats, cliffs, trains, guns, or cars.
• Mentally unstable relative(s).
• Castle and/or grand family mansion/estate.
• Reoccurring dream starting in childhood that continues into adulthood, but by the end of the book never occurs again.
• Crumbling family fortunes.
• Deception.
• Family secrets.
• Family heirloom jewelry, generally a necklace that has been in a family hundreds of years and has a name.
• Family member locked away in a country home, the home of a trusted family friend, a top floor apartment of a mansion, or the attic of said mansion.
• Someone died before the book started or dies during the course of the book.
• Orphaned heronine.
• Heroine is generally between the age of 17-20.
• By the end of the book the heroine is married.
• Mysterious character, family friend, or family member that is assumed to be evil, but is eventually revealed to good hearted.
• Family member or family friend who assumed to be good hearted, but is eventually revealed to be evil.
• After a brief introduction into the world in which the novel takes place, the heroine recaps her life thus far before the story moves forward.
• The final chapter(s) skips between a few months and a few years and gives a recap of where things now stand.

I tired to compile this list while I was reading the book and typed it up after I finished reading it. Then, look at what Wikipedia had to say about gothic novels and was surprised by how spot on my list was.

Although I wouldn't want to read a gothic novel every week or even every month, they are certainly a fun read every once in a while.

The Kraken Returns

The Kraken made another appearance in Iowa City last week on the roof of a building on Washington Street.

I wonder where he will show up next?

Release the Kraken

This summer, I came across a news article about an interesting art project that was being staged in Muscatine, Iowa.

This public art display featured the Muscatine River Monster aka The Kraken. A mythological water dwelling monster that has allegedly been sighted in the Mississippi River near Muscatine off and on since ~ 1838.

This gigantic tentacled piece of art has made appearances at a variety of events and locations around the Muscatine area, but has recently been making its way inland and has been spotted in Cedar Rapids and now Iowa City. Apparently he wanted to come to Iowa City for the University of Iowa's homecoming.

I took this picture of the Kraken on the morning of Saturday, October 22. He was hanging out at the former Vito's building in downtown Iowa City on the ped mall.

I hear that the Vito's building is being turned into office and retail space. Maybe the Kraken needs a space to work or perhaps a retail location to sell some of those famous pearl buttons made out of Mississippi River clams.

Getting Free Stuff in the Mail is Fun

One morning last week I was riding the bus ride to work and I began to wonder when my free samples from Target would be arriving, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a white and pink box from Target in my mailbox that afternoon.

Over a month ago, one of the blogs I read had a post about Target giving away makeup bags of free samples, so I went to Target's website and requested one. Target has done this offer before. The last time they had this giveaway, I received a blue and white makeup bag filled with shampoo & conditioner samples, a sample of lip gloss, a tube of lip balm, a travel sized bottle of hand lotion, and a coupon book.

The box I received today contained:

• A brightly colored makeup bag. 
• A sample of Burt's Bees lotion.
• A travel sized package of Pond's facial cleansing towelettes.
• A sample of L'oreal facial cream.
• 3 different sets of shampoo & conditioner samples.
• A coupon booklet for lotions, makeup, and other products at Target.

I'm really excited about the facial cleansing towelettes, because I like to take those in my toiletry bag when I travel so I don't have to lug around a bottle of face wash.

The makeup bag will go into my present box where I put things that I stick away to give to people later. I know several people who would like to have the makeup bag, but I haven't decided who I will end up giving it to.

The rest of the samples will I try out later this fall.

The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman

I'm a big fan on Chuck Klosterman's work, so I was excited to learn that he had a new novel out,
"The Visible Man."

Klosterman mostly writes nonfiction, magazine articles, and essays. He's primarily recognized for his witty writing on American pop culture.

I have read all his books and a handful of his magazine articles over the years.

Despite not entirely enjoying his last book, "Eating the Dinosaur" and finding his first novel, "Downtown Owl: A Novel" OK. I was a little worried I might be disappointed by this book, but wanted to read it regardless because I really like Klosterman's work.

The book focuses on a licensed therapist and her relationship with a patient referred to only as Y__.

Y__ was allegedly a scientists for a defunct research project that created a suit and cream solution to make people practically invisible. He then used the special suit and chemical to essentially break into people's homes and observe them while they were alone.

The book had a lot of the themes Klosterman has touched on in his previous books (nonfiction and fiction) such as voyeurism, drug use, pop culture, music, and life fulfillment.

Some of the observations about watching people alone in their homes reminded me of a story from one of Klosterman's other books (unfortunately I don't remember which one) where talks about having a neighbor who never closed her blinds/curtains and how he became enthralled with sitting on his couch watching this neighbor in her apartment unbeknown to her.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was interesting and there were a number of odd plot developments that kept me wanting to read it, but it wasn't so enthralling that I wished I had bought the book instead of getting it from the local public library.

It was no "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs," but it was great read for any Klosterman fan or anyone that loves odd genre defying fiction.

Fall Day Trip

Saturday, we took a day trip to Wisconsin.

We love going to Wisconsin, it is our favorite weekend getaway location. We have a long list of things we like to do in the Madison and Milwaukee areas, as well as in the Kettle Moraine State Forest Region.

Yesterday morning after enjoying a delicious break at the Pilot Club of Iowa City breakfast we hit the road and headed up to the Kettle Moraine area.

Our first stop was Baker. Baker is best known for their string cheese. We found out about them and Kettle Moraine when we were visiting another local dairy and someone recommended that we check out Baker and Kettle Moraine. We were not disappointed.

Baker makes great string cheese and we drove by a number of the dairy farms that supply them with milk on the way, so that was neat.

Next we made a quick drive through part of Kettle Moraine State Forest to get to Beechwood, home of Beechwood Cheese Co.

We first had Beechwood cheese curds during a visit to Sprecher Brewery. We bought a small package of them while we sampling Sprecher products after a tour once. After that we looked up the location of the dairy and discovered it was less than an hour from Milwaukee and we've been going there ever since.

We then headed back to Kettle Moraine State Forest where we drove back and forth down Scenic Drive (that's the actual name of a road that runs through a beautiful stretch of the forest), walked around and enjoyed the beauty of the forest.



This a video we made of our drive through the forest. I was driving and my husband was running the camera.

As you can see from the video, the forest was gorgeous with all the leaves turning and falling.

After we enjoyed the forest, we drove to Milwaukee where we went to Kopp's for a cheeseburger, fries and chocolate frozen custard. It was delicious. I'm not a big fan of restaurant or fast food burgers, but Kopp's is one of the three places where I will happily eat a cheeseburger. Their fries are handmade and tasty, but what Kopp's is known for is their custard. It is so smooth and full of flavor. It was a great way to wrap up the day before we headed back to Iowa.

Money for nothing...toiletries for free

Today, I got 6 bottles of dish washing detergent, 2 3-packs of bar soap, 1 bottle of shampoo, 1 bottle of conditioner, and a tube of hand lotion for free.

I also paid 39 cents for a pack of facial cleansing/makeup remover towelettes.

Oh and a couple weeks ago I got 5 bottles of dish washing detergent for free too.

How did I do that? I shop at CVS and use the extra bucks I earn to buy stuff that we can use in the future or need right now.

 At CVS you can earn extra bucks in a variety of ways.

• Purchase an item that they are offering extra bucks for. Example today, if you purchased a certain 3-pack of Dial bar soap, that was on sale, you received $1 in extra bucks for purchasing it.
• Have an ExtraCare Card and use it. It is basically their customer rewards card (you can't get the sale prices in the store without one). Several times a year (I'm not entirely sure if it is 3 or 4 times a year), CVS gives you back 2% of what you spent during a certain time period in the form of extra bucks.
• Join their beauty club. For every $50 in beauty products purchased (makeup, facial lotion, and so on) you receive $5 in extra bucks.
• Also, if you bring your own reusable shopping bag and have a special bag scan card (which costs $0-$1, depending on what deal they're offering on it that week) you earn 1 point for every time you use it. According to my receipt today it now takes 8 reusable bag points to receive $1 in extra bucks.

I started shopping at CVS earlier this year because I no longer live near a Target and I walk near a CVS every day on my way to and from work making in convenient and cost effective for me to shop there. I usually shop there after work before I catch a bus home. Where I lived previously there were no CVS stores, so I wasn't familiar with them personally, but a number of blogs I read had mentioned they were a good place to shop for toiletries.

Today was one of my better extra buck purchases. Usually I put it toward items I was going to buy that week anyway. However, today I had a lot of extra bucks and I was well stocked up on most items. Before I went to the store I counted up my extra bucks, I had $8.50, plus a 50 cent coupon for a specific bottle of dish washing detergent. I looked over the store ad for the week and saw dish washing detergent was on sale, both the kind I wanted and the one I had a coupon for. So I knew would put some of the extra bucks toward that. The rest would go toward items on my always buy list: bar soap, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, lotion, toothpaste, and so on. When I arrived at the store I scanned my CVS card at the special kiosk they have. The scanner then reads your card and prints out coupons, and/or any extra bucks you might have from your last purchase (generally these are ones you didn't realize you had). In addition to a bunch of coupons I didn't end up using I had $5 in extra bucks print out. Which meant I had $13.50 in extra bucks.

First I grabbed a tube of hand lotion, then I went and got the dish washing detergent. Then, I counted up what I had so far and found I still had about $6 to spend, so I looked at a number of things on my always buy list and settled on 2 3-packs of bar soap, a bottle of shampoo and a bottle on conditioner. As I was heading to the register I saw that face towelettes were on sale and I had been wanting to buy them since we're hoping to go out of town soon. I figured I would pay almost full price for them, which was fine since I was getting all the rest of the stuff for free. So I was quite excited when I got to the register and discovered my skillful purchasing meant I only had to pay 39 cents including tax for the face towelettes.

Overall, a thrifty and successful trip to the store.

Delayed Gratifcation

A lot of times frugality means delayed gratification.

For example...

This summer, I saw a book, New Miss India by Bhararti Mukherjee, that I really wanted was advertised in one of the local newspapers as being available at the local bookstore, which was having a 20% off sale.

The week of the sale I walked past that bookstore and saw the sign in the window about the upcoming sale, and then I noticed the book I wanted in the storefront display. I walk by that bookstore at least twice a day, so I saw the book and the ad for the sale a lot that week.


I really wanted that book and I couldn't wait to read it. It is exactly the kind of new book I'd been waiting to read.

However, the book was $15. As much as I love books, these days I have a hard time paying full price for books unless they are gifts for other people. In fact, I think I've only bought one new book for myself this year and it was $3.95 plus tax.

Generally, if I'm going to buy a book I wait for the price to go down or there to be some sort of discount deal. For the past few years I haven't been buying many new books for myself and have been sticking to paperbackswap.com (a book swapping site), the book nook (used book sale corner) at the library I used to work at, a second hand book store, and used book sales put on by public libraries in the Des Moines area. I only used those options when my needs could not be met at the public library I worked at.

Even though I really wanted this book, I decided to wait and not by it. I chose the frugal route of putting it on hold at the local public library. The library had ordered the book, so I put my name of the waiting list and I delayed my gratification of reading the book significantly by waiting for the book to be available at the library.  

It ended up being worth it. The book was exactly the kind of book I had been wanting to read. Though, the ending wasn't as strong as I had hoped. I greatly enjoyed the book. It ended up not being a book I would want to reread so I was glad that I waited checked it out from and didn't buy it.

Books I Read in 2010...or...All I Did in 2010 Was Read

In 2010 I read 63 books. It started off as a goal to read 50 books over the course of the year. I thought it might be an obtainable goal since in 2009 I read over 40 books.

I picked 50 books because...

1. It seemed like a nice round number.
2. 50 books is 2 short of 1 book for each week of the year.
3. 50 books was the goal several of my book club friends had in 2009 and many of us read at a similar pace, so I thought why not.

Part way through the year I realized I was not only on pace to meet my goal but would undoubtedly exceed it. My husband encouraged me to bump my goal up to 52, which evens out to a book a week. Eventually, I exceeded 52 books and after that I told myself I should be able to read at least year 60 books by the end of year. My sister-in-law teased me that I could hit 100 books by the end of the year. I ended up at 63.

I spent most of New Year's Eve glued to my laptop trying to finish book #63, an ebook I checked out from the library where I was working at the time. It was was unusual, but beautifully written book called, "The Museum of Innocence" by Orhan Pamuk. I finished it with an hour or two to spare before midnight.

Of the 63 books I read in 2010, my three absolutes favorites were, "Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky, "Fire in the Blood" by Irene Nemirovsky, and "The Housekeeper and the Professor" by Yoko Ogawa.
 
This is the complete list of the books I read in 2010:

1. Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman

2. Mental_Floss: Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets by the Editors of Mental_Floss

3. Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success by Penelope Trunk

4. Forever by Pete Hamill

5. An Education by Nick Hornby

6. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

7. Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga

8. The Housekeeper and the Professor: A Novel by Yoko Ogawa

9. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

10. A Year Without "Made in China" : One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy by Sara Bongiorni

11. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

12. Across the Bridge of Sighs: More Venetian Stories by Jane Turner Rylands

13. What Happened to Anna K. by Irina Reyn

14. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

15. Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald

16. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

17. Lucky Everyday: A Novel by Bapsy Jain

18. The Shack by William P. Young

19. Fire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky

20. East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

21. The Heights by Peter Hedges

22. You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons - The World on One Cartoon a Day by Mo Willems

23. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

24. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

25. Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

26. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

27. David Golder by Irène Némirovsky

28. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

29. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen

30. What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

31. Numbers by David Boyle

32. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

33. Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence - and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Irene M. Pepperberg

34. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

35. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

36. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

37. Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart

38. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

39. Band of Angels: A Novel by Julia Gregson

40. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

41. The Wish Maker by Ali Sethi

42. Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji

43. How It Ended by Jay McInerney

44. Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman

45. The Simple Dollar : how one man wiped out his debts and achieved the life of his dreams by Trent Hamm

46. Long for This World by Sonya Chung

47. A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay

48. Eros, Philia, Agape by Rachel Swirsky

49. First Flight by Mary Robinette Kowal

50. The Diving Pool: Three Novellas by Yoko Ogawa

51. Overtime by Charles Stross

52. On the Divinity of Second Chances by Kaya McLaren

53. Barefoot in Baghdad by Manal Omar

54. The Keep by Jennifer Egan

55. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

56. Quarterlife Crisis by Alexandra Robbins & Abby Wilner

57. A Memory of Wind by Rachel Swirsky

58. The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner

59. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

60. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

61. The Cheapskate Next Door by Jeff Yeager

62. My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

63. The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk

That Which Is Life...an introduction

That which is life is a tittle I've been kicking around for 10-15 years. Over the years I've been debating attaching it to a novel, a short story, a poem, and a play. It might have actually been attached to a one act play I workshopped in college, but I can't seem to locate the file to verify that information. When I sat down to create my blog That Which Is Life seemed to be the most fitting title, as that is what it is, that which is life, my life in particular.

Although the scope of this blog may evolve overtime for now I plan to blog about the books I read (in 2010 I read 63 books and so far in 2011 I have read 21 books), my creative writing, culinary arts (I love to cook and bake), general life antidotes, travel, and possibly my trials and tribulations of trying to teach myself to knit (so far I can't get pass the starter stitch).