Enter, stage right

I've had several blogs before--some public, some private--but figured I would give it another shot and see how long I can stick with it.

I've been married for eight months now. It feels like we've been married forever. It feels like it has been no time at all. It hasn't been as much of an adjustment as I thought it would be. I think the biggest adjustment has been financially--combining our incomes, paying all our bills. It's a struggle, honestly. I know it won't always be this way--I know that sooner or later we'll pay off debts and have more freedom. It's just been really difficult to build up any kind of savings or to think of making any larger purchases when every month we are tiptoeing to make sure we don't cross into the red. Then when unexpected expenses pop up--like $100 for glasses, or the mysterious clunking noise from the bottom of my car--it's a scary thing to know whether we'll balance it out.

So currently there's a part of my car being held together with a rag and duct tape until we both get paid again. Whee!

Our biggest weakness is eating out--that's our standard "date", how we relax and celebrate the weekend or what we default to when we're too tired to cook. I'm proud to say that we've cut our eating out bill in half, saving our dollars for special occasions and not spending money on food we don't love. I'd rather forego a couple of fast food lunches if it means we can go get really awesome burgers at our favorite burger joint later.

One big change since I got married has been in the kitchen. I see cooking as my big contribution to the household. Mostly we've had hits, but a few misses have been along the way as well. Tonight I made meatloaf--one of my dear husband's childhood favorites, but not one of mine. But I figured, what the heck--I can't remember the last time I had meatloaf, so why not give it another shot?

I tried this recipe from A Sweet Pea Chef. I didn't get the Italian parsley, and I forgot to add in the Worcestershire sauce (after buying it especially for this recipe, grr argh!) but I was still feeling okay about it. In the end it came out really soggy and was too moist and squishy for my taste. My dear husband helpfully told me (after the fact, of course!) that his parents used to A) make meatloaf in the microwave (???) which he did NOT recommend, but also B) take it out halfway through and drain off some of the liquid. NOW he tells me! He seems to be coming down with something and was asleep through the cooking process, though, so I can't really hold him responsible.

Tomorrow I plan to tackle another childhood nemesis: pork chops. A couple of months ago I made some maple-rosemary glazed pork medallions that were good, but I'm almost fully convinced that I just don't like pork. Bacon is good, ham is sometimes okay, but pork? I don't know. I'm willing to give it another shot, though, because honestly there's only so many things you can do with chicken and ground beef.


I guess that's enough of a start to this, so... until next time!