Something to Think On...

B and I have been talking a lot about our eventual return to Saskatoon, and one of the main topics of discussion is where we will live. Our original intent was to go halfsies on a place with B's cousin and her boyfriend, but I really don't see that happening. For one, we haven't talked with them about it in any depth and when we have mentioned it they haven't seemed as on board as us, and for another we don't want to waste money renting.

The other day though, B came up with a great idea: buy a mobile home. This means living in a trailer park, which is something I'd never pictured myself doing, but it also means that we would own our own home and would have it payed off in less than ten years. Mortgage would be less than our ideal rent and our ideal rent is $700. We were looking at mobile homes online and there are some pretty darn nice ones. If we get the mortgage we want, we would even have money left over to invest in some new furniture and paint and trimmings.

I really hope this works out. I want a home of my own, and if it has to be a place outside my box, then so be it. I want to 'play' housewife again, properly. I want to have command of my own kitchen so that I can experiment and become a better cook (btw: I made sweet potato fries today in the oven, and a dip from scratch and both knocked our socks off!). I want to cook dinner most nights and have it hot and waiting for when B comes home from work. I want to snuggle on the couch with G in the mornings, watching Spongebob in our jammies. I want to decorate her room the way I want - this is EXTREMELY important to me, as I completely missed out on creating a nursery for her during my pregnancy, which has been something I've been filled with regret about. I want to decorate and make the place nice. I want to have friends over for dinner and feed them food that I made on my own dishes at a new kitchen table. I want to walk around without a bra again! I want to be able to dash naked from the bathroom to the bedroom if I forget my clothes or my towel or whatever. I want to be able to go into the kitchen at 3am and rustle up some mac and cheese and leave the dishes as long as I want because it won't effect anyone else. I want to start a real, grownup life with my little family and take care of them and have them take care of me, and hang out with our friends and just live a life that is not stressful anymore.

Hopefully things work out and we can achieve all of this.

Now, I wasn't intending to talk about this, but now that I've mentioned those sweet potato fries I may as well tell you about them. It's not an elegant recipe by far, but I may as well write it down so at the very least I'll remember it for next time.

1 sweet potato, chopped in half and then lengthwise to make fries
Onion powder
Seasoning Salt
Salt
Oil

Toss the sweet potatoes in the oil (not too much, I hate oily taste) and season them to taste with the onion powder and seasoning salt. Lay them on a cookie sheet (I line mine with tin foil to avoid messes), carefully not to overlap them (it took two sheets for me). Preheat the oven to about 400, and then heat them for about 30 minutes, flipping them halfway. The recipe I was using as a guideline said to heat the oven to 450 and that was way too hot, and half of them ended up burnt.

Dip:

Mayo
Sour Cream
Cayenne
Onion Powder
Horse Radish
Seasoning Salt

No measurements, I was experimenting. A few globs of mayo, mixed with a couple globs of sour cream. Mixed those together and then added some cayenne (just enough to give a slight nippy aftertaste), a bit of onion powder, the seasoning salt and a tiny bit of horse radish. Mixed it all together and it was sooo good.