Rooted Cuttings

Remember my pink polka dot cuttings I blogged about last time? They have been on a roller coaster the past 2 weeks. They perk up, then wilt a little. My life has been obsessing about these little cuttings, spritzing them with water several times a day to stop them from wilting, checking on them, and seeing if they have rooted yet. A few days ago - I was gently tugging on them to check for roots, and finally... I noticed some resistance in them! Which means: they started to root! I was so excited, that all my work babying these little guys, finally was paying off. Today, I finally took them out of their little toilet paper roll pots, to check out what's going on under the soil.



Woo! Check out that little root ball! There really is no better feeling than seeing something you worked hard for actually be a success. I'm sure it's easy for some people, but hey, I've never done this before, and had no idea what I was doing half the time... so this was hard work for me! That said, I re-potted three of the four cuttings that I took into terracotta pots (that I picked up at Menards for only 58 cents!). They are kind of wilting again now though, so I'll just keep on spritzing them until they get established again. The fourth cutting I took, still hasn't rooted yet - I think it's not going to root, but I'm probably going to just leave it for a little while and see what happens.

The downside is... most of my plants are on windowsills throughout the apartment, and I'm running out of windowsill space. I've started stacking boxes up in front of windows to expand my space a bit more. Hah.

Recipe Cards

Pink Polka Dot Cuttings

I have this really beautiful houseplant called a Pink Polka Dot Plant. It's one of my favorite plants I own. I thought about buying another one, but don't really have the money. They are like $5 up at the local nursery, and I haven't been able to find them anywhere else. That said, I got the brilliant idea to take a cutting from it, a couple weeks ago. I had no idea what I was doing, so I snipped off a stem from it, and dunked it in a container full of soil. The funny thing, is that it hasn't even wilted, and it's not sprouting any new roots like I thought it would. It's been several weeks since, and the mother plant is just flourishing and growing like crazy. So, I thought I'd try again, this time - doing a little research.

Apparently, there is a special root hormone mixture that you are supposed to use for plant cuttings. I did not know this. A trip to check out how much this root hormone cost, proved disappointing. The hormone cost more than what I'd pay to buy a new plant, so that idea was out. A little more research later, I found a free alternative to root hormones - willow tea! You make this by taking leaves and branches from a willow tree, chopping them up and brewing them as you would normal tea to drink.

One problem with this: I don't have a willow tree. My intention was to walk around a park down the street, which had a small lake area and find a willow, cut a few branches off, and run away. Tyler and I walked ALL the way around the lake, which was definitely more than a few miles (probably?), and couldn't find a single willow. Disappointed, and driving home, we spotted a willow tree in someone's backyard... only a couple blocks away. The awesome thing was that this willow was drooping over their fence, and out past the sidewalk. Hey, it's over the property line, it's free taking, right? Well, we waited until the middle of the night, walked the couple blocks with scissors in hand, and snipped off several branches.



I came home, coarsely chopped the leaves, and some of the branches, boiled water, and made my willow tea (yes, those are sour cream containers, and a pasta sauce jar - we are too cheap to buy plastic-ware, so we reuse containers food comes in). It's suggested to steep them for 24 hours, so that's what I did. I put the lids on after the 24 hours were up, and put them in the fridge. Good thing is that the tea will be good for 2 months in the refrigerator, so I won't have to worry about stealing more willow for the next couple months.

This morning, I got up early, and started to get things ready for taking cuttings. I put some of the tea in a little measuring cup I have, and intended to only cut one piece off the plant. But once I really looked at it, I thought I'd trim it up a little bit more. It's been growing really well, and was in need of a little trimming, anyway.



I ended up with 4 cuttings. I dropped them in the tea, with the intent to leave them soaking for 24 hours, as my research suggested. I went off and watched TV for a few hours, and came back to check on them. They were already starting to wilt! I made a mad dash to make up a couple seedling pots out of toilet paper rolls, and planted them. A little spritz of water with the spray bottle seemed to help them perk back up once potted. I'm hoping that they root, and I'll have 4 more little polka dot plants!

Pumpkin Spice Bread

When I first got my bread machine, I really wanted to make pumpkin spice bread. However, I couldn't find many recipes that I can make in the bread maker. So, I tried to concoct my own version, and I thought I'd share.

• 3/4 cup of milk


• 1 egg


• 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin puree


• 2 tablespoons of butter, softened (I put my butter in the microwave for about 10 seconds)


• 3 and 1 half tablespoons of brown sugar


• 1 teaspoon of salt


• 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice


• 3 cups of flour


• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of quick rising yeast

My bread machine requires that wet ingredients go in first, then dry ingredients, and the yeast last. It's best to check your instruction manual for what it suggests. Then, I turned my machine on the "Basic" cycle, and  "Light" crust.

Kitchen Appliances

Back in California, I had a dishwasher. The area I lived in did not have any older homes, so dishwashers were in every home, and I thought they were standard across the United States. Well, I was wrong. When I moved here to Iowa, I was baffled and shocked that the apartment I now live in, did not have a dishwasher. I despised rinsing off my dishes before putting them in the machine, now I have to wash dishes? By hand?! I have done it for about 6 months now, and had reached my breaking point. Standing in front of a sink for 1 hour or more every night... is miserable to me. I hate it. I wish to cook more, but never want to because I hate doing the dishes.

On the ride from the train station back in December, the fiance's mother offered her portable dishwasher to us. But, she didn't have a truck, or large enough car to transport it to us. So, it continued to sit, unused, in her house. After complaining about dishes for months, fiance finally rented a truck on Monday, and we brought it home. We were rushed, because UPS was delivering a package that day, and Tyler had to get to work by 2 in the afternoon. But luckily, we were completely done by 9am. We had a dolly to help us bring it up 3 flights of stairs to our apartment, and Tyler did the majority of the work, by literally pulling it up each stair. I just stood under it and pushed it up a little. Just doing that though, my arms were so sore later that night. I need to work out, maybe?



We got it into the kitchen, I loaded it up for the first time, and tried to hook it to the faucet. Problem one arose. The hose isn't long enough, and we have a tiny kitchen. Every time I want to use it, I have to move it to the walkway, blocking the back door, the stove, and the garbage can. And, once I move it, I literally have to climb on top of it to get out of the nook it creates. My chubby body can barely squeeze around it. Then, problem two arose. The faucet has the wrong adapter piece. So, we ran up to the Home Depot and were directed to a $6 piece, that was apparently made just for portable dishwashers, and clothes washers. Ran home, screwed it on, and presto! Dishwasher!

It's a lot of work setting it up to wash dishes, but really, would I prefer 10 minutes to set up an appliance, or over an hour hand washing? Yep, the 10 minute option, please.



I had also ordered a bread machine on Friday, and expected it on Tuesday. It came Monday evening, which was exciting! I immediately got out my bread making ingredients and made my first bread. It was fantastic, I stood in the kitchen and ate almost the whole loaf by myself. Late last night, I also made pumpkin bread, of which I'll be posting the recipe, probably within the next few days. Also, my cute little coffee pot. It's a little 5 cup machine, just perfect for me, since the fiance doesn't like coffee.

Our kitchen is extremely small, and our counter space is limited, but I just keep adding more crap to them. Soon, I don't think there will be any place to cook or move around in. Appliance hoarders, maybe?

Orange Chicken

Moving to Iowa from California is a little hard because many places I love to eat does not exist here. I miss In-n-Out Burger, Krispy Creme, The Habit, and Panda Express. We've been experimenting with places that seem similar to those in California, but it's not working well. For Panda Express, we've been trying all different kinds of Chinese food restaurants (I think I've eaten orange chicken from every Chinese food place in Sioux City), but none have that particular orange chicken flavor that I love. So, I attempted to try an orange chicken recipe in my Crock-pot.

It took quite a while to brown the chicken in the skillet, I think. But, I'm lazy and I honestly don't like to stand over the stove and watch chicken brown. But I did it anyway, with the hopeful promise of having a good Panda Express like orange chicken. After it was done cooking in the slow cooker, it looked really good, I was excited and couldn't wait to shovel it all into my mouth. But instead, I cooked up some rice and steamed some vegetables.



It definitely didn't taste as I expected. It was good, but didn't taste at all like Panda Express. The recipe I followed got the orange flavoring from frozen orange concentrate, so if I make it again, I may cut back the orange concentrate by half. It was way too orangey for me. It made for a really fabulous photo though, on my newest fabulous plate.

Is It Next Week Yet?

Ugh, it's been a pretty bad week for me. I thought I was getting a dishwasher, but that fell through because it wouldn't fit in a car. The pumpkin spice lattes and the bacon, cheddar and chive scones that I was excited to make, turned out horribly. We haven't had enough money to do laundry, so I've been washing clothes in the bathtub. I've been stuck with polyester sheets that are SO horrible, and am losing sleep with them. There's nothing worse than uncomfortable sheets, that pop off the corners of the mattress every time I move, then having to get out of bed and fix them. Needless to say, I hand washed my Egyptian cotton sheets this morning. I hope they will be done drying in time for bedtime.

I'm really hoping next week will be better. We have plans to rent a truck to bring the dishwasher home on Monday. I'm looking into getting a breadmaker, and a coffee pot (which should make my pumpkin spice lattes better, the instant coffee I used the first time was really, really, bad). I'll be getting much needed curtains and other household items in the mail. We'll be doing all of the laundry. And, the farmer's market starts up next week. I'm hoping to score some tomatoes, oranges, strawberries, lettuce, and onions.



I did make some stuffed bell peppers that turned out pretty good though. I've always loved stuffed bell peppers. I followed the recipe pretty well, though I used beef instead of turkey, I added more garlic, and I used a different cheese. I ate half that night, and saved the other half for lunch the next day.

Something too look forward to - A blog I read frequently informed me that I can make tea out of fresh lemon balm leaves. I have this fabulous lemon balm plant growing on my windowsill that's getting a little out of control. I'm thinking that tonight, I'm going to snip off some leaves and brew myself some tea.