Guess what??!!??

I’m back!

(I know, you’re like, duh, I’m reading this so clearly that is true)

The boy is a magical wonderful unicorn man who fixes the things I break, bless his heart. I’d be a sad half of a whole without him. There are still evidently several hundred thousands of folders that we aren’t sure where they’re originating from, but he deleted enough that things can happen again.

I don’t know what coder magic was wrought upon this blog, but the glorious outcome is that we are back up and running!

I never thought I’d be so excited to see a spinny wheel of update. That little round and round arrow meant my site could create new folders again, and with a push of a button I could single-handedly update WordPress and all 9 plugins which required it.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…… big sigh of relief.

So I am officially back from my sort-of-forced “break”.

I wish I could say that I’ve spent the past few weeks brainstorming blog posts and series, or writing anything at all. But nope. I’ve used the past few weeks to enjoy the heck outta life, going lots of places and having tons of adventures and summer fun.

That is the point of a break I guess. I’m not good at ‘resting’.

But the flip side of that is, I’ve gone places, and made and tried a bunch of fun foods and recipes. And I want to share it with you.

So without further ado, here’s a brief overview of some highlights from BE’s summer so far!

Places We’ve Been

Well, I finally went on my ‘graduation’ cruise to Alaska! It was a gift from my aunt, supposed to be 10ish years ago. We finally just picked a week, and this May we cruised up and down the coast, visiting Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, Glacier National Park, and finally Victoria British Columbia.

It was as beautiful as everyone said it would be and the photos make it look. The mountains were breathtaking, surrounded by icy blue water everywhere. We lucked out big time and the weather was phenomenal the whole trip. We even got a sunburn from sitting on the deck reading on one of our sea days!

Both before and after the trip I took an extra day to spend some time with Angela from TreadLightlyRetireEarly and her husband and kiddo in Seattle. They were wonderfully gracious hosts, and went out of their way to make me feel like part of the family.

We had a ball visiting Woodinville and wine tasting, taking long walks and hikes along the river and in the park behind their house, and hunting for deals in the ethnic grocery stores.

We traveled to historic New Bern, CT for our 2 year wedding anniversary weekend. Did you know New Bern was the original capital of NC? I didn’t either! They also were discovered by a Swiss explorer, and Bern means “Bear”. So there are all these adorable painted bears all over town.

We stayed at a fantastic little cottage AirBnB, and the whole town was so quiet and relaxing. We took the pups with us too. Lots of long walks around town and to the beach, and we got to pop into all the little shops. New Bern is also the birthplace of Pepsi, so of course we got an old fashioned float.

Then we spent a whole day driving down to the “Inner Banks” coast and explored tons of little beach towns: Morehead City, Beaufort, Atlantic Beach, Pine Knoll Shores, Indian Beach & Emerald Isle. And we took a ferry out to Carrot Island for a nice long hike and to see the wild ponies! There was only one out and about; it was a really hot day.

We’ve also made it out to Sunset Beach a few times, once for a friend’s 30th birthday week and again when my mom was in town. Beach time is always so relaxing and awesome! Though I’ve now gotten sunburn thrice, which is not great, but I do have a nice tan.

Speaking of relaxing and awesome, I also got to go on a camping weekend to Morrow Mountain State Park. It is about 2 hours SW of the Triangle, nearly all the way to Charlotte. It is along the Pee-Dee River, and backs up to the Uwharrie National Forest.

There were 5 of us and 3 dogs in total, and we had a great time hiking, relaxing, playing with fire and eating s’mores.

We did a total of about 11 miles between Saturday and Sunday. There are some pretty great views. But we were definitely all feeling it! The pups did great, hiking the whole way. Except the last half mile or so on Sunday, the little girl hurt her paw on the sharp rocks and was limping, so I did carry her for a bit.

Andddddd, saving the best for last, I MET THE GROOVIES!

They have recently relocated from Charlotte to Wake Forest, which is super close to Raleigh. Read all about their homestead building adventures here. We met up at the Raleigh Beer Garden for some good beer, good food, and great conversation.

Things I’ve Made

Well, we finally tried a Vegan Week! It was actually the boy’s idea!
(I know, I was as shocked as you are).

It went quite well, and we tried a bunch of new foods: soy nuggets, sweet potato puffs, lentil sloppy joes, & cashew cream to name a few. Mr. Tako inspired me to bring matcha lattes back into my occasional treat repertoire, and I’m sure glad I did.

There have been a few Bull City Food Swaps, one of which I missed due to travel. My energy bites were a bit of a hit, while the flip flop & bikini Nutter Butters did not go over as well. It’s always a bit of a crap shoot, what other swappers are looking for. And, we might get featured in a news article soon! So that’s cool.

I also finally got around to trying out Erin’s Turkish Red Lentil Soup recipe! I used Gochujang instead of Red pepper paste. Luckily she isn’t going to stop being friends with me over it. And I’ve baked several more loaves of the perfect white bread, feeding my current breakfast addiction: cinnamon sugar toast.

Oh, and I think I’m giving up drinking the water where I work, because now I know 2 people who just had a baby and 2 more with buns in the oven! The only buns I want in my oven right now are the ones I plan to take to a swap…

Anyways.

A work friend threw a very nice baby shower for one of them who is about to have their first little girl. So I decided to make a nice stack of easy freezer meals for the parents-to-be. It took me less than a half an hour to whip up 5 different meals, using things I already had in my freezer and pantry. Post to come soon.

The new parents were very thankful for one full week’s worth of dinner they didn’t have to think about. They are all designed to be able to be thawed and tossed right into a slow cooker. He reported back that they both loved each one and had used them all up in the first week home!

Garden Update!  ? ?

The early spring plants are dying now, we got a few good salads out of the spinach and romaine. Sadly it got too hot too fast for the broccoli, and they went to seed before I got any. C’est la vie. I got 8 different tomato plants in the ground and they are starting to flower.

My sweet potato is getting out of control, and I planted more purple sweet potatoes, with no leaves yet but tiny buds are beginning to poke out of the ground.

The beans were slow to start but now they’ve taken over the trellised back fence area, and some are nearly ready to harvest!

The peas seem to be struggling in the heat, I don’t have high hopes there unfortunately… The zucchini and squash and cucumber didn’t come up so I did a second seeding, and they are now getting big and happy, and even have some flowers.

We invested in future years’ harvest at our house by planting some asparagus this year, and blueberry and blackberry bushes. The blueberry look like they may be struggling, but the blackberries are started to pink up a bit!

And then…

Disaster struck.

SOME MF-ing ANIMAL GOT OVER A 6 FT FENCE AND INTO THE BACK YARD AND ATE THE BERRIES.

All of them.

Even the green ones.

Down to the stem.

If anyone knows a super-lethal-to-deer-but-doesn’t-harm-plants solution, I’m all ears. I will turn those jerks into venison hash.

>:-(

In the front area, the herbs are doing great. I’ve already gotten several batches of pesto, from the 3 I planted this year plus several volunteers from last year’s seed. I need to do something with the huge sage bush and rosemary hedge (this thing is ridiculously hearty and starting to take over).

The damn deer did also get the tomato and beans in the front. Not that I didn’t see it coming… I even had been spraying ‘deer-away’ after each rain. Oh well. It is food after all.

And then my adorable neighbor called me one night, and had gotten a great deal at the local nursery on some plants. He had more than he could fit in his yard, so he gave me a flat. I put in 4 coleus, a giant pink begonia, and several pink/purple ones I don’t know the name of.

I like the pops of color in the front yard now.

The next day, he called again, with 3 more flats of plants to give me!

We are overwhelmed with flowers now. But, our across-the-street neighbors were coming home right about the same time, so I called over to them if they wanted some. Their 2 little girls just lit up when I said they could pick out their favorites to plant. It totally made my day to see them so excited, and share the generosity.

Phew! That’s all folks, now you are nice and caught up on the life and times of the Budget Epicurean. I sincerely apologize for checking out for so long, and hope that you won’t forsake me! See you soon 😉

TELL ME! What have you been up to so far this summer? Any more fun plans?