Freshness! And a giveaway!

A long, long time ago, the folks at Vegie Fresh contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in trying their product. It's supposed to keep your veggies nice and crispy-like, which I was into because nothing chaps my hide like soggy spinach.

Now, I'm not a scientist. I'm a cheapskate. So, my original plan to have a Vegie Fresh crisper drawer filled with goodies and a control drawer filled with goodies so I could compare them just didn't pan out. I wasn't about to just waste perfectly good vegetables in the name of blog science!

So, both crisper drawers got the Vegie Fresh treatment. My bags of spinach (which take me about a week and a half to eat) stayed mostly fresh until the bitter end. That last little bit got a little soggy, but after 10 days, that's not so bad! Plus, I just use it for smoothies, so I'm not above eating some slightly slimy greens. (Ew. Sorry for that confession.)

Some leftover cauliflower also stood the test of time pretty well - hanging on a good 11 days before succumbing to spots because I was TIRED OF CAULIFLOWER. The longer shelf-life stuff like peppers and onions stayed good at least a week until we got around to eating them. (Anyone else buying red peppers like a crazed woman lately? They are so cheap right now!)

On the whole, I was really pleased with the packet. Just toss it in the crisper drawer and let it save me some moo-lah!

Want to keep your greens dry, too? Vegie Fresh sent me a boat load of packets, all of which last about three months. Comment below and next week, I'll announce a winner!

Vegie Fresh did send me free samples for me to review, but these views are my own.

In the weeds

This weekend, we're re-tackling the .75 acre that is our little urban jungle. Remember our patio garden? And the grand ole Pit?

Well, with warm breezes and leaves on trees (girly squealllllll! I love leaves on trees!), it's time to whip those spaces into shape. The plants are all way ahead of us, as we never even bothered to rake leaves back there last fall and here come the hops and hostas and peonies popping through the mess!

Also on the agenda for my last weekend as a 28 year old lass? Making a dent in the Yuengling stash my parents loaded me up with in STL last weekend (seriously - the entirety of my fridge's bottom shelf is solid beer right now. Add to that Hubs' two kegs of homebrew and the 30 bottles of homemade wine that are officially ready for consumption and well, let's just say the Bigger, Better, Best clan's eyes are most definitely larger than their aging livers), bike riding and zipping around on two legs, because - did you hear? Homeslice named me just ran a 5 mile race (on St. Pat's no less, when she could have been celebrating early), regularly runs at least 15 miles a week and is training for Dam to Dam (a 20-flippin-k!) in June.

Related agenda item: Buying up all the skinny lady clothes I can find because somebody dropped 20 pounds and has legit arm muscles.

Anyway, I'm hoping we can at least get the gardens cleaned up, pruned back and trellised this weekend. I've also got to shift some hostas around quick like a ninja before the rhizomes get too thick for me to dig through.

What are you up to this weekend? Would you be willing to rake leaves and weed for beer?

On the bandwagon!

I've decided to hop on the chalkboard bandwagon. Over the holidays, I painted one for my office and fell in love with admiring my own fancy handwriting every day.  

So, I took off our pantry doors and wiped them down so they were delightfully shiny.

Then, took them to the basement where I taped 'em up and slathered on the chalkboard paint.

Two days later (due to my own laziness, not paint-drying), I had my meal-planning HQ complete. Dinners up top, lunches below.

 And, of course, Hubs added some art near the cat food. This is what they mean by art imitating life.

And that was that. A simple and free project that is practical - what more could a gal ask for?

Have you hopped on the chalkboard wagon? What'd you paint?