Early Retirement Extreme Forums

@Seppia- Thanks for the tips! I was looking at your recommendations in the recipe thread and that's how I came to my most recent iteration of red sauce. I used whole peeled canned tomatoes mixed with minced garlic and a little bit of salt and olive oil. It was far better than any I had tried before, especially the one with canned diced tomatoes. I'll look around and see if I can find those tomatoes when my current supply runs out.

@Scott2- The horror! I suspect there will be some more blasphemy once you find out that I make my own tortillas too. I like making the pizza dough. From start to rolling it out it's probably 30 min of segmented direct work tops for me and I can make a few at a time to freeze what I don't use for later.

An aluminum peel would be real nice. Maybe if I start making a lot more I can justify it to myself, but for now I'm far too stubborn. I'll give the parchment paper a try though with a cookie sheet if the cornmeal doesn't work out.

theanimal wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 03, 2022 1:27 pm

[...] I make my own tortillas too.

DW too. Once tasted, it's hard to go back to commercial tortilla shells, yuck! Actually never occurred to me to use the same dough or make a few extra thick shells for later pizzas. Seems easier than making pizza dough.

Late last fall, we emailed friends and family an invite to our wedding, scheduled for September 3rd of this year. Fast forward a few months and baby animal is on her way with a due date of September 16th. Ay yi yi… We audibled, electing to have only immediate family join us to avoid extra stress so close to the due date. Some of my siblings didn’t like that and were grumbling how they might come up and just see us for only an hour if the baby comes early. Fair enough.

Yet we had already changed our plans once to accommodate previous grumblings and weren’t keen on changing again. It is about us after all. After a couple weeks of going back and forth, DF and I decided we were just going to go ahead and get married locally beforehand. Fast forward to earlier this week, DF gets offered her new job and has to leave in a week to direct training for ~1.5 months elsewhere in the state. On Monday we talked about how it might be beneficial to just get married before she heads out to make things easier and to get her on my health insurance plan.

So come Monday night we texted all of our friends in town and told them we were going to get married at the courthouse Wednesday afternoon. Well, we found out Tuesday that we couldn’t get married at the courthouse, they don't do ceremonies. Hm, plan B it is. Our relationship started when we met in forestry, most of our friends still work in forestry and most of the people who were going to go to the courthouse were from forestry, so we did the most logical thing and had the ceremony at the edge of the forest adjacent to the forestry office parking lot.

The ceremony was short and sweet and one of my best friends presided as originally planned. A former coworker made a bouquet of pussy willow buds and another made a chocolate cake with a raspberry glaze from locally harvested berries, which we enjoyed immediately following the ceremony. They were both unprompted and incredibly thoughtful, especially on one day notice! Later that night, friends came over for a bonfire and food. DW (!) cooked up a Brazilian salmon stew and apple cinnamon rolls while I made some sourdough bread, salsa and fruit salad.

We very much enjoyed it and DW has expressed wonder nearly a half a dozen times as to why anyone bothers with a stereotypical western wedding as everyone, from immediate family members who couldn’t attend to our friends here, told us how great it was how we were doing it. No need to fuss with extensive dress, cocktail hours or other formalities. Just get married in a parking lot . Anyway, it worked for us and now The Animal tribe has officially jumped to 2! Here’s to great relationships and many years ahead together!

Congrats! A great story focusing on the thing that matters most... your relationship.

Awww congratulations to you a Mrs Animal, such a lovely photo of you both.

Congratulations! You guys look amazing, love your jacket and shirt btw.

Love the simplicity of the celebration. You probably enjoyed it more than doing a big (and probably expensive) wedding.

Also, congrats on the baby girl. Girls are the best

Beautiful! Abrazos to you both!

Congratulations !!

I remember some years ago when you were sharing about the challenge of dating and matching up in Alaska. Look at you now!

Congratulations. Very happy for you.

Congratulations! Short and sweet wedding. And congrats on the baby on the way. Given where you live that baby will be badass!

I love the story, the bouquet and the HUGE happy grin you have! Cheers to many years together!

Congratulations on the marriage!

Thank you all very much! I have greatly appreciated the support of this community over the years. High times and low times, you guys are always there, thank you!

C40 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 08, 2022 8:32 pm

I remember some years ago when you were sharing about the challenge of dating and matching up in Alaska. Look at you now!

Yes, less than 2 years ago I had basically given up on meeting someone in Alaska. Up until that point, I had gone on zero dates in 6 years and not for lack of looking/trying. I wouldn't have believed and didn't think I'd be in the situation I am in now anytime soon. Let alone with someone like DW. How wrong I was. I had the good fortune of being in the right place at the right time and was very lucky!

What a joy to see you both in such a happy state!
Thanks for sharing your journal.

Congratulations! I will look forward to some cutest baby ever pictures later this year.

Ha, what an awesome story. So psyched for you and your family animal.

Congrats!

Congrats!!! I wish the best to both of you through all the upcoming adventures!

Congratulations animal and DW! Great to see how you have progressed these years!

Yeah this is brilliant! Glad you enjoyed the minimal wedding. Cheers to you with a cup of Amla tea!