New Blog Series: Culinary Cabaret! :)

Okay guys! I am thrilled and excited to introduce to you to the new blog series starting here on Two's Company! This series will be called "Culinary Cabaret" after the line in Disney's "Be Our Guest" which runs: "Beef ragout, cheese souffle, pies and puddings en flambe! We'll prepare and serve with flair a culinary cabaret!" Essentially, this series is a challenge you all will be able to link up with any week you'd like! It will run for 52 weeks (hopefully 52 adjacent weeks...we'll see how that works out) which is a year. The idea is that each week I'll post a theme, and you will have a chance to make one new recipe (or a variation of an old one) that fits the theme. Themes could be as simple as "Indian", "Greek", "Italian" or as complex as "Pixar Movies", "Downton Abbey", "Autumn", or, hey, something as crazy as "Oxford don". Sarah and I will chose one new recipe a week and blog about it--and you'll do the same!

And for those of you who are sitting there looking at this post thinking, "Aw, gee, I don't think I can be that creative," all I'm saying is that it is one recipe a week. Not a whole meal. It won't be expensive because, hey, people in India don't always have a ton of money and if you've got some watermelon and some milk and ice you can make a melon lassi that would fit that theme and not cost a dime. And besides--a challenge isn't supposed to be terribly easy. It's meant to be doable though, and I thoroughly believe that one new recipe a week is doable. I will be posting the theme for the week on Mondays and you will have until the following Monday to link up with your post and recipe. Not only will Culinary Cabaret improve your own creativity, but we can serve as inspirations for each other! And remember, linking up once does not mean that you have to do all 52 weeks! I would love to see you anytime throughout the course of the challenge. So please spread the word, and if any of you are wizards with blog buttons, feel free to make and share a button about the challenge. I want to get as many people involved as possible. :)

Looking forward to breaking out my skillz,
                                                          Rachel

oneundredanone

Really very keyed-up right now. Mainly because, due to our crazy awesome readers.....

Two's Company officially has over 100 followers now!!!!!
It was killing me to be hovering at that odd number of 99 for so long, but fortunately I can thank all you wonderful people for getting us over the hump and into the hundreds! ;) As a sort of marking point, I'm going to list a few of our stats over the past..... FOUR YEARS?! Wow. I'm feeling old. :P

Highest Ranking Posts:

A Few Thoughts on Femininity 

Historical Hair: The Belle Gardiner Ball Couiffure 

{a comment revolution}

Randomosity: Bullets Point Post

Audience:

United States

Russia

United Kingdom

Canada

Worst-most-embarrassing-post 

(well at least one of the most...)

>>>facepalm<<<

The Bush-Whackers 

One of our favorites we've done: 

Humor Snobs?

Awards: 

(Eight in all)

Liebster

Kreativ Blogger

One Lovely Blog

You Always Make Me Laugh

Faithful Commenter

Stylish Blogger

Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

Scrumptious Blog

Blogs are pretty useless without anybody to read them, so I really want to make sure you know how much we appreciate you guys. 

I'm thinking a giveaway is in order.

We shall see.

~Sarah

Autumn Allure Fashion Event!

Calling all girls! 

Rachel is hosting an Autumn Allure Modest Fashion Event starting today and running through the end of September on her blog: A Butcher, a Baker, a Candlestick Maker. Run over, check it out, take the button-thing, and tell everyone you know about it! We want as many girls as possible to participate! There will be guest posts, posts on how to dress cute on a budget, My Style, choosing the right clothes for you, and more! So stop on by and check it out! And if you plan on participating, leave a comment and tell us so. :)

Button Swap

I have the pleasure today of taking part of a very fun blog event organized by Miss Bree . My name was paired up with the (then) unfamiliar name of Blythe. It's been very fun to get to know her and to start a new bloggy friendship! So without further ado, here's my interview of her!

Hey there,

  My name is Blythe which means cheerful and I try to live up to that,I'm a 17 year old German and Irish country girl who enjoys many things,to name a few; ministry,photography,music,

hair,running barefoot,bug free evenings,walks in the backyard,atv riding,blogging and I shall not bore you any longer about myself cause,but one thing you must know about me is that I love Jesus with all my heart and one day I hope to find a godly man who does also and wants to be involved in a ministry.

 - How long have you been blogging at Raindrops? a little over 2 years.

-What are you favorite topics to blog about? Photoshoots, pinterest photography inspiration.

-What would a perfect day for you look like? Uh...hmmmm... I meet a guy fall in love and start courting...lol,jk even though that would be nice someday,but let me see the perfect day would be waking up to a sunny morning eating a gf donut with orange juice then going out with friends (roll down the windows and listen to some music.) to a 4-wheeler race tracks and racing around,then going off shopping with a $500 shopping spree buy a whole new wardrobe, go eat lunch at chipotle then go to the mall had out gospel tracks, then fly to Ireland for the evening and night and just sit on the coast with my friends and have a photoshoot. Hey,I can dream can I. :)

-Are you more of an extrovert or an introvert? An Extrovert most definitely!

-Do you play an instrument? yes, I do,the violin.

-Dark or milk chocolate? Oooo,milk. Yuck to dark it reminds me of a chocolate flavored medicine I had to take as a kid.

-How long have you been interested in photography, and why do you do it? For about 3 years I only really got into last year,this year I bought my first dslr. I do as an inspiration and a thrill of it I guess.

-What is one of your big dreams for your life?  To meet a godly young man and get hitched. :)

-Tell us 3 random things about yourself. I love adventures,I never paint my nails,I rambling (and not the amusing rambling,but the annoying kind.)

-What is your rank in your family? (age wise) I'm 5th,right in the middle. (4 older and 4 younger.)

-List one of each: your favorite singer/musician, your favorite book, and your favorite movie?

Singer: My favorite singer?? Uh,don't have one sorry.

Book: The Bible.

Movie: I don't have one of those either, I hate choosing cause I have different favorites depends on my mood and who I'm watching it with (I hate watching a movie with a group and I'm the only one who finds it amusing....awkward...)

Well there you have it! :) Thanks so much Blythe, for doing this interview with me! Everyone else make sure you pop over to Raindrops and check out more about my new friend! :) 
(and here's her interview of me: )

-Sarah

Family Facts: Guess Who?

Today's Family Facts post will require some follower help. ;) Here's the deal:

Below is a picture of every person in our family and a list of all of our names. Your job is to match them up as best as you can. :) i.e. #1 is Susy, #2 is Peter, etc. Leave a comment with your guesses, and let's see who does the best!

The People

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

Not the best pic of this person...:P
#7

(The person on the right.)

#8

#9

#10

#11

The names:

 Levi

Sarah

Dad

Benjamin

Rachel

Abby

Anna

Daniel

Grace

Mom

Leah

Alright! Start guessing! :)

-Sarah

Family Facts from our side :)

1. What are some of your family's favorite phrases, exclamations, or sayings? Let's see.....where to start? "For Pete's Sake!", "Jiminy Christmas", "Great Scot!", "Golly Day!", "Goodness Gracious", and TONS of others!
2. What's the number of boys to girls in your family? 3 against 6--they've got half as much as we do. ;)
3. What is your favorite tradition your family has? Thankfully our family has always loved holiday traditions, so I guess any of those would be favorites. :) (see this, this post, or this one)
4. What do you call the midday meal at your house? Lunch. What else do people call it? :)
5. Is the majority of your family morning people or night owls? hm...I'd say about 1/2 & 1/2. 
6. What is your favorite vacation location? :P Well, in our family the favorite (and pretty much only) vacation we go on is camping at State parks and the like. We all LOVE it! Especially when the mosquitoes aren't full tilt, we don't get rained out, and it's not too terribly hot. ;)
7. Are your family's weekends usually full of activities such as sports, parties, and outings, or are they more of around the house, fix-it-uppers? It probably depends on the time of year....in the summer you'd more often than not, see us fulfilling garden needs, cleaning the house, doing projects outside, etc. But in the slower seasons, we don't mind having a party or get-together to go to. ;)
8. What is the nationality/ies your family comes from? (i.e. Scotch, Russian, etc) We are a big mixture of English, Irish, Scottish, Choctaw Indian, Dutch, and who knows what else! It's kind of fun to be able to claim all those as our heritage. :)
9. Do you go away for holidays, or celebrate at home? Usually the holidays come to us. :P But seriously, for Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas most of the extended family will come to our house to celebrate! (which is real fun)
10. How did your parents meet? At Busch Gardens, believe it or not. :D They were both musicians in the bands around the park. (Mom in the Raggamuffin Band and Dad in the Boogie Band.) A friend kind of hooked them up. :)

May I introduce you to...

So, this is a month long blog event designed to let all of us find out some fun trivia about your families. All you've gotta do is to answer these questions in your own blog post and link up at the bottom of this post. :) It will be fun to hear all the different family facts! We will be scattering family-themed posts from now til June 2, and it would be fabulous if any of you wanted to join us. :)

1. What are some of your family's favorite phrases, exclamations, or sayings?
2. What's the number of boys to girls in your family?
3. What is your favorite tradition your family has?
4. What do you call the midday meal at your house?
5. Is the majority of your family morning people or night owls?
6. What is your favorite vacation location? :P
7. Are your family's weekends usually full of activities such as sports, parties, and outings, or are they more of around the house, fix-it-uppers?
8. What is the nationality/ies your family comes from? (i.e. Scotch, Russian, etc)
9. Do you go away for holidays, or celebrate at home?
10. How did your parents meet?

Ze Sourdough Challenge

I wanted to alert you girls to a new sort of Challenge! I'm reprinting (or re-typing--you choose) a post I did on my blog for Stay-at-home daughters: A Butcher, a Baker, a Candlestick-maker. It's called the Sourdough Challenge...

I am in a dreadfully perverse mood recently. I don't know what it was bred of but it makes me feel rather strongly like doing strangely unaccountable things like...adopting a pair of white ducks to do paintings of, (Me, who hasn't picked up her brush in a month or two entire!) or make cheese or (and this is the point on which this whole post is orbiting...)

Make Sourdough bread.

This has a logical path. We were given some free sourdough bread and it was made with white flour. I try to avoid white flour...I really do. But Sourdough is my one weakness. I broke under the pressure of Trying Not To. ;) I cut the slices very very thinly and toasted them, buttered them, and had myself some Secret-Toast with a hot cup of tea.

"Evangeline, may I have some secret-toast-and-jam?"
"Most certainly not."
"Alright--forget the jam--just some secret toast?"

(Forgive me for quoting Nanny McPhee in a moment like this. ;) I decided I had to remedy the situation. After all, must the White-Flour-Eaters have all the sourdough? No. Never. I flatly refused. So after imibibing in the Secret-toast and tea, I betook myself to the laptop and rummaged up a Sourdough Starter Recipe.

And this is where the challenge begins. I'm starting my starter tonight. (And making it whole wheat.) Will you girls begin a starter too? It "brews" for 5-10 days and at the end of the time if you don't feel like continuing with the sourdough, just toss it--it is rather a cheap experiment anyhow! :)

The recipe I found was from a fabulous little website I just tripped over called Chickens in the Road. I think it and me are going to be good friends by-and-by. (And no, it had nothing to do with the fact that I found a recipe for Apple-lilac jelly. No indeed.)

Here, my fellow Butchers, Bakers, and Candlestick-makers, are the Brewery Instructions:

Sourdough Starter(from www.chickensintheroad.com)
1 Tbs. yeast (not rapid-rise)
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 additional cups warm water
1 Tbs. honey or sugar
Mix the yeast with the 1/2 cup warm water in a non-metal container. Mix with other ingredients and stir well. Pour into a non-metal bowl or jar. (This starter will poof and grow so provide for plenty of room for fluffery.) Cover with cheesecloth and leave on the counter for 5-10 days. Stir 2 or 3 times a day.

That's the basic recipe I found on the website and there are further instructions in The Post itself. I will be posting about the next step in 5 or 10 days so stay tuned! Will you join with me in the Sourdough Challenge? Pretty pretty please? :) Leave me a comment telling me if you are being darlings and doing this Sourdough Challenge with me! :)

New Blog Event: Project Broadway!

Welcome to the Weekly Blog Event: Project Broadway, hosted right here on Our Family View From Us Two. :)

 

Beginning today (and frequently on following Wednesdays). It all started when we girls were lounging around last night, being...girls.

I was lazily draped side-ways over our leather recliner and said in a sort of drawl, "Wouldn't it be funny to live for a day in a sort of musical. You know, whenever someone says something that reminds you of a song you all stop what you are doing and start singing?"

We all laughed and left it there, but this morning I roped Sarah into trying it out with me. Project Broadway. It's like your own miniature musical! I want to see how many people we can get joining in this event with us! (It would be cool if we could make a button for the event too... :) You all love musicals--I know you do. Some of my friends like Jo March of Scraps From my Workbasket and Joanna from A Needle Pulling Thread are famous for their love of musicals, old movies, etc.

So here's the deal. For one day we will call to mind all the musicals we know. During the day if someone says something like, "I wonder why Pinterest is so popular?" you might look at a sister, smile, and break into song:

♫"Popular--you're gonna be pop-u-lar..."♫

Or if someone mentions femininity you will all drop your brooms or dish-rags or book and start waltzing around the living room:

♪"You must walk Feminine, talk Feminine, smile and beguile Feminine! Utilize your Femininity; that's what every girl should know if she wants to catch a beau!"♪

Many of us (especially the ones with sisters) already do this, but it's a fun, hilarious way to make order out of the chaos. It'll be voice-practice, drama practice, and everything else rolled into one. The only stipulation is that you post some of the songs you broke into on your blog and leave a link so we can see what you've done! :) In the future I'll put up a linky-device. For now, just leave a link to your post in a comment!
I am so excited about this--I know it'll be loads of spontaneous fun. And we can all use a little more of that, right? So go ahead and link up--you're never too old for musical theater! :) -Rachel