The Week Behind: See Saw

 

Now what do you think of that cupboard?  I think it's a little overwhelming at first glance but at second glance it's a lot of storage isn't it?  We'll assume the refrigerator is somewhere near that chair on the right.  

Note there's a baking center and storage for bulk potatoes, apples and 'fruits',  cans, utensils, etc.

 If you enlarge the photo you can see the details a bit better.   The sink is a single sink with a drainboard built in and inset into the black counter top.  And there's a pull out cutting board there above the drawers.

What I do like about this kitchen, and it surprises me no end, is the dark mossy sort of  green and black!  It's still a light bright kitchen with that wall of cabinet doors open and the tile floor.  The appliances help keep it light and bright, as well.  And the polka dot curtains are soooo cute!  See that Geranium on the window sill?

Did you notice there appears to be a mural on the walls either side of the cabinet?  I wonder if it is also on the front side of the cabinet doors?

Saturday:  It's always a good week when I can learn something new.  Today I learned a bit more about  using my pizza stone properly and in case you, like me, are new to pizza stones, I  thought I'd share what I learned.

First of all, I knew that the stone needed to be heated before I baked my pizza and most sites suggested 450 F for heating.   I did realize last weekend that I really needed to lower my cooking time on my pizzas.   No one had mentioned on any site that the AVERAGE cooking time for a pizza is between 8-12 minutes.  I've been thinking I needed to follow the more usual 18-22 minutes but decided to set my timer today for 15 minutes and went by smell to remove it at about 13 minutes.  It was perfect.

One reason I dislike appliances, and I am including a pizza stone in this, is that too often they are a one use item.   Hence one of my reasons for not liking my waffle iron...I guess I'll research next what all I could be using my waffle iron to make!  But today I'm talking about the pizza stone.

So after lunch today I looked up what else I might use my pizza stone to make.  I was assuming it had to be used at high temperatures but it doesn't!  You can heat it to as low as 350F.  I was so pleased to realize that I can really make good use of this stone.  I can bake bread on it, English muffins, frozen food items like French fries or chicken nuggets, or even frozen pizza, etc.   You can use it to bake a pie upon to prevent the soggy bottom crust.  You can make pita bread on it (or reheat store bought pitas), quesadillas, roast vegetables and sear meat with a hot stone.  One site suggested using the stone to bake meat but mine has flat edges and I can only see a mess as juice or fat rolls over the edge and hits the bottom of the oven.   

I love the idea of baking English muffins on that rather than on my stove top.  I can only regulate the gas flame on my burners by bending to look at the flame and trying to judge what's the right temp.  My gas stove is very basic.   There are no fancy knobs that suggest that this is medium high or low.  It's on and then I have to adjust per my own judgement, which is fine overall but makes some things like pancakes and English muffins a bit tricky.

But if I can put English muffins onto the pizza stone and bake at 400F and flip halfway through the baking...Game changer!  The oven keeps a good constant temperature and I can control it with the knob.  I'm looking forward to using the pizza stone more often for more than Pizza!

Meals:  Bagels and Cream Cheese; Homemade Pepperoni and Vegetable Pizza;  Fried Cubed Steak, Hash browned potatoes, biscuits and milk gravy

We used the last of the bagels yesterday morning and so I will be making more this month.  

I froze pizza dough last week and it cooked up beautifully today after thawing in the fridge overnight.  I'll do this again now that I know it will work well.

Supper tonight was meant to be something different.  Truth, I had determined to make just biscuits and cubed steak, but John kept saying "But let's add..." sigh.  I vetoed eggs, even though we've got lots of them, but I made gravy because my milk was almost gone and starting to turn a bit towards sour.  It tasted just fine in gravy!  Anyway, it was a bigger meal than my second menu plan had been.  

Last, I want to share that I baked FROZEN biscuits and simply cooked them 10 minutes longer than I'd typically cook my biscuits.  They were lovely, rose well and were still tender and fluffy. Now I know that secret to baking a frozen biscuit, I'll make more to freeze because I do love just popping them onto a pan and baking rather than having to make them from scratch.  It's not that making biscuits is difficult but there are days when it's a choice of spending time making biscuits or just toasting bread and toast wins, you know?  But it truly takes only a little bit of time to double or triple a batch of biscuits and then freeze them uncooked.  And on those mornings when I want to have biscuits, it's now a matter of "Can we stand the extra ten minutes cooking time?" and the answer often is "Yes."

I had a conundrum this evening.  I messed up a lot of dishes today and so the overflow filled the second sink.  I washed a full load of dishes after supper on Friday and didn't unload before Shabbat.  I told John, I could do dishes by hand, I  could unload and reload the dishwasher (and still end doing a few dishes by hand) or wait until Sunday.  I don't mind one sink full of dishes but two?  I decided to hand wash those dishes that I would have washed by hand anyway.  Then I rearranged the leftover dirty dishes which all fit into the one side of the sink.  I could live with that.   It was the most minimal amount of work I could do and suited my Shabbat wishes.

Sunday: Up extra early today.  I showered, stripped the bed and put towels and sheets to wash right away.  I gathered up trash, emptied the dishwasher and reloaded it then settled to put on my makeup while our toast was in the oven.  

After breakfast, I cleared away our breakfast dishes, took the clothes out to the line to dry and fed the dogs.  I hurried through getting dressed.  We were exactly on time for church this morning.

Found my shopping list I made out earlier this week when the sales ads came to my inbox and noted that mayonnaise was on sale.  I know full well that I don't have enough mayonnaise in my food storage.  There were other sales items I'd have liked to had, but that was the one item that I knew we'd miss buying at sale price over winter since mayonnaise typically doesn't go on sale in the cooler months.  I don't expect to see more good sales until about Memorial day of 2021.

I took both my shopping lists with me.  I had noted that I was nearly out of shampoo, deodorant and allergy tablets, as well as carrots, onions, lettuce, tomatoes.  I had milk on a list but I completely forgot that item!  I don't buy locally because I don't like the taste  of the brand sold in my town grocery, which happens to be the same brand sold in the next town over.   Never mind.  I have to pick up prescriptions this week and couldn't get them today because the pharmacy opens so late on Sundays.  

A happy thing was something that initially I didn't want to do.  I've mentioned before that John is usually loathe to stop at two stores unless we're doing a big grocery shop and then two is about the limit.  I wanted to run into CVS where they had the allergy tabs I've been using for years.  Even though we were going right by that store to go to Publix, he did NOT want to stop.   "Just see if they have it at Publix," he said.  I know full well they don't.  And I was pretty sure he wasn't going to want to go to CVS after going to Publix either.  So I looked long and hard at the allergy tablets available and said I'd try the store equivalent of Zyrtec.  I figured if it didn't help I'd just make a trip to CVS tomorrow.  After all, I've got to get milk and prescriptions anyway!

At the grocery today we got: Gramma's Fried Chicken, Deli potato salad (also on sale), two onions (there were no bags available), a bag of baby carrots and Romaine lettuce, dog food (and good thing because Target cancelled my monthly subscription.  Phooey!  That's the second time this month but apparently there's a shortage of pet foods? What?!)   I bought ice cream at John's request.  I found shampoo, deodorant and the allergy med.   Our total was $65 with the allergy med and dog food which accounted for over half the total.  Oh yes, I got two jars of the on sale mayo because there were only four on the shelf and I was not going to disappoint anyone else who'd put that on their shopping list.  I'm not upset with our total.  

After the grocery we stopped and filled my car with gasoline.  And on our way to church this morning, we took off trash.  As always, when we leave home, I make those trips count so we get good mileage for both gasoline and time used.

Katie and Taylor came to lunch with us, as usual.  After lunch us girls went out to sit on the porch but before I went out I took an allergy tablet...1 hour later, I noticed I had NO ringing in my ear and the feeling of fluid was decreased.  Bonus: I  only have to take 1 tablet daily, compared to one every six hours of the brand I'd been using which also made me terribly sleepy.  So I am glad that John refused to stop at CVS!

Taylor blew bubbles, cracked the 'peanuts' that had fallen from my pecan tree, none of which were good as I told her they wouldn't be, and then she swept the porch off afterwards.  She ran and played with Maddie.  The day was warming up but it felt and looked like autumn, with a steady breeze.   This morning it was quite cool, down in the mid 60's.  

I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend, my time with my grandchildren over the past three days.  Now I'm ready to buckle down and work once more.

Meals:  Cheese and Buttered Toasts;  Gramma's Fried Chicken, Deli Potato Salad, Sliced Tomatoes, Ice Cream with sprinkles; John had leftover pizza, I ate the last cubed steak and chips.  

Monday:  I slept late this morning, not that uncommon on these Monday mornings since we tend to get up so early on Sunday mornings to attend the early services at church.  John had said last night he'd be making breakfast and so I felt safe in sleeping in.  

Inspiration hit me Saturday afternoon as I was sitting here in my chair.  I would very much like to recover my chair and ottoman...and then it occurred to me that the same fabric I used to back the bookshelves would go nicely with my current set of chairs in the living room.  Alas, I haven't enough of the fabric to cover my chair, but I have enough to make a good start on it.  I'm going to go by the store where I bought this fabric to see if I can get more. I've looked online and done an image search to try and find more but no luck thus far.  If this idea fails, I'll save the current fabric for the dining room chairs as I'd originally planned but I'll try to get a nice companion fabric to go with it.

After breakfast, I went outdoors to feed the pets and sat on the porch with them as they ate.   It wasn't too terribly warm even though it was close to 10am.

When the animals had eaten, I watered plants on the porch, then went out to the shed to dump compost and cut zinnias.  The Sweet William is a biennial flower but two or three came up and bloomed anyway.  I hope they will return next year.

I pulled up the Roma and Brandywine tomato plants which were done.  I got two Roma tomatoes and one Brandywine tomato.  Not a huge success by any means.  I had planned to also pull up the yellow pear tomato plant but it has two new tomatoes on it so I shall leave it alone for now.

I have another pretty little bouquet from my yard.  It went on the dining table.  

I was so hot by this point that I could barely stand myself, so I went off to take a cool shower.  I knew John was in the back and so when I stepped into the bedroom and bumped into him I was more than a wee bit startled.   He'd come into the room to make the bed but I must have been busy in the kitchen at the time and didn't see him cross the living room.  He certainly got my heart pumping!

Nice cool shower and did it feel nice.  We've got nicer temperatures than we've had in months and it's rather lovely, but for some reason I have been running hot,  hence the need of a cooling shower.

I made up my mind that this Labor Day, unlike the past five, would NOT be a day of Labor.  I did some minor Reclamation cleaning but it wasn't hard driven stuff.   Knowing I will be in and out this week with various tasks and such, I went ahead and straightened up my bookcases.  You might not know it, but I moved quite a few books to different places where there was space to spare.  Mind you it was all the new books and I may, or may not, find them again this year!

I made a really big lunch today.  I'd thought on second thought that I would grill burgers but as I said, I got awfully warm outdoors doing my bit of watering and cutting flowers and such.   The AC is going off regularly, a sure sign that we've much more pleasant temps than we've been having but I wasn't about to grill and get all smoky and sweaty and then take a second shower in four hours time.  I opted to use my oven and made a big batch of home fries, baked the burger patties (the 85/15 frozen ones from Aldi that we like quite well) and made us ice cream floats as a treat.  I cooked us an extra burger apiece for supper tonight so that's meals for today DONE.   After clearing up the kitchen, I settled in the living room with computer and books and notebook.  I'm calling myself done for this Labor Day at least.

Meals:  Omelet with hot dog and onion, Toast;  Burgers, Oven Fries, Homemade fridge pickles, Ice Cream Soda;  Burgers, Chips if anyone wants them.

Tuesday:  I was up earlier this morning, though hardly as early as I'd like to have been.  John again made breakfast, as he'd been up quite some time when I rose at 8am.  He wanted eggs, and I don't do eggs more than two times a week, while he can eat them daily.  I like eggs but eating them daily reminds me of how ill I felt after eating eggs for breakfast and lunch for weeks when Mama and Daddy raised chickens and had a glut of eggs.  He obligingly made me peanut butter toast which was delicious.

After puttering around doing minor house things I contemplated the day, the weather app (which is usually wrong but I check it anyway) and decided that if I were going to wash curtains I'd rather start with those in the kitchen or I'd have to wait until October to get to them.  So I took down the curtain that is at the door of the laundry area, and all the curtains in the kitchen and put them to wash.   

While they were running, I decided that while I didn't want to paint all the railings, I really didn't want to shake that gallon can of exterior paint either and pop it open to just paint the small areas of exposed bare wood that were left when the porch was renovated.   This is something I ought to have done Spring a year ago and didn't and then when John fussed over it, I suggested he might do.  I've waited about a year and no paint so far.  So I admitted defeat in getting him to do it and admitted I was the one who was initially responsible for the task and hadn't done it so no point in resenting his not doing it.   

All of that was a long winded way to say that I didn't want to open the gallon of paint to do what 1/4 cup would cover.  I opted to use a bit of the satin finish kitchen cabinet paint on the spots.  I figure some paint over the bare areas was better than none.  I was pleased to note that the kitchen cabinet paint was also mildew resistant paint and had a Zinsser primer built in as well, which is what the exterior paint also has.  When I do finally open the gallon of paint, I'll go over all the railings with it.   

Then I tackled my freezer.  I had some idea of what was and wasn't in there but it had gotten disorganized and frankly I'd arranged it in a way that made it easy to keep it disorganized.  I gathered odds and ends and combined items into one container rather than three or four.  I'll share over on Gathering fragments more about this...

When I finished with the freezer, I took the curtains outdoors to hang on the line, then I came back indoors and settled to get my checkbook in order for our payday.   I went over which checks had come in first. That took quite a bit of time today because I apparently never bothered to do it at all last pay period so there was two months of work to be done. 

I made lunch for us while I finished up my payday work.  John came to sit in the kitchen  with me and showed me a lovely picture of a lighthouse against a red moon and started chatting.  I was at the point of being done where I could talk and safely do what I was doing at the same time.

After lunch, I checked the curtains and they were all dry.  I took all the living room curtains and the slipcovers off my chair and ottoman and put all that to wash while I rehung the kitchen curtains.  About this time I was starting to flag a bit, lol, though I felt I hadn't done much.

About the time the curtain rings were put back on kitchen curtains and all the curtains rehung, the living room curtains were ready to hang outdoors on the line.  I turned to look at them as I came back indoors and I could see that the curtains had already started to dry!  I told John, "In about an hour I'll be able to bring these in and rehang them, too."  And I did!  It isn't hot out, though it is  warm but there was a steady breeze blowing all day long that really helped things to dry quickly.

As I washed dishes after supper this evening I told John, who was near the sink, to just look at the way the trees have changed color this week.  To look down my driveway you'd know that autumn is here, regardless of the thermometer or calendar.  The view out back is just as much changed.  

Might I add how happy it makes me to have a sink that faces a window?  Three of the five houses I've lived in since I set up house of my own have NOT had a sink at a kitchen window.  If I ever have an opportunity for a sixth house, it's going to have a window above the sink!

I washed a full load of dishes after supper.

Meals:  Toast for me, Eggs and toast for John;  Burritos with Chips and salsa, Fruit Cobbler; Bbq'd Chicken, Black Eye Peas, Squash Casserole, Deli Potato Salad

Wednesday:  Today has been so relaxed and easy.   I'd planned to visit Mama today but she called last night  and requested I switch the visit to tomorrow.  John said last night "Well, tomorrow's our day then."

I got up early enough this morning but John was earlier than I.  He had laundry going when I woke.  I got up and made the bed and showered then went to the kitchen to do coffee and Bible study.  While I boiled eggs and toasted English Muffins for breakfast, I unloaded the dishwasher.

Over breakfast, we discussed various options of what we'd do today.  Despite it being a little cloudy and knowing full well that allergies were going to run rampant, I voted for the picnic date.

We ran errands first: picked up incoming mail, went by the dump to drop off trash, stopped to do banking in town, dropped off outgoing mail, went to the next town to make a deposit and get allowances and then we picked up Subway sandwiches for a picnic lunch.  We said we'd stop nearer our destination for sodas, chips and a little something sweet...Then we drove into the foothills for a lovely afternoon near the river.

We had the place to ourselves practically...Well us and the flies.  Ugh!  I was glad for the breeze that came up and blew them away, but not far enough away.   We'd wrapped out food well, but it didn't stop the flies from getting into our insulated bag.  Double UGH!

For all that it looks very much like fall here on our property, there was no sign of it north of us.  The river was lower because we've had no mentionable rain in the past month (normal for this time of year),  but the trees were steadfastly green.  However it was cooler today, just over 80F and breezy at times and it felt like autumn.   It was lovely and peaceful.  We left there very reluctantly.

Once home this afternoon, John talked to his brother on the phone while I had a brief visit with Sam and Josh.   Josh is well beyond the stage of sitting on my lap or even of giving me a hug and kiss, sigh.  I knew this day would come and I shall just cherish the hugs and kisses from Isaac and Taylor and Millie until they too outgrow it.

After Sam and Josh had gone, and John was off the phone we had a very easy supper of lunch leftovers and then watched the Wednesday night service online.  Lovely, lovely peaceful day!

Thursday:  Oatmeal for breakfast this morning.  We've had a few mornings that were cool and nice.  This was not one of them.  Never mind.  My tummy kept saying, "Now that it's getting cooler, wouldn't oatmeal be good?"  So I fed my tummy and it was good even if the morning was muggy and overly warm.

I went off to see Mama today.  It was nice to go out with her once again, even though she continues to have the same conversations over and over and over again.  No, she's not forgetful.  She just talks of the same situations that she's been fretting/worrying/refusing to do a blessed thing about for the past three years and likely will still be discussing five years from now as well.    

We had a nice lunch out today.  The food was delicious and it was a sort of splurge meal.  After our meal, I went into the grocery store to pick up a few items she'd not gotten yesterday in her grocery haul.  I also stocked up on 16 ounce jars of store brand peanut butter for 99c a jar.  A great buy in my opinion.   John has considerably cut down on his consumption of peanut butter but if I see this sale is still good next week I might well go get another half dozen jars.  After all, there's peanut butter cookies, peanut butter bread, peanut butter buckeyes... those are all things I've not made in the past because I often didn't have enough peanut butter in the house to do so.

I've heard for years now about the case lot sales in the Mid-West but we don't have them here in the South.  However, the price on peanut butter this week is similar to the prices I've heard of in the case lot sales, so I felt I really did get a great bargain on it.

I went into Kroger today.  There are three within 30 miles drive for us and two of them I like just fine though one of those two is very large, meant to be one of those one stop  shopping sort of  experiences.  It has a coffee shop, pharmacy,  clothes, home goods, jewelers... It even has a bar (!!) inside the store, an area where apparently one might meet with friends for drinks before shopping.  Not something I want to combine with drinking...I do enough damage when I'm feeling impulsive while sober, lol.

Another store is just a simple Kroger.  It's a little dark but very familiar as it's the oldest of the three stores.  That store is in Mama's town.  I didn't shop in either of those two stores today.

The store I visited today was near the restaurant where we lunched.  It is so difficult to shop in.   There's no rhyme or reason why things are where they are.  This is the store that has plastic bags and aluminum foil at the end of the freezer section and nowhere near paper plates and napkins as it is in most stores.  Today in looking for peanut butter, I scanned and scanned the aisle boards.  In Publix, peanut butter is with jelly and bread on the same aisle.  To me this makes perfect sense.   But where was peanut butter in this store?  Not with bread.  Not with Jelly which is on the aisle with canned fruits.  No.  It was on the chips aisle.  I have to say that my first thought when shopping for chips is NOT "Let's have peanut butter with that!".  

While I was in the store Mama called and asked me to get her some dishwasher tabs.  No problem...It's right on the aisle with the holiday decorations.  I told John I am always amazed at how discombobulated the arrangement of this particular store is and I mean that sincerely.  I can't determine if the manager simply has no clue at all or is the sort that periodically needs to reinvent the wheel.

While out today, I picked up one prescription and then asked if I could go ahead and renew another that I will run out of before end of the month.  I know I can't get to the store at the time the prescription would need to be renewed.   The store assured me I could renew now so I went back by there (trip two) before heading to pick up my produce bag.  

The farm where I get my bag is more or less on my way home, so I didn't go far out of my way to get to them.  There are lovely views along the roadway.

I don't know if you all are interested in what I get in my produce bags but I will share it.   This week's bag: green beans (a double batch, so I'll process them tomorrow and freeze), a small eggplant, four small green bell peppers which I was happy to see since I discovered I haven't got any in the freezer as I thought I did.  I also got peppermint.  I've been drying it for tea this winter.  Microgreens.  Okra. Spinach.   This spinach is a vine growing spinach not the sort that you get in the supermarket bags.  It is a slightly thicker small leaf with a bit more of a 'bite' to it.  It's a variety called "Malabar".  

I find more and more, now that I am more often at home and less often out and about,  that I long deeply for country roads when we are away from home in metropolis areas (which is laughable...if you only knew how modest the size of the towns to which I go, but you must understand that where I live is very rural and my small town just has a population of 700...).   By the time I'd driven from Mama's town to the next town (roughly twice the size of hers) for lunch and then around through another town that she wanted to drive thru and then back to her town, I was feeling stressed.

I left her at her house, then drove back to the town where we had  lunched earlier so I could pick up the second prescription.   At that point, traffic from the Base was letting out, schools were letting out and cars were in a hurry to get where they were going.  I just wanted OUT.  I took a sort of short cut that led me to a back road and there peace was to be had once more.  

There's one house whose banks have sported loads of iris and daffodils in the past but this summer she planted on her ditch banks a million cosmos in various shades of yellow orange.  It was so lovely and all I could do not to stop my car and gather a handful to bring home.   They had planted it all down the sides of two roadways this time and it was stunning.

Before long I was deeply into the country where houses are spread out b with fields between them and the views were long.  I felt the tension slide off my shoulders.   I do love my unhurried country life and nothing makes me feel more appreciative than a day out amongst the towns.

Meals:  Butterscotch Oatmeal, Toast; out with Mama, John ate leftovers (and yes, he was invited along but declined; Tacos.  

Friday:  John and I woke early this morning, up before 7:30.  I took my coffee to the porch and read my morning Bible chapters while he watched a YouTube Vlogger I dislike.  It was not cool outdoors and the cat was feeling testy.  I dared to touch her when I'd made no move to feed her.  Goodness was her response snarky...Just saying, lol.  Fortunately the dogs were in better moods and merely wanted acknowledgement.

I had asked John what he'd like for breakfast this morning before we went to sleep last night.  He asked for French toast.  No problem.  I cooked turkey bacon and scrambled the last of the egg/milk mixture (I did an another egg to it).   It was a delicious breakfast.

I started a loaf of bread baking right this morning.

Before starting housework, I asked Bess if she and the children, Millie and Isaac, would like to come spend the morning with us.  It was a very pleasant visit.  I smiled inwardly at Isaac who had both the Kindle  and all the toys he wanted piled in the chair with him.  He was obviously enjoying not sharing.   Miss Millie will say "Hey!" and Bess showed me her little temper when she gently removed a toy from Millie's hand.  That baby girl went rigid all over, physically shook and fussed at her mama until she handed the toy back over.  This reaction was totally unexpected from a very pleasant dimpled smile tiny girl.  I foresee a force to be reckoned with when brothers take away toys!

I thoroughly enjoyed my relaxed morning with Bess and the children.  I had pondered what to make for lunch today, last night.  Before Bess came over this morning, I figured out meals for the weekend ahead but had no clue what to do for dinner tonight.   I did determine finally that I'd rather have nachos for lunch today than tomorrow.   We like them with refried beans on top.  I drained some yogurt to make a sour cream and we had the last of the homemade salsa.  It was a good lunch.  Isaac must have thought so (his nachos had no beans) because he ate every bite.

I had no clue what to have for supper tonight.  As I said, I have meal plans for the weekend, but I didn't want any of those things for supper tonight.  After Bess and the children headed home, I sorted out the fridge and discovered the chicken broth leftover from Tuesday as well as the chicken meat I hadn't picked off bones.   Then I remembered that I'd put Chicken Rice soup on my menu for this week.  Ha!  There's supper.

I put some large whole okra pods outdoors to dry.  Okra turns silver and looks lovely  in a floral arrangement or on a wreath once dried.   I cut up the rest and then I worked on the green beans.  All went into the freezer.

We picked up house rather quickly and John ran the vacuum...And now the day is done, as far as I'm concerned.  All I need do is serve and clear up behind supper tonight.

How did your week go?  Did you have a good balance of leisure and work, family and couple time?