Afternoon Refresher - A Brand Spanking New World

It's been so hot and muggy that I've been looking for a cool drink mid-afternoon.  I think for the duration of summer, the Coffee Chat will be 'Afternoon Refresher' instead. Doesn't she look cool and crisp?  And doesn't that iced tea look refreshing?  Personally I like lots of ice, a glass FULL of ice,  and a bit of lemon or mint in a slightly sweetened glass of tea.  That makes me a bit of a traitor to the Southern Syrup that most serve as Iced Tea in our section of the states.  Mind you, Southern Syrup is how I drank it growing up, too, but I've given up a lot of Southernisms in favor of lighter fare in foods and drinks both.

It has been a tiring past three weeks or so.  For all that we relaxed and enjoyed our trip to the mountains, we have worked hard back home.  I took a car load of stuff to donate, I've listed quite a few books for sale (my Ebay and Half.com name is Hawksridge2).  I've got a stack of  books to list this week and am debating the viability of listing the Victoria magazines.  As Pam questioned, is it really worth it?  They aren't selling at flea market but I sure don't want to list anything for less than it will cost me to list it either.  So we shall see.

Menu and Job Plans

I do love the morning light on this little area I set up for baking!  It just pleases me no end when I see the sun hitting the canisters and highlighting the pictures.

Well...We've had some busy weeks just behind us.  One week away from  home, two weeks working hard and then we finished it off with that new grand baby.  I'm ready though, after this weekend of rest to get back on the work wagon and accomplish a few more tasks.  We were supposed to have company for the latter part of the week ahead but that was cancelled.  The twins are transitioning to toddler beds and their mom felt it was best not to interrupt the process.  A wise decision, no doubt, but I shall certainly miss seeing those kiddos and their older brother.   I was anxious to see how they had grown and what changes had taken place because they do change so very quickly.

Questions and Answers and Comments, Oh My!

Well hello!  I thought I'd take spare moments to knock out this post so that I can send it out first thing this week.  Then I got busy doing more stuff in the house and forgot all about it. This is also known as procrastinating.  I find that as this day has progressed, I'm weary from rising so very early each morning.  I'll piddle the rest of the afternoon at tasks, because I really do want to accomplish a lot more than usual in this week.

I just love what Sarah said about my memory of eating peaches at Grandmama's in this Frugal Week post:
I was thinking about your peaches. Good food combined with sweet memories sure does increase the goodness doesn't it! :) I have several meals we like but remembering the people that taught me to make them or shared them with us adds to the mix for sure.

Meal and Job Plan for June 8-14

Wow.  I am sooo tired!  I worked hard this past week.  I'll do a bit of work this week as well if I can and then it will be a return to a more normal pace.  I've posted my week's worth of projects and such so you know what I've been up to.  All that and routine housework, too.  My big fail this week was reading.  I hadn't read a word, not once by Wednesday and then I decided I didn't really need that added pressure, so I read two or three magazines from my gently read stash and passed them on.  I was too tired at night to even think of reading and wouldn't stop during the day for it.

Each meal I made this past week used something from pantry or freezer.  I'm a long  way from being done.  I do need, at this moment, to go buy produce, dairy and bread.  We will also pick up one or two items for John's work lunches this week as well as get prepared for our needs when company comes in middle of next week.  However, I am still planning to use all I can from my pantry and freezer to provide meals for us.  I'll only purchase items I'm fully out of just now.

How the Week Went

I thought perhaps you might like to see how this week concentrating on home went both meal-wise and job-wise.  

Sunday: Planned: leftovers I ate leftovers.  I was so tempted to eat out while getting groceries since I left so much later than I'd meant to but you  know I just couldn't bring myself to spend the extra money.  It helped a lot that the credit card bill came in yesterday's mail  and while that money is already in the bank,  I felt I had to hang on to my money.  

Made 2 pie shells and a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough for the freezer. Baked a loaf of banana bread to use two leftover bananas. Found a jar of peanuts I'd saved in the freezer and  I'd just spied a single package of microwave popcorn in the cabinet, so I made caramel corn.  That went into the snack jar.  I'll skip making the peach shortcake I'd planned to make for the first part of this week.  Too many sweets on hand is not a good thing.  I also made up a batch of chocolate syrup.

My last job:  I chopped up 3 heads of garlic that I thought were near to sprouting and they were.  Those went into my fridge with the remaining portion of a jar of shelf stable garlic. My home smelled quite fragrant.

My Frugal Week(s)

May 24 - 30

Saturday:  I didn't plan ahead as well as I ought to have done.  I had no ready to serve meal for today...or did I?  I dug about in the freezer and found homemade spaghetti sauce.  I reheated the sauce, cooked the last of an open bag of specialty pasta.  I roasted asparagus and reheated cheese sauce that was in the fridge and needed to be used up. We had the last of bagged salad John left in his lunch bag.  I called it dinner. John called it good food.

I was careful to watch the thermostat and when the AC began to run on and on, I'd inch up the temperature so that it would shut off and take a rest.  This gives the compressor time to reset itself.

Sunday:  Our anniversary.  We didn't do anything much for each other, just small things.  I got a funny card for John that has a pet saying of his incorporated into the verse.  He went into grocery after church to pick up ice for a road trip we'd planned and bought me strawberries and a chunk of a specialty cheese and a big Hero sandwich for our dinner so I didn't have to cook.  The strawberries and cheese were special because I often look at both but seldom buy the berries because I'm the only one eats them and I never buy the cheeses as they are pricey and could be a mistake as I know little about them.  John did right well.  It's a pungent cheese that appears hard like Parmesan but is actually creamy in texture.

Meal and Job Plan- June 1 - 6

I said it and I meant it.  It is time for a pantry freezer challenge.  I've a number of things in my freezer that need to be used up.  Truthfully we tend to eat off the top and never make our way down to the bottom. There are no doubt all sorts of forgotten goodies in the bottom!  The pantry is looking leaner than it has in some time but there's plenty of foodstuffs there that haven't been touched over the past few months, like that 3 Bean Salad we ate yesterday (so good and refreshing in warmer weather).

I am off to the grocery store today.  We have very little fresh produce, the milk is down to just enough for coffee and there are five eggs, no where near enough to make it until next pay period.  I do plan to try to stick pretty hard to that short list though, since we are between pay periods

While we're in the pantry freezer challenge this month I will limit myself to purchasing those items and any outages of staples, but nothing more.  The point is to use what I HAVE and to SAVE a bit of money so that come end of month I can stock the holes in my pantry and freezer with more good staple foods.