Have you ever noticed that the size of eggs can vary in the same carton?

When I find a deal on medium-size eggs, I go ahead and buy them, even though many recipes specifically call for Large eggs. When I get them home, I sort out the largest of the Medium eggs and set them aside in the fridge. I then can use these larger eggs in recipes that specifically call for Large eggs and use the rest where size of egg is not so critical (like quiche, frittata, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, or even pancakes).

Here are some of the Medium eggs that came in a 5-dozen pack from WinCo recently. Can you see the difference in sizes here?

Here are 2 large and 1 small of these Medium eggs for comparison all from the same tray. Can you see the difference in sizes here? The size of the largest could really pass for a regular Large egg and not Medium. While the smallest might pass for a Small egg, again not a Medium.

When eggs are packed in cartons or trays for consumer purchase, they aren't all the same size. USDA regulations stipulate that a carton or tray of eggs must meet a minimum weight based on sizing, regardless of what each individual egg weighs. So, you may find a few larger as well as smaller eggs in the same carton.

If this interests you for price comparing eggs, in the US Jumbo eggs must weigh 30 oz per dozen, Extra Large eggs must weigh 27 oz per dozen, Large eggs must weigh 24 oz per dozen, Medium eggs must weigh 21 oz per dozen, and Small eggs must weigh 18 oz per dozen. Knowing this required weight per carton and size can help determine cost per ounce, which in turn can help you determine when those Medium eggs are a deal or simply priced the same per ounce as the more-convenient-for-recipes Large eggs.

Anyway, size will matter with what I'm preparing tomorrow. I'll save this largest of the eggs for that recipe while using the smaller eggs in tonight's dinner frittata.

How was your Thanksgiving?

Did you get together with extended family? Did you host or were you a guest? What was on your menu? Do you have any family Thanksgiving traditions? Did you try anything new?

For my household, as I mentioned before, we hosted my son and daughter-in-law. 

Here was our menu:

• roasted marinated pork loin (the kind that comes pre-marinated)
• roasted whole chicken (made the day before), glazed with cranberry sauce/orange juice/sage/onion powder/salt/pepper inspired by Southern Living magazine 
• gravy made with roasted chicken drippings
• cranberry mustard -- cranberry sauce blended with yellow mustard
• green bean casserole (prepared by one daughter)
• sweet potato casserole (prepared by other daughter)
• oven-roasted broccoli -- Asian-inspired, frozen broccoli tossed with garlic and sesame oil, then oven-roasted (both daughters)
• casserole dish of bread/herb dressing

From son and daughter-in-law:

• maple-roasted Brussel sprouts with pumpkin seeds
• cooked shrimp and cocktail sauce
• bottled cranberry juice plus Sprite

Dessert:

• an apple crumb pie and a pumpkin pie
• My son and daughter-in-law brought some chocolates (something they did last year, too) and some persimmons.

After the big meal, the six of us decorated the Christmas tree. I'm not sure if we'll see them again before Christmas Day, so like last year, we took the opportunity to decorate the tree as a whole family. This has become a new Thanksgiving tradition for our family. 

I tried to spread the work out over a few days, cleaning and cooking beginning on Monday. My daughters took care of setting the table and cooking a few dishes. My husband helped with cleaning both before and after. I simplified our menu and cooked what I could in advance. I like how this holiday went for us. Everyone pitched in to some degree, and while I was tired the next day, I was not nearly as tired if I had tried to do it all myself, or if I had waited until Thursday to do all of the cooking. And there was plenty of variety so everyone had something that really hit the spot.

We finished the leftovers on Sunday. And today I finished all of the clean up -- table cloth and napkins in the laundry and all of the sheets of used foil washed to use another time.

So, tell me, how was your Thanksgiving?

You want to see what's growing under my lights this fall?

I didn't get to planting buckets of salad greens for the light garden in time this fall. Instead, I pulled some herbs and one pot of lettuce indoors to grow during the very coldest part of fall and winter.

Top shelf, the big pot of lettuce. I have yet to harvest any. Perhaps in a week or two, we'll do taco salads with this lettuce.

Middle shelf, I have the herb pots from our grill station, the rosemary, sage, and thyme. I wasn't sure how these thin can pots would do for insulating plant roots in sub-freezing temps. In hopes of keeping these three herbs alive for a second season, I've moved them indoors under the lights. As soon as the temps moderate from this cold snap, I'll move them back to the deck during daytime.

On the bottom shelf I have the cilantro that has been waiting for me to use it in salsa. I didn't have the motivation or energy to make a large batch of salsa earlier. I usually make 2 or 3 batches of salsa using the recipe in this post in August or September, using cilantro from my garden. Fortunately, I planted this cilantro in a pot. It was easy to move under lights that way. I had noticed that it was about to flower, so I knew I had to make a batch of salsa right away. This morning I went to Walmart to pick up milk, eggs, carrots, and bananas, so I also bought 5 large jalapeño peppers.

Oh man, the salsa smells so good. The batch made just just under 8 pints. I'll need to do one more batch in a week or two, when the cilantro has had a chance to grow more leaves. 15 to 16 pints of salsa should do for us until next summer.

So, that's what's growing under the lights this fall. After we use the lettuce, the cilantro bolts, and I move the pots of herbs back out to the deck, I'll give the lights a rest until late January when I start seeds for next spring and summer's garden.

Travel back in time with this vintage grocery shopping film

Hi friends,

While I was recovering last week, I watched some fun, vintage instructional videos on the roku. I wanted to share them with you, as I suspect many of you enjoy these as well. Here's the first one. Click on the title below or the photo above:

Home Management: Buying Food, 1950

While some of the advice really doesn't apply to us these days, others hit on some thoughts we've exchanged here, especially the truth that buying more than your household can use may cost more through waste than buying smaller quantities, even if the unit cost is much lower in the large size. Another, impulse buying can wreck a budget. The exception is if you find a deal on something while shopping, this type of impulse buying can save substantially.

Anyway, I thought these films were not only entertaining, but interesting to see how government agencies and universities played a role in "educating" the citizenry on how to shop, budget, make-do, plant gardens, etc. Today, we mostly get this sort of information presented in video form through private and commercial websites. I was curious how and where the vintage films were presented to the public. In my brief digging online, it appears that there were large collections of educational and instructional films held by universities. They were rented out (for a small fee) to schools, universities, colleges, clubs/lodges/organizations, commercial enterprises, and public libraries. Some instructional films were specific to an industry and served as employee training films. Many others enjoyed much broader audiences, such as this grocery shopping film. Most likely this particular film was used in university-level Home Economics courses, as well as community women's clubs as a sort of educational entertainment program. 

This one is an 11-minute film. If you have some time, you might enjoy it. I find these sorts of films to not only be a source of entertainment, but also inspiration to stay on the sensible, frugal path.

For friends in the US, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving. For friends outside the US, I'll be back on Monday, and hope you have a lovely weekend.

"Count yourself lucky"

My husband reminded me today to count myself lucky. Despite all that I've gone through this fall, my health situation is not in the least dire.

Let me explain my husband's perspective. If you've read my about me page, you know that my husband's career has been in grants and contracts. What I don't specifically mention is the area of research for which these grants apply. My husband's work has almost exclusively concerned cancer research.

He works from home 3 days per week, using our landline as his home "office" phone. For the most part, our friends and family no longer call on this line, but reach us by cell phones instead. On the days my husband is home, I only answer this phone for him when he's outside or I know he's in a meeting. On the 2 days he goes in to the downtown office, I do answer the phone, taking messages and trying to be a kind voice for the caller.

One of the cancer research projects he's currently working on is for the vaccine for breast cancer. We get a lot of women (or their spouses) phoning, trying to get help applying for a clinical trial. Today, a woman called who was having trouble with the online application and wanted a live voice to help her. My husband was in the commute home from the downtown office at this time. So I took her name and number and also told her to call back tomorrow. My husband also said he would give her a call and see if he could help her.

Many times, these women have tried absolutely everything else for their cancer with limited help and are desperate to try something, anything. My husband knows that not all of the women who want to try the clinical trial will be approved for it. I have some experience with this scenario. When my mother had exhausted all of the approved treatments for her own breast cancer, she was guided into a clinical trial. In the first phase of the trial, the only qualification for remaining in the trial for the second phase was to have the cancer not progress. My mom's cancer remained stable at that point, so she stayed on for phase two. To stay on for the third phase of the trial, the cancer had to diminish in phase two. My mom's cancer hadn't shrunk or diminished at all, it had only remained stable. She was let go from the clinical trial at that point. I remember how heartbreaking this was for our family. In our minds, if a cancer isn't actively growing, they should have allowed her to stay in the trial. But that's not how these trials tend to work.

So when these women phone and ask my husband for his help in applying or finding a clinical trial, my husband tries to do whatever he can, even though this is not really his primary role. His name and number just happens to pop up on the university cancer research site.

When I discussed today's phone call with my husband, explaining my note, I detected a note of sadness in my husband's voice as he retreated from the kitchen. As he left the room, he simply said to me "count yourself lucky."

My husband is right. I am "lucky". I not only have this Thanksgiving to enjoy with my family, but likely a couple dozen or more Thanksgivings with them.

I thought as Thanksgiving 2023 is just 2 days away, this would be an appropriate story to share with you friends. I actually had something else in mind, but this is what came up and seemed right. For those of you who are leaving Wednesday to join family and friends, have a lovely Thanksgiving. If anyone else is around tomorrow afternoon, I'll post what I had previously had in mind for today. 

Wishing all of you a happy Thanksgiving!

Rule #1 for Good Stewardship of Food Supplies

Use the foods that look like they will spoil before using the pristine items. 

My chore yesterday and today was to preserve the onions that looked like they wouldn't last too much longer before beginning to go soft. 

In late September or early October, I bought a 50-lb bag of yellow onions. I wasn't feeling great that day and didn't take the time to look over the bags. I simply pointed to one and asked my daughter to load it onto our trolley. When I got it home, I discovered that several of the onions had developed a powdery surface mold. We'd had quite a bit of rain in the preceding weeks. So I assume some of the onions sat out in the wet at some point. For the most part, the insides of the most affected onions looked okay. With the very worst of them, I peeled off the outer part and chopped the inner, good part to freeze in a large bag. I'll use these onions when the fresh ones are gone. 

A month later, I checked the onions in the cool storage room and found about 10 that needed using or preserving right away. I decided to make onion powder out of these. 

Over the weekend, I washed, peeled and began to chop the 6 largest onions. As I chopped the onions, I filled my dehydrator trays. One mistake I made was to dice the first 3 onions. After loading the trays and moving them to the dehydrator, I realized that the onion dices were falling through the openings in the tray. For the next 3 onions, I quarter sliced them, hoping fewer pieces would fall through the slots.

Anyway, the onion dices are now dry and the slices are soon to be dry.  I will finishing drying the slices in the oven to speed things along.

I decided to just do the dices in the oven along with the slices. Here's what a large jelly roll pan of 6 large onions, mostly dried, looks like.

Oh my goodness! I was taking care of something else and was smelling something really, really yummy coming from the kitchen. I had turned the oven up to 225 F after a few minutes at 200 F. I overdid the onions a bit! They're browned but not burned, thankfully. When I dry onions again, I'll make sure to not leave the kitchen and set a timer!

We make mistakes, and then we learn.

After sifting through the dried onions for pieces that felt not-quite dried (setting aside to add to the green bean casserole on Thursday),  I "powdered" the browned onions in my food processor. 

I'm telling myself I have gourmet onion powder. Anyone can go to the store and buy regular old white onion powder. Mine has been browned. Ha ha.

So you may be wondering why I went to the trouble to dry and powder onions. I like the depth of flavor you get when adding onion powder to a dish that already contains fresh onions. It's simply richer, in my opinion.

I find that in the fall I play catch-up with several different produce items. Apples always go soft and wrinkly long before we've used them all. I made applesauce with the soft ones a couple of weeks ago, leaving the better ones to use later. Pumpkins sooner or later develop soft spots, necessitating immediate processing. Those 3 large pumpkins I mentioned cooking and pureeing before my oral surgery? I didn't process those because I was being efficient and getting ahead of the game. No, I noticed soft spots on those 3 and absolutely had to cook them before I lost them altogether. These are the large, jack o'lantern pumpkins that I bought in late October.  I still have the remaining good 2 pumpkins in cool storage. I can wait to do something with those for another week or maybe two. Potatoes will also go wrinkly, soft, and begin to sprout at some point later in the fall or early winter. I will need to sort through those and use the worst of them in December. 

With the onions, while it would make for pleasant cooking experiences to just use the best looking ones right now, it makes for better stewardship of our supplies to use what will go bad first. I will use more and waste less by using food items in this order, worst condition first, best condition last.

My big chore is done for the day. I have a pumpkin and chicken soup cooking on the stove for dinner. And now I'm resting for the remainder of the afternoon. I went too long before taking more pain relievers and now I'm waiting for this dose to kick in. A piece of dark chocolate should help. 

Thanks for reading along. Enjoy the rest of your day and evening, friends!

It's been a rough road

Yesterday was the first day I felt remotely okay. Still I tired very easily and needed regular doses of Advil and Tylenol. I have swelling around both eyes (with lovely black and blue around each), so I've needed to limit my screen time, as well as bright lights. I'll see the oral surgeon in a couple of days for a follow-up.

The surgical experience was terrifying, as I told my daughter as we walked to the car immediately afterward. Both IV sedation and sleeping pill sedation were medically ruled out for me. My remaining option was laughing gas combined with lidocaine. Usually, lidocaine injections are prepared with epinephrine to extend the time of nerve-blocking effect. I'm allergic to epinephrine, so always have to remind dental professionals to leave it out (I remind them multiple times and ask if it's in my chart a couple of times too, just to be on the safe side). The end result is I need additional injections midway through any procedure, but it is up to me to speak up and tell them pain is returning.

So, they put the nitrous mask on me (laughing gas) and I begin taking deep breaths while the nurse does my blood draw. She must have thought the laughing gas was working for me, as I'm pretty relaxed during blood draws now. Shortly after, the oral surgeon came in and gave me 4 injections of lidocaine. As was mentioned in the comments a while ago, the palate side injections (into the roof of the mouth) are far more painful than the cheek side injections. I definitely flinched during those. 

At that time, I didn't realize that they usually begin with lower concentrations of nitrous in the nitrous/oxygen mix, then work up as necessary. I wish someone had explained this to me, that I needed to signal that I wanted more nitrous than I was getting. As a result, I felt no effect from the laughing gas, no relaxation, no nothing. I basically had the extraction and surgery with just lidocaine, and the whole thing was simply terrifying. The lidocaine wore off part way through, so I signaled for another injection. This was not how I had anticipated the procedure would go.

The pain came on quickly as we were driving home. What I realize now is I should have either requested one final lidocaine injection before leaving the surgical center or brought Advil and Tylenol with me to take in the parking lot as we drove away. All numbing had completely worn off by the time I got home, and pretty intense pain was setting in. I did get an rx for narcotic pain killers, but those didn't work out for me. I had an adverse breathing incident that lasted about 45 minutes after taking half of a tablet. I'm not sure if it's a true allergy or not, but I didn't want to take any more chances. I've been dosing with both Advil and Tylenol on a schedule since.

That's the end of this leg of the saga. I will need an additional surgery prior to post implant work. So, I will be working with my medical doctor and the oral surgeon to put together a better anesthesia plan for the surgery itself and pain management plan for post-surgery. What I went through this time was unacceptable at several junctures.

The people who were heroes in all of this

There have been some people who went above and beyond their job description for me during this period. 

Our local pharmacists have been absolute heroes. I've needed 3 prescriptions for antibiotics and 1 for pain killers. This is the busiest pharmacy I've ever encountered. The turn around time to get your prescription is always several hours out. When picking up my first prescription, I mentioned to the pharmacist that I had a bad tooth infection and couldn't wait for the antibiotics to kick in. She told me in the future, if I felt I needed the rx right away, to give them a call and they'd expedite mine. That's exactly what I did the other 3 times. The pain killer rx wasn't due to be ready for 3 more hours when my daughter called in for me. They had it ready in 15 minutes. I am thinking of how to thank them personally. I may bring a large box of See's over in December as a thank you.

The doctors at the walk-in clinic where I had to go twice to get prescriptions for antibiotics were kind, compassionate, and knowledgeable. The endodontist where I got an extra opinion at the very beginning was kind and took her time explaining what was going on in my mouth and sinus cavity. Sometimes you need to receive compassionate and informed care to see that what you've been getting is subpar. 

The phlebotomy techs at the lab where I now prefer to get my blood draws are very good. I barely bruised and was in and out quickly for each draw (in stark contrast to the blood draw done at the hospital one evening -- big lump on my arm the next day).

The nurse who attended to me during the surgery was kind, caring, provided additional and helpful information, and was the best at drawing blood I've ever had. The bruise after was so tiny.

You friends, who prayed for me or provided kind and compassionate words, are so valuable. I had days where I just felt like someone must've just prayed for me, as I would feel relief from pain or anxiety seemingly out of the blue. Thank you all.

Not to be minimized by mentioning them last -- my daughters and my husband have been my support system through all of this. They all came with me and sat in the waiting room, then once home brought me medications and food as I needed. They've done all of the cooking and chores, and tried to cheer me up, distract me, or just leave me in quiet when I needed that. They ran out to the store on a couple of occasions to pick up a special toothbrush and some soft foods. 

I feel grateful to have received so much kindness and compassion. It does make up for those times when things weren't going so well.

And now, I need to start getting ready for Thanksgiving. Today I'm baking 3 loaves of bread, one to use in bread and vegetable poultry stuffing/dressing. In the days leading up to the surgery, I baked up and pureed 3 large pumpkins, freezing them for pies. I also pre-made the pie pastry and lined 2 pie tins for the freezer, so pie-making should be quick. My daughters will be making 2 side dishes. I'll ask my son and daughter-in-law to bring whatever they'd like to have. And that just leaves the meat. We won't be doing turkey, as I don't want the hassle of dealing with the leftovers and carcass. Instead, we'll do a pre-marinated pork loin and a whole chicken for the meat portion. Our Thanksgiving dinner will be a simpler one this year.

How about you? Are you preparing for Thanksgiving? How has your life been these last couple of weeks? Thank you again for your kindness and patience. I should be back on track now. Wishing you all a lovely rest of your weekend.

p.s. I know several of you have been reading along in the Psalms with me. This was the one area of screen time that I took each day. I was surprised and blessed by these particular Psalms. So many days these were the words I needed to read. I hope they've been blessing you, too.

I'll be away from my blog for the rest of the week

My dental issues have reached a point where I need an emergency extraction this week, even without clearance from my doctor. I've had an infection for a week. I had to go to urgent care over the weekend to get a rx for antibiotics. Still in pain. Not my best week. Anyway, I won't be posting the rest of the week. But I'll check back in next week. In the meantime, please say a prayer for me. Thank you, friends.

I hope you all have a wonderful autumn weekend!

Update: My oral surgeon now says she can't get me in right away (like she had originally told me if things got bad) and I'm on a cancellation list. I'm now trying to find another reputable oral surgeon who could do the kind of specialized work I need sooner than 2 weeks out. (It's a little more than a simple extraction, it involves my sinus cavity, too.) For those of you praying, thank you.

Monday, Nov. 13 update. I'll be back near the end of this week. It's been a rough 2 weeks and I'm not very communicative right now. Thank you all for your continuing prayers and thoughts.

Happy Halloween!

I realize not everyone celebrates Halloween. So, if you don't, my wish for you is that you had a beautiful autumn day. I also realize that most of you will see this post tomorrow, after Halloween.

Gone are the days of helping my kids dress up in costumes. But then again, gone also are the days of freezing in the night air while I took the kids out into the neighborhood.

Here's our family's Halloween this year.

We get about 30 trick-or-treaters each year. This year's treats are a choice between individual packs of Circus Animal Cookies or mini containers of dinosaur slime.

Outside, by the door I've set up the fake pumpkins. Real pumpkins kept outdoors are a snack to the local squirrel population.

The real pumpkins are indoors on the dining room windowsill with my other fall decor. I bought 5 medium size jack-o-lanterns to supplement our homegrown small pumpkins. I likely won't carve a jack-o-lantern today, as that would mean I'd have to cook up the pumpkin tomorrow, and I don't have time for that this week.

We decided we'd each contribute something to tonight's dinner. One daughter is making hamburgers, another is making a batch of brownies, my husband is cutting up celery sticks, and I'm making broccoli with cheese sauce. Dinner will be tasty, and no one person has to do all of the work.

One of our family's traditions is to watch a movie while we wait for the trick-or-treaters. So we'll do dinner and a movie this evening.

Halloween wraps up around 8:30 in my neighborhood, so I will still get my early bedtime.

Wishing you all a lovely afternoon and evening. Be back tomorrow evening!

Herb & Parmesan Focaccia Recipe

When I make scratch pizza, stromboli, calzone, French/Italian bread or focaccia, I use this dough for the bread part. That recipe will make enough dough for 2 large pizzas. When I made focaccia last week for the 4 of us (yielding 2 large squares each), I made a half recipe, using:

3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1  1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 to 1 tablespoons oil (the oil tenderizes the dough, so if you like a chewier crust, use the lesser amount, and if you prefer a softer bread crust, use the greater)
about 2 cups of flour (half white, half wheat is my preference)

1) In a large mixing bowl pour water and sprinkle with yeast. Stir in salt and sugar.

2) Mix in 1 cup of flour and the oil.  Add remaining flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough is just a tad bit soft still. If it's too stiff, it's difficult to stretch on the baking sheet.

3) Knead right in the bowl, for about 3-4 minutes. Allow to sit for about 40 minutes.

4) Grease your baking sheet.

5) Punch down dough. Stretch onto the prepared baking sheet.

Focaccia is more of a bread than a pizza crust. You'll want to press the dough out until about 1/2-inch thick all over, as opposed to stretching a pizza crust as thin as you can get it without tearing. Dimple the top of the crust with a fingertip.

6) Allow the pressed dough to rise at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Now for the topping part.

For the herb and Parmesan topping:

generous amounts of olive oil (see my notes below for saving on olive oil)

chopped fresh (or frozen) rosemary

crushed dried oregano

shaved Parmesan cheese

optional -- some folks add a sprinkling of coarse salt to the topping

optional -- you can add some freshly cracked black pepper, if desired

Preheat the oven to 405 degrees F.

After the dough has risen, drizzle it with olive oil. It will puddle in the dimples. Sprinkle with lots of the herbs. Shave generous amounts of Parmesan over the top. I use a vegetable peeler to shave block Parmesan. If Parmesan is not your thing, you could substitute some shredded mozzarella or provolone cheese.

Bake for about 16 to 18 minutes, until the focaccia is golden. Cut into sticks or squares.

Interesting, while the olive oil still sits in pools while baking, shortly after removing from the oven, the bread absorbs the oil. Delicious.

My method for stretching expensive olive oil -- I blend half and half olive oil with vegetable oil in a bottle kept in the pantry. This is what we use for salad dressings and cooking. When I really want the flavor of the olive oil to stand out, I will use undiluted olive oil.

My rosemary survives winter about half the time. During the summer months, I chop and freeze rosemary. In this focaccia, I didn't feel like chopping some fresh rosemary, instead I used frozen chopped rosemary. It keeps its flavor in freezing.

Buon appetito!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers Plus Grocery Shopping for the Week

Grocery shopping for the week

My daughter picked up a bunch of bananas for me while she was at Walmart on Monday. Spent $1.60. I need my bananas for my lunchtime smoothies.

On Wednesday, I went to WinCo to buy Halloween treats and 5 medium/large pumpkins (28 cents/lb). I cook these large pumpkins (large compared to my garden pumpkins) with the skin on and puree for winter pies, breads, muffins, cakes, soups, and pasta sauces. I also bought a head of cabbage (78 cents/lb, some bulk peanuts ($1.98/lb), bulk cornstarch ($1.28/lb), bulk flax seed meal ($2.28/lb), bulk peanut butter powder for smoothies ($6.08/lb), ketchup ($1.18), boneless/skinless chicken breasts ($2.88/lb), a gallon of whole milk ($3.29), and 5 dozen medium eggs ($7.28). I spent $54.34, for $55.94 total for the week.

I spent $247.91 last week, which was the first time in the month I grocery shopped, so my monthly total so far is $303.85.

Dinners this week

Friday

Our first homemade pizza in months. I made a garlic, rosemary, olive oil crust, then topped with tomato-based sauce, pizza blend cheese, and sliced gyro meat that was leftover from my husband's and my birthday dinner in April (it's been in the freezer all this time). With the pizza we had sautéed Swiss chard and onions, and chopped apples. We watched Crazy on the Outside, with Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver, a free movie on Freevee watched with the Roku.

Saturday

A vegetably meal tonight. Sometimes I just want lots of vegetables. We had black-eyed peas, baked with onions, garlic, celery leaves, thyme and olive oil. With this we also had steamed baby carrots, oven-roasted purple potatoes (using up the tiny ones), and cheese.

Sunday

Again with the purple potatoes. This time I chose some larger ones and baked them, then topped with a cheese sauce. Sautéed kale and grilled onions on the side.

Monday

I made beef and vegetable stew, using carrots, celery, and potatoes from our garden, and some frozen peas. I wasn't feeling great this afternoon. A stomach bug is going through our family and it was just catching me. Anyway, I took my bowl of stew to bed and suggested others make toast to go with their stew. I started to feel better after eating my serving of stew. 

Tuesday

This was my easy day, including making an easy dinner. I made scratch tomato soup and focaccia bread. So tasty and it hit the spot. 

Wednesday

One daughter made dinner for us tonight. She roasted a small garden pumpkin then mashed it with butter, baked a sheet pan of purple potatoes, and skillet-sautéed a large chicken breast, diced, seasoning the meat with onions, garlic, and tex-mex spices.

Thursday 

My other daughter is cooking tonight. She's making scrambled eggs, sautéed cabbage, slices of freshly baked bread and chopped fresh apples.

The air turned very cold this week, so I'm hurrying to get celery and the rest of the garden onions in. I washed and sorted 2 bundles (of 9) of celery this afternoon. I pulled out the good ribs for fresh eating, then chopped the rest of the ribs and leaves for the freezer, to use in soups, stews, sauces, and casseroles this fall and winter. The celery was very dirty, so I only took care of 2 bundles today. I covered the rest of the plants with 2 sheets for the night, in case temps really drop overnight. The next few days will be freezing overnight. So I hope to get all of the celery harvested by Saturday. I'm a little slow getting everything harvested this year. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.

How was your week? Were there any especially tasty meals on your table? My favorite dinner this week was probably the pizza dinner, closely followed by all 6 other dinners. Can you tell I like to eat?

What's Your Dishwasher-Loading Protocol?

If you use an automatic dishwasher, and it's more than just yourself in your household, how do you go about loading the dishwasher. If you hand wash dishes, I get it. Sometimes with just one or two people, hand washing makes more sense.

We all try to get value for what we spend, right? So fitting as much as will actually get clean into an automatic dishwasher only makes sense, saving both water and energy.

With that in mind, do you prefer to have household members add their dishes to the dishwasher as they use them, or do you prefer to be the one loading the dishwasher and ask members to stack dishes in the sink or on the drainboard area of your counter?

I ask because every time the dishwasher is getting near to full, enough to run a load, I have to pull out about a third of the items and reload those to make more fit. In my house, we all add our dishes as we use them. But I sometimes think it would be more efficient if I asked everyone to stack dishes in the sink. Then when I had time, I'd load it all as tightly as is reasonable. 

The way we've set up dishwasher chores in our household is the other 3 people take turns unloading the dishwasher, while I always finish loading it, getting as much in a possible, then start it.

If I asked my family to stack dishes in the sink, I actually think they'd like that. So I could load everything how I see fit, while making them happy. But that would also mean that dirty dishes would be out for the most of a day.

I also use the dishwasher for mixing bowls, casserole dishes, cutting boards, and some pots and pans, so it's more than just plates and glasses, which because they are of one pattern will tessellate well.

Anyways, what are your thoughts on loading the dishwasher? Do you prefer to be the one who does the loading? Do you work to make as much fit in as possible, or is that not a priority to you?

Tell me what you think.

This Week

I have testing fatigue

You may already recognize this from your's or a family member's health tests. It's the heart monitor I wore for the last week. It was adhered to my chest and had to stay on 24/7. It also could not get wet, so no showers, and I had to be especially careful when bathing not to splash it. I took very shallow and brief baths. It goes without saying, that some parts of me didn't get terribly clean for the week, as this little device had to stay dry and couldn't be moved. I got to take it off late yesterday. So today I got the first proper bath in a week. Although I'm growing weary of all of these tests, I do know that I'm getting closer to answers and a diagnosis.

I washed all of the dirty bags today 

The jar where we put dirty bags was full, and the box where we keep the dried clean bags was empty. A good time to wash them all. And now they're hanging to dry on the clothes drying rack.

Free pile in front of a store

I forgot to show these to you last month. These stones were on a free table in front of a plant store that was moving to another town. I also picked up some free plant food, and my daughter got 2 free, hand-thrown mugs. I love these carved stones. Right now they're on my desk holding down to-do papers. I see them every day.

Turning cold here

The weather turned especially cold this afternoon. I went walking in the morning and wasn't particularly cold. But by the time I retrieved our mail, it was so cold outside. I guess we're now into the cold weather season for my area and won't see really warm days for months.

How crazy is this? Roses are blooming while the birch tree has lost nearly all of its leaves. Its yellow leaves carpet the ground and walkway up to the front door. Looks like someone will need to get out the leaf blower this week. With this cold weather, I don't  imagine the roses will hang around too much longer.

Yay! Both daughters are home again

One daughter was dog-sitting for 9 days and came home today. Yay! We did get to see her during that period. We did Zoom dinners several nights, she also came by to pick up needed things a couple of times, and she came over for dinner and movie night last Friday. One of the days, I drove her back and got to pet the dog -- sweet doggie. Animals may be in our future at our own house, I predict.

Easy Day

Today was my easy day, so I made an easy scratch dinner (yes, there are such things). I made tomato soup from tomato paste, herbs, onion, garlic, and a bit of kale, plus water and salt and served it with herb and Parmesan focaccia. It was delicious, and I was able to make it all in advance so I could take it easy in the late afternoon. When you're going through a difficult period, I think you need to create an easy day in your schedule. Having a lighter day refreshes us, so we have the strength and stamina for the tough days to come.

Tomorrow, we're going shopping for pumpkins and trick-or-treat goodies. Looking forward to that!

What's been happening in your week?

A Lesson From Growing Potatoes

I finished digging all of the potatoes over this past weekend. 

I planted 3 varieties of potatoes in 2 beds last spring, purple fingerling (seed saved from last year's crop -- I don't recall the variety name), Yukon Gold, and Red Norland.  I gave the different potato varieties similar treatment, light, water, soil amendments. I was hoping for a lot of the red and yellow potatoes. As it turned out, the purple fingerling ones out-performed the other two by a huge margin. All of the red and yellow ones fit into 1 box, while the purple potatoes took up 3 similar-sized boxes.

What lesson did I learn from my experience? Well, it isn't that purple fingerling potatoes will out-perform all other varieties for all people. In fact, where you live, perhaps the Yukon Golds would be the prolific potatoes, or the Red Norlands, or some other variety. The lesson I learned is that if a variety doesn't pan out, I should try a different variety next time, or change the soil conditions, or change my watering schedule. By changing things up, I can often find what works for my situation. If I had only planted Yukon Golds this past season, I might have thought potatoes just don't grow well in my area. In my opinion on gardening, it's always worth trying again with a change in variety or controllable conditions. Gardening is something of an experiment every year. Some experiments succeed and some fail. Hopefully for those of us gardeners, more of our gardening experiments succeed than fail. In this case, I learned that those purple fingerling potatoes will likely do better for me than some of the other popular varieties.

Many of you don't keep gardens, or if you do, don't bother growing potatoes. Why would any of this matter then to you? Trying again but changing conditions is a lesson that can be applied to many endeavors. It's by trying and tweaking how we approach a task that often leads us to success. And even if we find out we just can't grow potatoes, we will know that we did try as many ways and varieties as was reasonable.

I remember my first few pie crusts. Those things were tough as cardboard. I didn't give up, however. We had a yard full of fruit trees to utilize in the rental in which we were living. I searched out and tried several different pie pastry recipes until I landed on one that worked for my mediocre pie-baking skills at the time. 

Another example comes from when I went to repaint all of the rooms in our house when we first moved in. For doing my first room, I bought the cheapest brush at the store. After all, I was painting the interior myself to save money. I didn't realize some better brushes would make the job not only look better, but the paint would go on the walls more smoothly, making my job easier. When I finished the walls in that room, I headed back to Home Base (our Home Depot-type store at the time) to buy paint for the trim. The paint guy chatted with me for a while, uncovering that this was my first "big" paint job. I told him all about the troubles I'd had, and asked for tips on how to make the next room go more smoothly.  His first question was about the brush I was using. I showed it to him on the rack. He informed me that that grade of brush was really best for staining fences. He got me set up with a couple of better brushes. He was right -- making this one change made the paint go on more smoothly and the end result was a better look. Tweaking that one thing, the tool I was using, made all the difference. Had I not had that conversation, I might have thought I just wasn't cut out for house painting.

So, that's my lesson with this tale of potatoes, pie crust, and painting. I've learned that instead of giving up, changing one or two elements of a project can mean I have success the next time around. With gardening, I will always be tweaking what and how I plant and grow. I don't think there will ever be an end to gardening lessons for me.

As far as how many pounds of potatoes we harvested this year -- it looks like our harvest was around 32 pounds in total. It's not as much as I had hoped, but still enough for a few months for my family. 

Have you had projects or endeavors that you needed to rethink before you found success? It isn't always about skill level. Sometimes we're just going about something in the wrong way or with the wrong tools.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers Plus Grocery Shopping for this Week

Groceries this week

Early Sunday morning, I stopped by Walmart before church. Among the things I needed (specific supplements), I bought 1 bunch of bananas, spending $1.14 for those.

Wednesday, after another blood draw (6th blood draw in 2 weeks) -- the lab was near the restaurant supply (we call it Cash 'n Carry, its former name, but now it's Chefstore). One daughter came with me for prayer support and in case I didn't feel right after the draw, and also to help with large boxes and bags. At Cash 'n Carry we bought 50 lbs of onions $14.09, a case of 9 4-lb bags of raisins $88.89, a gallon of olive oil $38.19, 1.25 quarts of sesame oil $17.69, 15 lbs of butter $3.09/lb, 12.5 lbs of popping corn $9.39, a carton of popcorn salt $4.28, 5 lbs of pizza cheese $11.99, and a 5 lb block of cheddar cheese $15.89. We'll be eating well this winter. I spent $246.77. I mentioned a while back that I'd be spending a lot stocking up for fall and winter. This was one of those shopping trips.  For the week, I spent 247.91.

When I got home from Cash 'n Carry, I noticed a few of the onions were definitely on their last legs. This afternoon I took some time to peel and chopped those onions for the freezer. I have a few more that I'll do this to, so none will be wasted (or so we hope).

Meals this week

Friday

Friday movie and dinner night. We didn't watch a movie because we got a late start. So we watched stand-up comedy instead. The night before, my daughter roasted a whole chicken. I reheated some of the meat and made a little more gravy with the leftover drippings. We had chopped tomatoes, spiced apples, roasted garden potatoes, and Swiss chard with this dinner. The laughter and good meal were what we all needed.

Saturday

Another chicken meal. My husband made flour tortillas and wrapped up seasoned leftover chicken. With the chicken wraps we had chopped fresh tomatoes and sautéed kale and garlic. Another meal that hit the spot.

Sunday

I simmered the chicken bones and my husband picked off as much meat as possible to make this really delicious soup. He added some canned pumpkin, the leftover chicken gravy, some stock and lots of garden veggies -- onions, carrots, celery, parsley, sage, thyme, potatoes, and green beans. It was very tasty. With the soup, he made scratch biscuits, also delicious.

Monday

A mixture of black-eyed peas and the last of the roasted chicken from last Thursday, some kale, chopped dried tomatoes, and lots of garlic and herbs over brown rice, with chopped russet apples on the side.

Tuesday

Swiss steak. Under the sauce of tomatoes and carrots is cube steak that we bought from the rancher. Very tender and flavorful. My family really enjoyed this meal. With it I served mashed garden potatoes (purple, red, and Yukon gold), and sautéed Swiss chard.

Wednesday

The Swiss steak made so much extra sauce that I had enough to make a soup the next night, adding the leftover black-eyed peas, some additional tomatoes, celery, more garlic, and garden herbs. I topped the soup with bottom-of-the-bag tortilla chips from a few weeks ago. I served this with scratch cornbread that I topped with cheddar before baking and baked delicata squash. I mixed up some brown sugar and set out salt, butter, and cinnamon for everyone to help themselves to top their own 2 halves of squash. I had 4 small delicata, perfect for splitting between the 4 of us.

Thursday

Tonight, one daughter is making ham fried rice for us, with chopped apples own the side. She taught today, so after she came home, she worked on dinner while I chopped onions. It was a lovely part of the day, catching up with her while we both cooked.

We are still using a lot of produce from our garden and mini orchard. This week, we used, garden onion, garlic, carrots, potatoes, green beans, celery, parsley, thyme, oregano, sage, tomatoes, apples, winter squash, Swiss chard, and kale in dinners, plus dried plums in breakfasts and lunches.

Our meals are humble, I know. But this is the type of cooking we really appreciate. Good basic foods prepared well is fine dining in our book.

How was your week? What were your favorite meals this week? Any special plans for the weekend? We'll be digging more potatoes, weather permitting. Then a few lovely autumn walks, and puttering around the house. A normal, wonderful weekend.

My Budget Autumn Decor

I've finally been putting out some autumn-themed decor this week, doing one room or area each day. This is the bay windowsill in the dining room. I've got our thrifted cornucopia filled with free pile faux fruit, berries and leaves plus one of our garden pumpkins, some collected-in-the-wild acorns, and the free pile candle holder plus free pile pillar candle (repurposed from the summer patio). It also 4 candle jars that I change seasonally.

I've shown you each season separately, but I don't think I've put them all together in one post before.

The jars are excess 1/2-pint jelly jars. My family doesn't eat nearly as much jam and jelly as they used to, so now I'm finding other uses for the canning jars.

The candles inside are battery LED tea lights from Dollar Tree, bought in 2016 or 2017. At that time you could get 4 lights in a package for $1. I'm sure they're now in packages of 2, and for $1.25. But I make them last by not leaving them on when its daytime and only turning them on for brief periods in the evenings. For October and November, I tied orange, red, yellow and brown plaid ribbons around each jar.

Just after Thanksgiving in late November, I switch out the autumn plaid ribbon for a green and red plaid ribbon. I don't retie the ribbons each time, but slide them on and off still tied.

For the Christmas candle jars, the spot where I use them is smaller, so I only use 3 candles. With the 4th jar, I fill this one with candy canes, as a budget holiday decoration.

Then when spring rolls around, the jars get a green ribbon, faux greenery, and raffia bow. These candle jars often come outside to the table on the deck during summer.

So that is some of my autumn decorating on a budget.

Are You Ever Amazed By How Much Extra Liquid or Creamy Substance You Can Get Out of a Tube, Bottle or Jar by Adding Water?

A week ago, I asked one of my daughters, who happens to frequent Dollar Tree, if she could pick up a bottle of liquid dish detergent the next time she was there. She looked over at the current bottle and asked if she should go that evening. At that point, there was not much more than a green film at the bottom of the bottle. I said "no, this should last us another 4 days." Well, here we are, a full week later, and by adding water, we've been able to do all of the hand washing with that little bit. (We also use a dishwasher for most items, so it's not like we washed ever dish, pot, or pan with that tiny amount of detergent.)

I'm just amazed at how much more we could get from that bottle. I think we have enough for another day of those items that need hand washing.

I about panicked when I saw my favorite deep conditioning hair cream jar was about empty. I made a special stop by Walmart to pick up more as a result. Without even opening the next jar, I decided to add some water to the bottom of the current one. I've been able to get enough conditioning substance to get through another week.

I co-wash with cheapo conditioner on a regular basis. When I could no longer get conditioner to come out of the bottle with a squeeze, I downgraded this almost empty bottle to my hair detangler. 

Sometimes, adding water can lengthen the time you have to replace a substance. Sometimes, it's diluted to the point that you have to use the substance differently from its original purpose. Take ketchup. When the ketchup bottle is about empty, I add water and save this ketchup-water to add to soup or baked beans.

Imagine all of the bottles, jars, and tubes that go into the garbage without this extra effort to rinse and continue using to the very last bit. Waste bothers me. But also, I feel sorry for those folks who don't get that same sense of amazement or satisfaction that I get, by using it all up. They're missing out. Not only is this a free satisfaction, but it actually saves money. Maybe this sort of thing isn't on their radar for fun times.

Back to the question -- are you ever amazed by how much extra you can get out of a jar, bottle or tube simply by adding water? Tell me I'm not alone in my frugal fun.

What Are Some of Your Favorite Pumpkin Foods?

'Tis the season to make all things pumpkin.

At my family's request, over the weekend I made a loaf of pumpkin bread. I used the recipe on an old Libby's canned pumpkin label, halving the recipe (to make 1 loaf instead of two), reducing the sugar by a couple of tablespoons and subbing part (3/8 cup) of the all-purpose flour called for with a bit of whole wheat. That last bit meant I could maybe call this a "whole grain." Okay, so not exactly a whole grain food, but better than all white flour.

Pumpkin bread is a family favorite here. We enjoyed it as snacks, breakfast, and dessert.

But we also really enjoyed the pumpkin pudding from a week ago. When there was one cup remaining, my family members had to play a game of rock, paper, scissors to see who would get it.

Other pumpkin dishes I've made this fall include oven-roasted pumpkin cubes as a side dish and curried peanut-pumpkin soup. 

A favorite holiday dessert in my household is this pumpkin cake roll (recipe in this link). I'm thinking this cake roll may find its way onto our Thanksgiving or Christmas menu. It's easier than it looks and always elicits compliments on its appearance.

I still have a bunch of garden-grown pumpkins left to work with. Looking for suggestions and favorite recipes.

So how about you? What are your favorite ways to use pumpkin?