Finally Friday

Yeah, the work week is over. Now time to actually work.

Hubby was off the first part of the week and decided to get something, anything, accomplished. He cleaned out the storage room which had several boxes of my fabric and 27 plastic bins of yarn for a knitting a machine I gifted to a co-worker's wife about a year ago or more. She actually uses it. I emptied the bins and took her the majority of the yarn. Okay...so shoot me, I kept a little bit for myself, but hey one bin as opposed to 27, the "Clean Sweep" guy would be proud. I will post a photo of the now empty and stacked bins tomorrow. I do still get the yearning to crochet from time to time, and I do have some regular yarn in this house somewhere...okay, in a bag in the RV, but only because I take it with me camping. It isn't all of it, just what I would work on at the time. And, it is a small bag...okay so technically it is a Duffie bag, but that is just knit picking so to speak. Yeah I know, lame pun.

Now, to go through the massive, I'm talking obnoxiously offensive massive stash of fabric for quilting. It is literally in stashed in every room of the house. Well...almost, there isn't any in my son's room or the kitchen...or the bathroom's. Every where else though, a cedar trunk in the living room, boxes and plastic bins in the garage, a hall closet with shelves over stuffed, bins in daughter's closet, boxes in my room, shelves full of fabric and books (crochet books, quilt books, stamping supplies, embroidery books) in my room, plastic flat boxes under my bed as well. Hubby is so generously (okay you did not see me roll my eyes at that) giving me a specific amount of space in the garage and storage room. He thinks maybe if I pair it down to 6 of the big gray bins. I agreed. He just doesn't know that I had already determined to purge it all down to three big bins of quilting and one bin for garment construction. My summer goal of a new wardrobe which I plan to actually start working on over Spring break. I mean really...this is just totally disgusting from even my point of view. At any rate, I also need one bin to seal up a couple of sewing machines in, or go buy a couple of carrying cases that will keep the majority of the dust out while they sit idle. Which they have been doing. It really ought to be a crime to have so much to work with except the on thing that is most needed...time.

Just check out my photo album, there is a link at the side of the page, and you will see, I do know how to do things, the quilts, machine embroidery, crazy quilting, it is all there. I just need to not work so I can work on some projects once again. But then I would be out of money to buy more things to work with. It is just an unending circle of thoughts you see. Kind of like my mind. Lord only knows what kind of mayhem I could get in if I took up scrapbooking with the way I jump in and build up supplies to store in every nook and cranny.

At any rate, I am in purging mood, have already got names lined up of people to take the stuff too. Just need to clear my time up to actually get out there and start sorting. Okay, I get it, about now would be when a planned, prepared menu plan for two weeks, plus some made ahead dinners, would be extremely valuable. I did plan out a menu plan for this past week, it worked one night. The night I made the Quick Chicken Chili Mole. It was a total disaster. I don't care how open I try to be when it comes experiencing new cultures, their food and people and traditions, I just can't enjoy the taste of chili and chocolate at the same time. The leftover Mole was trash, and I couldn't even give it to the dogs because it had chocolate in it. At any rate, the week end is coming and I will be very busy, so lucky I have a few things that quick cook so to speak.

I had much much more to say, really wanted to vent more, but I took some allergy medicine to get rid of the big blister looking whelps that were plaguing me earlier and I am dozing off mid key stroke an not making a bit of intelligent thinking for anyone to follow. Besides, I will be getting up for work soon.

By the way, if you do read this, post a comment so I know someone actually read this.
I'm out of here.

Last Minute Changes

The beauty in life comes from all the drama of last minute changes. Like the saying goes, "best laid intentions" so it seems. I finally put down in print, a sort of commitment to stay on course, and then it all changes. I had the week end menu all set, but...things happen and it all changes.

I got up this morning, made breakfast for hubby and DD12, yes I actually cooked breakfast. Got the coffee going (for hubby, can't stand the smell of coffee myself) set the oven to preheat and got the biscuits ready to bake. While they baked I fried up 1 1/2 pounds of bacon. Yes I know, that is a lot for just three of us, but I needed cooked bacon for the marinated green beans and the left over bacon is in the fridge ready for hubby to build his favorite BLT. Then I cooked the eggs and we three had a rather nice breakfast all together. I then cleaned up the kitchen, did the dishes and all (yes I know, me doing dishes?) and set about preparing the green beans to put in the fridge and marinate until supper time.

The beans are still marinating.

Somewhere after putting the beans in the fridge and before supper the schedule went totally out the door and in to oblivion. First of all, the dark dreary fog and rain caused us all to sleep in later than normal. By the time all three of us were up and about with tummy full of breakfast it was time to make a store run. I got a gift card for Christmas and was determined to find a pair of black and a pair of brown dress slacks with it. Well, poor hubby followed my directions to the store only to find out that we couldn't locate that one so off to Walmart we went for hubby to return his toy and for me to get a few things we needed. Brown hair color for one to create this wonderful reverse frost job. Did you hear my sarcasm there? Then, it was off to the WinCo Grocery which is of course only on that side of town, the opposite side of town from where we live, to pick up a couple of more chunks of the fillet Mignon that was so amazing tasting last night. Read yesterday's posting. Hubby was not feeling up to snuff and I knew it was time to take him home, so that is where we headed dropping J (DD12) off at my oldest DS and wife's apartment. DDL has boldly taken J shopping two days in a row now. I am deeply grateful for this. At any rate, after getting home, I decided to hit the store location I knew was there to use the gift card for some black and brown slacks. Man did I exceed that goal. Burlington Coat Factory is awesome. I added a little bit to the gift card and came home with 17 items. Okay, one was for J which was marked down to 4.99 and two of the tops I bought for myself are being returned tomorrow. They swallow me. WHAT AN AWESOME FEELING! I know have a full week's worth of wardrobe to wear to work that does not involve denim. I just have decided it is time to evolve a bit with my personal appearance as far as the career is concerned. I was especially delighted that the pants were all size 18W, considering that two years ago this time I was wearing size 24W. That is three sizes and I still have about 80 pounds to go to be to goal.

It took me twenty years to let myself get this way, guess I can give it a few years to go back. At least I can say that I am doing it all the right way, healthier eating and exercise. It is staying off for the most part, had a little backwards trip there, but very short and that is a direct result of my lack of gym time. That is on goal to correct itself for the new year. Have a new support system in place as well. That being J asking me to take her to the gym (she likes the rock wall) and DDL goes there regularly and even has my son going now too.

Back to the focus of this post, menu planning.

I got so caught up at the store that I lost all track of time until hubby called to check on me. Had told J she needed to be home by 5 so I could take her to get her nails done, here it was 5:10 and I wasn't even headed to check out. Oh well, she had gone to gym with DS and DDL and was running a bit late as well. After checking out I headed to the car and start running the time constraints through my head. No time to make meatloaf, but had some pork chops thawed and of course the beans only had to be heated, mac & cheese wouldn't take long, still doing okay here so called home to have them start the oven preheating. I could get the chops in the oven and they would bake while I took J to get nails done. Hubby informed me he was hungry and that we had some how missed lunch so to bring home a pizza. I gave in, picking up his pepperoni and my box of wings from the pizza place. They have the best BBQ wings. So, home I go, with the food, sweet little J runs out to the car and takes the food in then back to the car to go to the nail place. I then stopped at Subway for her on the way back home.

Now, since the planned menu was not prepared, that will be tomorrow's meal. Well with a couple of changes.
Sunday: Pork chops, marinated green beans, mac & cheese, cheese cake. Not sure if this is lunch or supper yet.

The ground beef thawed for the meatloaf will now be made in to stuffed peppers. Since I hit a big sale on bell peppers when we got the meat tonight. I will have them ready in the fridge for DS G (college doesn't start up for another week) or hubby to pop in the oven and bake on Monday for supper. I have to go back to work and am sure there is a pile of paper work waiting on me. I kind of figure that cooking up a few dishes in advance would be no different than cooking up the dishes for the meal. You know, I am making 6 dishes, just 3 for freezer and 3 for the table. If I do that several times, the freezer will be packed with dinner that just needs to be pulled out. That is why I am finishing up the menu plan for next week (probably two weeks) and bit by bit cooking it ahead. Yesterday, found some really great sounding recipes from my Yahoo groups that am going to try out. Mostly for the crock pot.

That is about it for tonight. Will post my menu plan for the week tomorrow night. Darn it, all that running around and I forgot to get milk. Oh well, guess I will be getting out early in the morning. Hmm...blueberry pancakes are sounding really good. Haven't told hubby, but am going to make my best effort to make myself go to church once again. That is a whole other story better left untold I think.

Organizing

Well, since my dear little daughter age 12 took the photos, guess I should show you our cleaning.

This is the main pantry. The photo on left is the top portion. There is actually three shelves, but my teen photographer didn't think to point up to get the whole effect. The photo on the right is the bottom section and is the three shelves shown. We have an overwhelming problem with these pesky little brown moths that come from the most destructive little maggot looking worms that I have ever seen. They eat through anything and everything. Any wrapper there is, cardboard, foil, plastic coated makes no difference. They are in the cake mixes, Ramon noodles, pastas, crackers, even pudding boxes. I keep cereal and flour in big plastic containers, but if the kids don't get them closed completely they get in. I can't even begin to count up how much money I threw in the trash because of the worm infestation. Brand new bags of chips that had not been opened had moths flying around inside. Oh, and one swat does not kill them, takes at least four or five and if they land on the floor have to stomp them about three times.

Yes, very annoying.

At any rate, I know have cleaned out the cabinets, pulled out the old shelf paper, sanitized the cabinets and put all new shelf paper down. I also bought these little moth repellent sachets with lavender in them. Since there is no exposed food, it is all in closed containers, I figured it would be fine, especially since the box states it is safe for pets. I can already tell a difference. I also made a list of just what and how much I have on hand so I know if I can make a recipe or not. My new goal for the new year is to be more organized in all aspects of my life so have been working on planning out menu plans and getting it all in to a system that I can manage and work with. I have the latest version of MasterCook on the way which will organize my recipes, pantry inventory and cost, once I take the time to type it all into the proper places. That is good for the budget which I am working on slimming down along with my own weight. MC is great for that too as it gives me a nutritional analysis of each recipe. I am also getting back to the pantry challenge. In other words, will see how long I can go with out going to the store. The goal is to use only what I have on hand, there for saving me money as I can buy the sale items easier. I also defrosted the freezer and sanitized the inside before making a list of what I had in there as well. While I was at it I cleaned out the side by side fridge and freezer, sanitizing the inside of it before tossing all expired items and bits and pieces of left overs. Hmm, maybe I should have saved those, could have used the crop of penicillin growing to fight off this cold (that all four of us have).

So, I am starting the new year with a well stocked (probably overstocked) pantry which I actually know what it contains, a very well stocked freezer (was surprised at how much I actually had) which actually has an empty shelf just waiting for some casseroles to be served at a later time, and can actually find all my pans and left over dishes.














The before and after photos of my cookware. While I was at the grocery store, New Year's Eve, standing in line for literally hours (had to hit 3 stores to get my list filled) my wonderful little daughter became a bit bored as she waited patiently for me to return so occupied herself with cleaning out and lining every drawer in the kitchen. What a job, to give you some idea, she is 12 and found the syringe I had to use to give her oral medicine when she was a toddler. Found packets of yeast that expired in 2004.

I took today off from the cleaning. As I said, am fighting a head cold and just needed a break. I spent most of the day looking over new recipes to try, figuring out a menu plan for the coming week and visiting some really amazing blogs of extremely organized homemakers. Envying them as well. I work 40 hours a week, like the majority of homemakers, and in looking at my present life can see that I am not handling life well at all. I plan to work on that. Therefore, the organizing. Trying to delegate out some task a bit as well. I leave at 7 in the morning and not back home until 5:30 making meals the hardest thing to cope with. I have already learned to let the laundry go until the week end. However, the meal issue is a major one as it is causing a problem with getting time for the gym. It is either eat and then work out on a full stomach or work out and eat the supper meal at 9. Neither is a positive aspect.

You know I have to.
so here it is. Okay, daughter's photographic skills are a bit undeveloped, and red eye correction does not seem to work on yellow eye, but hey, the effort is there. This is Kit, my new baby that was rescued from the middle of a country road that he had been dumped out on. He is still young, vet puts him at around 6 months, but he has stolen every heart around here. I just cannot imagine the coldness of a person that would allow them to throw out a puppy like that.

Tonight's meal: grilled fillet minion with baked potato, salad and homemade Hawaiian bread.

Man was it good. We got a deal on the meat and hubby is wanting to go back tomorrow and get some more. It was in a cryovac pack, uncut, and a fraction of the cost of buying that cut already trimmed and packaged. We were able to cut the steaks to the thickness we wanted and for $12 we ended up with 6 nice size steaks (comparable in size to what you would get at a restaurant) plus some pieces that were more like strips instead of steaks. That comes out a little less than $2 per steak. Weight wise, the difference was $2.97 per pound as opposed to $9.98 per pound. We have a vacuum sealer and will cut up the next one and seal in packages for the freezer. HUGE money saver.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, taking daughter to get nails done, hair cut, and am then going to give her a reverse frost. She is already blonde so am giving her brown highlights, maybe with a touch of red to match mom. Shh, don't tell her that though. Then, have to start on bathrooms and my bedroom before heading back to work on Monday. Sadly, it is times like this that make me miss being a stay home mom. It is getting harder and harder to head to work each day, emotionally that is, but thankfully I have a really good job for the most part.

Weekend Menu:
Sat:
Meatloaf, marinated green beans, mac & cheese, cheesecake (leftover from New Year's)
Sun:
CP Quick Chicken Mole (new recipe), Frito Salad, rice

I will post the menu for next week on Sunday.

Dinner was great

Had to share about the ham right quick. IT WAS AWESOME!


This was a first for me as I have never cooked a ham in a crock pot before, but will cook it this way from now on. I wrapped the meat cut side down in foil after adding some pineapple rings with cherry halves in the middle. I inserted whole cloves through the cherry and in to the meat to keep them in place. Also sprinkled a bit a brown sugar across the top and then after wrapping it up tightly in the foil I let it cook in the crock for on low for 6 1/2 hours. I have very little left over, but do have a nice bone to make beans with later in the week.

Thanks to this really cool blog site I came across called A Year of Crock Potting I also was inspired to try out cooking my black-eyed peas in the crock as well. They turned out wonderfully as well. You should really take a look at the blog, Stephannie really has it going on.

A Brand New Year

Happy New Year to anyone and everyone that reads this. I wish for you blessings of family, healthy, and finances.

I am in the middle of cooking for a big dinner tonight so will keep my posting brief. My oldest son and his new wife are coming over to start the new year off with dinner and I am so glad that they are coming over. My youngest son's girlfriend is coming too. If I can get the TV off of football (bloody unlikely) I want to watch a movie with everyone. It is nice in the living room now that it is all cleaned up and the surround sound back in place. The other one shorted out. Also, even though it is a holiday, the guy came and fixed my living room sectional today so that is all taken care of as well. Also, hubby has gotten the new wood laminate flooring all installed down the hallway. It is so nice to be rid of that old worn out grungy carpet. Now to get them to assemble the DVD shelf unit and rehang some wall decorations and that room will be in good shape.

My youngest daughter, 12, helped me clean out all my pantry and cabinets in the kitchen. Still have a few more to do, but we are taking a break. A much deserved one. At least now I know what I have on hand to work with as far as meal preparation. Now to just get the time to sit down and figure out just what to cook for the next two weeks, how much of that I can do ahead, and then get it done.

Tonight's menu:
Ham
Sweet Potatoes
Black-eyed Peas
Carrots
Pistachio Salad
Deviled Eggs
Relish Tray
Cheese Cake

My bread did not turn out, but the kids are bringing some rolls when they come. I know there should be more, and I had ideas along that line, but this is the first, and in sticking to my new resolution I am keeping the menu simple. My mother tries to fix everything with food. Lots and lots of food. For example, Christmas dinner, she had turkey, ham, green beans, salad, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, pistachio salad and fruit salad along with rolls. For dessert there were cookies, pumpkin, pecan, apple and buttermilk pies. Now mind you, there were only twelve of us eating. She tells me I need to work on my weight, tells me how good I have been doing, but then guilts me because she did all this baking and no one eats sweets anymore. The only problem with the sweets was there was just way too many.

Oh yeah, and my youngest daughter was so good at helping that I went and bought the fixings for us to make punch. A treat they all dearly love for some reason. I don't understand it, but it has always been this way. Myself, am looking forward to that strawberry daiquiri or something with Capt. Morgan.

Okay, enough, need to check out my emails, group postings and go see how things are in the kitchen. I will be posting my menus when I have it figured out.