rockncook

I'm gonna say 3. I worked in the yard for awhile yesterday. We have this rock wall that descends at an angle from teh sidewalk and it's all overgrown, so I was pulling what I thought was grass out of it-turned out to be nettles! Sooooooo glad I got them pulled. It will take us a good year to fix that wall!

Good afternoon! I finally got my schedule re-arranged so now I wont get here till the afternoon, but that's OK. Igot SO MUCH done this morning! Now I can concentrate on work without thinking "I really should be doing something else..." Mainly all I did was clean the kitchen and the living room, but they were both in dire need of a deep cleaning. The kitchen isn't completely done, but I'm happy with what I got done. I also finished cleaning the bathroom. Had an argument with oldest DD yesterday. She threw a fit about cleaning the bathroom (and didn't finish). She seems to think that she has no obligations in the house. I'm not quite sure how to deal with this situation, because at this point, there's not a lot I can take away from her as punishment. We don't have TV, she lives far away from her friends so grounding wouldn't work, she doesn't have a phone or playstation or anything like that. I can't afford to pay her an allowance. She does help with her younger sibs, but she thinks if she plays with them for a little while that should be all she has to do. Unfortunately, and something I can't change, is that her two closest friends don't have many responsibilities. BF #1 is an only child (well almost, her next oldest sister is 13 yrs older, has a family of her own), and her mom's not real big on keeping a clean house or stuff like that. With it being just the two of them, I suppose there's not really much to do anyway. BF #2 lives with mom, grandpa and gramma in a big old dysfunctional family situation and gramma does the lion's share of the work. So she sees that they don't have any responsibilities. I try to explain to her that I don't do this to punish her, I do this because she's a member of this family and has a responsibility to it, plus she will need to know HOW to do this stuff when she gets out on her own. Ahh, the joys of adolescence!

Good morning everyone! Today I am going to make some cinnamon breakfast bread and then look in my household journal to see what needs to be done today, and then get some work done. Not too much on the menu today. Dinner will be ham, mashed taters, and carrots. When we bought our Easter ham, I had to cut off a chunk of it so it would fit in my oven (I only have one rack) so now we're gonna eat the rest. Yummy! It's warmer here today, but the back yard is still a muddy mess, so I guess I'll take the kids out front. I can get quite a bit of work done sitting there on the steps!

I just finished The Return of The King by Tolkien. I had always sworn I'd read the books, then started watching the movies and had NO idea what was going on. I also checked out "Putting food by" and learned some interesting things from that (no screens for drying, LOL). It will be a good reference to check out again when I get ready to start canning. I also got Fannie Farmer's cook book, and found myself disappointed in it. I guess I expected home cooking type recipes and found a lot of frou frou in it. Also, I bought Carla's book, so I'm reading in that when I have a bit of time.

Congratulations Peacefulhome! I'm so happy for you and I hope you don't owe anything! I'll have a party in your honor, how's that? I have banana chocolate chip muffins, banana bread, cocoa cookies and ice box cookies, plus strawberry pie and chocolate pie. Who wants some? I am finally almost done with payroll for this week. I had everything that had to be done for checks to go out, done so they could go out, now I'm just finishing with the reports. But I have a system in my mind that should make everything go much better next time. Today there is NO BAKING to be done! Don't know how I managed THAT, LOL. Took some pork chops out of the freezer for dinner tonight so I had room to get some of the cookies frozen. DH doesn't have to work tonight so we can enjoy a family dinner tonight, so I'm going to make it good! Seems like it's been such a long time since we've done that, and it's been less than a week. Pan fried pork chops, mashed taters, gravy, corn; that should make up for his having a week of "carry out" even though I cooked it LOL. One of my kitties got stuck in the office last night, which isn't heated. I was JUST about to fall asleep when I heard him yelling. Good thing I heard him, or we'd have had a kitty-sicle. He snuck in here (the food is stored in the utility room, just off this room) when dh let the dogs in. It's snowing here again, but nothing like last week, thankfully. Looks like we have about 4 inches, and I'm not nearly as worried about losing power, although if we do, we have plenty of sweets to eat, if nothing else, rofl. We did bring youngest dd to bed with us and double up on everyone's blankets just in case. OK, off to work and stuff. I'll bbl.

Geez, I'm HAPPY when I can get it for $2.50. When it went on sale for $2.00/gallon I bought as much as I could fit into my freezer. Wasn't a whole lot, but still saved a bit in the long run. I don't think I'll see that price again for a good long time.

Here's the one I use. Unfortunately, I don't keep it around. It seems I forget to feed the poor beast, LOL. So when I have sourdough planned, I do up the starter, let it do it's thing on the counter top, then make two loaves with it. Talk about planning WAY in advance, LOL. The Sourdough Starter 1 pkg Active dry Yeast 2 cups warm water 2 cups All Purpose Flour 1 tblsp. Sugar Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of the water. Stir in remaining water, flour and sugar. Beat until smooth. Cover with lightweight cloth and let stand for 5 to 7 days at room temperature. Mixture becomes bubbly. Stir twice daily. To store, put Starter in a jar and cover with cloth and refrigerate. Never cover tight with a lid, jar can explode! To use Starter, bring the amount you need to room temperature. Then replenish the Starter jar with 3/4 cup flour, 3/4 cup milk and 1 teaspoon sugar. Let stand at room temperature overnight and then refrigerate again. If you don't use starter for ten days to 2 weeks feed it with a spoon of sugar and stir occassionally.

Hey Mommafitz, glad to see you checked in! Glad the move is done for you! Cat, I don't do OAMC-although I do often cook double or triple so I can put stuff up in the freezer for days I feel icky or am pressed for time or when everything just falls apart. I do twelve week meal planning (usually, I've gotten a bit out of habit) because it helps me to keep the immediate pantry better stocked (and at better prices!), and because, once it's done, I don't have to do it again for 3 more months. It makes putting the grocery list together much easier, too. Since I try to only keep about 3 mos. worth of meat in the freezer, doing it that way insures I'll make good use out of what's in there. If I have a surplus at the end of the twelve weeks (or have found something good on sale during that time) then I can make sure it's all used up during the next twelve weeks. We may get tired of having pork chops once a week, but since I got them at $.99/lb, I can deal with being tired of them, LOL.

Morning! Yesterday's work was ugly, LOL, so I didn't get anything done, and finally collapsed at about 10. At least this week is over, payroll wise. Today I am going to take it easy and get myself organized, and figure out a schedule that works. I'm planning out 12 weeks of meals so I will be able to see where I can make double of something and save myself some work later on. Then I'm gonna collapse again...I'm still tired, LOL. I'm sure the weather doesn't help, it's getting cold again, and may actually snow again, although not the huge amount we got over the weekend. I left my plants outside tonight, so it looks like there won't be much of a garden this year, LOL. Maybe I'll just stick to flowers until we get our land.

Well last night I didn't get as much done as I wanted-I just couldn't keep my eyes open, LOL. So this morning I've been playing catch up with work, should finish that within the next few hours, though, barring major interruptions. Then I can get caught up on the house stuff. Both my living room and kitchen are disaster areas! Seems everyone was dragging around here yesterday. Everyone was so tired at DH's work that they decided not to do any overtime last night. since he wasn't supposed to be home I just cleaned out all the leftovers from the fridge and let the kids have at them for dinner, then I ended up having to make something for DH, LOL. Oh well. Tonight he is supposed to be working, too, so we're having tomato soup and bread for dinner. That way if he does end up being home I can just heat an extra can of soup. OK, the stuff I need to work on is done printing, so back to work I go!

Quote: OK, OK, you're talking me into it... I'll have to go check into getting Carla's book, too. Cat, You can get the book at her site, it's $26 with shipping. Even though, at this very moment, there is a lot that doesn't apply to me, the two chapters that I have read have let me know that it was well worth the investment.

Well I called the library today and spoke to someone different, who was able to do the inter-library loan on it for me. So now I need to make a big fat list of books I want to read, LOL.

For some things yes, but... That water could be used for other things, or, if the flavors wouldn't clash, you could use water you'd previously cooked/rehydrated something in. So I would think you wouldn't need a whole bunch extra per serving.

Morning! The pork is in the freezer! I got it all done up yesterday. Now there's no room for the strawberries, LOL, but there wont' be much of those to freeze once I get those all fixed up. Today it's supposed to be 77, and hopefully the mud has dried enough that the kids can go outside. Not sure what I'm working on today, as I haven't looked at my project book today. Carla's book came yesterday, and I read the first chapter while thekids were doing their homeschool activities, and a bit in the food preservation chapter last night. It's really so very inspiring! OK, off to get busy!

About potatoes... We eat a LOT of potatoes, and I don't have the freezer space to freeze them. I'd prefer to buy a bunch on sale and preserve them. How do you rehydrate them? Are they OK mashed? What about fried? I did some searching so now I know to blanch them and all that good stuff, but I'm still wondering about once the dehydrating is done, LOL. Thanks!

Oh Nana, that is so fantastic! Good for you for approaching a market that most wouldn't consider!

All this green and beautiful, all I got is MUD! hehe I gotta wash bedding today, the dogs made it their home sweet home this weekend, so it's all icky. It's supposed to be 65 today, which should melt off the last remaining pockets of snow. Made almost 50 tortillas yesterday, cause we're having chalupas tonight for dinner and then I'm going to make cinnamon crisps with the rest. The strawberry breakfast bars with fresh strawberries were very popular. Making a strawberry pie today, that should go over equally well. After I mix up a small batch of strawberries and bananas to freeze for breakfast later this week, that should do it for the strawberries, LOL. This week's homeschooling theme is Lions. I found some good stuff at the library this weekend that I was able to copy. Guess that's about it for today. I am putting up the 30 lbs of pork I got on sale, which means re-arranging the entire freezer, but I need to update my inventory, anyway, so it works. Have a wonderful day!

Lois, I hope you get your car fixed soon. I got a very late start today. Have made ice box cookies and started some strawberries that I will need to thicken up and then I'll be making strawberry breakfast bars. Couldn't post earlier cause for some reason my modem wasn't working. We ended up doing a system restore and it was fine. Can't remember what else I'm planning on doing today, LOL. My brain is tired.

Maybe one of those pesky graemlins got in the system and ATE it! I don't know that I particularly want to own it, but our library is funky with the interlibrary loan. At most libes in Colorado, you can reserve a book through the computer card catalog-you can even do it from home. So you request any book and you get put in the queue. When it becomes available, from ANY library, whoever's first in the queue gets it. This is how I got Red Tent (one of my all time faves btw) in just under two weeks. When we first signed up for our libe cards here in Trinidad, I tried to reserve The DaVinci Code, and needed a pin number (forgot that little point!). So I go to the librarian to ask for my pin number, and she goes "Oh, I'll do it for you." She puts me in the queue for the ONE book our libe has...I will get it sometime in September. I am, now that I'm thinking about it, going to go play in the libe website and see if I can set up my own pin. I think a large part of the problem here is that our primary libe users are HS kids, who are probably content with what they can get, and older folks, who maybe aren't familiar with the broader reach of the ILL, so they don't request the system enough for our librarians to realize what it is they want and so I think some of our libes don't know HOW to use it. We wouldn't HAVE a library at all if Andrew Carnegie hadn't fallen in love with the hunting available in our fair town and decided to bestow some money on us. We do have a community college here, but they are on the Colorado College ILL and so can get books from CU and USC, and such, so they don't make much use of the local libe. I did find out a cool little fact, though. Their book sale is coming up and DH and I were talking about it while the librarian was checking out our books, and she said if you come at the very end, they will let you fill up a box for $1.00. I'm all kinds of excited over that one!

And not by me, LOL. I was so disappointed. The book isn't on the shelves (we have a tiny libe so they have a storage annex) so I went and asked at the desk and she goes all the way to the annex, and all the way back up for nothing. I was so disappointed! Whoops I already said that. Anyway, I'm going to ask for it for Mother's Day. I can hear the conversation now... Teacher: "What does your mom want for Mother's day" Kid 1: "Roses" Kid 2: "A card." Kid 3: "Two hours alone with a hot bath and candles and a romance book." My kid: "Survivalism books."

Well ladies I went and bought the book from Carla...now I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival! I can't wait to read it! Thanks for so many people including it on their lists!

Excellent suggestion! I will tell her dad to put those on the list for her, he's a big Piers Anthony fan and will enjoy the discussions with her!

Has anyone done minced onions or garlic? They're so small I can't put them on a rack. Maybe a screen? Oooh, going to talk to dh about making a screen for the oven! LOL

I have long been an admirer of the beautiful sig pics here, and kept thinking to myself "Well, I'll make one." but never got around to it. My pic editing skills are somewhat lacking, but I figured I would come up with something servicable. I knew Cavey made them for many of you, but as I hadn't really talked with him much yet, I hadn't wanted to ask him yet. Well yesterday he PMs me and asks if I'd like him to make one. I gave him a small little description of what I wanted and he nailed it PERFECTLY! It is wonderful, and I just wanted y'all to know what he did! What a guy!

The snow is melting, but it didn't stop snowing until about 11:30 last night, so we ended up with about 2 ft. Main Street in town is flooded. I called a friend of mine to tell her if she lost power she could come hole up with us, and she said she coudln't get out of town (she lives one town over, about 25 mins away) cause their ONE snowplow had run off the road. No one was hurt, though. While all this moisture will help in the short term, we're still going to be under water restrictions-we have seven years of mild winters to make up for. We need a good blizzard, LOL. We never did lose power, although it's harder for me to work when DH is home, I did get most of my stuff done. The soup I cooked yesterday morning was still nice and warm at dinner time so we just had that for dinner, nice and easy. Today we're going grocery shopping whenthe streets melt off a little bit more. Safeway has pork on sale for $.99/lb so I'm all kinds of excited about that. I'm hoping I can fit about 25 lbs in my freezer. Mommy of 5