euphrasyne

It was a trying day today.  I worked on moving a few things around, but I started feeling terrible in the middle of it and had to sit down.  Checked and my blood sugar was 43.  Husband fed me fruit snacks and I took a break for a few hours and had a carby lunch.   I started feeling better later in the afternoon, so I made up a big batch of apple butter with all the apples that needed using up.  I should get about 10 pints out of the batch, but I started feeling horrible towards the end of cooking it down and had to take a break.  DD12 put the pulp away in the fridge for me to finish tomorrow.   I had been 'tasting' the apple sauce,  but I went ahead and ate a snack and checked my  sugar which was normal.  So we checked my pressure and it was down to 113/58.  I was tired, confused, dizzy, lightheaded, freezing, and had shallow breathing so I got them to give me some salt and green tea.  I felt much better after I ate a small spoonful of salt--which is extremely nasty to eat by itself.  

Tomorrow I'm going to  finish making and canning the apple butter and otherwise sit on my butt all day.  I have an appointment with the OB on Tuesday and I'll bring up the recurrent low blood sugar then.   I seem to be having numbers under 50 about 4 or 5 times a week lately.  I'm stuffing my face every 2 hours, so it isn't that I'm not eating frequently enough.  

My husband's uncle had a stroke and is now wheelchair bound.  He lived in a tiny older house in Port Norfolk with tiny tiny doors.  He took them all off the hinges and hung a shower curtain rod and that worked for him.

Lettuce likes it cold, shady and wet.  Put it in a pot in a suitably shady spot.  Ours is doing well.  

Around here we say 'plague or pollen, explain yourself!'

That chart is BS.  I've had bad allergies all my life and they always give me a headache, fever, and trouble breathing every single pollen season for decades.  

Fruit: strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, pears, watermelon, and a new blueberry that will hopefully bear in a year or two.  The peaches are well established and we usually  get a ton.  We are already eating strawberries and some of the blackberries.  

Herbs: parsley, dill, rosemary, 2 types of cilantro, basil, lavender, green onions, and garlic.  Everything is doing well, bugs are getting into my basil and we need to spray.  We are already eating it all.  

Veg: onions, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, bell peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, celery.  Veg will be ready to eat later in the year.  Some of the potatoes are doing better than others, and the tomatoes and peppers are beautiful.  We did have a cucumber, but I don't think it is going to make it.  Something munched down on it.  

Sometimes I can smaller batches.  If you are concerned about not filling the canner, just can some water along with whatever you are making.  

Sometimes I use the stove out in the RV for extra space or temperature issues.  Its just a propane stove & oven, same as my regular kitchen for stovetop purposes.  I have also been known to plug the crockpot into the RV  or the back deck when I needed the counter space for a project or wanted it to not heat up the house.  

Pro (read crockpot addict) tip: those battery charger things that will jump off your car, etc. and have the plugs in them?  It will run your crockpot on high for about 2-4 hours depending on size.   Be sure to bungie down the lid first though if you are doing it in the vehicle.  

Tomatoes can very well, and most red or green tomato based sauces can quite well without issue.  I can enchilada sauce and salsa without problem in water baths.  I do pressure can anything with meat or low total acid.  If the overall acid level of the finished product is high and there is no meat, I usually just water bath it and call it good.  

*Disclaimer--I grew up in the deep south where we buried sauerkraut in the back yard, left eggs on the counter for weeks, and generally did not follow all guidelines exactly.  

So I'm altering our menu slightly because of the crazy.  Since everyone is home ALL DAY EVERY DAY, I'm having serve more meals than usual.  No more packed lunches or snacks.   I'm trying to make a mix of healthy meals and fun/comforting things.  It is amazing how much joy a loaf of banana bread can bring.   This week, we are focusing on eating prepared items out of freezer so that more plain meat will fit, using up fresh produce, eating carby items stashed in the freezer, and using a few older odds and ends I found when I moved the pantry around.  

This week I need to use 1 extra- large cucumber, 1 sasquatch carrot, 1 lonely red bell pepper, a bag of red potatoes, 4 sweet potatoes, a bunch of celery, some apples, a pineapple, bananas, some hummus, Cajun turkey lunchmeat, a handful of leftovers,  half a pan of Mexican cornbread that was a bit spicy for one of the kids, and about 2 pieces of banana bread they are fighting over.  We should also get several strawberries, a lot of lettuce,  and a plenty of herbs from the garden this week.

Breakfasts:  I get up around 4-5am, but I do not like to cook in the morning so I usually try to have meals available that everyone can either grab or make themselves.  Protein shakes, poptarts, oatmeal, cream of wheat, grits, cold cereal, protein bars, frozen pancakes (homemade,) etc.  These options have been working well and I'll probably do a rotation where everyone can pick what they want each day, but they must choose a different option each day.  I may cook on Friday, but it is iffy.

Lunches:  

'British tea' lunch with cucumber sandwiches, fruit, and homemade sweets

Grilled cheese & Cajun turkey sandwich and tomato soup

There are a few corndogs & chicken nuggets left in the freezer, and I can buy more smoked sausage if that room frees up.  Leftovers are always popular and the ever present sandwich: PB&J, Nutella, egg/chicken salad, or lunchmeat.  Salads or chips with hummus make good sides for them or a big main for me.  

Dinners:  

Salsa chicken, pineapple, rice, zucchini fries, leftover green beans

Split pea soup w/ leftover Easter ham bone from freezer, leftover Mexican cornbread (potatoes, celery, carrot in soup) (2 dinners or 1 dinner and 2 lunches)

London broil, sweet potatoes, salad

French onion Chicken casserole, corn creole, rice, salad (uses celery, some bell pepper)

Teriyaki chicken stir-fry w/ veg and rice (everyone loves all smiles no complains, Asian veg frees up freezer space)

Hamburgers with either fries (from freezer if I can find them) or chips & hummus/salsa

Snacks: bananas, apples, cookies, leftover Easter candy, and later in the week whatever homemade dessert they beg the most for--I'm leaning towards either lemon poppy seed bread or oatmeal jam bars.    

It is all a giant game of food tetris trying to use up what we have without going to the store and without wasting anything.  I do not think the family actually appreciates how much thought and effort goes into lining everything up, but I know they all enjoy gobbling it down.  

Littlesister, the Harborview Kroger in Suffolk usually has meat in better stock than the rest and it was on sale last time I went.  I'm using the BJs at Chesapeake square for laundry needs.  I also managed to score some Clorox tilex mold and mildew cleaner from BJs.  Aldi's has a limited variety of vegetables, but they have mostly been in stock there and they have regular flour and sugar always.

I usually just buy all purpose flour and add wheat gluten if I need to.  The ratio is 1 t gluten per 1c all purpose flour to make bread flour.  I hate having specialty flours and prefer to just make everything from basics like all purpose, cornmeal, gluten, flax, baking powder/soda, etc.  I do buy whole wheat and rye upon occasion.   The gluten gives you a better crumb if you are making sandwich bread, but isn't necessary if you are doing most white breads, artisanal, or sourdough.  It is mostly useful when making wheat or rye bread.  The gluten content of white flour is already higher than that of other types.

I finished putting all the non-food items back in my kitchen and sorting through them.  I moved a bunch of stuff I haven't used in years to the donate pile, but DD12 & DD16 ransacked it and created 'when I move out boxes.'  Apparently they think I'm insane now.  I have 4 crockpots and a turkey roaster all in difference sizes ranging from a 1 quart vintage crockpot intended to make dip to a 22 quart turkey roaster.  I use them all though and I refuse to part with any of them.  There was another argument over who would get my brown Hull dishes when I died and I smacked them both and told them I was going to kill them before I died so they didn't have to worry about it.  

I drew up my plan on how I'm going to rearrange things to move DD16 into the downstairs bedroom(currently pantry) by turning the sunroom into the pantry and make her current room the nursery.  It should be doable if we can move the cat litter boxes and the furniture that houses them into a room other than the sunroom.  My goal is to have things moved and painted by the end of July or August at the latest.  

I started crocheting a baby dress in a 1/2T size for when the baby is bigger.  I'm going to break out my fabric stash later in the week and start sewing some baby clothes this month.  I think I still have the pattern for the pinafore dress I used to make for Ivy somewhere.  it was like a smock with a full front and back and it tied at the sides with bloomers and a hat that matched.  I made several in different fabrics and I'm really hoping I still have the pattern stashed away somewhere.  I hope I can find some interfacing for the hat.  I may have a bit stashed away, but I guess I need to check amazon.  

We emptied the last of the food out of the kitchen into the guestroom and sunroom yesterday.  I finished organizing everything and am happy with the result though I plan for this to be temporary organization while I work on the kitchen .  Today we finish emptying the last of the upper cabinets from the kitchen into the living room.  Then everything is going to get a good bleaching and a spray for pest control later in the week then I can start the real work.  I found a few items I'd forgotten I had and I'm going to move a few things to the donate pile in the garage.

We made  a trip to the dump on Saturday and got rid of all the trash in the garage.  Then we moved all the extra bags of dirt and gardening items to the shed.  DH moved the dresser, chest of drawers, and nightstand from the guestroom to the garage and brought in 2 bookshelves and 2 gorilla shelves to the guestroom.  DD16 is moving into that room this summer, but we have to paint it first.  We need to either sell or donate the original furniture from that room and a large rolltop desk.  The garage looks amazing.  DH swept the walls and floors for cobwebs and rearranged a few things.  He still has his pile on the central worktable, but it seems so much bigger now.  

I am almost done crocheting the baby blanket I've been working on.  My hands hurt a bit and don't work as well as when I was younger, so it has taken longer than it used to.  I'm going for a retro 60s/70s  floral theme in the nursery.  As soon as we move DD16 downstairs, I'm going to paint that upstairs bedroom and put in some baby items.  The southwestern red room the food is in will be a lovely light blue for DD16 by July I hope.  

Mostly I'm trying to fill my head and time with projects so I have less time to focus on the crazy.  

Stand Mixer attachments are amazing.  

In my area, cannot shop for multiple people.  You can go through twice if they don't remember you, but they are publicly shaming people who they see going through multiple times and calling security.   I've seen videos and tagging of individuals on local facebook groups.  It's extreme bullying.  People here just go on several days a week....so much for limiting contact.

The limits here are 2 of any type of meat.  (Target and Kroger are per animal but other stores all meat)

2 any type of bread total.

2 each dairy including evaporated canned milk.

1 cleaning supply or paper good

1 case of water

4 each variety of canned good (preggo and ragu towards the same total--tried to buy 4 of each and they would not let me)

Our warehouse stores here are scare as the regular grocery stores.  Several items are out of stock constantly and they are spreading other items thing to cover the 'front' of the shelf to make it seem like they have more.   Two of the Asian groceries are closed entirely and one is still open and looking better than the regular grocery store.  The Indian grocery was closed for a month, but reopened last week.  I haven't had time to go there yet.  

Either husband or I have ended up going out about 1-2 times a week and visit about 3-4 stores in the great search for whatever it is he actually needs for work that week.  Neither of us have seen or bought TP in about 2 months now.  Everywhere is out of paper goods and cleaning supplies.  

Kroger is constantly out of vegetables but has some expensive meat.  (1 store checked)

Aldi's had vegetables with limit but is out of pasta sauce and meat.  (3 stores checked)

Walmart is out of everything (2 stores checked)

BJs  is low/out on starchy items, canned veg, pasta sauce, and meat. (1 store checked)

Lidl is out of dairy, meat, and certain varieties of canned goods (2 stores checked)

Asian Grocery is low on udon noodles, beans, and coconut milk.  (3 stores checked, 2 closed for duration of pandemic)

Sams is low on starches and canned items (1 store checked)

Food Lion was very low on canned vegetables, meat, and canned Mexican items (tamales, salsa, green chilis) (2 stores checked)

Home depot is out of PPE for painting, dust, etc and has a lower stock of tools than usual. They are low on dirt and decent plants. (1 store checked)

Lowes is well stocked on plants, but is out of some tools and parts.  (1 store checked)

I imagine that stock varies by area.  

When making Indian, I usually make the sauce with chicken first and let them like it that way.  Then sub out the beans later.  My husband and kids always love it, but I try to serve some sort of meat with it if I'm making a new recipe.  Saag paneer is a big favorite now.  Sometimes I make a bean dish and a meat dish with smaller portions of each and that always goes over well. 

The prices on almost everything are higher than usual according to my records.  

Trouble procuring: 

Margaret Holms (or any brand) Seasoned Italian green beans canned--I'm having a very hard time finding them and we usually eat them a lot.

Dried red beans

Dry chickpeas

Crisco

Canned Asian vegetables (bamboo, water chestnuts, baby corn)

Cream of Wheat 

canned and frozen spinach

OTC migraine pills of any brand

409 mold and mildew cleaner.  I've found zero in the last two months.

None of the usual sales are going on this time of year for any large items.   

I have a friend in Brazil. Things are never reported correctly there.  A lot of places are more rural and poor with bad services, a lot of distrust, and poor communication.

NNSY converted the sail shop to make  pleated masks for all sailors and employees.  They are corded ties without elastic and have a metal bit in the top.  DH was given one as part of his packet when he went in today.  I'll try to get a pic tomorrow.

Add alum to the spices for okra.  It makes things crispy.

Ours came Monday and is a tiny credit union.

DH needed to run out to his work to sign and pick up some things.  He wasn't going to be there long and wanted to wear a DIY bandana mask but didn't want it to irritate his ears.  My fast solution was paperclips.

You should change banks.  Ours hit today and is available  $3400.

They closed the SD plant.  the one in Smithfield, VA is still open but the SD plant is about 5% of the world's pork.

I collect cookbooks.  The covers change all the time with new reprintings.  Always go by the name and the author.  If you are looking for a specific edition, you can go by edition and publication date.