Hardships

It has been almost a month since I've had time to chat. Just as we were recovering from being without power I had a fall down some steps and dislocated my elbow which put my typing abilities to a slow and painful pecking  with my right hand. Using only my right arm/hand made my carpal tunnel flair up and my hand go numb almost constantly. Not the best the situation to blog in.
Once the plaster splint came off it was time to travel. We spent a week with family in Kansas for the holidays and had a wonderful, if slightly more expensive, time than we'd planned on.
I had originally planned on a brief run down of my financial picture for October but will skip that in favor of November. November has not been kind, we had a deep reduction in income which I immediately got a handle on by cancelling some memberships that were luxuries and reconfiguring other adjustable budget items. I was just getting started looking at additional job options when the accident happened. I now need to focus on getting the arm back to 100% before pursuing an additional job. In the meantime all the bills got paid, my car had gas, we had plenty of food, and due to the generosity of my gentleman friend we still spent the holidays with out of town family. A reminder to me that God is good, all the time. I have a plan in place for the holidays and the next couple of months. The job search will start again in January dependent on how my arm is coming along.
This last week of November will focus on December menu planning and shopping . I barely spent anything in November but was lucky enough to be gifted with a fairly large turkey from a neighbor who does not cook and with yet another turkey from my gentleman friend's company which we will donate to the extended family Christmas dinner at my oldest son's house. The turkey that was already in my freezer is slated for this Saturday's dinner with leftovers already planned out.
Looking ahead at other finances for December I am going to be making a final payment on a credit card I have not been using but only paying off and then closing this account. I am very happy about this situation and will use that additional money to pay down a loan that I hope to pay off in February. Once that is accomplished I will be left with house and car payments, utilities and insurances, all standard expenses.

November Menus

Despite losing power for five days to the recent storm I was extremely fortunate that the bags of ice I shoved in my deep freezer and refrigerator freezer kept almost all of my supplies from going bad. We lost a small bag of fish and two half gallons of ice cream. The milk, eggs, and sour cream in the fridge also went bad but the cheese and condiments all look fine. A small victory. Due to some recent financial changes this is really good news since it means I can spend about $100 for the entire month for groceries.
I based this month's menu plans on mostly items we have on hand already. We will be visiting family in Kansas for the Thanksgiving week so menus for meals while we are there are going to be discussed with my daughter later on. And because we will be incurring expenses from traveling we are doing Dinner Date Night at home this month. I have special recipes for each of these nights.
In the meantime I carried over a few dinner ideas from last month that I never used.
So far this month we have eaten : Roast beef, wild rice, green beans
Spaghetti with meatballs & salad
Pork goulash, kluski noodles, & corn.
Today's Sunday supper is going to be Pineapple Rum Pork Loin roast, roasted potatoes and candied carrots.
I am having two special weeks of menus this month, one week will be our "Victory Kitchen" week with menus based on meals from one of my favorite cookbooks: Grandma's Wartime Kitchen: WWII and the Way we Cooked.    These meals consist of:
Shepherd's Pie & minted peas;
 Adirondack Chowder with homemade honey wheat rolls;
Creamed chipped beef on toast with mixed vegetables;
Salmon cakes, mashed potatoes, scalloped spinach and tomatoes;
Steaks, parsley potatoes, and coleslaw (dinner date night meal)
Chicken fricassee, white rice and carrots 
Salisbury steaks, buttered egg noodles and Harvard Beets.

Our other theme week is International Week and these menus are:

Mexican: Chicken Enchilladas, yellow rice, corn
Thai:Pad Thai, Thai cucumber salad
Filipino: Pork Adobo, white rice, asian green beans
Vietnamese:Pho Bo (Vietnamese beef soup) with homemade rolls
Italian: Chicken Parmesan, rissotto, salad
French: Beef Bourguignon, Belgian carrots

The final week of menus that I put together doesn't have a theme, just homestyle cooking.  
Battered pan fried whiting  ( a carryover from October)
oven fries
coleslaw

Beef veggie soup (using planned over roast beef)
homemade fly off the plate dinner rolls

Spinach Quiche
dinner rolls
salad

Balsamic glazed chicken breasts
twice baked potatoes
pomegranate and pear salad

Tacos
Spanish Rice
Corn

Pork Stir fry
Basmati rice
basmati rice

You don't know what you've got till its gone

Living on the north coast of Ohio I tended to take the local weatherman's dire predictions of Superstorm Sandy's impact on my area with a grain of salt. After all 98% of the time the predictions of impending doom don't pan out. I made a few small arrangements just in case, I borrowed a camping lantern from a friend and made sure we had candles  
 and working flashlights available. I have a gas stove and knew I'd be able to still light it the old fashioned way with a lighter if I needed to, our gas hot water tank would continue to provide hot water and we had a full box of Duraflame logs for the wood burning fireplace. This time turned out to be the 2% of the time the weatherman got it right. Our power went out Monday night just as we pulled into our driveway. Since it was late we grabbed the flashlights, took care of the dogs and went to bed. All schools in the area were cancelled the next morning which meant no work for me so the kids and I piled in the car to charge our cell phones and check out storm damage. A trip through the local Dunkin donuts that still had power for coffee was a lifesaver. High winds meant not taking a chance with a fire but the temperatures weren't too horrible so we bundled up in sweaters and grabbed throw blankets and snuggies. To keep warm I made a big pot of homemade beef vegetable soup

 and lots of cups of tea. It has been a long week. Here is the reason we had no power 

 and this is some of the mess in our back yard left by the storm  

. Our power was restored after a long five days and I am so grateful. I didn't mind the candle and lantern light but I have to confess that I missed the central heating.