Catching Up

  Life has been busy and I have had no time to sit and chat here. I hate when that happens. And yet I can find little  news to share, life was work, dinner, sleep, laundry, work, etc at least up until last weekend. We had a heavy windstorm (75 mph winds)blow through here last weekend and had a couple of poplar trees come down into the neighbor's yard. I have been dealing with my insurance company all week. The bottom line is insurance company says liability lies with the neighbor's and they need to file with their company. However part of the privacy fence that keeps our dogs in our yard was taken out and my adult son J got out there and did a temporary fix on that as well as cutting up all of the wood from the trees once the electric company removed the trees from the lines they were laying across and donating that to another neighbor who has a wood burning stove with which he heats most of his home. I prefer to use the Pine Mountain logs when we use our fireplace so it was nice we had someone who could use the wood. 
This week I am on vacation! I have the entire week off and plan to make the most of it. Saturday GF and I delivered a dryer that my adult son J had gotten from a friend who was throwing it out (along with a washer we gave to a family member in need) to yet another family member in need of one. Nice that we could help them out and clear some much needed basement space. Yesterday the GF and youngest son and I went to the mall and did a little Christmas shopping, picking up a couple of items on sale that were requested by family members.
Today I am going to give my house a good cleaning, starting with using my steam cleaner to clean the couches as well as washing all the throw blankets and the dining room curtains (which still have not been done). I also plan on taking youngest son to the barber for a haircut and picking up a few groceries. Later on I will sit down and do my December dinner menus.

Merry Christmas to Me: My new 'toy'

  While browsing around the internet checking out those Christmas gift ideas I mentioned before I came across an item I thought would make a wonderful addition to my own kitchen: the Cuisinart 5-in-1 griddler. I coincidentally had a $10 coupon for use on Amazon. I gave it some thought, compared the price of this item at several websites and I realized that not only did Amazon have the best price before using my coupon, once I'd used it and my Prime account free shipping I was way ahead of the game, so I decided I'd earned a treat for myself. I gifted myself with this and ordered one. Free shipping, $10 off, and it arrived on my doorstep in two days.
I immediately washed it and took it on its first test drive making 'grilled' steaks for dinner on Tuesday. They came out really nice, far better than the old George Forman I used to have. So on Wednesday I made 'grilled' pork chops. Also a winner.
This week I will be testing out the Panini press feature! This is the perfect size for our family of 4 now at home, it cleans easily since the plates (one side for grilling, one for use as a griddle) snap right out and go in the dishwasher, and it uses way less power than turning on the stove. And I didn't have to brave the cold and using our gas grill outdoors!!

Got Lucky!!

While going to pick up donuts for his work crew yesterday GF spotted the boxes of Peppermint Mocha K-cups which are a seasonal item in the store. He noticed they had a full display of boxes so he didn't pick any up for me. Last year I didn't get any when I first saw them and then was unable to get any at all because they are such a popular item they sell out fast. This morning I took myself through the drive through at his local DD and bought the last three boxes. That's right yesterday they had 40, now they have none. But I will be enjoying this treat all season long!

Holiday shopping: I've broken my own rule

  When it comes to the holiday season I am a traditionalist. I like to do all of my shopping during what I think of as the holiday season: Black Friday through Christmas Eve. This year however I have broken my own 'rule'. A couple of weeks ago the school I work at had the Scholastic book fair where I purchased a couple of books for my grandsons J & L (although L is too little to enjoy them yet, J can eventually share these with him). Then after browsing the internet for pricing on some ideas I'd gotten from a few of my adult/college/teen children I came across a couple of ideas that had such excellent prices (and free shipping) that I felt I needed to take advantage of the savings and I ordered them.
Over the summer the GF had filled my SUV several times and fronted all of the money for our waterpark passes as well as picking up the bill for the hotel for my oldest stepdaughter's wedding in June. I still owed  him for my half of the hotel and waterpark and the gasoline. We've agreed I will purchase Christmas gifts until what would be his half of the cost equals what I owe him in return. My little Christmas shopping expedition online plus a couple of birthday gifts I picked up for  him yesterday for his godchild and her sister and I am halfway to paying him back!
As for gifts GF and I sat down and decided that instead of putting a limit on the number of gifts we'd buy (4 has been our number in the past) this year we'd get the bigger ticket items and give fewer gifts (2-3). We are going for quality over quantity and still expect to keep within our respective shopping budgets.
In other holiday thoughts I have gone through and given a look-see to my current holiday decorations. I would very much like to replace a couple of outdoor decorations that died within the last couple of years with something new but have yet to make a definite decision on this. I do need to pick up batteries for the window 'candles' and will probably have to replace lights (seems like each year I put them away and they work fine then when I hang them up either they don't work at all or only half the strand lights <sigh>) so this may be the extent of my decoration shopping.
And speaking of decorating, I managed to put away all of the Halloween decorations and replace them with my Thanksgiving ones!

An expedition into the freezer....

  A trip into GF's freezer this morning to look for a bag of frozen raspberries I was sure I had buried in there led me in a different direction. I did find the raspberries but while doing so realized I still had TWO turkey carcasses awaiting stock making. I figured it was time to unearth at least one of these and get some stock (and soup for lunch) made today.
I removed one foil wrapped package of turkey carcass plus another of turkey legs and wings. I got out the extra large pot from the laundry room and threw the bones into it.

After browsing GF's refrigerator and spice cabinet I settled on adding in the remains of a bag of shredded carrots, a large couple of spoonsfuls of minced garlic, a quarter cup of dehydrated chopped onion, a large handful of parsley, a small handful of Italian seasoning blend, some sea salt, and black pepper and got this simmering on the stove.

 

 

Several hours later I strained the stock and put it into containers for the freezer.

A trip to Lowe's

  Believe it or not one of my favorite places to shop is Lowe's! After working and before heading home to nurse my fever GF and I made a quick stop at the local Lowe's home store near his house. I had a short list of things I wanted to pick up for home and he was checking out commercial flooring for his offices. I got in a short but satisfying browse in their holiday decorations aisle as well.  While I had no plan to purchase anything I still enjoy looking at all the holiday things they have.
My short list included a chimney sweeping log for my fireplace. For the last few years I have used these and found them to be a good frugal way to keep my fireplace chimney clean. I back this up by no longer using actual wood in the fireplace when I make a fire. I will be purchasing a couple of cases of 'faux' logs at the wholesale club for the season. Although they are pricey I like these for several reasons: 1. No sparks. 2.Not as much creosote from them as from real logs. and 3. I know how long they will burn and can start a fire with enough time for it to go out completely before we all go to bed.  We don't use our fireplace on a regular nightly basis so this is a good solution for me.
I will use my chimney cleaning log on Monday night.

I also picked up a birthday gift for my middle daughter whose 28th birthday it is today. She had an immersion blender on her Christmas list so I chose to get that for her birthday instead. Lowe's had the Kitchen Aide one she'd mentioned for a decent price of $40. This is the model I purchased:


I also wanted another window insulation kit and picked up this one:

My final two purchases were strictly impulse buys. I knew my adult son still living at home would get a lot of enjoyment out of the Duck Dynasty Holiday door mat that will go on the landing by our side door.
And I picked up this handy little guide  for myself.

The Week in Review: Did I reach my goals?

  Looking back at my earlier post about weekly goals I see I have fallen a bit short. While I did get some things accomplished mostly they were not at home. <sigh>
The beginning of a new month at work is always a bit stressful for me. Despite a two week window in which to return payment and lunch tickets I had a large number of families fail to do so until the last minute. Several of them confessed to losing the paperwork underneath piles of other things that came home because they had so much time to get things back to me. The solution to this is easy, in November they will have half the time to return these things for December lunches and hopefully that will alleviate some of the last minute confusion we experienced on Friday. It is difficult to guesstimate just how many students will appear without notice expecting to be fed. I made an entire case of burgers and luckily (due to the absence of a few students who had ordered lunch) I was able to feed everyone who needed a lunch the hot lunch. I do have an emergency backup lunch plan, a 2 oz cheese stick, a small loaf of whole grain cornbread, veggie of the day, fruit of the day, and milk (all of which meets serving size and type requirements of the NSLP) in the event I do not have enough hot lunch to feed everyone who needs to be fed.  Most students follow the rule to let the kitchen know first thing in the morning if they've forgotten a lunch at home but I always get those 'surprise' guests whose parents 'thought' they'd ordered a lunch for that day, those students who just think they are exempted from the early notice rule, and those who fail to remember it is a new month despite several verbal reminders during the days before the first lunch service of a new month. <sigh>
In any case in addition to the extra work stress I was fighting off a head cold all week. Lots of sneezing, early morning stuffy sinuses, and afternoon headaches were the warning signs. I immediately began dosing myself with chewable Airborne tablets, taking Aleve for the headaches, and making sure I got to bed on time. This morning (after running a fever last evening) I am feeling pretty good. The stuffy sinuses are gone, I got an extra hour of sleep (thank you Standard Time), and no more sneezing! I will continue with the Airborne tabs this week and then start taking my usual daily dose of Echinacea for the winter. A flu shot is also on my to-do list this week. Hoping to get that done today at Target's pharmacy. 
 As far as my evening goals with the fight for my health going on I was pretty exhausted by the time I hit home. I didn't even make dinner on Monday night with college age daughter and I picking up calzones from a local pizza joint. Tuesday night I did cook, a quick pasta carbonara Florentine for myself and sons and laundry done but none of the cleaning/special jobs I'd planned on. Wednesday night I got a lot done but none of it was at home. GF and I had invited friends back to his house after the final Marching Band performance of our respective kids high school careers and it needed some serious cleaning. GF bought me dinner out then we set to cleaning together. The house looked great when we were done but of course I got not one single thing accomplished at home. Thursday was Halloween and I joined oldest son and his wife and her parents for our annual pizza dinner/candy hand out at their house.
Friday of course began the weekend. Football & fun on Friday, yesterday I worked my bi-monthly cleaning job in the morning and spent the afternoon/evening nursing my fever and cold symptoms. I did manage to put together a nice dinner of Swedish meatballs over egg noodles and green beans on the side despite feeling like a wrung out dishrag.
So THIS week I will attempt to keep to the evening goals I set myself LAST week with one exception. On Monday I will take down our Halloween decorations and replace them with our Thanksgiving ones.