Trying a Pinterest tip

  While browsing through Pinterest the other day I came across an interesting 'hack' for making beat up wood floors look better. You simply take a couple of tea bags and steep them in boiling water until the water cools down then mop the hardwood floors with the tea.

Since I had the water from processing the pineapple preserves on hand I added three tea bags and left this to steep and cool:

 

I poured this into a small bucket and used my mop

 

Our floors are pretty 'shabby chic', weathered, scratched, and 85 years old but I was happy with the tea results. They aren't shiny but the color is better:

 

I will be treating the floors with this again, probably about once a month.

Pineapple Preserves

My hunt at the grocery store for pineapple preserves being fruitless (ha ha) I turned to the internet for a recipe. And I got lucky finding one that is only two ingredients which I already had in the house! What I didn't have was jam sized canning jars. But Target had them on sale, a dozen for $7.99. I just happened to have turned all the loose change from the bottom of my purses into paper money ($40!!) so I dipped into some of this and bought the jars.
This morning I added the jars to my almost full dishwasher to make a full load so that they are clean and sterilized and ready to go. Then I assembled my ingredients:

 a can of crushed pineapple in juice and sugar. Put them in the pot

stirred them up and brought them to a boil.

  Stirring constantly for 20 minutes and the preserves were thick. I spooned them into two sterilized jam jars put on the lids and rings and processed them in a boiling water bath in my dutch oven. AND thinking ahead I saved the water for another project that I will share later.

Here are my two homemade jars of pineapple preserves (cost: 89 cents for crushed pineapple, 50 cents for 2 cups sugar bought at wholesale club, so total cost is 69 cents per jar not counting cost of jars ( 66 cents each which will be used over and over again).

 

 

Odds and Ends

  Besides enjoying myself at the matinee the last two days (odd thing happened yesterday, I got charged sales tax for my movie ticket..according to the woman running the ticket window this is a new state tax and by new it must mean NEW TODAY since on Monday I was NOT charged tax. And it was 8% holy cow...and speaking of taxes Amazon decided to build a warehouse in my state so now I get to pay sales tax to them too..yippee..but I digress) I also ran a few small errands to pick up some odds and ends of food items.

On Monday I stopped into a local small Italian grocery/deli where I spent $21. I brought home a delicious loaf of sesame seeded Italian bread, a ball of pizza dough, a small jar of their pizza sauce, a box of choo-choo wheel shaped pasta and a box of some pasta that was totally new to me, it was called Mother-in-law's tongue and was wide strips of multi colored pasta, red, white & green all on the same strip of pasta. I changed up dinner plans and made this pasta with a garlic butter sauce for dinner. It was visually interesting but as for flavor, not much different than plain pasta.

I then dropped into the regular grocery store. They had boxes of Keurig coffee on sale for $8 so I picked up two boxes (hazelnut and cinnamon) as well as a jar of peach-mango preserves. I am on the hunt for pineapple preserves but it would appear that no one is making this anymore. I love to mix these into cottage cheese and am hoping the peach-mango will be a good substitute. Total cost as the regular grocery store of $20.

Yesterday after the movie I stopped at a local farmer's market/tiny grocery store where college age son's girlfriend works. I spent $14.51 and came home with 8 large nectarines, a bag of green grapes (on sale $1.49 per pound), a bag of fresh spinach, and a small container of organic spring greens for salad.

And then last night adult son talked me into splurging on a pizza from the local pizza place where college age son was formerly employed. Another $11 spent.

$5 Fun

 While I continue to await that important interview phone call (adult daughter K tells me the work grapevine says another round of interviews will be done within the next two weeks so keep hope) I am focusing on getting things done and having fun while I am on vacation.
I worked the twice-a-month cleaning job on Saturday and earned some much needed cash and after a quick discussion oldest son and I decided to split the cost of the family zoo membership this year. It is a family plus membership which includes one additional adult as well for admission. The cards will have my daughter-in-law and my name on them and son will be the 'guest' when they go. This way she and granddaughter can enjoy the zoo while son is working this summer without always having to go with me. I also had a 15% off coupon for renewal so we all did well.
After working GF and I went to a local classic car cruise that we attend annually. Five hours of walking around in the sunshine is a boost to my health, lots of exercise and vitamin D! Then we went to another local church festival for a couple of hours. Getting these in while I can. Sunday was granddaughter's first birthday party. GF and I split the gift cost since she is also his great-neice and adult son asked me to contribute my pasta salad to the food. Done. Fun time and she was of course adorable (but I might be a bit prejudiced, lol).
Mondays are $5 movie days for the Atlas chain of theatres here and Tuesdays are $5 movie days for the Regal Cinema chain. College age son and I went yesterday and saw Jurassic World, a good fun summer action movie and today adult daughter K and grandsons and I are taking in Home, an animated children's flick. I love going to the movies but I hate the regular price. $5 I can do!

Living Well

 I was browsing along through my Facebook page last night and stopped to read an article that was linked on the news feed that looked interesting. I took quite a bit of heart in my own situation from this article and found it to be an inspiration.
Here's the link for anyone interested in reading it themselves:

http://www.wisebread.com/how-one-family-lives-well-and-even-owns-a-home-on-just-11-an-hour

Dinner for One

  Tonight I dined alone, something I am slowly getting used to. Adult son and college age son were both at work and college age daughter is out of town with her boyfriend's family. I took some of the leftover roast eye of round and cut it into strips. I had two bags of frozen stir fry veggies in the deep freezer so I heated up the wok, added some oil and the defrosted veggies. I threw in the beef and some stir fry sauce. In a small pan I cooked the noodles from a package of ramen and then added this to the whole mess. A whole new meal out of leftovers:

Zoo Fun !!

  Continuing to make the most of what time off I am going to have this summer and trying to be patient on waiting for an interview today I joined middle daughter and two grandsons on a trip to the zoo. Today I got in free on her family plus membership. We had an awesome time, got to see the elephants walk between enclosures (grandson L's favorite zoo animal), the porcupines (grandson J's favorite zoo animal) alert and dining on a log (first time I've ever seen them doing something besides standing around, lol), and the giraffes peeking out from the indoor enclosure to keep an eye on the construction going on in their enclosure area (my favorite zoo animal). We also checked out the temporary penguin exhibit, took a train ride around the Australian exhibit and had lunch with the lions!!
Adult son and I did a bit of texting and agreed to split a family plus membership in half this year. It includes two named adults plus one adult guest and up to 6 children and I had a 15% off coupon good through the end of the month. We love our zoo and will go multiple times throughout the year! And a definite bargain for the year at $46 each.

Paying some attention to the 'garden;'

 I have a list of jobs I want to complete during this week and the next and one of them is to purchase and plant my summer flowers and herbs. Another one is clearing all the weeds from the brick patio out back and then washing down the table, chairs, and umbrella so we can use them. So far we have had three days of rain on and off and the patio project is moving at a snail's pace.
I did go to the nursery yesterday and ended up going over my budget of $60. I kind of figured this amount wasn't going to be enough. I spent just over $100 ($119 and some change) but the largest amount of that was for the hydrangea bush that will fill the space previously occupied by a rose bush that didn't make it through the harsh winter last year. It was $45 because I wanted one that had some growth on it.

 

Adult son will be doing the heavy digging and getting this in the ground.

I also purchased a beautiful hanging basket of Superbells in a buttercup color for the shepherd's hook in front of the porch:

I rounded out the purchases of two pots of purslane in a yellow color

These I will transplant into bigger pots along with a variety of the three flats of flowers I purchased

blue lobelia

assorted colored nicotania

 

and these lovely pink and white striped torenia.

I made up two nice pots with nicotania and lobelia

and two large pots with purslane, torenia, and lobelia

and a small planter box with torenia

 

The remainder of the flats will go into a large planter for next to the side door, a couple of smaller planters as well as an empty hanging basket for the back patio.

 

 

 

 

Produce Run

 While out yesterday running college age daughter around on her errands I stopped at a local year round farmer's market and picked up some fresh produce. I spent $38. 07 in cash and came home with two pints of raspberries, a quart of strawberries, a pineapple, 8 nectarines, a bag of green grapes, a bag of cherries (SUPER expensive but I yielded to temptation anyway), a loaf of rye bread, a half pound of sandwich pepperoni, and 3 lbs. of oranges. College age son had asked for some roast beef lunch meat but I almost fell over when I saw they were asking $11 a pound for this. YIKES. I have an eye round in the freezer I will roast for dinner and then use my meat slicer on the leftovers to make our own 'lunch' meat. Dinner last night for just myself was a grilled mozzarella and pepperoni on rye sandwich and grapes. Simple to make and delicious, although not part of the original menu plan.

Free and not so free to me

At the close of the school year I was the recipient of two very nice gift cards to Target, one for $50 and a second one for $30. On Saturday I made my way to the store to use these cards for some items I'd been wanting. Not things we necessarily needed but things I'd had on my list of items for the house. I picked up a new broom and dustpan (our old one while still serviceable just wasn't doing the job I'd like it to do, it will become the cellar/driveway broom), a container of carpet deodorizer (ok at least one item was something we needed), a set of taper candles in cream as well as a ball shaped candle in cream to replace one that had gotten broken on the iron candle holder in the living room.

The new candle is the slightly larger one in the center. The empty space has been driving me nuts for quite some time. I also used the gift cards to "purchase" two new summer weight (not fleece) throw blankets for the two leather couches. To keep the room looking not quite so masculine and to soften it up a bit I have accessorized with throw pillows and blankets on the couch, love seat, recliner. All throw pillows have been either gifts or purchased at Big Lots (I love their home décor section and the prices)

I also purchased a new white tablecloth for the next FREE item I received this week. My married daughter K was the recipient of a beautiful pottery barn farm table and spindle back chairs in a cherry wood finish that will seat 8 people. She had a smaller farmtable with black legs and a maple finish top with 6 spindle back chairs that she asked if I would like to have. I snapped it up since the oval dining room table I inherited from my mom was very wobbly and two of the nuts that held the legs on were stripped and would not tighten any longer. Adult son J and I took apart this table and hauled it to the tree lawn for trash day. He then used his pickup to get the new set. I  had purchased four nice faux leather dining chairs with maple legs a couple of years ago. We decided to use one of these at the computer desk, a second one at the roll top desk in our living room, and the other two for the head and foot of the new table. Four of the spindle back chairs that came with this set went on the sides of the table and the other two replaced the worn oak ones we had in our kitchen. The two oak chairs went on our large front porch around the drop leaf table that is out there for a small outdoor 'eating' section. 

 

The tapers and tablecloth are new from Target:

 

GF and I dropped into an estate sale also over the weekend. I spotted a waffle weave cotton throw in a red and white for $2 and snatched that up for the leather recliner.

 

I also picked up a nice framed country setting picture for $10

 

and a set of four Currier and Ives decorative small plates that match the prints I have in the living room for $3 for the whole set. Unfortunately I forgot to grab the plates out of GF's car so I have no picture of those. I will use a plate hanger that I already have to display these in our dining room.

It makes me feel good to tweak our décor at home and gives the rooms a fresh look. It will also be great to eat at a table that doesn't move around on you. At a total cost of $18 out of my pocket for the estate sale items I think I did mighty good.

 

Summer Grocery stock up

 Tuesday of this week was our field day at school which meant I didn't have to be in until the afternoon job. I took advantage of this bonus day to do a little grocery store stock up. I managed to save up $325 in cash for this. I came home with $80 still in my pocket for further grocery expenditures. I had $20 in cash back rewards at BJ's which I used.

My first stop was Gordon Food Service. I spent $42.74 and came home with a 5 lb. bag of seashell macaroni, 2 lbs. of fettucine, 2 lbs of frozen Brussels sprouts, and two new to me items, a large jar of hollandaise sauce mix, and a second large jar of alfredo sauce mix. We all love these sauces and I thought it would be handy to have the mixes on hand for busy dinner times.

My next stop was BJs Wholesale club. I picked up a large box of Finish Powerball dishwasher detergent (a box this size lasts me almost 4 months), 18 lbs. of cat food, 1 loaf of oatmeal bread, a gallon of 1% organic milk, a two pack of Smart Balance spread, 1 large container of Magic Erasers, a container of port wine cheddar cheese spread, and a three pack of London broil which I separated into three individual portions for the freezer. I had coupons for the dishwasher detergent, the Magic Erasers, and the cat food saving $3.25! The total after the coupons was $80.49 but I used my cashback reward of $20 so it was only  $60.49 out of pocket.

My final stop that day was Aldi which is where I do the bulk of my grocery shopping. I spent $126.39. I came home with 2 2lb. boxes of elbow macaroni, 2 2lb. bags of spaghetti noodles, 4 boxes (2 beef, 2 chicken) of 'rice a roni', 1 box frozen fruit bars (pomegranate), 1 box frozen fruit bars (coconut), 1 1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream, 1 large box trash bags, 1 box assorted crackers, 1 box quart freezer bags, 1 box gallon freezer bags, 3 'slim jim' snacks (for the kids), 1 box Aldi brand "special K" cereal with red berries, 1 container grape tomatoes, 2 bottles 100% apple juice, 1 bottle 100% cranberry juice, 2 bottles ruby red grapefruit juice, and 1 bottle cranberry-pomegranate juice, 1 bunch bananas, 1 bunch celery, 1 package chicken Italian sausage, 1 package of chili brats, 1 package of cheddar brats, 1 bag green grapes, 1 container blueberries, 1 seedless cucumber, 1 bag baby carrots, 1 hummus snack pack, 1 bag dried cherries, 1 package sliced mozzarella cheese, 1 container whipped cream cheese, 1 package bone-in skin on chicken thighs (12 of these divided into 2 4 packs and 1 2pack), 1 package American cheese slices, 1 container raspberries, 1 can dairy whipped topping, 1 container baby bella mushrooms, 6 zucchini, 1 jar nacho cheese sauce, 1 bag tortilla chips, 4 bottles steak sauce, 1 bottle teriyaki marinade, 2 blocks NY white sharp cheddar, 2 pounds butter, 1 jar Miracle Whip, 1 bottle stadium mustard, 2 cans black olives, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 1 bag spinach, 1 pack hard salami, 1 bag flour tortillas, 1 pint vanilla greek yogurt, 1 jar roasted peanuts, 1 large bar Moser Roth dark chocolate, and 1 dozen eggs.

I plan to combine the $80 I came home with with next weeks $125 from cleaning and put this away towards a trip for things like detergent, fabric softener, toothpaste, fresh produce, and possibly some frozen treats and meat.

Counting down and looking ahead

  Tomorrow is the last day of the school year and frankly after the year I have had it can't come too soon. I plan on leaving all of the controversies behind me. I had some encouraging news from daughter K who works at the hospital, my application has been set aside for a face to face interview during the next round of interviewing. All that remains is to be patient until I get the phone call. And prayer. Lots of prayer that they offer me a position.
In the meantime I am wrapping things up at work and looking ahead to at least a couple of weeks of downtime. I have my menu plans in place. So far this week I have not had to cook at all. I came home on Monday to a pizza that college age son and his girlfriend had ordered. Tuesday my aftercare boss took the staff out to dinner and last night I ate the leftovers I brought home from the night before. Tonight is going to just be me since college age son & adult son are working and college age daughter will be at her boyfriend's house. I plan on the veggie omelet option. I also received a $50 gift card to Target from the aftercare boss that I will use to get a new clothesline and clothespins (my old ones vanished during the great tree cutting weekend last fall). I have set aside $50 for flowers and herbs to decorate the front porch and back patio. I will continue to get a paycheck from my current employment until the middle of August (and will return to the part time cafeteria position next school year) so the bills will be paid, I will do the 2 times a month cleaning job for grocery money and adult son will contribute to the household expenses as he has been. But starting a new job would be a godsend. Once again, lots of prayer.

June Dinner Menus

  I have put together 25 dinner ideas for June. This is based on my not working a second full time job since I have not been called back for a face to face interview after my phone interview (my daughter assures me this is normal operating procedure and it takes forever and not to panic). Here are my plans, based on items still on hand:

Chicken stir fry

Basmati rice

Mandarin oranges

 

London Broil

Pasta and Lentil salad

 

Mediterranean Steak Salad

Hawaiian rolls

 

Veggie omelets with hollandaise sauce

Scottish skillet potatoes

 

BBQ spare ribs

German potato salad

Corn on the cob

 

Slub Glub

Salad

 

Loco Moco

Hawaiian coleslaw

 

Grilled chicken provencal

Rice a roni

Green beans

 

Spaghetti with meatballs

Salad

 

Spicy Pineapple Rum pork chops

Baked potatoes

Broccoli

 

Honey-Mustard pork scallopine

Rice a roni

Capri blend veggies

 

Zesty Lemon-Oregano grilled tilapia

Rosemary roasted potatoes

Candied carrots

 

Maple grilled salmon fillets

Baked potatoes

Capri blend veggies

 

Chicken fajitas

Yellow rice

Refried beans

 

Tropical pork kebobs

Steamed rice

Green salad

 

Pasta carbonara Florentine

Broccoli

 

Sun dried tomato and tuna penne

Parmesan zucchini

 

Grilled cheddar brats

Butter crumb egg noodles

Green beans

 

Grilled Italian chicken thighs

Pasta salad

 

Asian Summer salad

Hawaiian rolls

 

Chili Lime grilled tilapia

Spanish rice

Corn

 

Cottage Pie

Harvard beets

 

Chicken parmesan

Pasta with sauce

Salad

 

Coffee rubbed steaks

Twice baked potatoes

Capri blend veggies

 

Spinach quiche

Salad

 

 

Pasta au pistou

Garlic bread