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.

A Yummy Fall treat

Although we are experiencing a few days of summer like weather here on the north coast I've been craving one of my favorite fall treats: Fall Harvest Cake.
The original recipe comes from Gooseberry Patch's Flavors of Fall cookbook  shared by a woman with whom I posted for a good number of years on a message board about recipes. Most of her recipes there were big hits and I was certain before even trying this one for the first time that would hold true for this as well. In the years since first making this I've served it at school (in the days before the healthy eating initiative) and altered it slightly by leaving out the pecans and adding dried cranberries. At home here I use both. I've also experimented and decided I prefer maple sugar over the brown sugar when I have it. Brown sugar is far less expensive however.
I whipped up the batter (using the last granny smith apple) and put it in the oven!  Seventy minutes at 350 degrees and the cake was ready to come out of the oven.  The original recipe also includes a frosting but my personal opinion is that a sprinkle of powdered sugar over the top is enough. The cake is very sweet on its own.

Fall Harvest Cake
Gooseberry Patch's Flavors of Fall
Lynda McCormack

 1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar (or maple sugar)
2 t. cinnamon
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. ginger
1 c. oil
1/2 t. vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 c. all purpose flour
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
1 apple, cored, peeled and  chopped
1/2 c. chopped pecans
my addition: 1/2 c. dried cranberries

Mix first 10 ingredients; add flour 1/2 cup at a time, blend in pumpkin then fold in apples, pecans, and cranberries if you use them. Grease and flour bundt pan and pour in batter. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 70 minutes. Cool 20 minutes on a wire rack. Serves 12

Sunday Supper and Planned Overs

It seems as if this weekend was full of meals that I had future plans for. Our Sunday supper was a delicious eye of round roast purchased at the whole sale club for $14 and cut in half before freezing. I pulled one of these out of the freezer and I seasoned it with Mccormack's Montreal Steak seasoning blend before putting in the oven.
. Alongside I made homemade from scratch genuine mashed potatoes . My favorite potato for these is the basic russet which I peel and cut in half before cooking until fork tender. Unlike a lot of folks I don't much care for your everyday potato masher, I just don't think that tool gets the potatoes as fine as I like, so I use this handy tool  the potato ricer! After pressing the cooked potatoes through this back into the still hot pot they were cooked in I add Smart balance spread, organic milk, and a smidge of salt and pepper and then beat it all together with a slotted spoon. Yum. To round out our meal I served canned corn and brown gravy (take the drippings from the roast, add a bit of beef stock made by combining beef base and hot water to measure one cup and set aside. Melt two tablespoons of butter, whisk in two tablespoons of flour until smooth and just starting to turn brown, add the broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until thickened. Taste to adjust seasoning and serve).
Knowing that I wanted to use some of this roast again I set aside a good amount of it for a future Beef Stroganoff dish! Two "fancy" beef meals for $3.50 each for the meat. I'll take that.

One Small Chicken..Four big meals..One tiny price

Although I create, shop for, and try to stick as closely as possible to a monthly menu plan there are times when I do go off the plan. Yesterday was one of those occasions. I've been actually craving a good roasted chicken and my friend with whom I am spending a weekend was on board. We stopped at a local grocery store and he purchased the ingredients. Total cost $11.63
I was a bit disappointed that the largest chicken they had on hand was only 4 pounds but since it was just the two of us we went with that. I seasoned the chicken and put it in the oven to roast

. A box of Stovetop stuffing mix from his pantry cupboard

and fresh baby carrots that I cooked and then candied with butter and brown sugar as well as some homemade gravy from the roast chicken drippings rounded out this meal.
This morning I took the chicken carcass and cut off a nice amount of white meat from it for my friend to warm up with leftover gravy and carrots for an evening meal for himself during the week then placed the remaining chicken carcass along with the wings and one remaining quarter leg into a slow cooker. I added carrots, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning, covered it all with cold water and turned it on low to simmer while we went about our day's activities. This stock became the basis of a chicken noodle soup lunch after I cooked and added more carrots and a half a bag of kluski style noodles to it.
After enjoying a couple of bowls of hot soup for lunch we have enough leftovers for another meal for him plus enough for me to take home to the kids for hot lunches on Monday for them!

New England Style Boiled Dinner

  Tonight I am digging into some of our favorite recipes and using one my Mom gave me (although she just called it Cottage Ham and cabbage). The weather has been blustery and damp and I look forward to having this meal simmering on the back of the stove while I do my Monday afternoon house cleaning chores. I like to add potatoes and carrots to Mom's basic recipe and serve this with corn muffins.
Here are the recipes for both of these items:

Sorta Like Mom's New England Style Boiled Dinner:
Serves 6

3 lb. smoked boneless ham shoulder (aka Cottage Ham)
1/2 head of cabbage, cut into wedges
6 small potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 pound of baby carrots
1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper

Place all ingredients in a dutch oven, cover with water (or chicken broth), cover pot and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer on low for 2 hours until potatoes, carrots, and cabbage are cooked through.

 Corn Muffins:
1 cup flour
1 cup yellow or white cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar (I like to use maple sugar)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk (I use sour milk)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 egg beaten
Preheat oven to 400 degrees, grease or line with paper liners 12 muffin cups. Combine dry ingredients, make a well in the center and add wet ingredients. Mix together well. Spoon 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin cup. Bake 12-15minutes until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool and serve.