BEDA - winding up

Sorry I missed several days of BEDA but my week went off track - 

Wednesday the youngest grandson chipped a tooth at school and was in quite a bit of pain and I just focused on his needs.  

Thursday my husband had an outpatient procedure done on his back and it was stressful but so far,  it’s seeming like it might be a success- it takes time to know for sure but we are thankful it went as well as  it did.  

So Friday,  I tired to catch up doing all the things I didn’t do Wednesday and Thursday.  I got a lot done but I also wore myself out.  

I’m pretty sure y’all can all relate……

So on to today

I’ve been looking for a good blueberry muffin recipe. I’ve tried several but they weren’t as good as I hoped.  Y

I baked this version from an older Betty Crocker cookbook this morning.  They were great! 

2 of them are streusel-less as one grandson said he didn’t like streusel 🤷🏻‍♀️

I made the recipe exactly as written except I used wild frozen blueberries and added more cinnamon to the streusel.  

We needed a few groceries so I went to Walmart this morning.

 I didn’t look at all the prices but I was shocked to see the cheapest eggs were $3.08 for 1 dozen and small watermelon were $8.47!

Thankfully we have 2 sources of home raised eggs.  

But I’m guessing all of you are seeing these shocking grocery price increases.  

We had a really nice treat  today that was free. 

My daughter entered a contest sponsored by a new local company that specializes in charcuterie type snacks and 6

She won a dozen snack cups.  

The cups were identical and I’ll try to list everything in 1 cup

Chocolate covered cashews and in shell pistachios on the bottom

A giant strawberry and 2 blueberries on a skewer

Giant grapes on another skewer

Mini Stroop waffle cookie

A flat pretzel cracker dipped in chocolate 

A salami rose

Long piece of cheese- maybe a mild cheddar?

A long pretzel and a twizzler

All 7 of us thought these were a very fun treat.  

This is not something I will buy but we live in a college town and I expect this business will do very well here.  

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #26 Walmart, supper and a few replies

Hello everyone 

I needed to take a return of something bought online to Walmart.  

I also wanted to get some chapstick and fresh fruit 

Here’s what I bought at Walmart for $42 

Fruit 

Chapstick and water flavor drops 

Egg dye for next Easter. I’ve already put it in the box of Easter decorations that I store away from year to year. Walmart had Easter things 90% off. It was mostly egg dying kit and most of them were pretty crazy looking but I like the way these looked kind of natural.

I also think the eggs dye better when the cups  have two tablets in them instead of just one. And that’s why I bought so many.

Three tops and a pair of black pants, all for me. They were on clearance at pretty good prices.


The reason I felt bad yesterday was because I haven’t been sleeping well. And that’s because my husband was away in Arkansas helping his parents. When my husband was an active duty Marine, I think he was gone as much as he was home. And I don’t remember having trouble sleeping back then. But now when he’s gone, I’m not scared. I just don’t sleep well.

He came back home today and I decided to fix a really good supper. We had meatloaf, mashed potatoes, baked carrots and a little bit of asparagus from our garden.

Lejmom Jane asked about picky  eaters. The three grandchildren living with us do prefer to eat like average children. They would like to have hamburgers, pizza, and tacos most every meal. But the older they get the less picky they are. 

Two of these grandchildren don’t like very much spice. One of the adults doesn’t like black beans, one doesn’t like carrots, one is allergic to avocado, one doesn’t like raw onion. 

Most of the picky issues are pretty easy to deal with. If you notice in the photo above, part of the meatloaf does not have sauce and that’s an easy adjustment I’m happy to make.  

 Cheryl  Some of those Youtubers are such fear mongers. 

There may be big problems in the future but I don’t know how some of these Youtubers can be so sure about everything. I think they must make a lot more money when they have viewers keep turning in for more of their predictions, which all that is is predictions. I don’t think when Covid started, anybody could have predicted that two years later the world would still be dealing with it in a big way. Yes, there may be very big problems in the future. But there may not be. I do think it is very wise to keep someone of a stock pile at home. But if things get as bad as one channel I watched predicts, I think people would come and steal whatever food you had stockpiled anyway. So I’m not watching any channels about doomsday stuff. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t know what the future is but I do know God is in control. I’m not going to be an ostrich with my head in the sand but I’m not going to live in fear either.

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #25 to do list but very little productivity today

I’m not feeling 100% today. I did write out the list and I did get a few things done but not much.

My biggest accomplishment was washing and putting the clean sheets and blankets back on the 3 grandkids beds. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel like doing my normal tasks.

I watched several episodes of my new favorite YouTuber, In The Kitchen With Momma Mel.  Everyone in our household enjoys watching Momma Mel cook.  She was one of the few YouTubers I have found who doesn’t seem to be trying to sell me something or scare me about something or influence me politically about something. She just films as she cook supper most every evening. Her meals are not fancy but they are food that we would enjoy. She is also very G rated.

This is the link to her latest video 

https://youtu.be/2mt6jOuybLg

Talk to y’all Tuesday 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #24. a little food prep for the coming week

Hello everyone,  no weather excitement today 🙂

We did a bit of planning for meals for the next few days.  

For supper, I made big pan of fried rice.  My fried rice has very little oil and lots of vegetables.

Son in law John made teriyaki chicken thighs

I also made a fruit tray.

We have leftovers from last night’s meal (ribs, Mac and cheese, salad, rolls and link sausage)and lots of leftovers from tonight’s meal.

The employed adults made work lunches and we will still have enough leftovers for supper the next 2 nights.  

I like cooking but I’m looking forward to a couple of days off 

We didn’t forget about breakfast.  

I made a double batch of this recipe- except I didn’t double the sausage.  

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/241105/sausage-hash-brown-breakfast-casserole/

I’m obviously not a skilled food photographer but this casserole looks better in person and tastes really good too.  

Hope you all have had a nice weekend 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #23 supper and after supper sheltering 😳😵😱

Hello 

Supper was ribs cooked by son in law John, mac and cheese made by daughter Nina, rolls made by me and a salad. 

Then we had some exciting weather and went to our storm shelter.  

So far no big tornados have touched down and we have got some very needed rain. 

We will stay aware but don’t worry about us.  Our shelter is very safe and Oklahoma has the best meteorologists in the world.  

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #22 supper and replies

For supper, we had a new to us recipe

Pepperoni Rolls - the state food  of West Virginia 

They were delicious!

I used Heidi’s recipe from her YouTube channel 

We also had a big salad. 

https://youtu.be/BmhCxkISFUQ

Pleasant temperatures and breezes meant we had our windows most of today

I wish everyday was like today 

Terri  this is the recipe I used for inspiration for the dipping sauce.  I didn’t cook the ham like this at all 

but for a sauce 

 I did heat up

1/2 C honey

1/4 C balsamic Vinegar 

1/4 Cup Dijon mustard 

Good pinch of red pepper flakes 

That’s all I used and it was delicious on sliced ham and grilled chicken 

Also Terri,  I’m not positive how long it blooms,  I’ll keep track of the bleeding heart but it doesn’t last long.  It is gorgeous while it’s blooms

Tammy- Jackson wears Zenni glasses too and his eye doctor approves

About the Easter buttercream eggs- I don’t have a recipe and but I think this recipe is very close to the eggs we were gifted.  

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/easter-egg-buttercream-candies/

Ours were definitely dipped in semisweet chocolate and were also decorated so pretty.  

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #21

Breakfast was a Dutch Baby - recipe is HERE

It’s one of my favorite breakfasts- very simple ingredients but it does require 25 minutes to bake 

My big job today was weeding 2 flower beds.  One was no big deal but this one in the front took several hours 

before 

And after 

It had lots weeds! It hasn’t got much care in a year and I knew it would take some effort but I’m so glad it’s looking better. 

I plan to sow a bunch of zinnia seeds to fill in all the empty spots.  

This bleeding heart looks so pretty for about a week while it’s blooming 

Terri- I’ll post a picture tomorrow of the sauce recipe.  It called for whole grain mustard but I didn’t put it in, only because we didn’t have any 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #19 & 20 a Remarkable, a tasty sauce and I was just tired

Hello 

Sorry about missing BEDA yesterday.  

After a very fun family Easter,  I could really relate to the post by Kim 

http://outmywindowtoday.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2022-04-19T13:37:00-07:00&max-results=1&start=1&by-date=false

Some days I do go back to bed or just sit.  

Even though I wanted to on Monday and Tuesday, didn’t go back to bed and I did push through getting our home cleaned back up.  Because it was a mess! 

 I’m glad I did but I didn’t really feel like it.  

I’m sure most all my readers can relate, right?  

My son in law came home with a new device yesterday, a Remarkable.  

It looks like a very thin iPad.  It does use the internet but it’s doesn’t go to websites or play games.

It’s for taking notes as you can write on it like you do on paper. Then if you want,  it can convert your handwriting into text.

 It is also a way to keep copies of documents. And it probably does other stuff but that’s just what I learned yesterday.

John is employed by our university and does lots of paper stuff so I’m sure he will use this device a lot. I’m guessing it could be very useful for anyone that writes a lot. I looked them up on Amazon and they are very expensive but he says he got his with some sort of a benefit thing at work or something like that, I didn’t really pay attention much.  In fact he was shocked when I showed him how much they cost on Amazon. They cost as much as an iPad. I certainly don’t need one but I can see where they could be very beneficial for some people, you could keep many things on a Remarkable without having stacks and stacks of papers and notebooks.

For Easter we had a ham. I made a simple dipping sauce out of a half a cup of honey, a quarter cup balsamic vinegar and a quarter cup Dijon mustard, and a few red pepper flakes.  The recipe also called for whole-grain mustard but we didn’t have any.

The sauce was really good!

We did not have mountains of leftover ham like  

Jane at Hope and Thrift

So when my husband grilled chicken this week, He used the last of the dipping sauce to glaze the chicken at the end of cooking. That sauce was really good on chicken just like it was on ham. 

 Today has been an easy day. 

Husband and I will just have leftovers for supper and daughter’s family is eating at church.  

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #18 to do list and eggs

Hello 

Another Monday, another new to do list - plain and not pretty this time 

Today was mostly filled with laundry- I think I did 7 loads.  

We colored eggs yesterday so  today I turned them into egg salad and doubled  eggs to eat this week 

Thankfully they all peeled really easy 

Lots of egg salad for lunches and we ate most of the double eggs with our sloppy joes at supper.  

My husband bought this mushroom cutter awhile back.  We don’t eat mushrooms very often but I do use it whenever I need to chop eggs.

It works great! 

Then I crushed up the shells and worked them into one of the raised beds in the garden,  

More Parsimony - about my Zenni glasses, I do wear progressive bifocals and I have no complaints about my Zenni lenses. 

 I don’t have a very strong prescription and whether this makes a difference,  I don’t know.  I just know I’m happy with Zenni.  

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #17 Easter fun and technical issues

Hello everyone 

The first fun thing today was a big basket by the front door from a secret Easter bunny 

Photo was taken through the dining room window looking out to the front door 

Jackson didn’t want to pose for a photo, he wanted to open the basket 😁

The basket was full of candy and treats geared to all of us like Black Rifle coffee, pickled asparagus and green beans, bath bombs, nail polish, bubbles…..

We know who brought the basket but they want to be anonymous so we keep it that way.  Isn’t this a fun family tradition for them? 

I took more photos today with my phone but they aren’t downloading to the iPad I blog on so that’s all I have for you today.

Hope you all had a special and fun Easter 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #16 getting ready for a big meal Sunday and new eyeglasses

Hello everyone 

We’re hosting Easter lunch and I think there will be 16 of us.  

So today,  I did some cooking and prepping ahead 

A grandson nicknamed these double eggs and I prefer that name 

No picture but I baked this and will serve with sliced peaches put in the freezer last summer and whipped cream. 

Potatoes ready to make scalloped potatoes and carrots ready to bake 

   

Granddaughter Elizabeth thought it was hilarious I was making a crust for this “salad”

Yes, we know it’s not really a salad but southerners call dishes like this salad and it’s ok 

It’s really delicious but I did make 1/2 a recipe as the whole recipe makes a lot! 

Homemade buttercream eggs from a sweet friend 

We’re also having smoked ham, green beans, rolls and a ham sauce.  

Tonight, my daughter is making a big pot of chili.

We’ll freeze the extra for future meals. 

And yes, it has beans in it.  

Our Zenni glasses arrived.  2 pair are mine, one pair is my daughter’s and the pair out of a case is my almost 5 year old pair of Zenni glasses that are still in great condition but my prescription has changed a bit. 

I know there are pros and cons ordering glasses.  

It works for us though 

These 3 pair with express shipping and upgraded lenses was about $210 total.  

They took almost 2 weeks arrive.  

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #15 eating, gardening, stitching - and - Hope and Thrift blog is back ❤️

Hello everyone 

For breakfast, 2 of the grands helped me bake 

streusel puff muffins

And 

chocolate chip muffins

Both recipes are family favorites and have been baked in my kitchen for decades 

Husband and I worked in the garden this morning - mostly getting beds ready for planting 

The tomato plants he planted maybe a week or 2 ago are doing OK 

Tammy

it has been crazy windy in Oklahoma for 2 weeks, just like you said it is in Nebraska.  It has not been much fun being outside all month, 

but this morning, the winds were milder for a few hours.  But when they picked up, I went back inside.  

The broccoli in the giant planter seems to growing - not sure about the romaine though 

Daughter and family went to Oklahoma City to select brick and appliances for their home being built ( the slab was poured today) 

Oklahoma made brick has a wait time of 5 months and Arkansas made brick has a 4 month wait time.  

She was a little overwhelmed by the appliance choices so no orders or purchase were made today.  

Since they were gone,  we got takeout from Texas Roadhouse 

It was delicious and there are leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch.  

I worked some on this plastic canvas project- a bunny with 3 baby bunnies in her apron pockets

I’m sure some of you remember Hope & Thrift .  Well,  good news is she has opened back up her blog from private to public.  

It doesn’t sound like right now she plans to make many new posts but her archives have so much information about gardening and food preservation,  cooking,  thrifting, and doing everything on a shoestring and making it beautiful as she goes along-  anyway—— if you remember Jane or if you want to check out an excellent blog,  go visit 

http://hopeandthrift.blogspot.com/

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #14 gardening, supper in shifts and paid to test toilet paper

 We’re eating supper in shifts tonight. 

My husband and I prefer early suppers.  The youngest grand was here till 6 when his other grandmother picked him up for a baseball game. 

The middle grand and his dad are at another baseball event and oldest grand and her mother are at a dance event.  

So this is my solution tonight

I pulled out the 13X9 crockpot that rarely gets used. 

On one end is a pound of taco meat. In the back is some lentil taco from the freezer. And in the front is the rice left over from the other night when we had red beans and rice, I seasoned up to be sort of Mexican flavor, with a can of Rotel tomato’s, a little butter, a little chicken bouillon dissolved in water  and some Goya seasoning.  
Then I put everything in the crockpot and it’s sitting there on warm for people to eat as they need to. In the fridge are traditional toppings like shredded lettuce, diced up tomatoes,  onions, salsa, sour cream, cheese. And on the counter are some bags with a few tortillas and some crunched up tortilla chips, things that have been hanging out in the pantry and need to be used.

My husband and I had bowls. And Jackson had a taco with two helpings of rice. He is a big fan of rice.

His fingernails are dirty because he helped me do some gardening. We planted some zinnia and petunia seeds that we started in the house. We put them in bigger planters outside.

There is a lot of weeding to do in different parts of our yard and garden. But I was happy I spotted this weed while it was still little. I believe it is an elm. But whatever it is, when it gets much bigger than this one, it is almost impossible to kill or get out of the ground. This one was small enough that I was able to just pull it out. But a few others that we have not caught have had to be dug up with a lot of effort to get the whole root and plant out.

I’ve posted about Esearch before 

https://www.esearch.com/

They are a company that does product testing.  

I’ve done a few laundry tests for them and just got paid for a 10 day toilet tissue test.  

They ask you questions before they start and pick who they’re going to select for the testing. Then they ship you the product to test and give you exact days to use it. There are also several email surveys but they are straightforward and not difficult to do. They pay well! I always answer whenever I get an email from them about a possible product testing. I don’t get very many of them and I probably get selected for less than half of the ones that I apply for, but it’s very worth my time when I do get in on one. 

So if you haven’t signed up with them, go to the Link.  You might fit the demographics they want and you might get picked for some nicely paid surveys, who knows? 

https://www.esearch.com/

❤️ Rhonda