October #4 - just food stuff

Good evening 

I’ve known all week that 3 grands would be spending tonight here.  Pizza is always a good meal for Friday night. 

So I made the dough this morning and kept it in the fridge in an oiled bag.  

This is my go to pizza crust recipe- 

There are lots of good pizza crust recipes.  I like this one because the dough is always so easy to roll out.  

The cornmeal adds a nice chewy texture to the doughy too.  

One son came for lunch so I made some pimento cheese for us to eat.  

I use grated sharp cheddar (but I think most traditional southern variations use mild cheddar or American) diced pimentos, dill pickle relish, yellow mustard and just enough mayo to hold it together,  

And a little salt and pepper 

It’s good as a sandwich filling, on celery or crackers.  

If you like spicy,  it’s delicious in a jalapeño pepper half too 🌶 

When it was time to make the pizzas,  I made one round one that my husband and I ate. 

I rolled out the other half of the dough into 3 individual pizzas and the 3 grands topped them like they wanted.  

The baked at 425 for almost 20 minutes - but my oven bakes a little slow compared to others I’ve used.  

So- that recaps the easy meals I prepared today. 

Hope you are all well 

❤️ Rhonda 

October #3- home things and a little freezer cooking

Hello everyone

 

It was a such a busy summer and I never planted my big zinnia bed but we had a few zinnias come up as volunteers. 

When I cleaned up the flower beds this week,  I pulled the last of them and clipped off the best flowers for an indoor arrangement.  

For a quick lunch, I made grilled cheese sandwiches.  Mine is just cheese and my husband’s also has a ham slice.  

Grilled cheese are so good and convenient.  

I think a lot of people in the fast food drive throughs  would be better off to just go home and have grilled cheese instead of burgers and chicken.  

I did a little bulk, freezer cooking today. 

I put 2 beef roasts in the big crockpot and a tray of Aldi chicken breasts in the other.  

I added a little water and cooked both until they were tender. 

The chicken was done in about 4 hours and the roasts took about 6 hours. 

I shredded the meat and bagged it for the freezer 

This will be used for chicken salad, chicken pot pie, vegetable beef soup, hot roast beef  sandwiches, beef fried rice - 

Lots of yummy and quick meals! 

Speaking of Aldi,  I went there twice this week.  

I found bath towel sets for my daughter when they stage their bathrooms as they ready their home to sell. 

I also bought some yummy and huge strawberries there.  

  

I started this week still feeling poorly mostly from my fall when walking our dog.  

I did a few things but I rested a lot this week and thankfully I am feeling much better! 

Rest can do amazing things 

Hope you all have had a very good week 

❤️Rhonda 

October #2 - a few frugal things

Good morning,  we’ve just gone through a few expensive months so I’m planning to go back to my extra-frugal ways for October.  

I worked on my to do list today and yesterday and have finished several things. 

Yesterday I did all the laundry and washed our bedding.  

I still like to indoor-dry most of our clothes on hangers (I machine wash with fabric softener, shake out the wrinkles and then hang them in doorways until they dry all the way) 

Ducky got a bath at home and he smells much better.  Ducky and I both like when he goes to the doggy spa for a day of play and bathing but it costs $65.  

I also cut his long facial hair as it was growing where his sight seemed obstructed.  I used some sharp kid scissors with blunt ends and it worked just fine.  Then I cleaned his ears with baby wipes.  Dogs with long flappy ears are cute but are prone to ear problems. 

I think I still need to trim over his left eye a bit more

In my kitchen,  I’ve been using Sterlite bins to organize my lower cabinets and freezer.  

I decided my pots and pans needed bins and thought about ordering some (but their current price is so much higher than when I bought our older ones,) 

I remember I had set a castoff stack of assorted bins and tubs in the storm building and amazingly- several of them worked just right! 

One bin has small stoneware pieces, one has skillets and a Dutch oven, one has lids and one has a Dutch oven and saucepans.

Don’t you love it when you accomplish a task using stuff you already have? 

Attached pullouts would work even better but these bins work just fine for me!  

About the red cookware- I bought it on Amazon and like it, but I don’t like it enough that  I would re-buy it.  

It is very attractive and I’ve gotten lots of comments on it though.  

I had some heavy cream in the fridge so I made a double batch of freezer biscuits.  

We ate some with supper and the rest are bagged in the freezer for future meals.  

This recipe is so easy and delicious!  And any brand of flour will work - I used Great Value unbleached because it’s what I had 

I’ve been hearing from several friends about the outrageous prices of insulin type prescription medicines.  

I’m sorry for everyone struggling with this. 

Thankfully we don’t need insulin meds  and I think if we did,  our medical plan would cover them.

I’m covered by a VA plan and got my 3 months of medicines by mail yesterday - 

Just a tiny blood pressure pill and a potassium every other day capsule because the b/p medicine lowers my potassium too much.  

The day is still young and I need to shower after working in the front flower beds.  

Hope you all are having a good beginning of October 🍁  🎃 🌽  

❤️ Rhonda 

October #1 to do list, fun with grands, a new house? Replies …….

Hello everyone 

First, here is my “hope to do” list for this week 

3 of our grands were here yesterday.  One of them has been wanting to make a decorated layer cake for the longest time so we made that happen.  

I made the cake and the frosting with kiddo-help.  Then 6 year old Jackson did most of the cake icing and all of the decorating 

He did decide frosting a cake is much harder than it looks on cooking shows.  

   

Jackson with his masterpiece ❤️ 

Cora is doing just fine and we love having her in our family. 

She doesn’t stay with us on weekdays anymore  but attends a very nice childcare.  

Our daughter and family are hoping to buy a bigger home.  I looked at one of them this weekend with them,  it’s an older home in an older neighborhood.  

The owners lived there for 60 years and were serious about having a pretty yard.  

There are 2 fish ponds in the backyard with living fish 

You’ll have to look close at the bottom photo but the little goldfish are swimming in there 

The hedge along the front needs trimmed but it looks like Christmas tree branches. I’ve never seen shrubs like this.  

It’s very pretty!  It’s a long row of hedges all along the length of the garage, maybe 4-5 feet tall.  

Replies———

More about the Gold Bond crepe erase lotion- it’s an excellent moisturizer and I use it anywhere I use lotion but I’ve noticed the most improvement  on my hands, arms and neck.  

It does NOT have that normal Gold Bond eucalyptus like scent at all. 

About the waffle weave towels- almost no lint compared to last new terry cloth towels we bought.  

About those big red books - they are old cast-off library books- bound Life magazine issues, mostly from the 1940s.  
They are so fun to read and very interesting- but- they are so big and heavy! 

It’s a beautiful day here in OK and it’s time for me to get busy 

❤️ Rhonda 

September #2 - some products I like and replies

I’ve tried a few new products that I really like and think they are worth sharing,  

We needed new bath towels and I bought waffle weave ones on Amazon.  We think they dry us off after showers just as well as the traditional thick terry cloth ones.  

The advantage is the waffle weave towels machine dry much quicker than thicker towels. 

I always cut tags off of new towels, pillows, etc.  Tags bug me 

I found mini Turkey pepperoni at our commissary with the shelf stable pepperoni.  

They are about the size of a dime and it’s so quick to sprinkle them onto a homemade pizza. 

 My granddaughter says they don’t pull off the toppings like biting into a big pepperoni. 

They taste really good too.  

This is  a new lotion I ordered from Amazon for about $10 a tube.  It has no scent and for me,  it did just what the package says it will do.  

  

Our weather is just starting to cool off a bit and I realized I have almost no cool weather clothing.  

So Saturday,  I ordered some clothes from JCPENNY, Walmart and DressBarn. 

Walmart is shipping my 4 pair of pants in 4 shipments.  I like the first pair that arrived , I don’t like the 2nd pair and I’m still waiting on the other 2. 

JCP shipped my entire order together.  It arrived today and I like all of them.  I liked their quick shipping and  prices too! 

The first navy piece is a cardigan and the last 2 tops are just plain v-neck tops with 3/4 sleeves.  

I ordered 3 nicer tops from DressBarn and they have been shipped together and should arrive end of this week.  

Last,  I’ll do some replies.  

William Durant? I had to look him up and I don’t think he’s anywhere on my bookshelf.

Dog training is a good idea but for now,  I’ll just play catch with Ducky in the backyard and will do my walks without Ducky.  He’s not a big dog but is very strong.  

I do know deep bruises and torn things can take a long time to heal.  We had a car accident a few years ago and my bruised sternum hurt for months.  

I am taking it easy and my husband is helping with things too.  

Thank you all for your comments ❤️ I missed this social part of blogging 

❤️Rhonda 

September #1———hello

Hello everyone- I’m still here, just haven’t had much free time for blogging or taking photos when I have had time to do stuff.  Over the last 6 weeks,  I’ve taken a few photos so I guess I’ll just show them and hopefully in the future will have more current posts. 

I made my first pretty to do list since the beginning of summer or so.  

I wrote out most of these tasks Saturday morning, before I took Ducky for a walk.  Ducky has been getting lots of walks but instead of acting better on the walks, he has been acting worse by pulling and raring up and jumping. 

Anyway, he pulled me over Saturday morning and I fell with my left hand and shoulder taking the force.  I didn’t break anything but I am bruised and sore.  

So, exercise and heavy housework has been put off for a few days.  

Now onto a few things I did get accomplished recently. 

We bought fresh peaches- trucked in from Georgia and Colorado 3 times.  We ate some and put most in the freezer.  

  

  

All the peaches are just so good! 

See that pile of big red books on the floor?  My summer was so busy and those books sat right there for about 3 months!  The book shelf has been rearranged and all books are on the shelf now. 

But that just describes how my summer home things went - we ate meals and kept the dishes and laundry done but the not-necessary tasks just had to wait.  

The very tall bookshelf, built by my husband, with no books on the floor anymore.  

I’ll try to post again tomorrow- I was going to make this longer but my  blog editor app keeps shutting down. 

Hope you’re all fine— 

❤️Rhonda 

August #2

Hello again 

Y’all are so sweet with all the comments on yesterday’s post.  I agree that Cora is lucky or blessed, whatever you like to call it, to be in our family.  She had been in foster care for most of her life.  

But I think we are even more blessed than she is, to get to watch her grow up.  She really is a wonderful little girl.  

She did great at her first day of baby school.  

Here are her 3 day old shoes after 1 day at baby school 

Looks like they were worn by a little girl playing hard all day.  

Supper tonight was stuffed peppers, naked okra and chopped salad.  

I’ve blogged about naked okra before and it’s so good and easy.  In a hot nonstick skillet,  I add about 1/2 T of olive oil and then I add a bag of frozen okra.  I let it cook until okra thaws and starts to brown, then I add some diced onion, salt and pepper and let it cook on medium heat until everything is very brown.  It takes maybe 20 minutes from start to finish.  I promise it is not slimy cooked this way.  

Lejmom asked how I drain ground beef.  I use this pasta pot.  I cook the meat all the way through.  Then I add hot water straight from the faucet into the pasta pot and meat.  I rinse the meat several times and drain it through the holes in the lid.  It works great! 

link to previous post about my pasta pot

I just looked on Amazon and they still sell my model but of course the price is much higher than it used to be.  

I got mine free but I liked it so much and bought one for daughter several years ago.  She still uses hers often, mostly for pasta.  They are also great for cooking corn on the cob and then just drain off the water through the holes in the lid.  

A kitchen tip - we eat a lot of produce so we have skins and peels and seeds to deal with.  

When I’m preparing produce,   I spread out a grocery bag and put all the cast off parts on it. 

  

When I’m done,  it’s easy to just fold up the bag and dispose of it.  

In the past we tried composting stuff like this.  We followed advice and had a turning composter but our garbage never composted so now we just put it in the trash. 

But you do whatever works for you.  

Blogger has made so many changes.  Today when I edited my blog roll, of all the blogs I try to read,  it changed settings and only shows a few.  

They are still there,  you just have to click on the See All link under the last one.  

I know several of you use my blog to keep up with blogs you like and I hope this works ok for you.  

I’ll got on the desktop computer soon and see if I can fix it but it may be a few days 

And for now,  I don’t have a link for subscribers to sign up.  There are several hoops to just through to set one up and maybe I’ll get around to it soon,  

Have a good week everyone 

❤️ Rhonda 

August things

Good evening everyone- this summer has truly gone by in a blur.  

The best news from this summer is we have a new granddaughter-  an adorable 2 year old named Cora.  She is healthy, happy, very smart, very busy, funny and loved by all of us.  

  
She is fond of her cousins,  especially Elizabeth who Cora calls “Beth” 

Because she is adopted and that situation,  I won’t be sharing much about her.  

She has been spending her days with us, while her parents work,  for about 2 months.  But tomorrow,  she starts full time at a child care center.  

Our town has a number of day care centers but they all have waiting lists- there seems to be shortages of most everything anymore but an opening for her came up.  

I’m a bit nervous about daycare -  but Cora seems to be easily adaptable and very brave so I’m probably worried for nothing.  

My mom has had a rough summer.  She spent almost 2 weeks in a hospital and then 3 weeks in a skilled nursing home.  

Now she is back at their retirement home in Respite Care,  which I’m not sure of the definition but it’s a lot like assisted living with hopes that she will back to previous mobility and health.  

  

It’s a very comfortable apartment.  It has a living area,  a bedroom, a bathroom all accessible for her needs and a small kitchenette.  

Her meals are all provided  so the the kitchen is used by her guests.  

My dad still sleeps in the apartment down the hall where they have lived for 5 years but he spends his days with Mom in this respite apartment,  

Mom still has a ways to go but she looks better now than she has since at least a month before her surgery.  

The nursing shortage, because of Covid,  is also affecting their retirement home.  The nursing staff is short handed and the nurses  there are working way more than 40 hours.  Their Director of Nursing normally would be in a office doing paperwork and such but she working on the floor doing patient care.  

Covid really has had a detrimental domino effect on so many things.  

You all know I like to bulk cook.  I did a big grocery pickup yesterday (yes, Covid is so concerning and I’m staying stocked up) 

This morning,  I made 2 salad and cooked 7 pounds of ground beef.   And Yes, today is Sunday but I had it all cooked and the kitchen cleaned up in plenty of time to watch our local church service streaming on line.  

Some of the beef was cooked with just onions and I will use it for things like soup, goulash and stuffed peppers.  

The rest of the ground beef was cooked with taco seasoning.  

That’s a green salad,  a diced veggie salad and extra diced onions.  

\

Taco meat and plain burger 

All divided and in freezer containers 

If you want to see inside our freezer——

The top 2 shelves are mostly things I cooked to freeze like today’s meat, chili, pasta sauce, chicken broth, etc. 

also peaches and grated cheese 

there are also some big containers of pecans and walnuts 

Also on the 2nd shelf are bags of frozen vegetables.  

The 3rd shelf is meat straight from the store- assorted chicken pieces, chicken sausage, more ground beef

On the 4th shelf are bags of blackberries and green beans from our garden and bags of grated cheese. 

Then on the very bottom are whole chickens and more vegetables.  

So, that’s what has been going on with my home and family.  This week I plan to get some homekeeping things caught up,  visit my parents everyday and my husband will be having an outpatient back procedure (as long as Covid doesn’t blow up so much that the VA hospital stops non-emergency procedures before his appointment) 

Hope you all have a good week and hope you all stay safe

❤️ Rhonda