September #2 - mostly kitchen stuff

Hello 

It’s still just weird around here.  Our little county is now in the Red Zone as classified by the virus numbers.  I’m normally optimistic but this seems to have no end in sight.  

So, we are just staying busy with home stuff, staying at home or in safe places,  and staying busy.  

Here’s my current to-do list

More peppers- my husband’s plants are just producing so much! 

So this last batch,  I sliced the bells into strips along with onions and froze them in meal size bags.  They will get sautéed like fajita style veggies and be eaten on fajitas or any kind of Mexican meal.  

I also diced more jalapeños and froze them too.  

I made a double recipe of the cheddar carrots recipe I shared in my last post and they were so good!

I also made a double batch of Mexican Wedding Cookies/Russian Tea cakes/SnowBall cookies.  I didn’t add the chopped nuts or roll them in powdered sugar.  

Instead,  I made flattened balls of the cookie dough and dipped some in sprinkles, some in mini chocolate chips and topped some with pecan halves.  

They brought big smiles to everyone I shared them with.  

My husband needed a knee X-ray in Oklahoma City this week.  It was near the military Commissary we like so much.  We haven’t shopped there since  March 1st so we went after he had the X-ray.  

The Commissary is huge and I feel very claustrophobic wearing masks, so we only shopped a few aisles and the meat department.  

Their meat prices were so low and they have very nice quality.

Ducky smells the meat.  😀 I like the brown paper sacks so I always them up and reuse them for many things,  

They had these boxes for $30 filled with an assortment of fresh meats.  

  

I didn’t add up the price tags exactly but they would of been more than $40 if bought individually.

I cooked the 4 rolls of ground beef when we got home and seasoned them for taco filling.  

To make room in the freezer for the new meat purchases,  I did a little rearranging.  

I also took out 2 whole chickens and cooked them in a slow cooker.  Then I shredded it and seasoned it for chicken taco filling.  

It’s cooked chicken seasoned with tomato sauce, onions,  cumin, red pepper and garlic to taste.   

A bonus of cooking whole chickens is all the broth - about a 1/2 gallon!  I’ll chill it, remove the fat on top and then freeze in meal size containers.

To save space,  I re-wrapped some of the meat into freezer paper or zipper bags and it takes up much less space then when left of the original trays. 

Two of grandchildren are attending their school everyday like normal.

Three of them are doing in person school 2 days and week and virtual school 2 days a week.  

And three of them are doing only virtual school.  Some of the virtual classes are really good and I commend the teachers.  This situation is probably the hardest on them as they must be so flexible.  

Anyways,  here are 3 siblings all watching a class for 1 of them.  But they were all interested and ready to learn. 

Hope you all are fine 

❤️Rhonda 🇺🇸

Living the red zone 😱 

September #1 - peppers

Melanie  (she blogs here at Comfy House  ) asked me what we were doing with all the peppers my husband has been raising.  

I’ve been cooking with some of them

This morning we had hash browns with 1/2 an onion and a whole pepper diced with the potatoes and an over easy egg on top 

I’ve canned sliced jalapeños with onions and carrots earlier this summer.

This weeekend,  I canned just diced jalapeños.  

Many peppers are in the freezer.  Most have been diced or sliced,  put on a lined tray and into the freezer overnight and then put in bags to use later.  

The strips are so good sautéd with onion and used as fajita vegetables. 

Inside our freezer - if you want to see what we will be eating this fall and winter—-

If you’re wondering if I’m a chef with amazing knife skills.....

No I am not.  I used a Mueller chopper bought on Amazon.  It chops great but is a bit tricky as the top plate comes loose too often and it takes a lot of work to clean but it does chop lots of veggies way faster and more precise than I can manually.  

Below are carrots cut with the 1/2 inch size blades.  I used the 1/4 inch blade for peppers and onions.  

I plan to cook this carrot recipe later this week,  it has several steps but is very tasty

And one more photo inside our freezer 

And that’s probably way more than most of y’all want to know about our peppers 🌶 

❤️ Rhonda 🇺🇸

August #6

Good morning 

I didn’t mean to disappear but last week was different than I thought it would be.  The 3 grands that live in our school district were here 3 days and then they went to school for 2 days,  and now, in person schools are already closed again because Covid rates jumped way higher in our town.  Our schools will be doing virtual learning for a while.  

My husband made a last minute and unexpected trip to his parents in Arkansas.  He is home now.  

Anyway,  the theme of 2020 seems to be plans change at the drop of a hat.  

So, here is my new to do list - notice the repeats of the meals because they didn’t get cooked last week.  

The empty circle doesn’t mean anything- I’ll write something in it later.  

➡️➡️➡️link for a new mask style ⬅️⬅️⬅️

My daughter asked me to sew this style mask.  The pleats are vertical instead of horizontal and it’s supposed to fit looser over the wearer’s mouth.  

I made just one and she tried it on and thought she liked it better so I’ll sew up a couple more this week.  

And if you follow this video and pattern,  the mask is fine but she says 2.6 inches and 1.8 inches 🤔 ( not exactly how Americans do fractions). So I just got as close as I could.  The video maker normally uses metric.   And I lengthened the elastic to 7 inches instead of 6 as specified.  

Speaking of masks,  this is how my daughter is keeping up with her family of 5 and their masks - who ever imagined we would need masks organization?  But we do! 

The bag is for masks that need laundered,  I think that’s a great idea.  

My husband picked these beautiful peppers and scrawny radishes this morning.  So I’ll be processing some of them this week.  

And last week was so weird, so I worked 2 puzzles,  with a little help from grandchildren and Nina.  

This one was a really nice puzzle with big, sturdy pieces.  I think it was a handmedown puzzle as when I buy puzzles,  I buy mine at Dollar Tree or Walmart and this was a much higher quality one.  

Hope you all have a good week.  

I’ll be staying home until virus  things settle down in our town

❤️ Rhonda 🏠

August #5 - to do list

Good morning everyone 

3 grands will be here some this week and then they start school Thursday.   

We had scrambled eggs and English muffins for breakfast because on my Walmart pickup order, they were out of the 1 package of name brand muffins I ordered so they substituted 6 packages of Great Value muffins instead, for the price of the 1 name brand package.  

That’s a lot of muffins, right?

The 3 grands that are here today attend a brand new school that was just completed during last school year.  

The architect firm took some professional photos to showcase their work. 

Because my daughter is a school employee,  she signed up her children to model.  

Isn’t that an amazing elementary library?  It’s a shame the virus is keeping it from being used.  

Have a good Monday everyone!

So many of you have left the sweetest comments.  I’m glad my blog brings some help and happiness to you.  

Thank you all for your kind words.  

❤️Rhonda 🇺🇸

August #4- a good and productive day

Hello everyone 

Grandchildren were here during the week so not much housework was done,  but today had no commitments so first thing this morning,  I picked up a grocery order at Walmart.  

Then I came home, put away the groceries and got laundry started.  

Next errand was to the bank drive through for some cash and then I browsed at Dollar Tree and made another stop at Walmart for a few things I forgot to put on my pickup order.  

Breakfast was leftover biscuits with turkey sausage

Lunch was sandwiches with lettuce and garden tomatoes 

Supper was crockpot roast, potatoes and carrots and corn on the cob and watermelon 🍉 

Husband mowed the yard.  

Inside, I cleaned our home from one end to the other.  I didn’t take before photos but I did take afters.  

And because I’m noisy and like to peek in other homes,  I’ll show you our home 

Master bath 

Master bedroom - and Ducky got a bath today at home 

Laundry room - all the baskets are empty except for a few kitchen towels 

Dining room  - there is a jigsaw puzzle in progress on one end of the table.  A granddaughter started it and she asked me to leave it until she comes back,  so I will.  

Breakfast room 

Kitchen 

Kitchen pantry 

Living room  -my husband is reading while we waited for church to start - we like a service from Australia and their Sunday morning is our Saturday evening.  

Guest room and food storage room 

I may of gotten a bit carried away with food stocking up, time will tell,  

  

Grandchildren room

   

Hall 

Hall bath

Back bedroom with my craft-sewing stuff 

  

And the other side has a desktop and the gravity hanger thingy for my husband’s bad back 

Hope you enjoyed touring our comfortable home- 

It feels really good to be going into a new week with a clean home.

❤️Rhonda 🇺🇸

August #3- answers to questions, new recipes, an easy child mask

Good morning, 

There is no to do list this week as some of my grands are here and I plan on enjoying this time with them.  

I am concerned as schools are opening that we could have another big Covid spread and then more quarantines,  but I’m not a prophet and hopefully all will just get back to normal. 

Anyway, after we watched church yesterday morning,  I cleaned our house so we are ready for the week.  

They aren’t all here today but all 8 grands were together for an outdoor family  brunch this weekend.  They all look so big,  don’t they? 

They are ages 4 to 11.  

All are healthy and have big personalities.  

I sewed child sized masks to help outfit grands going to school.  

This is the simplest mask I’ve sewn

Use 2 pieces of fabric,  about 8 inches by 6 1/2 inches.  

Put them right sides together and pin in the elastic.  I used 6 1/2 inches elastic and that fits my grands. 

Sew around the edge but leave as space to turn it.  

I rounded the corners as I sewed but you could make right angle corners if you chose.  

Then turn the mask right side out,  iron and iron in 2 pleats.  Just eyeball them.  

Top stitch around the edge and that will close the opening where it was turned right side out.  

And I reinforced the elastic with some back stitching.  

During these hot days,  we’ve mostly had very easy meals like the one above.  Those are Pillsbury crescent rolls

But yesterday I was in a cooking mood and made this recipe I found on Instagram.  I don’t know who to credit it to as I took a screenshot but it was really good.  

If your family doesn’t like spicy, you substitute plain canned diced tomatoes and I’m sure it would still be delicious.  

I also baked a dessert with my husband’s homegrown blackberries and this is a keeper recipe too

➡️➡️   wild blackberry pie recipe link ⬅️⬅️

My recipe copy with notes 

How I make pimento cheese 

I grated cheddar cheese,  maybe 1/2-3/4 pounds

Then I add a drained 4 ounce jar of diced pimentos and a squirt of yellow mustard.  

Stir that up and then add just enough mayonnaise to have it all hold together.  

My pimento cheese is not as mayo-e as commercial pimento cheese.  

Sometimes I add diced jalapeño or dill pickle relish.  

We like it on celery or club crackers.  

Our son likes it on his Dad’s fresh jalapeños,  and don’t worry. These are not crazy hot peppers 

Keeping Produce in the fridge 

I do prep produce almost every week and it keeps just fine for us. 

I think cut up or whole produce lasts much longer in a closed container like Tupperware type containers or zipper bags or glass jars,  with all them sealed up and closed as well as possible. 

Salad usually lasts about 3 days,  if we don’t eat it first. 

Carrots and onions both last a couple weeks or more.  

Tomatoes don’t keep as long and neither does fruit but I think most everything keeps better sealed up in the fridge.  

Way back when we had 4 children at home,  a tiny budget and I had a job,  the main vegetables we ate were potatoes and carrots.  I would peel loads of them and keep them in water in the fridge until I needed them to cook.  This was way before “meal prepping” was all the rage.  I think I usually stored them in gallon jars that I got from the kid’s school cafeteria.  As long as the potatoes and carrots were in water,  they kept until I used them.  

About Jane at Hope and Thrift 

I hope she opens her blog back up but I think for now she is just being quiet and maybe fed up with all the yuck going on.  

Maybe she will leave a comment here.  

Hope you all are fine 

❤️Rhonda 🇺🇸

August #2 - 🌞Good Monday Morning 🌞

Hello everyone

This will be a short post as I’m hoping to get things done today (besides just play Scrabble Go online, which is what I did most of yesterday afternoon) 

My weekly to-do list 

And food preparation for the first of the week 

A big salad - believe it or not, my husband has been eating salad sometimes for breakfast 

Diced Onions- and I did look up my red onions to make sure they were not the brand with salmonella 

Boiled eggs

2 bowls of pimento cheese- I used white cheddar so it’s not as orange as typical pimento cheese (one dish is for my parents) 

And a bowl of fresh salsa before I stirred it up 

We are having a cool front right now,  it’s 66 right now and very pleasant.  I think I’ll open up the windows like I did yesterday and let in more fresh air.  

Have a great Monday everyone 

❤️Rhonda 🇺🇸