The New Windows

This house was built in 2003 and we didn't think the windows were bad but the sun had caused the vinyl to get brittle and when Vince would open the windows, he used all his might and the piece you pushed up cracked so we were going to replace the ones that were cracked, which were two in the downstairs family room and two in the upstairs family room. I really wanted to replace the three in the dining room because they're on the west side and so much afternoon sun comes in there and the new windows are more energy efficient but Vince said no . . not doing it.

Then there was the hail storm and all the windows on the west side of the house were damaged, including those three dining room windows. The one in the front bedroom (Vince's "office") has two windows together with the half round window on top. Not even sure what you call it but I've heard it called a fanlight. I've always said "I hope we never have to replace that whole window set". The hail got it too so insurance ended up paying part of the costs of replacing the three dining room windows and the bedroom window with the fanlight.

Then, Vince opened a window in the sewing room . . another one cracked! So he decided to replace all the sewing room windows except I have metal shelving units in front of two smaller windows and I did not want to deal with taking everything off those shelves (there's LOTS of stuff on those) and moving those so we'll save those for two windows for later.

This morning, a little after 7:00 a.m. the window guys showed up and they got the two bigger (about 3 x 6) windows in the sewing room changed, the two windows that were the same size that were in the basement family room changed and the two windows in the main family room. They're about 3.5' wide and I think they're 7' tall. That was a job since they were doing the outside part using a ladder. I kept saying I couldn't believe how different the windows looked and he said "You should see how much more the new ones weigh!" The weather had gotten a little threatening and at one point, they almost decided to stop not start the third window in the basement. I pulled up radar and it looked like it was going to go around use so they kept on. We had just some drizzle and I think they were happy they got the big windows on the main level done.

The three windows in the dining room are three windows together. I think each one is a about 34" wide. I had measured the whole "window" and it was 106" wide. They said that was a big hole to have deal with if it really started storming and they said the round window takes a bit more time to install so they didn't get to any of the windows on the front of the house. They will be back, bright and early in the morning, to get the job finished.

The installers told me that one thing people really notice is how much quieter it is with no road noise or hearing neighbors' dogs bark. I think I've gotten used to those things and I don't notice them but when we first moved here, after having lived in the middle of nowhere with no neighbors in Texas, I really noticed the noise here. I'm anxious to see if Vince notices it.

One thing I did notice - when we added the porch a couple of years ago, I wanted a metal roof and Vince wanted a shingle roof so they put the shingles on it that matched the house. After the hail storm, all the roofs had to be replaced. Vince knew how much I really wanted a metal roof so he had them put a metal roof it the porch and I've been able to hear the rain falling on that roof but . . no more. It's raining now and I can't hear it. I can barely hear the rain hitting the vent on the chimney and it's only about 3' from where I'm sitting. Oh well . . can't have selective noise blocking I guess. 

I'm really happy with the new windows and will be even happier when the front windows are done. That's the last of the hail damage to the house. The contractor and Vince had a different of opinion or some kind of difference . . I stayed out to fit. Vince ended up re-staining the deck and he will re-stain the wood fence but that will probably have to wait til spring. Except for the fence, once the front windows are done, all of our hail damage has been repaired/replaced.

Colour & Cotton Sale

Through the years I've mentioned funny things that happen with Denise and me. Denise and I met through an internet quilting group many years ago . . I don't remember when but it was probably close to 30 years ago. Then about 15 years ago, we met in person at a quilting retreat in Arkansas. I keep trying to convince her to move next door to me. By the way, there's a house next door to me for sale. Anyone want to be my neighbor? There are only two houses on my street so it would be just us and y'all.  When they put up the sign my first thought was . . maybe a cross stitcher will buy it. I'd be happy with a knitter or a quilter though. Seriously, I think someone reading this should want to be my neighbor. I share sourdough bread and garden veggies. You could be besties with Cooper and Oscar! Ok . . maybe not.:)

Anyway, Denise sent me an email this morning reminding me of Colour & Cotton's sale on floss. I had not even looked at most of my email this morning so I went and checked it and, of course, placed an order.

I writing Denise to thank her for reminding me and tell her what I bought. Mainly, well, not mainly but some of what I bought were reds for a specific project. I was telling her that I want to stitch Dasher & Dancer from Hobby House. I have a lot of floss but mostly it's one, maybe two skeins of the colors I have. Hobby House says this project needs 134 yards of one strand for 40 count linen. I'll probably stitch it on 36 count but I'll still use one strand so I'm counting on needed at least 200 yards.

The Colour & Cotton floss is 48 yards per skein (8 one yard cut pieces with 6 strands each) so, according to my calculations, that's 48 yards per skein. I always figure at least one extra skein because I'm famous for losing a skein, even if it's on a floss ring, and there are dogs that can shred a skein of floss before I can get it away from them. I really do try to keep floss totally out of their reach but I think it's like a paper towel - they know when I see them with it, the chase is on and they love playing chase.

I had already ordered a hank of NPI 505. A hank of NPI, again - according to my calculations, has almost 400 yards so that would be plenty but I'm not sure that's the color I want to use.

So, from Colour & Cotton, I ordered enough skeins of Merlot, Ruby, Red Velvet, Dracula, Naughty List and Dracula Red. I think what I want is a bit of variation in the color, not a BRIGHT red, and not a brownish red. Somewhere between a true, deep red and a burgundy. When I get all the floss, I will lay it out on whatever linen I decide to use and go from there.

BUT . . the funny part . . and there's always a funny part when Denise and I are involved . . I typed "Dasher and Dancer" in the email, then I went to Hobby Houses's website to get the link. Nichol Spohr was on Youtube and I glanced up at that while grabbing the Hobby House link and she was talking about Dasher and Dancer and had the photo up on her video. I chuckled, kept writing on the link to Denise. I was telling her the colors of red I had ordered from Colour & Cotton and just then, Nichol mentioned that her linen was from Colour & Cotton. I had to share that all with Denise. 

Those funny little things that happen with me and Denise crack me up.

Chicken Stir Fry

 Last week I had chicken out to cook. The menu said we were having chicken piccata but that didn't sound like what I wanted so I made chicken stir fry and it was so good. I used this recipe for the sauce. Next time I will double the sauce recipe. 

I made enough that we had it a second day and yesterday Vince finished it off for his dinner. I think the only thing I added was Jerusalem artichokes from the garden. I don't think the recipe called for coating the chicken in cornstarch but I did that before frying it. I like a little "crust" on the chicken.

The peppers, Jerusalem artichokes and ginger came from the garden. That's the last of this year's peppers . . the last of the fresh ones anyway. I have plenty that are freeze dried. I would have added mushrooms to the stir fry but I didn't have any of those!

It was a super easy, and quick recipe and the leftovers were just as good as the first time. 

For anyone who hasn't seen Jerusalem Artichokes, here's the ones I dug, scrubbed and scraped the skin off. The skin is similar to fresh ginger skin - comes off very easy with a spoon.

They're very similar in taste to a water chestnut. The best thing about these is that they are fine left in the ground and can be dug up as needed until probably early April. By then, they're starting to sprout and produce another year's crop!

Thanksgiving Week

 Vince, Oscar, Cooper and I would like to wish you all a very happy and safe Thanksgiving. 

We've been SO busy and the next week is going to be crazy.

You may remember that we had ordered replacement windows for our windows on the east and west side. They get so much sun and the vinyl on the part where you push to raise the windows had cracked. These are the windows that were put in the house when it was built in 2003 so I'm sure new windows are much more energy efficient. Then the hail storm damaged six more windows before the window guy had replaced the others and since three of those involve tromping around where the Jerusalem artichokes are planted, I asked the window guy to wait til after a frost to replace the windows. They're coming in the morning at 7 a.m. to start changing out windows. It will probably take all day tomorrow and at least part of Tuesday to get them all done. I'm not looking forward to listening to two little dogs bark for two days but it will be nice to have newer, nicer windows.

Vince had to take down all the blinds/shades. We kinda decided we like having nothing over the windows - at least in some of the rooms so we'll see how that goes.

Monday he has three or four things he has to do in town so I'll stay home with the window guys. Tuesday he has a video conference in the morning and a bit later we have to pick up our Azure order. Since we have a 55 pound bag of Allulose, one of us needs to be home while the windows guys are here, I guess Vince will have to pick up that order. Wednesday I'll be stitching with Debbie. Thursday I Thanksgiving Day. Nicole and Chad are having Thanksgiving with Nicole's family so Vince and I are going to a buffet at a local restaurant. Friday Chad, Nicole and Addie will come here for our Thanksgiving.

Busy week, huh? Hoping I can find some time for stitching!

Groceries - November 20, 2025.

 This purchase will make it look like I spent a lot more in November than I had planned to spend but this was our Azure Standard order. You will see by the quantities of most of this that it's way more than we will use in one month. This order was $460, including 8.5% shipping costs. Beneath the list, I will share info about each item because for those who don't buy in bulk, this may seem like a really weird list of items.

We will usually order from Azure monthly (that's how often there's a local delivery) in March through October. We don't usually order in November and December because the deliveries in our area of almost always the week of Thanksgiving and the week of Christmas. An 18 wheeler delivers the items to a drop location and we HAVE to be there. In January and February, there's often snow or ice and we don't drive in that so we make sure we have enough of everything we need (or want) to get us through til March. The only reason we ordered in November this year was that Vince wanted to get a big bag of Allulose so I placed an order for that and added a few things to it.

Here's what we ordered:

• Allulose - 55 pound bag. Vince uses this as his sweetener. Coffee, tea, lemonade. If I'm making a dessert that's something I know Vince will eat a lot of it, I'll use Allulose in it. This bag will last us well over two years. We store it in 5 gallon food grade buckets with gamma seal lids. That's how we store all our grains, flour, baking items, beans, corn, etc.
• Three 12 packs of 8 oz. jars. I have a plan! Vince is going to build me a very narrow shelf unit to sit at the back of the countertop, against the wall, where I do most of my prep work. I will store the spices and items I use most often in these 8 oz. jars where I can easily get to them without having to dig through the spice cabinet for them. I plan to have salt, pepper, oregano, basil, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, etc. there. Otherwise, these are jelly jars for us. I'm going to make cranberry sauce to can. We use that with roasted chicken so having a half pint is perfect for a couple of meals.
• Two 1 pound bags of organic Ceylon cinnamon. Vince uses this in his coffee. I make a cereal that he eats for breakfast and he puts the Ceylon cinnamon in that. We use it in our overnight oats. We go through more of it than you might think but two bags will last us over a year. I ordered two bags a bit over a year ago but I think I gave Chad a half pint jar of it.
• A 4 pound tub of palm fruit shortening. I order this usually twice a year - usually in October and April. I had ordered it last month but they were out of stock. I use it for cookies, biscuits and pie crusts (some butter and some palm fruit shortening). It has a high smoke point so I'll often use it for Browning meat.
• Organic Sorghum - 25 pounds. We use that in place of rice. It can also be milled for gluten free baking but I haven't used it that way. This site has some interesting nutritional info on sorghum.
• Popped Black Sorghum with Avocado Oil and Sea Salt. I love this - better than I like popcorn. They only had a few "sets" left - one comes with three bags and one comes with 6 bags. I wasn't sure that I would get either because they load the trucks with what's there and there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to who gets what. If it's on the shelf when they load your order, you get it. I ordered one of each so I'll get 9 bags (4.3 oz. each). Since I won't order again until March, we'll run out but nine bags will be nice. This is kind of a luxury item and not something we eat every day. We can pop the sorghum grains we have but we don't have black sorghum. I am going to plant some next year and see if I can grow it.
• Baking Powder - Azure's is made with tapioca starch instead of cornstarch and is aluminum free.
• Raw Mesquite Honey - this is 1.4 pounds (pint jar) and I ordered two. This is so good on biscuits with butter. I don't use it for cooking - just for eating on toast or biscuits or in hot tea.

That's it for our Azure order this month. Next order we place will be in 2026. Weird, huh?

Multi Meal Crockpot Update

 Several weeks ago I purchased the Multi-Meal Crockpot and wrote about it in this blog post. This is an update after I've used it a bit.

I've probably used it five or six times and I love it. I've made Salisbury steaks, several varieties of dry beans, an apple oat crisp, Butter Chicken, Roasted butternut squash with apples, Pork Peach Picante and I did cook rice in it.

Everything has turned out perfect. Yesterday I was cooking cranberry beans to make a salad. I wanted the beans not to be cooked to a mush and I had soaked them overnight so I put them in one side of the cooker, and cooked the beans on high for almost an hour and they were just right. On the other side, I had butter chicken cooking on low. I had set it for 3 hours and planned to add more time if needed but I didn't need any extra time.

I'm impressed with it. 

Before writing this post I did a quick search and, from what I saw, Amazon still has the best price.

Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies

 A couple of days ago I was talking to a friend and she had made Molasses Crinkle Cookies. Vince loves these Gingerbread Crinkle Cookies so I made those yesterday. And, I forgot to take a picture of the finished cookies.

I'm a lazy cook. The recipe calls for using a scoop and scooping a bit, rolling it into a ball, then dropping them in regular sugar, then in powdered sugar. I mash the disks out kinda thin, put it in the freezer for about half an hour, then use the pizza cutter to cut what you see above. Then I use my fingers to kinda mash in the corners. They aren't a perfect ball but it's quick and I don't get my hands nearly so messy if I don't warm that dough up too much.

I like our cookies kinda small and crunchy so the recipe makes a lot of cookies.

I went ahead and cut all the dough and mashed it up into somewhat of a ball, rolled them in the sugar, then powdered sugar, then put all the balls in a freezer bag, added extra powdered sugar to make sure they were all well coated and weren't going to stick together, and stuck the bag in the freezer. When we want cookies again, I'll grab a few out, leave them in the fridge overnight and bake them the next day.

It's an easy way to have fresh, homemade cookies often without much work.

Poblano Corn Creme Brulee

Wednesday Vince and I went to Branson to visit with my uncle and cousin who were there for the week. They go every year and most years we go and spend some time with them. They always have a special place picked out for us to have lunch. This year it was Gettin' Basted. I told my cousin . . this is where I want to go from now on! She had mentioned to me a couple of times over the years about the Poblano Cream Corn Brulee. Of course, that's what we had to get for our sides. I think we all got it and it was definitely amazing.  Sherry found a little short video on Instagram of the owner explaining how to make it. I had already looked at some recipes and was thinking about loosely following a corn pudding recipe then adding sugar on top and caramelizing the sugar.

I made it today and it was perfect. So delicious! Here's how I did it.

First, I didn't have a Poblano pepper but I had a Marconi from the garden so I used that and it worked fine. I roasted it over a stove burner, peeled it and chopped about half of it for the corn.

Next, I used Birdseye frozen sweet corn, which I knew was very sweet so I didn't add any sugar to the corn. I bought the 80 oz. bag of corn, divided it into 2 cup portions and got 7 bags plus 2 cups to use today.

Another thing I did - most recipes for corn pudding called for 2 cans of whole corn and 1 can of cream style corn. I'll probably never be making that much so I used the 2 cups of whole kernel sweet corn, and added maybe 2 T. of cream, then used the immersion blender to "blend and chop" some of the corn - maybe 1/3 cup of the corn was chopped and blended.

I made a roux (very light) with butter and flour - maybe 1-1/2 tablespoons and I didn't use all of it.  The pepper was already roasted and didn't need any more cooking so I added the pepper, 2 cups of corn and maybe 3/4 cup of cream. Since it was all hot, I just sprinkled the sugar over everything and stuck the skillet under the broiler.

The corn was served in individual ramekins at the restaurant but I want to make this for Thanksgiving and don't have matching ramekins so I'll do it in a skillet and I wanted to try it in a skillet today.

It was really delicious and SO easy to make.

Groceries - #2

Grocery shopping was not on my agenda for today. My plans were to make Zuppa Toscana (Olive Garden copycat) for canning. I didn't have enough Italian sausage but I figured I could use ground beef, and add the spices that go into making Italian sausage and that would work. I had just started browning the ground beef and Vince came in and said he was going to Walmart. He needed sand paper because he was going to work on the deck. He wanted to know if I wanted to go. No. I was going to can soup. He looked sad that I wasn't going to go so I said fine . . I'll go. 

We ended up going to Walmart in our town, Walmart in Carthage, then to Aldi, then to get a salad at the hospital and then to get ice cream. By the time we got home and I got the groceries put away, I was tired and didn't want to make soup but I did. My knee feels great until I spend a couple of hours following Vince around through stores and then my knee doesn't feel great at all.

My first grocery post is here. It was posted on November 8 and I spent $53.83. I fully expected that I wouldn't be buying groceries again until the week of Thanksgiving and then it would be just a few things that I had missed because most of what we need for Thanksgiving has already been purchased.

This week I will probably spend a lot of time canning. I need to can a lot of beans. It all depends on how many jars I have but I need to can cannellini, pinto, great northern and baked beans. I also want to make split pea soup this week and maybe butter chicken sauce.

The grocery bill today was $46.52 and I got the following:

• Eggnog (one quart)
• Whole Milk (half gallon)
• GV Ginger Snaps (for a Thanksgiving dessert)
• Sweet Potatoes (for a Thanksgiving recipe and Vince loves them. I will sometimes bake three or four at once and then he will heat them in the microwave when he wants one.)
• Onions (I didn't really need them this week but the 3 pound bags were on sale so I got two. Whatever I haven't used by Thanksgiving, I'll chop and freeze dry.)
• Boneless Ham (24 oz. uncured fully cooked and sliced). We use those a lot for breakfast, sandwiches and ham salad. I'll also add a bit of ham to the split pea soup I'm going to can this week. I have ham broth that I will add also.
• Lemons (2 pound bag). 
• Split peas (three one pound bags) For the soup.

 I think that was everything. Let's hope I don't go to the grocery store til at least December 1.

Can Man Live on Soup Alone?

 My answer is . . I don't know but I really don't want to eat only soup, even though there are so many good soups out there. 

Was it Sunday I made the soup? We ate it Sunday. Then Debbie and I ate it Monday. Vince ate it Monday while I was gone. Today we had soup and ham sandwiches. The remaining three containers of soup is in the freezer for later. I do want to make clam chowder this week so that will probably happen Thursday or Friday.

When I was cleaning out the freezer last week, I came across four bags of Beef Fricot I had made and vacuum sealed the leftovers. I have one of those bags defrosting. I will make a pot of rice and we shall have Beef Fricot for our next meal.

The window crew is coming on April 24 at 7:30 a.m. to get started on the window replacement. Our little barkers are not going to be happy about the strangers in the house or the noise and my guess is the guys working will wonder why we put up with such noisy dogs. It's ok. I sometimes wonder the same thing.

Speaking of dogs, today was the second time Cooper and Oscar got into a REAL and scary dog fight. If Oscar is sitting on my lap and I think it's when I've been busy and he feels he hasn't had enough time with me, and Cooper gets up on my lap, Oscar goes after him. It's a real fight - teeth showing, growling, biting . . and Cooper does not back down. Any suggestions on how to handle that? I've told Vince to never get in the middle of a dog fight because I know we will get bit but today I was able to grab Oscar from behind and get him in the crate, and then Cooper went into his crate on his own. We never leave them unattended because they're just a bit destructive but I think, at least so far, we've only had this problem because Oscar isn't wanting Cooper around me. I need to find a way to stop this from happening. If I'm paying attention, I can usually see when Oscar is starting to get agitated and I will pick him up and stand up so Cooper isn't jumping into to the middle of something he wasn't expecting. Then I will take Oscar out for a walk for a few minutes and he seems to calm down. I told Vince I don't want to have to be that family that has to get rid of one of their dogs because they aren't getting along. That is NOT an option here.

Any advice on solving this problem would be greatly appreciated.

The Soup is Made

 Today I was able to get the soup made. I'm trying to use up the beef we have in the freezer so I used a couple of sirloin steaks and a couple of packages of NY Strip steaks.

I put the meat in the pressure cooker to get it tender. After the meat was tender, I poured it into a big soup pot, then added the frozen veggies and tomatoes, simmered them, along with spices and herbs, for maybe an hour, then added the potatoes, okra and carrots and cooked it til they were almost tender.

There's probably at least 4 cups of soup in each of those containers. Most went into the freezer but as I take them out, I will add more beef broth to them so each container probably has enough for two meals - maybe just one for both of us and then one for one of us. We'll see . . 

The potatoes and okra came from the garden. The corn and peas were in the freezer and the carrots are from Azure.

Groceries

 I'm 100% sure none of you care what I spend on groceries but MAYBE some day, someone will see this who needs to see it. I'm also 100% sure I'm not the best at stretching the food dollar but, with all the complaining I see about grocery costs and SNAP benefits, and what can be purchased and cannot be purchased with SNAP, I feel like there are a LOT of people who need to learn to do better - not just those on SNAP and maybe most on SNAP are doing ok with what they get and it's just a handful making a lot of noise about it.

So, if you aren't interested in these posts, skip over them. Won't hurt my feelings at all.

One of the things I've been committed to for a while is that I don't buy things I can make at home. Great . . first report and I've broken my rule. I have a cake mix on today's grocery order because I'm making a pumpkin dump cake for  our Thanksgiving dessert. Yes, I could make a spice cake from scratch but with Thanksgiving, I want to make things as quickly as possible. It's one of those things we'll probably each eat one piece and I'll send it all home with Chad and Nicole if they like it. And, yes, I could make whipped cream to go on top but . . it's Thanksgiving and I need quick and easy and Addie loves that stuff and she can take the can home with her.

We've stopped buying cookies. I can make those but you know what? I rarely do. If we buy cookies, it's so easy to grab one or a handful. I can't tell you how many days I plan to make cookies and never end up doing it so we don't eat as many cookies. We've stopped buying potato chips which I love. I've been making crackers with sourdough discard and I can put all kinds of herbs or cheese in those, make them very thin and, while they aren't totally healthy, they're so much better than chips and I know exactly what's in the crackers.

We eat a bit differently from many folks because unless we're not at home (on the road or out of town), we eat all our meals at home. We eat two meals most days - breakfast around 10 and dinner around 3. I wouldn't say we grow a lot of our food but we do grow some. We buy a whole pig once a year and a whole cow every other year. Both are wrapped/vacuum sealed and frozen when we get them so I do not buy pork or beef from the grocery store unless it's something like bacon, brisket, pork butt . . because not enough of those come with one pig or cow. I buy eggs from various people in the neighborhood. I make all of our bread - sandwich bread, buns and rolls, focaccia, Naan, tortillas, etc. I buy whole milk, pasteurized but not homogenized, from Natural Grocer. I buy grains (for flour), rice, herbs, spices, etc. from Azure Standard. I'll share those lists here too.

Today I placed a delivery order from Walmart. This is the last order I will place until after Thanksgiving. Here's what I ordered.

Those items, along with what's canned and in the freezer should be all we need to make everything we need for about three weeks. I will have to buy milk and, depending how well our greens in the garden last through the cold, I may have to buy greens. I plan to cut a lot of them before the hard freeze and they may make it in the fridge for three weeks.

Here's my explanation on everything I ordered today:

• Heavy Cream - Vince uses that in his coffee and I use it when making some soups, mashed potatoes, etc.
• Celery - That's a staple I keep. We eat it as a snack too. I have a couple of bags of celery already but for Thanksgiving, I use a lot in the dressing.
• Yellow Potatoes - I have potatoes that I grew but I'm making clam chowder this week and I like yellow potatoes for that.
• Clam juice and clams - For making clam chowder. There will be some leftovers that I can freeze for probably the week after Thanksgiving.
• Cake Mix - For our Pumpkin Dump Cake on Thanksgiving.
• Reddi Whip - For the cake on Thanksgiving.
• Cream Cheese - We use that a lot. It goes in mashed potatoes and the green bean tart I will make for Thanksgiving.
• French Cut Beans - No Salt Added - 3 cans for Thanksgiving; 2 cans for the pantry. I like the No Salt Added variety because I use Cajun seasoning on this and can add a better quality salt (better than what goes into those cans), if needed.

Last night I put a pork butt on to smoke so today we'll have pork butt, potato salad and baked beans.

This afternoon I'm going to start a vegetable beef soup and we'll have that at least one day this week and I'll freeze the rest.

I will share what we have each day to give you an idea of how we use what we have.

Where Has This Week Gone?

 Every day I think about blogging and yet, somehow, I don't find the time to do it. The last time I blogged was Monday and here it is Friday night. Let's see if I can remember some of what I did this week . . nothing terribly interesting I'm sure.

Tuesday: Because of a prior commitment, we got together on Tuesday instead of Wednesday this week so I had fun stitching all day with her.

Wednesday: I was up before daylight. I've mentioned Vince likes Ezekiel bread. I make three loaves at a time for him; freeze two and he eats one, then defrosts a second and when he starts on the third one, he lets me know that it's time to think about making more. I knew Wednesday was the day I had to make it so my plan was to get started on that first thing but Vince wasn't up yet and I knew grinding the wheat and beans would wake him so I got everything else all measured and ready to go. I also needed to make sunflower seed butter and got everything out to make that, took the blender out to the sunroom and got that made. By that time Vince was up and I got the Ezekiel bread started. By the time the bread was done baking, we needed to run to town and fill up the car because we had a road trip on Thursday. 

We got home and I got started defrosting a freezer. Vince had brought all the ice chests in so I put things in there I was keeping, threw out some unidentifiable leftovers, pulled out a couple of things I need to cook soon and got them positioned in the freezer where I have to look at them every time I open the freezer door. I pulled out a big pork butt to smoke. By the time I got everything back in the freezer, I had two and a half empty shelves. That's great!

We did that, came home and heated up leftovers for dinner. Then I went out and planted two of the 4 x 8 beds in garlic, got that all mulched; cut back the rhubarb and got that mulched. By then, the sun was setting and I was happy to be done with my chores.

Thursday: A trip to Kansas City. I'm NOT a city girl and I do not like city traffic. I was glad to get there and get out of there. On the way home, we stopped by Kurzweil's in Harrisonville. They have a restaurant and that's where we decided to eat. We got one Reuben and one Short Rib Grilled Cheese Sandwich and split them. They were SO good (but we were also very hungry!). Vince got a roll of Black Pepper/Blue Cheese Summer Sausage. We also got several packages of brats - Caramelized Pear & Gorgonzola; Andouille, Italian Sausage, Applewurst and Jalapeno Peach. We have only tried the Summer Sausage and both of us are sure it's the best we've ever had. As much as I detest the traffic on the way to KC, I think we'll be going back to Kurzweil's . . soon.

From there we went to Koehn's Bakery, which is one of those places we used to visit when we lived in MO the first time.

Check out this cinnamon roll from there!

Not only is it HUGE but it's delicious. We have cut off several little pieces and eaten those. We'll finish it off tomorrow. I got a S'Mores donut that had a bit of chocolate on top with graham cracker crumbs on top of that and it had a homemade marshmallow cream in the middle. Oh, my goodness  . . that was even more delicious than the cinnamon roll. Vince got a couple of things and everything he had was good too. He now wants to move to Butler so we can go to the bakery more often. I told him fine but let's rent because if we go there often, we're going to die soon.  

From there we went to Stoplight Market, also in Butler. I loved that store when we used to go there often. I went in to get another Rada spatula. I love those spatulas and have gone from having four to having two and no one in this house seems to have any idea where the two missing spatulas could be so I bought another one. I've always wished they had a wider one and they did! So I got that one two. I think that's it but now that I know we'll be going up there more, I'll be prepared to buy other things I need from there.

Friday - I'm up to date on blog posts! This morning I cleaned most of the ginger, then got it sliced and in the freeze dryer. It only filled two trays so I peeled and sliced enough pears to fill the two remaining trays.

For dinner I pulled out the leftover butter chicken from the freezer, made a pot of rice and a salad and we had dinner! 

Next on the agenda - I had about 12 cups of blended up tomatoes from the freezer that didn't fit in the freeze dryer when I did the last batch of tomatoes so I was seriously considering tossing that out.. I didn't want to mess with it but then I decided to use that to make pizza sauce. I cooked it down and get 7 half pints of pizza sauce. Got that canned in the steam canner. 

It's 9:30 p.m. and I have to get the pork butt in the smoker around 11 p.m. Then . . it's straight to bed for me and tomorrow, all I plan to do is make a potato salad and open a jar of baked beans to go with the pulled pork. I hope to get some stitching time in tomorrow . . maybe over the weekend.

A Morning Tidying Up The Garden

 Today I had PT at 1 p.m. It's usually at 10 or 11 a.m. We were having leftovers for dinner so I was thinking I could fix breakfast and then sit and stitch til I had to leave for therapy. About 7:30 a.m. Vince said he would come out and help me in the garden. Oh, yes! I'll give up stitching for his help in the garden any day.

I had just started jarring up the tomato powder from the freeze dryer so I finished that. I got 7 pints and a bit more than half of a half pint of powder.

I've documented how many jars of tomato powder I have. I have given Chad two quarts and will give him more if he needs it but I'm hoping I have enough freeze dried that I can plant only enough tomatoes next year for us to eat in salads and on sandwiches and not have to can or freeze dry more tomatoes. I will have to plant more Sweet 100 tomatoes for the dogs. I doubt I have enough of those freeze dried to get them through the winter since tomatoes seem to be their favorite snacks. I do limit how many they get but even with that, we will probably run out.

A couple of days ago, Vince pulled all the okra out but I wanted to add some bone meal, peat moss, mushroom compost and maybe a bit more garden soil to those raised beds where I'm wanting to plant the garlic. He did all that and while I was away at PT, he started building the bed for the blackberry starts we need to get planted.

Since we had a hard freeze and the tops were dying, I went ahead and pulled out the turmeric. There's 8 pounds there! I doubt I'll have to plant turmeric next year either.

Then I pulled out all the ginger. I had planted two tubs of ginger. Both were "constructed" the exact same way but one of the didn't drain at all and by the time I realized it, all the ginger had rotted so I only got half as much ginger as I had hoped to get. Vince is going to dump the bad tub and see if he can figure out what's wrong with it. I'm guessing the dirt that was put in first is more clay than good soil and it just sat there and didn't let water drain through but Vince will fix it so I doesn't happen again next year. I had bought fresh ginger from Azure Standard and that's what I used to plant and I was very happy with it.

Look how beautiful that ginger is! Of all the things I grow (and I don't grow that many things!), fresh ginger is probably the one that is most different from "fresh" storebought ginger.

That's all we harvested but while I was out, I took some photos of the lettuce and other greens growing  ..  because they make me so happy!

That's the merlot lettuce. That makes a salad so pretty!

The Little Gem lettuce is starting to look like it's supposed to look - like a mini version of Romaine. It will soon be large enough that we can make little bite sized wraps with chicken or tuna salad.

This is the Purple Lady Bok Choy. It's kind of a toss up whether I like this better or the Tatsoi but I munch on those two all day!

That's the Tatsoi. Obviously I had covered the bok choy and Tatsoi with straw and then put a sheet over them before we had a freeze. Sunday night it's probably going to be about 20 degrees here. Not sure I can protect them from that but I'll do my best.

Summers seem never-ending here and we get such a short amount of time between 90 degree days and 10 degree nights. I would be happy if summers ended in early August and we could grow cooler weather crops and not have hard freezes til mid to late November. Not living in the right place for that, am I?

There's cilantro. It's kinda one of those plant it once and you'll have it forever plants. It should be good to 10 degrees but there are probably enough seeds left from the summer crop that it will come back again as soon as the weather gets warmer.

This lettuce is pretty but it's so, so fragile. If I pick it, take it inside and wash it, by the time it gets to our plates, it's looking like it's been crushed and abused. I can't remember the name but it's on the tag in the container. I won't grow it again. There are too many more hardy varieties of lettuce. 

Last but not least - the star of the garden as far as I'm concerned:

Raspberries! We planted two raspberry plants last year. I can't remember what one was called but it started producing in the spring and produced quite a few raspberries. They didn't have the best flavor - good but not great. The second one - the tag said "Flowering Raspberry". It didn't grow nearly as much as the other one did. The first one has shot up about 8 new plants. This one sat there til about July and then it started producing raspberries. They are the best tasting raspberries.. So much flavor. It has slowed down and every day there are three or four ripe raspberries on it. This morning Vince walked by it and said "There's a ripe raspberry!" He picked it and ate it. What he doesn't know is that his greedy wife goes out every morning with the dogs and picks everything that's ripe and eats it right there on the spot!

We've planted probably 8 more raspberry plants and I'm hoping they taste as good as this one does.

The Cook is Crazy!

 Today, almost everything I've done has been wrong! I think when I finish writing this post, I'm going to go take a nap and see if when I wake up, maybe I will stop making mistakes and can cross stitch.

The first thing I did today was mill soft white flour and make pancakes and bacon. That worked fine - no problems. Then . . it's a good thing I can laugh at myself.

After breakfast, I wanted to get Peach Pork Picante going in the slow cooker. Last week at Sam's, I bought a package of six pork chops. I thought I had divided them into two packages, vacuum sealed them and put them in the freezer but I forgot that I decided to fix all six of them at the same time and have leftovers. I had put the bag with the big chunk of six pork chops in a bowl of water and two hours later, they had not defrosted at all so I stuck them back in the freezer and grabbed a package with two chicken breasts because I had asked Vince yesterday if he wanted Chicken Cobbler or Peach Pork Picante and he said he wanted the pork. Well . . since that wasn't going to work, we were going to have Chicken Cobbler. About an hour later I looked at the recipe and it called for shredded rotisserie chicken! The chicken wasn't defrosted either so I stuck it back in the freezer, grabbed a bag of shredded chicken, dumped it into a bowl and defrosted it in the microwave.

And, I thought it was a slow cooker recipe. Nope - it was baked in the oven. 

I asked Vince what time he wanted dinner and he said about 3. Every clock in this house sets itself when the time changes. Last week we ordered some magnetic "fireplace blankets" for the fireplaces because so much cold air comes in around them. They arrived yesterday and I put one on the fireplace downstairs. In the process, I found a battery operated clock that had fallen off the little stand next to my chair so I put it up on top of a cabinet next to the TV downstairs. I didn't even think about the time change.

So, at 2:00, I went upstairs, got the chicken cobbler started. Vince came in and said "What are you doing?" and I said "Getting dinner started." He said "Already?" I didn't think anything about til til I went to put it in the oven and the clock on the oven said it was 1:12. I thought . . shouldn't it say 2:12 and that's when I realized the little clock downstairs was an hour off. I told Vince .. I think we're going to be eating at 2 instead of 3 and explained what I had done. He was fine with it.

Vince loves cooked greens. I prefer eating them all raw but I cooked him a pot of greens from the garden. There are at least five different types of greens in there.

The chicken cobbler was delicious. I followed the recipe except I used a box of Rosemary Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix instead of regular.

We were both surprised at how much rosemary was in this mix. We both love rosemary but for someone who halfway likes it, I think it would have been a bit overpower.

The meal was really, really good. The cobbler totally fills a 9 x 13 dish so we'll have this again tomorrow. We don't usually eat the same thing two days in a row but I have PT at 1 and since we usually eat around 3 p.m., having a whole new meal ready wouldn't be easy . . like today's meal was easy with all the mess ups I made!

The recipe does call for a can of Cream of Chicken soup. I'm not a fan of using canned soups in recipes but I did it and I would do it again because this whole recipe was super easy and super good. Even with the canned soup, it was probably more healthy than eating out. How's that for justifying bad behavior?  

OK . . I'm going to take a nap. When I wake up, I'm going to stitch til bedtime and then maybe (or maybe not), I'll have some progress to share on my latest project.

Green Bean Tart

 Debbie and I talk about everything when we're together. I'm pretty sure we do more talking than stitching but we're ok with that. Wednesday she shared this Green Bean Tart recipe with me. I wanted to try it before serving it on Thanksgiving so I made it today and we both loved it.

I definitely could have been a little neater with it!  

For Thanksgiving, there will be five of us here so I'm going to make two tarts and use three cans of green beans. I felt like it was a little skimpy on the green beans. Also, it called for 1/2 cup of the fried onions. I'm sure I used well over one cup.

The recipe said to bake it, take it out of the oven, let it sit for 10 minutes, then put the onions on top. I feel like the onions taste better after a bit of toasting so I put them on top and baked it all for another 7 minutes.

This will become one of our favorite Thanksgiving (and maybe other times) recipe.