Menu Plan Monday

This week while grocery shopping I picked up a big splurge item: a $28 package of NY strip steaks. Okay, those of you that buy steaks regularly can stop reading this now, this won't be a big deal to you. But to me, spending slightly over 1/2 of my weekly grocery budget on one package of meat is a big deal. This package was one of the cheaper ones too. There were packages at the meat counter upwards of $50. However, these sounded so good; I just had to get them.

So, since I spent a small fortune on meat, the rest of this week's groceries included milk, yogurt, cheese and produce, no stocking the pantry on this trip.  Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday's meals all come from the pantry. Sunday we had steaks on the grill and they were every bit as good as they looked. We had a lot more leftovers than I had planned (thankfully!) so we have enough left for 3 more meals, which will be steak fajitas.

Sunday: Grilled Steaks, Potato Salad, Chili-lime Corn

Monday: Steak Fajitas

Tuesday: BBQ Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Peas

Wednesday: Layered Spaghetti, Garden Salad, Garlic Toast

Thursday: Repeat of Wednesday. (My husband LOVES Layered Spaghetti, so he will be more than happy to have a repeat dinner)

Friday: Gas Station Pizza

Yes -- you read that right: Gas Station Pizza. We are having this because George requested it and we want to keep him happy, plus I can tolerate it.  You see, out here in the country it's not like you can order up a pizza and 20 minutes later, it arrives at your door. There's a gas station not too far from us and they  make pizzas and other assorted fried dried out treats that sit for hours on end, waiting for someone to finally come in and buy them. Mmmmmm

One of my favorite things about summer is the abundance of fresh berries. Don’t your eyes just light up at all the recipe possibilities in a pint of bright, juicy berries? Last night I picked the first of our black raspberries and they didn’t disappoint. While they were still warm from the sun I ate a dish of them with a dollop of whipped cream. Nature’s perfect dessert!

As a child, Berry Picking ranked right up there on my list of favorite things to do. It made my day when Mom sent me down the road with a pail and the instruction to “pick enough berries for a pie”. Picking berries is still an enjoyable task.

Last night as I was picking our black raspberries I got to wondering why picking berries is a favorite task of mine. After all, picking berries involves a lot of things I don’t particularly care for and it doesn’t make sense that I would like any task that requires so many things I don’t like.

For those of you that have never picked any kind of wild bramble berry here’s what it’s like:

1. It’s hot and humid
2. You wear long sleeves and pants when it’s so hot and humid
3. The whole area is swarming with mosquitoes
4. Even with long sleeves and pants you get scratched and bit to death
5. You spend all your time bending, reaching and contorting to reach that last ripe berry; at the same time you are trying to wrench yourself free from the thorny clutch of the berry canes, swat mosquitoes, watch for snakes and make sure you don’t upset your berry bucket.


What’s to like about that?! At first glance I’m really not sure! But when you dig deeper there are several things that I do enjoy:

1. With my type a personality, I’m always thinking of the next thing that has to be done. Most of the time when I’m working on something I’m trying to hurry so I can move on to the next thing and the next thing after that. I seldom work with great focus, becoming so consumed with a task that I don’t think of anything else. (Maybe I have adult add :) There are very few activities/chores/tasks that I can completely focus on and not have my brain going 90 miles an hour thinking of what’s next. Berry picking is one of those rare tasks; it’s so refreshing to just be able to focus singularly on something and forget everything else.

2. Growing up on a farm you learn very early in life that nothing will get done if you wait until the conditions are just right and you are in the right mood. And sadly, even when you are out of the farm environment, this principle still holds true. But I can honestly say, the reward of a job well done is terrific, especially when you didn’t feel like doing it and the conditions were hard to overcome.

3. The nostalgia aspect. The older I grow, the more delight I find in anything that makes me feel like a kid again. When I’m standing waist deep in grass, brush and brambles, swatting mosquitoes and picking berries with my purple stained hands I feel like I’m 10 years old. It’s as if time stands still for me for those few precious minutes.

4. The pies, cobblers, jams, smoothies, etc! Who doesn't love a homemade goody made with berries you picked yourself?

Menu Plan Monday

This week I've got several projects that I want to work on in the evenings before we sit down to dinner, so our menu is all about quick and easy.

Monday: Grilled Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Garden Salad

Tuesday: Turkey Dill Sandwiches, Baked Beans

Wednesday: Chili with all the fixin's, cornbread

Thursday: BLT's , Cottage Cheese with Fruit

Friday: Hawaiian Pizza

Summer Thunderstorm

We had another humdinger of a storm yesterday evening. I was inside when the storm hit and boy was it loud! I kept listening for that freight train sound that people say they hear when a tornado is upon them. All the branches and leaves on our trees were blowing completely horizontal with the wind.

Once it let up a little bit, I went outside with George to watch. This storm brought down the more branches and tree limbs than any storm since we've lived here. We lost a couple of small trees and two trees fell into the road, a few hundred yards from our place, completely blocking the road. The neighbors closet and a few drivers were able to clear the road in short order.

An hour's work first thing this morning created this giant pile of debris. Thankfully nothing was bigger than what I could drag myself. (George was in town looking at mowers). By the sound of it most of our neighbors were doing the same thing -- the air was filled with the whine of chain saws.

In a few minutes we will be headed off to a Father's Day potluck. We are really looking forward to seeing George's folks. When we get back we will tackle the two fallen trees.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday:

Grilled Hamburgers and Brats, Oriental Cabbage Salad, Corn on the Cob

Tuesday:

Tacos with all the fixings

Wednesday:

Peanut Chicken Stir Fry

Thursday:

Goulash, Whole Wheat Bread, Brussel Sprouts

Friday:

Homemade Pizza Night

This post is linked to MPM

It's Official: I've Turned Into My Mom

Not that turning into my mom is such a bad thing....  Earlier today I got the news of a spur of the moment potluck luncheon this Friday. My brain was already running on overdrive and I knew there was no way I was going to remember to bring something on Friday if I didn't remind myself.  The old fashioned purse note did the trick.

The funny/sad thing is that I used to tease my mom about having purse notes. I just couldn't fathom having your brain so filled that you didn't have room to remember a simple potluck. 

So, fess up. Do you do purse notes? Do you have another sure fire way to remind yourself of important things?

Keep Stored Linens Fresh with Cedar

There is nothing like the scent of mothballs; that harsh, chemical-ey odor is hard to forget. And we are supposed to use these horrid chemical laden mothballs to store with our clothing and linens?!  After smelling a box full of clothing stored with mothballs, it makes you wonder if you can ever get that odor out of the clothes and wear them again.

Here, in our house we use a natural alternative that works much better and smells heavenly -- Cedar. You know those graceful evergreens you see so often at cemeteries and golf courses? Those are usually Cedars. Cedar is not only a lovely tree to look at, it's wood is very special too. Cedar wood is a beautiful redish pink with dark streaks. Cedar is wonderfully aromatic and it's extremely resistant to rot and insects. Cedar's wonderful smell and it's ability to repel insects make it the perfect solution to keeping bugs out of stored linens and clothing.

Cedar really works!

Since losing weight I've had to go digging into totes of my smaller clothes that have been stored for several years. Each of these totes have at least one piece of cedar and not a bug was found!

You can purchase small pieces of cedar from the laundry and home section of major home improvement stores to keep your clothes and linens fresh smelling and bug free. We were fortunate enough to get a virtually unlimited supply of cedar for free. My husband took down a cedar tree for one of his customers a couple of weeks ago and has made several round disks for me to keep in our linen closet, dressers and closets. Now, if I can get him to make me a cedar lined chest!


This post is linked to wfmw.

This Week's Menu: Use What You Have Edition

There weren't many to good to pass up deals at the grocery store this week. I picked up some milk, fresh produce and few products that I had free coupons for and that was it. Our menu this week consists almost entirely off what we have on hand.

Monday: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Garlic Toast, Salad

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes, Pasta Salad

Wednesday: Chicken Sandwiches, Corn on the Cob

Thursday: BLT's, Baked Beans, Green Pepper Strips

Friday: Homemade Pizza Night

Our Severe Weather Emergency Kit

A few years ago we had a tornado wreak havoc about 2-3 miles from our house. That disaster really opened our eyes to how important it is to be prepared in the event of an emergency. Out where we are there aren't any warning sirens. Our source of weather info is the satellite tv and the outdoors. Often we lose the satellite so that leaves us the outdoors, which is a good distance from the basement door. So for us it's really important to have things ready because we don't anticipate having any time to round things up.

Tonight we had a couple of serious storms with the potential for a tornado come roaring through. So we quickly packed up our emergency bag. Okay, so it's obvious we don't plan to head downstairs until we actually see a tornado.....




See that black grocery bag on the basement door? That's our emergency bag, well that and the tennis shoes, but we didn't have room for those in the bag. Behind the door is a set of shelves and a trap door to the cellar. Once we know severe weather is on the way we quickly pack up a bag with a few of the most crucial items.

In today's bag we packed a couple of flashlights, a shirt and jeans for George (he is wearing shorts and a T-shirt; apparently he wants to be wearing long pants and a work shirt while he's getting dug out of the cellar). My purse, George's wallet, checkbook and keys are always included. You know you will want to use your vehicle if the tornado doesn't flatten it. I also included tennis shoes as I was barefoot (in retrospect I should've been wearing them). We also include Barney's harness and leash.

While we were packing today's bag it occurred to me that there were a great many things that would be helpful to have with us if our house did cave in. Such as our insurance guy's contact info.... why didn't I think to pack that? What would be best is to have everything we have upstairs now, downstairs. That would solve the whole problem!

What else can you suggest as a necessity? (keep in mind we've got water, cell phones covered)

One of the Residents Here on the Farm

This little mama lives in the old maple tree outside our bedroom window. On Monday when we were out on patio grilling we saw her taking a peek at us. We haven't seen her babies yet, but George is sure she's a mama. The old fashioned country way of telling the maternal status of an animal is that when you see her, she's quite fat and the next time you see her she isn't. A few weeks ago this little gal was so fat she could hardly squeeze herself down into her hole. We were really afraid she got stuck in there! The next time we saw her, she bounded down into the hole with no problem.

Menu Plan Monday

Our Favorite Fruit Salad

I absolutely adore fresh fruit salad. But, because there is just the two of us, and we can only eat so much fresh fruit before it goes bad, we can't make too big of a salad. One of my favorite fruit salads is comprised of three simple ingredients: cantaloupe, blueberries and strawberries. Of course there are a lot of other goodies (like fresh pineapple) that you can throw in there to make it even better, but then we would end up with too big of a salad and it would go to waste. 

This weekend I was pleasantly surprised to find that all three ingredients for our salad were on sale. So for $5 we ended up with a terrific fruit salad to eat all week; plus a few leftover strawberries and blueberries for my morning yogurt.

This week's menu also contains a splurge, steaks on the grill. Even though they were on sale, they were still more expensive than any other meat we buy. As I'm posting this on Tuesday, I can tell you they were fabulous (thank you McCormick Grill Mates Marinade)! I'm having steak leftovers for lunch today and tomorrow. A few weeks ago we received two free samples of Grill Mates Marinade and it's pretty much solved our problem of dry tough meat on the grill.


Sunday: Sloppy Joes, Peas, Carrot Sticks

Monday: Steaks on the Grill, Corn on the Cob, Broccoli,  Fruit Salad

Tuesday: Tacos with all the fixings

Wednesday: BLT's, Corn on the Cob, Fruit Salad

Thursday: Spaghetti and Meatballs, Garden Salad, Garlic Toast

Friday: Hawaiian Pizza Night