Friday This and That

 Friday, we cooked two pounds of bacon in the oven and had BLTs. Yum! A bag of salad and Roma tomatoes were used. This was lunch and will be lunch tomorrow. Tommy sat on his walker and looked in the oven every three minutes. He did not enjoy throwing away bacon when we burned it a couple of weeks ago. So, he guarded it with the promise of a BLT. 

The best part was that I now have a cup of bacon grease. Maybe in the morning I will have scrambled eggs cooked in a tbsp of bacon grease. The skillet is non-stick, but a taste of oil or bacon grease or butter is good.

Using one little vial of the eyedrops has kept my eyelashes from being sticky. However, my eyelashes hurt, not the lashes, but the base. It feels like they are bruised and swollen. I imagine this is from incessant rubbing of my eyes. If they are not better after a few more days of not rubbing, I will ask my eye doctor what is happening when I get a new eyeglass prescription. 

It was overcast and a pleasant temperature all day until about 3 pm when we were out. After heavy sprinkles, the sun came out and the air was palpable, muggy. However, even with the mugginess, we sat in the park and ate Drumsticks, enjoying the freshly washed scenery and the sky. 

We made a trip to shop from the bedroom, removing a box of Wheat Thins, tomato paste, unsweetened Jello, and Ziploc quart storage bags. All this was bought on sale. The storage bags were Christmas clearance. I wonder what the price is now. I like shopping from the bedroom. I did get the 48 can of tuna moved into the room. I will get it in place another day as my back was hurting and it was late. 

Tonight, I realized I have not been bitten by one mosquito, and I only saw one in February. Have you seen mosquitoes or have been bitten? Do they sing about, threatening to bite you? 

For dinner, I sliced the kind of ham that is in a roll and cooked those slices even though they are fully cooked. We had ham, coleslaw and sliced tomatoes. 

Are you shopping from your pantry stash? Mosquitoes about? 

BLT Fail

Tommy put all the bacon on a pan I covered with parchment paper and put it in the oven. Then, he went out to water. I checked on it. He came in and went to check it. He came back into the living room and told me it was "very dark and shrunken." I rushed in to rescue the burnt bacon. I only succeeded in ripping the bacon out before it went totally black. Aaargh! My rushing was a fast limp. I did not fuss because it was his first view of bacon cooked in the oven. 

I told him to take things out, that we can return it to oven if it needs cooking more. The blt was not so pleasant with burned bacon. I will buy another package of bacon tomorrow and we will try again. His toast which he made himself was burned, also. I turned down the toaster so mine was only brown. I love toast but have not had any in a year. 

We have not eaten a tomato despite having had market-bought homegrown tomatoes since Saturday. I want a good blt before they go.  

Sunday, I mentioned to Tommy, "Didn't she say she was coming to clean Tuesday or was it Monday?" He immediately turned and said loudly, "Why is it that you cannot remember "anything?" Well, I was ready to murder him because he is the one who cannot remember, so he always verbally demeans me until we find what he says he "put right here." Well, no, it is still in the car despite his clarity of the memory. I never, ever turn on him when he cannot remember correctly! 

So, I got up early this morning because I was hot, suffocating. Then, it was too late to try to get sleep, so I stayed up. She did not come! Most certainly, I was correct. She is coming Tuesday. Finally, at noon I went to bed and took a looong nap--4.5 hours. 

While I slept, he washed and dried two of his blankets that had been lying in a corner for three years. He slept much later than I did, so he is not being overworked...lol. These are in garbage bags, sealed at the top so dust won't get it. 

While shopping for the bacon, I found a brand that is low sodium. It probably has extra sugar! No, I checked. It has 0mg sugar. 

Tommy carried the bags of clothing he is giving away to the car. So, it looks even better in here. We carry away lots of bags to recycle or donate from this house. I cannot imagine how the house would be if we left all this in here. Plus, we organize a bit on our own, not relying on the cleaner for every little thing. 

Until I had dinner about 7 pm, I had only eaten two scrambled eggs and about 10 ounces of milk. Since 7 pm, I had the blt and all the innards for another sandwich minus bread, sort of a salad. Just now, I had an apple. Then, I had some ice cream. I try hard! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

You don't have to skip bacon on Thanksgiving!

Nothing Much Friday But Stuff to Say--Tomatoes, Basil, and Gunsmoke

 When pots are left with dying plants from over the winter, sometimes they will reseed , sprout weeds or just sit there and look ugly. I noticed a few days ago green in one of my herb pots. Yesterday, I made note of the fact it looked like basil. Well, today, feeling like I could bend and not topple over, I bent and pulled a leaf and smelled it. BASIL

It is really hard to water things on the porch as bending is hard and I don't want to spray the leaves. So, I have to bend or go off the porch and down the ramp to water standing on the grass. Plus, Tommy must go down the ramp and then back around it to turn on the water. I hate to have him do this, but I cannot turn the faucet. 

No pretty plants on the porch. I need to find ones that can go dry without immediately collapsing and then dying. But, I had another thought while on hummingbird watch. I will get another shepherd's crook and put flowers near the ramp railing. That way, either of us can water them with water from inside the house. 

It looks like I lost my third cleaner before he ever came. He would be in one of three locations and I had to go get him.  Well, before I could call, he moved to some place called Livingston. My friend has a second person in mind, so we will see. 

Tonight, I decided a BLT would be perfect with the new tomatoes, but I needed to purchase already-cooked bacon. We got out the door and onto the ramp and decided to stay home as it was starting to sprinkle and there were big, black clouds. No use getting caught out in that, so we unlocked the door and stayed here. The tomatoes will last until tomorrow. 

Right now, I am watching a movie with James Arness. I love Gunsmoke! I hurried and put dinner in the oven--two bscb and two chicken breast filets. A whole Vidalia onion sliced in half and a whole bell pepper sliced in fourths are cooking with the chicken. Tommy is going to have salad with grape tomatoes. I will have slices of one of the tomatoes from the market. We can eat all weekend from this since the breasts are so large. 

I may have a tomato salad--diced tomatoes, a bit of Miracle Whip stirred in with other vegetables.  YUM. When we were kids, we would go in and make tomato sandwiches before dinner. I loved those. 

The chicken is almost ready and Tommy is getting his salad. So, I need to check on the chicken at the next commercial. 

Do you or did you just eat tomato sandwich with mayo or salad dressing? Did you toast the bread or eat it with toasting? 

Soup Recipe and Thursday

I had planned to make potato, cheese, bacon soup on Wednesday night. When I found the beautiful, cheap broccoli, I decided to add broccoli. I added a lot of broccoli, probably equal volumes to potato! Tonight, I will drop more broccoli into the warm soup.

The potato and broccoli measurements are guesses. The rest of the measurements are correct. I am quite sure you can make this your own. I rarely make white sauce, but I did for this.

2 lbs potatoes, peeled and diced
2 lbs broccoli washed; cut florets smaller than mine were originally
2 cans Campbell's chicken broth
1/4 cup butter, melted
less than 1/4 cup flour mixed with butter
1/2 c milk mixed into the butter and flour when smooth...too much milk
6 oz. Cheddar cheese, diced and dropped on top of hot soup

The potatoes were still  a bit too crunchy when I dropped the broccoli florets into the crock pot. Of course, both softened perfectly.

Originally I had intended to put bacon into this soup. But, tomorrow night I will heat bowlsful and add the bacon to the bowls.

I imagine I will add another three cups of florets to the soup tonight which will be soft by tomorrow night. And, it will have all the flavor even though it sits in the warm soup tonight. The amount of potato and broccoli are estimates since I weighed neither.

Since I dropped the cheese in cut into little pieces, it was tasty to get a bit of cheesey broccoli or cheesey potato. Soon, the cheese melted completely.

I did not add salt! The taste of the vegetables and cheese and chicken broth were tasty enough. No, I am not going to make my own broth. Mine tastes terrible to me!

This was delicious and so warming. It is probably in the 40s, not frigid, but this warmed me to my toes. Still Wednesday night and the debate just ended.

Thursday now--We went to bed at 1 am and I slept to 12:15 pm today. I suppose the drive made me sleep soundly. Maybe it was the comfort food.  I awoke once to go to the bathroom and once was hot. The rest of the time was not disturb by wake and I slept more soundly than usual, maybe awake only 20 minutes between going to bed and getting out of bed.  The vertigo seems to be worse.

As usual, we are staying in due to rain. There are places to go, but it is dreary out.

Brought Home Bacon Instead of Chicken

The chicken was not on sale on Monday at Piggly Wiggly. On the way out of the store, I saw "OINKS, chocolate covered bacon." Unfortunately, I succumbed to the package with ONE piece of bacon for $1.80. I will never buy it again. But, it was wonderful--Applewood smoked chocolate covered bacon. Tommy did not want half. So, I begged him to try one bite. He said the bacon was good, but he did not like chocolate on it. Have you ever had chocolate covered bacon?

If I were inspired enough, I would make this for the breakfast at church. I would need to make trial run. But, that would be a pain. Instead, I will scramble a dozen eggs, maybe with cheese in it.

Since bscb were not on sale, I came home and fought the freezer to avoid an avalanche and got out chicken that is skinless but still has bones. I have never seen chicken packaged that 3way before. Have you? I also took out a package of the bscb. All this can go in the oven. This will make enough to freeze. These large chunks of frozen meat will have to go into water to thaw them in time to cook and eat them today.

Sunday, I gave in to the urge to have Kraft Macaroni n Cheese. All was going well until I tried to drain the pasta. The colander was not clean, so I used the lid with five or six holes in the side, holding it on the pot as I turned the pot over. Surprise! I dumped all but about 3/4 cup of the pasta into the sink. Lovely! In order to salvage some of the cheesy choice I was craving, I used what was left in the pot, put half the cheese in it, a dash of milk, and microwaved it. FOR TOO LONG. We both had about a quarter of a cup of the burned cheese in the shriveled pasta. I suppose that is what I get for trying to eat mac n cheese.

I have made an executive decision just now. We will have salmon croquettes for dinner instead of the chicken. I have sweet potatoes baked and in the refrigerator and will cook field peas and snaps. Tommy loves all three of these, so I am set. If I had greens, we could that, too.

Two hours after the last sentence, I have changed plans. I am watching Impeachment proceedings. I told Tommy that he may have to eat pb sandwich for dinner. He said "okay" or that he could go out to get a burger for us. I will cook dinner.