Free Food, Decluttering, "Cream Of"

 Some turn up their nose at the idea of free food. Growing a garden is one idea. Getting surplus from friends or neighbors is good, too. 

Growing one plant in a container works for beginning gardeners or those without space or time or motivation. 

The years I picked up free produce for my chickens were good years. I also ate from that box as did Tommy, taking apples to his house. The owner knew I ate some of the stuff, acknowledged it to me, saying to eat all I wanted from the box he was dumping. 

Now, I grow free food in the window from scraps. Tonight, I saved lots of money by using window-grown onions. Just save the bottom of the onion after using the green tops. Put it in water until roots grow or grow longer. Mine had roots when I put them in water. Now, they can be planted in a pot or in the ground. I just reached up with scissors and snipped off all the tops.  Then, I used scissors to snip them into half-inch pieces. Green onions went into the chicken casserole even though they were not in the recipe. 

By looking for green onions still viable, I grow all the green onions I can use. I just keep cutting off the tops to use. Carrot ends are a good source of carrot tops, greens for flavor and nutrition. At some point I was going to plant them all in one a flowerpot on the porch. But, when I went out one night, roaches were all over the end of the celery I was regrowing for the tops. Now, water in a short glass container in the window works. I will put it in soil before winter because I think it might grow better. I don't know. 

CLICK HERE for a guide to growing 19 different vegetables from scraps.

Last night, I did not get my 7.5 hours of sleep, but that was my fault. I went to bed later than I would have, read longer and then wanted to get up at 10 am to watch Meet the Press. I love that show. So, I took a nap. I am okay with that because I did get my allotment of sleep I need.

The next-door neighbors have decorated their porch for Halloween, the first yard decoration I have seen for the season. The woman on the other side have four extra vehicles where the whole gang came to work in their mother's yard, clearing and hauling to the street. They also put up a huge trampoline in the backyard, right next to the chain link fence for her grandchildren. It looks dangerous to me if someone accidentally bounced off. Maybe they are not through and will move it out a bit or put up a mesh fence. My friend a block away has been lopping and moving the lopped limbs to the road. Everyone has been busy outside, it seems. The mild temps and lack of precipitation and low humidity have inspired people to spend hours working outdoors, it seems.

Tommy is watering the mums and last of the summer flowers. I need to store them somewhere over the winter so that maybe they will bloom next year. 

I have decluttered a bit more. Tommy has plenty of hangers, but he wants to keep every last one, all the hangers from dry cleaning. A few wire ones are good to keep, but too many is ridiculous. There was a pair of rubber rain pants in that box. He says they are too long, coming all the way above his chest. Well, they are about half the waist size he needs, too. So, those will go. That makes one more box empty. 

A basket of soups was retrieved from the back bedroom to replenish the kitchen supply. I think I will start making my own "cream of" soups. Even the healthy request type has enough sodium to kill a person. Now, there is a space in that room that was filled before. 

The chicken thighs were actually legs stuffed in closely, so I only saw round shapes and thought they were thighs. When I remove food from the freezer, sometimes I mistake what cut of chicken I have. There is sage and a bay leaf cooking with those in the crockpot. The breasts, rice, soup, and broccoli are in the oven. 

I put the chicken in first instead of last. Then, when I put in the soup and broccoli, I forgot the rice. It will be okay and the whole dish will cook, but I will have to add water and cook it all a bit differently since the rice went on the top. To top it all off, I forgot to put foil over the pan. THEN, I could not squeeze the foil tight because the glass casserole was too hot. There will be dinner and legs for the refrigerator for Tommy. 

Dinner turned out fine, delicious! 

There are recipes for the "cream of" mixes online. Do you have a different one? 

Have you taken advantage of less than torrid conditions to do outdoor work this week or do you have plans as the temps rise again?

What vegetables do you regrow from scraps? 

Nights Are Strange Sometimes, Always an Adventure

 When I went to Publix and expected to get green grapes cheaply, I was disappointed since they were not of a quality I wanted to buy. Then, I was given 8 pounds of prime quality, beautiful green grapes. Good deal. 

I am not sure why, but The Pig did not have broccoli or cauliflower even though it was on sale. I got a free jar of Wickles pickles with my purchase. Salmon was on sale. I bought a can of sale salmon and a can of my favorite salmon. Tomorrow, I will open it to see if the quality is what I prefer. Then, I might buy more while it is on sale. I bought four ears of corn for way too much. But, it is done. Dasani water helped to get the Wickles pickles. I like saying "wickles pickles." I bought two more gallons of cheap vinegar. I would have bought five total, but Tommy has enough water to carry into the house3 24-packs of Dasani. 

Today, we received two pounds of bacon, (Remember, I bought two pounds bacon bogo yesterday!) four tomatoes, two butternut squash, four small red potatoes, 4 sweet potatoes that I will give to Lynda, 4 Just Crack an Egg, four burger patties, 3 tiny, individual pies, one bagel that fell on the ground and was tossed, 

We will use the add-ins for the Just Add Egg and not use eggs at all. I now have the ham to put into the Mississippi Sin Dip since we received a frozen pack to make hoagies--ham, turkey, and cheeses. I will probably put the tiny packages of JAE cheese in the dip, also. There are tiny packages of vegetables, chopped finely that may be in the dip! 

I took apart the Just Crack an Egg bowls and have the cheeses in one sandwich bag and the vegetable packs in another. This will help to declutter the refrigerator.

Well, I mixed in free and bought items in this post. So, you may or may not understand...lol. 

For at least 4 months I have been asking Tommy if he is sure he cannot find a can of salmon. Finally, I have decided we ran out. So, I need to get at least a half-dozen cans of salmon on the shelves. Now that I have salmon, I can put salmon in my scrambled eggs. YAY! 

This afternoon, we took sweet potatoes and cajun peanuts to Lynda and she gave us tomatoes and a small bag of peas. Sharing fights waste!

Today has been a day of doing nothing much. Since Tommy washed the kitchen linens this morning, I need to fold them. We have neglected nothing, just done nothing much. 

Nights around here are strange sometimes, always an adventure, it seems. Last night, we went to bed at 3 am. Then, I read until 4 am. At 5:20, I awoke rested and looked at the clock, wondering how I slept until evening. I put on my glasses, went to bathroom, and took my phone to the living room. As I stood in the doorway, I saw Tommy was sound asleep, no lights were on. If he were snoozing at 5:20 pm, lamps would be on. It was really dark outside. Sheepishly, at 5:22 am I retreated to my room and went back to sleep. 

At least, I did not get up, frantic that something had happened to Tommy like Thursday night. We are still laughing about him being Niles in Frasier. 

Do things awake you at night, be it really happening or in a dream where your sleep is disturbed, even momentarily? Can you get back to sleep?