Sunday Night Cooking and the 4th of July

Sunday

We work late, it seems. I have been tired and took a nap. We went for a short ride afterwards. Tommy got to skip watering as it sprinkled a bit. The wave petunias were looking ragged, so I trimmed all but two "branches" and gave it a drink of Miracle-Gro. It should recover. 

We cook late:

12 boneless, skinless thighs

6 chicken tenders

3 lbs. ground beef chopped and cooked with onions, salt, and pepper

4 shoulder ribs ? or some such with garlic powder, salt and pepper

2.5 lbs. ground pork and beef made into meatloaf

12 chicken Italian sausages cooked and stored in refrigerator

Most of the chicken thighs will be frozen one portion at a time. A couple of the tiny ones will be frozen together for a portion. The tenders are for me to eat now this week. The ground beef he is chopping and cooking with onions will be for spaghetti or whatever. He also puts it on his plate to eat or in a sandwich. Ground pork and beef are going into a meatloaf tonight. The Italian sausages are for him to use in wraps or whatever he decides. He has really taken to wraps. There are four hamburgers in the refrigerator for tomorrow. 

It was really helpful to have the onions and bell pepper chopped on Saturday. I try to do that since all I have to do is mix things instead of needing to chop. 

We finished a little after 3 am. This was not our intention, but we just kept going, cooking all the meat so it would be ready to eat. Sunday, the plan is to freeze most of the meat. I told Tommy to put a dish of meat in the refrigerator, putting a cloth underneath it so the heat would not affect the refrigerator shelf. Well, I turned off the kitchen light, turned around, and there were two dishes of meat on the counter! 

The last 45 minutes of the marathon meat cooking event was spent washing out pots and pans. Tommy said it would be easier to wash now than letting it sit until morning. Besides, he is very much on top of keeping any tiny morsels of meat from the drain. We save all plastic bags. Some from Amazon are perfect for putting liquids from kitchen cooking into and then into the trash. I have taught him well. He was totally oblivious to these dangers for his drains and sewage before I warned him. He religiously uses the strainer for the drain. 

All day Sunday we have not seen or heard a dog from next door. The dog across the street barked for about 15 seconds because his people came home. Someone was shooting off fireworks far in the distance. Sunday night, the fireworks were on this street. I waited too late to go see them. Then, they quit at 10 pm. So, it could have been in the park. 

The park backs up to houses across the street. It can get very noisy with music I cannot stand. But, at the stroke of 10pm, it is shut down. So, it is not hard to endure, knowing when it will end. 

The 4th of July

Despite our late night, I was up just before 10 am. I mixed coleslaw and made baked beans. Now, at 4 pm, we will prepare vegetables for baking and eating all week or until they are gone--potatoes, carrots, zucchini, carrots, celery. The squash is already baked. 

So, our meal will be hamburgers or maybe ribs, cole slaw, baked beans, baked vegetables. It is too late for me to commit to making potato salad, but Tommy won't eat it or miss it. I will boil the eggs, and chop pickles and celery. So, that will be for tomorrow. Tommy just said he will have ribs. The hamburgers do need to be cooked, anyway. 

We have not seen or heard from the dogs tpday. The kids are still waving at us. Now, for dark and random fireworks and our sparklers. If it does not rain by 7 pm, Tommy will water. He always roots for a bit of rain. None of the meat is going to spoil, so Tuesday may be the day we freeze it. 

This was an uneventful 4th and we like it that way. How was your day? 

Missionary Interrupted

 I was awakened about 6:15 am by the dogs next door. Missionaries were coming at 10 am. In the meantime, I got dressed, Tommy ate breakfast and we were out by 8 am to buy more shelf paper. They came a little after 10 am, and one guy barely got started. The other one had a call and they had an LDS emergency and had to be back at headquarters in 40 minutes. ???

So, they are gone, and I am so tired. Tommy is going to talk to the people next door about the dogs barking. 

I had bought a marble print shelf paper, so I was going to get the same print. I did, but the wrong color. I have a light brown. I bought gray! Well, it will have to work together. We rarely have more than one door open at a time. 

One cleaning service will do only a bathroom. But, the soonest appointment is 3 weeks out. $125. Tommy did not bat an eye at the price. He has been very vocal about getting it done, so this is a 180 from former position. That price is the highest price and might be lower. From the shape of this bathroom, I doubt it. Oh, they won't clean walls or ceiling or inside the bathroom under sink area. 

Since I got a new cell phone ring tone, I am now that person who just sits there and lets the cell phone keep ringing. I feel like an idiot!

At one point, the dogs woke me about 8 something every day. Now, they wake me shortly after 6 am. I asked Tommy to talk to the people. He said, "Okay." He did not act like I was being a problem. So, he did. The woman said the only thing she could do is to put them out when they leave after 8 am. We will see. So, at least I got that. He said she was nice. But, I know he was nice to her. I was, too, no ire from either of us. 

She took our garbage to the road as she usually does, so I suppose they are trying their best. It's only a couple of the dogs, mostly. But, they bark so much that all the neighborhood dogs bark. I am talking about 8 blocks away. 

The plan today was to go to a liquidator I found. However, a nap was in order since I was rudely awakened by the dogs next door. It will wait. 

It's almost 9 pm, and I still have to cook the three meats. UGH We ate other food...lol. Tommy will chop the ground beef while I bag and put the other meats in the oven. And, I should have washed my hair today. Okay, 11 pm and meat is done and stored. 

We have done lots today, and Friday is a full day. We never have hard chores, just time-consuming things to do, like returns. 

Added: Meat I cooked tonigh--2.66 lbs of grass-fed beed, chopped and cooked, 3 huge bscb, 1.33 lbs. marinated pork roast. It is all in the refrigerator. Some will go into the freezer on Friday.

The deals are not forthcoming this week. Did you find deals at all?

Wednesday This and That

 Our Tuesday lunch of chicken provided dinner Tuesday night. The whole chicken breasts were so large that neither of us could finish ours. When it came time to think about dinner, he said he would make a salad for himself. I ate a sandwich and slaw with my breast. I love an easy meal, and a cheap one, too. 

At noon on Wednesday, Tommy just wandered out and back in. He got his own lunch of beans and franks and slaw. If I keep food ready, he just helps himself instead of expecting me to get it. About half the time I do bring in his lunch. I just remembered--a week or two ago, he was adamant that he did not want vegetables for lunch. He gets up much earlier than I, and wants lunch before I even want breakfast. 

Tuesday, I was gutted when I found evidence of more thievery at my lot. Won't people ever give up? 

This afternoon, Tommy had to go pay two bills, so I went along and went to a store I shop at about every two months. Pork chops were $1.99/lb., so I bought a pack for <$6. Dinner will be pork chops, the rest of the fresh green beans, and the one potato along with a huge Vidalia onion. I hope the chops are good tasting. 

Then, I found amber Ball pint jars. They are short, squat, wide-mouth. I don't think I have seen amber jars for sale in ages. The dark glass keeps food from deteriorating in the light.  These are possibly the darkest jars I have ever seen. The amber jars will be used to store dehydrated foods if I ever dehydrate anything again. 

Have you seen amber, Ball jars in the stores? Do you use amber jars to protect food? 

Tired and Rambling

I have been so tired and not sleeping well at all. Okay, I can sleep for hours during the day. But, at night I am wide awake even if I do not take a nap. I suppose I should give in and become a vampire. 

Everyday, I tell Tommy he needs to come and help me get frozen meat from the freezer. He is sort of a spotter in case of an avalanche. I usually throw my body at the freezer and stop the chunks from falling and hitting my feet or skittering across the floor. 

Finally, tonight, he helped me. I did sit on a five gallon bucket and get stuff from my upright freezer. So, no chest stopping the meat. I found a package of frozen thighs, a turkey breast, and a package of Italian Sausages. Then, I looked more closely and found I had a chicken and not a turkey breast. Oh well. 

I will cook the chicken in a cooking bag along with the thighs. After we have our first meal, he will remove all the meat from the bones. He will like this for lunch sandwiches or to put on a salad. Then, I can check more carefully and find a turkey breast. I know I must have one in one of the freezers. 

Tuesday afternoon, I bought an expensive package of boneless, skinless breast instead of buying KFC. That package worked for lunch and for dinner tonight as well as dinner last night. So, now that more meat is thawing, there will be no temptation at all for eating out. 

We are slowly getting a zillion cans of food that are five years old from his dining room, all stashed in a huge box! I go around and behind the table and pick up one can at a time and he stands on the other side of a barrier of food and stuff and takes each can and puts it in a bag for discarding in the garbage. Some of the cans are ready to explode, others have leaked, all in pretty bad shape. Before I got the floor lamp to use, there was no way to see what was there! 

Items back there that he forbade me to discard, he is now amenable to losing as he says he does not care. How many ice cream buckets that are 20 years old does one need?

So, I have done things, just not much in the way of fun activities, which is not to say life is boring or mundane. The glue in my eye dissipated, so that is one worry off my mind and out of my eye. I resumed reading The Bird Way now. 

Everyday, I call two places trying to get rid of this covid haircut! They must have plenty of customers since they never answer the phone. 

Everyday, I look for a package.  Finally, I cancelled the order. I had ordered a hummingbird feeder for Tommy and an ant guard. I will find one somewhere else. The neighbors must wonder what I am up to when I look outside every few minutes for days. I will make the feed to go into the feeder instead of buying the poisonous red liquid. Tommy does not know what I have been waiting to receive. 

Does anyone have a hummingbird feeder? Got any good stories or advice? 

Saturday

 

The ground beef has been chopped and cooked. Tommy did a great job of chopping it very finely. I cooked part of it for dinner with leftovers for another meal. I froze about  third of it. And, I put another third in the refrigerator for another meal. I figure we will have six meals, three for each of us or more out of each third, from 2.5 lbs of beef. I thought each package held more. It was separated into thirds with each package giving us four to six meals. 

Tommy was looking forward to meat loaf, but I had cooked all the meat, so I put out another package which should get us a total of four meals, two each. 

I am officially declaring Hamburger Helper nasty! I made the cheeseburger box and hated it. And, why does it need two cups of milk? So, no more. 

Maybe I have covid. Tomorrow, if I feel so awful, I will be going to have a covid test. The antibiotic and prednisone are helping but not much. No, I am going no matter how I feel. This is bad. 

About what the doctor said about the thyroid ultrasound--the recommendation to wait a year for another ultrasound came from the doctor who read the ultrasound. He is not the doctor who sent me for the test. The doctor who sent me did so after I expressed concern that another lump was in my neck. It hurts. So, he said, "Do you want me to order an ultrasound?" When I agreed, he immediately ordered it. I have every assurance in my head that he will see this nodule is removed. I can feel it when I swallow. 

At last, the rain is letting up. I have spray painting to do outdoors, so I have been in a snit to get outdoors. Well, maybe I will feel like going out. I want to walk and just end up in bed. It was a pretty, peaceful day in the park today. 

My Christmas Cake

 Finally, I found someone to push my wheelchair into the endocrinologist and managed to get an appointment today. Amazingly, the guy who was going to clean is an EMT or was. At any rate, he is going to charge me about $30 to push me in and push me out. I need no help to get in or out of the chair. It is a lot of money, but I need this appointment. 

I called on Wednesday to get the appointment, knowing I had to get in to see the doctor. Then, I called to cancel and told her the reason. THEN, I told her my problem about needing a pusher. She said she would give the message to the guy who was coming to clean, that he would be free if not cleaning for me. So, he agreed. 

Now, the get the wheelchair to car and into car. Thankfully, Tommy is really strong and can lift it. Okay, I am back after paying someone $30 to push me up to doctor's office, wait, and push me back to the car. He took wheelchair out of car and put it back, assembled and disassembled the foot rests. I desperately needed this appointment.

Wednesday, I took three packages of meat from the freezer to thaw. At dinner I managed to thaw the chicken breasts enough to throw the whole slab in a cooking bag and bake it. And, I thawed carrots. Tommy had the rest of the peas. Chicken, carrots, and peas sounds like a tv dinner...lol.

The whole chicken will go into the crockpot and I will cook in a skillet the ground pork and use half of it for taco casserole and freeze the other half of the cooked meat for another casserole later. I will probably freeze half of the casserole. 

About forty years ago, I made my first chocolate pound cake in a Bundt pan and loved it. My father requested I bring it to Memphis every Christmas. He liked it because it had no icing! 

For over ten years I attended all holidays at parties in Birmingham year round. On each occasion I made a chocolate pound cake. At one open house the person who was having an event the next day asked me if she could keep the pound cake and slice it. So, she took it home. At the same occasion another person asked me to bring one to his party. 

Finally, I baked the chocolate pound cake in three loaf pans. One loaf was perfect for each occasion. Last year was the first year in over forty years I did not bake a chocolate pound cake. I am still trying to find the recipe online. I have baked hundreds of pound cakes over the years. 

Chocolate Pound Cake is my Christmas cake. 

Do you have a cake that is your special Christmas cake that you bake? Or, did your mother bake something special for Christmas.

Examining the Cost of Protein and My Lie I Told to You

Saturday night--one of the four packages of chicken tenderloins is in the crockpot. The package cost $6.39, was $1.99/lb, and contained 14 chicken tenderloins, making a tender cost $0.46 each. That makes each person's protein cost for the meal less than fifty cents. Find that price at a restaurant. I dare you to try. So seven meals for the two of us costs little, less than $7.

Of course, I could eat several of these. But, I won't. They are actually quite large, surprisingly. I have lost 20 lbs according to the new scales. I am trying, quite unsuccessfully to curtail my intake of calories.

I found Starkist Tuna, chunk light for $0.77/ 6 oz. can. With the 10% Piggly Wiggly store cost, that makes a can $0.85. This will feed both of us when I make croquettes. He won't eat tuna salad, so this will make two meals for me at $0.43/serving.

This examination of cost per serving occurs with every protein I buy. By doing this, I am less likely to purchase more expensive protein.

On  a different note, I have lied to you. I immediately sliced my finger open with a sharp knife after saying I don't cut myself. I sort of peeled my thumb while slicing tomatoes, actually, chunking them for the salad last night. It really hurt but not enough to deter me from slicing toward myself. Then, I bit off the sliced bit and made it hurt more. I have never needed stitches since I was seven and used a dull knife.

Dinner: chicken, zucchini, corn on the cob.

Do you examine the cost of protein when you purchase and eat meat? Oh, the tomatoes bought last week cost me $1 each, much more than protein. Thankfully, I am growing tomatoes!

One Plant at a Time and Meat

Today, when we went to Cullman, I dug up some Hosta that I planted in hard clay in my yard several years ago. It never got taller than six inches, poor thing. So, now it is here and in 3 little pots. I had bought Hosta bulbs, but these will work and I can take those back to Lowe's.

I salvaged plants so I could return the ones I bought. I like saving money by getting plants from a free place--my front yard this time. These poor Hosta had needed rescuing for a long time.

Next, I need to get my iris that have never bloomed because of the hard clay and not enough sunlight. I think I will put them into a large pot.

There are still bedding plants on the porch! I will get them planted if you give me long enough! A person from Auburn University is bringing tomato plants this next week, so I have not bought any yet. It is part of the study.  Well, I did buy one cherry tomato bedding plant from the woman with CSA.

The gerbera daisy is not looking well. Will it bloom again? Should I toss it?

The $26 chicken pack fed us for 8 days. Believe me, we had very little chicken every day except yesterday. This week all the meat is free--rotisserie chicken, veal, two chicken-meatloaf stuffed peppers. Free lunch today and another free meal gotten for dinner.

Cold Here

Wife texts husband on a cold winter morning:
"Windows frozen, won't open."

Husband texts back:
Gently pour some lukewarm water over it, and then gently tap edges
with a hammer."

Wife texts back ten-minutes later:
Computer really messed up now."

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Tommy has kept the heat on 64 F. I am not cold enough to put on many clothes. His house is evenly cold...lol. I had some trouble with his bedroom being cold, but am over that. I just need flannel sheets because his sheets are cold. My cotton sheets were not cold. And, I had flannel ones!

I am living barefoot and with short sleeves or sleeveless and short night gown. Didn't I tell you I was warm-natured? Tommy keeps a blanket over him and shirt, pants, and socks on.

However, at the first sign of getting a cold, I need to bundle up.

This las week has been nothing but vertigo and feeling ill. I took Tommy's Benadryl to take care of the ear thing/vertigo. But, I was hung over the whole next day. Last night, I just refused to take one again. Today, I did not sleep half the day and generally felt more perky.

We went shopping today for food and things needed around here. I will post that list later. We had not been out of the house for three days.

Tonight, I put on my headlamp and dug around in Tommy's freezer. I found one of his ice cream cones with chocolate and nuts. He was very happy. And, he let me have a bite. When I bought lots of cheap chicken this spring, I packed some in a cooler for him to take to his freezer. So, there is that and lots of other frozen meat. I suspect we will not need meat for another six weeks. And, by then the sales on turkey breast will come around.

Tonight, I finally got dinner done by ten. He was irritable and very hungry. We had another sausage patty and sweet potato. "I thought we were having beans, too?" he was sooo disappointed. But, I gave him his ice cream cone..lol.

We did not leave the house until about 4:30, so I knew he needed to eat. I had to tell him I was hungry because he did not fall for me drinking half the little bottle of oj or one of the pb crackers. So, we had dollar burger from Hardee's. He waited in the car for me to shop. When I got back, he had finished the oj and all the pb crackers. Whew. So, I was not afraid for him to drive. If he would have fallen for the oj and pb crackers, we could have saved $4 on the two burgers. !!!

Did I tell you? I have lost 20 pounds, hopefully more by now.

It is so cold and dark and I have to go to utility room to get clothes to hang to dry. Yuck. I miss my laundry room!