A First for Tommy

 Today, we put the pork butt into a cooking bag and left it in the over for four + hours. About an hour before Tommy took it out of the oven, I put in two sweet potatoes. I had made cole slaw. Dinner was less than stellar. Those are sweet potatoes I hate, NOT Beauregard. The meat was so fatty. Somehow, the slaw was not quite right. 

But, we ate. Tommy was thrilled with it all. Maybe my taste is off. I don't know. 

He disappeared into the kitchen and took the meat off the bone and the fat off the meat. A little later, he came out. Then, he went back in. I asked him what he was doing as he passed me. He was going back into the kitchen to freeze the meat he did not put in the refrigerator. I stopped him and asked what he was going to write with. He showed me a felt marker. The Ziploc bags say to use a ball point pen. So, i had him give the marker to me and gave him a ball point pen. 

This is the first time he has EVER frozen anything. Well, I have told him to put the hotdogs in the freezer, new ones I bought for much later. 

Now, I have one more pork butt to cook and freeze. This one I cooked in the bag. The one I cooked in the crockpot was fine, not too fatty. I cooked it all night. It was great for pulled pork. The one I cooked today was mostly fatty meat amidst a few chunks of good meat. 

Last night, the storms were terrific, loud, rainy, and destructive. But, the lights only blinked briefly for a second. Tonight should be quieter, thankfully. I did get enough sleep, even if it took me half a day. My sinus infection seems to be clearing. I think the problem may be this weather. 

Do you cook pork butt? By what method? 

Did you have tornado or storm damage? 

Sunday Storms

 As usual, I have had trouble going to sleep. Last night, it was a new and worse problem. Finally, at 8 am, I did sleep, awaking at 2pm. 

I think the reason I have felt so exhausted is a new sinus infection. I don't want to move! However, I know sitting is going to kill me! Thankfully, we have plenty of leftovers and frozen cooked meat in the freezer. However, I will finally cook the pork butt and make coleslaw. 

Tommy is out moving the blackberry bushes and covering them with tulle. I will make sure to put a rubber snake near them. There is a long cane on each, making it impossible to cover them. So, i will have him cut the cane. I hope that does not kill them. 

We called to have the recliner repaired in March. In April, someone came to look at it and come back in two to three weeks to repair it. Shortly thereafter, a box too large and too heavy for us to move, containing the metal mechanism to go under the chair. It was sitting where rain could hit it. The furniture store told us they would be out soon. Okay, and it has rained here two or three days each week. Now, in June, someone will come in two weeks to repair it. The charge for labor will be $230. I wonder if this was under warranty for parts. I have no idea. 

Well, Tommy just came in from sticking blackberry canes in dirt. He used a reacher/grabber to dig around in a pot. Why? He said he was making the dirt where he could plant. No planting, just poke it in. I cleaned the loppers thoroughly and oiled the cutting part and jaws. NOW, I will have to put grabber in sink because it has dirt clods in the soft part that makes it possible to pick up a dime from a surface. "It don't matter," he yells at me. Yes, dirt clods on the carpet do matter. By the way, he only uses this bad grammatical error when yelling about some dirty place that is just fine. 

I watched my father clean tools thoroughly before putting them away in his shop, so I came by tool cleaning honestly. If you do not clean yours, I don't care. 

Maybe I do the cane poking the wrong way. But, every cane I have poked into hard dirt has worked. Well, I push ten in the ground and four live. That was with the forsythia. Scuppernong worked. So, maybe blackberries will work and some of the six canes will be a new blackberry bush. 

I am weak and fighting nausea, so I need to go. There is more bad weather on the way, so all laundry is being done, dishes are washing, and we will eat early. Oven will be on before it hits. I have my flashlight at the ready. 

Do you poke blackberry canes into the dirt to get more blackberry bushes? If it does not work or that is not the way to grow more blackberries, well Tommy spent an hour cutting two canes into six pieces, digging up the dirt and planting them. I know they spread, but this blackberry bush is in a pot. I will put it into a bigger pot eventually. Oh, I know this is the wrong time of the year to do this.

Do you clean tools after using them? Oil them?

 

Woody Chicken Breasts, Storm

 Now I know why I have gotten chicken breasts with a strange look and strange texture. I asked a meat guy why the bscb looked funny. He said they were just fine, that some just looked that way and he did not know why. So, here is why!

These packages of bscb were lowest in years, $1.49/lb. I think someone, somewhere knew what was wrong with them. I have to watch this store because they have great sales on items with only 3 days left until "sell before" or "best by" dates.

CLICK HERE and HERE

Thursday, we went to Publix to get milk for Tommy and my milk for me, Miracle Whip, and ice cream. The MW has a best by date of Jan 24. I bought 3. The vanilla ice cream will be good with the strawberries. 

(I just remembered--Kim, have you discovered that Cokes at McD are no longer $1. They went up to $1.75!)

So, we drove about 3 miles. I was only in the heat to go into and out of the store. Since it rained, Tommy only went to the mailbox and back. I did not poke my head out the door the rest of the day. 

Just before 4 pm, the storm started, first with far off thunder, then wind, and then torrents blowing. It looked like one of the shepherd's hooks with a hanging basket of flowers was going to blow over as the basket blew back and forth. 

We both put our recliners in a position with foot down and backs where we would be comfortable if we lost electricity.  Plus, I did not want to have to call 911 to be hauled out of the chair. I called a mobility company nearby and we discussed the battery pack for the chairs--about $100 we were told. So, on Friday we will get a couple of those. 

Finally, at 7:15 or so, it calmed down after nothing worse than brief blips in the power. Birmingham probably had worse problems than we did. I heard the "feels like" temperature was between 113F and 115F". Now, that is hot. Okay, just heard--a three-month-old infant and a three-year-old child were killed when a tree fell on a home. It was a very nice multi-story home with mature trees. I say this because it was not a weather-related death in a mobile home as usually happens.

For dinner I cooked a package of spaghetti, shredded/chopped the last chicken breast, added a jar of alfredo sauce. For mine I added green beans and diced pimientos. Tommy did not. He had a huge salad with grape tomatoes and mayo. Basically, dinner was boiling pasta and mixing things in. There is more pasta for the half jar of spaghetti sauce in the refrigerator. 

Have you had chicken breasts that were strange with a woody texture? Have you heard of "woody chicken?" How did the storm affect you?

Recovery and Vegetable Oil

 Tuesday night, it blew and stormed something fierce. Wednesday morning, all my flowers were bedraggled. Since Tommy did not need to water, I pressed him to deadhead. I hope he did not do more, like cutting off the new blossoms that don't look like flowers yet--liveheading. 

He put Miracle Gro on everything except the succulent. Now, at 8 pm, it has been storming and blowing again. So, I hope there are blossoms tomorrow. 

I put a chicken in the oven and it is out, so Tommy had chicken, corn, peas for dinner. He opened the peas and put glad wrap over the top and stored in the refrigerator two days ago. That is gross. I never store food in cans. But, I don't eat peas, so I am not going to mention it. 

Now, I have three other packages of chickens and 2 pounds carrots and an onion for the oven. I am tired already. I took today to rest. Good thing. I slept 10 hours, soundly, and did not get up until 1:30 pm. Monday and Tuesday wore me out--dentist and cardiologist. Thursday will be a hard day, so I am not doing anything more except put the other chicken in the oven. Tommy will get the meat from the bone from the whole chicken. And, the three other packages don't need anything except storing after cooking. Most of it will go in the freezer in serving portions. 

We sometimes make a pickup at a business. One day, this new guy was so rude. He was new and not doing the job well. I suppose he finally caught on as he has been so cheerful and nice, very accommodating, going beyond the job expected. He is all smiles and cheerfulness. I am glad he is catching on and glad he is not so unhappy as he was before, but not cheerful for our sake alone. He seems happier. 

Thursday, we have help coming to put shelf paper in the cabinets. If they have time, I will have one get a turkey from the freezer. Maybe one will have time to cut the stems growing around the tree we had trimmed. Tommy killed a huge swath of St. Augustine grass. He said that is always what happens with Roundup. I told him that the grass needed washing to get the poison off. He had never heard that. I have also put plastic or newspaper down to catch the Roundup, sometimes plastic, sometimes cardboard boxes flattened. He can make a mess or cause problems! 

If I had told him to hose off the grass, he would have yelled and said I did not have to tell him everything, that he knows somethings. No, not nearly enough. 

I got three half-gallons milk for $10 and found Cheerios bogo, so got those, too. Full price, the milk would have been $14.97 for three half-gallons! Of course, I bought bananas.  Zucchini and squash were pretty and cheap at The Pig, so got those while I bought two gallons of vinegar for $2.24 each, a good price right now. Vinegar, zucchini, and squash are all much more expensive at Publix. I need to pick up 8 more gallons of vinegar at The Pig before they disappear or the price goes up. A $1 coupon on the two boxes of bogo Cheerios helped even more. 

My recovery is not complete from a stressful dentist and cardiology visit and Thursday will be a hard day, too. At least, ten hours of sleep will help me feel a bit better or not so wrung out and Thursday will not be so hard. 

I bought eggs for almost $3/dozen. I checked to see if any were broken, but did not lift them up. The next time I scrambled eggs, two were broken on the bottom and leaking the white. So, ten eggs cost me 30 cents each. Next time, I will lift each egg like I usually do. As it is, I don't know if we broke them or they were broken when I bought the eggs. It has been years since I came home with broken eggs!

I will not use Canola or Soybean Oil. But, a very few times I do need a vegetable oil. What oil do you think is best for us or the least harmful? I am buying Corn Oil with trepidation. I don't want to be caught without oil for the very few times and in the small amounts I use it. 

Once, I found vegetable oil for a very cheap price and a decent date. I bought 6 bottles and put them in the refrigerator to keep the date from catching up with me and it all going rancid. My kitchen was very hot in the summer. A woman who helped me said to me in a tone that pitied the old lady--I should just store it on a shelf so I would have more room in the refrigerator, that it did not have to be refrigerated. He tone was what made me angry! 

When I told her the price I paid and that the expiration date would come around before I used the oil and the kitchen was hot, she was puzzled and then it dawned on her. I used the oil beyond the expiration or "use-by" date and it never went rancid. Some days, I do know what I am doing! lol

I have all the olive oil I can use and only buy it bogo. What vegetable oil do you use? What would you not use? Do you ever have anyone give you useless advice while posing as the expert who knows better than you because you are old? You know that condescending tone?

It is almost 10 pm and Tommy is in the kitchen taking the meat off the chicken. I will get the second pan of chickens, carrots, and onions out at 10  pm. Cooking late was better than cooking this afternoon. We both had dinner, so not eating this late. He never peeled potatoes, so they did not get cooked. He was not troubled, but he loves potatoes. 

We bagged up all the skin, fat, bones, and juice from the chicken. My friend will feed what she wants to her dog or put it over the dogfood. Nothing was wasted! I left a chicken in the crockpot so long one time that the bones were so soft we were accidentally eating them. 

Tonight, I put only garlic powder on the chicken pieces to cook it. I have other tasty spices, but they have too much sodium. From now on, I will use mostly fresh garlic and garlic powder and less of the sodium laden stuff. Tommy won't care, because it will be tasty. He uses too much sodium and drinks too many Pepsis, but I cannot control that as he is in denial. But, I don't need sodium, and I control the tastiness of our food.

Oh, the carrots were so tasty and the onion. My mother seasoned with mostly salt and pepper. Everything she cooked was delicious. She did use celery and bell pepper for seasoning, too, as in a roast, soup, or spaghetti. She did use other spices in spaghetti. We did use garlic, but we kids hated it. Daddy was not subtle in using it in food.  

He eats so much healthier without knowing it...lol. 

Okay, it is time to freeze baked chicken for other meals. Have the storms been loud and wet where you live? If so, have they beat down produce or flowers? What have you cooked in a big batch to eat now and freeze for later? What did you have for dinner tonight? 

Tuesday Stocking Up

 After Sue and Kim told me to plant the Romaine, I did. However, the reason I was waiting was because I was afraid the winds and rain we expected would beat it down. Sure enough, the storms raged, the wind blew and the rain beat down. Since it is dark, I cannot see how the Romaine fared. 

The Romaine in a pot on the porch may not last long as it is extremely hot there, hot much sooner than the back yard garden where I planted it last year. I may go to Lowe's and get another two plants for the backyard. 

Tuesday, I did something I cannot, must not, will not do again. I helped someone at a level that made me hurt like I have not in a long time. I can barely walk and everything hurts. 

A person could not make it to the food giveaway since she had a three-hour job. I offered to pick it up. Not only did we have to bring it into the house, we had to take it back out to the car, and then put it into a plastic box in her driveway. Usually, food and such is in a bag and tied hard. So, I can feel that one bag is meat, another is bread, or there might be produce. 

This time, the only bag that gave away a portion of its contents was a bag with frozen meat. Lots of the other items were just thrown in the window of the car--bagels and such.  The plastic box is too low and too short. So, I had to work bent to the ground, open the bag with meat and spread it out and arrange items so the box would close. I imagine in two hours the meat was all thawed. My back and knees will not recover for the rest of the week. 

Besides chicken breasts and drumsticks, I received ground bison and ground pork.  Some days, we receive lots of meat, mostly meat. Today was that day. Other days, there is so much bread we must freeze half a dozen items. One day, it was several salad greens. Unfortunately, one day was 90%  sweets.  Thankfully, the freezer stores most of the excess. Then, I give away the rest, what we will not eat. 

The woman we helped was overjoyed with her food. But, she must make it easier for me to drop it off at her house. I don't want to be responsible for storing it here! But, she has never asked for us to do so. 

Today, was supposed to be bad weather with possibilities of tornadoes, high winds. With that there is a chance of losing power. The news is over and it appears we are safe here even though there have been tornadoes elsewhere. 

Tuesday, I caught the last day of sales in ads at Publix. I found Libby's vegetables 5/$4. That made green beans $0.80/can, a great price. You did know I would be purchasing green beans? I bought two of Newman's Own spaghetti sauce 2/$4. I bought ten cans that had Dec. 2024. No, I have not overbought. green beans. 

After today, we have at least seven days of sunshine forecast. That makes me happy. 

Did you have storms today? How bad? Have you planted more than two Romaine plants? 

Thunderstorms and Wasted Food

About 4:00 pm on Sunday, yesterday, I took out chicken breasts, a family pack to cook for dinner and coming days. By 5 pm, I had chicken in the crockpot and chicken and carrots in the oven. At almost exactly 5 pm, I had finished with computer and pushed the button to turn it off. At the moment I pressed the button to turn off my computer. When I pressed the button, the house electricity went off with a bang.

The only flashlights in this house are two $1 ones that I bought after I moved here, and I could not find mine! Of course, the chicken had just gotten hot. Power company said it would be on by 7 pm. I wanted out of this house. We left as we were. I wanted a small burger since I did not dare open the refrigerator. Good thing I had something and especially Tommy.

The men were working at the corner and we watched for a bit. We came home at 7 pm when they left. The lights to the house were on. As I was halfway out of the car, I noticed the house was dark. So, we left again. The guy at the corner in the power company pickup said it went off as soon as it was restored. It would be 8 pm before they could have it on again. He had sent them off to another outage before they had seen ours went off again. ugh

At 8 pm, they had our electricity on again. As I was getting out of the car, there were three horrendously loud pops and fireworks like the Fourth, all emanating from the top of a power pole near our house.  Yes, I gave out a little scream, three times. AND, I peed in my pants!!! I continued inside and changed my panties but could not find pants in the dark since I had not brought the flashlight in.

It turned out the fireworks were not right here, just showing behind power poles. Seriously, the electric sparks came out, spraying in all directions just like fireworks.

I went back to the car with wet pants and a thick towel to cover his seat. YUCK!!!  By this time I was a nervous wreck. It sounded like bombs being dropped. Tommy said that was coming from the TVA power lines near his house. Well, I had enough and we left the house again.

Since I desperately wanted candy by this time, he took me to CVS where I purchased two candy bars. Chocolate has never tasted so good.

When we came back at 9 pm, the electricity was on. But, it kept going off, over and over, maybe 10 times. The chicken in the oven was in a glass pan and was fully heated when we left, so we ate the chicken and carrots, along with the zucchini on top of the stove.

He insists that the electricity only went off twice, not the ten times I say it went off. He said it flickered. No, it was off...lol.

The 4 huge breasts in the crockpot were just brought to about 100 degrees and then just sat from 5 to 9. So, I went ahead and cooked it and will give it to the neighbors three dogs. At my house I could have fired up the grill. He has never owned a grill.

We only ate part of one breast between us last night. The rest of that breast is waiting for us along with the second breast I cooked. One breast furnished three meals. So, to extrapolate that, the three wasted breasts would have furnished us with 10 meals ( 5 for two of us), more than a week's worth of protein.  The dogs will eat well if their owners will allow them to have it.

No, I did nothing more on the list of things to do for yesterday! I did bathe and now must wash my hair, at least.