Thursday Happenings--not much

 I have felt a bit better tonight. I only had about 3 hours sleep last night and then 2 this afternoon. 

The Conchita pimientos will not get my seal of approval. It is bitter and nasty. I think being in a can is why it is bitter. However, once in pimiento and cheese, it was better, tolerable. Miracle Whip saved the taste. 

Today, I had a can of Diet Free Decaffeinated Coke that had been the house two days and in the refrierator for two days. It was flat. I had Tommy taste it and he declared it flat, too. This happens once in a while, not sure how a sealed can of Coke can be flat after being open for thirty seconds. 

Tommy improved the kitchen. The drawer for utensils has an holder that slides back into the drawer continually. I am not going to buy the liner to keep it where it belongs. So, I asked him to take on of the Planter's Peanut jars, tall and skinny, and place it at the back of the drawer. It works really well. So, I no longer have to keep pulling the drawer further out to get the utensil I want. I am so happy. 

Since I have been decluttering the counter between the sink and microwave. I took out two cups from the back near the microwave. My favorite hot chocolate cup had the handle broken in two pieces and in the cup. Did I forget about this? How did it get broken? Did Tommy do it? Who knows? But, it went straight into the trash. The other cup was a dish to eat soup, wide and with a handle. It is in the dishwasher. I have no idea why these were on the counter. But, they are not now. How is that for decluttering?!

Kraft Medium Cheddar Cheese Chunks were $1.80 + 10% at the Pig. So, I had Tommy go in and get two, making it $1.98 each. He came back and said that there were only 6 on the shelf, so he got all six. Why? He was already complaining that we have too much cheese. Well, we have plenty now. 

We went to Publix for his milk, my milk, bananas, and bread. 

In a few minutes, I will start freezing two slices of bread at a time, placing them in a freezer bag for the freezer. I did this years ago. Someone reminded me of this, so I will do this so as not to have bread get moldy. 

Dinner: Tommy had chicken thigh, salad, corn. I had last two hotdogs, salad, green beans. 

Did you ever keep something broken for no reason and discover it later? 

Does your utensil tray slide around in the drawer, making it difficult to reach a spoon?

New Utensil, Missing, Gifts, Kidnapped by a Nap

Browning ground meat was always time consuming since I had to stand at the stove and chop and break up the chunk of ground meat with an egg turner/spatula. Now, it is more difficult. I was looking through a Rada catalogue and found the perfect tool. This is a meat chopper. I used it for the first time for the ground pork on Monday.

I used it with the head straight onto the meat, not at an angle as in the picture above. I love this utensil. I showed Tommy how to use it and he chopped most of the ground pork. This is not for pounding, just cutting and separating the ground meat. It is certainly a time-saver. I have seen a similar tool from some other company. Have you ever used one of these? 

Monday afternoon, we washed and dried most of the dirty dishes while the ground pork cooked and browned some. With a fever, dishwashing was so difficult! So, I started the taco casserole in the crock pot which will be more like taco soup. One by one, Tommy opened cans and dumped the contents  into the crock pot. We tracked down one of my five-pound bags of Uncle Ben's par-boiled brown rice. Finally, I needed one last ingredient. But I could not find it. Remember, it is dark as night in kitchen and living room!

Tommy looked for canned, diced tomatoes, too. None! None were in the stash in the bedroom. On the new shelves I finally found a 29 oz. jar of Hunt's tomato sauce! That would do. Diced tomatoes are better, but this is fine. 

If I had not found this can of tomato sauce, I would have had to run to The Pig to get it. I did contemplate putting a jar of spaghetti sauce in the taco salad. I doubt it would have mattered once I put in the taco seasoning. What do you think? Would a jar of spaghetti work for this spicy dish?

I questioned why I had no tomato sauce or bits, well, beyond one can. I know why. I had plans for frozen or canned tomatoes so did not stock up. I will solve this hole in food stocks by the end of the week! 

Tuesday morning

I slept better than I have in a week and awoke with temp of 98F. Remember, this is still fever area for me. Yesterday, I decided we would stay home instead of going for my mail. 

Gifts

For Tommy, I gave him four books, one on birds, a book on insects, a book on wildflowers, and a Field Guide to Tree of North America. He spent hours reading. For his birthday, I gave him a book about birds and the accompanying cd. 

One day, we had several stops to make. We did all of them with time to spare and had to wait for an hour for the next stop. Since it is too far to go home, we just sat in the shade and listened to the bird cd. Finally, I leaned my seat back and was kidnapped by a nap. This was such a pleasant experience since I was just going to rest my back.

Speaking of resting, I need to do that right now.