Random Little Things

Preserving Spills & Thumbprints

 I am working on a family cookbook. It's a effort to preserve the precious recipes that are disappearing as fast as the generations of my family.I will be using old family photos and a few photos of my own for the book. I have been and will be taking photos and making a few recipes in the process just for fun! Tonight I made my Mom's recipe for chicken casserole and it was delish!

You can tell a lot about a woman by her recipes. My Mom's recipes all seem to be easy,quick,inexpensive and enough food to feed a small army. She raised 4 kids and ran a business with my Dad yet she still found time to feed us a yummy meal each night. Amazing! I have no kids and work 32 hours a week and can't manage to cook more that 2-3 times a week!

As I sit here at my computer copying the recipes I get a sentimental twinge..I love these recipes just the way they are..the newspaper clippings and food spotted recipe cards written in the handwriting of generations of women before me.

Then my eyes turn to the version I have just created....

My heart sinks. What have I done? But wait...I'm trying to make these last another few generations..isn't that good? Perhaps I need to scan some the recipes just as they are and add them to the book that way?Oh yes...brilliant... that makes me feel better! :) Off to keep at it..my goal is to have this book written,designed and printed by Mother's Day 2011..and that's pushing it!

Frugality 101

Today I grocery shopped.You know,the kind you do about every 3 months because you can no longer construct a make shift casserole out of what food is left in the house. I did some meal planning and wrote a list. My goal was to buy what we needed and what was on sale. I read too often about the frugal women out there who feed their families on a few dollars per meal and well..I want to be one of them.Nothing extreme,just adjusting our monthly menu according to what's on sale that month. I am also hoping this inspires some new meals around here,I feel like I have been cooking the same ol' stuff over and over.
My journey began at Safeway. Let me tell ya',I was shocked at how much they have lowered their prices! Plus the specials and sales were everywhere! I filled my cart so full that I thought the wheels were going to fall off! They were sqweeeling with agony as I finally rolled up the cashier an hour later after scanning every isle. I got a month or two's worth of everything from milk to meat to snacks for under $200! Ahh the satisfaction of  being thrifty...well not bad for my first attempt-I saved $60!I also did not fall into temptation and buy things I knew were cheaper at Grocery Outlet. It's on my way home and so there's no excuse not to make the extra stop. I always buy my butter and cheese there and I found a new stainless steel colander for $2.99!  Then home to put away groceries....
About once a month I love to make my Mom's recipe for Lasagna. The guys love it too-it's pure saucy,cheesy,comfort food :) The recipe is so simple,you don't even precook the noodles! Vern's Mom had surgery today, so I took the opportunity to offer to bring her dinner tomorrow. She let out a joyful "Yeah!" when I asked if she wanted home made lasagna,it made me giggle. I'm grateful that I can cook for my Boyfriend's Mom and it doesn't make me nervous. I guess I can thank my Mom for that one. I'm no gourmet chef but I can throw down some dam good comfort food when needed!Thanks Mom :) (Oh and even though you don't read this Mom..I'm attempting your "Chicken Broccoli Casserole" this week too. It looks frugal and yummy..just our style;o}) I will food blog and post recipes for the rest of you if you'd like!? Until then I am off to recharge for another busy day tomorrow....

If at first you don't succeed, do it the way your mother told you to.
-- Author Unknown

Just Once

I expect to pass through life but once.  If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.  ~William Penn

My Rainy TGIF

Cement happen this morning while I slept. New beams installed to hold up the new addition upstairs.

And then production came to a halt because of the rain...

All is quiet.

And then I saw the little thing that made my morning...

My herbs I planted a few days ago are already sprouting! Thing is, I got them all mixed up and didn't label them so it's either Basil,Parsley,or Cilantro-I guess it'll be a surprise!Thank you Mother Nature for brightening my rainy TGIF :)

Ketchup Time

 Today is a day of many changes in our little world! As many of you may already know,I live in a small house with my boyfriend and his brother.Vern is my boyfriend and his brother's name is Del.

Vern is on the left,Del's the one with the saw

About 40 years ago..Del on the left with the paint brush and Vern on the right with a new coat of paint. You gotta love brothers!So cute!

Del is legally blind.This meaning that he has partial sight but not enough to drive or work a regular job. Del owns the house and we rent from him and take care of cooking,maintenance etc. The situation works well for us because the rent is cheap and we aren't burdened with the responsibility of home ownership. I enjoy living with 2 men most of the time. They eat pretty much anything I cook and take out the trash and I enjoy living in a house for the first time in many years. Oh the ability to paint and decorate can so easily be taken for granted!haha  I have lived here for about 2 years (1 1/2 full time) and have put my womanly touch on the place. It's starting to look a little more colorful and clean!Ok so now I have you all caught up right?
Now we enter the first of I'm sure many blogs about THE REMODEL that is going to go on around here this summer. Del's room is the attic space that is roughly converted into a bedroom and closet. It's seems the roof is due for replacing so he figured he would take the opportunity to also add on some additional walking/living space upstairs. He is adding dormurs (sp?) with windows and extra square footage for a bedroom,closet,bathroom and sitting area.The addition will also extend off the back of the house and cover a new deck and our current back porch.So basically the entire top of the house is getting an extreme makeover!Vern and I's bedroom is downstairs so we will have a safe place to escape while things are torn apart upstairs. The question we are all starting to ask is..Where is Del going to sleep while all this is going on? In the tiny office? In the living room? At his Mom's?!LOL Ok there's no way that would happen but still we wonder..? I also forgot to mention that the GC doing the remodel is a friend of Del's and with his help Del will be doing a large part of the work to save money. Del works with his friend on remodels quite a bit but never has he done a remodel like this in his own home! Soo..I will try to keep the fridge stocked with sandwich supplies,vacuum as often as I can and keep the bathroom stocked with Lysol Disinfectant Wipes. Pray for me. :) Ok so now you are totally up to date...let me start over..
Today is a day of many changes in our little world! THE REMODEL begins. Utility lines are all marked with bright spray paint,the driveway looks like "Graffitiville". Dirt is already everywhere and there are holes so big I could lose Chipper in them and power tools growl and vibrate the pictures on the wall.I had the day off so I'd sneak out every now and then to see what progress had been made.I'd smoke while I watched them dig ...and dig ...and dig. Yuk,I hate digging. Digging makes my back hurt just thinking about it.I can't say I was affected much,I snuck away to my room and put some copper blond high lights in my hair while watching a series of shows on the Bravo channel that I'd rather not admit to watching hehe Girl time. Yummy,sparkly,goofy Girl time.My hair turned out a little lighter than I had planned but I left it-I few spunky bright high lights in my hair to make me smile at myself in the mirror all day. SOOO worth it,it's only hair right? My hair.That's a whole other blog....Back to today. The next big news came around 4pm. Vern was approved by insurance for his shoulder surgery! I have never been this happy for someone I love to have surgery? Vern has a build up of arthritis in his shoulder that the Dr is going to remove.He can finally  have some relief from the shoulder pain that he has suffered for the last 10 years or more!Yay! BUT-this also means he is going to be unable to work for about 2 months and probably in a lot of new pain! Vern is fortunate enough to have a good job that will pay him well while he is off so he is lucky not to have the financial stress BUT he is a very hard working man and you know what they say...it's hard to keep a good man down! Thanks to pharmaceuticals I will be able to keep him sedated for awhile (haha) but after that..I'm not too sure. The smoker and THE REMODEL should also help to keep him from going completely stir crazy. Poor guy,I will take good care of him :) Alright so are you keeping track here? A house remodel and a boyfriend in repair!Wow,it's going to be a busy summer,I pray the God gives me the patience and compassion of Mother Theresa :)
  BUT wait.... the day wasn't over yet! Tonight I also called my parents and guess what?! My Dad is giving us his boat! We had talked about it before but this time he was very serious! This isn't some fancy canoe either,it's a fishing boat with a jet engine!(This is required to fish UPstream in a river) We can have it he just wants to be able to use it when he comes to go fishing in Sekiu " Take it or I'm going to sell it! No sense in having a boat I don't use and letting it go to waste!" he said. What did I say? "Thanks for the boat Dad!" without hesitation! There I go,adding yet another task or ten to the pile- picking the boat up in Idaho and bringing it here. Storing it until we can adjust this river boat for the Straits Of Juan De Fuca. Pulling it out to Sekiu this fall for the annual fishing trip. But still,I am so thankful! So thankful to have parents that can give us a boat! Vern and I have so much to talk about tomorrow...and so much planning to do.Perhaps we can escape all the aches and pains and craziness mentioned above as we float around the local lakes this summer..in our new boat :)

Food Porn Part 2

 It was awesome to have Friday and Saturday off this week,the weather was beautiful! After a struggle with the flu Vern was feeling well enough to put his new smoker grill to the test. He put on an 8 lb pork shoulder at 9:45 am and let it smoke low and slow all day....
Here's what it looked like after 5 hours-

And here's what it looked like after 8 1/2 hours-

 Hours of apple wood smokin and getting sprayed with apple juice caramelize to make a brown glaze on the out side...it's really hard to wait!
So in the meanwhile I whip up some macaroni and cheese to smoke too-

Here it is getting "happy" in the smoker...oh heavens,I feel the food sinning starting to happen....
As soon as the pork is done it has to sit all bundled up in foil for an hour..I hope the noodles and I can wait until then :)