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Taking a Look at Home Delivery Produce

Friday, June 13th, 2008

Today I was reading on a forum about how some ladies were trying to reduce their food budgets. One woman with a large family mentioned that she uses a home delivery service for her produce. This intrigued me greatly! So I took a look at the website and by golly, they service all of Connecticut. Everything is organic too. Now normally, I’m not real picky about my produce needing to be organic because it is generally cost prohibitive. So don’t think I’m an organics snob. But the idea of locally grown, seasonally available produce which happens to also be organic and cost effective is making me think.

I could have a small box of produce delivered from this service every week for almost exactly what I pay on a weekly basis for non-organic, typically foreign grown, produce at the grocery store. Hmmm… I’d be helping small farmers/business owners (which I adore the idea of), not using as much gas (which helps the budget) and eating better.

This is fodder for another post, but I’ve got some insulin issues (not diabetic yet, but headed in that direction) which are playing havoc with my body. So I am looking to reduce (eliminate) refined sugars & flours from our diets. I’ll still use healthier, natural sweeteners and whole grain flours so we aren’t exactly doing the Atkins thing. I’ve not become a liberal, a hippie or even “green”. I just would like to have children and be around to enjoy them. Thus the absolute necessity to alter our diets.

Good Golly It’s HOT

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

So Dave and I picked the hottest days of the year so far to hold our yard sale. Saturday was okay. We had about 30 people stop by and maybe about 5 folks just drove past without stopping. And we made some decent sales. After mass on Sunday, we got breakfast and then opened the yard sale again. It was not only hotter than Saturday, but we only had maybe 7 people stop by the whole time. I was getting pretty miserable by 2:00 so we closed up shop at 3:00. What we didn’t sell we are taking to the Salvation Army.

What was nicest about the yard sale was that we got to meet several of our neighbors. There are several very young people with young children living nearby. They were all very nice.

In gardening news though, my tomato plants are looking MUCH better in the heat. We bought a spray fertilizer also which Dave applied over the weekend, which must have done some good. The bean plants have done amazingly over the last four days. They went from barely visible green shoots just under the soil to plants 5 inches tall! The heat might wilt me, but it does wonders on a garden.

Today, as yesterday, I am staying inside and doing stuff around the house. We’ve got two window air conditioners running which make the house fabulously cool. Speaking of doing stuff around the house, I should probably get myself busy! Have a great day!

Yard Sale Saturday

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

This Saturday we are going to have a yard sale here at our house. We’ve invited Mike, Lisa and the kids to come over and participate. They’ve been wanting to do some cleaning/organizing at their house too. We’ve got rather a lot gathered already from last fall’s yard sale that we held on a freezing cold day and had very little traffic. This coming Saturday is supposed to be the hottest day we’ve had this year so I’m hopeful people will be out and about.

I’m going to walk through the house today and gather some more stuff. I know there is stuff around the house I don’t need… like 7 flower vases.

Cross-Stitch Sampler for My Mother

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

My mother is amazingly gifted at crafty stuff. She can sew spectacularly, she can paint a beautiful face on a porcelain doll, she can cross-stitch, crochet, quilt and even has been known to weave a basket or two.

I can make scrapbooks and sometimes a decent card. I can sew in mostly straight lines in order to make very plain curtains. But where my mother creates beauty, I struggle to make something look just okay.

I am bound and determine to get the crafty genes I am positive are in me somewhere to start working. So I bought a cross-stitch sampler and have decided to give it to my mother for Mother’s Day. Since it is Tuesday, I don’t think I’ll make Mother’s Day, but hopefully she’ll get it within the week following Mother’s Day. So far it actually looks pretty good…we’ll just not discuss the whole decorative detail I had to remove completely after I noticed I had counted over too many spaces. The fact that I am mostly deficient in math should have been a cue to do embroidery instead of counted cross stitch. But I really want to finish something nicely to send to my mother. She’s made zillions of crafty/sewn things for me (including a beautiful wedding gown) so ’tis time to return the favor.

When I complete it, I will put a photo online.

Quinoa Salad

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

I finally bought some quinoa after reading so much about it’s beneficial health properties. The first recipe I tried with it was offered with the quinoa and was way too lemon-y. So I left it in the cabinet for a long while until the other day when I decided to give it another try. This time…jackpot! Dave really liked it too.

1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
Boil until water is completely absorbed by quinoa, watch to make sure it doesn’t burn or get overcooked.
Rinse in cold water (a fine mesh sieve is required)
Place quinoa in a bowl, add quartered slices of cucumber, halved grape tomatoes and chopped red pepper (or any other vegetables you might prefer). Pour some good Italian dressing (I like the zesty stuff best) over and mix. Add the dressing in small amounts until the taste suits you.

Serve with a meat dish.

Hip-Hip Hooray!

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Stage 1 of Spring Cleaning 2008 agenda has been accomplished!!!!!!!!!!! After five days (a few hours each day and one big push today), the whole attic is neatly organized into categories along the eaves with giant spaces by the dormers and a wide aisle down the center. I made a little spot for some previously started projects for me to work on and another area where I’ve gather our “memorabilia” containers…two areas that need worked upon. I’ve personally got five containers too many full of life history stuff. I really think I’m going to scan much of it and then trash it. Electronic bits and bytes take up a whole lot less space than 35 gallon plastic containers.

So after I start dinner, I think I’ve still got energy to maybe tackle the hallway on this level and begin Stage 2 of Spring Cleaning 2008. I’m dreading the work that needs to be accomplished in our office/guest room…blah! But the attic accomplishment made me feel good and I know having the office clean & organized will also do us good.

Spring Cleaning, but Not Yet Organizing

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

I’m starting in the attic. That is where everything that did not find an immediate home elsewhere in the house when we moved in was relocated. It was not horridly messy, just needed fine tuning.

So last week and this week, I’ve been working at moving things around into categories. I even made little signs and tacked them to the roof-line so that I would know where things are for now. After encountering about 37 sets of twin sheets from our previous single lives, I decided that I would de-clutter and organize AFTER I had categorized everything.

Today I made some major headway and have a wide aisle in the front half of the attic. Plus, I found all sorts of stuff I had lost track of and technically, probably do not need.

I should have taken “before” photos, but I’ll try remembering to take “after” photos.

Cleaners

Monday, February 26th, 2007

I am trying my hand at making my own homemade cleaning solutions. There are great (free) recipes online for such things as All Purpose Cleaner, Window Cleaner, Bathroom/Kitchen cleaners, etc.

As we run out of store-bought cleaners, I’m making the homemade version. To get started, I bought four spray bottles at Costco and have so far only made a Shower Spray to use after we shower. The shower cleaner is simply equal parts vinegar, rubbing alcohol, two parts water and two drops of dishwashing liquid (Dawn) in a spray bottle. It kind of makes the shower smell like a drunk salad dressing until the vinegar/alcohol dries, but then there is no smell and the shower is perfect. Plus, it is inexpensive and made of stuff that I do not mind being in our home air.

We have used the shower cleaner for three days and it really does seem to work…so far so good.

When I make a new homemade cleaner, I’ll post the recipe and comment whether or not it seems to work.

Italian Sausage & Red Pepper Pasta Bake

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007

The local grocery store had Italian Sausage on sale so I picked up some for our Monday dinner. I fixed a really yummy dinner, if I do say so myself.

6 Italian Sausages (sweet), brown in pan
1 medium onion, sautéed in the grease from the sausages
Slice sausages (1/2 inch slices worked well)
Add sausage to pan and then add:
1 can of Hunt’s Fresh Mushroom pasta sauce
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper (or more to taste)
Salt (to taste)
Onion Powder (to taste)
Garlic Powder (to taste)
Parsley Flakes (to taste)
Crushed Red Pepper flakes (less than ¼ tsp)
Mix with pasta (noodles of your choice)

Spoon mixture into a 9×13 pan
Place moderately thick mozzarella slices over the top and bake on 325 until the cheese melts and turns slightly brown (or darker, if you choose)

The sausage and red pepper flakes give this dish a hint of spice…not too much, just enough to make it really yummy!

Weekly Menu Helper Idea

Friday, January 12th, 2007

I have been trying to come up with a way of making weekly menus so that I can better shop for good sales at the grocery stores and the butchers. At first, I tried making menu rotations that fully listed what we are having for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. My theory was that I would shop according to what I was going to fix, but that didn’t make me flexible enough for the sales. So I think I have hit upon a better idea… I made a list of what basic meat product we will eat on each day.

Sunday = chicken
Monday = pork or sausage
Tuesday = fish or big salad
Wednesday = beef
Thursday = chicken
Friday = fish
Saturday = beef

This way I can just make sure I have enough of the base for the dinner meals at the beginning of the week; then I just fill in the side dishes & vegetables according to what is on sale. For example, on Wednesdays I am now flexible to make spaghetti, tacos, hamburgers, steaks or whatever depending upon what is on sale and what we feel like eating!

We will see if this plan works.

Tomorrow Dave is taking me on my first trip to Cape Cod! (We will post photos and things later.) And the weather sounds like it might be shaping up here in southern New England for us winter weather lovers. Sunday, Monday, & Tuesday forecasts are looking great!!