It was cold and so was I!

This past week was cold for most of the week. I am a true product of the south and do not handle the cold well. I am ready for some bright sunny temperate days.

Dinners I had tentatively planned:

Soup and roll

Soup and cornbread

Hamburger patty, yellow rice, broccoli

Pork pastor salad

Out to eat

Eggroll in a bowl

Chili, coleslaw, cornbread

Joys and what we actually ate:

Monday joy:  The day beautiful but terribly cold (yes I am a cold weather wuss).  We both wanted to get out of the house, and if you want to get out a little why not take advantage of it to hit ThePig and get the free items while also stocking up on the sale price for ground chuck. I actually only got the free tuna and left the saltines for someone else because I have too many crackers at home. After we left the store I realized I should have gotten them anyway and put it in my box for the food pantry. Next time I will do that. 

After we checked out the day was still cold but pretty so we rode around a bit just looking at the things we see everyday, but don't always notice. Once we got home we decided to stay in and do stuff in the house rather than venture outside any more than necessary.

Finally we capped off this year's NCAA football season by watching the game. I had no favorite team but did pull for Notre Dame just because they were the underdog.

Monday dinner: I had one last meal of this in the fridge

Vegetable soup

Tuesday joy: The biggest joy was that we had none of the snow and ice that blitzed the South. It was just cold here, but I have warm clothes, and we had a warm house and a fire in the fireplace for added heat and ambience. We stayed at home all day, were warm and had a mostly relaxing day. 

That night we watched Alabama/Vandy play basketball, because if Alabama is playing anything, we watch it. I am pretty sure if they had a tiddlywinks team we would have to watch that too. Though I am a Bama fan, I am not the obsessive one who lives here.

Tuesday dinner: TheHub wanted a ball game type meal. Since we were not going to get out in the cold the meal had to be made from what we had on hand. I had everything but hamburger buns, but could easily punt.

Sloppy Joe's over hot dog buns, coleslaw.

Wednesday joy: My normal Wednesday class was cancelled because of the cold. That was fine with me. I stayed in the bed reading for a while, then we got out and about and ran a couple of boring errands. Even boring things need to be done sometimes.

Wednesday dinner: TheHub requests this meal often (he has been asking for weeks) and I generally ignore that request, but was feeling kind. (Especially since he ran to the grocery store right after dark and picked up something I needed for Thursday afternoon. Though, maybe it was more quid pro quo than kindness.)

Hamburger patty smothered in grilled onions, saffron rice, broccoli

Thursday joy: I caught up (via a phone call) with one of my friends. I had not talked with her for a while and just needed to see how she was doing. 

After the phone call got ready to go to Independence Place, AKA my happy place. 

Thursday was National Pie Day (not to be confused with National π day in March). The last few times we have cooked together we made sweet treats and I wanted to do something savory. Instead, we made chicken pot pie, which was a huge success! 

In the near future, other than making something using cherries on Presidents day, we are going to be concentrating on mealtime dishes they can make either by themselves or with minimal help.

And a special joy was there were no ball games on TV.

And an unjoy: We heard a scratching  sound and found a squirrel that had gotten into the basement. It disappeared and we could not find it. (By we I don't mean the royal "we" I mean the royal "he", TheHub. I am a real life EEKer when it comes to critters. He set a humane trap with hopes to catch it and release it outside.  I know it was cold but it needed to shelter somewhere other than my basement. If not caught,  inviting Gray Greg, the neighborhood assassin cat, over for a visit was an option.)

Thursday dinner: I had made a few different soups to have on chilly nights and Thursday was chilly.

15 bean soup, cornbread

Friday joy: A slice of apple and a critter cage was all it took to nab the offending critter in the basement.  We took it to a local preserve area not terribly far from our house and watched as it made a beeline into the woods. 

TheHub and I went out to lunch at a local BBQ place. I was not in the mood for "Q" but they had daily specials which were not smoked and sauced. I had not eaten  brunswick stew  in years, and it was wonderful.

While we were eating I got a text from the friend  I had talked with Thursday. She has been

sick with the same crap TheHub and I battled  for about 3 weeks.  

I had told her about Buckley's cough syrup. I can't find it locally but it is available through Amazon (thank you for the recommendation long ago https://maebemylife.blogspot.com/)

She ordered some which will be delivered next week. Meanwhile her adult son came down with the same stuff, but has an interview out of state Monday morning and he felt rotten. She asked if I had a bottle he could use until she could replace it when hers came. Luckily I have learned to order it 3 bottles at a time, so we dropped one off at her house before we ran additional errands.

We finally got back home about 6 and called it a night.

Friday dinner: After eating out at lunch we were not terribly hungry, so I pulled leftovers out of the fridge.

Chicken soup, french bread*

Saturday joy: Shortly after I woke, I had a text message from my friend whose son was sick. According to him the Buckley's made him feel better almost immediately, he was able to sleep through the night, it tasted terrible, and it is his new favorite medicine. I was happy I was able to help him out. 

We just hung out at the house all day doing fun things like laundry (and reading) until the Alabama basketball game came on.

Saturday dinner: TheHub had been waiting all week to do takeout from Taziki's for their weekend special.

Pasta over mixed greens, chopped tomatoes, onions, peppers, olives, feta, balsamic dressing, pita slice

Sunday joy: We started our Sunday morning at the early communion service at our church, followed by the liturgical service in the sanctuary. When it was over we went to our Sunday school class then hit the road to get home in time to eat lunch before the play-off games came on.

I was glad The Eagles won, and really did not care who won the next game, but silently pulled for the underdog (whoever was playing the Chiefs)

While the first game was on I did a little advance cooking for the week. I don't have to actively watch the games because TheHub will provide a play by play for me. I am not a big pro football fan so it works well for me.

Sunday dinner: I had a head of cabbage that needed to be used which was the genesis for Sunday's meal. By the time I had cleaned the crisper drawer of bits and pieces that needed to be used, this was a veggie dense, very filling meal.

Eggroll in a bowl

What might be happening this week:

1. Beef stew, coleslaw, french bread

2. Chicken divan, cooked carrots, tossed salad

3. Soup, cornbread

4. Out to eat

5. Chili, coleslaw, cornbread

6. Taco salad or tacos TBD later

7.  Pork chops, mashed potatoes, some green veggie TBD

What I read in January:

The God of the Woods

Half Mammals of Dixie

The Secret Book of Flora Lee* 

Cold Fire

Have a great week staying on plan, going off plan, or with no plan at all.

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

*We sometimes go to our local Everyday Market (Walmart's interpretation of a grocery store) and I always check their overstock bakery items. Friday I found a large loaf of whole wheat french bread for 69 cents. Sold!