Oh no just 22 weeks till Christmas

We are now officially on the downhill side of Christmas, and we all know how quickly things speed up when going down hill.  However it is insanely hot here and nothing says "Hey Anne, why don't you do something Christmasy?"

Our house does have central a/c which makes the inside bearable and we have a separate unit to keep the upstairs cool, but no one is here to use the bedrooms thus we keep the thermostat set at 81 and close it off from the main level. 81 degrees is not unbearable, but it is hotter than I want to be, so unfortunately all the plans I had for finishing the room of horrors are on hold until the weather breaks. Yeah, like I was really going to do that! I still have at least 14 weeks before things are critical, right?

I do have several new to me recipes of Christmas cookies I wanted to try, but it was also just too hot to turn on the oven, so I didn't, nor will I until this heatwave is over.

I guess the long and short of it is I may or may not do anything even remotely resembling Christmas prep depending on the weather.

Ho, Ho, Hot!

Anne

Everyday Ordinary

This was not a big nor exciting week. I was just kicking about my everyday life.

What I intended for our meals

1. Big salad meal

2. Veggie meal

3. Fundraiser w/ meal

4. Crack chicken, green beans, tossed salad

5. Steak, baked potato, tossed salad

6. Tacos with all the fixings

7. Grilled tuna steaks, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad

Daily Joys and what we actually ate:

Monday: My Beloved Sister went with me to my happy place. For those of you who might not have known, Monday was National Junk Food Day. so the choice of what to help them make was easy. What could be junkier than Frito candy, with Fritos, corn syrup, Hershey bars and m&m's. It was an outstanding success with each participant wanting seconds.

Monday dinner: And how do you follow midday Frito candy?

Tacos with all the fixings

Tuesday: It was hot and I started a new book. It was pretty easy to do little other than stay inside and read. 

Tuesday dinner: We both grew up having and loving summer night veggie dinners.

Squash casserole, butter peas, collards, cucumber tomato onion salad

Wednesday: The day was hot and I decided to mainly repeat what I had done Tuesday, which is exactly what I was doing until I got a phone call from Sluggy. She did not sound good at all, but hopefully has turned the Covid corner.

Should I mention that the more than a little warm temps have left the pool water just slightly cooler than bathwater.

Wednesday dinner: It was just too hot to fire up the grill. Format change!

Seared tuna steaks with buerre blanc sauce, fake mashed potatoes or baked potato*, steamed broccoli

Thursday: We had a lot of running around to do (stuff I could very easily have done myself, but TheHub wanted/needed to go anywhere). TheHub managed things so we would be out at lunch time and he was able to get his eating out at lunch fix (or so I thought). 

Thursday dinner: We had eaten a pretty big lunch at a Thai restaurant. Dinner was every man for himself.

Sandwich or broccoli salad

Friday: We had been planning to go to Niki's West all summer. TheHub invited Son2 and DIL2, along with MBS to have lunch with us there. It is the ultimate meat and three restaurant. It is cafeteria style with 6 or so entrees and 20 or so vegetables (including that veggie mac and cheese), several salads, breads and desserts. 

It is always packed at lunch so we met at 1, which should have been after the lunch hour business rush. Nope! They had  four queue lines which were filled, with folks still pouring through the door. 

This is one of those few places where a long line moves very fast, for the servers (and there are a lot of them) are somewhat like the Soup Nazi from the old Seinfeld show. You do not dawdle and if you have brains at all you peer through the queue lines and have made your decisions before you even pick up your tray to start down the line. Next time, I will suggest going at 1:45. By then the line crowd had thinned considerably.

Worth the drive (it is across town) and standing in line? You bet

Friday dinner: I had a veggie plate and TheHub had eaten turkey and dressing with 2 veggies for lunch. I was not about to fix (southern term meaning make, not to be confused with fixing which means about to, i.e. I'm fixin' to run to The Pig) dinner.

Egg rolls **

Saturday: Our neighbor has her 2 nieces from Tennessee staying with her for a week. She had asked me earlier if they could come swim, which was fine with us as long as they had an adult with them. After they left I asked her if the girls enjoyed it. She told me they both wished they could turn into mermaids so they could stay. They will be here through Wednesday, so I told her to bring them back whenever she wants to. 

Saturday night we went to The Sounds of Summer (Independence Place Fundraiser). We did enjoy the band who played a lot of old Motown classics, but the highlight of the evening was the performance by the participants. 

Try to imagine a stage filled with participants doing an interpretive dance to Elvis Presley's "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" while the participants with mobility issues sat and twirled silver streamers.

Following the dance, drums were brought out and each participant was given 2 mallets. They had been practicing for several weeks and each had a different rhythm they were to beat (from very simple 1 beat per measure, to more complex ones changing every other measure)  while Sly and the Family Stone's Thank You (for lettin me be myself, again)  blasted over the p.a.

I don't know what I loved more, the drumming or to see each of them singing the chorus, "Thank you . . .again".  I could have easily cried happy tears.

Saturday dinner: What can I say, banquet food is banquet food.

Salad, roast rice pilaf, green beans, cheesecake

Sunday: I picked pears, then peeled and cut them and put them in a pot with every intention of making pear jam. It was going quite well until I turned the temp up and walked away for a few minutes. Instead of pear jam I had this pear caramel concoction. I was not about to waste my sure jel on it. Instead I canned it and will present it as caramel pear ice cream topping, and never mention it was a mistake.

I still have enough pears to make another stab at the jam.

I live kind of on the side of a big hill and have a huge sky expanse.The upside of all this blasted humidity was a gorgeous full rainbow I could stand in my front yard and enjoy for several minutes before it disappeared into the ether.

Saturday dinner. TheHub stopped at Publix on his way home from the driving range.

Rotisserie chicken, coleslaw

What we might or might not eat this week:

1. Big salad meal

2. Veggie meal

3. Pork chops, mashed potatoes or baked potato, sautéed vegetables

4. Out to eat (Have a club minimum we need to use by the 31st)

5. Possibly out to eat again (Son2's birthday celebration)

6. Crack chicken, coleslaw, rice

7 Burgers and all the fixings

Books read in July:

Holly

Eruption

You Make It Feel Like Christmas

It's Not Summer Without You***

The Second Chance****

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

* I will not make TheHub eat the mashed cauliflower fake potatoes and keep baking potatoes on hand to nuke for his dinner.

**Aldi staple that just needs to be thrown in the air fryer. I keep them in the freezer all the time. We split them and each get 2 1/2 egg rolls.

*** Second in the series I am reading in tandem with Pip

**** Not the Daniel Steele book by the same name, but the Charlotte Butterfield book

Oh no just 23 weeks until Christmas

Woo hoo! This week was better and I did a little getting ready.

I actually did think of Christmas a little this week. TheHub and I happened into a store I absolutely never go in and I found 4 presents for Christmas. TheHub and I give cash gifts to our sons and DILs as their main present, but we also give them a few smaller gifts. I mean, everyone like to have presents to open right? So I now have a total of 8 gifts purchased, and a few ideas to get whenever. 

I collected a couple of recipes to try that I could add to our usual Christmas brunch if I like the way they taste and look, but it is just too hot to do any serious baking right now. 

And the pear tree has given me enough pears for a batch of pear ginger jam. I am not a big jam or jelly person, but this stuff is pretty dang tasty. I am going to spring it on give it to a few friends who I think might like it. 

I am also considering making some apple cinnamon jelly and canning it in small jars to hand out to any guests we have over the holidays as they leave the house (though it is still just a consideration).

And for the official record, I managed to avoid the decoration room of terror once more.

Ho, Ho, it will be here before we know it.

Summertime Laziness

 Summer brings out the lazy in me!

Monday : I pickled the first round of harvested pears and was pretty pleased with how they turned out. Other than that is was just a normal hot summer day. I don't hibernate in the summer, but I stick close to home just because I don't like getting all gussied up to go somewhere when it is hot. It helps that the pool is just a few steps out the back door.

Monday dinner: I still had some produce from my prior visit to the produce stand and it needed to be used.

Deconstructed stuffed peppers, corn on the cob, cucumber tomato onion salad

Tuesday: Bennys and Brenda had their produce stand set up early so I went to buy the few things I needed. On the way home I stopped at The Pig to do a little cherry picking and to snag the free item. I drove back home, put things away and then crashed. I felt bad and was freezing. I am pretty sure I was fighting a potential sinus issue. I wrapped up in a blanket and chair slept most of the day.

Tuesday dinner: TheHub had played golf with a couple of our neighbors and, since I was not feeling well, counted on him eating lunch out. He didn't, his loss.

Baked potato, coleslaw

Wednesday: I spent the day mainly reading and doing a ton of laundry. 

I had bought 5 pounds of ground chuck at ThePig that I had just put in the meat drawer of the fridge. It needed to be processed for the freezer. I split it in half and packed some uncooked, and browned the rest before bagging it. (And this continual filling might be why I never come close to emptying the freezer!)

Wednesday dinner: I kept some of the browned ground chuck out to use for dinner

Spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad

Thursday: I woke and thought I had a ton of time before going to somewhere I had planned. I was enjoying a slow morning drinking coffee when DIL2 texted me. I had written in my calendar I needed to be there at 1, instead of 10. Oops.  I called My Beloved Sister to see if she could get ready in 15 minutes, so we could make it there just a little later. than our scheduled time. We made it but it was not easy. The upside is that I had not been to my happy place in at least a month and I had missed seeing all the participants at Independence Place

Thursday dinner: TheHub was out and about during the day and we both got home within 15 or so minutes of each other. Since we were both dressed for the day, we did a few inside chores,  and went out for an early dinner at The Pita Cafe.

Racer sandwich, fries

Friday: I had some major laundry catching up to do, and there was always reading that needed to be done.

Friday dinner: We try to have meatless meals at least once a week and I almost always plan a veggie meal.

Mac and cheese*, lady peas, sliced tomatoes, coleslaw

Saturday: I had planned on working in the room of horror, but accidentally stumbled on something that took up a large part of my day. I have said before that I have a well (overstocked) pantry/freezer with an overflow shelf stable food storage in the laundry room. While putting a load of clothes in the washer, I noticed some red powdery something on the laundry room floor, next to my overflow cabinet.  A cellophane packet of chili powder, had gotten overturned and looks like it snagged on the hinge for the cabinet door (the doors I never put on the cabinet)  probably when I was looking for something (i.e. shuffling things around while I looked) and was torn. It had spread all over the shelf it was on. Nothing to do but clean it up and once I started it morphed into a total removal of everything in the cabinet and a complete clean out. And why would I want to just clean the cabinet and leave when I could clean out even more areas of the laundry room?

Saturday dinner: Son2 and DIL2 had temporary guardianship of one of the Independence Place participants a couple of years ago prior to his move to Little Rock. He was in town and spending the night with them Saturday night. We have missed seeing him and asked them to meet us for dinner at Martin's BBQ.

Pulled pork, broccoli salad, green beans

Sunday: We woke early and went to our church's communion service, then went to the early traditional service. It is the best way for me to start my week.

Once home I actually cooked breakfast ( not in my normal wheelhouse) before processing the pears I picked the other day that needed to be processed.

I made pear /cardamom preserves with about 4 pounds of pears, then canned them.

Once they were done I went out and picked about 5 more pounds of pears and there are still a lot more one the tree. 

Sunday night: It was a leftover kind of evening.

Mac and cheese, lady peas, coleslaw

What we might have this week:

1. Big salad meal

2. Veggie meal

3. Fundraiser w/ meal

4. Crack chicken, green beans, tossed salad

5. Steak, baked potato, tossed salad

6. Tacos with all the fixings

7. Grilled tuna steaks, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad

Books read in July:

Holly

Eruption

You Make It Feel Like Christmas

*Go to any meat and three in the south and ask for a vegetable plate. Mac and cheese will be listed as a vegetable

Oh no just 24 weeks till Christmas

 It is really too hot to get any sort of Christmas mojo going but I have noticed a few places like Michael's and Hobby Lobby are beginning to sneak a few Christmasy things out. I suppose those are for the true crafters who start and finish projects before the seasonal rush. 

These people are not my people!

I finally did get the pickled pears made and canned, and still have a ton more to pick and process. I think I will pickle another batch and then make pear preserves to also give as Christmas gifts. I have one friend who always talks about how much she loves them, so she will definitely get a jar.

I did not touch the room of horrors, but have noticed on the local Buy Nothing facebook site, people are starting to sort through their decorations and give away those not used anymore. There seem to be many people who are interested in getting them, so I need to finish sorting and give it away sooner rather than later. However I have managed to ignore the room pretty successfully so far. Maybe there is no reason to think I will do otherwise in the very near future.

I read the Christmas book I had chosen from the Libby app, You Make It Feel Like Christmas.  Now I need to read 4 more to catch up on the one a month I anticipated reading. 

Amazon Prime Days came and went and though I found a really good buy on what would have made a great "add in" Christmas present for my sons, I did not pull the trigger and get it for them.  Now I regret it!

Speaking of Prime Day and Christmas__I did order a set of calligraphy markers, and downloaded a font I really like. I have been trying to master the Alphabet to possibly address my Christmas Cards this year.  Or maybe just address the ones to my most special friends?

Ho, Ho, Hum

Anne

Lazy week

This was just one of those regular summer weeks, mostly unplanned days with lots of sun afternoon rains, swim time, and iced tea on the porch.

Planned  meals:

1. Big salad meal

2. Veggie meal

3. Grilled tuna, tossed salad, green beans, mashed potatoes

4. Zucchini cheese strata, tossed salad

5. Stuffed peppers, coleslaw, mashed potatoes

6. We might be going tn Nashville and if we do we will eat out some

7. Ditto

Joys and meals that happened in real life:

Monday: I like to take Mondays and plan out the week, so I did just that, along with a lot of laundry and pool time. TheHub and I swam laps. We rarely swim laps at the same time. (I think it is a competition thing)

TheHub was/is athletic and played baseball all through college. All our married lives he could beat me no matter what we did, except swim. I am a much stronger swimmer than he is and his competitive nature will not allow him to be bested by me.

Dinner: There were things in the fridge that needed to be used.

Stuffed banana peppers, coleslaw, cornbread

Tuesday: I was on hold waiting for My Beloved Sister to let me know when she needed help. BIL had bought a new car in August of '24, and she was selling it. The place she was selling it and she had agreed to a price and all that was left was to deliver the car, get her money and be picked up. Simple right? Nope.  

Our plan was for me to leave 40 minutes after she left. It would (according to what they told her) give her time to do the paperwork about the time I got there. I had already told her it was no big deal if it ran a little over. 3 1/2 hours later!

Dinner: Rotisserie chicken from Publix saved the day. The rest was in the fridge.

Roast chicken, pink eyed peas, cucumber onion tomato salad

Wednesday: Spent the day sorting, organizing or tossing then cleaning the bathrooms and linen closets.  We have a lot of bathrooms and linen closets in this house so it takes a while. Now I have a true picture of what I might need to purchase to meet our shampoo, soap, body wash, first aid, etc. issues for the next year. Not a blooming thing!!! I am overstocked on all fronts!

Wednesday dinner: After spending the day in various bathrooms, cooking was not on my priority list.

Leftover chopped roast chicken in Italianish pasta, tossed salad

Thursday: Woke to no internet. A house is being built in the neighborhood and evidently while accessing water and power lines the crater they dug cut through the ATT fiber line.

I could do without internet or tv but a day without music?

TheHub and I did not go totally digital, and still have a tuner, turntable, cd player, and even cassette player plus thousands of albums, cassette tapes, and cds, decades worth of all genres. So, after dusting it off, I was able to blast whatever I wanted to. The bonus? TheHub met Son2 for lunch so I could really crank up the volume! I felt like a teen, well except for the knees, and back, and . . .  

Thursday dinner: TheHub had eaten a big lunch when he met Son2, so I felt no obligation to cook a real meal.

BLT* salad

Friday: My Beloved Sister came over and we spent about 2 hours in he pool. We both swam laps, then did some floating, followed by more laps.  After getting out, and a quick shower, TheHub and I had some running around we needed to do. We hit 5 different places before heading home.

Friday dinner: We were out later than I thought we would be and decided to pick up a quick dinner.

Chicken, green beans, coleslaw.

Saturday: TheHub and I ran by our favorite produce stand, then ran a couple of other places before coming home for a quick lunch.

More swimming with MBS. While we were swimming, the skies darkened and we played the game "Is that thunder or a plane" . I am perfectly fine swimming in the rain, but not so much in a thunderstorm. We agreed it was a plane and finished our laps. The actual storm happened about an hour later.    

Saturday dinner: We had been to Benny and Brenda's produce stand which meant a veggie dinner was going to happen.

Lady peas, okra, sliced tomatoes, cornbread  

Sunday: We woke in time to make it to the early church communion service, then the 8:30 service in the sanctuary. Our Sunday School class takes the month of July off. Many of our class members have beach houses or lake places and are gone most of July. 

We were going to be through with our church activities by 9:30 and decided to go out to breakfast afterward. We thought about hitting Big Bad Breakfast but their parking lot was full and there was a wait out the door. Nope, we just moved on to Jack's**. 

It is a local fast food restaurant, but the one nearest us had been torn down and rebuilt and actually has a nice eating aren. I am usually a cheap breakfast date as I generally get just a cup of coffee, however, Jack's has a smoked sausage biscuit on their menu that is fantastic. I don't know if they use Conecuh or not, but if it isn't it is a near ringer in the flavor and texture department.

After we came home I headed to the screened porch to read (thankfully we have a ceiling fan out there) and may or may not have dozed until a fierce clap of thunder changed that. Then I got to do one of my favorite summertime things. I love being outside yet protected during a storm, and like most summertime thunderstorms here, it lasted about 25 minutes with lightning, thunder and rain that looked like someone turned on a faucet. Then about as quickly it blew in, it was gone, followed by sunshine and steam rising everywhere. Ah, summer in the south!

Once the grass dried a little I picked about a dozen more pears to pickle.

Sunday dinner: We ate a later breakfast, then skipped an actual lunch, though some snacking took place. We had a boatload of fruit , cheese and different crackers on hand to fill that snacking need. Neither of us were actually hungry for dinner, and I was not really in the mood to cook. Instead we took the easy route and went to the absolutely cheapest place nearest us to snag dinner. Taco Bell to the rescue for a not delicious but adequate dinner.

Two of their regular cheap tacos***

What's possibly up for dinner this week?

1. Stuffed banana peppers, corn on the cob, tomato cucumber onion salad

2. Veggie meal TBD

3. Big salad meal TBD

4. Spaghetti w/meat sauce, tossed salad

5. Grilled tuna steaks, baked potato, green beans

6. Hamburgers w/ all the fixings, fruit salad

7. Take out or out to eat (We did not go to Nashville but it is a possibility again for this week)

Books read in July:

Holly

Eruption

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

* I cook 2 or 3 pounds of bacon at one time in the oven until it is done but not crispy (we like it crispy) then freeze it. When we want bacon all I have to do is nuke it for about 45 seconds. Before TheHub retired that much bacon would last about 3 months, but now that he is home and is on to my bacon trick, he makes a BLT for lunch often. It is disappearing much faster than it did.

** Though Jack's began its life as a locally owned fast food hamburger joint, it added a really good breakfast menu and fantastic chicken dinners. It also has limited monthly specials, and you never know what they will be.

They are all over Alabama, a couple on Georgia and at least one in/near Chattanooga TN. If you are near on and have a hankering for something good give them a try. The biscuits are cat head biscuits just like your granny used to make.

***The bonus (if there actually is one) of going to Taco Bell is having the overage of taco sauce packs they stuff in the take out bag. I can never understand how two tacos require a dozen packs of sauce, however, I will save them and add them as flavoring to something I cook later on.

Oh no just 25 weeks till Christmas.

 I have noticed Christmas in July stuff all around, and realized we are halfway there. I am still in a holding pattern and totally uninspired to finish the room of horrors. It's hot, muggy, and I had rather be swimming than stuck in a room surrounded by seasonal decorations. Maybe next week? I have my doubts, though it could happen.

The only thing even remotely Christmasy I have done this week is to download a Christmas book from my Libby app. I said in January I was going to read a Christmas book every month, but as I look in the mirror I am 4 months behind, excluding the current download, You Make It Feel Like Christmas.

It looks like this will be a quick read if I ever open the blooming thing and start reading. 

My pear tree is loaded this year and I have picked some hard green ones to make pickled pears for Christmas gifts, but have been skillfully avoiding actually doing it. This is time sensitive because I can't make it with fully ripened pears. 

At least I do have the jars washed and ready and have all the necessary ingredients. Now I just need to get my rear in gear, but the pool is screaming at me right now and I feel I must pay attention to it. Tomorrow? 

Ho, Ho, Hum.