And the Countdown Begins

I don't know about the rest of you but November 1 begins my countdown to the holiday season.  This year we are having the entire family here for an extended Thanksgiving visit, so I am having to get my rear in super gear earlier than normal.  Son1 and his family will be here the 19th and Son3 and guest arrive the 22nd. I have a million things to do before they get here, along with a few obligations along the way, so I have decided to start me a weekly list, post it here and see if the fear of public humiliation will keep me in check. (Probably not since I have a really thick hide, but hope springs eternal) So I implore anyone who reads this to please hold me accountable to my list.  Left to my own devices, I will find any and all reasons to half ass my plans.

I am listing this as a weekly adventure rather than daily.  Mom is my wildcard, so I try very hard not to make this a daily thing since my day can change at the drop of a hat based on her needs/wants/demands.

This week:
 1.Create a bedroom for Pip from my former office work in progress, but over half finished
 2. Wash sheets and towels for guest room.
 3. Vacuum ceilings, wall corners, and crown moulding in foyer, l.r. and d.r.
 4. Wash all woodwork in the foyer, dining room, living room
 5. Quick shine hardwood floors in foyer/lr and dr
 6. Wash windows in foyer/lr and dr
 7. Deep clean laundry room/studio (I don't want to even begin this)
 8. Deep clean pool bath
 9. Deep clean dressing room
10. Re-arrange freezer foods to make room for a turkey or 2
11. Deep clean butlers pantry
12. Deep clean all kitchen cabinets, drawers and shelves
13. Clean oven (Understand the oven is self cleaning but I forget to do it)
14. Deep clean refrigerator
15. Wash all woodwork in breakfast nook
16. Wash breakfast nook windows
17. Vacuum ceilings, corners and crown moulding in den
18. Clean  den woodwork
19. Wash den windows
20. Wash breakfast room chandelier globes
21. Clean drawers and shelves breakfast room sideboard.
22. Create some Thanksgiving art

Extras if I get to them, if not carry over to week 2
 1. Wax cabinet fronts and doors
 2. Re-do kitchen table top
 3. Shampoo den carpet
 4. Take breakfast nook rug outside and wash it
 5. Get a few Thanksgiving decorations in place

Week 2:
 1. Clean music room
 2. Deep clean guest room bathroom
 3. Deep clean Son3's bathroom
 4. Gussie up the deck and screened porch
 5. Deep clean Master bedroom
 6. Deep clean Master bath
 7. Wash summer comforter and put away
 8. Air winter comforter and shams and put on bed
 9. Whatever else I think of this week to add to this list

This makes me tired, because I really don't want to do all this! I need a maid named Hazel who lives in the house, cooks, cleans and calls me Missy. Since that is not happening I need to crank up some loud fast music, get off the computer and get crackin'.

Happy Halloween

Another Halloween in the BOOks!  Hope yours                               was Happy!                                

Use It, Use It, and Use Some More, (Fail) Week 2

You will notice that this weeks list begins on Thursday. If I have early morning obligations breakfast goes out the window and I opt to have coffee only, because coffee fits in the drink holder in my car. Most of these obligations lasted well into the afternoon, and then I would either grab something to eat while I was out or just wait until I got home in the late afternoon and eat cold leftovers. Dinners?  We went out to eat Monday and Tuesday and on Wednesday I was planing on making chicken scaloppine for our anniversary dinner, but TheHub decided at the last minute he wanted steak.  I have steaks in the freezer but they were not the cut he wanted so I made a special trip to buy them. It is not a big deal since we only give each other cards for our anniversary, but it does nothing for knocking out my freezer stash.  At this rate I am not going to have any room for Thanksgiving turkey in the freezer. Craptastic!

                          (Not actual food from my freezer, but a really nice photo)

Thursday
breakfast: Cheerios, 8 strawberries, coffee.
dinner: jerk chicken, brown rice, salad
used: cheerios (p) strawberries (f) 1 pack chicken breasts (f) 1 bottle jerk marinade (p) brown rice ( p

Friday
breakfast: Cheerios 7 strawberries
dinner: meat sauce over spaghetti, tossed salad, brownies
used: Cheerios ( p ) strawberries ( f) 2 small packs spaghetti sauce (f)  spaghetti (p) brownie mix ( p )

Saturday
lunch:  hamburgers with all the fixings, corn chips and queso
dinner: chicken with wine sauce mushrooms and capers, broccoli,
used: 5 hamburger patties ( f) corn chips ( p)  cheese sauce (p) 1 pack chicken breasts ( f)  1 pack broccoli (f)  small jar capers ( p)

Sunday
breakfast: 6 frozen biscuits, jelly
lunch: pimento cheese sandwiches
dinner: pasta salad
used: 6 biscuits (f) 1 block sharp cheddar (f) 1 pack fusilli (p) 1 small can ripe olives (p)


I need to get all my ducks in a row and do some serious freezer eating during the next two weeks. Son1 and his family will be here the 19th for 2 weeks and Son3 flies in for the long Thanksgiving weekend with a friend.  I am going to need freezer space for a turkey plus some additional general food items.  I have to get my rear in gear and also do some serious  cooking and cleaning too.  Ugh!

It's Been A Wonderful Ride So Far

It is heard to believe so many years have passed since these 2 kids decided to try and make a life together. Now 3 kids, 1 grand, many dogs, several houses, excellent times and not so excellent times, we are still here.














                           
                Happy Anniversary and all that jazz to my sweetie!

Use It Up, Week 1 Summery

Rules of the Game

I am only counting items I am using from the freezer (f) or pantry (p) since I plan on replenishing produce, eggs and milk.  I am counting bread even though I will buy it as needed because it is one of my pantry items. I will only count staples if I run out and have to replenish it (ex. flour)
As for the meals? If they are not listed it  simply means I did not use a single pantry or freezer item for that meal.  Ditto for snacks ( I made this rule because I just purchased and ate a Moon Pie and didn't want to record it, because if I didn't write it down it didn't happen, right? )



Monday

Breakfast: coffee, toast, apple juice
Lunch: apple, peanut butter, crackers
Dinner: Chicken stew
Snack: leftover kefir dip, Triscuit
used 1 slice bread (p), 1/2 c. apple juice (p), peanut butter (p), 4 saltines (p), 2 chicken breasts (f), 1 pack chicken broth (f), 1 jar pasta rossa (p), about 8 Triscuits (p)
zero  food purchases

Tuesday
Breakfast: coffee, toasted leftover hamburger bun. apple juice
Snacks: pumpkin muffins
used 1very smushed hamburger bun (p), 1 c. apple juice (p), 1 can pumpkin (p), 1/2 cup chocolate chips (p)
zero food purchases

Wednesday
Breakfast: coffee, pumpkin muffin, 1/2 c. apple juice (just to use it, didn't really want it)
Dinner Cottage-ish pie
Snacks: Triscuit, herbed kefir cheese
used 3/4 lb. ground beef (f),  1/2 bag peas and carrots (f), 1/4 cup powdered milk (p), Triscuit (p)
zero food purchases

Thursday
Breakfast: coffee, cereal, strawberries.
Lunch: broccoli salad, leftover cottage pie
Dinner: Ground beef, sautéed onions, mushrooms, and garlic in  red pepper sauce over pasta with a side of brussels sprouts
used: 3/4 c. cheerios (p), 6 large strawberries (f), 1/4 bag broccoli (f), 1 lb. ground beef (f),  rotini pasta (p),  bag of brussels sprouts (f)
zero food purchases

Friday
Dinner: Chili topped baked sweet potatoes, coleslaw, cornbread
used: chili (f), 1 can chili beans (p,) Aldi's cheese and chili cornbread mix. It was sweet! Ugh! (p), 1 envelope Martha White cornbread mix added to the other to kill the sweetness. Lesson learned, never buy anything but Martha White (p)
food purchases:  potatoes, onions, ice cream, hamburger buns, milk, 4 lb. sugar (stock up item for Christmas, lowest price I have seen this year), chocolate milk

Saturday
used: not a blooming thing.  I forgot to defrost the ground chuck for hamburgers for dinner w/ overnight guests
food purchases:  ground chuck, chips, caramel cake (impulse buy, but totally worth it)

Sunday
Breakfast: pumpkin muffin (I am so tired of eating these) coffee, bacon (me) bacon sandwich (TheHub)
Dinner: Conecuh sausage, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts
used: 6 slices bacon (f),  don't judge: the dog ate nearly 1 1/2 slices of the bacon (floor score!) 2 slices toast, 1 lb. Conecuh sausage (f), 1 bag brussels sprouts (f) 1/3 cup powdered milk (p)
food purchases: technically I bought 2 2 liter drinks, but I took them to someone dear to me who is having a hard time keeping anything down right now (Ginger ale and Sprite) While I was at the store a Moon Pie leapt into my hand and may or may not have been eaten between dropping of the drinks and the return trip to my house.)


I need to do some serious damage to my freezer stores this week. I have not even made a dent in the space there.  Maybe I should have a really large dinner party just to get rid of more food in a shorter amount of time. Now who wants to come for dinner this week?

Festive Friday on Saturday?

I lived through yesterday thinking all day long it was Thursday, so according to my convoluted calendar this post is spot on.  For the rest of you who seem to know what day of the week it is, apologies and congratulations to you for being in the now.
Because Halloween is approaching I am changing the tone of this post just a tad. (Well that, and the fact that I screwed up the lettering on my gift of the week and don't have time to correct it right now. We are having overnight guests tonight and since I thought I had another day to get ready for them, I am scrambling to clean the entire upstairs before they get here)

So this is a quick and easy welcome Fall/Halloween treat. (Plus with a few leaves around it, it will be a nice centerpiece on my kitchen table and hopefully will look like I put some thought into it, rather than throwing the fastest possible thing together.  I guess I also should thank Mom who needed me first ting out of the chute this morning, so I was at CVS butt early and snagged the components of this treat.

1 bag smore's m & m's
1 bag candy corn  m & m's
1 bag candy corn
1 can cocktail peanuts

Mix these suckers together in a large bowl. Put them into a serving container that has a lid. I have a glass pumpkin I picked up for a buck or 2 a long time ago and it actually looks pretty good in it. ( When the kids were young I used to keep bubble gum balls that looked like eyeballs in it but we have grown beyond Eyeballs of Terror) I suggest putting a spoon out beside it just to keep people from putting their hands all over it.  If you have some Halloween muffin liners it would be nice to set them out on the side as well.  This tastes like a Payday candy bar with some melty and crunchy bits added to it.  I am not a big fan of candy corn or Payday's so this is a really good thing for me to have hanging around. It is candy that I can take or leave and when it is possible I prefer to have something I am indifferent to living in a candy jar.

Now go wrestle up some spooks, spirits or bags of candy and get your Halloween on!

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Who's Got the Pumpkin?

Today while I was rearranging the pantry I decided to check some of the use by dates.  Now I am not a stickler for tossing things that have passed their dates, but sometimes you just have to draw the line. I found a jar of capers that had gotten shoved to the far corner of the bottom shelf with a best by date of '06 and several jars of chow chow that should have been used by '11. It was quite easy to toss all of those, but some of the other items were harder to call.  For example, I had 4 cans of pumpkin, three of which are still in the current date period, but one was dated 12/15.  I decided to go ahead and open it, smelled it, and declared it fine. Well fine with one small codicil. It had to be cooked for at least 20 minutes at a temp over 300.

The odd thing about all this is I am not a pumpkin fan at all. I bake one pumpkin pie every Thanksgiving for TheHub who eats 2 slices, sticks it in the fridge and 3 days later I throw it out. Every year is the same. Bake, Slice, Chill, Toss. So why did I find 4 cans in my pantry?  I have no idea.  And the even bigger question was what would I make to use this can. I thought about pumpkin soup but I really and truly do not care for it at all, saw a recipe for the Starbucks pumpkin latte (gag) and finally decided to just make muffins.  Edible? Yes! Heavy pumpkin taste? Not at all! Have a recipe handy to use pumpkin? Kinda (My applesauce muffin recipe would work fine)

                                                           Pumpkin Muffins

       

3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spices (normally apple pie spices) I used cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mace, allspice, cloves and black pepper. I have no idea the exact amounts but I used more cinnamon than anything and used the rest in descending amounts in the order I typed them.  If you are in doubt just use some of the pre-blended pumpkin spice.
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups sugar (For the apple sauce muffins I use half brown and half granulated. For these I just used granulated.)
4 eggs
1 can pumpkin (1 1/4 cup applesauce if making the apple sauce muffins)
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water/orange juice/apple juice (Your choice. I used apple juice because I found a bottle in the pantry)

Add ins, optional
chocolate chips
pumpkin flavored baking bits
nuts
grated orange peel (would be great if you used orange juice for the liquid)
coconut

In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients, including the sugar. Whisk well to combine everything. Add all the wet ingredients and stir until well blended, but do not over mix.

Spoon into well greased muffin tins. Makes 24 regular sized muffins or 48 mini muffins.  I have no idea how many jumbo muffins this will make because: ( a ) I didn't make any ( b )  I don't own any jumbo muffin pans to try it even if I had wanted to.

Bake at 350 for about 18 minutes (less if using mini muffin tins)

I made half of these regular muffin size and added mini chocolate chips to the other half, which I baked in mini muffin tins. I thought the chocolate addition was so-so, but I am not a big chocolate and spice fan.  Son2 had some and loved them. My mother thought they were delicious until I told her they were pumpkin muffins, when she declared she couldn't eat any more than 1 because she hates pumpkin.  Go figure!

I am having many houseguests during the Thanksgiving week and this might be on one day's menu. Next time I think I will use orange juice, toss in some orange zest and add toasted pecans to the batter.

Now go stir up something  delicious or at least stir up some trouble!