Menu for the Week 2

So here is our next menu for the week, a few additional one pot meals which are a bit easier for me when I get home from work and well that's always a plus.   And I'm busy testing recipes for my cookbook, so who knows what mix we'll have each week!  Good thing my family is willing to try most anything I cook.....

SUNDAY
Pizza Porcupine Patties
Romaine Salad

                     I have these Betty Crocker recipe cards from the
                     late 1970's and used them when Jason was young.
                    Going back to them to rework the recipes for some
                     tasty new meals!


MONDAY
Hearty Tuna Casserole
A new twist on an old favorite.  Remember when your Mom thought it was so gourmet to crush potato chips across the top!

TUESDAY
Farmgirl Ham and Eggs
Pumpkin Pecan Biscuits
This is not a typical egg dish, can't wait for you to see the pictures!

           I have over 100 cookbooks in my collection and will sit and read
           them like books!  I love to look up recipes in books rather than online!

WEDNESDAY
Meat and Vegetable Medley

THURSDAY
Cheesy Vegetable Casserole
Pecan crescents

FRIDAY
Wagon Wheel Chili
Waldorf salad
This will be our last time for chili until next Fall, so I'm breaking tradition and not doing my family's favorite, but trying something new!  Hopefully it will become a new favorite!

SATURDAY
Red Eye Ham and Biscuit Squares
Remember in Menu 1 we used a Ham Steak?  Well the grocery store had a special and were offering two steaks individually packaged and put together in a mesh bag for only about $1.50 more than a single steak.  So I bought the two, put one in the freezer to use later.  It's later!

SUNDAY
Crusty Baked Chicken
Sliced Baked Potatoes

              Round up all your pots and pans - and get ready, its going to be a great week.

Love sharing my kitchen experiments with you....hope you are enjoying them too!  Don't hesitate to leave a comment, and if you are looking for a particular recipe let me know, or if you want me to test a recipe for you and post the pics and how-to's - I'm happy to do it!

The Three R's - Repurpose, Recycle, Reduce

Reducing our carbon footprint – it’s a catch phrase you hear on the news and talk shows, and see in the paper or magazines or the internet……and for most of us, we apply it the other guy, or the big corporate “users” and “abusers”, but me, what can I do?

The other evening, I was emptying waste baskets around the house, preparing for the morning trash pick up, and oh my, where did all the trash come from, I must have not emptied last week, surely all this trash wasn’t from one week!  And even more to my chagrin I went outside to find two large trash cans full, and an extra box already filling fast!  To say the least, I was appalled….how could three people, one of which is a housebound granny who generates little if any trash, have so much waste!

Now I am an avid follower of MaryJaneFarm® magazine and her rural love of life and all things good, and after completely devouring every issue of her magazine cover to cover numerous times, I always think to myself…”self” I say, “if we lived on a farm, we would be thrifty and frugal like MaryJane!”  Well that pre-trash night, I had an epiphany!  I don’t need to live on a farm to be thrifty, frugal and environmentally responsible, and my occasional reusing a bag or piece of foil, just doesn’t qualify.

So here is my plan – we are now a home that lives the three R’s – repurpose, recycle and reduce!

Repurposing gives life to things you may have tossed out.  Jars with lids go to the garage or craft room to hold all those pesky little bits and pieces, nuts and bolts, buttons and the like.  That flannel sheet that can’t be mended is cut up and hemmed for the perfect polishing cloths; our community is full of thrift stores supporting various charities, and one box a week of clothing, dishes, and other unused and stored items that have gone untouched for more than a year will leave this house!

Recycle – bins are in the carport to collect cans, papers, plastic; phone books boxed up for the annual girl scout phone book drive; cardboard now has a new purpose flattened and layered in next year’s garden bed to create the “lasagna” garden that breaks down harden ground for a perfect garden bed!  Shredded junk mail and compostable food scraps to the compost bins and well, one small point for effort, we already use reusable grocery totes!

Reduce, in addition to reducing out going trash, we are reducing incoming trash by bringing less home.  Making my own laundry soap eliminates all those huge plastic bottles; buying less convenience food eliminates some of the boxes, plastic wrap and little plastic dishes and an added benefit is we eat better by buying more fresh items!

And though we are just beginning we will be proficient by the end of the year so that we can save those New Year’s Resolutions for something that won’t be a shame if we don’t keep!

So today, Repurpose, recycle and reduce and

‘til tomorrow,

Stormy-

Ghost words on a page

Yates Center Kansas
January 28, 1891


Dear Miss Ridgeway,


Remember me and bear in mind a
True young friend is hard to find
But if you find one good and true
Change not the old one for the new.

Your true and every loving friend
Montie Cannady

A most recent eBay treasure is a most fabulous autograph book from 1891. Only a small portion of the pages are signed, but each with the loving and painfully perfect script of young writers to what appears to be to their departing teacher, who seems to be leaving perhaps to marry. Reading them - like ghost words on a page - bring back the memories of a long ago time, an era of refinement, when with pen in hand you put your thoughts to page.  Each page of this aging record of thoughts and wishes, contains young prose and a marvelous Victorian scrap piece pasted to the page with great care and show of fondness.

I sit here looking out the window at the empty winter branches of the trees that surround my home, thinking of Spring to come, knowing that I still have a bit of wait. I’m anxious for Spring this year. I think I need the signs of new life. I feel bleak today, like the branch with one hanging leaf clinging on although the life from it is long gone.

I play many roles in my life, an Army Mom of a son, who will deploy on his fourth mission in the coming week; a caregiver for an aging parent as well as a chronically ill partner; one of millions struggling in today’s economy –

and then I remind myself, I have other roles as well – an incredibly proud and blessed Mom to a marvelous son, Aunt to a nephew and niece expecting their second miracle baby, sister to the best sister ever, best friend, and good friend to my circle of farmgirl sisters.

So today I will run my errands, be sure Mom is doing better, and go up to the craft studio and work on my organizing opportunity (if you saw my before pictures, you know it's more than just an opportunity HA!), craft a bit, and in the solace of my workspace, remind myself of my many, many blessings.

So look for the beauty today my farmgirl friends, look for the beauty and have a marvelous day!
 
'til next time,
Stormy