This is working pretty well so far...

Food Inventory
I am at the end of my third week and I love knowing what our menu is in advance. I have menus designed for the next 6 weeks. I am working around my pantry items, (oldest first) freezer items and the things that are on sale and a great deal. I have been keeping up with my inventory so far, marking things off the list as we use them and adding the newest items as I get them. The idea was to shop less and I have ....but not as much as I thought I would. I just can't pass up a great deal. It is still saving us in the long run. Today I picked up 3 racks of baby back ribs for $2.79 lb. One for our dinner today and two for the freezer. Hey, I couldn't resist that price!

I actually did some sewing last night and I have everything set to sew again today and tomorrow so I have something for Design wall Monday. I have been such a slacker in that area lately. It's time to get busy again.

Let me tell you, this Raspberry cream pie was really good!

Confessions of a food hoarder

My name is Diana and I'm a food hoarder!

I'm not sure how this problem came to be exactly but a problem none the less. I consider myself a good bargain shopper and nothing I like more than getting a "deal" on something. In fact, I never buy anything for full price. NEVER! Especially groceries. Groceries go on sale regularly but it is cyclical. So for that reason, I buy more than just what I need so I have it on hand when I need it again and don't have to pay full price. I have always shopped this way. It has always worked for me but sometimes I get so disorganized I don't know what I have on hand and buy even more.
We are pinching pennies right now with me being laid off ......again. So I decided to start using up our excess and plan my menu for the week around what we already have. Great idea right?
To do that I needed to know what I have...so I did an inventory. OMYGOSH!
Can you say excess?
Oh I have the staples like this
But how much tea does one need? That whole lower shelf is all tea! (kool aid is in the green container)

Some of the excess:

• 26 individual bags of microwave popcorn
• 24 boxes of jello gelatin
  
• 10 boxes of jello pudding
• 13 boxes of rice mixes
• 24 packets of dry soup envelopes (like onion and vegetable mostly used for dips)

And lots more! This is just in the house, we keep our EXTRA food out in the garage.
We have two large red racks with food. This is the first one:

• 4 boxes graham crackers
  
• 3 boxes Bisquick
  
• 12 cake mixes
• 9 cans of frosting
• 4 boxes brownie mix (there would be more but we make these a lot)
  

We have

• 8 jars BBQ sauce
• 6 enchilada sauce
• 8 gravy
• 6 Alfredo sauce
• 20 cans tomatoes
  

• 12 cans fruit
• 15 cans tuna
• 8 mushrooms
• etc, etc
  

• 
• 6 jars peanut butter
  
• 8 jars jelly and preserves
• 64 boxes of pasta (lots of variety)

That doesn't include all the cleaners, shampoos, etc.
WHY do I need 10 bottles of dish soap?
My freezer is the same way. I figure with the exception of fresh produce and some meats we can last for months without spending too much on food. This should get us through the lean months ahead. That is the plan anyway!

In the mean time I have spent a lot of time deciding on my menu for the next month and enjoying it. Mark thinks I'm a bit nuts but that is ok with me.

CORN!

We love corn!
In the summer when corn is plentiful, we eat lots of it. At least a couple times a week. We miss it in the winter months. Well we buy it frozen in bags but I'm trying to cook more and use less packaging. I have tried the freeze method of blanching and freezing the corn on the cob and it turned out fine, but it takes up a lot of freezer space. I have heard a lot about doing it like this so thought I would try it. The recipe called for 32 ears of corn, so I bought 40 being the OCD person I am...............I just can't buy 32 when the sale is 10 for $2.

I know, it's not easy being me!

So I got up bright and early and got to work. How long does it take to shuck and clean 40 ears of corn....about an hour!

That's a lot of corn!
It takes about another hour to cut all that corn off the husks. I used my large roasting pan and I'm glad I did...it was half full when I finished...then I added the butter and half and half.....yes, that IS a pound of butter and a pint of half and half. That is what the recipe called for and I always follow the recipe to the tee the first time I make it and adjust afterward ...if there is a next time, that is. Oh I know I had 6 more ears than they called for, but I knew it would be ok.
An hour later.....golden creamy goodness! That will be a lot of corn in my freezer and it won't take up nearly as much room as on the cob.
Oh, and if you were doing the math, here are the other two ears....LUNCH!

Handwork Wednesday---and a trip to Oscoda

I didn't post on Wed. because I really had nothing to show you. We went on a little trip to see my friend Denise. She lives in Oscoda Michigan. We drive right through East Tawas too and it is gorgeous this time of year. I can't stitch in the car anymore because my eyes are bad and no place to put my STUFF. So I got it ready to go by using my water dissolving blue marking pen (used for marking quilts) and I made a 10x10 graph, which makes counting so much easier. It takes forever to keep finding your spot if you don't have a grid.That took me over an hour to do but it will be worth it and save lots more time in the long run!

Here is a close up of the grid pattern. Solid lines every 20 spaces and dotted lines in between. Makes it easy to find your spot with the chart. When the cross stitch is done I wash it in cold water and the lines disappear like magic!


I didn't want to be rude and stitch while I was at Denise' and we were gone until Monday so I only got a tiny bit done. Here is my pathetic efforts for the week.
About the trip, we dodged a bullet on the way down. There was an area on I75 that splits off one lane surrounded by cement barriers on the left and two lanes on the right and they are working on the center area. There was an accident on the one lane (can't get around it) side and there was a back up for M I L E S!

We saw lots of people sitting in lawn chairs, tops of their cars, talking on cell phones, etc.
These people had a radio out and kind of looked like they were having a good time. I learned my lesson though and will ALWAYS take the two lanes side as to not get trapped. When we got to Tawas, I heard it finally cleared up. We could have been stuck for over two hours and I'm so glad we weren't one of the unlucky ones who were.
The canoe races on the AuSable river were going on and it is a big deal to watch the canoes cross over the finish line. We tried to go but we couldn't get a spot close enough and I can't walk that far so we did something else instead. Denise always tries to show us the local sites while we are there. I feel bad because I can't remember the name of this place but it had to do with logging and the history of Michigan. It was a nice place. They had this cool statue and others too.

There were beautiful views of the AuSable river from different vantage points
They had a stair case with a sign by it warning everyone who dared to go down to the water, how exhausting the climb would be. Me and Denise sat it out but Mark took the challenge. This little tent like place was at the bottom.
Looking up....
Yeah, he's the MAN!

Handwork Wednesday-My first

Vicki just finished her cross stitch cat project she has been working on for YEARS!

It always amazes me how long it takes to complete one of these. When I was younger and before I discovered quilting, I cross stitched a lot! I have quite a few finished pieces that are still un framed. Shame on me! They took thousands of hours to complete, you would think the least I would do is frame them! I will unearth them and show you in another post. Anyway, I decided to start a new cross stitch project of my own. I am planning to do a weekly update like Vicki, to keep me going on the progress. Here is my new project: SEPTEMBER

It is the September month of a leaflet that has a picture for every month for a whole year. I plan to make them all, of course. Starting with this one, I can't tell you why I am starting with this one, I suppose I should have started with January....

I pulled all the DMC colors to complete the project and cut the aida fabric for the project and made my working copies of the pattern. Tomorrow I have to go buy new 3X glasses to be able to work it. I will start on this tomorrow with stitching. Update, next Wednesday.

You know it's hot when you see this....

I walked through the front room just now and saw this: (yes the fan is running, even though it looks like the blades aren't moving)

Yeah, he looks pretty comfortable.....

Why is it when they say "A dog's life" it is supposed to be a bad thing?

A visit with my mom

Mark and I went to visit mom this month. Here we are at her house.
This is a rare picture of me and my mom.

My relationship with my mom could be better and I'm trying to make sure I see her more often. She lives in Cookeville, Tennessee. She moved out there in 1990 when she divorced my dad. She lives in a house that belongs to my Aunt and Uncle. I am so grateful for them and all they do to help mom out. Mark and me went to see her a couple weeks ago. It is a long day in the car. My legs were so stiff and sore I could barely unfold myself and I hated for mom to see me limping along like I do now. I did warn her so she wouldn't be shocked. It was a nice visit for the most part. I tried to do some housework for her but she wouldn't let me do much. Mark and I went to Hobby Lobby one of those days and we also took one day and went out to see my Aunt and uncle.

This is Aunt Betty standing and Aunt Madge sitting: Can you believe Aunt Betty is 79 and Madge is 74? They are beautiful women and take good care of themselves.

This is me and Aunt Madge at her house in the woods. We had a really nice visit and they took us to lunch at the cutest little local cafe. I wish I had taken pictures of that.

All in all it was a nice visit. Mark wants to go back in the fall.