Monday: Cooking, Painting, and Grocery Shopping

New squash and zucchini sitting atop Porter Paint buckets…pretty typical for this week!  We bought LOTS of fresh fruit instead of snacks to enjoy.  It is all SO good and well worth the price.  The cantaloupe was tasty!

This was yesterday, plus a trip to the Paint Store, Kroger, and Dollar Store for wasp spray.  And, I got the grates on the three french doors painting (a pain to paint those suckers might I say?)

Lots of food…chicken for my guests Wednesday, two groups.  Pork Loin for BBQ for us all week.  Veggies for a salad on Saturday for a going away party for Larry Pop. 

I also made country ham and bisquits yesterday.  I was hoping if I cooked a lot yesterday afternoon, I could paint harder and get the house back in shape the rest of the week.

There is still much painting is being done.  I’m not going to get it all done, but I hope to get a few piles relocated anyway.

I got the garage floor cleaned up yesterday….my kitchen counters obviously still need some work today! 

So far today:  a second coat on a few areas of the green room that needed another coat, the front caramel colored room sanded and repainted in a few places, and some more work in the garage done.  

I am looking forward to getting cleaned up for the day and getting the multiple layers of paint off my feet.  I am also looking forward to the pork loin sandwich for lunch!  Only my second pork loin, just some salt & pepper generously on the surface and the crock pot for about six hours…two on high, and the rest on low.  Mmmmm.  A keeper.

For the kids last night, I made chicken tenders in a skillet of medium heat olive oil with just salt for flavoring last night.  I honestly think it is one of their favorite meals!  They ate and ate and ate!  Sometimes, the simpler, the better!  I’ll be keeping those as staples more in the future!  SO easy.

 

I wasn’t sure if I’d like the color of a cardboard box for my living room.  But, now that it’s on the wall, it looks more like caramel.  It’s called Applesauce Cake.  We are really liking it.

The Night Before Thanksgiving

I’m just now getting into the “looking up recipes for fun” stage of life.  Up until now, just give me some cheerios, and let me bring something the kids will eat!  That meant nothing mixed together, essentially.

Tomorrow, I’m doing the turkey and dressing, cranberry-strawberry mold, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, mac & cheese, banana pudding, and fruit salad.  I like to fix “normal” desserts the kids like.  They generally don’t like anything they can’t see, anything with nuts, or anything covered in whipped cream.  It’s a pretty poor motivation for them to eat if the only dessert is Italian Creme Cake or something.  Quite frankly, I prefer the norms myself.  I’m not much on the nut overload during the holidays.  I’ll enjoy some good nuts…I have no nut discrimination issue, I just don’t like them to surprise me IN things most of the time.  I know, I’m so immature.

I think some tastes hit you more as you get older.  It’s like, “Wow, I’ve had this every year the same way…let’s add something ‘special’/'different’ this year.  I know, “Nuts!” 

I’ve just not arrived yet to the “nut” phase of life.  My mom was a nut eater.  Man!  She’d put nuts in everything, even the blessed brownies.  There’s just something wrong with that.  Soft goo-ey goodness, and then, whack, boing!  That’s the sound of the wire on my braces breaking off.  “Agh!!!!!  NUTS!  Not again!  Mom!”  That would have been the sound of me.

Otherwise, MIL is making her garden corn, as only she can make it, and the cole slaw, as only she can make it, and the rolls, drinks, a couple dessert, and no telling what else.  I’m supposed to be cooking so that she can get ready for knee replacement surgery, but Monday she cleaned out her refrigerators.  She was making plans to cook every day still while I was, yea, designing the fonts.  See, I love to cook for the holidays, but I don’t like to wear myself out with it.  It’s all about pacing and using what I can find on hand.  I went to the store once, and if I forgot it, we don’t eat it.  I’m not going back until this madness is passed.

My BIL and “Crash” are bringing all sort of goodness from their feast, including ham, for which I am gratful.  My mom saw fit to send us turkey leftovers from her weekend.  We ate it up and it was delicious, but I’d been holding out for the big day, so it really threw me out of orbit.

Well, we’ve got the turkey brining, and it’s time to do some reading and hit they hay.  After all, it’s 1:10AM.  I think we are enjoying the R&R so much watching home network and reading the paper that we’re having a hard time getting to bed.  Normal is a good thing…as normal as normal comes around here.   I’ll leave you with the mold I’m trying:

CRANBERRY STRAWBERRY JELLO MOLD http://www.anniesrecipes.com/jello/cranberry_strawberry_jello_mold_recipe.htm

1 lg. strawberry Jello
2 c. boiling water
1 can jellied cranberries, mashed
1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen strawberries, thawed  (I should have drained these I guess, mine didn’t set that well)

1 (#2) can crushed pineapple, drained (I DID drain this)
1/4 – 1/2 c. chopped nuts (WHAT?  No nuts!)

Dissolve Jello with water. Add remaining ingredients. Pour into mold and let set. Can be used as part of a main meal or as a dessert. Top with Cool Whip if desired.  (I put it into a bundt cake pan.  I hope I can get it out!)