In The Refiner's Fire

Our garden produce from the 13th of October.  The weather is so weird here - last week I was harvesting garden produce, today we received about 4 inches of heavy wet snow! October snow of this magnitude is not common in Minnesota, though a "dusting" is not unheard of.  It should melt and be warm enough to stay snow-less for the next week or two.  I am sincerely hoping to have no significant snow until after Thanksgiving again!   We are working on eating the things in our freezers that need to be cooked in the oven or on the stove top as we are heading toward a time when we will not have a working stove top or oven for up to six weeks.  I have several things that can easily go in the slow cooker and we have an electric skillet.  We will need to be creative!  In the meantime, I am enjoying the food we are making! Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, October 18:           Brunch: Eggs, Toast and Smoothies   ...

My entire 2020 Carrot harvest. Ha!  We have had lovely, lovely weather this week!  It has been right about 70F (~21C) and sunny.  The fall colors on the tree leaves are amazing and I have been trying to spend as much time as I can outside.  We started the fall yard work for the year - raking leaves, cleaning up flower and vegetable beds and turning and adding compost and fresh dirt.  We have two beds completely done and the first round of leaves raked.  John and I and Buddy and I have taken several walks this week and John and Missy have been running regularly.  I have also enjoyed many a cup of coffee on my patio while doing email or reading.  It has been lovely.  I am hoping it lasts a few more weeks!  This week I harvested the winter squash and my three lonely, tiny carrots you see above.  I planted an entire package of carrot seeds this year, thinking I would get enough to can.  Most never came up.  I was going to repl...

  Man, this week was a rough week.  A lot of the overtime at work has caught up with me and I had the worst PHN flare I've had in almost two years.  I knew things were getting stressful but I did not realize how much.  I don't know about you, but I feel like 2020 has been a year of three steps forward, two steps backward, and then something veers right or left or up or something.  I am sure some extra sleep will help, as will taking an evening off but the truth of the matter is that my workload currently is unsustainable.  I have several co-workers who are "retiring" or choosing not to renew at the end of their contract or the school year or the term.  Next term could be a real mess if enough people do not continue.  While tempting, I still have more days when I enjoy my work than not.  Until that changes, I will push forward.  With my PHN flare and all the work this week, it seems like we did not do much that was frugal.  We did do...

Angel Food cake batter - Missy loves making these! This was a busy week - things going on with the remodel, having my cousin, Diane, here overnight at the beginning of the week and then few days into this weekend due to a medical procedure (she lives quite far away from the hospital here), the first full week of programming at church (mostly virtual or take-home) and first exams for both of my classes at work. Whew!  I'm grateful that it is the weekend. We did not do too many things this week outside of the ordinary due to the number of things we had on our plate this week.  Here are some things we did this week that we counted as frugal: * We made all our meals at home this week or packed lunches to take with.  I even sent some snacks to the hospital with Diane.  Meals included two types of soup,  stir fry, soft-shell beef tacos, and baked chicken.   * I repaired a fallen hem on a skirt. * We harvested tomatoes, eggplants, lettuce and green beans fr...

  We made spaghetti and meatballs at the cabin we rented this summer.  I often "cheat" and buy our favorite store bought meatballs when they are on sale - so much less work and cheaper than buying the ingredients for homemade meatballs.  We do prefer the taste of homemade meatballs, but these are good most of the time. We still have garden produce coming in right now - tomatoes, lettuce, green beans, eggplant (aubergine) and winter squash (acorn squash this year).  I am hoping to can salsa this week some time - I received a cookbook on small batch canning for my birthday this summer; it is perfect for our little garden!  John loves their salsa recipe so I will can some for him to eat later this year. Here is what we will be eating this week: Sunday, September 20:         Brunch: Egg Bake with Potatoes and Spinach; Blueberry-Banana Smoothies         Snack: Popcorn         Dinner: Roasted Chicken, Salad M...

  Everything is back to a new "normal" this week. I am always grateful for getting into a routine.  I find routines very comforting and calming.  Our routine is certainly different right now - work and school look so different than before and with our remodeling project continuing, each day looks a little different.  It is all good and we are so looking forward to the result!  Here are some of the frugal things we have done this week: * We cooked all but one lunch at home.  For breakfasts we ate homemade lemon poppy seed muffins, eggs and toast, overnight oatmeal, cold cereal with milk, and fruit and yogurt smoothies.  Lunch was leftovers, pulled pork sandwiches, or noodles with pan seared veggies and cheese.  For dinners we made pork stir fry with rice, sloppy joes on buns with cut veggies, breakfast for dinner (pancakes, bacon and eggs), pork loin with couscous and a spinach salad, spaghetti and meatballs, and homemade pizza.   * John ...

Whew!  We're all back in school now and things are starting to fall into a routine.  The first week or two of school is always chaotic and this year is particularly chaotic with all of the additional things needed for (hopefully) preventing the spread of Covid-19.   I think we are back into a routine for the time being!  We started on our big remodeling project - I am SO excited about this!  The rain has slowed things down a bit but we should be back on track soon. Here are some things we have done since the beginning of September that we consider frugal: * We have made all but one meal at home, including two types of soup, pizza, overnight oatmeal, fried eggs and toast, bagels with cream cheese, egg bake with spinach and sweet potatoes, BLT's, fried fish, roasted veggie couscous, chicken lasagna, pasta with meatballs and marinara sauce, hamburger gravy over rice with a tossed green salad, chicken with potatoes and carrots, and for Labor Day we grilled with...