We finally made it to the apple orchard to u-pick some apples.  My sister and I and niece, Caitlyn, took Michaela and Jake out to a nearby farm.  The trees were loaded with apples, so everyone picked to their heart’s content.  Michaela especially likes Red Delicious, so she stuck to that row to pick her apples.  They got some apples for a youth group event and themselves, and I got a bucket for us.  They were very reasonable–$12 for the large bucket-full, around 50c/lb.

Ja’Ana and Alissa each made an apple galette from some of the apples.  I’m having several recipes tested by them, or myself, in anticipation of Thanksgiving.  I’m trying to figure out a good gluten-free pie crust recipe, and the second one was much flakier and tastier than the first one, so I think we are close to perfection:)

There is a business in town that puts scraps out in tote bins for people to take for free.  When we checked this morning, the bins were full.  We grabbed as many as we could stack up in the very back of the van, choosing the larger ones because they are easier to handle than the itty bitty pieces and Rob can cut them down if they are too long for our stove.  A couple of other people were also collecting—one man for fire wood like we were, and a lady for pieces for her son to make bird houses out of.   This is the second time we have collected wood from there, and it works very well when first building a fire in the morning.  Also, some of the pieces are large enough to burn for a while, extending our firewood supply.  All 3 groups of wood-gathers were really friendly and cheerful to each other, which was so nice.

Even with the extremely windy and rainy conditions this morning, we found one garage sale.  I got these little pumpkin decorations for $1.

We found this skirt for Patsy for $2.  We also got games for $1 each and a few other items for just a few dollars.  I think the people were wanting to sell things quickly–as the man stated, “We didn’t WANT to have a garage sale today, but we are moving next weekend.”  Yikes!  No pressure there:)  Glad it wasn’t me.

On Friday, my sister, Rosalie, Ja’Ana and I went to see our friend, Harnet.  She made some of her wonderful coffee for us, as well as yummy Eritrean food.  I took lots of pictures this time, so will be posting the coffee-making process soon. She is such a good hostess, and always makes us feel so welcome.  When you enter her house, there is a smell from the beri-beri spice she uses.  After I went home, the scent lingered on me, and I felt warm and comforted every time I smelled it.  It is hard to explain how much she makes me fell welcomed, and loved, and it’s interesting how I’m beginning to associate that smell with comfort and warmth.    She had gone to great trouble to make me gluten-free injera bread–she used sorghum and teff flour, which was served with the lentils she always makes, along with a chicken/beri-beri/egg dish and a beef chunk dish.  She had cooked extra because she knew it was Rosalie’s birthday and wanted to surprise her with a little party.  I was asked to bring cake and balloons, and to keep it a surprise, which I did.   We had a fun, relaxing day, with lots of good conversation.  She and I had a good chuckle about the other night when she called me up for homework help, and it took me a little while to understand what she wanted from me.  (I was getting mixed up thinking the sample problems she was reading to me were true, and not examples, but I finally got it–and I was so proud of myself–it was pretty funny!)  Rosalie and I made a few phone calls for her, gathering information she needed, and we studied citizenship questions because she is working hard towards that goal.  Oh boy!!! Some of those questions are hard, and there were a couple that I was super happy to see had answers on the back, because I didn’t know the answers!  Thankfully, I knew most of them, and tried to explain the historical facts as we studied.  We plugged along, and I can see she has been studying.  There is another lady who helps with that project, but she is eager to get in all the practice she could, so Rosalie and I quizzed her for quite a while.

Of course, we had a blast with the little princess:)

Lovana and Patsy made a lot of caramel corn for our family to eat, and for the 4H bake sale.  We were not able to help at the sale this year, as we usually do, so we just dropped our contributions off.  It tastes so good.  We make it almost every year, and it sells well.  It has become a fall tradition for our family, as well.

So….we went through a LOT of butter between the caramel corn and the 2 batches of Double Chocolate Loaf Cake and pie crust we made this week.  Luckily, the local store had it on sale for 2/$5.  Rob and I each bought 2, the limit, so we are back into business with butter…at least for now.  I still want to find it for $2/lb, but $2.50 wasn’t too bad.  They also had Bandon cheese (owned by and just like Tillamook Cheese) for $4.99/2 lb. loaf.  So, we got those, too.

I spent my grocery money for the week and a little more.  I’m a bit baffled at the eating habits of the kids right now.  Everyone is hungrier than normal.  Everyone is eating things they don’t usually want to eat.  They are NOT eating the things they normally want to eat.  Hmmmm.  So, I’ve had to buy extra of certain things, and other things I bought are just sitting there…..one of life’s mysteries:)  I would say chili (like the whole batch was gone in a flash this time–it was even going down the hatch at breakfast time), tacos (that one is normal), tortillas, tons of milk, caramel corn, tuna fish, sandwiches, butter and cheese are right at the top of the list of desired items right now, so…how nice dairy products were on sale.

I was able to arrange several pictures we found when cleaning the shop last weekend.  I want to put new photos in the lowest frame, but that will be done in time.  Rob and I have some other ideas to make the living room more functional, and are working on implementing them soon.  It was nice to be able to use some things I already had to make the living room look better.  I was also happy to pass on the 80’s pictures of the little goose girl, and several others that were not longer my taste.  So, they went off to Goodwill, along with a bunch of other items.  It’s nice to have what I want out of those boxes and have the rest go away!

Rob worked on the bath-tub drain today.  It gets clogged with the girls’ hair.  It is better now.  He also replaced the caulking behind the kitchen sink.  Whatever the previous owner used was not the right caulking.  It has become increasingly moldy, both under, and beside it and recently started to crack.  It looks SO good tonight–all dry, nice and white, and NOT moldy!  He has also been hanging pictures up for me whenever I find one I want to hang.  All of these home repairs save us money, as well as make things nicer for us here in our home.

All in all, it was a pretty satisfying week.  How did your week go?

It was my sister’s birthday, so I made gluten-free double chocolate loaf cake with chocolate candy.  (Can you tell she likes chocolate?)  We all enjoyed it with taco bar at Family Sunday Dinner.

She had plenty of help blowing out the candles.

It was a beautiful day on the river, and I saw a group of kayakers paddle by while I was getting the finishing touches on the meal at my sister’s house.

We took Patsy and Jake to a pond to see ducks.  They had a great time.  Some kind soul had put peanuts on the railing and they cracked some of them out for the ducks and left the rest for squirrels.

I took Michaela and Patsy to the YMCA pool to swim, using our membership.

We spent several hours cleaning in the shop on Saturday.  I took a few minutes to enjoy looking at all the canning we have done.  We are doing very well using several jars of canned items each week.  I am also using several freezer items each week.  The freezers are crammed full with all the produce from summer and other items.  As much as I enjoy looking at it and knowing I have so much food at my fingertips, I really enjoy using it!  After all, I can make more next summer, and it helps me get good food on the table fast and inexpensively all winter.

I found several pictures while cleaning the shop and Rob hung up the ones I wanted in the house.  We put the rest of them in a pile to donate, along with a few other boxes of items we do not need any more.

I was able to get all the things I wanted and needed from Costco and stay within the budget I had set.  I am still searching for butter at a low price, but $3/lb is the best I’ve found at the regular store, and they were 4 boxes for around $11 at Costco, which is $2.75/lb.  So, I can live with that for now.

Rob fixed the broken part on our wood stove and we heated with wood for one day this week.  Then the weather warmed up.  It’s all ready to go for the next cold day, though.  Fall has arrived and we have had a few rainy days, then sunny ones, but always cooler, and the nights are getting very cold. We even had a light frost one morning. There are still a few items in the garden, but their days are numbered, for sure.

We went to a rummage sale, but only found a very few small items we wanted.  We will try again another less-rainy day.  I have a few things I’m looking out for.

One of the highlights of this week was visiting the library, where a model train club had set up a large track and a couple of small ones for the viewing pleasure of anyone who came, all for free.  Michaela loves trains.  When she was little, she often would watch a video called “Trains Across America” that Rob got at a garage sale and has been very focused on trains for all of her life.  She had a blast! The retired gentlemen were very patient and eager to answer all of her many, many questions.  Some let her even carefully touch certain trains, and more than one of them was trying to work out a way that she could have her own set-up.  I simply said it was up to her parents:)

They set up a couple of smaller sets, too.  There were a few interactive train sets.  Jake and Michaela loved them!

The kids’ big sister, Caitlyn, met Ja’Ana and I at the library and we all enjoyed the exhibit.    Jake and Michaela had to be pried away after almost 2 hours.  Caitlyn had already ran out and added money to her meter, and mine was running out, so we finally went back to my house.  I am not sure how long the kids could have stayed, maybe forever, but Caitlyn was going to take Michaela to her horse riding and so Jake hung at our house while they did that.

Another day, I took them to the library after school.  I keep their library books in my car, or at my house and they enjoy them when they are riding around or visiting me.  That way, they don’t get mixed up with books at their house.  Rob took Patsy to the library on a different night.

I picked and froze more raspberries this week.  I cut off most of my basil and turned it into a simple pesto.  Mine has basil, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and a small amount of Parmesan cheese.  I froze it in ice cube trays, popped the cubes out, and froze the cubes in a bag.  If the bushes grow more, I’ll make more, but this amount makes me very happy.  I use it in salad dressing and on pasta.  I also occasionally spread it on bread for sandwiches.  It’s nice on chicken, too, and is very economical since I don’t use any nuts in it, and only a small amount of cheese.

This week, we emptied quite a few jars of home-canned goodness.  It’s nice to start using what I worked so hard on.  I have been bringing a few jars of fruit at a time into the kitchen and chilling them in the fridge to make the fruit more tempting.  I also had some cottage cheese and it goes nicely with peaches or pears, so some got used that way, too.

I have not gone grocery shopping in October, yet.  One reason is that I stocked up so well in September that I haven’t needed anything, yet.  The other reason is that I caught a cold, and was not in the mood to shop.  Since I’ve budgeted $50/week, plus a small Costco run, I will now have $100 to spend this week.  What I generally do in a case like this (well stocked up, don’t really need much) is just keep the money in an envelope and wait until I see a basic ingredient that is on sale for a very good price (like butter for $2 or cheese for $5 for 2 lbs) and then stock up on a bunch of it.  That way I am always using ingredients I bought for the lowest possible price and my food is getting used and rotated.  I will also need a few things, like milk, in a few days.  Since I’m not the only one who doesn’t feel tip-top, no one is eating much, so things are holding out longer than usual and there’s always applesauce…..

Someone accidentally spilled something in the fridge, and I discovered it.  What I thought was going to be a quick wipe-up turned out to be a big fridge cleaning.  The silver lining is that I was able to get it organized and cleaned.  Now I know what’s in there and will use the odds and ends up, got rid of quite a few questionable items, and have no more odd odor and dried-on ??? on the bottom.   I was ruthless and did not even entertain the idea of keeping a few things that had been in there for a long time.  I finally made the lasagna I wanted to make, so that will be in there once it cools enough.  There is some rice and orange chicken from the other day, even though we ate it again last night.  So, one of my next jobs will be deciding on a couple more things to cook for the week ahead, since that will only take care of tonight and tomorrow.  Once I do cook them, there will be plenty of space in the fridge to put them!  That’s always a good feeling for me:)

Is there anything lurking in your fridge that needs to go?  Or any meals you want to put in there for the week ahead?

I picked a bouquet from the garden and yard.  Even though things are starting to wind down around here, with the advent of fall, there are still nice flowers to be had.  They seem to be perking up a bit since it started raining.

I did a bit of late-night canning.  Thankfully, the covered porch has a really good light!  I am hoping to finish up what I want to can soon, so we can thoroughly clean this area up.  It’s on the “targeted” list!

I had wanted to try plum sauce this year, and I love how pretty it looks in the jar.  It used the last of the Italian prunes, and has hot peppers in it, but they didn’t give much of a “kick” to it, so I added some red pepper flakes.  It still isn’t very spicy, but is good.  It’s more like a barbeque sauce than a jam, and Rob plans to use it for that.  If we like it, we will make more next year.

I bought 2 chickens for 88c/lb.  I roasted them both, then Rob made a huge kettle of broth from the bones.  In the end, for around $10, we got several quart-sized bags of frozen chicken meat, 7 quarts of broth and 6 pints.  I canned the broth.  I do freeze broth as well, but sometimes, I like the convenience of canned broth and the fact that it is shelf-stable, so I always have some on hand.  I also have pretty full freezers at this point, with all the fruit, meat, and reduced-priced bread I have them stuffed with.

I took the 1-2 cups of raspberries and strawberries (mixed) that I picked on Friday and thickened them up into a sauce, using sugar, white grape juice and cornstarch.  Then, I made a recipe for some cake-like bars I used to make, converting them to gluten-free.  They were perfect for my contribution to family Sunday dinner.

I poured the thickened berry sauce on top of the cake-like batter and baked.  After it was done, I made some cinnamon-spiced buttercream frosting and thinned it out with milk until it was the right consistency to drizzle onto the cooled bars.  They turned out great!

Rob stopped by a cannery that is in our area.  He found slightly dented cans of various items, with no labels, for $2.50 per case.  For smaller cans, there were 24 in a case, and the large cans (pumpkin), were 12 to a case.  So, the cans were around 10c or 20c a can, according to size.  He got a few cases, some for us, and some to share.  I was especially happy to get the pumpkin since I grew neither pumpkin or squash successfully this year, and he bought himself pickled beets.  Even though I made a few jars, he can eat them every day, if they are available, and has downed 2 cans already.  I made a pumpkin pie, pumpkin custard, and pumpkin cookies–all from the one can I opened.  It held about 3 cups of pumpkin.

I picked purple beans, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, snow peas, raspberries, a few strawberries, and zucchini this week from the garden.

I cooked too much food:)  I had to freeze some of it.  This week, I will be working on using some of those frozen meals, and other items I have stuffed in every corner of the freezers, such as the 59c/loaf bread I got a while back.

I enjoyed this gorgeous cloudscape one evening as I was heading home from work.  The late-day rays of light were glorifying the edges of the clouds.  That’s about all the sun we saw all week!  Thankfully, we got a good week of solid, soaking rain, just what we needed to soak everything well, including the forest, where so many fires are raging.  They aren’t all out, yet, but the firefighters are making progress now.  I can’t even imagine how much money rain saves!  Even more than money, I am hopeful that lives and the forests will be saved.

Our week was filled with normal, everyday activities like school, work and church.  There was just a lot to do, as we were trying to do some extra cleaning on some evenings. We ate a lot of chicken, since I cooked a little too much last weekend.  It was nice to have meals to just warm up.  I did add in a meatloaf and one night, we just had sandwiches, as we were super busy that evening.  On another, it was chili dogs with canned chili and warmed up turkey dogs.  It is always cheaper to make my own chili, but it is always cheaper to open a can then to go out to dinner.  So, once in a while,  I do that.

The big girls enjoyed a good tickle-fest with their little friend, Danait, who was “fixing” them up with her doctor kit when we went to visit this week.  We accomplished some important errands, and had a good visit. Of course this always includes the wonderful coffee Harnet makes.  She roasts the beans on the spot, grinds them, and makes the coffee.  I am not a coffee drinker, but what she makes is so good, I always enjoy having some.  It sure perks me up, no matter how tired I am:)  We were also treated with more genuine Eritrean food–red lentils cooked with peppers and tomatoes, beef stew with vegetables and spicy peppers, yellow rice, and injera bread for the girls.  Ja’Ana really likes that injera bread.

This dresser/desk had only 2 knobs.  Harnet could not get the drawers open without a great deal of trouble.   It was so hard to open them that she was not able to use the drawers except for seldem-used items.  She thought she would have to go to Goodwill and get a new one, not knowing it was possible to simply replace the knobs.  Rob got new knobs for very little, and provided me with the proper screwdrivers and instructions on how to fasten them on.  I, with a little help from Danait, removed the 2 remaining knobs, and put the new knobs on.  Harnet is so, so happy with how it looks, and so am I.  She was absolutely delighted to not have to purchase another one, and kept saying it was just like having a new one.  I agree.  The knobs make it much prettier than it was before.

The garden perked up from the rain.  The zucchini and peppers look much better, although still not great.  I used 1 of my 5 gallon bags of carrots this week.  I targeted the smallest ones, peeled them and cut them into carrot sticks.  Some were pretty tiny so I didn’t have to cut them much.  I sauted them in a little butter, salt, pepper and a tiny bit of brown sugar.  I made carrot sticks with the rest.

I picked more lettuce, snow peas, cucumbers, zucchini, cherry and pear tomatoes, broccoli and purple beans.  I got 3 quarts of raspberries to freeze.  The garden is winding down, but I picked enough to both eat, and share this week.

Ja’Ana had a friend over to spend the night Friday night.  Patsy had an all-night party at church and Lovana was gone as well, with friends.  So, the 2 girls wanted to go roller skating,  There is a place that J’s friend knew about that is a basketball court most days, but they have skating on Friday nights for only $5.  They had a blast.

I am nearing the end of my project of re-stocking my pantry.  I recently read a post by another blogger about various ways people did pantry challenges.  Apparently, some people let their pantries go down to almost empty before they re-stock them.  I do it differently.  If I used absolutely everything up, I cannot imagine how much it would cost to replace it all, and I would no longer have a stockpile. I use up the oldest items that have been hanging around for a while, ends of packages that were opened at some point, things that are close to expiring, vegetables from the garden, freezer, etc.  I force myself to be creative with those targeted items and use them instead of new groceries, but I always re-stock things I run out of as soon as I can.  I like to buy things at the lowest prices possible, so have been doing a lot of buying on sale the last 3 weeks, going from store to store to get the best prices, and visiting specialty stores for items that can be bought no where else (such as some gluten-free items and the sunthenine-melatonin tablets Patsy takes before bed to help her sleep).  I also sent Rob to Costco, which I do every couple of months and he got the things I get there, such as Ziplock bags, t.p., and some other things.   I was able to get up to Bob’s Red Mill on Saturday, and got some things there.  Their bulk bins are reasonable for the 1-1 gluten-free flour (almost $1/lb cheaper than in a package around here), but it is quite far from my house, so I only go if I am going to be in the area for another reason.  There are still a few items left to get, such as more coffee and butter, but I’m waiting until I find some for a good price.  Then, I’ll be good to go for a while again without spending so much time and money at the store.

It has become almost comical how almost daily someone is letting me know we are out of another item.  Toilet paper, razors, deodorant, 1-1 gluten free flour, pasta, sugar, mayo, dish soap, laundry soap, and lots more are now back in stock, at least for now.  I wonder what they will tell me I need tomorrow:) Months like this make me glad I have a nice stockpile.  Without it, I would be buying all of these things PLUS our daily groceries.

I enjoyed it so much when this happy little girl’s mama dressed her up for me in her full African regalia.  She was so proud to show me, and I loved it, too!  A while back her mama had asked me to mend a small tear in the scarf, which I gladly took home to work on, and she wanted me to see how the whole outfit looked, when I returned the mended scarf this week.