Eggs from Turkey

Feb. 24

steps 18,000

 I have been awake since 10 am and have not napped at all today. So, a much better situation. I still need to get with Amazon for continuing problems. 

We went to grocery and I now have sardines. There were no POSSUM sardines. But, I did have to get sardines in soy oil, something I did not want to do. I will try to get all the olive oil off that I can. This calls for paper towels, something I rarely use. And, I now have bananas. Nature's Own was bogo, dozen large Grade A Publix eggs--$5.99, 2 roach baits, Bertolli bogo. I forgot to buy onions. At Piggly Wiggly--cabbage, Land O Lakes Butter-2 pounds, Ronco Spaghetti. Between the two stores, we spent $74.

It breaks my heart what is happening to Ukraine! 

I checked with my bank to determine if McAfee was trying to get into my account. PayPal is sending me warnings. But, they have not gotten into my account or attempted to take funds. I have not used PayPal in 20 years. I refuse to open the emails from them.

When, if eggs from Turkey are imported and sold here, I will buy none. I will pay the price at the store. 

Today, when I dressed to go out, I put on a light jacket. It was scorching outdoors and suffocating in the car. I think it was 66F today. Tomorrow, I think the forecast is 70F for Tuesday. I love this weather. 

I was hoping someone had bought one of the scooters in the yesterday post. Or, maybe had experience with one. 

Even though I only slept until 10 am this morning, I got very little sleep last night. I warned Tommy that I would start using the phone when I awoke. He did not complain. 

Okay, 'napped' from 7-12 pm. Still groggy and feel I had no rest. 

Tomorrow, I will get up and start phone calls. 

It was a beautiful day! Birds are all aflutter. My pots of tulips are so green. Hopefully, the blossoms will appear. The dandelions are ahead of all the other 'flowers.' 

It is 1 am and I have not eaten since noon, so I suppose I should eat something, I have no idea what Tommy ate.

Will you buy eggs from Turkey?

Is the weather where you live warmer?

Orders

 We still have some leftovers and are enjoying them immensely. I never made a pie, but we will soon. I have pumpkin and pecan pie in mind. I will call neighbor and see if he eats either and deliver some of both if he eats those pies. 

Today, I received several orders from Amazon. My boombox in the bedroom will no longer play my cd. Everything else works! The one in living room no longer has the cord or remote. Remote does not matter. At any rate, I now have another to listen to radio station with Christmas music. 

Plus, I ordered silicone lids for Oui. Tommy loves these little storage glasses. He puts everything in them. I rarely buy Oui, but we still have quite a few.  A friend gave me a blender for smoothies. Somehow, I lost the electric motor blender part. So, I bought another. The whole thing is gone! So, I ordered a Magic Bullet Blender and this one will stay here and together. Tommy and one cleaner have been tasked with keeping an eye out and doing a one-time search. I might misplace something temporarily, but never lost anything, seemingly for good. 

All these things were bought on Black Friday deals. It was money I had to spend. There were frivolous things I deigned not to buy. My much-needed wool blanket and a grounding mat are yet to arrive. The ellipse is so heavy, but we must tackle unpacking and setting it up. 

I am not sure what happened to the turkey breast I cooked several weeks ago and froze. It was watery. It was as if I had soaked it in water and then froze and thawed. The piece we ate after it was cooked was really a nice texture. After freezing and thawing as I do other poultry, this just was wet, not juicy, just wet. Have you ever frozen baked turkey and had it end up wet? Water pours out with each cut of knife and bite.

The night before Thanksgiving sleeping was difficult. The night after Thanksgiving sleep was almost impossible. Hopefully, it will be easier tonight. 

The salesman who came for bathroom remodel left us with a price--over $31,000. Gulp! We have two other companies to contact for an appointment. I love the bathroom I got to design. 

I am ready to put my reindeer in the yard. Halloween and Thanksgiving are still evident! I need help. I also need a new cleaner.

Return of Humidity

 Sunday, Tommy finally woke at 5:30 pm. Later, I questioned him. He said he woke three times, went to bathroom and was asleep again after fifteen minutes. He said his temp was up and he felt awful, stuffy, feverish. But, later he felt better after he woke. I would be the last person to criticize a person's sleeping habit. But, I was curious.  Every time he sleep most of a day, he has elevated temp and congestion. 

Friday and Saturday, My sinuses were stuffy, so I had Hall's Mentho-lyptus. One day, I was so congested, I was choking. Cheeks/sinuses hurt now. October was a wonderfully dry month. Alabama is very humid. Surprisingly, this is the first October I have not been ill and required antibiotics. 

I failed a course at UAB and had to drop a course because I was so sick that first October. It was a horrendous experience. This October sort of made up for that first September. 

Now that humidity has returned, I am feeling miserable again. We did absolutely nothing today. I asked Tommy if he had been outdoors. He said he opened the door once and looked out and closed it. More than I did. 

Tonight, I will be freezing most of the turkey breast. DONE. Maybe he will look for the frozen bag of cranberries. He said he did not even look. Oh well.

Do you find damp weather causes you congestion? 

Kudos to Tommy

 I forgot what I wanted so much to cause me to have Tommy wake me at 8 am, But, I was out of the door before 8:30. I went in Publix to return the original Cheerios and the Public peanuts I thought were the bogo Planters Peanuts. I bought the Honey Nut Cheerios. The Planters peanuts were no longer bogo, so I let that go. 

We tried to buy the screwdriver at the hardware store. I am going to take Skelli to ACE and get them to help me. The screwdriver size looked too large. I just need to get the batteries out. 

After we came home, I realized I had not bought one thing we needed. Maybe we were still out and about. Soooo, I had to go back for one item. 

I was in bed by 11:15 and probably asleep two minutes later. Then, I awoke at 3:15 and back in bed two minutes later. I slept until 5:30. Tommy had watched the Auburn game. They lost. He had gathered all the Halloween decorations from the yard, mostly hanging ghosts. He also washed a load of laundry  for me. He knew what I wanted, so turned the ghost decorations wrong-side out to dry the moisture. So, I need about 30 seconds to get those in storage.

Tonight, Tommy cooked a pizza. He had a ten-inch naan bread, found old spaghetti sauce, pizza cheese and a bit of leftover ground beef. It looked great. He said it was delicious. Later, I suggested he throw bits of vegetables on the next one. I suppose I need to chop onions and bell peppers, at least. 

I had baked chicken breast, lots of tomato, and lima beans. 

Tommy started eating lima beans. I am quite sure those were not cooked. He insisted they were. Tonight, I had some. They were raw and just heated. Gross!

Earlier, between the two of us, we got a 9 pound turkey breast in the oven. It was massive. I prefer a smaller turkey breast. The breast had lots of sage, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and a tiny bit of salt rubbed into the skin. 

I took it off the bone and it is refrigerator to be frozen in bags in the morning. I wanted a boneless turkey but obviously got one with bone in. Tommy put it in the refrigerator on Monday, and it was still partially frozen on Saturday. I baked it with the giblets inside. The little bag was still intact when it was baked. 

In Publix I found Ocean Spray 12 ounce package of cranberries for (sit down first) $4.99. I will not be buying at that price. Thankfully, I have a package in the freezer that I only paid less than $2 somewhere, not sure. 

Sunday, we need to find a neighbor to witness our ballots. We will not put them in an outside box. So, Monday, we will mail them inside the PO. We made the deadline. 

So, the day was quiet which pleases me. I now have turkey frozen for Thanksgiving along with sweet potatoes and 

 

Rubber Chicken Was Here

Written Christmas Eve

 I got no cooking done until Christmas Eve on top of things I wanted to do or have Tommy do. The menu was going to be Turkey, dressing, giblet gravy, green bean casserole and some sort of potatoes. I ended up adding zucchini in olive oil and garlic in the oven and sweet potato pie. We have both been working on this. 

Turkey is done, and off bone in refrigerator and freezer. Eggs boiled to chop in gravy. Sweet potatoes are baked and out of skin, and spices are out to make it all into a pie. Stovetop Stuffing is sifted through colander to get the salt out. We may eat late on Christmas. The pie and green bean casserole and zucchini will all be cooked on Christmas Day. 

The count of Ziploc needed to be done. I will buy them reduced the day after Christmas, so I don't want to duplicate thing bought in 2022 and not used. While I was getting the bag from back bedroom, I bent over and saw an Easter tote bag under the sewing machine cabinet. Cleaner who was so good and moved away put it there. The Easter tote held 14 cans of tuna with date of 2025. Thankfully, it was not old date. Good news all around there. There were 6 gallon-storage and 5 quart-freezer. Now I know what to buy. 

Today, I bought two more large jars of peanut butter bogo and two almost quarts of Miracle Whip since the ad was not going to be good when Publix opens the day after Christmas. Well, had bogo rain check on MW, so not urgent like the pb. Tommy complained loudly when I bought two large jars of pb. Today, he said nothing. 

Since I have never seen You've Got Mail, I am watching that right now. Fun! Tonight, we watched Home Alone, again, maybe fifth time this season. 

I have heard nothing from crazy cleaner. I did see the woman who referred her. She is still apologizing to me. Tommy locked his car for the first time ever. He checked my deer to see if they were okay on morning after threats. 

Sunday, I sprayed my bluebird again. I still cannot find the cardinal! There were a few Christmas decorating items I kept muttering about wondering where they could be. Sunday, Tommy told me there was one more long box like the wrapping box in the bedroom. WHAT? I suspect all the items I have been missing are in there. However, it is late Christmas Eve right now, so they won't come out. Maybe I will just go look to see what is in there. I never found the stockings, either. Oh well! Too late. 

Tommy is doing things in the kitchen, like taking turkey breast off the bone, getting rid of bones, saving broth. He is a gem. It hurts by back so to stand. 

The tree is lit, gifts are under the tree, led candle are on as are the pillars. The poinsettia has lights on it. Candy dishes are full of ornaments...lol. Reindeer lights just went off. It's raining. House is warm and smells like good food.

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Written Christmas Day

I awoke 1 pm because, even though I went right to sleep, it was daylight before I went back to bed and slept more. 

We made dressing with more herbs and minus salty residue in box of SS removed with help of colander. Zucchini are in oven and ready to come out. Pie ingredients are out to assemble. Gravy and green bean casserole are not even started. He saved the turkey broth without me asking. So, that will go in gravy. 

We opened gifts. I am wearing the gold necklace from Jared's. He mildly was interested in the box labeled windchime. He laughed and liked the rubber chicken with Auburn attire that was wrapped in the windchime box. He unwrapped his huge Auburn flag, admired it and looked like he was going to put on his Auburn shirt. Great Christmas so far.

On the website the chicken is described as a dog toy. Tommy pointed out that a a dog could choke on the fabric shirt. It would be a very noisy dog toy.  

Tommy is funny. Considering he has no prior cooking experience or knowledge, I can understand his gaps. He often forgets things I tell him, too. He was getting out all ingredients for the pumpkin pie. He noted to me that even though the recipe called for Carnation evaporated milk, all he could find was Pet. I have told him that Pet is better, better quality, fewer ingredients, and the only evaporated milk I will use. I offhandedly told him the whole thing again, and that Pet was what I used. 

As It Turned Out

Finally, I decided the pie could wait until another day. I will also get gravy tomorrow. We had baked enough sweet potatoes for pies and eating for a few days. 

Christmas Dinner: turkey breast, dressing, sweet potatoes plain, green bean casserole, zucchini, jelled can of cranberry sauce. It was delicious. We each only had a moderate helping. And, I needed a long nap. We forgot the brown n serve rolls, but those can be used another day. 

Christmas was a great day, great success, happy day. I finally sent Amazon egift cards to grandchildren. I slept well, napped well. 

How was your Christmas? Lights? Food? Family? Fun? 

Now, I cannot comment on comments unless I sign in with Google. If you comment, I will reply, maybe on tomorrow's post. Right now, I have to nap.

Saturday Was Slower Than Yesterday

 We have almost finished all the Thanksgiving food. I didn't realize that anything was left. Tommy pulled out the remainder of the gravy. It had no broth in it, so I figured it was okay. I added a bit of the broth from the turkey we cooked this week. It still was just a bit, so I cut up the turkey breast this week and ate it in the bit of gravy. I also had slaw and mixed greens. 

I awoke before Tommy this morning. He got up and made no motion to go for my apples! Finally, when the Alabama--Georgia game came on, I went to bed for a nap. 

Before I went to bed, he hurried from his chair to kitchen, clutching a plastic bag. That looked suspicious, so I asked what he was doing. He was going to remove the bones from the turkey, put them in the bag, and then bring the rest of the turkey into the living room, probably with a few small bones left and get the meat ready to eat. Okay. He brought the pully bone and we tried to break it. Unfortunately, just a bit of the wider side broke, hanging. So, he said we would both have a little luck. Clever and okay with me.

He remembered to get rubber gloves. Otherwise, we would have grease all over the house. When I awoke, everything was finished and put away. I absolutely HATE taking meat off the turkey bones. I rip off the breast off as soon as it baked because leaving it on the bone makes the meat taste funny to me. I am lucky to have him and thank him and tell him so all the time.

I will use this dark meat in several ways. 

  First of all, he will eat dark meat instead of the breast. 

  Second, I will put it in my Christmas giblet gravy along with chopped boiled eggs. I will not eat the giblets. 

  Third, I want to make a casserole of turkey meat, altered (less sodium) Stove Top Stuffing, egg, broth, green beans, raw cranberries, lots of celery. I will put gravy on top when I eat it. This will be a meal for in between Thanksgiving and Christmas or after New Years. Now, I need to freeze the broth for both needs and in separate bags. 

We put nothing out for Christmas decorating today, so even though it is almost 11 pm, I will bring out at least one thing AND find the Christmas cards. I think I will put a red bin in here so I can just plunder through it. 

We watched Home Alone this evening, and we are now watching the Home Alone New York one. I would like to see the third one without Culkin in it. I think this is the third time we have seen Home Alone this season. It is sooo funny. Now, we are watching The Christmas Story with Ralphie grown with a family. Don't know the name.

There is a drizzly rain on the lemon and lime. Sunday, we WILL fertilize the trees. YES, WE WILL! The trees will stay out for a couple of days since it will be warm at night. 

I made my plans for tomorrow, getting apples and shopping, known to him tonight just like I did on Friday. Hopefully, he won't get side-tracked by a football game he does not really like. At least we will get apples. 

Yesterday, I was going to mail something and needed a box. I decided to turn an Amazon box inside out to use. (After that failure, I learned the box with Amazon logs can be used.) I had cut it up so that it could not be secure because I was mailing something heavy. Thankfully, I found one smaller. So, there is that chore. The main chore is copying a recipe with additions. 

That is all the news that is no news.

Do you enjoy Home Alone? 

How about The Christmas Story? 

Are you finished with Christmas decorating?

What do you do with Amazon boxes?

Monday, More Money for Me Today

Today was MRI day. Tommy came up and drove me. I have been feeling woozy and did not want to drive so far. I packed a snack-y sort of lunch to keep from buying fast food. We each had three good sized strawberries and a large pineapple spear, cheddar cheese and chunks of chicken. I packed a tiny pack of goldfish for him, and we had water. My intentions were to make a sandwich, but I could not find the bread after a ten-second search.

At the MRI office, I received a $10 gift card and another for the last time I went for an MRI. There was a basket of snacks. I ate cookies and took cheese peanut butter crackers to Tommy. The lady gave me a Coke. There is a cooler full of drinks for customers. It is a very nice facility. The tiny dressing rooms are well-appointed. It all feels so luxurious.

Before we left for my appointment to the north, we drove 7 miles south. We each purchased a turkey breast for $0.95/lbs. The three are in the refrigerator. Hopefully, all three will fit in a turkey bag. I will cook all three and slice one for him, keeping the other two in my freezer, sliced and ready to serve.

The temps were fine until a chilling rain turned the day uncomfortable. Tommy said it was strange hearing me say I was cold because I rarely complain about the cold in such mild weather as we had today.

The two gift cards bought gas. $20 did not even fill the car 3/4 full. Gas is $2.12 here.

I had one of those frozen meals, raw and ready to cook. Yesterday, I cooked that in the crock pot, took out the pork roast, onions, and peppers. Then, I added potatoes and carrots to the crock pot. The carrots were organic and four different colors. This all went home with Tommy. The mojito seasoning is just too hot for me.

Now, I wonder what money will come my way tomorrow.

Two Things I REALLY Wanted But Did Not Buy

Every time I have gone down Action Alley in Walmart, I have seen things I really want and need. Yes, it is true. I need these things.

In the aisle have been stacks of an Oster Turkey Roaster. I liked the look even though they were in the box, unreachable. Maybe I am silly, but I like to see and feel items I buy.

Finally, yesterday, there was a roaster on display. When I read the manual with the roaster, I changed my mind. The instructions said to put 2 or 3 quarts of water in the roaster. ??? That made no sense. Then, put the turkey in?

After I struggled to my feet, took off the lid, and lifted the roaster pan, it all made sense. The instructions said to check it often and add water if necessary. It seems water goes under the roaster. It is not like a crock pot where the heating element will be ruined by water.

It would be difficult for me to lift the roaster pan with the turkey in it once, much less lifting it periodically. So, I will not be buying the Oster Turkey Roaster. For $29.99 I knew there would be a catch! I will be using the oven.

Then, I saw a cute calendar that I just had to have. At $4.99 it seemed precious.  I left it there and got a free one from the utility company today.

Could you say I saved $35 in one day? What was I thinking? I have never, ever bought a calendar, just usually get a free one from the pharmacy.

Your turn
Do you ever need and want something so much and then talk yourself out of it once you learn more? Find reasons not to purchase? What was the last temptation, bargain, or desired item that you left behind? Did you consider and realize the item was not as it seemed? Do you buy a calendar or use a free calendar?  I am talking about the calendars that are about 12x12 inches or probably a bit larger.

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights...uh...I mean wasted celery

This celery looked much better when I bought it two days ago, and it was still in the plastic sleeve in the grocery store under their lights. Still, it is a nice head of celery.
Jonathan Bloom's query
At WASTED FOOD, he asks readers in his post, Turkey Week Project, for suggestions--"Yet, with all of our abundance, though, comes the threat of waste. That’s why I’m hoping you guys will submit some advice here and on the Wasted Food Facebook page about how you plan to avoid waste at Thanksgiving." I had started this post when he posed his question. This post is timely in more ways than one.

Confession
Celery is the one thing I waste the most. There, I said it, "My name is Linda, and I waste celery." Okay, now that I have that burden released, I will share how I try to handle the celery problem all year long. I have vowed I will not waste the rest of the Turkey Day celery as I am want to do. I would say I usually waste about a fourth of my edible celery. Shame on me.

I always justified my waste while cringing at wasted food and wasted money by saying, "Chickens need food, too. They love celery." And, they prefer it chopped!

Thwarting celery waste
Every time I buy celery, I am in great danger of letting some of it spoil. The most beautiful head of celery is awaiting my thrifty ways and a really sharp knife. Since there is only me, it is hard to use the whole head and not let some of it go to waste.

I will not actually eat celery raw, even with dip. It has to be diced small as in tuna salad for me to eat it raw or cooked. The taste of celery in cold salads or cooked foods is something I desire, so I keep buying and wasting celery.

By prepping my celery for Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey and dressing, I will have only spent $0.44 cents on celery for each day since I will not buy one head of celery each holiday. If celery goes lower than $.88 cents/head, I will buy another head, dice, and freeze for next year.

Of course, celery does make good chicken food when it goes South---NOT my intentions.

Prepping celery for Thanksgiving and Christmas
I will wash and dice up most of the celery for making dressing for Thanksgiving AND Christmas. Since I don't make much dressing for just me (9"x9" pan) but want it chock full of celery, the one stalk will do for two small pans of dressing. The rest will be cut into 4" or so pieces to be used while cooking the turkey breast I will have both holidays. I will just throw several pieces of frozen celery stalk into the turkey cooking bag. (I know they are plastic and wasteful.) (Okay, possibly toxic.)

Christmas celery prep on L,starting prep for Thanksgiving on R

Celery Prep
The white plate has a scant two cups of diced celery which will be frozen for Christmas. On the same plate are two pieces of celery that will be frozen in the same bag as the diced celery. Those two pieces will cook with the turkey breast. The one piece of celery in front of the cup  will go into a single serving of turkey salad next week. Pie pan contains chicken food. White dirty plate holds compost. Whole celery stalks are what I will prep later today or Saturday for Thanksgiving (my cooking will be on Sat.) and will be the same as the prepped Christmas celery. I use an old Corelle plate for dicing, chopping and cutting.

Onions, too
Onion is not so hard to use up before it turns. So, onion is never wasted. Today, I was going to  chop onions and celery for Thanksgiving and Christmas and freeze all. But, I became tired and lazy. The Thanksgiving portion of onion and celery will just wait patiently until I cook my dinner on Saturday. Thanksgiving Day will be spent in the company of friends in Birmingham.

No toxic celery leaves for my hens
The hens may not get the celery leaves, and I don't use them. Celery leaves have the highest concentration of pesticides; the stalk has much less. My hens don't need the leaves since I eat the eggs. Plus, I just don't want my hens to eat pesticides!

Celery leaves go into the compost until I can find organic celery. Pleeease, don't tell me I am making poisonous compost.

Buying only what I will eat...unless...
Since I only eat the breast of the turkey, I will buy a turkey breast for my Saturday Thanksgiving dinner. I am unwilling to eat anything but the breast. However, if I find a turkey at the right price--really low--I will buy and cook the whole turkey, sharing all but the breast with a friend who helps me with things I cannot do around the house.

Waste after Thanksgiving?
Do you mean the dinner? Not a chance! I love Thanksgiving food to the end! I am sad when there is no more gravy for the dressing.  Actually, I can make a meal of just my tasty cornbread dressing.

Your turn
Visit Jonathan's blog. And tell me, are you a celery-waster all year like I am? What is the one thing during the year that you waste? What do you waste at Thanksgiving? How can you avoid this waste? Okay, off to chop celery and onions!