Frugal Cooking with the Holy Trinity

More about the succulent later in the post.

The weather will be a bit cooler this week. I will put a chicken In the crockpot along with celery, bell pepper, and onion--the holy trinity. I don't care what you say, the crockpot does heat up the kitchen once the temperatures rises! Of course, a "bit cooler" is like 89 F. But, I am taking that temperature gratefully.

I want everything to be cooked when exbf gets here this week. So far, those have been my plans for weeks, but I have yet to achieve that goal. Then, I am incredibly tired. The mushrooms, squash, zucchini, bell pepper combo has not gotten old since he only had it this last week. Along with the chicken and sautéed vegetables, I will make a salad.

Along with the eggs, I left potatoes in the car, but that is not a tragedy if I cook them soon. The eggs left in the car went into the trash. It is NOT frugal to waste food.

Rather than cooking Sunday night, I looked in the freezer and found a frozen piece of cheese pizza. I should have had a salad with the pizza.

On Sunday, I had only one slice of bread and the slice of pizza. Yay me.

Saturday night, I found two hotdogs in the freezer, not the ones I bought on sale, but  cheesey, spicey hot ones. I will be so glad to get some bits and pieces of things eaten from the freezer so I can store other things in there.

Monday plans:

Saute mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, bell pepper.

Try to hang a few clothes outside. maybe not

Drink more water to help flagging energy. doing it

Put chicken in crockpot. done

color hair

Computer weather says it is 81 F with 100% humidity. Oh, dear, I have to go out soon.

I wrote about getting the SUCCULENT in a post you may remember. It sat on a counter near a window but under a counter. One of the three fingers bit the dust. The other is turning white and getting hollow and hard at the end. So, I moved it to a window with shade all day but quite bright. The last "finger" is doing great. It seems to have a "baby" growing on the end as well as small "baby" things growing from the base.

Since the flower forms from the base, I am hoping this is what the things around the base are. Does anyone have an opinion on the dying finger? Has anyone seen this in person or the flower in person?

Flowers, My Chin, Bunching, and Other Things

camellia from the internet

I forgot to say that my Yoshino Cherry and Redbud trees are in full bloom and have been for about a week. More tulips are blooming. The forsythia is all dead! I have not looked for the azalea. It may have died. It was a Mother's Day gift in about 1990. The dogwood does not bloom except for one branch. I bought a pink dogwood and now what is left is white. ugh! The grass//weeds need to be mowed!

Plus, on Friday, I bought more twenty-cent seed packets: zinnia, white Shasta Daisy, Chives, and White Lisbon bunching onions. What does "bunching onions" mean? They look like green onions, so I hope that is what I bought.

I have staked out a Camellia in the universe to root a few stems of new growth. Yes, that means I am appropriating a few stems or branch tips. The liberated stems will live at my house. Camellia bloom only in the winter, making it a rare delight. I took a picture of my elderly neighbor's camellia covered in snow. She was pleased to have the picture since she had never gotten a photo of the camellia in bloom and covered in snow.

Remember the hour and a half I sat in the cold, sun, and wind? Well, my chin looks like it has permanent sun damage. The skin is thick looking and feeling. Hopefully, this condition will go away. Since I had my back to the sun and the wind, hopefully this is just a horrid wind burn. Since I have never had such a thing happen to me, I am puzzled.

When I search for a tv station or program, I see a digital clock on the screen. Since it was 1:59 am Sunday morning, I wondered if the digital clock would click over to 3:00 am. It did,  making a magical moment. Silly me.

For the first time I used Roku. I still am fuzzy on how to do things, but I suppose I will learn. Basic Instinct was the first movie I watched since I had never seen it. I really hated that movie.  The murder story would have been just as powerful or maybe more so without the graphic scenes. You know the ones I mean and not the murders. And, I cannot stand Sharon Stone. There, it is in print. People think I am crazy for disliking her.

My intentions are to watch from five to seven movies each week. I pay $5.99/month, so these will be really cheap to view. Do they ever have newish movies? The Greatest Show on Earth is one I really want to see. There are plenty to watch and ones I will enjoy.

When I was in Walmart, a young woman of twenty said to me as a preface to something she was about to tell me, "I don't know, maybe you don't, but, do you happen to know who Kendall Jenner is?" How old does she think I am? How does one escape knowing who these people are? She knows I own a TV and she knows I own a laptop. You do not even have to be interested to know who they are. I wonder if she realizes who Bruce Jenner is.

Remember the succulents I was given, the three fingers. Well, I waited 48 hours before they touched dirt, which is all I did was touch them to dirt and press down a bit. One "finger" deflated from the top. It looks like a flat balloon. So, I cut off a bit of the tip and put it in a cup with a smidgen of water. It does not seem to be helping. I still had two in dirt. One is losing its green and is turning white. The third looks fat and sassy, more fat than when I put it in the dirt. It is getting greener than ever, and the little soft spines are once again prominent. Is there any hope for the deflated "finger" or the one turning white?

Friday, I was looking for something in a store and saw a clerk who is friendly but was not on the clock. She helped me and somehow mentioned her bf knew me. He was there with her, the son of a friend who died. The guy is exactly one week older than my oldest grandchild. I had not seen him since he was about twelve. He said he saw me all the time in the store and wondered when I was going to speak to him.  He is 6'5" and a body like Hugh Jackman only slimmer. He was about 5' tall and chubby the last time I saw him. I am so amazed that young people are not aware they change more than we do. I probably felt the same way.

Do you remember when last week I was complaining bitterly and whining about my feet freezing? Well, I had cracked a window about a quarter of an inch on a day near 80 F degrees. I did not close it and thought my toes would freeze off. I am happily wearing sandals and my toes are okay even though snow flurries are predicted for tonight. Writing this on Sunday night.

I am thrilled that DST has arrived so I will have more sun at the end of the day.

That pretty much ties it all up for me. Bunching onions? Windburn? Roku? Succulents?

Posted Now--Accidental School Shooting

I was in a place that absolutely was not a place I had ever seen retail products.  As I looked where my hand was resting on the counter, I saw the boiler basket above. There was also a red one. I asked the guy what it was for/why it was there. He said that if I wanted one I could have it and then they would only have one left to get rid of.

He said I could have both and give one away if I knew anyone who could use it. So, I have a gray one and a red one. I suppose I will keep the red one. 

I have been known to throw the broccoli into a pot of pasta about a minute before the pasta is done. 

This basket sits on the side of a pot. The picture above shows a pot of pasta with broccoli cooking on the side in the boiler basket. Thoughts?

When I headed to play bunco, I was on the wrong day and the wrong time. ??? 

While at Lowe's I saw a succulent with rocks on top of the soil. No, the rocks were glued together or something with holes to stick in succulents. I have never seen anything like it. But, I rarely pay attention to succulents. This is a crash course in succulents. 

Today, I went out with sandals and a thin sweater over a thin, short-sleeved blouse. Bad move. It's not that cold, but the wind is blowing so that the cold cuts right through a person. 

At WM there was another packet of flowers for fifty-cents--Old-Fashioned Garden Mixture. Even though it talks about how deep to plant seeds, these will be sown.

Bread from the Bread Store is always at least four days before the use-by date. I bought Sara Lee Bread that tastes like dessert and is usually about $2.68 for $0.80. There are five days left on the best9by date.  This Artisan bread tastes like cake. I am lucky because one bread store is about two miles from me and the other is a mile beyond that.

I bought $0.97 worth of rocks for my succulent. I think it is dying so I better plant it now.

It is night now and so cold!

Oh yeah, male student brought a gun to school and showed it to a girl. He accidentally shot her. He put it in his pants or somewhere to hide it and shot himself. She died. How stupid!

Your turn

Have you ever used one of the boiler baskets?