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.

A Few Answers and a Few Questions

Today, I went to the Farmer's Market and there were no tomatoes. Bummer. I looked around and got two small cups of crookneck squash. I paid $6 for the two of them. Because I was out and had things to do, I did not go home.

My question: Was the price exorbitant? While I had the bag in WM, I stuck it on the scales--2.64 lbs. That makes the cost per pound $1.52. In WM squash was $.99/lb.

I know all the positives of Farmer's Market--local food, supporting local farmers. However, I know for a fact they use pesticides.

Not bringing the bag home meant I carried a bag of squash into the doctor's office. I did have a bit of a problem in urine, but doctor downplayed it. I cannot think of anything else that causes this malaise in me. I continually have problems with gastrointestinal tract. I feel queasy all inside. So, now I have ten days of meds for uti.

So, after this ten days, I will start taking the prophylactic does of meds to keep bladder sterile. I refused to take small doses without first clearing things up entirely.

My question: have you ever taken a prophylactic dose of meds for uti and not had a full prescription to make sure bladder contents are sterile before you start taking the lesser dose, prophylactic dose?

Since I have been queasy, I have not eaten salads. I feared it would keep me in bathroom more than I already am. So, I gave away more of the salad.

My ac is dying, so I suppose I will, too.  It's a scorcher today, up to 90 already.

The tomato plants I bought had not been hardened off. The seller is not a good liar. He did not even know what it meant to "harden off" a plant. He said in reply to my question and under his breath, "I set them out at night." That did not answer my question.  He quickly and cheerfully volunteered, "I picked off all the suckers for you." WHAT?

These were leggy plants and he had stripped all but a few top leaves off.  Do you pick suckers off plants are a foot high? I think you wait until they are planted and are surviving to even look for suckers. These plants were looking puny, so he pulled off all the leaves that looked less than healthy!--my belief.  This man retired and decided he wanted to make money--what he told me and said he could figure this out.

I bought the red and white onions from him, just took the bag. When I got home, the onions had dirt all over them. I wonder when he pulled these. Did he lay them out to dry? I do not want my vegetables washed because they rot faster, but do you think knocking off the dirt would have hurt? I don't think he laid them out like they are supposed to be done. The dirt seemed too fresh.

Okay, I am going out now to buy a squash plant and a zucchini plant. Hopefully, I can handle the sun and heat to plant them tomorrow along with the two tomatoes and two cayenne plants. Today, it makes me dizzy.

I bought a yellow and a black container of Plaid paint and sponge brushes. In a few moments, I am going to look for things in the yard to paint black and yellow since I was inspired by the bee theme from Tuesday.

Remember the garbage can that was crushed and the guy said someone would bring me another? Well, a brand new can showed up next to the crushed one. The crushed one sort of healed itself. It did not seal itself, but the bottom is not so gapped as when it was crushed. I am going to keep it since it does have a lid. It was the one kept right outside the chicken pen so I could drop things in it after I fed the hens. I did not tell the mower to put the garbage can on the street. I should have told him to empty it like I TOLD him to do in the beginning.

I feel lousy but ambitious!

After I wrote the above, I went out again. Before I did, I used the bathroom and the uti symptoms showed up and I screamed a bit. I am so happy I did not wait until tomorrow.

Plant shopping is so much fun. I love squash and zucchini, but the Farmer's Market vegetables are too large. I just won't buy them. Small ones are the ones I want. If I get 7 small squash off my squash plant, I will have broken even considering the price I paid today for squash.

I bought one crook neck squash plant, one zucchini plant, and one bell pepper plant. Exbf was eagerly listening and gave a little grunt of approval. He like all three. It will be six weeks before it get any produce from them, but that's okay. I will just purchase what vegetables I want until then. Everything I plant will go in buckets, even the squash.

Someone is coming to mow the lawn in the morning...yaaay!

Zucchini Cobbler Recipe

I don't feel like shopping or baking, but I had to share this recipe without making it first. I got it Here.

For some reason in the past, I used my coffee bean grinder, the kind with a stainless steel cup with blades, to grind rice, oats, and other things. Coffee beans have never been ground in it. Besides, no odor is ever left behind.

Oh, I was trying my hand at making cream of rice, something I love. When I took the top off, there was a cloud of rice particles. It turns out that brown rice can be ground to almost flour consistency. Maybe a few more minutes of grinding would make it all into flour. I can try. Then, I can use that instead of the all purpose flour in this recipe. I will substitute something for the butter, too.

Okay, you want me to try this recipe first? Tough! I told exbf not to come on Friday. That is how sick I feel. Plus, I spent my birthday in bed. However, I wanted to get this out to you so that anyone with a zucchini glut now and  out of ideas could try it out. Her blog stated they used or will use winter squash for the same recipe.

Zucchini Cobbler

Ingredients:

Filling:

5 cups zucchini – peeled, seeded & chopped

½ cup fresh lemon juice

¾ cup white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Crust:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups white sugar

1 ½ cups butter, chilled

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Place zucchini and lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Cook, covered, over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes, or until tender. Stir in ¾ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and nutmeg. Simmer 1 minute longer, remove from heat, and set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and 1 ½ cups sugar. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir ½ cup crumb mixture into zucchini mixture. Press half the remaining crumb mixture into the prepared pan. Spread zucchini evenly over crust. Crumble remaining crumb mixture over zucchini, and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.

Your turn
Has anyone tried this Zucchini Cobbler?

Dinner and amendments to recipe

zucchini casserole, pork loin, salad

Dinner tonight was frugal. Salad greens bought on sale and with coupon, zucchini casserole with tomatoes from the hens bucket of food, free pork loin. The salad was romaine, radicchio, carrots. My parsimony went into full swing when I saw the nice condition of the tomatoes in the scrap bucket, right on top of other unfortunate vegetable. Tomato rescue=saving money. Of course, I burned the pork loin, not all of it, but enough.

My divided Corelle plates make it seem like I am dining out....at a hospital.

The casserole looks skimpy, but it was not. This is a deep casserole dish. Then, the casserole shrinks a bit. I made another smaller one, too. I  heart Corelle.

Realizing I had not added a few notes to the zucchini tomato casserole recipe, I amended the recipe  in red. Onions were not part of the original recipe. One day, I accidentally put onions in. It was good, so they stayed.

I used four slices of bread for two casseroles. It seemed like I was skimping on bread, but the casseroles were delicious.

Free:
bread--whole wheat from senior center
tomatoes from hen scraps
onions
pork loin

Paid for:
cheese
zucchini
2 Tbsp butter

Servings
ten servings

Hen food
peelings from zucchini
leftovers from tomatoes even after salvage

Storage
My dehydrated  onions were used. I only put about eight little pieces of onion on each layer.

Your turn
Have you made this yet? Do you ever withhold food from your hens for yourself?

Zucchini-Tomato Casserole



zucchini and tomatoes


My children loved this casserole. If you have an abundance of zucchini or want another way to serve it, try this recipe.  I posted it last year along with the story of my children's reactions to it...all positive! 

"Zucchini Casserole, please," from my children.


Are you a frugal cook? Do you have too many zucchinis? This casserole is just for you?

This thrifty recipe will help solve the problem of what to do with the abundance of zucchinis this time of year. Frozen or stale bread can be put to good use. I freeze chopped onions, so that is one chore that can be done ahead of time. Really fresh tomatoes or sad slices in the refrigerator can be put to good use. No one will know that tomato's consistency was not to your liking. The casserole is a one-dish meal or just one of the dishes you serve, depending on your preference. I have made this ahead of time and put it in the oven just before dinner. Or, if you have a timer on your oven to start meals when you are away, make this, put it in the oven, and set the timer. Dinner will be ready when you arrive.

I have no measurements for any ingredient. Use your own judgment. You cannot be wrong. If you prefer more or less bread bits, just make it to suit yourself. Use any kind of cheddar cheese or switch to a cheese you prefer. Slice the tomatoes thick or thin, depending on taste or what you have on hand. Own the recipe!
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Zucchini-Tomato Casserole ***300 degrees, 1 hour

Peel and slice zucchini--thinly or thickly, if you prefer. (a little less than 1/4" is my preference)

Salt both sides; let it sit 30 min; rinse and drain (I quit doing this. I salt, let sit for 2 min and then rinse and drain.)

Layer in casserole:
*zucchini--salt and pepper lightly (I use no pepper)
*diced onions (I use yellow or Vidalia) (not in original recipe...just use a tiny bit)
*sliced tomatoes
*buttered bread chunks/bits--about 1/2" size (I break up the bread, pour melted butter over it, toss/stir)
*cheese (best with the presliced squares in pack) (original recipe, but any cheese you like is fine)
Repeat, leaving off cheese.
Bake (cover it)
Put cheese on top of casserole for the last 10 min; bake uncovered
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I made this as part of a meal, having a meat and another vegetable. My three children (10, 8, and 3 when I first made this) ate the casserole, getting seconds and thirds until it was gone. They did not want to eat the rest of their dinner, sitting, and wishing aloud there were more casserole.

Finally, one day I made three huge casseroles and nothing else. On the way home from school in the car, they always asked what was for dinner. This day, I told them, "Zucchini Casserole."

They asked, "What else?" I told them we just had zucchini casserole.

There was silence and shocked faces in the back seat. (I was looking in rear view mirror and turned to see one child.) They were stunned and silent all the way home, supposing dinner was going to be slim. When they saw three casseroles, they did rejoice, smiling at my deceit. Those were three happy children that night. They ate all three casseroles! We repeated that experience often at their request.

This casserole actually is a meal--two vegetables, bread, fat, dairy (more fat), protein. Do onions count as another vegetable? Oh, they never picked onions from this casserole!

When my children were able to eat at the table and feed themselves, they drank unsweetened tea. Otherwise, they filled up on milk and asked for more because they loved milk. Then, they were too full to eat the meal. Milk was for breakfast, snacks between meals, and after dinner. So, for a snack after this casserole, they drank milk and ate banana and maybe one cookie. They were active and always hungry--slim, too.

There was no sugar or artificial sweetener in the tea or in our home. We all just loved the taste of plain tea.

Mine were the only children in town who begged for zucchini. Other mothers were astonished. Frankly, I was too. My children sang the praises of zucchini while their skeptical friends made faces.

This is so juicy. And, it is even better the next day if you have any left. We rarely did.

If you try this, let me know how it turned out and if your kids approved. (If they hate zucchini, don't mention zucchini. It is just a tomato casserole.) Do you like it?

Your turn
Do you like it?