Random Stuff

Our vacation starts Saturday afternoon. Mr. R just took a quick run to Mississippi and took Bucket with him. I'm almost ashamed to say how happy I was to see him go. I love him so much, but he is such a difficult child to live with! As soon as he left, the mood in the house instantly changed. And in a way, that made me sad.

Right now, Missy and Tiger are still sleeping, and I'm working away and drinking my coffee. I like early mornings like this, even though it's Monday and the first business day of the new month. I find a calm repetition in work that is strangely satisfying. You see, with hospital work, my kids can't mess it up. Once I complete an account, it's done. Unlike cleaning my floors, or doing laundry...lol!

I had a previous post in July talking about having a stockpile of food. Well, I've been very slowly working on that. I made buttermilk biscuits and froze them. They came out delicious and reheat quite well. I've noticed Mr. R and Missy foraging around in the deep freezer for them. I made two banana bread loaves, froze one and left the other out to enjoy. I made a homemade strawberry sauce to go over a homemade pound cake. My next step is to purchase dry items such as pasta, rice, and crackers as they go on sale. Unfortunately, my house has next to no storage and I'm stacking all this stuff in a corner of my bedroom. I have grand plans to expand my kitchen, but no money to do so, poor me!

I also experimented making my own soup. Oh my word, the canned soup at the store has nothing on homemade. It takes so little effort, makes the house smell awesome and is easy to can up on your own. Plus you can control the foods and salt. For example, Mr. R won't eat most canned soups because they all have celery, and he HATES celery. I can't even use celery salt around him, he can taste even a pinch of it and won't eat whatever dish has it. He also doesn't like carrots and green peppers (seriously, what is wrong with this man? I love carrots and green peppers!) and so a lot of pre-made dinners are out of the question for him. Whenever I find a recipe I like, I end up taking out some ingredients and substituting others. For example, he won't eat green peppers, so I substitute corn. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I guess that's part of cooking, switching stuff out to appease the picky eaters in your life.