Freezer Challenge

This is what my refrigerator/freezer looks like. I love that beast!  But the freezer needs some attention. Stuff gets tossed in and forgotten. It's time to empty it out and give it a good scrubbing. This week I am giving myself the challenge of staying out of the big freezers and only using what is in this freezer to fix dinner.

A couple weeks ago, Judy L had a Prepping Challenge where you only used what was in your home for food and drinks.  I did pretty good except that one day when Ernie stopped and brought dinner home with him and then I left for retreat. I would have been fine all week with what I had in the house. Now let's see how I do with this one.

I almost didn't take a picture but what the heck......this is what it looks like. Before the picture there were 3 packages of beef stew meat, 2 bags with some chopped onions and a bag of green tomato sauce. All of it went into the crock pot (enough to turn into a few freezer meals for the big freezer). Enough for dinner will be turned into BBQ steakettes. (Just cooked meat simmered in BBQ sauce. I used to make this for my kids and there were never leftovers! And the stew meat got used up without making stew.) There was also a container of Pioneer Woman's Sour Cream Noodles (just the noodles and sauce without the ground meat) that needs used.

I'm wondering if one night we will empty out that Margarita bucket and the other booze bottles that are in there. wink, wink--I don't think so! I will take that bucket out and empty the contents into a smaller jar. There will be breakfast for dinner one night using sausage patties and the hasbrowns. There is some cooked chicken that will be thawed and reheated one night, fruits for smoothies, 2 bags of egg shells for the tomatoes if they ever get planted, and probably some stuff that needs tossed to the chickens.  The bag of chopped broccoli and the ham bits will be used in ham, cheese and broccoli fritatta.  Maybe I'll use the bag of red spaghetti sauce with some of the stew meat and make a spaghetti pie from that.

The ice bags are constantly being used lately.......did you know if you put rock salt in with your ice and water that it won't freeze hard and will form to your knee???

So there you have it.......the challenge to myself has been issued. Want to join me?

October Quiltathon Final Report

I can't believe how much I accomplished in the last 4 days.

Day 1--I made 1 block and cut all the sashings and border fabrics for the Grandmother's Choice Sampler.

Day 2--Baking, knitting and 3 more GCS blocks.

Day 3--2 more GCS blocks and a Carol Doak paper pieced BOM and time spent laying out the Sow-A-Long pink and brown blocks, sewed a few of them together.  More time spent knitting.

Day 4--today......I baked more zucchini bread and a really good apple crisp.  Then about 11, I headed to the sewing room and worked on sewing more blocks into rows.  I've got the top half sewn together. I don't know how much longer I'm going to work on this today. I'm tired and thinking about taking a nap...or knitting.  Maybe I'll sew later tonight or maybe not.

Thanks Judy L for another fun Quiltathon.  Can we do it again next month?? You can see how others spent their Quiltathon time here.

Quiltathon Day 4

I finished up this Carol Doak BOM last night and after I posted my progress, I went back in and figured out what I was doing with my setting triangles ...I forgot to put a sashing piece on. Duh! Then I spent some time knitting on my Circle Socks and watching some of my TV shows that I had recorded. Do you watch Parenthood? And do you cry during each episode????  I love that show.

This morning I decided to get more zucchini bread in the oven, so four loaves are cooling waiting to be packaged for the freezer.  I've tried putting the grated zucchini in the freezer but I never remember to take it out before we want bread.  The next batch will be made into muffins and packaged 2 per baggie so I can just put them in Ernie's lunch.  Now there is an apple crisp in the oven and I have my mess cleaned up and I'm ready to sew.

Quiltathon Day 2

I got a bit of a late start this morning on the Quiltathon.  I decided to knit for a couple hours on my Circle Socks.  It was cold in the house and since it is going to be a nice day today, I wouldn't plug in the heater...I'm kind of cheap that way!  So cuddling up in the recliner with a quilt and my socks and a couple of DVR'd shows, I was a happy knitter.

I cut out the second block for my Grandmother's Choice sampler.  I'm not afraid of Y seams, I prefer to avoid them but I love this block.  Don't look too close, it's not perfect and 2 sides need to be sewn. 

I kind of got sidetracked because before I went in to sew, I put a couple loaves of Apple/Raisin/Zucchini Bread in the oven.

It started smelling so good so I had to come out and check it but it still has a little bit left to bake so I thought I'd check in.

Check in at Judy L's Patchwork Times and see how others are spending their day.  I'll report back later...to let you know how scrumptious the bread is.........and how much progress I've made.

Afternoon update:

 Can you say frustrated!  I worked so long on this block.  Being careful to cut my pieces exactly, sew carefully and it turns into a big ole mess!  It's going in the scrap bucket and will become part of Pineapple Crazy.  I'll find a different block, life is too short to make myself crazy over a quilt block!

Thank goodness these turned out good and that I did them before the Kansas Sunflower block.

Pizza dough is rising.......

Evening Update:

The bread is delicious! The pizza was delicious.  I found a paper pieced block and made it to replace the Kansas Sunflower block.  I'm calling it My Choice.  And I'm calling it a night.

Waste Not Wednesday

A while back, Jo at Jo's Country Junction was doing link ups to Waste Not Wednesday.  I guess there wasn't enough interest to keep it going-insert sad face- but my project this morning made me think of that.

With the new hens starting to lay, it doesn't take long to get an over abundance of eggs. My egg shelf in the fridge was full.  Yesterday I was blog hopping through the Think Christmas blog hop and came across this post hat Hallbrook Designs.  Ding, ding, ding...the bells are ringing loud in my head.  It's been a while since I have made these and I need some in my freezer.  I do mine a bit different that Missie does.

This morning, I pulled out of the freezer my baggies of chopped onion, red peppers, green peppers and sweet corn.  Out of the fridge came 2 leftover Italian sausages that I chopped up real small, a couple chunks of cheese that I grated and a dozen eggs.  Into the skillet went a glob of butter, the veggies and sausage.  Heat all that up, add the eggs that have been whipped up all pretty and fluffy.  Cook gently.  Turn off the burner, stir in the cheese and cover for a few minutes so the cheese melts.

Warm up some flour tortillas.  Lay out a sheet of wax paper--how I love my box of cut wax paper, so handy for so many things.  Place the tortilla on it with some of the egg mixture.

Roll it up and wrap it up. Keep rolling and wrapping.  Missie has great pictures of how to roll them up!

Pretty soon your cookie sheet will have a pile of breakfast burritos.  Lay them out as flat as you can, put them in the freezer for a few hours.  Take them out, put them into a zip bag and put them back in the freezer. Need a quick breakfast or lunch???  Take one out, heat it up, eat it up!

1 less dozen eggs, 2 less Italtian sausages and 2 chunks of cheese out of the fridge.  My frozen chopped onion and pepper bags are a bit emptier.  I now have 9 great burritos in the freezer. Be sure to save enough for yourself to have breakfast.  Thanks Missie of Hallbrook Designs for reminding me to do this again! If you haven't read her blog, you should.  She has some fabulous stuff over there.

If you aren't cooking ahead to have great things in your freezer, why not???  Home cooked is so much better than store bought!  I love to cook extra for dinner to have enough for 1 or 2 freezer dinners.  Like last night's chicken casserole that I based off of Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spagetti.  My husband is in love with her like he loves Paula Deen.  Cute ladies with cute accents and they both can cook!  I've learned to make sure he knows I got the recipes from either of them and they are sure to be a hit.  MEN!!!

My Day So Far

I'm having one of those days. I don't like those kind of days. I didn't sleep well last night. We watched the Sons of Guns show and I kept having wacky dreams about them. Why would they contact me to make them quilt blocks to shoot at??? Told you it was wacky!

I was reading Pokey's blog yesterday and couldn't stop thinking about those cute little houses. So I played in EQ7 for a while and drafted my own paper piecing pattern. Right after Ernie left this morning I pulled out a bag of bright scraps and started playing. I can't wait to play more but I really need to get the crumb quilt finished today.

After checking on the baby chicks--it's always good luck when they make it through night one--then feeding the hens and changing out the water, I got busy in the kitchen.

I took spaghetti sauce out of the freezer and did a quick thaw in the microwave and put it in the crockpot--it's not as thick as I like it to be so it can cook down more until dinner time. Then I decided to cook some Italian sausage and add it to the sauce. Heck, I have 2 packages in the fridge so I cooked both of them. I put some in the sauce and now when it is cool enough, I will package the rest of it up and put it in the freezer for the next spaghetti day or to put on pizza or put in an egg/veggie casserole.

Do you do that??? I precook hamburger and sausage then flash freeze them before putting them into zip bags. I usually have taco seasoned burger in the freezer too. Then I can take out the amount I want for a quick lunch or dinner.

While the sausage was cooking, I changed out the washer/dryer, folded clothes and put them away. Then the dog groomer called saying the boys could go in at noon for a bath and pedi.

Looks like my day is off to a great start. I'm about to head into the sewing room again and dance with the longarm.

Saturday Fun

Ernie has a theory about the mail.....a good mail day is a day with no bills in the mail box. I hate to disagree but a good mail day is a squishie mail day. Nothing makes me happier than a package in the mail.

Today was a fabulous mail day~~a squishie and no bills! These are my mug rugs from Marnie B from Virginia through the Quilting Gallery Mug Rug Swap. And she included this fabulous charm pack! I love them all. I don't think I want to use them!

Earlier today, I loaded up the crockpot with some hamburger soup. When it was finished cooking, I took out enough for dinner and canned the rest. Ernie likes to have soup in his lunch when it's cold out. He says it warms his bones. We figured this is over $25 worth of soup and it probably cost us $5-$6, and that includes the lids. Yield was dinner for 2 and 8 pints for the pantry. I love that everything for this soup was already in the house. I used to portion this up and freeze it but I have no room in my freezer. Thanks to Judy L for so much encouragement, I am no longer afraid of the pressure canner.

Hamburger Soup
2 pounds of hamburger (from the freezer) browned
1 chopped onion (from the freezer)
1 spoonful minced garlic (from the fridge)
1 bag of green beans (from the freezer)
1 bag of corn (from the freezer)
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 stalks of celery, sliced
4 red potatoes, chopped into hunks
1/2 cup dry lentils (from the pantry)
1 quart elk (or beef) stock (from the pantry)
Season with salt and pepper and anything else you want
(I did add a pint of green tomato pasta sauce and a not so fresh tomato that needed to be used)

Cook in crock pot until potatoes and carrots are cooked.

Elk Soup Stock

Thursday we spent the day with Ernie's hunting buddies. One of the guys got an elk and it was cut it up day.

As they were cutting meat off the bones, I saw the door open and a big hunk of bone went out the door and the dog jumped on it before they heard me scream! But they heard me! I brought home a lot of soup bones.

Today is cook day for my bones. Into the pot goes the bones, onion, garlic, celery, salt, pepper and water. Put the lid on, turn it on high, bring it to a boil, turn it to simmer and enjoy the smell of goodness. After a few hours, I'll have a bit of work to do and tomorrow morning the stock will be ready to skim and process. I'll have good organic stock in my pantry and enough meat for a huge pot of soup.

Edit: I just clicked over to Patchwork Times to see some more stash reports and Judy L had posted a Gross Chicken Alert........I guess I should change my title to gross stock alert. Too funny!

Another edit: This pot yielded 7 pressure canned quarts of stock, 5 little containers in the freezer and 4 freezer bags of ready to use stew meat. Not bad for what was going to be dog food.