Monthly Archives: September 2017

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, Uncategorized, Walking by

Our Sunday walk started out lovely. Quiet in the park ,nobody there but us until…..

Maybe I’m a magnet for weird things. So we’re walking on our second round near the tennis courts. We round the corner and a car pulls up to the far end of the parking lot. As we were walking the 3 ducks that are left ( from the Hobbles crowd) were right there by the path so we stopped and said Hi. So this guy opens his car door and out shoots a dog and it runs straight at the poor ducks. I turn around and yell, Put your dog on a leash, this is a leash law park.  The guy goes ballistic, yelling and screaming at me. That I should just leave the park, get out of here and on and on. It was really unnerving. So I say again, just put your dog on a leash. By this time the dog had run across the field somewhere. He continues to be crazy yelling. I say I’m going to call the sheriff and he goes ballistic. Go ahead, do that, here take a picture and on and on. So as we started down the path by the play structure, I call 911 and say this is not an emergency but I don’t have the sheriffs number for urgent call. So I tell her what is happening and she says she’ll send a sheriff. Well, we did one one round, walked as far away as we could from the guy who seemed to just be sitting in his car. He then walked over somewhere I presume to try and find his dog which was still off leash.  Geez, I was a little freaked out because I do walk alone often and in the dark sometimes.  I’m definitely bringing pepper spray tomorrow. But it was so over the top. I mean are people going crazy.  It was so belligerent and weird.

Anyway, we never saw the sheriff so…

Today is a gym day, and I got my oil changed.

I did the bathroom zone already( an advantage of having only one teeny tiny bathroom) and 2 loads of laundry( it’s sheet day).

This afternoon I’m going to put a chicken to roast. It’s warm out but it shouldn’t be too hot to use the oven.

 

 

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, cooking, Uncategorized by

Well, we’ve been fairly frugal this week.

I haven’t been to the store for a regular shopping, just bits and pieces here and there. Today, I need to pick up some mozzarella, mushrooms, and olives for pizza. It’s cool enough I think I can actually bake it in the oven.

I did go to Target with my daughter for cat food and then she picked out some clothes for her Library conference in St. George Utah, so that added up but not too bad.

The first of the month’s bills are done and then with the next pay check, it’s just the water bill and Verizon. I got the Verizon bill down quite a bit by paying off my iPhone last month and then we canceled the insurance on both mine and my daughters. So the savings added up. Next when I can pay off my son’s phone in a few months that will drop it even more. As we ready for retirement, these monthly bills must be as low as possible. Plus, no car payment. Right now we’re still paying on the Santa Fe but there is some reimbursement for that from my husbands work. But into retirement, there cannot be a car payment at all.

Next week I do need to get to Costco as we will need some staples like TP and sugar organic tomato paste etc. I’ll try and budget @ 200 for that shop.

We also got our 6-month car insurance bill and it went down substantially because the took off my son’s ticket for speeding and his single person accident. Both of these are more than 3 years old so maybe that was the magic number but it went down almost $400 which is huge. So that will be very helpful.

Figuring out the numbers for retirement is challenging. It will certainly be no frills and if we want to keep living here we need to be sure the basics are covered. There’s no million dollar retirement account that’s for sure.

Today, I’m going to the gym to do weights mostly, and then I have an appointment for getting my Invisalign trays.

Tonight, as I said, is pizza.

Walking in the morning has been delightful and many of the people who were showing up early to beat the heat are gone. There’s still a few who will probably drop away since at 6 am it’s still darkish.  But there have always been a few of us that just keep walking, dark or not. On a sad note, Hobbles the duck went missing sometime during our vacation and I miss him. He was quite a character.IMG_0700

 

 

A good Doctor appt.

Posted in cooking, Multiple myeloma, Uncategorized by

So I saw my oncologist this morning and all is right in my world.  He always listens and has been a knowledgeable medical oncologist/hematologist.  Since I had already gotten my labs back and they were all great, it was just a relaxed visit to check in and set up the next followup. I am so very grateful to be enjoying and living every day to the fullest.

Today, I’m just doing some puttering chores. I need to load up some thrift store things to take tomorrow. I have 1x load of laundry and just tidy and putter around. I may go out the garden and pick tomatoes as we are still getting plenty.

Here’s a picture of the peach pie I made the other day.

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OMG, it was divine. But I think it was because the peaches were so divine. But I made the crust using Julia Child’s recipe minus the shortening. I just did all butter.

Yummmm

Martha Stewart’s SLOW COOKER

Posted in books, Uncategorized by

SLow Cooker is 110 recipes from the Martha Stewart test kitchens.

There are some classic recipes like beef stew Sicilian style, plus meatloaf, which I’d like to try.

I make many dishes in my crockpot especially all of my beans, black, pinto, lentils etc. But I like the many variations that this cookbook offers.  There are many vegetarian recipes too. Overall, I don’t think you can ever go wrong with a Martha Stewart cookbook.

I received this book from bloggingforbooks in exchange for my honest opinion.

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, simple foods, simplicity, Uncategorized by

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This was on our way to Zephyr Cove, over past Incline Village.

Today is another super hot day, so outside time will be limited. Plus the air quality is pretty awful with fires all around.

I have done a few daily chores already.

  • 1 x load of laundry done( in the dryer)
  • Bed sheets ready to change, I do this every Sunday
  • Kitchen tidied
  • Bathroom swish and swiped, I used to do this daily but now I still clean the sink area daily but do the floor every other day.

This week the zone is the kitchen and I’ve gotten a head start by windexing the cabinets yesterday.

I still need to vacuum and dinner prep and I’d like to prep some things for the week. I might make a red lentil dal. We could have that with naan bread or tortillas. It really does help in simplifying to do a small amount every day and then do one deeper clean (in a zone) weekly. It helps to keep things clean and tidy and isn’t overwhelming.

Today is a gym day(leaving soon) then a few chores in town. Cat food, cat food, cat food.!!!

 

 

So today is Friday?And tofu recipe!

Posted in cooking, Uncategorized by

I guess I was off by a day yesterday. I thought it was Friday, thus the edited post.

Oh well, I’m going to blame it on getting back from Tahoe on Monday and that throwing the week off. I mean we didn’t do Taco Tuesday so it was all messed up. Just kidding.  Well, maybe not.  It’s going to be very hot today @ 105. This has been the hottest summer I can remember here.

Well, I’m not doing a lot today except drop off the Cancer thrift store stuff.  Then some laundry and I took down the Ikea cotton curtains in my office area to wash.

Tonight is Friday night pizza, but I think we’re ordering take out. It’s just too hot to cook even on the BBQ which is where I’ve done the pizzas all summer.

A very nice reader asked how I made the baked tofu. Well, a little history here to date me… Way back in the early 70’s when there was no Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s etc.. there wasn’t tofu in stores except maybe Asian markets and that had horrible additives and tasted pretty awful… so, I made my own tofu. Believe me, it wasn’t really all that much fun, was extremely labor intensive and you got a teeny piece of tofu in the end.  So we didn’t start using tofu till we moved to California in 1975 and then tofu was just starting on the scene.

I learned to cook tofu every which way.

So to do the baked tofu that is like the Wildwood seasoned tofu, you press your tofu for a few hours. I put mine in a dish and put a cast iron skillet on top. This presses the water out. Then I cut the tofu in half and then slice the halves thin so like little squares. Then I make a marinade of tamari (soy sauce), garlic, a little olive oil Or any oil, freshly grated ginger if I have it. Then marinade as long as you can. Even an hour is good overnight better. Then bake in the oven for @ 40 minutes at 350.  You can flip half way thru if your OC about it. That’s it . We eat it like this cold in salads or whatever.

My southern fried tofu is breaded.  Again press the tofu for an hour or so. The best tofu for this recipe is Wildwood extra firm and that you don’t need to press.  Then cut in half and then little fingers. So each piece is @ 1/4 ” by the length of the tofu so maybe 2″. IMG_0390

Then you’ll need 2 bowls. One. add 1 egg and a little water and whip together. The other bread crumbs and grated parmesan. (This is NOT a LOW calorie dish). Then dip in egg first then bread crumbs. I often do this twice to get a nice crust.

Then add oil to a heavy cast iron skillet or pan and heat up The oil should be maybe and inch or so but I have used less. Then when it’s hot start frying. Just keep adding the tofu and turning ones done on one side.

Then we serve this with homemade tartar sauce which I use mayonnaise, red onion, green olives, mustard, and basil. All chopped up of course. I make this for 4th of July and special occasions.

I have experimented with baking the tofu and it’s good but not as good.