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I planned a Winco Foods shopping trip, but first hit Fred Meyer (Kroger) as their produce clearance shelf has been popping off lately. Today was no exception.
What did I buy? Two big bags of mushrooms, plus a mixed bag of four big avocados plus two tomatoes. Each for a buck-fifty! I then scoped out the non-produce clearances shelves and grabbed two 12-packs of flavored seltzers for $1.40 each.
The best part? I paid for everything using my
blood moneyRed Cross gift card!
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I used one of the avocados in a big batch of sushi and then soaked and peeled the pit to propagate. I used one of the free glass vases that I got from the Habitat ReStore a couple weeks ago. I read somewhere that it helps to peel the skin when propagating and it worked really well the one time I tried it.
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I discovered an abandoned piece of firewood in the Fred Meyer parking lot, so it now resides in my fireplace. Hardly the day to light a fire, (Portland heat wave!) but chilly days are around the corner.
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I sold my $7.99 thrifted Yakima rack for $50 through Facebook Marketplace. This was a fun flip, as it was super dirty when I bought it, and it was deeply satisfying to wipe out all the nooks and crannies.
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My mother had a classic waffle-weave dish rag in her living room and offered it to me after I asked about it. I gave it an overnight oxyclean soak, (store brand, of course!) and will add it to our stash. We don’t buy paper towels, as it’s easy enough to use thin washcloths that can be switched out every day or so. Mind you, these are not Pinterest-worthy dish rags. A couple of them are literally leftover baby washcloths from my 29-year-old daughter! They put the “rag” in “raggedy!” Weirdly kind of excited to have a minimally scrappy dish rag.
Am I . . . fancy now?*
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You ARE fancy!
I have a vintage paper towel/wax paper/foil dispenser and I keep my dish rags in the paper towel compartment. They are a motley cruë of unlikely heroes made up of old garments cut up, raggedly ancient washcloths, and crocheted and knitted dish cloths.
Very much envious of your scores at the grocery store. I live on a small island and our one grocery store is expensive like we live in Hawaii or Alaska and food needs to be flown in, not the Bronx. I shop the sales and supplement with the sporadic gifts from my garden.
You’re definitely very fancy now! 😉
1. Recent favourite library read: Recipe for a charmed Life (Rachel Linden)
2. Sold 2 more t-shirts on Vinted.
3. DH’s and my iphone are getting on a bit and the battery just does not last that long any more. It’s fine at home but we decided to get a power bank for outings. I was able to buy a used one on Ebay, it was quite reasonably priced as our iphones still have the lightning ports which have been replaced with USB C ports on newer iPhones (in Europe).
4. The blackberry season is slowly coming to an end but we are now harvesting the first apples. Unfortunately the crows have also discovered the apples and we are now constantly chasing them off the trees. So far they are only eating the apples on the very high branches which we can’t reach anyway.
5. Used up left over rice by making egg fried rice for lunch.
Oh, I love Rachel lindens books! Also the later heather Webber books, magical realism is my favorite. Jennifer Moorman is another favorite author.
If anyone has recommendations for magical realism I would love to hear them.
The current “real world” is just too much.
Karen Hawkins’ Dove Pond series is a wonderful magical realism series. Also, Sarah Addison Allen has some great MR books.
Thanks Alice, I’ll try the dove pond series. I enjoy
Sarah Addison Allen’s books a lot. She also writes fun short stories
On her FB page.
Yesterday, Kimberly asked me to share the recipe for Princess Diana’s Overnight Oats. I had stumbled on a video by Princess Diana’s personal chef, Darren McGrady about these oats she was eating before her death – long before the overnight oats we think of today. Princess Di had been to either a Swiss or Swedish Spa (I forget which country), had them, and loved them so much that she stole the recipe, gave it to her Chef and said she wanted them every day for breakfast. Here is the recipe:
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1 Tablespoon honey
8 oz plain greek yogurt
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, or to taste (optional)
1/2 honeycrisp apple grated (with the skin on)
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
Mix together oats and orange juice. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator overnight.
In the morning, stir in the honey, yogurt, lemon juice, cinnamon (if using) and grated apple. Add blueberries and walnuts, reserving some of each for garnish.
Makes2 servings.
Now, my noted:
1. I use a little less than a cup of orange juice. For me, I find it too liquidy for my taste if I use the whole cup.
2. I bought a small bowl with a lid big enough to mix everything in.at Dollar Tree as I had nothing the appropriate size. Also eliminates the need for plastic wrap.
3. I have a bunch of bottled lemon juice. Rather than buying a lemon, I use 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice.
4. I do use the cinnamon, but I have made it with some other fruits and changed the seasoning/nuts. I will list those7 below.
5. I stir all the berries and nuts in at once. I’m too lazy (and not “fru-fru”) to garnish.
The recipe says it makes 2 servings, but I get about 4 as I put it into 8 oz containers. It’s enough to fill me up and keep me satisfied.
I have used the other following combinations, other than the blueberries and walnuts and they have all been very good:
Peaches + toasted hazlenuts (or toasted almonds) + nutmeg
Sweet dark cherries + toasted almonds + 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
Pomegranate seeds + toasted cashews + cinnamon
That is a very nice old fashioned dish cloth. I have some ancient blue – striped hand towels that need mending, so you nudged my memory to get that done.
I’m with you on the raggedy rag thing. I have torn up bath towels, ripped up tshirts, baby washcloths, cloth diapers, etc. Paper towels are reserved for cat barf.
I’m impressed with your clearance finds. At my Fred Meyer, they’ve been very stingy lately with the markdowns, and there’s a lot of competition. Sometimes there’s a bit of a crowd around the clearance shelves. I don’t think I’d have been able to get an unobstructed photo like you did! My kid has a dentist appointment soon, on the other side of town, so maybe I’ll walk to the nearest Fred Meyer while I wait.
I have added $120 to my Christmas money with various apps and reward cards in the last week or so. Less than 4 months until the big day!
Hubby made dinner last night with ingredients from home, including using up a partial jar of marinara sauce from homemade pizzas added to his spaghetti sauce.
I had leftover white gravy on plain white bread for breakfast – not as delicious as on biscuits with fried eggs, but still yummy.
Using leftover frozen turkey from my Christmas in July dinner to make turkey potpie tonight for the whole family. Only need to buy some potatoes as we have everything else in the house.
Thinking of things that I want to make for presents for Christmas. I love the holidays, and, as I get older, I want to incorporate more heartfelt and handmade items. I’m working on my new granddaughter’s stocking, but I’d like to get some more things made for other people, too.
When I was a kid, my mom often made gravy bread, and I loved it! Thanks for reminding me!
FMFT, Food Exchange Edition:
(1) Old friends to whom I regularly send dried herbs from my garden have sent me back a boxful of previously used herb jars (they know I appreciate the return of the empties), filled with assorted fancy nuts.
(2) One of the neighbors next door to the Bestest Neighbors dropped off some food she’d overbought on before leaving on a vacation Sunday. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches, grapes, and an unopened half gallon of 2% milk. I kept the tomatoes and cukes, and gave the rest to the BNs when they returned from their lake house on Monday.
(3) When Dr BN came over for the peaches et al., he dropped off half of a Lake Erie smoked whitefish, a frozen portion of Lake Erie walleye pike, and a serving of a walleye chowder he’d made. In addition to the peaches et al., I gave him an individual portion of yogurt that JASNA BFF had left behind (I don’t like yogurt).
(4) Another neighbor dropped off a bagful of small cucumbers yesterday, with which I made another quart of refrigerator dills.
(5) And still another neighbor (Bailey dog’s mom) dropped off another bagful of cucumbers. I shared the four biggest of these with the neighbors on the other side of NDN1, and will make more refrigerator dills with the rest.
A pathetically sad moment last night when my favorite pair of casual Sumner pants that I picked up at the GW bins 12yrs ago..they literally rotted off me last night. So sad, not even worthy of the rag bin. Took the buttons off and tossed on the burn pile as they are 100% cotton. Boo!
Cut up an ancient 50+ prune tree for this winter’s fire pit.
Wish I had a Freddies near me!