Monday September 13

[Shirlv]

Morning All, hot and humid on the island. Have a list of errands but will leave for another day. #1 daughter picked up a couple items from Sam’s for me. Will take a ride to pick those up and blow a kiss. She still works as do all my family so we are back to masks and social distancing. Be safe

[Acadianmom]

I'm still watching the tropical storm. Looks like it will go into Texas with a lot of rain. They can't decide how much rain this area is going to get. One map shows less than 2 inches and another one shows 3 to 5 inches. It is just kind of misty off and on.

I put the butternut squash in the oven like BJ said. I managed to get cinnamon all over the stove top. I have another squash that is green. I need to look that one up and see what to do with it. Yesterday I fried the eggplant. I don't recommend eating a whole eggplant fried but it was good.

Shir, about the only thing I get at Sam's now is gas. They are usually the cheapest in Lafayette. If I go inside I end up buying a bunch of stuff I don'e really need. I need to eat some of the stuff in the pantry but that doesn't seem to go down very fast.

Martha

[MandysMom]

Martha, I grew up loving Eggplant, and have a couple good recipes if you are interested.

Not much happening here. Nice looking day, predicted to be 97, and it's 85 right now, just before 11. I'm getting ready for Curves, then treadmill, then shower before continuing rest of day. We have so much enjoyed watching Paralympics , using the "virtual" DVR we added to our ROKU service. We are seeing sports we never heard of before, including Goal Ball and seated volleyball, 6 on 6 soccer (for sight impaired, who all wear black out goggles), and wheelchair rugby. Have a lot of respect for these athletes.
Have a good day.
Velda

[Shirlv]

Martha, I was married to a brick mason so it was high cotton in summer but not too much in the winter. I got use to stocking up in the summer and still do. I buy trash bags, freezer bags, swiffer refills, canned mushrooms, crushed tomatoes, peanut butter, jelly, large bags of frozen vegetables, etc and meats. I won’t starve.

[Acadianmom]

Velda, I would like your eggplant recipes. My mother-in-law would make something like a dressing with eggplant and I have scooped out the inside and mixed it with meat and baked it. Harold liked it like that.

Shirl, I try to do the opposite, un-stock the freezer in the summer so I don't have to throw a bunch of frozen food away for a storm. I just about have to slap my hand sometimes when I'm in the grocery store. In the winter I will cook things that I can freeze in individual containers. I must have gotten carried away with making gumbo because I must have 6 or 8 containers of gumbo. I don't feel much like eating gumbo in the summer time. I use to freeze a lot of chili because Harold liked it but me, not so much. If I eat chili one time a year at a campout I'm good for the year. I am out of cookie dough and won't buy the ingredients to make more. I miss my cookies.

Martha

[Bethers]

Martha, I started doing pickup at both Sam's Club and Walmart before the pandemic just do that I'd only buy what I need. Now I actually sometimes overbuy ordering. Duh.

I have a pick up order scheduled for Walmart tomorrow. I'm keeping an eye until I go to bed tonight because one item I need (and the local store is always out of) is out of stock. I'm crossing my fingers that it shows up in stock and I can add it to my order (and take out the kind of acceptable replacement I currently will get).

I haven't made eggplant in years. Velda, I too would like to see your recipes and our recipe room hasn't been getting enough recipes lately.

[chalet05]

Shirl, that stocking up list looks like mine! All this food talk! I'm suddenly remembering things I haven't had in a long time and don't need - pumpkin bread is at the top of the list at the moment now that I have an oven I trust. The memories on The Stroll topic are fun!

Another slow start to the day and haven't decided what's on the agenda yet. Monica replied to my daily text telling me one of the special needs students she works with who doesn't wear a mask tested positive for Covid. They had precautions in place as far as distance in the classroom so fingers crossed plus she is, of course, vaccinated.

Brother just called - sister-in-law just had more biopsies and now we wait.

[Colliemom]

. Mid afternoon here in northern Michigan. Beautiful sunny day and the temp is about 69°. Just got back from a nice 2 mile walk with the dogs. Spent some time this morning trying to clear some of the overgrowth along the property line so I could run a mason line from point A to point B and see exactly how much of an angle that property line is. But the battery finally died on my reciprocating saw and the brush is so thick in one spot, that I said the heck with it or now. It’s a bit over 369 feet to the back there so you can’t see it from one end to the other. I think we have the important part pretty well figure it out anyway so it doesn’t matter that much right now. I could hire a surveyor and have the whole thing done but we know why the four corners are so that’s not necessary. It’s just that the east line runs at an angle and that angle will determine how much room my neighbors have to build a house. They have to stay 20 feet away from the lot line per the restrictions. We are also waiting for the gas company to come in and mark the transmission line easement on the other side so they know where the gas line actually is. Once that done and they know how far they have to stay from the line then they will have a better idea where to place the house. They have sold the propErty that they were trying to sell and they should be getting ready to pay me and purchase this lot before too long

Otherwise just the usual working around here. Fall s definitely in the air and a bit of a greenish yellow tinge starting to appear in the trees. Signs the leaves are starting their slow March to the annual color show. I’ve been putting some of the outside summer stuff away little by little, doing a little fall decorating etc. took most of the stuff off my shed floor and swept and used the blower to clean up the dirt and little junk that gets in there over the summer.

Have had about 3 inquiries on my trailer but nobody has come to look as yet. Am really hoping it goes by end of month, so I don’t have to get into winterizing g and covering it up for win project. Have thought about trying to sell it on consignment but one loses some money when one does that. Only advantage is that it is on the lot where people can see it.

Martha, hope you don’t have to move everything again. I’ve been enjoying reading all the “same old” from around the country. Seems food is the big topic of late. Judy, had I known you wanted a new mattress before you ordered one, I would have sent you the info of two places in the Detroit area. One can cut on the spot.

Think Chili is on the menu for supper. Was going to go out and get some mums today, but decided I wasn’t in the mood. Maybe tomorrow. Also waiting on a call to let me know when my two end tables will be in, so I can go pick them up.

[Shirlv]

Martha, If I had your weather conditions I wouldn’t want a full freezer either. If I were still camping I wouldn’t be cooking in the summer either. I hate shopping so stocking up means less trips. Grocery pickup has been a blessing for me. Granddaughter has been on Facebook market place and found 2 file cabinets for $15. Someone sponge painted them orange and purple so they are ugly as all get out but there is spray paint. Her mother wants one cabinet so I said I would treat. Gd said for me not to go crazy spending my money. This is the second time I have typed this post. Maybe I will remember to hit submit this time.

Beth I will check my recipes. A good job for a lazy cook.

[JudyJB]

Once again, I read today's headline and thought for about 60 seconds that someone had made a mistake in the date! However, after some "deep" thinking, I realized that it really and truly WAS Monday today. Boy, time flies!

And Martha, if I were driving past your place, I would stop and swipe one of those packages of gumbo you have stored! So how do you make gumbo?? I have had it once or twice in restaurants, but never tried it on my own. Maybe in Florida, I will try to make some from-scratch clam chowder or something similar.

My freezer is stuffed with Michigan fresh kielbasa and Einstein's bagels. Refrigerator is over-full also. As soon as I get room, I will try to make some real Canadian bacon, aka Peameal Back Bacon. Neither are real bacon and neither are available in the US other than in a couple of border towns. You use a boneless port roast (the part of the pig they cut pork chops off of) and brine it for four days. Brine consists of water, salt, maple syrup, pickling spices, and curing salt. It does not get smoked and does not even vaguely resemble the stuff sold in the US as Canadian bacon. Need to slide and fry it in butter and make sandwiches or eat with eggs for breakfast. Yum. Only problem is that it takes a lot of refrigerator space, so I need to do some eating and stop buying stuff.

[OregonLuvr]

Afternoon here now. Been putting things away in the yard in eager anticipation of our 40% chance of rain the end of the week ha ha we shall see. I wont be here to enjoy it but will know if it happens or not. Heading down to Medford tomorrow as I have eye doc appts this week. Dang that 6 weeks in between sure does fly by. Will be fun visiting my friend tho. We just might even visit (outside socially distancing of course) another friend or two. Interesting to hear what their plans are or have been for after the fires. I need some human contact LOL so this will work for this week. Emma is just not much of a conversationalist. I talk she listens (or not).

When I get home I am going to make that Chicken tetrazzini and will have enough to freeze some sauce. I always have a full pantry as I hate to go grocery shopping. So I like it stocked with the things I use or might use, or have used LOL My freezer is pretty full also so I am sure I wont starve.

Sue I had not realized you made the decision to sell the trailer. So many of us coming off the road for various reasons. But the good news is we still have lives and connections on here to chat about. I am kind of like Anita today, not big on the motivation department but did get a few things done. Now I threw a load of laundry in and later will kind of pack my suitcase, get the dog stuff ready, and straighten up the car. That will be it, then it will be cookie and coffee mocha time. I spent a couple of hours exploring many of the free streaming channels and found I really like Pluto and it is free. Doesn't have any of the latest and greatest but most of them I dont like anyway so this just might be a refreshing change. I have Spectrum and because I have ROKU tv's in the bedroom and office I get all my spectrum channels without having to rent a box for each of them. I just downloaded the Spectrumtv app on Roku and it works great. I used to have it on my tv before the fire but I bought a couple of Samsung tv's for the living room and family area. Laura also has Spectrum and she bought a ROKU streaming stick for her bedroom tv where she rents a box for it. If it works good for her she can get rid of the cable boxes in the bedrooms. Roku also has so many things to watch on their ROKU channel also free. I have a Firestick for my guest bedroom but I am thinking of getting a Roku stick for that room too. I might look at them when I am down in Medford. Up here anytime you want to go buy something they are usually out of it.

okay coffee and cookie time

[Bethers]

I love my Roku. And add Tubi as one of the stations on your Roku. It has a great variety. I pay for two stations which makes my entertainment monthly expense about $10! And I always can find things to watch. It's even better that I'm only paying $25/month for my cell phone, which allows my unlimited streaming.

My fridge and cabinets will be overflowing after I pick up tomorrows order. I used to do better in the rig, but I did defrost my freezer a couple days ago and pulled things that I know have been in there long enough to eat.

[Acadianmom]

Judy, I make chicken gumbo using one of the mixes we can buy. I use a mix because they have the seasoning and I'm lazy. I brown chicken thighs in a little olive oil, saute some of the frozen seasoning mix(onion, celery and bell pepper), add chicken broth and the mix and simmer for about an hour. That's a cajun gumbo. The gumbo you get around New Orleans is a Creole gumbo and will have okra and tomatoes in it. I don't really care for seafood gumbo. I use to make shrimp stew but haven't made one in a long time. A shrimp stew is just shrimp cooked in a gravy. I usually have some rice frozen in single serving containers. If you freeze a gumbo with the rice it gets too mushy.

I'm going to wait until winter to try the Chicken Tetrazzini so I can freeze the sauce.

Karen, it seems like you just had an eye doctor appointment. Time sure passes fast.

The local weather is saying we could get 8 inches of rain and 18 inches above I-10. They are saying a 2-4 foot storm surge. I think that will only mean water over the road South of me. I'm glad my RV is in the shop so I don't have to worry about it. I don't like that it's coming in overnight. I like to see what's going on.

Martha

[Cudedog]

Martha: Sorry to hear about still another storm coming at you. You have certainly had more than your fair share. I am sending out my Magic Wishes so that, hopefully, this one misses you.

______________

LOL.

Must be "Roku Day" on here.

I also love my Roku. I "cut the cord" about 10 years ago (when Comcast upped my monthly to $75.00 - I hate to think what the monthly fee is today) and I have never looked back.

When I first switched to Roku, there were "only" about two-hundred or so available "channels". These days, if you figure in the Roku Channel, Pluto, Tubi, PBS, and (of course) YouTube (as well as some others) there are literally too many channels to count available via Roku. Probably tens of thousands (and I'm not kidding), with programming pretty much available for every taste.

The only time I have paid "extra" for programming with my Roku is when I subscribed to PBS for five or six months, at a whopping $5.00 (five dollars!) per month. After a while, I even dropped the subscriber-level PBS, because there was just so much to watch elsewhere.

I have not paid a dime for television for (I'm guessing) at least the last eight years or so.

And I still watch just as much tv as I always have - maybe 2 -3 hours in the evenings. And I am enjoying it more!! Commercials are mostly absent, when they sometimes come around I just mute the sound.

For those who might be thinking of ditching cable in favor of something like Roku (there are other services similar to Roku, but I stay with Roku because it works just fine for me) let me just say this:

If you have a good broadband connection, you can pretty much use Roku to stream whatever television programming you might desire - for free (Well - not the networks, though, unless you are willing to pay. But who needs them?).

Roku is also dead easy to set up: just "plug and play".

If you are "thinking about" Roku, I say go for it!

Anne

[BarbaraRose]

I got a Roku about 6 years ago but I don't know where the gizmo is now. I mostly watch HGTV, TLC, and the Travel channel. Not sure if I could get those on Roku. Could I get golf on there?

Was a quiet day at work since a couple gals called in sick. My manager said the owners don't want to increase my hours right now since business has slowed down for now. He said that they might change their minds after thinking about it for a couple days. I hope so, but if not, I need to come up with another plan. I need to pay my taxes and license tabs in December so I need to come up with some extra moola for that.

Windy and dusty today. Nothing new there.