Here Comes The Snow

First off our hearts hurt for the family and friends of the victims in AZ, hope each of you are praying for their comfort in this terrible time. Had to turn the news off yesterday, I couldn't stand to hear any more of the horrors.

We are getting prepared for what might be a big winter storm, lots of cooking today!! I cooked up enough for the kids to all take home 5 meals each, Chili, Potato soup, Minestrone soup, pizza's and egg salad. Still have leftovers from Saturday's cooking, Ham and Baked pork chops. Nobody should go hungry if the power goes out, they can at least warm up meals on gas grills, I will be using the wood stove. If it looks to get bad they will all head to our home early tomorrow where we have plenty of wood, and the fancy dancy generator that I have no clue how to turn on. Need to put learning how to work the generator on my to do list.

I made the minestrone soup pictured today with dehydrated food, the only thing I had to add was canned tomatoes, chicken stock, pasta and potatoes. I use the recipe from Olive Garden that you can find on line, even the boys love this soup. Took no time at all to put together since everything was already pre chopped. I do have dehydrated potatoes but they are hash browns or sliced, we like chunky potatoes but if need be I could always use the sliced ones. We like shell pasta in this soup just like the resturant, boxed pasta is cheap as dirt so who cares.

Big step for our oldest Daughter this week. I sent her home with the fixins for chicken noodle soup, dehydrated veggies and spices with homemade stock and noodles. I hate to share this but my girls are not much into the whole cooking deal. She called the next day to tell me they LOVED the soup and it was super easy, now keep in mind this kid has been eating the exact same soup all her life but I think because she cooked it herself it was a little more special. I don't have visions of her hanging out with me this summer canning, dehydrating, blanching or freezing foods, working in the garden ain't gonna happen but maybe just maybe she has a little more appreciation for how I roll. I have been fussing at the girls to get to the grocery store since Friday, youngest Daughter went Saturday and had no problem, middle Daughter is single and could care less, oldest Daughter went today after Sunday dinner, found empty shelves!! Hello what did you expect girl, she posted a photo on FB showing the empty shelfs but I haven't figured out how to get it to the blog, maybe tomorrow.

Doesn't the Chocolate chip bunt cake look yummy? Having a slice tonight with a cup of tea, gotta keep up my strength for the cold weather ya know. Here is the best part... The grocery store paid me to take the mix off their hands. After Christmas the quick bread mixes were on clearance for $1.15, I had coupons for $.75 off which they double, end results is they paid me $.10 to get them out of the store. Super happy that I had 6 coupons so I stocked up. Also got a deal on M&M's they were marked down to $1.25, had some $1.00 off coupons so they were only $.25 each, of course the are holiday colors red and green but who cares. I even thought hey I could open them up and sort them out, use the red ones for Valentines day and the green ones for St Patricks day, thought again, who am I kidding my family could care less what color they are.

Figure we will all be home bound tomorrow so I will put together a few page kits tonight to work on for the next few days. I am determined to finish the durn Halloween scrapbooks. Thought I would be working on updating the Christmas albums by now :(. Hope everyone has a safe, warm few days if you are in the path of this southern storm.