Southern Popcorn

After my super duper couponing morning I got busy on this pile of okra. I intended on battering and freezing it all for fried okra but I ran out of steam so I threw some in the dehydrator. I have a friend who is a gumbo/jumbalia freak so I will pass the dehydrated okra on to her, we already have plenty. I think what I did batter and freeze should be enough for us this winter, not sure yet, I will be vacuum packing it today and decide whether we will need more or not. If you have never grown okra before give it a try, it is so easy to grow and you will have more okra than you could ever use. I am using Paula Deen's fried okra recipe, it was a hit for supper Friday night so I should have some happy campers come Sunday dinner this winter. I need to dig around and find more soup/gumbo recipes to use the dehydrated okra in for the winter.

Super Duper couponing yesterday morning was so fun, made the hour or two Sunday night getting it all together worth the effort. I spent $106.00 and saved $149.00. Who can't use $149.00 in free stuff that you will need? I was able to stock up on lots of things at a great price, one of the stores had sugar on sale for $1.99, I had coupons for and additional $.50 off so 4 pounds of sugar was down to $1.49, love that, I use lots of sugar during the winter for holiday cooking. This month will be stocking the pantry with baking and toiletries mostly. We have a freezer full of meats, another freezer full of mainly fruit and some veggies that we don't like dehydrated or canned, the canning pantry is slap a.. full from a summer of canning, other than working with apples for apple sauce, apple butter and dehydrated apples I shouldn't need much more to keep us fat and happy this winter. Other than milk, butter and eggs I won't be doing much grocery shopping in September so I can direct our spending to the baking end of the pantry and begin Christmas shopping.

Oh Lord, Christmas shopping gives me cold chills, our family has gotten so large that Christmas shopping has turned into a real chore and a huge expense, each year we try to cut back more and more but the reality is we keep adding more and more family members. Our spending keeps growing but the individual piles for each of our girls and their families are getting smaller, we are going to have to have a few long talks at Sunday dinner on expectations for Christmas this year with the kids. The madness needs to stop

Sunday paper rocks

Our Sunday paper had over $300.00 in coupons yesterday!! I would normally run right out and pick up 2 or 3 more papers when the coupons are this good but..... we had Sunday dinner earlier in the day as in 11:00 AM, holy Hannah, try and pull that off, started cooking at 7:00 AM. Then it was on to the store with Heather and my sister to return some baby gifts from her shower on Saturday, I had Kara for the afternoon while Mommy worked and Daddy did their yard work, got Bob packed up and on the road with a cooler full of pre-cooked meals, a friend dropped by to see Kara for the first time, pulled the rest of the bell peppers from the garden, then...... finally sat down with the paper at 8:00 PM. Once I saw that the coupons really were good ones and not just cosmetics, hair products and such I ran to our corner store to pick up a few more but they were sold out, hit 6 more spots all were sold out. Looks like lots of folks have joined the coupon band wagon this year, I have never had a problem picking up and extra paper in the past, durn I hate I missed out.
Here is an interesting thing that came up Sunday, I was showing my friend who I haven't seen in way to long our dehydrated food shelf, her response was are you preparing for apocalypse? WHAT???? Na, just trying to eat from the garden or our local farmers market so we aren't eating all the preservatives in grocery store food or taking our chances on salmonella from fresh foods in the grocery store. I think she thinks I am now a certifiable nut case, humm maybe so. Thank goodness I didn't show her our canning shelves or she would have been calling the funny farm for sure!! Now understand before I get on my soapbox that I love this friend and respect her opinions. Have I spent too much time in the sun this summer working the garden and maybe lost some brain cells? Maybe the canner or dehydrator has pickled my brain a bit? Have I been hanging out with too many folks that are proud to be called Bubba?
So this got me thinking am I a nut?
We enjoy having a garden, even if it is a pain in the a..
We love fresh foods, why would I throw away what we can't eat in the summer? So I can or dehydrate it.
I like supporting local farms and the fresh foods they have to offer
We have no idea where our foods are coming from in the grocery store, they are not inspected often enough.
Eating home grown or locally grown food is cheaper.
Having a pantry full keeps me out of the store buying full priced food if I should run out of something.
I have cut my medication of 400 milligrams a day down to 100 milligrams a day since staying away from food preservatives. Savings of $441.00 a month on drug, yearly savings of $5,292, that ain't chicken feed ladies!!
I like to cook, and it is cheaper than hanging at the mall UGHHHH (hate malls)
I think the jars look pretty (Ok, that might be a little nuts)
If we have an ice storm I don't have to fight the crowds in the store, if you live in the south you know what I mean.
When the flu season starts I don't have to expose myself or the Grand babies to all the germs, I have really low immunities to that crap.
The best way to really save money is to stock up with sales using coupons and rotate food.
Sooooo, I don't think I am a nut, I think I am cheap as all get out, like to cook, and like to eat well.
Thanks for letting me vent, I am headed to CVS to play the coupon game this morning, sooo excited, they have some super deals this week and I have lots of coupons to make it even sweeter.

Are you kidding me

Last night just before sundown I took a stroll around the garden, the onions in the square foot garden had finally poked above the ground and were ready to pull. Check out this sorry harvest of onions, the large onion is a standard size yellow onion the others are my pitiful onions that took all summer to grow. The only thing left in the square foot garden is sweet potatoes, I decided to leave them until the first frost and see if just maybe they will increase in size, not likely but will see. I have been replacing everything in the square foot garden with herbs, the herbs seem to be doing fine so I will be adding more as I can find them, not much to pick from at the garden centers right now.

Had a wonderful visit with my dear friend Val yesterday from Charleston, we had a nice lunch and spent the afternoon playing with Kara and catching up, I shared nicely and let Val hold Kara the entire time!! Val is one of those ladies that make your head spin with all the energy she has and how much she can accomplish in one day and her scrapbooks/cards are always beautiful. She is a perfectionist unlike me!! She is also a real live pastry chef as in former Johnson and Wales student, Val like me and so many of my other best buddies love to cook so I of course had to show off some of my new kitchen gadgets to someone who really gets it! Ha

Now off to the freezer and pull out a hunk of meat to start dinner with tonight then whip up something special for desert, Bob will be home for the first time in 2 weeks and will be ready for some home cookin and Grand baby time so the House should be rocking by the afternoon. I made a dent in the scrap room yesterday and should be able to wade through a little more today, lots of things will be going in the garage sale box, enough is enough!!

Oh My....

Decided I better do a bit of inventory on the freezers yesterday to see if we had any holes to fill, we do need more bacon and sausage and a bit more chicken but other than that we are set as in OH MY!! I had no idea how much I really had in the meat freezer until I got in there and reorganized it. There have been so many mark down sales over the summer, seems like every time I go to the store the mark down meat section has lots to pick from, makes me wonder if folks have cut down on the meat they are buying with this awfully economy that doesn't seem to be getting any better. I use the top freezer of the extra refrigerator in the garage for frozen veggies and fruits from the garden or farmers market. Not much more room in there but I think I am done with anything else that needs to be frozen from the garden, unless we end up with some fall cabbage and broccoli. The inside freezer is for everyday use, ice cream, coconut, nuts, baking mixes and such. I keep things we use on a daily basis in that one, it stays in pretty good shape. I just have to keep my eye on the ice cream when Bob and Ty are around, it goes pretty fast.

Dehydrated a load of okra yesterday, should be the last of any we will need until next year so the rest will be going to friends and neighbors who would like some, stuff grows overnight it seems like. Put a load of sweet potatoes in the dehydrator last night I picked up at the farmers market, we will still need more of them but not to much more. Also canned 4 quarts and a pint of tomatoes from the market, next year we will need to put out more tomatoes, I hate to spend money on them when I could use my own, I think Rambo man has learned his lesson so ours will last till fall next year.

There are no more excuses not to work cleaning the scrap room today other than that I dread it so much... Kara will be coming for the afternoon so that will give me the motivation to hurry up and at least get a section or two finished before then.

Yardwork and dehydrating

We are having unbelievable weather this week, highs in the 80's lows in the 60's. Perfect for yard work and finishing up in the garden. I have the day off from baby setting the grand babies so I need to cram as much in as I can. Also have lots of okra to dehydrate and want to run to the farmers market to pick up more sweet potatoes to dehydrate later in the week. I might even find the energy to get back in the scrap room and make a dent in the mess I have made.
I love, love, love the fall, I know you ladies from north of the mason Dixon line must think we are crazy to get so excited about 80 degree weather but if you had experienced heat indexes of 105 for weeks on end you would understand how invigorating 80 degrees is to us. Even with the air conditioner on full blast heat will sap your energy.
Bob has found an apple orchard/veggie stand in VA that he has been using during the week. They have apples ready to sell that he wants to bring home for the weekend, seems early to me for apples so I told him to find out what variety they are, we need apples for apple sauce, apple butter and to dehydrate. So far I am not loving the fruit dehydrating, mine still feel a little sticky to me, veggies turn out wonderful, nice a crisp, totally dry. I would hate to dehydrate a ton of apples and have them go bad in a short period of time. I am off to mow, weed, haul away garden compost and play in the cool weather.

Thrill of coupons

Oh what a great day yesterday, I scored big time at the grocery store and CVS using coupons, sale paper and in store savings cards. At CVS I saved $58.11 and spent $54.81 only buying what we normaly use, I was able to stock up on shampoo, nuts (christmas is coming) Mac and cheese to name just a few. OK, here is a sample; Mac and cheese was 10 for $10.00 I had coupons 2 for $.50 off, brought them down to $.85 each, shampoo was on sale $.99 each, had coupon for $.50 each brought the cost down to $.49 each, can't beat that price!! And I earned extra bucks for buying, I now have a $5.00 off next puchase of $25.00 or more in addition I earned $18.00 in extra bucks so the next time I go in I will spend $25.00 and get $23.00 off. Check out drug store game on line to get a better explanation on how cool this is.
Grocery store was even better, I only needed a few things but always check out the marked down meat. I get to the store early when the butcher is just putting things out, many times if he sees you are buying he will have me hang around a bit because he has even more in the back to be taged. Bought $48.00 in meat but only cost $21.00, had a few other things to pick up and most had great coupons ended up paying full price for only milk and eggs (hope they are safe). Total bill $32.17, total savings $63.00, LOVE IT.
It takes time to work coupons, compaire weekly sales ad, make sure you are rotating what you have in the pantry and use the food saver to repakage meat and get in the frezzer but it is worth the effort.
I spent maybe 3 hours total shopping, cliping comparing, and frezzing, works out to about $40.00 an hour in wages if you figure it that way and I didn't have to comute far, the kitchen then the grocery, less than a mile of gas, I get to dress in garden casual and I am my own boss. I would say its at pretty nice deal.
I was able to finish getting the fall plants in the garden and pulling up all the dead stuff yesterday evening when it was nice and cool after spending a few hours rocking Kara while Mommy worked. SOOOOOO blessed. Durn spell check and add photo isn't working on the blog today, sorry for any and all mispelled words, I suck at spelling.