March 2012 Budget Challenge

[sotsuguyou]

Grats bobbiegirl2010!!

[Valiant]

Way to go, bobbiegirl! Another breakthrough for your daycare; once you've got your foot in the door (so to speak), your reputation will continue to grow by client recommendation and advertising.


Today:
- finish final income tax paperwork
- other paperwork
- slice roasted beef-roast
- cook potatoes, carrots, remove beef tallow from chilled roast drippings & make gravy, DESSERT: apple cobbler
- practise piano & guitar
- laundry

More snow, and the snowploughs are out this morning; backyard & garden look so beautiful with the fresh snow on them and all of the garden and ornamental features emphasized in relief...it's so peaceful and lovely.

[sotsuguyou]

Blowing snow again outside today and road conditions are pretty nasty *glares* so I decided some comfort food after a stressful commute was in order. Some chicken, veggies and pie dough later, I have some piping hot chicken pot pies.

I have some extra chicken stock left and I have craving to whip up some clam chowder tomorrow for lunch (a can of baby clams, some potatoes and yum!).

[Abby5]

Blowing snow again outside today and road conditions are pretty nasty *glares* so I decided some comfort food after a stressful commute was in order. Some chicken, veggies and pie dough later, I have some piping hot chicken pot pies.

I have some extra chicken stock left and I have craving to whip up some clam chowder tomorrow for lunch (a can of baby clams, some potatoes and yum!).

It has been such I long time since I had a pot pie!!!

[sotsuguyou]

Happy Birthday Abby5!

I used a pretty straight forward recipe by Ina Garten off Foodnetwork.com. It hasn't failed me yet.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/i...ipe/index.html.

[Shwa Girl]

We are so pleased that we can look at the grocery flyers and say, "Have it. Don't need more this week."

This is a blessing!

[Valiant]

2nd copy of Income Tax done; had to study the CRA term-page yesterday in order to clarify and understand how to do it this year, it's getting so complicated a person almost needs an accountant and a lawyer to do their return. I also made notes on my tax return which I took from the CRA website, for the CRA accountants to read, because in the past some of them have been confused to.

Some other paperwork to do today, then work on housework and cooking.

Organized my pantry this morning, folded all the plastic bags and stacked the plastic tubs. Amazingly, I still have 2 Kellogg's cereal left, plus some more that I store in plastic ice-cream pails, from all of the Kellogg's FPC deals in 2010 and 2011.

Also, I need to finish the last rag-rug border asap, so I can send it along with DS's birthday parcel next week. And after that, I want to put my tablecloth and good china place-setting back on my kitchen table. I use my good things all the time, but lately my table has been piled with stacks of rag-rug projects, and tax return paperwork. It will be nice to get back to normal again.

More snow yesterday, but we need it for the crops, so I'm not complaining, except for the fact that I have to shovel out my sidewalk and steps again.

Have a great weekend, all!

[Valiant]

Today turned out to be a day of caring for my own needs.
This morning, I baked a pan of cornbread, and made a big jar of blackberry jam. I also cooked up a pot of dried, frozen apricots to make fruit. They'll swell in the pot, and then I want to take some of them out and puree them in the blender with some cream I've poured off some frozen milk. Then I pour the mix into a yogurt tub and freeze it to make sherbet.

After reading a good book, and having a long nap, I checked out the fridge contents again. I started the soup-pot boiling, and dumped in the last section of turkey carcass from Christmas, added a packet of Sidekicks "Harvest Chicken" mix & a packet of Lipton dried chicken noodle soup mix, some frozen celery, chopped onions, chives; saw some shrivelling carrots in the crisper, and scraped & chopped 3 for the soup pot. Then added some beef gravy stock, potato stock, and a few chopped canned tomatoes at the end.
Delicious for supper; and now cooling.
While the soup-pot was boiling, I also boiled 6 eggs to make sandwiches, etc., and tidied the fridge, which is nicely replenished with food again.

And now a large pile of stacked dirty dishes awaits me.

[Shwa Girl]

I agree that good china places should be used more often.
Otherwise they start to get lines in them and are not very pretty.
Going to get ours out and create more special occasions on a weekly basis.

[lekate]

Today I didn't spend anything at the mall! We had to go and find swim trunks for my boo for our trip to Cuba next week. I've been very bad for buying excessively just because, so this makes me happy. We did go out for Vietnamese but only got entree's, no appy's and no drinks (well one's we'd have to pay for, water and tea are free there).

I found pins to pin my t-shirts together to form the quilt, but alas, my cat kept getting in the way when I tried to do it. She's sleeping now so I could try again....

[Abby5]

My main goal is to have some no spend days...how many should I start with? 15? I am thinking Monday ( cause I have app't usually that day) and Friday (cause new ads come out). So ...???

[Valiant]

More snow fell in the night, which is going to make it hard to get around to do my errands unless the snowplough comes out again.

Today:
- bake a large pan of potato wedges
- collect cream, make & freeze apricot sherbet
- shovel snow off sidewalk & steps
- practise & listen to inspirational music


Sherbet Improv. Recipe:
- 2 cups of cooked fruit or berries (cooked with sugar to taste)
- 2 cups cream (poured off from frozen milk)
- 2 dollops of Cool Whip topping (this creates a smooth & fluffy texture)
Buzz in blender; pour into yogurt tubs; freeze till firm.

[Shwa Girl]

More snow fell in the night, which is going to make it hard to get around to do my errands unless the snowplough comes out again.

Today:
- bake a large pan of potato wedges
- collect cream, make & freeze apricot sherbet
- shovel snow off sidewalk & steps
- practise & listen to inspirational music


Sherbet Improv. Recipe:
- 2 cups of cooked fruit or berries (cooked with sugar to taste)
- 2 cups cream (poured off from frozen milk)
- 2 dollops of Cool Whip topping (this creates a smooth & fluffy texture)
Buzz in blender; pour into yogurt tubs; freeze till firm.

The apricot sherbet sounds great. What kind of milk do you use for the cream? Homogenized?

[sweetproserpina]

Spent a little yesterday- went to a Mom2Mom sale and picked up some clothes for DD, only spent around 5$- great deals. Also spent around 13$ on chicken feed, but since Georgie's laying again, at least she is starting to earn her keep Also looked in on getting a few more chickens, prices have gone up at the feed store! Will see if I can get some pullets from the lady I got georgie from last year instead...

Going out the the sugar shack with family today- so will spend some cash, but it's only once a year, and the pancakes and syrup are worth it, yum!

[Valiant]

The apricot sherbet sounds great. What kind of milk do you use for the cream? Homogenized?

I use 2% pasteurized/homogenized milk, though whole milk would yield more cream. I pour it into 2 Smucker's jam jars, 7/8 full, with the lid loose, and freeze them in my fridge freezer-compartment. Then I remove 1 per day, and let it thaw in the fridge. The cream thaws first, and I pour it off into another jar which I keep in the fridge for coffee-cream or baking. (Make sure the jars are washed clean, and I also sterilize them with a drop of antibacterial dish-soap, then rinse twice.) I always keep 2 jars of milk frozen, and that gives me more than enough in ready supply to thaw for cream, and it's far cheaper to get cream this way than buying cream in cartons.

````
That sugar-shack experience sounds wonderful; I'll be there...in spirit.