Cooking, Canning, Living and Learning

What a weekend!  I wish there were six more to fit MOST of the same things in it!  And it's kind of blurry, so I may not get all the items done in the right order...

Friday night, Maddy and Matthew brought over make and take pizzas for everyone!  Then Maddy, Matthew, Meri and (bf) Ryan had a D&D session with Ryan and Jen.  I mostly fussed around upstairs thinking about the things I should be doing and then binged watched some more Modern Family.  I'm committed to 11 seasons...  Well into the 7th now.  I take breaks and then come back to it.

The next morning, Ryan said that I should join them in D&D sometime and really it's too much right now.  I can't commit to a book, much less a game that was one of Robb's favorites.  Laying on my bed passively binge watching a tv show is all I can do right now for relaxation.  And that's ok.

On Saturday, I thought I was going to redo the bodice on the wedding dress sample, but decided to can instead.  I cleaned a bunch of chicken bones out of the freezer and made bone broth.

At the same time, I found some ham bits in the freezer too, thawed them and canned ham and bean soup.  Calculated out the carbs and it's 35 per pint.  One didn't seal so I had it for lunch yesterday.

That afternoon I went to pick up Leon from his mom's and saw these two pumpkins!

Luke

 

and Nova.

Their hugs just get me!

Sunday morning, I got some yogurt going.  By that night I was concerned that it was still just milk...

And this morning, I realized what I'd done wrong.  I forgot to wrap up the IP with blankets and let it incubate for 12 hours!!!!  I'd stuck it straight into the fridge after adding my starter.

I'm so used to doing things from memory that I forgot the most important part!

That would explain my LAST failed batch last weekend...  And I blamed the thermometer that time.

Yesterday after church, Maddy and Matthew came over and did some laundry.  Maddy waited patiently for me to try a homemade ketchup recipe and get it water bathing,

 then we hung out on the couch and looked through family pictures out of a tub that Robb's sister had given us.  She'd been sorting all her mom's pics and I got anything that had to do with Robb or our family!  I WILL add scrapbooking back to my hobbies someday.  I've got boxes of pictures in the garage that my kids have never seen of the early years.

As Maddy could attest, there were TONS of Meri pics.  Gma was Meri's primary babysitter from birth on during the days while I worked.

We were stumped as to the meaning of this one.

Maddy was sure that this is Meri's backup plan jobwise.

Ryan informed us it was because she didn't have pockets...

oh.

For supper, I had already riced a cauliflower on Saturday and had it stored in jars in the fridge.  So Maddy and I made a cauliflower/zucchini/green pepper fried rice and served it with the blue bag chicken from Aldi.  It turned out pretty good!  I have a quart of that left for lunches this week.

Meri stopped by and grabbed some groceries to take to her staff meeting and brought back a quart of the taco meat and most of the rest of the fixings.  EVEN MORE meals ready to throw on the table this week at a moments notice!

Then this morning, I made a bunch of sugar free cherry jellos to keep on hand in the fridge for when I need something to snack on or a sweet treat.

AND I just found out what happens when everyone in the house does their own laundry and then tries to be nice to the person who ran the last load in the washer. My clothes get pilled and shrink...

sigh...  I will never leave a load in the washer before bed again.

It's looking like it will be a long week.

Is it Friday yet?