The Other Foot Finally Dropped . . . . All Is Well, All Is Well

I need to preface this post that I just copied from my personal blog. It will explain a little journey we have been on for some months now. click here.

I Love to Be Needed . . . .Especially When No PooPoo Diaper is Involved!

This last week has brought a lot of reflecting and lots of sharing between Jon and I. Either he has learned to act a lot better or I am still of use to the sweet ole' guy.

We are now officially on our second round of being "newly weds" and living on our food storage with cinched up belts. Jon has suggested two notches. Isn't he too cute and funny? I do love my funny hubby! He doesn't realize we have already cinched up past that, preparing for the "just in case" scenario.

That may sound discouraging, but it isn't. (Give me a break, it's the "first" day.) for entertainment, we used to get some silly idea and be out the door in 20 minutes, or less to have some great free or really cheap fun . . . . no movies were ever dreamed of, not even matinees. I could pack a picnic lunch in no time! That included a baby after 10 months and cloth diapers. We can do it again . . . well maybe not quite as fast.

Jon's folks gave us money to go out on our second anniversary and we were so uncomfortable in a reataraunt that we didn't know what to do with ourselves . . . until ran into a family we knew from church and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Tonight's hot date is Jon watching football with his head on my lap, kind of, snuggling with two chihuahuas and me blogging before I send out the food storage info to my ward members. He just unknowly corrected me, he said he is "having quality time with his dog that just growled at him". Shall I let him read this before or after I post it? I think after? After, he doesn't know how to take it off the blog to preserve his dignity.

We were eating our food storage, but back then we didn't realize how little of it we had. Now, we have to walk around it, no matter what room we are in. I did have more in bottles, but we didn't have a freezer. I knew 3-4 ways to fix beans, now I have too many ideas to count and the Internet.

Now our biggest problem is how not to over feed our bottoms, not how to grow healthy babies. We now have grown children with good ideas and we can share and work together to make things work, like cars ;-D, taxi service, grocery shopping, splitting stuff so that we can use up larger, cheaper quantities and have nothing go bad.

So time to throw out the lemonade and bring on the lemon chiffon pie. Sure glad I froze up all those lemons last winter! See Below

Thinking Out of The Box . . .

Instead of making cheese over the last week, I decided to finish up doing something with all of the citrus coming off our trees in the back yard. Finish one project before starting the next ... blah, blah, blah.

I knew we would never eat all the tangerines, so I decided to bottle them. The quarts are kind of big, but they will bre a wonderful treat after chilling in the fridge next summer. Just cost me a few lids I didn't have on hand.

Everytime I looked at the lemons and saw the beautiful rinds, I felt so wasteful just throwing them. So one day for lunch I ate and made lemon zest with a bunch of them. I figured I saved about $10 in the half hour it took to eat lunch.

Can't stop there, can we? Next trip to the store I got oranges, with gorgeous rinds, of course. A bottle of orange zest runs about $5, now saved. While running around Costco on Wednesday, trying samples with the granddaughters (great entertainment and those little gals are great food critics ;-) , some limes, with gorgeous rinds, reached out, grabbed me, and just begged to be taken home with us. I've never seen lime zest, but come on, how often do we squeeze a little lime juice over our Mexican food? Close your eyes and just imagine the wonderful flavor if a little zest was thrown in the pot at just the right time?

When I learned how to make Copy Cat Orange Chicken (Panda Express style), that has no orange juice in it, only zest. Any one interested in that recipe, regular or pantry style?

I realized this could be used to make all kind of wonderful dishes, with food storage items. All three mixed would probably make the best polynesian merinade ever!