Rain ~ Work ~ Bruschetta Chicken ~ Reading Challenge

The forecast is expecting 6 weeks of rain in two days here (starting today).  It seems like this happened the year we had a bountiful garden, so I'm praying the Weather Gods are good to us and we get through this upcoming flood.

Photo from 2016.  Just came across it and found it cute!

Hubby has been taking overtime lately.  He's been leaving the house at 6:30am and not returning until after midnight.

(not my photo)

I don't sleep well when he works so much either.  I know we could use the extra cash (new coop, new barn roof, and on and on), but it does mess with my sleep.

Making meals from the freezer and pantry has been a success.  I whipped up a zucchini and swiss chard frittata for a breakfast.

By the way, freezing organic ricotta, cottage cheese, cream cheese and sour cream has been very handy for baked meals.  The texture changes when thawed, but works great for baked recipes.  I will do that again, since I have no access to raw milk of any kind in our area.  By the way, does organic Parmesan cheese freeze well?

I baked some banana bread and we had Bruschetta chicken and Italian roasted cauliflower for dinner - YUM!  I made homemade balsamic drizzle for it too.  Aside from not finding fresh basil (my indoor plant didn't have enough), it was amazing.

Here is a photo of the book I borrowed from the library.  It contains the heart cross stitch pattern I used on my kitchen towel.

I think I will do this.  It will inspire me to read more.  Does "blueberry" count as a "color" in a book title?  I'm gonna say yes.  I have a book to finish.


Do not start a new project.

Do not start a new project.

Starts new project.😆

Random Tidbits

Hard to believe this was Jan 7th, 2015.  Five years ago.  This year we do not have snow, but we are told lots of rain is heading our way, with a small bit of snow.  Gotta love that sunshine we had back then.

It didn't take long for our internet service to hike their rates.  I called, there are no "deals" right now, and I was told all customers rates went up.  We now pay $70.00/month just for internet.  Unfortunately, we are in the boonies, and extremely limited to any other source.  One said nope, we can't get service through those trees.

The chickens are laying, but on a limited basis.  Not sure if it's just their slow return to laying or lack of sunshine.  I'm just thankful for the eggs.

Freezer rotation is still in progress.  I dug out one area of the freezer, re-organized and made notes on what meals it all could be used for.  I also made notes in my "canning" journal, to better utilize what we put up last fall, and to better prep for next year.

I found a quart bag of frozen whole hot peppers (misc).  Any suggestions?  It's not enough to can hot pepper jelly.  Hm.  Just pull and chop and add to recipes?  Thaw and dehydrate?   Hubby must have brought them home from work (from a co-worker), and didn't tell me.

I also, and keeping to my goals, tossed some garbage from the garage.  Every little bit helps the process much easier this spring in cleaning it completely out.  Cleaned up more in my bedroom (have a few bags lingering of netting that need cut), tossed more in the garbage, started another box for clothing donation too.

Aurora (barn cat) now has her own outdoor cat house.  It has a clear flip door on each end.  Once I know she'll use it, I'll be adding a heating element (for outdoors) for her.  She's getting up in the years, and we felt she needed it.  It is thermal, and has a back door so if any unwanted critters want to join her she can escape quickly.  It's water-proof, and stores flat come spring time.

I made a quick trip to the library, and Romeo didn't even notice I was gone (ha ha!).  I'm testing the waters as to train him to not be kenneled while gone for short periods of time.  I mean he needs to be able to get to the door and scare the pants off someone while I'm gone.  He's doing very well too.  He's such a good dog.