Day 33, Thursday brings Annie's favorite breakfast and takes away Grandma

Today the day has not been so much about the food, but the visit.

We stayed home a bit to hear stories from Grandma over tea (with sugar).

Sarah with Grandma

Kate enjoys her Grandma

Emily Lucy and Grandma Lucy

Mercy, Grandma, Charity

Peter, Grandma, Noah

Trudy gives a hug

Christiana gets a hug

 Breakfast menu:  my special mix of hot mush, milk and sugar

Cost:  $2.13

2 cups oats:  .24

1 cup farina:  .25

2 cups cornmeal:  .30

1/2 pkg graham crackers, about 6 full crackers:  .25

1/2 gallon milk, for cereal and tea:  1.00

sugar:  .09

Sack Lunches:  spaghetti, carrot sticks, tortilla chips

Cost:  $3.33

1.5 lbs noodles:  .90

hunts spaghetti sauce:  .79

spaghetti sauce flavor packet:  .33

19 oz carrots:  .32

1 bag chips:  .99

Dinner menu:  chef salad with croutons

Cost: $7.54

2 hearts romaine:  .88

1 head iceberg:  .83

1 head leaf lettuce:  .20

carrots:  .12

22 eggs:  1.80

8 oz parmesan cheese:  1.00

homemade croutons:  .99

garlic powder:  .10

8 oz ranch dressing:  .25 (from a gallon I just bought at cash & carry)

2 oz fat free italian:  .13

1 lb cottage cheese:  .99

butter for croutons:  .25

Today's total:  $13.00

Day 32, Irish fare and the story of Saint Patrick's life over dinner

We talked together this afternoon about the Irish potato famine, and about related topics---starvation, emigration to America, rich landowners and oppression of the poor...

We looked up some info online about Saint Patrick.  There are 2 remaining letters written by him, one of them a defense of his lifework, which included biographical information.

He lived very early, earlier than I had imagined.  He was stolen from his home in England to become a slave in Ireland. 

 Years later, after his Christian faith was strengthened in the loneliness and hardship of slavery, and having learned the language and culture of the Irish, Patrick, acting upon a vision from God, escaped on a ship back to his family.  Later, he acted upon another vision in which the voice of the Irish were calling for him to come.  

 He returned to Ireland where, using his knowledge of the Irish language and customs of the Irish druids, he spread the knowledge of Jesus Christ until, in his lifetime, almost all of Ireland had converted to Christianity.

Here was our Irish cuisine of the day.

boiled cabbage, cooked in the broth of the pork roast

chopped by a left-handed twin

who wore a special Irish headdress

Plain and simple as it was, I thought they wouldn't much care for the cabbage, but I could have made twice as much.  They were all asking for seconds.

There it is, not much color, boiled cabbage, potatoes, and pork in gravy

We added another table to make enough room for 13.  Grandma got the head of the table tonight.  She is part Irish.  We would have made her special Irish Dill Bread if our oven had been going.  She had to content herself with white fluff from the store instead.

We colored up the applesauce.  Wow, that was the greenest applesauce ever!

Cherries we canned from the orchard this summer added more color and flavor!

There are always plenty of dishes to do at our house.  Extras tonight with all the goblets we used...

Leftovers were plentiful.  Sarah and I will eat them tomorrow, because we can't eat the tomato sauce in the spaghetti for lunches

There was pork and gravy leftover as well.

After supper Rodger and I got lunches ready for tomorrow.  He peeled the carrots.

I cooked noodles and spaghetti sauce.

I mixed them together.  Macaroni noodles are easier to eat at school than long noodles.

It smelled good around the house tonight, plus lunches are made!  Whew!

 I was afraid to add up the price tag, suspecting that we had gone over again, but we slipped through under budget, even with the raspberry acai juice on the menu.  We had 3 extra bucks, with three extra people.

 Today's total:  $12.15

breakfast menu, Grandma style:  western omelets, toast and pancakes

Cost:  $3.32

14 eggs:  1.17

toast,  free from the store, really!  (I guess everybody who came into the store was given a free loaf to try a new brand which Albertsons is introducing.  I got handed one at the checkout counter.   I'm so happy, because my oven isn't functional, and Grandma loves toast.)

diced celery:  free from last week's bride

Onion:  .10

batchand a half of pancakes:  1.45

jam:  .30 

Lunches:  hamburger soup leftovers from last night, already paid for in yesterday's totals, fry bread, peaches

Cost:  $1.80

12  containers soup and 1 of potatoes and gravy:  no charge, paid already

fry bread, two loaves worth:  .60

1/2 cup oil for frying:  .20

toast for Grandma:  free from Albertsons

peaches:  2 quarts:  1.00

Supper menu:  mashed potatoes, pork roast in gravy, boiled cabbage, applesauce, canned cherries, raspberry acai juice

Cost:  $7.03

7 lb potatoes, mashed:  .70

2 lb pork sirloin roast:  2.00 what a deal

1 head cabbage,2 lb:  .78

flour 1 cup for thickening:  .10

gravy flavoring, 2 oz:  .35

1.5 qts applesauce: .60

1 qt canned cherries:  1.00

acai juice:  1.50

And a happy time with Grandma was had by all.

  Peter even helped with the dishes again.

Day 31, and Grandma makes 13! Hearty vegetable beef soup with brown rice. Whole wheat bread. Healthy.

Here is our precious Grandma, Rodger's mom, visiting from Canada.  An added bonus to having Grandma visit is that the children are allowed to have sugar in their tea during her whole stay.

beef and vegetable soup with brown rice, very hearty

half the fry-bread was dipped in cinnamon sugar for dessert

here is the whole wheat plain fry-bread, which we dipped in our soup

soup with an African tablecloth on the table

Noah made sure he had a place next to Peter.  Boys have to hang together when they can in this family...they're outnumbered 10 to 2.

Trudy taking a call from her cousin Grace before her first bite

It looks like fried chicken, but it's not.  It's whole wheat fried bread.

I fried the dough because my oven isn't functional yet since the baking day at the school.  A range top is all I have.

I also fried up enough for tomorrow in the sack lunches, much to everybody's delight.  Hopefully I'll get an oven going soon.  I don't like serving too much fried food.

breakfast menu:   cold cereal and milk

Cost: $2.90

14 bowls of cereal (Rodger and Peter got a double portion):  1.40

3 quarts milk:  1.50

Sack lunches:  whole wheat cheese sandwiches, carrot sticks, gogurt for the kids, canned peaches

Cost:  $4.06

2 boules of my honey oat bread:  .76

8 oz cheese (Rodger sliced it very thin):  .75

1/2 head iceberg lettuce:  .42

24 oz carrots:  .41

one box gogurt (8 individual):  .72(close dated)

2 quarts of canned peaches:  1.00

Snack:  2 sleeves of crackers

Cost:  $.50

Supper menu:  beef/vegetable/rice soup with fry-bread

Cost:  $4.52

1 lb brown rice, boiled in the soup base:  .49

hamburger meat:  .86

1/2 full stock of celery, chopped:  .38

20 oz carrots:  .34

2 oz beef soup base:  .49

1/2 lb each, frozen peas and frozen corn:  .98

1 diced onion:  .10

whole wheat fry bread:  .60

1/2 cup oil for frying:  .20

1/2 cup sugar:  .04

cinnamon:  .04

Today's food bill (remember, we have 2 extra people, so I am allowing 2 extra bucks for spending):  $11.98

   Having extras to feed isn't usually a problem for me, but this time, with our project going, plus being tired from the baking, has me discombobulated.  I was in a pretty good rhythm, and now things have been shaken up a little bit.  It takes more mental effort.  

Tomorrow we will have 3 exra Boothies.  Grandma B can't eat potatoes, so we'll have to come up with something else for her tomorrow, even though it will be Saint Patrick's Day.

Day 30, with beautiful blossoms

Back to school schedule this morning.  And it seemed too early, still in the dark of night, with the time change. 

After picking Noah up from Kindergarten at 11:30, we drove down to the ranch to show Annie the apricots in bloom. 

my camera was only 1 inch from this happy worker bee

 I took this shot from the safety of my closed van window.  Many of these hives are placed throughout the orchard.  They are rented just for the time the trees are in bloom.

This unpruned apricot tree displays beautiful long branches of blossoms.

Noah thought Annie should have blossoms in her hair.  She is patiently letting him decorate her.  Notice the purple wildflowers all around the headband.  He has an eye for these things.

There she is, all decorated.  Gus came over for some love and affection when she knelt down.

The hill ranch has the earliest apricots.  It is several degrees warmer up here than down in the flat of the valley

There are a lot of apricots in  bloom.

Noah likes to pretend they are rockets, but really these are smudge pots, which heat the orchard on frosty nights, so we don't lose the apricots.

When the wind machines are on, it sounds like a helicopter invasion.  They are interspersed throughout the orchards in the area.  Stirring up the air on chilly nights keeps cold pockets from settling into the low dips of the orchards, which would freeze the blossoms.

If only I could keep some of the lovely fragrance which enveloped us in the orchard today.  The sight was beautiful, made more so by the magnificence of the smell.

Gus came over again to be near me as I posed with Noah by the blossoming tree.

I'll continue this post after I pick up Annie at the dentist.  Stay tuned.

Well, I didn't get to it after the dentist, but here are this day's eating adventures...It does seem that peanut butter is the choice when a fast lunch is needed, doesn't it?

 breakfast menu:  standard fare, cold cereal and milk

Cost:  $2.80

cold cereal servings for 12, with Peter's larger:  1.30

half gallon plus 2 cups milk:  1.50

lunch menu:  peanut butter sandwiches, oranges, carrot sticks, pretzels

Cost:  $2.84

3 boules of honey oat bread:  1.14

5 oz peanut butter:  .30

6 oz jam:  .30

9 oranges, leftover from baking day:  no charge

22 oz carrots:  .38

12 baggies of pretzels, 16 each person:  .72

snack:  bananas with milk and sugar

Cost:  $1.91

12 bananas:  1.28

milk:  .60

sugar:  .03

supper:  chicken gravy and mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, frozen corn, frozen peas

Cost:  $6.12

12 oz chicken tenders:  2.13

10 lbs potatoes, mashed: 1.00

gravy mix:  .45

flour for thickening, 3/4 cup:  .08

2 tsp soup flavor:  .10

12 dinner rolls:  .40

1 lb frozen corn:  .98

1 lb frozen peas:  .98

Today's total bill:  $13.67, over by 1.67!  Ouch! (remember we're on 12 for $12 this week)

Day 29 brings home 2 more Boothies and a new challenge, plus, get a glimpse of the SLS

 My flash interrupted

a candle light meeting of the SLS, The Secret Lenten Society

Noah has just made a grab from the SLS prize bag.  The SLS meets nightly to read the story of the passion of Christ all during lent.  Sarah is the leader of the society.  It's not really secret, but having it be a secret society makes it way more special.

In the background you can see tons of supplies from the baking day on the table.

This week is going to have to be 12 for $12. I am hoping to get some buy-in from my college kids. Peter is used to being independent...and eating whatever is in his fridge. We'll see how he manages himself with my fridge.  

The younger kids, however, have figured it out their way.  They said, "let's use the extra two dollars on meat every day this week."  We're carnivores.

What a night to lose an hour of sleep!  This was a tired morning.  Cold cereal and roll scraps for breakfast. 

 Breakfast menu:  cold cereal and milk (a few early birds got some bits of orange roll, you snooze, you lose)

cost:  $2.20 (milk prices are up again)

one box of cinnamon life:  1.00

half gallon milk:  1.20

 Lunch was had without me, because I had to go teach a childbirth class.  I had boiled black beans for Friday, and saved out a huge portion of them for today.  I just added chili powder and salt, and voila, black bean chili.  They ate it with fresh honey oat bread we made yesterday, and a green salad.  Healthier than yesterday, by a long shot.

 Lunch menu:  black bean chili, honey oat bread, green salad

Cost:  $2.12
iceberg lettuce, 1 head:  .83
black beans, 17 cups cooked (4 cups dry):  .71
5 tbsp chili powder:  .20
honey oat loaf:  .38

Supper menu:  chicken gravy with carrot slices, mashed potatoes, honey oat bread---to take to potluck
Cost:  $4.90
10 lbs potatoes, cooked and mashed:  1.00
1.5 lbs boiled chicken tenders and broth:  3.14
1 cup flour for thickening:  .10
poultry gravy flavoring:  .66
22 oz carrots for the gravy:  .37

We made a huge amount of gravy  to go with the chicken.  It was a good thing we did, because an extra family came to the group, and we had plenty to invite them along. The ten pounds of potatoes disappeared pronto.

 Today's total, even with the huge potluck portions:  $9.59

Day 28 A long and satisfying day of baking, with an auction and a luau

Up early!  Shower and head for the school.  By 7am, get the supplies laid out, hairnets put on (hair in the dough is anathema), and the home-ec timer figured out. 

We finally wrote down the 8 steps to setting the timer on the classroom white board, so we could make it work!  8 steps to set a timer?  Who designed that?  Some man who never baked with a timer in his life, that's who.

I gave instructions at home for feeding the children who did not come to work with me, and brought a 99 cent bag of frosted mini-spooners for the ones who did.  We also brought milk and tea, but forgot the lettuce.  So much for our leafy greens today...

Only after the evening was over did I learn what the family consumed in my absence.  Not balanced, shall we say.

For breakfast they had eggs and rice with soysauce.  For lunch they had rice and soysauce.  The jar of peaches I set out on the table was still there when I returned.  I guess they were happy---Noah loves, loves, loves rice and soysauce.

We had somewhat better fare.  After eating cold cereal, Annie grabbed a bit of the dough which was rising and made it into some little round rolls to eat with morning tea and jam.  Of course we brought our water boiler and tea.

We also asked Emily and her friend Elyse to cut up the zested oranges, so they wouldn't go to waste.  That was our vitamin C for the day.  There were lots of them.

oranges, our health food du jur 

 

Elyse and Emily, with Kate between

that's a big hunk of dough

Sarah R carries a batch of dough, while sporting a fashion hair net.  We made 15 batches of dough this size.

It took 2 6ft tables to roll out each batch

Sarah L is helping put the rolls on pans as I cut them.

that is one long roll of dough

Charity is at the mixer measuring out a batch

Mercy made 12 batches of the roll dough

Trudy stirring up the flavoring

Even Barb I. sported a hair net when she came in.  Stylin'.

rack after rack held the rolls as they cooled

Mary H. separating the rolls for putting onto the cake pads.

Any ugly rolls, end pieces, or ones that got "the high browns" were put out for tasting.  We ate well.  (You can't just let that stuff go to waste!)  We also had many visitors who followed their noses out to see what was happening in the home ec room. They were all rewarded with a foretaste of coming attractions at the auction's bake sale. 

Kate showing off her style

newly frosted rolls waiting to be wrapped

While we were baking in the Home-Ec portable, the men were preparing two porkers for the luau.  They had been roasting all day, with the smells wafting our way.

Just about to be placed in the foyer for carving at the luau

Jonathan I., in his Hawaiian shirt and lei, poses for me by a porker.  His dad was in charge of the luau fixings.  We shared some of our rolls throughout the day with his crew, and in turn, we received some awesome asian dish of vegetables, meat, and rice noodles.  We pre-functioned on that stuff shamelessly.  It kept us going through the long afternoon.

There is an important biblical principle here---"Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads the grain." I made sure my volunteers ate, and had some to take home.  My children supped on reject pesto rolls and orange rolls while I was at the Luau with my husband. 

We sold all the "beautiful" rolls.  There were about 780 of them.  Wow, what a day's work.  At 2 dollars each, the rolls really helped raise some money for the school.

 Our only out of pocket spending for food today was: $4.02

2 cups (before cookiing) white rice: .91 

8 eggs:  .72

1 gallon of milk:  2.39

 

This was not what I would call a normal day.