On the Road Again & What Not to Eat in WVA

Hubby & I had to take a trip to VA the week of the 4th. Drove down on Wednesday, stayed over Thursday and then on Friday, we had to drive to PA near Lake Erie(the western end of the state for those who don't know their PA geography). We slept over at a motel there because we had to pick up #2 son from camp the next morning and then drive the 6 hours home.
It was a brutal 12 hour drive on Friday....12 hours EXACTLY from the time we left the driveway at my brother's house in VA to when we pulled up to the door of the motel in PA.

We took I-64 West into West VA. To avoid having to go all the way to Charleston to pick up I-79 North, we took local Rte. 60 to Rte. 19 north once we got into WVA. Rte.60 was a wind-y road up a mountain and back down again. We stopped for gas at the first town we came to while on Rte. 60. No stoplights and ALOT more teeny tiny than the teeny tiny town where I live. There was a gas station, a bank, a garage and I snapped a pic of the other "sight" in town while sitting in the car waiting on hubby to pay for the gas.


Nice to know you can pawn your jewelry AND buy a gun or get your ammo all in the same place!
We made ok time but hit Pittsburgh right at rush hour too! I thought it would be horrible but surprisingly, the traffic was not.

West Virginia has some gorgeous scenery. But you don't want to eat Mexican food there. We stopped in some little town, near Summerville Lake. There were 3 dining options in the shopping plaza we pulled off into....a Bob Evans(our original reason for pulling in there to eat), a Chinese Restaurant(a buffet type place I believe)& a local Mexican Restaurant. Hubby loves him some Mexican food and we hadn't had it in awhile so I suggested we go there instead of Bob's(since you can eat at Bob's everywhere). That was NOT one of my better ideas it turns out! Bob's, the SAFE choice, would have been the way to go. We got some combo plates of food. The filling for my enchiladas and hubby's burritos was plain ground beef....NO seasonings at all! It was so tasteless!!
The photo on the menu of my combo dinner showed a chile relleno(a battered & fried mild poblano pepper stuffed with cheese, served w/a sauce and melted cheese on top). What arrived was a SLIVER off of a pepper under a glop of sauce & cheese. There were also not enough servers for the number of customers. This place had 2 large rooms of tables and there were 2 servers. No one bussed the dirty tables in the hour we were there, so we were surrounded by trash and yuck and out of control children. After waiting upwards of 20 min. for the check, I walked up to the register and told the guy there I wanted to pay but our waiter had disappeared and I wasn't waiting any longer for a check and here was what we ordered.lolol
I should have raised a stink about the poor food too or told him I just had a soda or something and not paid for this inedible garbage they served but I don't think he had a very good handle on the language yet and I just wanted OUT of there!
Ugh.
The place was called La Carreta or something like that. Looks like there are 3 of them locally in WVA. Take my advise if you are in southern WVA...stick to Bob's. ;-)
At least there were no "gastic repercussions" later from our horid meal....if you get my drift. ;-))

Sluggy

I am all Cooked Out!

I came across this item in the back of my pantry a few days ago, while cleaning it out. The cleaning thing is all part of my Cleaning out the Pantry/Freezer Challenge I was taking part in over on the Compact Mailing List in June. I'm working on this Challenge through July too.

I must have picked this up on clearance at Big Lots back when my daughter still ate tuna fish. It has to be over a year old in that case, or older.

I wanted to serve this but no one besides me really likes tuna much. So I decided to shake things up a bit.
I made the Tuna Helper as directed on the box, except I left out the tuna. Then I cut up some leftover raw summer squash, broccoli we bought last Friday and got some bagged crinkle cut carrots out of the freezer. I put a little Olive Oil in a hot skillet and sort of 'stir fried' the veggies while the fettuccine and sauce were simmering.

When all was cooked, instead of Tuna Fettuccine Alfredo.....


I had Fettuccine Alfredo Primavera!

We had a yummy non-meat meal for 3 and I didn't have to throw away the box of Tuna Helper.

In other Cooking news....I spent most of Monday preparing food for later use.

I chopped onions, red & yellow bell peppers.
Then I cooked multiple packages of ground beef and grilled chicken breasts on the gas grill.
I made up a meatball mixture with some of the raw ground beef, formed & cooked 42 meatballs(1/2 are for Thursday night's dinner, 1/2 for the freezer to eat later).
While the meatballs cooked I picked & pulled apart the grilled chicken, then sauted the veggies/aromatics with tomatoes, garlic and herbs/spice.
After I grated 1/2lb. each of jack and cheddar cheese, it was time to grab the tortillas and start the burrito assembly line.
A little refried beans, a big spoon of grilled chicken or ground beef, another spoon of tomato & veggies and a clump of cheese to fill each tortilla.
Fold & roll each tortilla up in foil.
Over & over again.....until I had 12 chicken & 12 beef burritos all ready to be loaded into the freezer. Here are some of them.....



The last 6 tortillas were used to make a dish of Enchiladas for Tuesday night's dinner(we've moved this meal to Wednesday now, as we had leftovers tonight). The Enchiladas are covered with foil in the fridge, awaiting the enchilada sauce and monterey jack cheese, which I'll add right before heating them up.

We'll be eating good food and doing it frugally this week!

Enchiladas on Wednesday(just top & shove it in the oven).
Spaghetti & Meatballs on Thursday(just have to boil the noodles and assemble the meal)
More leftovers on Friday(pork bbq or fettucine or enchiladas, etc, just reheat)
Eating out Chinese on Saturday(Lunch time not dinner because the lunch price is less expensive)
Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes, Carrots(in the crockpot-no work just dump it in & leave it)

I've gotten all my "real" cooking out of the way for the week. More time to spend on other things....like enjoying the pool! ;-)

Who the heck wants to be chained to the stove/oven in the summer?

Sluggy

To Matt...on his 18th Birthday

My Oldest child turned 18 on Sunday. Since #1 son is working at camp this summer & we knew we wouldn't see him on his Birthday, hubby & I took him out to lunch a week ago when we went to pick our youngest child up from camp.
The newly minted adult is the one with the goatee on the left, in the photo.

I can't believe that it's been 18 years since I gave birth to this child!
Ok...on second thought, some days it feels like it's been DECADES since he was born and that he would never leave home.lolol

He has grown to be a first rate human being, if I do say so myself. He has a generous spirit. The depth of his empathy for others amazes me at time. He showed he has the heart of a peacemaker at an early age. He was a protective big brother to his siblings when he was little. Of course, with the teenage years, he also has become their biggest vexation!
He also possesses a fine wit and can get crazy with the best of them.


He is a hard worker. He is self-directed and has leadership qualities. He is goal oriented. He is politically aware in ways far beyond his contemporaries.

He is also stubborn beyond belief. That is a double edged sword in life....it can work for you or if you aren't careful, it can be your downfall. He can be quick to anger but his heart leads him back to apologize just as quickly.

At the age of 1 & 1/2, he could concentrate on something for hours that interested him...like puzzles. But he still only spoke 1 word with regularity,"More!"

He suffered with some early childhood physical challenges. Gastric problems and then having to wear leg braces as a toddler. He never complained. He was the happy child who was content & could 'play' with anything, even the dirty laundry pile.

At 2 & 1/2, he memorized word-for-word all the dialogue & songs in every Thomas the Tank Engine Video we owned....all 11 that had been released up to that point in time. He showed amazing concentration skills. But he still couldn't color within the lines or use scissors well at age 7.

In the preteen years he suffered through some serious bullying at school. It was a trying time(and upsetting to me especially)but he stood up to the bullies and used the proper channels to resolve it. The stubbornness helped him through that phase of his life. It also helped him as a midfielder on his soccer team, where the kids where always much bigger than he was.

He had a beautiful singing voice and was the little boy in front who sang with such emotion in the school choral concert that everyone noticed him. He had a flair for the dramatic, which helped him secure a starring role in the 5th grade play. He felt special when the principal asked him to play the trumpet at school during the morning announcements.

Despite his performing arts talents, in high school he chose to go out for wrestling all 4 years, even though it was the most physically demanding sports team in his high school and he had no prior training or exposure to this sport and little chance of being a starter on his team.
When his friends who were more experienced and 'better' wrestlers with more opportunities to compete fell away from the team, because it was too much work, he stuck it out until the end.

Other parents pushed their kids about grades & extra-curricular activities. We knew our son would push himself harder than we ever could so we let him set his own pace. He never did get to wrestle varsity but loved the sport and enjoyed the journey rather than the destination. He was/is an excellent student and has awards, honor rolls/society, leadership conference, college work while still in high school, & a fine mind to show for it. He is a thinking person which is hard to find nowadays.

He spent almost the entire senior year in high school unofficially tutoring a friend of his. Not for some credits for volunteer work to graduate or anything, just because they needed help and he could assist with that need. He didn't talk about it, he just did it.

I feel confident that whatever he wants to do in life, he will find success. I have no reservations that he is ready to step out of the nest and spread his wings. We'll be here if his feathers get ruffled. We've got his back.

You can depend on my son. His word is his bond.
He is a good, decent person who is capable of greatness.

He does his own laundry but he still can't cook.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!

Love always,
Mom

Cleaning out the Freezer Challenge Jam or Where did I Find my Thrill?

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you might remember last Friday, when I picked up this flat of fresh NJ blueberries at Shop-Rite. They ended up costing me $2.99 total. That's 6 pints!
Blueberries are hubby's most-est favorite fruit.
But what happens when hubby eats 1 pint and you have to do something with the other 5 before they start going bad?
You make BLUEBERRY JAM!
I used this jam making session as an opportunity to "Clean the Freezer" too.
I had an opened/parital bag of frozen Organic Blueberries, as well as what was left from the wild Maine blueberries I had obtained on our summer vacation to Maine last year.

I mixed 2 pints of the new berries with those 2 bags of frozen berries and a bit of sugar. Boiled the whole mix down.....



Voici! Blueberry Jam.
There isn't enough to can so this large batch is headed for the fridge and will adorn many slices of toast, bagels, English muffins or peanut butter sammiches.

Making jam is pretty easy. It's not jelly so you don't have to strain it, just skim off the foam that appears when it first starts boiling.
No special equipment except a pot, and no special cooking skills needed. Just fruit and a little sugar, simple and tasty.

This batch took awhile to boil down....notice all the blue ice crystals from the store bought frozen berries. All that water had to boil off so it took that much longer to cook it down to jam consistency.
Since it's not being canned, you don't need pectin or to water bath process this. You could also put 'fridge jam' into the freezer if you don't think you'll eat it all within a month.

I still had 3 pints of fresh berries to tuck away as is, into the freezer for later.....almost 3 pints. I did have to put a handful aside to mix into my yogurt in the morning. Mmmmm....

Be sure and grab some fresh Blueberries while they are in season & the price is reasonable!

Sluggy

Wotta Deal! KMART Score & a Multiple Choice Quiz

So I walked into the KMart Store 4 times last week during their Double Coupons Sale with these Gentlemen....


And I walked out with these Gentlemen....


(That's 4 Lincolns, 1 Jefferson & 1 Roosevelt if you can't make out the coins due to my amazing photography skills....snort)

Oh, and I also walked out with everything in these pictures....











Yep, that's $278.97 worth of stuff for $21.81 AND that includes the tax I paid.(If you remove the tax, I only paid $16.02 to KMart($5.79 to the State for tax).
How did I do it?
Ok, this is a test....

Is the Correct Answer....
A.
Put a gun to the manager's head, tied up all the employees and backed a U-Haul Truck up to the door. The $21.81 was payment on renting the U-Haul.
B.
Snuck in at night a la Mission Impossible and just took what I wanted & left a small donation in the register.
C.
Brought a pricing gun into the store, hacked into the KMart computer system and changed all the prices. I didn't mark everything free, because free would have been too suspicious.
D.
Brought and used a TON of Coupons & a calculator, and shopped strategically to maximize my spending dollars.

If you guessed D you are correct!

And if your money doesn't go this far, there are ways to learn how to do this. Almost any one can with the right set of skills, organization and some free time.

Sluggy