WTF is Up With the USPS?!?

I'll tell y'all I am real upset right now with my local US Postal Service.

I had 2 giveaway boxes to mail off when I returned home from the Great Summer Road Trip of 2013.
One to Judy for winning the Boring Blog Box Giveaway and one to Linda for winning the School Supplies Giveaway.
So I packed everything up, printed out shipping labels and scheduled a Mail Carrier pickup for Monday, August 26th.
And Hubs put the boxes out on the front porch that morning at 7am.

And come 7pm at night, those boxes were still sitting on my front porch.
I checked at 3pm and the mail carrier had been by and left mail in the mailbox and had not taken the packages.  I left them out for 4 more hours after that, since if it's a heavy mail day, my regular carrier will circle back around to get packages after she finishes her route.

Still no pick-up by 7pm so I brought the boxes in and figured it was a substitute carrier that day.  This has happened before with subs.....they either forget to pick-up packages or they don't get the paperwork for it for some reason.

So I went back online to reschedule the carrier pick-up for Tuesday, Aug. 27th.

I get up this morning and check my email and this is what was in my inbox from the fine folks at the USPS......I have blacked out my name/address.   Click on it to embiggen.

Yes, it's an email confirmation that the USPS picked up my 2 packages on Aug. 26th, received in my inbox at 4:12 am.

But guess what is still sitting out on my front porch??

Click on the second photo to embiggen and read the note I left.....

I also emailed the USPS and complained about the slack service and downright lying to their customers.

It's no wonder I hate dealing with large corporations......

Sluggy

Bread & Soup is What's for Dinner

When the broccoli from the garden needs picking and you have a cool-ish day, why not make Broccoli Cheddar Soup?

That's just what I did today......I only needed 1/3rd of a brick of Velveeta from the store(cost under $2 for that much).  I had all the other ingredients at home.

And I cut my French bread recipe in half and made 2 loaves of nice crusty bread.  The recipe makes 4 loaves but with only 3 of us at home now, that is way too much bread.

No bread machine needed......just my two hands and a little elbow grease......

A simple and filling dinner and pretty darn cheap too. 8-))

And there are plenty of leftovers for later this week.

Tomorrow we eat some on the tomato crop coming in now......

Sluggy

This Week on The Dining Table

This is the "Gotta Use Up Stuff From the Garden" Week.

 

Here's what was planned last week--

 

Sunday--BBQ Chicken, broccoli & cheese casserole, tossed salad, corn on the cob
Monday--raw  veggies, crackers, cheese and sausage(Sonya Ann had packed us some snacks and that was dinner)
Tuesday--Chinese food again!
Wednesday--Eating out
Thursday--Eating Out
Friday--something from my freezer TBA
Saturday--something from my freezer TBA

 

Everything above was eaten as was written.  The days where a specific food was not mentioned went like this....
Wednesday--Local Restaurant in AltaVista, VA
Thursday--Truck Stop Diner outside of Harrisburg, PA
Friday--Burgers, Steamed Broccoli(from garden)
Saturday--Leftover Meat Sauce over Rigatoni, Tossed Salad(w/garden cukes and toms)
  

As for food spending last week.....We didn't do ANY grocery shopping while on the trip(some alcohol procurement did happen but that's from the entertainment budget).  We left #2 Son $40 cash(plus $35 from a rebate check we finally cashed, so $40 out of my August food budget) and $10 in McDonald's bucks(the cost of which was accounted for last year).

Then we hit the grocery store on Friday after we got back from the trip and spent $34.48 on $48.11 of regular retail foods.
So my food budget spending from 8/11 to 8/23 was $74.48.
This means I am at $266.81 spent so far in August.  I have $133.19 left in the budget for the next 6 days.

 

Food waste last week.....bad.....real bad!  #2 Son didn't eat ANYTHING that was here that needed to be eaten.  Luckily I did remember to remind him to put some of it into the freezer(the garden tomatoes and the smoked pork I made).  I had to throw out melon, spareribs, a small amount of coleslaw and rice when I got home.  We tried to eat down what was in the fridge before we left but I thought #2 Son would at least eat the ribs.  *sigh*

  

Leftovers going into this week?  Some rigatoni, and lots and lots of BROCCOLI from the garden!
We also have green beans, cukes, eggplant and more tomatoes coming in, so the order of the meals below will depend on what is harvested and when.

Here's this week's meal plan---
 

Sunday--Broccoli/Chicken Quiche
Monday--Broccoli Cheddar Soup, Fresh Baked Bread
Tuesday--BLT Sandwiches(garden tomatoes)
Wednesday--Eggplant prepared some way?, Tossed Salad
Thursday--Broccoli Casserole, Caprese Salad(garden toms)
Friday--Green Bean Stirfry, Roasted Potatoes, Leftover Quiche
Saturday--Leftovers

On the shopping list......hubs picked up half & half and swiss cheese on Sunday morning already, but I still need a small hunk of Velveeta, sandwich bread(at the bakery outlet), fresh mozzarella, potatoes and more salad greens.
There is a sale on bacon this week as well which I'll end up taking advantage of. ;-)
I'm figuring about $50 food spending this week.

That's what's appearing on the kitchen table this week here at Chez Sluggy. 
  

 What's getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Sluggy

When Life Gives You Broccoli.......

....Cook it!

We came home from the Great Summer Road Trip of 2013 to find that our son had NOT even LOOKED at the Garden, let alone gone out into it and picked what had ripened.
In addition, our 4 little Broccoli plants had gone into production overdrive!
How nice......

If you watched my little garden tour video from Friday you saw all the broccoli that is coming in fast and furiously.

So Hubs took a really big knife and went out to hack off heads of broccoli Friday afternoon.  I came into the kitchen and found this camouflaging sitting on the stove......

3 large heads of broccoli.

Ok, genius Hubs, now that you've picked it, "I" have to come up with some ways to use this up before it goes bad.
Thanks babe!

And freezing it is not an option, with the little freezer space I still have since the new upright freezer died before I had it a month.....but let's not go there right now, ok?

So Friday night, along with the burgers we had steamed broccoli.

Saturday night we took a break from broccoli and used up the meat sauce I still had in the fridge from when Tanner was here, I had made to go with the ravioli.  We had tossed salad with garden cukes and toms with the rigatoni and meat sauce.

Today, Sunday, I took a package of rolled pie crusts that has been sitting in the fridge since July 4th week(Oldest had been sent to the store to buy 2 crusts and bought 2 PACKAGES instead)which needed to be used up.  I defrosted 1 full chicken breast as well.  Hubs went out this morning and bought me some Swiss cheese and half & half so I could make a couple of quiches.

I finely chopped an onion and sautéd it and 3 cups of broccoli in a pan with olive oil.....

Beat 8 eggs together.....

Sautéd the chicken breast in a little more olive oil, then sliced/chopped it up....

Put 4 cups of milk(or half & half) into a pot.  Added a double pinch each of sugar, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. Then add 1/4 tsp. of pepper. 
Heated the milk mixture on medium low and slowly beat in the eggs, continuing to stir so it didn't  scald and stick to the bottom of the pot.

I grated Swiss Cheese(I also used a bit of Cheddar Cheese).....

Unrolled the pie crusts into pie pans and crimped the edges....

Added the broccoli/onion mixture....

Added the cooked chicken pieces.....

Arranged the cheese(s) ever so artfully in the pie pan.....

Ladled the egg/milk mixture into each pie pan until full and popped them into a 325 degree oven for 50 minutes.
I always use a cookie sheet or pizza pan under my quiche in case the liquid spills out so it doesn't coat the bottom of my oven and make my smoke detectors go off.....trust me, I know this......

Then when it's firm and done, I removed the quiches from the oven, cool and slice up and eat it.
If you let it sit a couple hours(or refrigerate it after cooling and then slice and reheat it)it will hold together better than if you try to cut it and serve it right out of the oven.
Trust me, I know this too......

I still have a mountain of Broccoli to use after 2 broccoli meals.
Monday I'll be making a Broccoli Cheddar Soup.

After that?
I'm thinking more steamed Broccoli, some raw Broccoli and dip and then I need to get my friend Marsha's Broccoli/Cheese Casserole recipe.

Because I looked out in the garden this afternoon and there are 6 MORE heads coming to a table near me soon!

Broccoli here has become what the Zucchini usually is.....the vegetable that just won't stop giving!

Do you have any awesome recipes using Broccoli?
Please share.....NOW!!! ;-)

Sluggy

 

And the Digging Out Begins.....

Oh, how I love the end of a Summer vacation!.....she said, dripping with sarcasm.......


We've had one day back to decompress and now the mountain of laundry, the mess in the fridge and kitchen, and the jungle that sprouted up in the yard while we were gone ALL gets tackled over the weekend.

We also have to get ready for the Home Repairs/Renos to commence and I have 4 medical appointments coming up the week after next while the handymen will be here working on various projects.

Add in that I have to get Salvation Army to come get the dining room set before the work starts on the dining/living room AND get the Etsy store opened so it looks like I'll have more than enough chores to keep me busy over the next 3 or so weeks.

Sort of makes me want to just leave home again....lol

We returned the rental car yesterday and then went to Lowe's to order the rest of the flooring for the living and dining rooms.  I also got some paint swatches so I can decide on a wall color for those rooms.  It looks like I'll have 3 days(Friday to Sunday of the week after next)to get the ceiling and walls painted in the living/dining rooms between the time the handymen repair the walls/ceilings and come back to install the flooring in there.
At any rate, all the work should be completed by September 11th.  Hmmm, I hope that's not a bad sign......9/11....... '-)


While I go pack more dishware up I took out of the hutch, here's a quick trip through the garden I took yesterday morning to see what grew while we were gone for those 10 days.  I didn't take any film of the front flowerbed where our tomato plants are but we did pick our first two tomatoes yesterday.  One got used on the burgers we grilled to eat for dinner(along with a mountain of  broccoli I steamed).  We'll have more coming in fast and furiously once they all start ripening.  I plan on an Insalata Caprese (Caprese Salad)and multiple nights of BLT sandwiches later this week for dinners.
Plus Broccoli Quiche and Broccoli Cheddar Soup on other nights.

What has everyone else been picking from their garden lately?




Sluggy