Back From the Beach

 

We just got back last night from 4 nights down in Ocean City, MD.
It was a nice relaxing trip.......well, once all the weekenders left on Monday.

Usually they leave on Sunday but since Monday was a federal holiday(Columbus Day)they all stayed an extra night and partied hard.

Our room was right over the outside pool bar AND as a bonus, right next to the elevator(oh JOY!lolz)so there wasn't much sleeping until late into the night on Sunday.
So we jacked up the a/c & the TV, closed the balcony patio door and drank until they all went to bed.

Monday to Wednesday was fine and we bugged out yesterday right before the Weekenders started arriving.

The weather was great to ok but warm the whole time.  There was rain at night on Wednesday and it rained that day while we were at the movies but by the time we came out of the theater it had stopped.  Thursday was suppose to be rainy for the drive home but the front blew through Wednesday and was gone by Thursday morning and we had sunny skies for traveling home..  We made good time on the road until we hit just past Philly on the turnpike extension and sat for an hour due to construction(not rush hour!).  That was the only bad spot both coming and going home.  The TV guy at home said we got 3 inches of rain in 1 day while we were gone so we dodged that bullet too!

It was a low-key getaway.  We didn't "do" much, just hung out, wandered around and ate and drank a bit.  And went to Salisbury MD one night to visit with a friend.

We spent $1172.36 on this trip on exclusively trip-related expenses(gas, hotel, food, tolls, pet boarding, etc.).   That's an average of $293.09 a day for this vacation.
.
Another $289.82 was spent on items we brought home(mostly booze).  We do a "Delaware Booze Run" on this yearly trip to OC.  There are some liquor stores down in DE with inexpensive prices(no sales tax too)where we stock up on "adult beverages" we can't get in draconian PA.
Hubs favorite whiskey is sold in 49 of 50 US states.....guess which one they can't sell it in? 8-(

So we are home now and have the weekend to get back into reality mode.
Nah......maybe we'll stay in vacation mode for a couple more days.

Except for I need to go to Rite-Aid......of course! lolz

What has everyone been up to lately?  I've read some blogs but need to get up to speed with everyone.

Sluggy

 

The End of the Pitiful Gardening Year

Let me just say that my gardening efforts were lame this year.

I blame it on the rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks in the yard that thwarted my efforts at every turn.
Yeah, it was all their fault...... ;-)

They always go after freshly planted seeds and even dig up young sprouts.
Which means we have to keep reseeding until they leave enough of the seeds/sprouts alone that we have plants.
The only plants we ended up keeping alive this year were ones I planted from seedlings--tomatoes and cauliflower.
And of the cauliflower plants, only 3 made it.
And of those 3 only 1 actually grew a head.
And here it is......

For size comparison it is about the size of a softball.
LOLZ
Hey, I am thrilled we actually grew even THIS this season!
I didn't think we'd even get this if you must know.  This tiny head finally just appeared last week.
I was thinking up until then that we had gotten sterile plants or had NO meaningful bee activity this Summer in the yard.   Well, I KNEW there was some bee activity since the tomato plants all pollenated.....


Since we couldn't keep seeds long enough to sprout and grow enough to keep from being dug up Hubs never put the fencing up. 
Not that the fencing is much of a deterrent to any critters anyway, since it's a tree netting type fence with spaces larger enough for rabbits, chipmunks and squirrels to get through.  It must have worked though in years past to keep the deer far enough away to keep from CLEAR CUTTING foliage, like they did this year.
sigh.

I think we've had more critters eating stuff in the yard the last 2 years.
I blame the new housing development they added on to our development, which took some of the wildlife habitat where these critters use to live and forage in.  Since it started going up we've seen many deer and even bear tromp through the yard.  Just last week we found our garbage can 30 feet from where we keep it in the yard and the bags ripped open.
That was no raccoon but a bear.
Trust me.
I lived in the Poconos.
I know a bear picnic laid out when I see it. lol
Plus we saw another bear cutting through our backyard last month.

But I digress.....

Then the weather was not conducive this Summer to growing much of anything.  Not enough hot days and not strung together in any way that helped plants to grow and develop and fruit.

And I was away for 2 weeks in July, right in the middle of the growing season.  This meant nobody here to water or weed or fuss over the garden during the primetime.

So we are pretty much a bust this year in the harvest department.
We did get a small amount of tomatoes.
And my morning glories, which were ALL volunteer plants from the plants that dropped seeds last Fall were glorious and put on quite the show every morning for me.

Was it only 4 years ago my garden produced just shy of 94 pounds of food?!?
Yep, it was 2010 back HERE.

So how did your garden produce(or not)this Summer?


Sluggy

 

Did Someone Say GIVEAWAY?!?

It's time for another giveaway.  The Fall and the Holidays ahead get me in the mood to give stuff away.
Why should I be the only one who benefits from all the wonderful deals I find when I go shopping, right?

So here's what's available to win this time........it's sort of a "girly girl" box.......

 

10 different Revlon nail polishes
1 Glade candle
1 bottle of Pedia Sure
1 Listerine naturals
1 Clear 'Poo
1 bottle of Dawn(antibacterial)dish soap
1 Omega3 supplement sample
1 Physician's Formula Powder base makeup
1 tube of Colgate toothpaste
1 Reach dental floss
1 Revlon tweezer
1 Revlon emery nail boards
1 package of Hush Puppy mix(from Louisiana)
1 package of Dirty Rice mix(from Louisiana)
1 NYC lip gloss tube

Here's more of a close-up of the goodies.......

 

I'll leave this giveaway open until October 24th, Friday, at 11:59pm.  The next day I'll put all the valid entries into a container and draw out a name and that person wins.

There is a limit of ONE ENTRY per Day by leaving a comment on this blog post.

To get a Bonus entry, you can do this once---

Post about my Giveaway on your own Blog or on Facebook with a link to this post.  This will earn you 2 additional entries for each action.  Please leave 2 additional comments on this blog post for each additional Bonus entry. 


 Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US or Canada only.
If you are in Canada, you will receive a smaller box of goodies, as the shipping rates internationally are ridiculous and I am not taking out a mortgage on my house to pay to ship this stuff.  ;-)
**
If you need this shipped to Canada, I'll have to change the box and it's contents a bit.  I can ship a plain box weighing up to 4lbs. via 1st class mail, which, while more than the flat rate Priority to US addys, is still affordable.  These prize boxes usually weigh 7 or more lbs. when full, so if the winner is in Canada, I'll let them pick and choose which of the items they prefer sent in their box, until the box weighs 4lbs.  I hate to have to do this(not ship ALL prizes to them)but I would hate it even more to exclude them totally from entering the giveaway.

***NOTE***
Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you in your comment.  If you're not a registered Blog User please put your email or email me your email addy privately when you leave a comment or something so I can get ahold of you if you win. If I can't contact you then you can't win.  Thanks!

So let's get this started!

Sluggy
 

This Week on the Dining Table

The "My Week was All About the Shopping " Edition---

Not much got done around here last week except lots of little shopping trips to grocery stores and Rite-Aid.
So here is a picture of a cute pony from last October......standing in the road, in front of our car......

I bet he wants something to eat as a toll to get where we want to go.

 

Onward to the meal planning!

What was planned last week--
1.  Lamb chops(freezer), steamed cabbage

2.  Rigatoni w/meat sauce(leftover), tossed salad(put my tomatoes in this)

3.  Meatloaf, butternut squash(use my tomatoes in sauce for the meatloaf)

4.  BLT sandwiches(have all ingredients-use my tomatoes)

5.  Pork Chops, Red Cabbage w/Apples
6.  Chili(leftover) over Rice
7.  New Leftovers

 

And this is what actually happened--
1.  Lamb chops(freezer), steamed cabbage

2.  Rigatoni w/meat sauce(leftover), tossed salad(put my tomatoes in this)

3.  Leftovers-Hubs had lamb chop/cabbage and I had a hot dog & a salad

4.  BLT sandwiches(have all ingredients-use my tomatoes)

5.  Leftovers-Hubs had rigatoni, I had chicken marsala
6.  Chili(leftover) over Rice
7.  Chicken Marsala, Corn casserole

  

The plan was kept to pretty much, except we had more leftovers than I thought, and I made the Chicken Marsala instead of pork chop and meatloaf didn't happen.  Those 2 meals move to this week's menu.
    

Last week I made trips to 4 different markets and spent $96.58 on $210.50 worth of groceries and did 3 transactions at Rite-Aid where I spent $1.04 total there for the week.
$154.90 down and $145.10 left in my October food budget with 18 days left in the month.

Going into this week, in leftovers we have.........chili and a small meatloaf I baked off last week.

Here is the plan for this week.........

1.  Eating Out

2.  Eating Out

3.  Eating Out

4.  Eating Out
5.  Chili

6.  Meatloaf, butternut squash(use my tomatoes in sauce for the meatloaf)
7.  Pork Chops, Red Cabbage w/Apples

Obviously we won't be home to eat for a few days.

Food Waste--nothing.

What I need to buy this week.......nothing really as the 3 meals planned are premade or we already have the ingredients at home.
There are a few items on special this week I want to pick up--cantaloupe and salmon.  That's about it.

   

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?
Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten that week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?
How much did you spend on food so far in September?

 

Sluggy

Where's the Chicken?

In my enthusiasm after I joined Sam's Club I bought this.....

A large pan of Chicken Marsala.
I was anxious to try some of the "Pre-Made" entrees Sam's sells.  If the price and quality was good it would make a nice emergency "no time to cook" meal.
It looks apetitzing in the cover art, yes?

I love Chicken Marsala so when I saw a sign that said "Chicken Marsala $5.88" I grabbed this package.
Well, obviously I didn't read the sign well, because the item was $5.88 a POUND......

This item rang up $17.13 and not the $5.88 I was expecting.
I didn't catch this fact until I got home because I bought other things in the order and didn't notice this price at the checkout.
sigh.

I figured I wouldn't be buying this again at that price and once I opened the box up and found I was paying $5.88 lb. for mostly SAUCE that cinched it.
There were 3 small half chicken breasts(1 serving portions)in the box and they were swimming in sauce.
There also could have been more mushrooms in that sauce.  The mushroom count was pitiful.

Now the sauce was tasty but at this price?  Never again.
I'll break down and buy a bottle of Marsala wine and make my own sauce.

At $17.13 this came out to $5.71 a serving and I still had to provide/pay for side dishes for the rest of the meal.

At least I had the presence of mind to save the leftover sauce and stick it into the freezer.  There was a full pint of sauce left and that's enough to just add my own chicken(and some mushrooms)and get another meal of Chicken Marsala out of this questionable purchase.

I could purchase 2 lbs. of chicken breast, fresh mushrooms and Marsala wine and make at least 3 full meals of Chicken Marsala(with plenty of the wine leftover to make it again some other time)for less than the $17.13 I spent on barely 3 servings and a shit ton of sauce.

So what food products have you bought that turned out to not be such the deal that you thought they were at the time?

Sluggy