This Week on the Dining Table

** Edited to include a link to the post in 2009 when I made this dish HERE.
And the recipe I use is HERE.


It's the "Sometimes a Work Intense Meal is Worth It" Edition......

I made my version of Beef Bourguignon last Thursday.  I don't fix this dish hardly ever since it is so labor intense, even with the shortcuts I take.
But when I do make it I forget about all the work once I take a bite of it....sigh!

And yes it is pretty sad that dinner on Thursday was the highlight of my week. 8-)

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week.......

1. Sunday--Corned Beef, Cabbage/Halushki, Carrots
2. Monday--Tuna Casserole, Caesar Salad
3. Tuesday--Beef Bourguignon
4. Wednesday--BLT Sandwiches Tacos using leftover taco meat
5. Thursday---Salmon or Cod, Brussels Sprouts
6. Friday--Kielbasa on Rolls w/Onions, Corn
7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Carrots
2. Monday--Tuna Casserole, Caesar Salad
3. Tuesday--Tacos using leftover taco beef
4. Wednesday--Kielbasa on Rolls, leftover Hash Browns
5. Thursday---Beef Bourguignon
6. Friday--Leftovers(Hubs had lasagna/I had tuna casserole)
7. Saturday--Leftovers(I had Beef Bourguignon/Hubs had Chicken Stew-I think)

7 meals cooked at home.
4 new meals and 3 nights of leftovers in some form or another.

I did indeed use the assorted leftover veggies and roasted chicken meat in a soup/stew and have been eating on that for some lunches.  Corn was planned w/the Kielbasa but there were leftover hash browns(from CB)that needed using up instead.  The consumption of veggies did not happen much last week unfortunately.  We shall try to rectify that this coming week.

As for my grocery spending......Hubs went to the store for me early in the week and spent $9.25.
I have spent $190.66 in all for March so far.
Between $59.34 and $109.34 of the potential $250-$300 March food budget left to spend with 10 days left in the month.

Leftovers going into this week......2 helpings of Chicken Stew, 1 helping of Halushki, a small hunk of Corned Beef, Cabbage, Carrots, 1 helping of Beef Bourguignon, and Mashed Potatoes, Taco Beef, and I helping of Kielbasa

Here is this week's "food plan"--

1. Sunday--Leftovers
2. Monday--Subway Sandwiches
3. Tuesday--Leftover Corned Beef meal
4. Wednesday--Salmon, Asparagus, Noodles
5. Thursday---Spaghetti and Meatballs, Caesar Salad, Garlic Bread
6. Friday--Steak, Salad, leftover Asparagus
7. Saturday--Take-out?  Will be cooking for Sunday.

This week will see 3 new meals cooked and 2 meal of leftovers(re-purposed into new dishes or not) and 2 meals Out/Take-out.

What I need to buy for this menu?  Asparagus and Salad Greens.  I have everything else for the fish meal and everything for the pasta dinner already.  I'll probably pick up eggs and milk as well.
Unless there are some smoking hot grocery store deals I won't be buying much this week either.

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 last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?

Sluggy

What's Going on at Chez Sluggy Lately

*  We are well half over March now and the money is looking good.
Looking good despite having real estate taxes and the yearly sewage bill due this month. 8-)

To help offset these bills we had additional income this month----

2 stock dividend checks came in.
Our electric bill will be lower than usual for March due to this wacky warmer weather(though it is due to snow here this weekend).
A refund of a $314 medical bill for the Daughter we paid in February.  The doctor over billed so we got that money back.  Since I deducted it from February's income I get to add it back to March's income. 8-)
We also received our Federal tax refund this month.

*  Here is the extent of my shopping trips this week.  A trip to Rite-Aid for prescriptions led to this haul too......

Sale prices and/or 20% Wellness disccount combined with coupons and Plenti points earned back and rebates meant every single product was a moneymaker.

This all came to $23.02 with tax and I used Plenti Points to pay.
It also earned $27.00 in new Plenti Points.

I also got back the .67¢ I paid for the Cadbury Chocolate Egg in my Saving Star account, making this a $4.65 moneymaker.  8-)))


*  I brought a load from the toiletries stash down to the dining room to go through them and make up
another Giveaway Box.

Stay tuned for another giveaway coming up soon!

*  Hubs made a run to the local Shursave market this week for some groceries.  $9.25 was all that was spent so far this week.  I might actually stay under the food budget this month despite College Boy being home for a week and eating us out of house and home.

And that's about everything worth mentioning.  It's been a low key, quite(boring), stay-at-home kind of week.


Sluggy

The Bowmans/Redferns of Ireland & New York

When I first started digging into my genealogy I had a clue to my Bowman ancdestry from a letter my paternal grandfather had written to me when I was a teen.
My grandfather has spent some years exploring his ancestry after he retired back when you had to travel to dusty old archives in courthouses and libraries.
Back when we found out about him and met him, he gave each of us grand kids a mimeographed(look that up if you are too young to know what this means lolz) booklet he had printed up of his paternal genealogy.
Of course when I was 15 I had NO interest in this booklet and it disappeared from my life a long, long time ago.
I wish this booklet was one of the things my mother squirreled away over the years but it wasn't.
Sigh.

But I had that old letter still where my grandfather named my 3 x great grandparents so let me introduce y'all to them now.

Robert Spencer Bowman was born in March of 1825 in Ireland, we suspect somewhere in a northern county.
Sarah Redfern was born in April of 1826 in Ireland, we suspect in County Derry.

They wed on 10 December 1847 in Ireland according to the records.
The marriage record gives us both of their fathers' names--Robert's father was Matthew Bowman and Sarah's father was John Redfern.
The year of their wedding is smack dab in the middle of the "Great Irish Hunger" or what many call the Great Potato Famine.

They had 4 children together before fleeing Ireland in 1855(3 lived past infancy).  After coming to America, they went on to have 7 more children.

Robert and Sarah aren't that interesting, not when compared to Sarah Redfern's father, her siblings and half-siblings.

The Redfern saga started in County Derry, Northern Ireland when John Redfern was born in 1805 and spans across America to the Pacific Coast.
It has taken me years to track the movements of this Redfern family down.

More tomorrow on my Redfern ancestors.

I am off to have a pint.....

Sluggy

Working on the Travel Plans

I got the green light to attempt to plan some of our travel for 2016.
Hubs had his time off in May approved so it looks like another trip to Louisiana is in the offering...maybe.

Instead of driving there I wanted to look at other "options" for travel.  Hubs does all the driving on this trip and I think it's unfair that he drives almost the whole time we are on the road and then at our destination.
Plus we are always up for a new experience/adventure.

So I considered taking Amtrak as the "Crescent" Train runs from NYC to New Orleans daily.  We'd get on in Philly and leave the train at Meridian MS.  Of course we'd have to take the bus to Philly and from Meridian to Shreveport(Amtrak has a connector bus that goes from Meridian MS to Dallas TX.).
I am a bit reticent about train travel as both of my experiences have not been very happy.

Here is what is involved to get there via train---

Take a bus to Philly  $150
Take the train to Meridian MS  $583
Take another bus from Meridian to Shreveport LA  $76
Rent a car for 8 days while in Shreveport  $228.04
8 Nights of hotel stays  $850.51
Take a bus to Meridian  $76
Take the train to Philly  $583
Take a bus to Wilkes-Barre  $150

$2696.55
And this doesn't include meals(other than 8 breakfasts at the hotel in Shreveport).
Now if we tack on an excursion to New Orleans for 2 nights......

Bus to NO and back to Shreveport  $152
2 Nights in Downtown hotel New Orleans  $400 approx.
2 Taxi Rides(from Union Station to hotel and back)$25 + tip

$572 + $2696.55=$3268.55 Total plus meals

Going this route also means we can't stop and see people along the way or back, we can't bring anything with us or bring anything home that won't fit into our suitcases.


So then I looked at flying down............

Round Trip Flight for 2(2 Layovers going, 1 Layover coming back)  $1800
Car Rental while in Shreveport  $228.04
8 Hotel Nights  $850.51

$2878.55
Add in an excursion to New Orleans($572)and we have a total of $3450.55 plus meals

So going by train is slightly cheaper than flying by about $200.
But both are still quite high compared to driving.

But by train you get there in about 30 hours. and 7-8 hours by plane.

*sigh*

Decisions, decisions..........

Is anybody out there reading who lives between Wilkes-Barre PA and Shreveport LA who would like a visit from me?
The trip is still very much up in the air(due to some other issues)but I am continuing to ponder it.

How do you prefer to travel for pleasure?
Road trips and stopping for the unexpected experience?
Flying quickly and spending your time at a destination?
Have you ever taken a long train trip?

Sluggy

The Great Bathroom Remodel of 2016.....Part Four

Ok, so the crew finished up on Monday(they stayed until 5:30 pm to get it done).  I had fallen asleep in the spare bedroom so Hubs, who took the day off from work, did the final walk through with the crew.  Let's just say that Hubs is not very observant at time. lolz

When I awoke and walked into the bathroom it was beautiful but I did immediately see two things............

The ledge on the bottom of the mirror frame had a ding......

And the heater which was NOT replaced was missing a side panel which had been there before the crew removed it.  It's that black space next to/behind the toilet..........

Ugh.

The next day the contractor called to speak with us/talk about any issues remaining.  He spoke up and said he realized that the mirror had a defect(was present on it when the crew took it out of the box)but they hung it anyway so we'd have a mirror while they reordered a new one.
So Hubs brought up the missing panel on the heater and the contractor said that his crew chief said that it wasn't there when they started.
Sluggy to the rescue......I emailed him this shot of the "Before" Bathroom taken the day before they gutted the room.

Yes, the heater panel WAS there!
So the crew either lost or just threw out the old heater panel(they did keep the panel on the other side, weird?).
The contractor will replace the panel(this heater is from 1986)and if he can't match it(and he can't) he'll be buying us a new heater unit(in white to match the room).

This is why it is important to DOCUMENT folks!  Without the photos I took we'd be paying for a new heater unit and install along with everything else we bought for this reno.

So with all that out of the way, here are the reno porn shots of Sluggy's brand spanking new bathroom.....

It's not a fancy bathroom with fancy fittings and fixtures but it all matches and is clean and functional.
That's what is important to me.  8-)
We went with a gray neutral on the floor and walls(doors, ceiling and trim in white), clean white appliances(sink/toilet/tub), a dark brown mirror and cabinet/vanity, fixtures in brushed nickel and a mounted shower rod.

I hung the shower curtain last weekend.
After Hubs puts the shelves back into the closet there I'll restock that.

Now I just have to lay down some grout sealer, then get some hand towels, a toothbrush holder and a bath mat/rug that matches and pick up a squeegee to clean water off the tub surround walls with after use.

Oh, and some shelf paper for the drawers and under the sink in the cabinet and a new blind for the window.
And hang my art back on the wall.

So that's mostly done.
Now we had to address the issues in the main/hallway bathroom. It isn't nearly as bad as the master bathroom was but there are things to be done in there--new vanity/sink, new lights, new toilet, new drywall on one wall, new vinyl flooring and massive amounts of painting.  At least the sink drain in now up to code in there.  The only "surprise" will be the subfloor being replaced around the toilet I think.
Not as labor intensive a job(no tiling and no replacing all the sheet rock)but it will still cost a fair amount.  We still have a few thousand left from Hubs bonus from 2015 which should go a long way to paying for what needs to be done in that bathroom(if we do all the painting ourselves).

But maybe we need to sit down first and prioritize all the rest of the house projects that need doing before launching into this other bathroom situation.

I am just thankful we didn't go into debt to get this bathroom ticked off the list and I can "enjoy the go" again in there.  ;-)

Sluggy