It's Been Awhile----

     I know, it's been awhile, but well, life gets in the way.  The stacked cervical fusion surgery went well, recovery was 2 months, and although the debilitating pain in my left arm was gone almost immediately, there is some residual numbness in my left thumb and index fingers, and a gnawing and reoccurring pain in my right shoulder/neck area...mostly after being on the computer for any length of time. Since that's what I do at work, it's difficult to get away from it, so tried curbing my time on the computer at home. But it still hurts, so what the heck, I'm back!!

     Friday I did the shopping list, coupon clipping, and then off to the stores. Albertson's for butter, Safeway for milk, rolls, soup, then Fry's. Took a little break and went to Method Coffee to have a cup and see our wonderful sweet girl Kaileena (not our child really but an adoring young woman filled with life, love, talent--artist and musician--and whom we love) and then on to Fry's #2 for 4 more chickens...limit of 2 per customer so enlisted Roy's help and went to both Fry's stores in order to procure 8 chickens. At 77 cents a pound, it was too good a deal not to stock up the freezer a bit. 

     Then back home to unpack the truck and put away the bounty and get moving on all those chickens.  Put one in the oven to roast---Roy's favorite Greek Chicken and all you need to do is after washing the chicken good inside and out (no soap folks, just water), liberally apply Cavendar's Greek Seasoning spice mix, along with liberal amounts of lemon pepper inside and out and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours. Then it was on to cutting apart the remaining chickens for a bounty of wings, drumsticks, boneless and bone in chicken breast pieces, and a stock pot filled with backs to be cooked and made into soup stock and meat to be pulled from the bones after cooking and kept for soup. And for 77 cents a pound that is an amazing deal. Boneless skinless chicken breasts were being sold right next to the whole fyers for $3.46 a pound!!!

     So as I was beginning the 4th chicken cutting off a leg segment, the damn knife came around and hit me in the bird finger knuckle of my left hand. Wasn't deep because stopped at the knuckle bone, but boy was it a bleeder!  Could not get the bleeding stopped to save my soul.  Took 1/2 hour off to see if would calm down, checked it out again as still bleeding, but made a command decision that it really wasn't a candidate for stitches and ruled out the ER despite Roy's objections. However, needed to finish up the chickens so had to figure out how to stop the bleeding and/or keep the chicken juices out of the wound and keep my blood off the chicken. Even after steri-strips and band aids, it continued to bleed so had Roy get the food handler gloves out of the car. We affectionately call them pooh pooh gloves and use them to take with us whenever we take Guayo for a walk--for obvious reasons!

     I managed to use 10 of the gloves as the bleeding was not stopped by the strips nor the band aids, but did get the chickens cut up, into zipl bags, labeled and into the freezer. Then washed it up again, put clean tight steri-strips on it along with a big gauze bandage and paper tape to finally stop the bleeding.  Nothing but action around here!!!

     Today my friend Carly came over and we went thrift shopping. Went to our favorite thrift shop, the Yavapai Humane Society thrift shop and it was 50% off day!!! Since they are always very reasonable on their items, and they get great items into the shop on a regular basis, the 50% off days are amazing. Last time we went, the Amelda Marcos of big footed women had brought in 100+ pairs of shoes, most of which were never worn and still in the boxes. They were designer labels...Propeet, Mafistos, Clarks, Birkenstock--and I could not believe my luck at having accidentally dropped in when size 10 shoes were everywhere and it was 50% off day.  I came home with a pair of slippers, a pair of boots, 2 pair of summer shoes and 2 pair of winter shoes for a total of $69.  That is less than one pair of my usual good sturdy shoes (aka old women shoes as cannot wear heels any longer as the orthotics look funny in them) and I had just told my hubby it was about time to put out the $$ for a new pair of shoes. He could not believe my luck and wanted to know if there weren't more I should go back and purchase. How's that for a great hubby!!!

     Today I bought a pair of slacks for work--however after getting them home found them to be too big so maybe my sister will be the recipient of a new pair of slacks.  I also bought a beautiful long skirt in a turquoise/white/camel Indian print that fits perfectly and matches a turquoise sweater I have, and hope I will find other items with which to wear it; 4 pieces of fabrics for putting in my quilting stash; 4 coffee mugs to take to school as I do not wish to have my chai in disposable styrofoam cups any longer; a miter saw & metal miter box for ROy--hopefully to be used soon to finish the trim in the master bedroom; 3 1-quart canning jars which I can use with a hopefully abundant harvest for this summer;'s garden; 10 greeting cards; a bag of bird feathers for crafting; and a beautiful hand-knit blue fuzzy scarf; all for $15.  Such a deal!!  And the money goes to help all the sweet dogs and cats at the Humane Society. I would love to volunteer at the shelter if I could, but it ends with my either bringing home more pups or crying, and so Roy has against his usual low-key demeanor, to forbid me to go there.  So supporting the thrift shop is my way of helping them out.

     The rest of the day will be spent with watching a Jesse Stone movie (I love Tom Selleck), balancing my bank book, updating the budget expenditures for February and the first 2 days of March, and working on the flannel quilt top so as to finish it this weekend. That way I can start a new one! We'll be having yummy delicious bbq country style ribs (see jmy recipes for Rib Rub and Mom's Spicy BBQ Sauce), a bit of coleslaw (my secret--put some tarragon into the milk/sugar/rice vinegar/sugar mixture for the dressing along with a few poppy seeds...really sets it off), and a slice of homemade bread.  This is the easiest and most delicious bread recipe I've found. Yes it IS white bread, but not Wonder Bread!  And sometimes when Roy cooks too much of his 9 grain cereal in the morning, we put it into the refrigerator and then I use about 1/2 cup in the dough. SO chewy and good.  Gramma's Country White Bread is fantastic and the entire family will love it. I've included the recipe below.

     Have a great weekend, and I will try NOT to let life get so much in the way in the future!

Gramma’s Country White Bread 

Makes 2 loaves

·                        2 packages active dry yeast

·                        2 cups warm water

·                        1/2 cup honey

·                        1 tablespoon salt

·                        2 eggs (beaten)

·                        1/4 cup olive oil or melted butter

·                        5 1/2 - 6 cups bread flour

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add honey, salt, eggs, oil and 3 cups of bread flour. mix till smooth. Add in remaining flour to form a soft sticky dough. Place on a lightly floured surface. Knead dough for 10 minutes. till smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap till double in bulk. Punch down dough and divide into two loaves. Place into two med. greased loaf pans. Cover and allow to rise till double. Bake in a pre-heated 375F oven for 25-30 minute. Cool on a wire rack.