Volunteers!

 

I managed to look a little less grandmotherly yesterday. More stylish shoes were in order, but I want ones I can slip in and out of for the pool. My day was spent getting a swim in and gathering groceries from multiple sources.

Flashfood had a good price on ground turkey. It's higher priced per pound than I normally spend on meat for Frankie, but I wanted something leaner. We are almost out of yeast and the price for each jar was just $2.39. You can spend that much on a packet of two alone. Since it is summer, we can also never have enough guacamole. The yogurt was a splurge which I bought mostly for the jars. Flashfood published its yearly report, and I took a screenshot to show the impact of their efforts. I know I save a lot by purchasing through them.

Yesterday's batch of Frankie food was a small one. It is probably enough for six days. There wasn't a lot of grease in the pan, but it was enough to add to a batch of oats I had already started for her. Judging by her enthusiastic licking of the pot, she likes it a lot.

I prepared appetizers for our party, which we didn't need. Our friends love to bring food to parties, so what was made by others was far superior to my efforts. I did skewer grape tomatoes and mozzarella pearls, which I was going to serve with balsamic vinegar. They never made it out to the table. Last night's dinner was a pizza with the tomatoes, cheese, and anchovies. We love anchovies! The romaine salad used lupini beans as well as chopped hearts of palm, which were hanging out in the refrigerator. We dined al fresco. It's summer swell?

We have started finding tomatoes everywhere. Two bushes were purchased and planted by us. A friend gave us a few too. Then others just started popping up in planters and odd places. These are known as "Volunteer Tomatoes," and they germinate from composting. There's no way to determine the variety, but since they are free, we'll just keep them going and see what we get. Had anyone else successfully grown these?

Tommy's family gave him the gorgeous planter box. It is Amish made. We lined it with a cardboard box on the bottom and paper bags around the edges. I went around and cut off the handles from the Walmart bags. This morning, he planted the volunteers, a few peppers, and we moved some herbs from off the benches. It will make it easier for me to pop out of the kitchen to snip basil and parsley, which I use a lot of.

Last night I filled up my new olive oil bottle. This is cooking EVOO, and I do mostly cook with olive oil anyway. I might also buy a separate bottle for drizzling. This is from my tariff shelf, which I think we are really going to need.  That horrible bill passed in the Senate last night. Life is going to get more expensive for us now. I hope others aren't badly affected too. But we will all feel it -- both within and outside the US. I still can't believe people voted for that idiot and his legion of morons.

I do owe everyone an apology for not having had the time to read the blogs I like to follow. My hope is to get fully caught up tonight!