Fresh Blueberry Cobbler

Someone at work gave me a pint of freshly picked blueberries, just enough to make this cobbler. The recipe is found on Meredith's blog, "Like Merchant Ships". I used buttermilk instead of milk since I had some in the fridge that was going to go bad.

I bought some "light" Breyers Vanilla Icecream this morning that was BOGO at Food Lion. If you just buy one, it rings up half price, so I only bought one, since we really didn't need but one.

Can't wait to have that midafternoon snack!!!

UPDATE!!!

The afternoon snack was reeeally good!!!

Frugal Friday

If you have a Dollar General in your area you should really check it out. While not everything there is a good deal, lots of things are. I posted previously about the good prices they had on the supplies I need for the upcoming baby shower I am giving for my daughter.

The best buy was the invitations. Comparable ones at Walmart were $3.97 and DG's were $1.00 per pack. The same was true for the napkins, plates, etc. at $1.00 each pack.

I never pay the outrageous prices that greeting cards cost at drugstores or Walmart. Dollar General has beautiful cards for $.50 each. Pretty soon it will cost more for the postage stamp than for the card! Most of the cards are of good quality and pretty. I try to keep a supply of Get Well and Sympathy Cards on hand. Usually when I am in there I try to think ahead to what occasions I have coming up. Next time I am in there I need to get a birthday card for my son, and congratulations on the new baby card for my daughter. If I wait until I need the cards, I will have to resort to paying full price because of lack of time.

Other items I routinely buy at DG are Cream Soups for recipes, spices, shampoos, and Clover Valley brand fabric Softener Sheets.

Even in the rural area that I live in we have several DGs to choose from. They seem to pop up in every small town. There are 5 within the area that I am frequently traveling through.

For more frugal ideas visit http://www.biblicalwomanhood.com/blog.htm

Debbie J.

Beef Chimichangas

This is a recipe that came from the "Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer" book. I think you will enjoy it.

Beef Chimichangas

1 t salt

2 lbs lean ground beef
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 t ground cumin
2 t oregano, crushed
1/2 cup canned green chiles, chopped
1/2 cup taco sauce
1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup cider vinegar

Serving Day

1 cup butter or margarine, melted
9 7 inch flour tortillas

Cooking Day Instructions

Sprinkle salt in medium skillet. Place over medium heat. Add beef, garlic and spices. Cook until meat loses pinkness. Stir in remaining ingredients. Remove from heat and cool. Freeze meat mixture in freezer bags.

Serving Day Instructions

In 8 inch skillet, melt butter or margarine. Dip both sides of 1 tortilla into butter; drain off excess. Mound 1/3 cup filling on center of tortilla. Fold tortilla in envelope fashion. Place seam side down in ungreased 11X7 baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling.

A Slice of My Life

This is the view out my front door. That's my mailbox in front of a corn field. My husband can hit a golf ball all the way into those trees on the other side of the corn! He loves golf and football, so now I do too!

I grew up "barnin tobacco" and even have an old tobacco barn behind my house that used gas to cure the leaves. Tobacco Barns are 2 stories high and we used to hang the tobacco sticks on the rafters in them. They aren't used anymore and you can see them all over the country side falling down, a sign of times gone by. At the end of the road I live on at the stop sign are several acres of tobacco. When I was 8 years old I drove the tractor that pulled the tobacco harvester and when I got older I sat on the harvester and tied the tobacco on sticks. Now the whole process is more automated. They have machines that go through the fields to "crop" the leaves and they are cured in bulk barns. There are also plenty of corn fields, tobacco fields, cotton fields, soybean fields and produce such as squash, cucumbers, sweet potatoes and peanuts in this area.

Ten Southern Things

I've been tagged by Little PenPen to make a list of ten Southern things. Here goes:
1. Fried food.(If you stand still in the South they will bread you and fry you!)

2. Everything closes and there is no bread in the grocery store if there is any mention of snow in the forecast. The weatherman is afraid to say snow and just says the "S" Word. We insist that the schools close because it is dangerous for our kids to be on school buses, but then we pull them on a sled behind our 4 wheel drive truck on the interstate. (My neighbors actually pulled their children and my son like this down the road in front of our house, much to my horror!)

3. Sweet Tea (Mickey D's for $1.00 is the best!!!)

4. Our vegetables are well cooked, not crunchy.

5. We call lunch dinner.

6. A popular dance is shagging.

7. A good Southern cook will feed anybody in her path.

8. Our grandparents are called our ma-mas and pa-pas.

9. A lot of people have double names like Billy Bob, Joe Ben, Debbie Lou, etc. If their Mama didn't name them that we will nick name them that anyway.

10. You have to look out for water moccasins in the summer (a snake).

Do I have any Southern Blog Readers? I'm not sure who to tag!!!

Debbie J.

Another week of Blessings!

Happy Monday! Monday is moving on with us or without us, so might as well be happy about it! My first blessing of the week is the fact that I won a drawing on Elizabeth's Blog (Clothesline Talk). I didn't even realize I had won at first! I won a quilt pattern and thats one of my favorite things. Thanks Elizabeth!

For dinner on Sunday (that's the same as lunch if you don't live in my part of the South:o)) I cooked two recipes from the book I got from the library on Saturday ("Don't Panic Dinner is in the Freezer") I decided to try out some of the recipes first before freezing any. I made the Beef Chimichangas and Chicken Catciatore served over pasta. Yes, all in one meal. We had a variety of flavors. I also cooked Veg-All Casserole and Fresh corn on the cob, and of course sweet tea. The Veg-All Casserole is from my Mayberry Cookbook and my family really likes it. The corn was really, really good. The variety is Ambrosia. Nothing is as good as fresh corn on the cob right out of the field.

I will definitely be freezing some of the Beef Chimichanga mixture. I know my family would like that.

The chicken was good too. It cooked in the crock pot while we were at church.

Have a great day! Debbie J.

Happy Friday!

Last night I made homemade pizzas. We needed to run a couple of errands after I got home, so first I put the ingredients in the bread machine for the pizza dough so it could be doing its job while we were gone. When we got back all I had to do was put the pizzas together. On the first one I put bell pepper from the garden, onion, pepperoni and the cheeses. On the other one I put hamburger and pepperoni. They came out great!

I am excited about the cook book I got from the library this morning before work. Its called "Don't panic, dinner is in the freezer". I haven't been too successful with freezer cooking, but hopefully this book will give me some new ideas and incentive. Just looking through it I saw some things I want to try.


Last night I browned some hamburger and put in containers in the freezer. There are lots of things I can use this for to put supper on the table in a hurry. Food Lion has its lean hamburger on sale this week. I will probably buy another pack and brown and freeze it too.

The library is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. Each Friday I check out three movies that are not due back until Monday. My library has a great selection. They even now have DVDs. The library is probably the best place to save money if you think about it. You can use the internet free, you can check out movies, you can get free entertainment for yourself and your children, 100s of cookbooks and how to books, it goes on and on.

Looks like I will be a "real" homemaker this weekend. Cooking, cleaning and sewing!!!! Can't wait!!!!

Debbie J.

Frugal Gifts from the Garden

My daughter grew these Zinnias from seeds and gave these two pots full to me for Mother's Day. The seeds came from Dollar General, and were really cheap. Zinnias are one of the easiest flowers to grow from seed. They transplant very easily. If you plant the seeds in the ground and they come up too thick, you can scoop up the individual plants with a spoon and move them where you want them. I filled up two flower beds one year this way! They don't seem to even notice being moved. One pack from the dollar store will make many plants.

Hello Summer, come on Fall!!!

Today is the first full day of Summer, but it has felt like Summer around here for weeks. It always surprises me that Summer is just getting here, but It feels like summer already. There are many things I like about Summer, but I'm looking forward to Fall. I love the Fall the most, followed by Winter, Summer and Spring, in that order. I think the reason I don't like Spring as much is that it signals the end of Winter, which I prefer. By the time Summer gets here, I know Fall isn't far behind. I'm really looking forward to NCSU Football, cooler weather, changing leaves, and especially quilting. Quilting is so much nicer in the cooler weather.

Our new grandbaby will be here the end of August, and we will need warm weather clothes for a couple of months, but he will need warmer clothes by the time he is 2 months old.

My weekend plans include working on the quilt I am making him. This will be the third quilt for him. I have also made some receiving blankets, diapers and burp cloths.

I'm still trying to get organized better and stay on top of things.

This morning I was rushing around alot, but managed to put one load of clothes in the washer. I left the lid up so they would agitate, but not drain. This way I could concentrate on other things and not worry about stopping it. Before I left home, I turned it off so the clothes could soak today while I'm at work. When I walk in the door this afternoon I'll turn it back on so it can finish washing. That seems to be a good way for me to get laundry done. The clothes get really clean that way too.

Now is a good time to really think about picking up items for Christmas too.

Happy Summer to you!!!

This Week's Menus

Sunday we had a huge meal in honor of Father's Day. We had steaks on the grill, sweet potato casserole, corn, stringbeans and potatoes, squash and biscuits.

Sunday afternoon I roasted some chicken breasts in the oven and browned some lean hamburger in an effort to make meal preparation faster after work this week.

Monday night I took the chicken meat off the bones and cut into bite size pieces. I used the chicken to make a pasta salad. I used a mixture of whole grain rotini and regular penne rigata, chopped bell pepper from our garden, chopped onion (just a little), light mayo and a little celery seed. We also had plenty of leftover veggies from Sunday's meal to go with the pasta salad. I put some leftover pasta salad in my son's lunch today and brought the rest to work for my lunch. Its even better cold!!!

Tonight I plan to use the browned hamburger to make my fast and easy lasagna. I shared the recipe here earlier. I will have the lasagna ready to eat in 1 hour after walking in the door at home. Still have leftover corn, string beans and potatoes.

Tomorrow night I plan to have lite hotdogs with whole grain hotdog buns. Maybe some broccoli and cheese.

My intention is to do more meal planning and cook ahead as much as possible on the weekend. I tried to freeze my lazagna in the past, but didn't like the taste after it was frozen. I think I would be more successful to just cook for a few days at the time.

I would also like to follow my blogger friend Elizabeth's example and cook the chicken breasts in the crockpot and freeze the bite size pieces, as well as a hamburger mixture. There are lots of chicken recipes that my family like that I could use the chicken and hamburger in.

New House, job and baby

We went to see the progress of my daughter, Lori and her husband, Ryan's new house Saturday. They are so excited. They will have a new baby and house in August. Ryan is starting a new job in August too. It will be a busy time for them. So many new experiences. I'm sure it will be hard at times!!!

Lori is becoming a good little homemaker. She is working at becoming a good couponer (like her mom :). She is learning to be frugal so that she can be a stay at home Mom. She is a good cook. Much better that I was at her age. She is going to be a good little Mama!!!