Desert Bound

Posting a little early this week because I leave soon for Arizona, for a work trip. Today I borrowed and bought a few items, finished packing, and ran some errands. My flight is early Sunday morning.

So far I have spent $125 towards this trip (haircut and color) plus about $20 worth of snacks for the plane — some fancier stuff from Sprouts, more than I needed but it will keep for later. Tonight I may have to get two drugstore items, but nothing major. I haven’t bought any new clothes or shoes — I borrowed two cardigans and a pair of sunglasses from my mom. So I allowed myself to spring for “What We Can Know” by Ian McEwan, on Kindle, to read on the plane. I need to have something to look forward to on the plane.

Feeling a little melancholy at the thought of leaving. Home is so nice right now. The weather is beautiful today. It’s just bucolic, driving through town, along the park where the trees are changing color, picking the kids up from the Friday night HS football game or taking them to the haunted hayride. I got the rest of our light-up pumpkins set up last night in the front windows, and have been burning my pumpkin persimmon candle.

Today I pulled out two of the tomato plants, harvesting a few tomatoes, green beans and dried-up beans along the way.

And I harvested  my yearly sole volunteer pumpkin. A big guy this year, at 8 pounds, 12 ounces! I  needed it to be safely inside the house before I go! I don’t trust anybody here to keep an eye on it.

And this tomato looks like a pumpkin…

The broccoli and Brussel sprouts came under attack yet again this week — aphids this time. Clumps of them. I washed them off, but it’s unlikely I can get anyone else to go on aphid alert next week, so… best of luck, my poor brassicas.

This week I knocked out a few food preservation tasks. On Sunday, I finally dried some thyme from the garden, the last herb I needed to mix up a batch of Italian seasoning. Dried basil, sage, oregano, marjoram and thyme — all grown right here!

On Tuesday night I roasted yet another batch of garden tomatoes. After roasting I remove the skins, run the flesh through the blender, and then run that puree through the food mill to remove the seeds. Then it goes in the freezer.

Thursday night, I made more cinnamon apples. And I still have three apples left! That was a big bag of MacIntoshes. So good on oatmeal.

The oatmeal was one of Tom’s “aspirational” grocery store purchases. Along with blueberries, Cream of Wheat and some other stuff. He hasn’t touched any of it. I’m happy to take the oatmeal off his hands, but I don’t do Cream of Wheat, and the blueberries didn’t look that great. Luckily, we have so much money, who cares if we light some on fire?

On Monday I did a very quick Sprouts run. Among other things, I bought coffee and cinnamon in bulk. I think the cinnamon was only $2 and it filled up the bottle I had just used up.

Some other small wins:

• I redeemed credit card points for $15 off my bill.
• I had a receipt with a lot of Fetch points and now have enough to get a $5 gift card, though I think I’ll wait til I get to $10.
• I received our NJ tax rebate check and popped that sucker right into savings.
• I used our same old Halloween decorations to decorate inside and out.
• Got a free coffee from Wawa with points.

Meals this week:

Sunday: terrible Sicilian pizza from a local place. Deeply regret this choice.

Monday: Pancakes, sausage, home fries, eggs and toast.

Tuesday: Fish patties, tater tots and corn

Wednesday: Alone, I feasted on Brazi Bites, carrot sticks, and sauteed green beans (both veggies from the garden).

Thursday: Chicken Parm

Friday: Ellio’s pizza with extra cheese sprinkled on top

Saturday: Tom and I about to go out somewhere. Too busy packing and grocery shopping to cook.

Bought lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday but was able to work from home on Friday.

Til next Sunday!