Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara logo

The Rest of the Story

Vince has come and gone from lunch.  He fixed the TV . . which wasn’t really broken as I had hoped, but some button was on that wasn’t supposed to be on.  The TV is hooked up to some box, which is hooked up to some box, which is hooked up to the Dish receiver so one wrong button and nothing works.  The truth is . . I’ve turned into my grandma and all things electronic scare me to death.

The washer . . not so lucky.  We’ve called Comanche Appliance but since they’re in Comanche and we’re in Brownwood, I’m not sure when they’ll get here.  The good news is . . Vince set up the washer and dryer in the shop over the weekend.  The dryer is hooked up but the washer needed a longer hose to reach to the septic tank hookup.  He’s going to stop and get that today and I can use the washer and dryer out there til the washer in the house is fixed.  The washer/dryer in the house are the mini units that are stacked.  The ones in the shop are full size.  I may just decide to take the ones out of the house and use that whole room for a pantry/kitchen overflow storage area and not even have a washer/dryer in the house.  We’ll see how it goes using the washer/dryer out in the shop before making a decision.

Speck is doing better.  He has these little “spells” about once a week.  He ate lunch and everything was fine.

About all that ground beef I bought — 7 pounds.  It’s not always easy to find grass fed beef and I try to get that as much as I can so I was real happy to find 7 packages of it marked down.

Last night we were watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and they visited the Metro Diner in Florida I think.  They made the most wonderful looking meat loaf and I wanted it . . right then!  It will be a few days before I fix it . . probably next week because my menu is made for this week and meatloaf is not on the menu.  This is the video of the meatloaf I want to make.  I’ll probably use one pound of ground beef and one pound of ground turkey for my meatloaf.

Chili is on my menu for Wednesday (tomorrow).  Vince loves Cincinnati Chili.  I think that we ate it so much that I no longer like it but I am such a good wife (really . . I am!), that I make it for him.  When we lived in Kentucky, we had a Kroger and they had a packet of Cincinnati Chili spice mix.  It’s another one of those things that I can make from scratch but it tastes just as good made using that mix.  One day at Kroger, they told me they were no longer going to carry the spice mix so I bought all they had (hoarder way back then!).  I think they only had 5 or 6 of the packets.  When we would be out of town and saw a Kroger, we would stop to see if they had the spice mix and they never did.  A manager or someone finally told us it was no longer available so we gave up.

This morning I was getting taco seasoning to make taco soup and what was sitting right next to the taco seasoning mix?

Being the good wife that I am (you do remember that I’m a good wife, right?), I’m substituting Cincinnati chili for real chili tomorrow night.  Two pounds of ground beef went into that.

Then I’m going to schedule real chili for one night next week because I like it.  Two more pounds of ground beef will go into that.

That only leaves two packages in the freezer so .  . I am not a hoarder because I have plans for all the ground beef I bought except for two pounds and having two pounds of ground beef in the freezer does not make one a hoarder!  🙂

And, I broke a glass while washing dishes.  Thank goodness it wasn’t a mirror!  🙂

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Well, at least you aren’t afraid of pressure cookers like I am! Have you tried giving Speck a little pumpkin puree? That used to help my little animal’s tummy problems.

  2. Guess I’ll have to google Cincinnati chili mix to see what is so different about it!

  4. nope–not a horder, but rather a person that takes advantage of the blessings of sales that God sends your way. we have fresh and easy out here in california. i love that store! i get all of my ground beef there. i recently got a deal like you, 9 packages of 2 lbs each for less than half the original price. i KNOW i will use them, have used 5 of them already. by taking advantage of that clearance sale i was able to get some other things that i had needed/wanted but were not in the budget.
    was in super target yesterday and saw that they had 2 types of the pataks sauces but not the butter sauce. i left them both there. they were $3.29 a jar though.
    and, like jane, i am afraid of the pressure cooker.
    i like the idea of the laundry room out in the shop so that you can have a bigger pantry, but i don’t like the practicality of it. i would rather go to the shop for a trip to the pantry out there after i made the menu ONCE a week rather than tote laundry back and forth. plus, i am one that doesnt like to leave the house with the dryer running in case of fire……having the dryer out there unattended would make me too nervous….

  5. I never thought of myself as a hoarder, but I guess most hoarders don’t. Apparently I am one. Of meat. LOL. 400# of beef. 200# of elk. 50# of deer. Now I want meat loaf!

  6. Sounds like my hubby’s Saturday! Loading up the car to come home and carrying too many things at once he dropped his Kindle Fire. It landed with the case open and screen down on the cement driveway, shattered one corner. Less than 100 miles from home stopped and got gas, pulled our of the lane into a parking space. A van backs into our 6 month old Kia Soul! No one hurt but minor damage to bumper and back panel. Get home, unload the car and he goes to put his feet up in his recliner. The lever handle to raise the footrest breaks half in two! So Monday was deal with insurance and take car to shop, go to LazyBoy and get a new handle and then order a new Kindle and case. New models not same size so require a new case! I shopped for fabric and yarn and didn’t feel guilty!

  7. I want the meatloaf recipe when you make it! My hubby loves meatloaf and the recipe I have isn’t very reliable. The last time I made it even the cats wouldn’t touch it. It was my mother’s recipe and I have no idea what she forgot to tell me….

  8. Frankly, I don’t equate being prepared with being a hoarder. Hoarders store things they will never use, and often don’t even have a use for, but those who are prepared store and use what they store. Therefore, even if all 7 pounds had gone in the freezer, you would not be a hoarder!

  10. Living in Cincinnati right now. I will be at the grocery on Saturday. Email me if you want some, if I find it. But the picture of it is the same as the Skyline Chili, So It might just be a regional thing. I will let you know.

  11. Judy, don’t bother with sending your “grey” water to fill up the septic tank….direct it to the ground, it will help the grass.
    Love your blog! So informative!

    • Every place has rules and they’re all different. Here, we cannot have any grey water going onto the ground. It makes no sense to me with the terrible drought but that’s the rules and we abide by them.

  12. I wondered what the difference was in the chili spices so I checked it out. Always answers on the internet. Turns out I have been making Cincinatti chili for years and didn’t know it. McCormick’s actually has a recipe for the portions to make your own mix just in case you ever run out. Wouldn’t Vince think you are even more wonderful if you had a special jar of spice labelled just for him?

  13. I always buy 10 – 15 lbs of ground meat at a time. No use making several trips to the store when I can get it all at once. I haven’t tried the Cincinnati chili. Will have to keep an eye out for that — if you haven’t bought it all!! 🙂

  14. oooo – I have some of those packets in my pantry, haven’t had for a while – now I need some!!! I was born and raised in Cincinnati, my bff still lives there and sends me the packets when I run out

  15. Live in Long Beach Ca now but Cincinnati born. I order it online the last few times I ran out. Comes in a few days and usually order 12 at a time. We love it.

  16. I can’t believe that someone else likes Cincinnati chili. I actually like Skyline chile better but I too have a few packs of Cincinnati chili that I’m hoarding.

  17. You can order the chili mix from ” cincy to you”. I also grew up in Cincinnati and ate tons (literally) of Skyline-I now use the mix all the time.

Discover more from Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading