Playing Catch Up

It’s been at least four years since I left home for a week and I’ve forgotten how hard it is to get caught up and back on track.

This morning I was getting ready to make meatballs and sauce and decided it would be a good morning to go to the Farmers’ Market so we did and we made a good haul.

I think the only thing I forgot to include was a quart of honey. Shown and I’ll try to go left to right . . tomatoes, broccoli, a peach fried pie, mushrooms (and I forgot the type), several kinds of lettuce, beets, pea shoot Microgreens, a lemongrass plant. Kinda hidden behind the plant is a big bag of kale and somewhere in that pile is a large head of Napa cabbage. Oh, pecans – 2 three pound bags of pecans.

For our meal today we had a really good pork tenderloin recipe – this one. It was quick and easy and I didn’t change anything. It had cumin in it and Vince liked it (he feels about cumin like I do about oregano) . . didn’t mention it and he cleaned his plate! Maybe he noticed but didn’t say anything because I made this earlier in the day.

Four containers of homemade sauce, each with 8 or 9 (some have 8 and at least one has 9) meatballs. Each container will be enough for Vince to have two meals. I don’t eat it! He will have it over pasta once and maybe twice or he may make a meatball sandwich.

I got the meatballs made and baked.

Got the sauce made.

Yesterday I mentioned that we bought two 20 pound bags of Budget Rice while in Louisiana, which is one of my favorites. Actually, I like pretty much all kinds of plain rice. I can’t get this one locally but we didn’t have room to bring back more than these two bags and one 10 pound bag for Nicole.

When we were at Walmart yesterday, they had two cases of an off brand grand half gallon jars. For six jars, these boxes were $12.99 each. The Ball brand – also six jars, is $16.99. I don’t buy off brand jars for canning – not water bath canning and definitely not pressure canning. I will use Ball, Kerr, Golden Harvest or Azure jars. I’m not saying you CANNOT use other brands . . I’m just saying that’s all I use. I don’t can in the half gallon jars but simply use those for storage – freeze dried fruits and veggies, grains, beans, spices, etc. so I didn’t mind an off brand for what I will use them for. They had cardboard dividers between the jars, all the way to the top of the jars, which is better than what Ball has been doing.

Anyway, I bought both cases of those half gallon jars and each 20 pound bag of rice fills six jars so I had the perfect number of jars.

I did get a good bit of work done in the garden and now . . 5:30 p.m., I’m just getting ready to start stitching.