Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Oct. 4, 2013

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

Bits and Pieces

Nothing major this week, but a little of this and a little of that--a soft spot on a cantaloupe, some black celery leaves, a handful of stale popcorn that went to the squirrels, a couple of tablespoons of hot sauce that came with a burrito. I guess hot sauce can go bad. Otherwise we did pretty well.

(Thanks to Jo at Simply Being Mum for hosting today)

This Week's True Food Confessions

The weekend was another busy one food-wise. Saturday was our Oktoberfest day when we went to a local Oktoberfest festival in the afternoon and an Oktoberfest party in the evening. We enjoyed bratwurst, sauerkraut, and cucumber salad among other things. Sunday, Ward roasted a pig for a work picnic. It was a lot of work but was done to perfection. That was also a great day for eating with everyone bringing their favorite covered dish to share.

The week saw us having a hodgepodge of things. We had steaks on the grill to make up for the loss we had a couple of weeks ago. We also had pizza, pot stickers, sausage, along with fresh grapes and fresh green salad. We're still enjoying the bounty from Uncle Billy's garden.

And speaking of Uncle Billy's garden, it provided the new thing we tried this week--leeks. I don't how it is that we haven't had leeks before, but I really couldn't remember eating them. I cooked them in chicken broth with potatoes, carrots, and squash. The dish was really good. But I knew it would be because it contained many of my favorite vegetables. However, some of us liked the leeks and some of us didn't. Meaning Ward. He doesn't like onions, so it stands to reason that he wouldn't like leeks either which are really just a milder form of onions. Would I eat leeks again? Sure. How do you cook leeks?

Not sure what's on the horizon, but we'll keep treading water and enjoy the successes we do have.

Until next time...

Today...

Today I'm going to look behind the walls.

Sometimes I rush and jump to conclusions. Today I'm going to slow down and think about what is behind the obvious. Who knows what I might figure out.

A Second Look--October 2, 2013

Yesterday, I had a really busy day and I was ready for a little down time when I remembered that I hadn't done my Second Look for the week. So I put down the remote, got the purring cat off my lap, and hurried outside to look around before the sun sank below the horizon. 

And what was wrong with this? My Second Look was not supposed to be a hurried look trying to beat dusk. It was supposed to be a thoughtful look to appreciate things and see them in a different way. And about halfway through my walk, I remembered that. So here are few things I saw this week during both my fast and slow Second Looks.

Boys vs. Girls--The Pig

 Before I had kids, I thought that each child was an individual, and didn't believe much in gender stereotypes in children. Little boys ran and jumped a lot because that's the kind of games they were taught. Little girls played with dolls because that was the kind of toys they were given. I thought that if all kids, regardless of gender, were exposed to the same things, they would have the same tendencies. Then I spent some time in the real world of kids and figured out that I was wrong. Possibly there were some differences between boys and girls. From time to time, I'm going to share some of my experiences that led me to this conclusion. However, so as to not bias you, I'm going to let you guess, who are the boys in the stories and who are the girls.
 

Today's Story

I was at a pig roast where the pig was roasted with head and all. As it was laying on the table waiting to be carved, one child about five years old came over to investigate. Another child about the same age was swinging and appeared to have no interest in the pig. I saw the one, who was curious about the pig, poking at its face. Then heard them exclaim, "Mom, look! I picked the pig's nose."

One child was a boy and one was a girl. You decide: Who was the nose picker and who was the swinger?

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The boy was picking the pig's nose and the girl was swinging.

Thankful Sunday--September 29, 2013

I am thankful that Annie has learned to sit behind the monitor and not in front of it.

I moved my computer into a new spot and all of the cats have come to investigate. After a look around, they seem to want to sleep in front of the monitor. I am thankful that Annie has decided that she likes hanging out behind the monitor. That makes everything a lot easier.