Food Waste Friday--January 20, 2011

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.

Here it goes for this week. 

I didn't have any waste this week unless you count the stuff that I didn't count. Confused? That means we did well enough with the big stuff that I thought I'd see how much waste we had that was so small I wouldn't normally count it. What did that include?

Squished cherry tomato

1/2 of a baby carrot that was rotten

2 potato ends that were going bad
I actually consider these part of a success. I put the rest of the carrots and potatoes into a shepard's pie before they went bad too.

1 squished cherry tomato--This one rolled off the counter and I stepped on it when I was looking for it to pick up.

6 kernels of popcorn--These fell on the floor when the hard-to-open bag of popcorn "popped" open. 

My conclusion from this experiment, "Don't sweat the small stuff."

Tastes so good

Theodore used his creative skills to make a very tasty supper tonight. He made one of those things that tastes so good you just know that its bad for you. And it was, but we didn't care.

 He started making grilled cheese sandwiches which somehow morphed into bacon and tortilla sandwiches. (Some might call them quesadillas.)

After frying up bacon, he browned two tortillas in the bacon grease that was left in the skillet.








 

Then he added Swiss and cheddar cheese along with bacon between the two tortillas and fried the tortilla sandwich until the cheese was melted.

That resulted in crunchy tortillas on the outside with soft melted cheese and crispy bacon on the inside. This was served with sweet, juicy apple slices.

Perfect.

A Second Look--January 18, 2012

See what I found this week during a Second Look.

Parsley

Teaberry

Fungus on fence post

Poison ivy vine on maple tree

What is wrong with this picture?

Groundhog hole

Nandina berries

Bird Fascination

Bird watching is a relatively new activity for me and I am fascinated by it. I watch the birds outside our windows. I read about them and study their pictures. I discuss them with Aunt Martha. I fret when they are absent from our feeder. I even dream about them. Despite all of that, they remain an enigma to me because they seem to be full of contradictions.

When I assumed that we are the cold place that birds migrate from in the winter, I learn the junco migrates to here to be warm for the winter. When I thought the cardinal is the one bird that the whole family could identify because of its color and crest, I find one with no crest. (Apparently, they can raise and lower their crest at will.) When I generalized that all of the birds that eat upside down on our suet are woodpeckers, I see a white-breasted nuthatch that is doing the same thing. And the list goes on and on. 

Slowly, but surely, I am learning about our fine feathered friends, but in this case, the saying, "The more you know, the less you understand,” certainly applies.

 Good resources for bird information:
--All about Birds from Cornell University
--Aunt Martha

Food Waste Friday--January 13, 2012

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.

Here it goes for this week.

We had Chinese takeout this week which included sweet and sour pork. This is the lovely sauce that came with it. That is, it was lovely the first night, then I think it started glowing in the dark. It didn't seem like something that would be good for us to eat, so down the drain it went. I will have to admit, it did taste good that first night with the pork and veggies and made a colorful presentation contrasting with the peppers and pineapples.

Otherwise, we're going to have to be on our toes next week because the refrigerator is starting to build a good pile of leftovers and produce. Wish me luck.