I have not so secretly been desiring a Robin's Egg Blue front door for years now. I had made my desires known to my husband and we finally bought the paint for it. Well today was "paint day" and I was so excited to get it done. Jeff said he would do it, but I told him I wanted to paint it myself and he could get some other projects done outside BEFORE the cold and wet weather starts to hit us. So, while I painted, he worked on the shed door, which was in need to of some work. Oh my goodness, I was absolutely giddy about getting it all painted! The weather was nice and warm, so the paint dried really quickly.
This week I also made some homemade applesauce with the apples we picked up at the orchard. I filled the large crockpot to the top and ended up with 8 cups of applesauce. Two of those cups were eaten with dinner one night, along with a nice pork loin roast and a sweet potato and russet potato hash. Since I made the applesauce really smooth with the immersion blender, I thought it would be a great replacement for oil in a cake recipe. I looked up easy applesauce dump cakes and found a wonderful and easy one with great reviews. The cake was super moist and so easy! I thought I had bookmarked the link, but I cannot find it at the moment. It only took a yellow cake mix, 3 eggs, 2 cups of applesauce and some cinnamon sugar to add to the top after it is baked. I do remember that part. The remaining 4 cups of applesauce were frozen in 2 cup portions to be used in future cakes.
I also made some other great food this past week. I was craving some of that delicious krab and celery salad, so I made enough for two meals for myself since Jeff is not a fan of it. In addition to the pork loin roast, I also made an elk roast in smaller crockpot earlier in the week. Both were amazing. I saved half of the pork loin roast and will be using that in Sweet and Sour Pork (adding extra veggies to bulk it up and boost the nutritional value) and serving that over rice. I'll also pull some veggie egg rolls from the freezer to have as a side dish. Jeff took the leftovers from the elk roast to work one day and had some very envious co-workers. One of them always asks Jeff what I made for dinner the night before. That really makes me both happy, and dare I say it proud, that my hubby is able to eat healthy and yummy food that he brings from home.
Saturday, after Jeff got off of work, we headed into town to do the shopping. I had to replace my dying blow drier, so I got one the folds up and has a retracting power cord. It will make it much easier to pack away when we travel down to Las Vegas at the end of November to spend time with our family there and love on the grandbabies! We did the grocery shopping and pretty much stuck to my list. There were some items that we wanted that were missing in the store, and some things were just too darned expensive, so they were crossed off the list for now and I will wait to see if they go on sale. Considering that most of them were baking related, there is a good chance that they will be soon. I used some coupons, which saved us $5...that just about covered the cost of tax on food in Idaho for this shopping trip to Winco. We used more digital coupons at Safeway and saved another $7 on apples and Swiss cheese.
Other frugal doings for the week included picking another gallon of blackberries. I froze those. I also harvested a bunch of baby zucchini and some of that will make its way into dinner tonight in the Sweet and Sour Pork. The cherry tomatoes are continuing to produce more fruit and my acorn squash continues to grow bigger and bigger. Yes, one acorn squash...the rest of them withered up and died. My celery is ready to be harvested and used or preserved...that will be one of my projects in the coming week.
I pray that all that are reading this are blessed with good health, good weather (this Fall is just gorgeous in the Pacific Northwest) and warm homes. Remember to take breaks in this busy season and enjoy the beauty all around you. Even in this chaotic and sometimes downright scary world that we are living in, God still shows his love for us all in the beauty that surrounds us from the changing color of the leaves to the magical sunsets and the crisp night air. Can you tell this is my favorite season of the year? 😉
Sounds like a good week. Glad you got your door painted.
ReplyDeleteHave a blessed week.
Thank you and it was! I think this is going to be our last week of warmish weather and then we can snuggle in. I hope you have a blessed week as well my friend.
DeleteGlad you were able to paint your door in the color you wanted! Sounds like you've had a good week and lots of good food to eat, too! That applesauce cake sounds delicious!
ReplyDeleteThank you Bless....the cake was so good and easy too!
DeleteNow I’m craving applesauce cake! Love the robins egg blue on the front door. I bet it looks very pretty
ReplyDeleteThanks Debby! I'm loving the door color and it just makes me smile. :)
DeleteLOL - the one time I grew winter squash - butternut-- I got exactly one squash. And the vines ran the entire length of my garden bed and was a terrible space hog.
ReplyDeleteYour meals sound yummy - no doubt Jeff's co-workers are jealous!
I'm starting to plan out my new little garden space in my 'side' yard. It's a blank canvas as the previous tenent was in a wheelchair and removed all the grass and planting beds and put in pavers. It's up to me to landscape it which suits me just fine. Have you ever used stock tanks or something similar in a veggie garden. Or know anyone who has? A cousin grew her veggies in one on the coast but I'm not sure how it would work in the summer heat here. I'm leaning that way (once I quit gasping over the price) in favor of low low maintenance.
Cheers, SJ and puppygirl in California
I know what you mean about the squash...not going to grow it next year. It has been huge learning year for me in the garden, along with working with a new greenhouse. I have never used stock tanks, but I did use some rubbermaid totes with holes drilled into the bottom and my cucumber plants got way to hot and fizzle up.
DeleteSorry for me being a space hog...I have the same dump cake recipe essentially -- a box of cake mix, 3 eggs and a can of pie filling. I usually add a tablespoon of veggie oil because I like the texture better with oil included. My favorites are lemon cake with blueberry pie filling OR butter pecan cake with apple pie filling. It fills a 9X13 glass baking dish. 30 minutes or so at 350.
ReplyDeleteSJ.
Oh that lemon cake with blueberry pie filling sounds amazing! I will have to try that one. I bought a spice cake mix and will be trying that with the applesauce too!
Deletethe lemon cake and cherry pie filling is also good but blueberry is my favorite.
DeleteSJ
here's a question for you and your readers. Has anyone ever used a recipe for Green Tomatoe Apple Pie filling? I read about it on a different web site but no instructions were provided. The recipe uses green tomatoes as the base instead of apples and season it as if it were apple pie filling. And then can it. Ideas? No idea on the blog i read if it would need pressure canning or if water bath canning would work.
ReplyDeleteSJ