Bargains galore!!

Mom and I have found some great bargains at the grocery stores lately, such as pork butt roasts for .88/pound!! Today we found even more and I thought I would share.

At one store I got:
2 pkgs split chicken breasts (bone in and skin on; 4 breasts/pkg)
2 pkgs chicken breasts (boneless, skinless; 5 breasts/pks)
6 boxes saltine crackers
25# carrots

Then at the next store I got:
4 Cucumbers
10 - 1 quart bottles Gatorade
6 bottles of our favorite bbq sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's)
10 - 15 oz cans Dole mandarin oranges
10- 15 oz cans Dole tropical fruit
4 - 4.4 oz Hershey bars (the ginormous ones for baking..or eating if you've had that kind of day)
40 pounds of leg quarters

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but I got this for a total of just under $105 bucks!!!! These things will make a nice addition to my food storage; I'll can the carrots this week.

100 mile challenge

Have you seen this show? It is really cool! I watched it today for the first time. It gives you a lot to think about, especially since it makes you eat seasonally. In the spirit of the 100 mile challenge, Rebekah and I picked wild persimmons today. Persimmons grow like crazy here, and this year there is a bumper crop. I had planned to pick some as a treat for the goats, but ran across a recipe for persimmon bread and decided the goats could have what was left after I made a loaf.

We picked 4 pounds of ripe fruit, the bread recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of persimmon puree.

Since they are wild, they aren't very large....but they are very flavorful!The first step of making the bread is pulling off the caps, and washing the fruit.Next we run them through a food mill to remove the pulp.To make the bread, cream together 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup sugar, and 2 eggs; set aside. Sift together 1 1/2 cup flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp salt. Add 1 1/2 cups persimmon puree and the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Add 1/2 cup nuts if desired....I added 1/2 cup of chopped dates instead. Spread batter into an 8x11" buttered pan and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.

This would be really neat to serve with Thanksgiving dinner. Topped with a cream cheese frosting it's a yummy dessert!

Back to normal whatever that is...

Gracie does her best to keep us on track with the latest fashions and reminds us that normal is a matter of opinion. The house is nearly back to standard operating procedures and we've recovered from the decorations, the rain, and the stress. For the most part. Rebekah and I are busy with school work, I need to get busy canning....and I need to update our harvest totals....even though our hens are in molt and we're not getting eggs. I also need to read some blogs and catch up with others.

In other words, we're nearly back to normal....just a little behind but catching up as fast as we can!

Postponed

The flowers are done, the meal is planned, the dress bought, wedding hall rented, and invitations mailed out. But the wedding has been postponed. Stephanie and Curtis still love each other, but have decided to have a longer engagement. YAY!