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Are these bird precious?  They are a salt & pepper set.  I just thought they were so adorable I had to have them.  Even though I'm not really a salt & pepper shaker collector (I say that while mentally counting the dozen or so sets of silverplate or glass and silverplate shakers I have…).

I guess I have a thing for birds.  My oldest son was visitng a year or so ago and as he wandered around the house he noted that I have quite a bit of bird related decorations going on.  I hadn't really noticed but I guess it is true.

I just thought this set was adorable and would be a cute addition to my tablescapes.

The only thing that could be cuter would be two sets:

After I ordered the first set I saw that the status for the item was set to "Sold."  A few days later I saw it back on the site and grew alarmed because I hadn't received a shipping notice and I was afraid that there had been some sort of computer/ordering glitch.  I emailed the owner and she said that mine had been shipped and she had another set so she added it to the shop too.  

I quickly snapped that one up and it is now flying South and is going to retire in Florida. 

Hmmm.  Wonder what that could mean for someone dear to me living in the Sunshine State?
 
 

I have been on a mission to whittle down my monthly grocery budget.  I use the term 'budget' loosely here because I really didn't have a budget at all.  Around 3:00 or 4:00pm I would start thinking about what I wanted to make for dinner that evening and then I'd hop in the car and go buy the ingredients. 

You know how that goes, eight other things manage to hitch a ride in your grocery cart and the next thing you know you are handing over $50 for that evening's meal.   Multiply that by four or five trips a week and you can see where this is headed.

I sat down a couple of weeks ago and counted all my trips to the grocery store, and how much was spent, over the past six months.  I was horrified at the amount I spend on average in a month. 

I've come up with a plan.  On Wednesday morning I sit down and figure out the meals for the rest of the week (Wed-Sat – I'm usually down at my Dad's on Sun-Mon and Tue is a forage for dinner night).   Then I figure out my grocery list and then I head to the store.

The hard part is coming up with a list of meals for the week.  I try to be practical about it and pick meals where I can duplicate ingredients.  Poach some chicken for two meals.  Steam some rice for one meal and make enough to throw into the soup for the next meal.  

I decided what I needed was about 30 meals that I could have in rotation.  I thought I would print them on recipe box sized cards and include the grocery list for that particular meal on each card.  Excluding staples like salt, pepper, oil….

Now each week I can go through my box and select a handful of meal cards, write up that week's grocery list and go.  I can be judicious in my selection, still picking meals where I can utilize ingredients more than once.  

If anyone would be interested in the Word template I created, leave me a comment and I'll email it to you.  I created it so you just have to fill in the blanks and then print it.

If you are MS Word savvy you can play around with different fonts, colors and even add your own graphics.  I use a font on mine that I downloaded so the template will have a more universal font. 

I'm still fiddling with the size of the cards (so they fit in a standard recipe box) and I'm thinking I'll come up with a matching grocery list template to go with it and I'll include it in the email to you.  Note:  I see your email by default when you leave a comment so no need to include it in the body of the comment for all the world to see.

I'll email them out on Saturday. 

 

 

 

Thank you for all the shelving love on my last post.  There is something about getting organized that releases all kinds of endorphins in me.  Such a nice, happy feeling.

Not less than an hour ago Rick walked into the room with a big box of craft stuff that had been stored in the garage for the last ten years.  I must have packed it up when we moved here and never unpacked it. 

All kinds of metal charms, German diecuts, watch parts, rubber stamps, seashells, markers, ribbons, trims, felt, sketch books.   My taste in craft bits and pieces hasn't wavered much over the years.  Except there was a lot of black lace and trim – not sure what is up with that.

On Sunday we visited Rick's mom (Patricia) and her husband (Richard) and while we were there Patricia made pizzelle with leftover waffle batter.  She let me take the pizzelle iron home so I could make some myself.

I wasn't thrilled with the recipe I made.  I wanted the house to smell like a Stone Cold Creamery.  You know, that waffle-cone scent.  They were okay – just not vanilla-y enough even though the batter called for a tablespoon of it.

I have to say that they are a bit tedious to make because the iron only makes two at a time.  They should have made it bigger so it makes four.

I broke the latch on it when I was making the second batch so I guess I own a pizzelle iron now.  I'll get Patricia a new one.  I noticed on the reviews for it (Cusinart) that other people had the same problem with the latch just breaking in half. 

Does anyone have a tried and true recipe for these?