Well...

Life sure likes to throw sideways.
I started a new blog (yay!) and things are going well over there, though some of the ideas I had for it are on hold because of.. complications.. in other areas..
In early February Hubby got laid off.. surprise, out of no-where.. know we told you we were going to have work and gave you an assignment for this week, but, oops.. we lied..
So we've been income-less for a month and a half now. This has not been fun. Money is tight, but so far we are managing. Not sure how much longer that will all last though. I am very anxious for our tax refund to show up soon. But we have had some blessings through all of this:
We had gotten a line of credit last summer that was supposed to be used this coming summer as an emergency back up for a road trip Hubby wanted to take. (Motorcycle across the country type thing..) His lay off last fall pretty much put an end to the plans for that trip, but we have had that money as a cushion. Even though we HATE touching it, we are very grateful to have had it available.
I am so grateful that I listened to all the messages and promptings over the years about food storage. We have needed to buy very few things this past month and a half because we have plenty of food and supplies stored up. And it's all stuff we normally eat anyway. So there is no, "ugh, we're sick cuz we've suddenly changed our diet" period of adaptation. We have been able to eat regular food, and regular meals, even roasts, steaks, french fries, cookies, etc, and all the trimmings, because I have a well stocked pantry and freezer. I'd been contemplating the idea of getting another freezer and/or fridge for a while, I think I might be able to convince Hubby of it now.. (Ok, we did have a second fridge in the basement, but it kinda died.. we still use it for shelving and storage though.. we'd gotten it for free. It was very old.. avocado green type old... the freezer on it still works though..) But, yes, food storage rocks. I highly recommend it. Even with my food allergies and dietary restrictions, having supplies of things I can eat and not have to worry about any of it has been wonderful. Also, I've somehow managed to accrue a 3 to 6 months supply of my prescription meds. This is one of those things that gets forgotten a lot of times as well. While my meds aren't horribly pricey, it is nice to know that, if we need to, I can skip ordering them for a month or two.
Even failures can turn into successes. I was attempting a recipe creation using some of the bottled carrots form the pantry. It wasn't working out the way I was hoping. I didn't want to throw it out, of course, so I gave it some thought and turned my failed recipe into dog treats, that, let me just say, my dogs go NUTS for. They love these things more then anything else I've ever seen them react to. Even our shy little Petey who is the biggest scaredy cat in the world will come out of his hidey holes and DEMAND these cookies.. And Hubby has been applying for everything he can find. He has even been pointed into directions that he'd really like to go, but never thought he'd qualify for. One company even cold called him about a job that would be _exactly_ what he wants to be doing, but he never thought they'd even look at him. And they called him! Out of the blue. They'd seen his resume online and wanted to talk to him. We're still waiting on call backs about a lot of things, but this lay off might be the chance for him to make some HUGE changes. He's also had the chance to meet and talk to some new people that have pointed him in other directions. He's off talking to Big brothers Big Sisters this afternoon, and he's found a local group that are restoring an old steam locomotive. Now, Hubby LOVES trains.. his father worked on the old steam engines back in the day, so he's just loving having the chance to work on bringing an old one back up to snuff. We went and talked to them a bit on Saturday and he will be going over to fill out paperwork and such for helping out later this week.
I'm really hoping he hears back from one or two of these companies this week. It's a hard time for electricians right now. One of the local companies laid off about 70 or so of them a week or so before he got laid off, so there are a lot of them looking for work right now. Everyone keeps saying that hiring will be picking back up in "March or April." I'm really hoping for sooner over later..

food storage!

Ok, so, I can't remember if I've mentioned this here or not, but, our oven doesn't work. It stopped working properly this past spring. We will eventually get a new one, but, there always seems to be more important things to spend the money on. The stop top works just fine, and I bought a huge toaster oven to tide us over and between that, the electric roaster pan and the crock pots, I've found that, for most things, I don't really need the oven. (Though it's certainly easier to have one, and we will still be getting a new one, eventually, but we're waiting until after the big contract switch with hubby's employment..)
Anyway, so I've been wanting and needing to play around more with the crock pot and also working more on usable food storage recipes. Especially now that it's getting colder, nice hot meals are going to be welcome, and while we're trying to hoard money for various things (riding out any employment pauses between contracts, that new stove, home repairs we've still got to do, and all those adoption costs we've still got to deal with...)I figure now is a good time to use up some of the many food storage items we have in the basement. Always need to rotate that stuff anyway, and even better if you know how to use it. The wheat might be difficult since we still don't have a mill (another thing we're saving for..) but I might be able to come up with something there with enough poking around.. :)

Anyway, my first attempt was making beef stroganoff. The hamburger helper variety is a family favorite, but I wanted to try making my own. I think it could still use a little tweaking, but I've gotten a good starting point worked out. I've tried this with both noodles and rice and it was good with either.
1 can cream of mushroom soup mix it with only half a can of liquid if you want the sauce thicker.
1/2 lb ground beef, ground soy, or tvp. I used ground beef since I had it available, but this would work with any other ground meat or meat substitute. I need to dehydrate some meat one of these days and try it with that. It should work just fine. Use what ever you have and like.
big dollop of sour cream
mix them all together, heat, serve over the noodle or rice. Personally, I think it could use a little more seasoning, but I've always been one who likes lots of herbs, spices, etc.. so I will have to wait and make it when someone else is home for a better take on that.

Today I am making slow cooker stew. I forgot to take the stew meat out of the freezer yesterday, so made a last minute decision to make it a meatless stew and threw in assorted soup beans instead. Really basic stew. Onions, tomatoes, celery, carrots, green beans, the assorted soup beans and lentils, beef broth and a little pepper and Mrs Dash seasoning. I don't use salt if I can avoid it due to issues with my blood pressure so I try to keep as low sodium as I can.. Since this batch is for this week, I also added 2 small bay leaves and a few sprigs of thyme. No one will be here except me this week, so I can get away with it. (Hubby hates thyme...) Might add a few other herbs as it develops through out the day.

Hubby has mentioned that apples are on sale at a good price at one of the local stores, so I might be going out to pick some of those up later today. If this is true, I will likely be making apple sauce later this week, perhaps even making some apple pie filling and doing some more bottling. I've not bottled apple sauce or pie filling before, so that will be a fun new challenge. I've still got to do jams here sometime soon as well. Can't wait to do more watermelon jam and I'll also be doing some mixed fruits, maybe some strawberry and peach as well.. (I can't quite remember what all is down in the freezer waiting at the moment..) I've been waiting for it to get colder before doing the jams, since it's a nice way to heat the house as well. :) But the weather keeps not cooperating and we still haven't had any snow yet. Very disappointing that is.. it will be here soon though.

I did get over 4 dozen pints of pickles done though. (A dozen of those have already been claimed and left the house... the perils of adult children living nearby.. and their friends.. heh..) and did a few small bottles of jalapenos as well. So we should be well and truly pickled for the coming year.