Busy bee

[layla]

Wow, it does not rain but it pours!

I have been pulling 15-hour and 16-hour days, with classes at the university (in search of my long-lost degree) and work and the various other stuff that life throws at me. Luckily the husband is out of town or he would never even know he had a wife. I think I did a pretty good job of putting up a fence in the backyard so the dogs could stay out for 15 hours without running off, in spite of the fact that it uses cable-wire spools and a long stick as structural components. (The dogs have not run off yet; thus, it is a success.) My stepfather is in the hospital. I'd like to drive down to Anchorage to offer moral support, but I don't think the Suburban could survive the trip (though it's been doing OK around town, albeit with interesting noises as it runs around its 30-40 round trip per day).

I also need to come up with a better way of feeding myself during a 16-hour day than making sandwiches, because I get really sick of said sandwiches and then I'm hungry, and end up eating weird stuff that isn't good for me. But I can't afford to eat out. Hm. What to do.

Today (Saturday) a friend's daughter is having her birthday and invited me to her party. She's 11 years old. Ye gods, when I was 11, Knight Rider was on network TV. I feel old.

After that, I'll head home to work on Kismet pages (maybe I can actually get myself together in time to update in June! Maybe!) and do my homework for class.

I guess I also need to get my garden in, or else there won't be a garden this year.

I'm glad it's a 3-day weekend.

Comments

[tinpan.livejournal.com]

guilty but quick meal my mom taught me: boil rice till soft, then mix in butter or margarine and sugar. cinnammon works on this pretty good.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

That sounds tasty! I think I'll try it.

Here's what I do:

[vogelein.livejournal.com]

Make two gigantic casseroles one evening. Throw whatever leftovers you have in there; the end of a bag of frozen peas, the wilty celery in the crisper drawer, the eggs that are nearing expiration, the mushrooms on their last legs, the sprouting onion and garlic, the cooked spinach you never got round to re-using, the leftover white rice from chinese food, the half-box of elbow macaroni you've moved with you up from Illinois. Bind together with a family-sized can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. Pour into casserole dishes and top with whatever carb-based crispy thing you have around: the dust from the bottom of the cornflakes box, a tube of saltines, the end of the bag of potato chips, the cheese that's starting to get green around the edges.

Bake. 20 mins on 350 usually does the trick.

Gorge yoursleves on the first casserole. Wrap the second casserole in plastic wrap and throw in the freezer to be thawed out for another quick dinner some night. Parcel the remains of the first casserole into single-serving tupperware or old margerine tubs, and throw those in the freezer for grab-n-go meals.

Sometimes I make three casseroles, a loaf of bread, and a crock-pot full of soup or applesauce all at the same time (one takes only marginally less work than all, and if you're going to blow an evening on cooking you might as well cook ahead for a week or so).

A variation on the above is to substitute a couple of pounds of ground meat (moose, turkey, beef) for the Cream o' Mushroom and make meatloaf. I found that a venison meatloaf is excellent with apples, wilty green peppers, celery, water chestnuts and corn chips all inside, bound together with an egg or three.

Mmm. Poverty cookin'! It's what I do best!