June Cleaver Club Sunday 5/4/08

Well, got out and raked in the lime, etc Ed spread yesterday.  Then finished planting the leftover tomatoes in different spots, not the garden and Ed put back some shingles that came down with the wind this winter.  Ended up being a nice afternoon and now we are in being lazy.   Having popcorn and cheese and crackers for dinner.

Laura, my back is an ongoing thing.  Not from the fall.  Some is age related, some is a muscle that doesn't behave and causes problems and some who knows.  Hopefully this spring pollen laden weather will soon pass and your asthma will behave itself.  Have you started synthroid or related med yet? 

Sherry, love Olive garden.  WEre you able to go and what did you have?  Hope you can get a swim in today.

Shirley, you'll have to send us pics of Kassie in her dress.

Cindi, sounds like the b-day boy ahd a good day.

Patti, love pork chops.  Glad they were good. 

Well, off to read again.

Jill

Dowie, hope you feel better soon. Jill, I did go to Olive Garden but with two ladies from church. I was supposed to be paying for the one since she bought my lunch at Manuels the last time we went, but they wouldn't let me pay for theirs even though I was really using the gift card that the church gave me for cleaning the church in March. Anyway, we got two orders of pizza, salad, and breadsticks and split it between the three of us and still had almost a whole pizza left over that they made me take home. Lots of stuff got done at church. Tom, the contractor that helped with the other house had some cabinets given to him so he installed them in the one junk room and also at the back of the auditorium where we had a table that all the cups and plates and things were stacked under the tablecloth. He bought new countertops to go with them. It looks about a million times better. Another guy roofed the storage shed and another one installed two more A/C vents and put one in the corner where the pastor and I are on Sunday morning and the other one where the music director is. Those two corners were always hot. Not sure how many other saw it, but the pastor and I are both pretty overweight and it was really hot in that corner. He had an extra fan rigged up to blow on him while he was speaking and he would take off the jacket. He has to always wear long sleeves in the summer because of the bad burns he had 5 years ago. It was comfortable today. I am going to have a busy, busy week with parish nursing. Tends to hit all at once. Have one person whose daughter was due to deliver end of May, husband is deployed, baby died so he is trying to get permission to come in and be with her when she delivers dead baby. Must be horrible and so close to Mothers Day also. One lady is having pretty risky surgery and with a 4 week old baby. One family had relatives in CA die unexpectedly, one lady is still battling pneumonia, and then the pastor has a couple of issues going on. ANd I got an urgent notice from the parish nurse coordinator reminding me to let everybody know about the measles outbreak in AZ and 3 other states and make sure everybody had their immunizations up to day. The contractor delivered the desk to the other house, so now I can start moving my parish nurse files, books, etc over there into the office. That will help with some of the clutter in the back room. Got to make salsa for the Cinco de Mayo potluck at work in the morning and still have lots of laundry to fold and put away. was going to get pasta e fagioli and salad and breadsticks, but the other ladies talked me into pizza. Maybe will try Jill's recipe for paste e fagioli. Still have about 12 dollars left on that gift card so that might be close to another dinner someday.Had a long swim in. Now it should be warm enough to swim almost every day except days I work nursing shifts. I also skimmed the pool and brushed the sides down good. Friend mowed the grass last week and while the filter system got most of it, still needed a good skimming.

Sheila, loved your purple rose. Lisa, loved your siggie too.

Dowie did you ever get a new van.

Sheri, that is something about your neighbors. Maybe if you took the bag of dog doo doo and poured it out on their lawn. Probably shouldn't have said that, but that sure would be the temptation.

Cya in the AM...Deb

HELP!!!!  My neighbor just gave me half a box of granny smith apples.  Can I slice them and freeze them?  Do I need to do anything special?  THANK YOU FOR ANY AND ALL HELP

Kim

Apples freeze very well. Core, peel and slice them, and pack them in freezer bags or containers either dry or sprinkled with lemon juice to prevent browning. You can add sweetener if you'd like, but it's not necessary for storage.
One great trick I've heard of is to prepare the apples for pie filling--add all the spices, thickenings, however you like to make it; then take a pie pan, line it with foil, fill it with the apple pie filling, wrap it up and freeze it. Once it's hard, take it out of the pie pan, wrap it for long-term freezer storage, and return it to the freezer. To use, just pop the pie-shaped filling right into your crust and you're ready to go! You'll have to bake it a little longer (I'd put foil over the top crust to avoid over-browning).
Applesauce freezes very well too. I put it in freezer baggies and freeze it flat; once it's hard, you can stack a whole lot of applesauce in a surprisingly small space.

Thanks for the info Margie.  Do you have any applesauce making directions?  Never done it before.  My kids are right particular about their applesauce.  I like the pie idea and might just give it a try.  I'm not the best pie maker, but DH never complains about homemade pie.  I guess the more I practice the better I'll get.  You'd think I'd be able to make good crusts considering my mom can make them in her sleep and shared her recipe with me.  She got the recipe from her grandmother.  My next problem is I have a very tiny freezer.  Barely enough room for two weeks worth of meats, ice, ice cream and a spare loaf of bread.  After we take care of the must dos (car repairs, my new glasses and saving for my trip this summer) with our stimulus money, I am going to look into a SMALL chest type freezer.  I have a nice corner in my dining room that it would fit in quite nicely.   Anyway, I have rambled on long enough.  Thank you again for the ideas.

Kim