A Windy Day

     "Now Laura," Ma said kindly, "You must not be so easily discouraged.  A few blizzards more or less can make no great difference."
                         "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder


     On Wednesday we went to the stores and bought 5 weeks worth of groceries.  That includes the Butcher store, the Health food store and two grocery stores.  It took us about 2 1/2 hours.

At the Health food store, I bought bulk molasses and maple syrup, Tibetian Pink rock salt and Applewood smoked salt, chili powder and decafe Earl Grey Tea, and a dozen lovely red peppers on sale for .33 apiece.  These define the tastes of this month's cooking, to some extent.  The peppers are frozen, nearly a gallon of them for fajitas, salads and omeletes, Eliyah will make pancakes after school to eat with maple syrup, and the salts, well, nothing tastes better for me than scrambled eggs with smoked salt and ground pepper for breakfast!  The total was $24.80 and constitutes my quarterly trip to the Health food store.  Counting that and the others, my total for 5 weeks was $300.75.  We saved $50.  Of course, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  If we find ourselves jaunting to the store in less than a month to get some goodie we're out of, well, that would be a failure of the budget, wouldn't it?
My menus for this week include Pasta, which will make three meals,  Beef stew with barley and mushrooms, Pork tenderloin sandwiches and Clam chowder with toasted cheese sandwiches.  We bought plenty of ice cream, fruit and chocolate for desserts.

This week I made Rye bread for a change, using the molasses and some cocoa powder to impart some color and flavor.  I rolled the loaves in chopped sunflower seeds too.  It is yummy.  

Today is a very windy day.  The air is like, buoyant, as I noticed when I went out to rescue two t-shirts left out to bleach in the sun.  So I left the garage door up and the door into the house open, to bring in that leafy air.  When I went out to get something in the garage, I found a wren trembling on the work table.  She was so afraid of me she wouldn't shoo out, she just couldn't move with fear.  I put up the second door and left her alone and now she has gone.  It is so windy, the garage must have seemed like calm from the storm.   

Eliyah made breakfast Pizzas Thursday, biscuit dough with eggs, cheese, bacon and a slice of tomato.  They were very good and he has written down the recipe for his box.  We used lard in the biscuit dough, which gives it a special flavor.

 Some have mushrooms on them.

My sole decoration for Halloween is the witch in our kitchen, brought all the way from Yugoslavia.

I have been making lists at the dining room table by lamplight, even though it's the middle of the day.  I find it makes the lists go better, and now I think I'll add a cup of Earl Grey tea too.