The Paper is here!

My youngest daughter used to say that desirable interiors, or clothes, or anything that needed to be fashionable, were "magazine" and I think that conveyed her intent very well.  Now that my home has been "published" in the paper does that make us "magazine"?  You know we are still unconventional!  It was such fun to see our familiar surroundings pictured in the Saturday paper.  We thought Ms. Krause did an excellent job too.  Lots of new blog readers showed up yesterday as she put the blog address at the end of the story.

However, I have already changed out the quilts on the quilt-rail.  I am late in doing so as I try to rotate them quarterly and I will have new ones for Christmas.

I have blown my monthly grocery budget.  I discovered that the "Butcher's Block" has a bulk rate, that I can get a sizable reduction in the price per pound if I buy a "package".  So I have spent $99.99 for 30 pounds of meat which just fits in our tiny freezer.  5 pounds each of lean ground beef, thick cut bacon, stew beef, pot roast, sweet Italian sausage, and chicken tenders.  The meat is top quality.   The temptation to chow down on high meat dinners is powerful.  I have already considered that maybe I won't be able to make it last 4 months.  But maybe 3 months . . .
That would mean that my monthly grocery budget will be $167.00 for the next 3 months.  But I haven't figured out how to recoup the extra $100 I've now spent for October!  Read here for further news on that!

We have company coming this week, in spades.  So the menus are patch-work:
Today, Meatloaf, cheesy rice and broccoli, sliced tomatoes, canned peaches.
Monday, double-meat chili, french bread with garlic butter and Parmesan, last of the peaches.
Tuesday, company breakfast:  bacon, sausage, hot biscuits, scrambled eggs, orange juice, coffee,
supper:  hamburgers, roasted garlic potatoes, sliced tomatoes, cupcakes.
Wednesday company supper, beef stew, hot biscuits, salad with blue cheese, apple pie.
Thursday, leftovers.
Friday: company dinner:  Kuliaba, (salmon in pie roll), last of the salad, assorted leftover desserts.
Saturday:  company breakfast:  poached eggs on toast, bacon, orange juice, eat out for supper.
Sunday:  company breakfast: biscuits with sausage gravy, hash browns, yellow tomato omelet, coffee and tea, eat out for supper.

Big Day

Today was our big day!!!  The newspaper sent a columnist out to do a story on our home!  I don't know what could be more gratifying.  Or more work!  I swear, we have moved every piece of furniture around, cleaned under each of them, run up and down stairs looking for likely relics and still wound up with an empty bookcase!  We set up the living room in the winter configuration, with a table near the wood stove for  warm dinners.  Tired of decluttering the table all the time, we put a bookcase at the end of the couch to hold all the stuff that we fidget with while watching TV.
 

 At the last minute, yesterday, I made some necessary bread and then some sweet rolls to offer with tea.  We enjoyed her visit very much and it was fun to expound on our philosophy and our stuff for a couple of hours.

We went to great trouble to get in this new-to-the-house barrister bookcase and then didn't fill it.  I am looking forward to seeing some of Bill's miniatures in it soon.  Notice the knock-your-eye-out vintage tablecloth from the forties.  There's a touch of that salmon color in the window shades.

I am afraid I didn't follow my last weekend's menus at all.  Saturday night we were both tired and grumpy after prolonged house cleaning and I attempted a nap at 5:30 in the evening.  I wasn't much interested in fixing supper, I can tell you.  The phone rang.  I didn't answer it.  It rang again and this time I grumpily got up and answered and our friend Janet said "Can you come to a gourmet dinner, right now"?  What?  Where?  Well . . .I guess . . .. .so. . . So we changed out of our dirty clothes and went and what a dinner it was!  I forget how many courses there were, all seafood:  crab cakes, clam chowder, smoked salmon and the main entree, delicous baked fish, with carrot cake for dessert!  Oh yes and somewhere in there was shrimp salad.  We were hours eating that lovely meal.  And then they were bringing out take-away containers, so we brought some home  too.
Sunday night I made some rissoto and got the ingredients wrong and made about a half a gallon of it.  Guess we'll be having it again.  I laid the pieces of fish on the hot rice, vegetables alongside and fresh brown bread, cream cheese and smoked salmon open-faced sandwiches.  It was just as good the second time!
Tonight I'm making hot brown sandwiches, with chicken slices on the bread, hot Mornay sauce, bacon and tomato on top.  Steamed broccoli and applesauce for dessert.
Tuesday:  Baked potatoes with cheese sauced broccoli, sliced tomatoes, home-made bread and butter and applesauce
Wednesday:  Hamburgers, baked beans, sliced tomatoes, applesauce
Thursday:  Pizza
Friday:  Pork tenderloins, rissotto, mixed stirfry vegetables, brownies
Saturday, Cream of potato soup, chicken and cheese sandwiches, brownies.