19 Monday Apr 2010
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A little different twist on the traditional egg salad.
4 boiled eggs crumbled
3-4 tbsp. of hummus
salt and pepper to taste
I have a hummus recipe on a earlier blog, but a nice store-bought brand is Pita Pal made in Houston, Texas (www.pitapal.com). My personal fave is the Spicy Jalapeno.
Skipping the mayo adds a bit of interest and lightens up the snack in more ways than one.
Making do on a monday,
Trish
16 Saturday Jan 2010
Posted in Restful Homes for Our Families
Our friends, the Adams, in Tucson (fellow frugalista’s) delivered their WSJ to Todd’s office faithfully for four years, a true blessing for our limited budget. When we moved I was unable to find any fellow readers who would save their recycled copies for me. I asked around, but no Austin version of the Adam’s family surfaced, so for Christmas this year I asked for a subscription to the WSJ. I put it on the list, and low and behold the week of Christmas my own copies of WSJ began arriving to my great surprise and enjoyment, a true gift from my in-laws who understood how strongly I wanted that specific gift.
The Adam’s were selfless, generous in fact, giving of their time by saving and carrying copies faithfully each week they were in town. They saved our family hundreds of dollars over the 4 1/2 years we lived in Arizona by sharing what they no longer needed. All family members lugged the Journal in their Sunday best as a gift to our family.
How does one overcome selfish desires?
Sometimes watching others give selflessly of themselves or something they enjoy like television is helpful. The Adams, Rod, Mary and there three children are a living example to our family. In addition to sharing their news papers, all of them serve the needs of the poor, especially folks who have somehow been marginalized medically, and do so in all the corners of the earth, especially in Kenya.
Thankful for living examples of Christ’s selfless love,
Trish
28 Monday Dec 2009
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The Christmas season in a pastor’s home is always an active time, and this year is no exception, but our family planned ahead, purchased and shipped all our gifts early, and managed to send out one box of Christmas cards to most of our family. At the store a memo was posted notifying us no time off would be granted in December — no need to ask. With that the pace quickened as Christmas approached, and my part-time job became a full-time thing. There was less time to prepare for Christmas than in previous years, and we encountered a few unanticipated “opportunities” for faith and laughter, but it had been a fun-filled month of anticipation. On the weekend before Christmas we had an Open House for young and old from our church, Todd’s folks arrived the twenty-third, the house was tolerably clean, and we waited excitedly for the Texas and North Carolina cousins to arrive. And then…
“the night before It was Christmas and we were without…”, gifts needed wrapping, and the trip to the grocery store was fast disappearing. My husband who had been down for the count sick for three days finally arose in the morning of Christmas Eve day with no voice, and it was looking like this year’s sermon would be retitled “Silent Night” and the Christmas story would be done in pantomime. His voice recovered, a few packages got wrapped. I dressed in my most festive attire and off to work I went at eight am. Somewhere during the day my husband called to see if I would be up for going out to lunch. I looked at my boss and asked her if I was crazy to go out given I only had a cooked Country Ham for Christmas dinner and was unable to find a Crown Roast at any local store. I was still absent of the necessary sides for dinner. She and I concurred I must go and be carefree for a couple hours and “just shop later”…perhaps very quickly before our six pm Christmas service. Sounded like a good idea at the time.
The story picks up quickly at this point because with so many unwrapped presents, the only rule as every one wrapped that afternoon was that you could not wrap your own. We ran out of wrapping paper at one point and began wrapping with scraps…a real patch job. We then left at five for the service and decided a little run to the market after the service would have to do.
Around eight pm Marilyn (Todd’s Mom) and I left for the one place we were sure would be open on Christmas eve. I know you’ll shudder if I put the big box store name in print so we’ll leave it out and let you fill in the details. We pulled into the parking lot just as the doors were being locked, lights turned off, and shoppers left the store, bags in hand.
Marilyn and I start to laugh hysterically as we and an army of late shoppers sped across the street to another grocer only to see the same thing unfold. My face went pale and my mind numb as I started envisioning my bare pantry and lonely, country ham — naked in the middle of my beautifully set table with nothing to dress it up. My mother-in-law was not phased and said “Trish we just need to find a 7-11, we’ll be fine, we’ll make-d0.” The light bulb went on for me in that moment as I realized the Walgreens would be open. Others would soon realize the same thing, and another stampede was about to begin. The first ones to Walgreens would get the choicest crops from their canned goods aisle. We sped off in a hurry…
We leapt out of the car, grabbed one of the last carts available and there we were, standing in the canned goods aisle at Walgreens preparing Christmas dinner, laughing uncontrollably as Marilyn author of , Taste and See That The Lord Is Good ~ Psalm 34:8, ( a published cookbook) creatively put together dishes from what was available for our Christmas Dinner.
Our menu:
A jar of green olives and a can of black olives
Green beans and Campbell’s Mushroom soup (no French-fried onion available) home- made caramelized onions topped the dish
Peas and mushrooms
Au Gratin potatoes (from the box)
Corn pudding made with canned corn
Orange jello and crushed pineapple ( my daughter’s contribution)
Frozen Mrs. Smith pumpkin pies
Our Country Ham and Sweet potato biscuits from Smithfield, Virginia shipped earlier that month from the Southards.
Don’t you all wish you were here for this delicious Christmas dinner from Walgreens.
Trish and Marilyn
25 Monday May 2009
Posted in Restful Homes for Our Families
Friday morning, I worked diligently setting up my first baby shower here in Texas. I enjoy hosting women’s events, bridal showers, teas, birthdays, etc. Ann has convicted me of making do and I did not have my copper or silver cleaner after our move from Arizona. We were not able to move any cleaning supplies, so it was another case of having to make do. I learned through a quick Google search that adding a cup of vinegar and a cup of salt to a large boiling pot of water would remove the tarnish from my copper tea kettle. The instructions were so simple it was hard to believe: “Boil item in pot for two hours. ” HAHA …are you kidding me? Two hours later I was astounded to see my kettle looking presentable for the shower.
I pulled out my silver and tried the same thing. I learned in my search that I could line a pan with foil, pour baking soda all over the item and top off with boiling water to cover. Once again I thought there was no way this could work. I save foil because my husband’s grandmother who lived during the Great Depression taught me the value of reusing foil by cleaning and saving it. I have a hard time reusing it, but I am persisting in my effort to honor her frugality. To my suprise yet again, I waited and watched all the tarnish fall off a pan full of silverware. How could this be? Why had I wasted so much of my time in the past polishing?
Thank you Ann Kroeker! Making do is once again eco-friendly!
