Sunday, August 17, 2008

Summer Lovin'

This...

...is a perfectly wonderful way to spend half your weekly grocery budget. :-)

Honestly, on Friday when I went grocery shopping I spent about 1/3 of our weekly budget on what you see above, minus the strawberries. I bought the strawberries on Wednesday for $1.50/lb, which if I do say so myself is a pretty good deal. I bought 4 pounds of them. I bought so many blueberries and raspberries because they were on sale for only $1.50/pint for the blueberries and $1.50/6-oz for the raspberries. Also a pretty good deal. So...our freezer is full of berries!

I love summer produce. It's actually affordable. In the winter we eat a lot of broccoli, carrots, potatoes, and...other random veggies, but mostly broccoli and carrots! So I'm lovin' my first whole summer in the South, where fresh produce abounds. You have to remember that I'm from the state where bananas go on sale for $.99/lb. Shannon is reaping the benefits of my love affair with the fruits and veggies in the eating department, but losing me to the cooking process for many hours each week. I'm sure that he's thankful that now school's started I'll have to do more crock pot/easy meals and not so many "elaborate" ones. Maybe next summer I can enjoy trying new "involved" recipes again.


Squash, eggplant, tomatoes and red peppers for ratatouille, sugar snap peas for pasta primavera.


Shannon had never had a fresh, plain raspberry before. He liked them!

Yesterday I made a strawberry tart. I've had the recipe for it for oh, about 5 years, but never had gotten around to making it before. Well, with my 4 lbs of strawberries I decided to go for it. One word: delicious.

On Thursday Shannon and I went to our first class of the semester. It was then that I learned that we have to read a 524-page book and write a 6-page book review over it by September 25th. That's less than 6 weeks away! And to make matters worse for me, it's a history book. Now, I have started (67 pages done by yesterday!), and will admit that it's not that bad, but still...history is just not my thing. So, we'll see if this book is interesting enough for me to actually enjoy learning about the history of Central Asia, or if I suffer through it strictly to get the assignment done. Let's hope it's the former.

Shannon and I have decided that I need some new clothes. So today after church we went shopping. For 4 hours. I bought 3 shirts, 2 of which were the same, just different colors. I must have tried on 50. At least. It is really hard to find affordable, comfortable, appropriate clothes that you actually like and would wear. I thought that maybe since I usually shop in Juniors (yeah, I know, I'm almost 30) I'd try the Misses or Women's departments. And then I remembered why I shop in Juniors: nothing in Misses or Women's fits me. The smalls and size 4's look like you could fit two of me into them. So, back to Juniors it was. I think that after 4 hours, 3 stores, 50ish shirts/dresses, 4 fitting room expeditions, and only 2 keepers, Shannon is finally coming to understand that unless you're made of money, shopping is really not that fun for most of us.

5 comments:

  1. Yippee for the fresh fruit and Amen to the clothes-shopping thing. I hardly ever go shopping, especially for myself! I did just buy 4 shirts from the juniors dept at JCPenney... they were buy one for $12 and get one for $1. LOVE IT! I also got a shirt for $4 that says, "LOVE ME, I RECYCLE." I haven't actually worn it yet...I like the thought of having it! I praise God for hand me downs for my boys! Oh, what book are you reading...do you HAVE to read?? Just curious! And I must tell you that I love all your recipes!

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  2. Well, you cooked a lot and your anniversary weekend was fun...but you've already blogged about those things. See, you're better at keeping up with that than I am so I had to squeeze it all into one post...they probably should have each had their own post!

    By the way, I weighed in earlier today and you can bump that number up to 15! :)

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  3. Hi Michelle--sorry to take so long answering your question! I was at my dashboard, where blogger sends messages about new services, and there was a message about this kind of blog list, so I clicked on it and followed their directions. I've slept since then and have no idea what those directions were. :) I like it, but I have to let you know, sometimes people add posts but blogger really doesn't update my list, and by the time it does, I've got like 3 posts to read. But life is so busy right now, I depend on them anyway. Hope this helps!

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  4. I work about a block away from our Farmer's Market...I love summer for only this reason. These pictures make me hungry.

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  5. Love that Polish Pottery!!!
    It makes anything more beautiful!
    :)
    love you,

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Thanks for commenting!