Less Empty Nest Menu #45

The Girl and Bubbie are visiting us at some point in these menus...if so, I will make adjustments in how much I cook, but they are also on the Veggie Train with Mom and Dad.

Monday - Rotisserie Chicken Tacos with tri-color slaw, sliced radishes, avocado, queso fresco on whole wheat or corn tortillas

Tuesday - One Pot Pesto Tortellini with broccoli
Wednesday - Fajita Bowls with fajita meat and peppers, rice, cheese, tomatoes, bell pepper
Thursday - Salmon Patties, baked sweet potato*, cannellini beans
Friday - Italian Drip Beef, green beans, skinny masheds
Saturday - Independence Day!  {Not sure where we will be or what we will eat..}
Sunday - Cheese and Veggie Frittata

Gina

*might do these in the crock pot

5 thing Friday - pillows, deck, wreath, ideas, vines

Using a sale code and free shipping I bought a cute pillow for my reading chair in the backyard.  I love this little nook under a crepe myrtle.

I know you can barely see what it says - relax - but its cute with a straw-like material that is all-weather.  Me likey.

I brought home some baby cacti that I found here and there at Highlands.  I have one for The Girl and one for Bubbie, too.  This baby found a home in a painted pot that Scout made for me when he himself was a wee one in elementary school.

I also moved my chocolate mint herb pot out here and bought some bright and pretty patio pillows, and we spray washed the deck. 

Happy colors!  {It was hard to find ones that didn't feature beachy themes - I got these from Wally World.}   A little sprucing for a sweet little deck space to sip wine.  #winning

Then I got all kinds of crazy and made a summer wreath using stuff I already had in my stash.  Total cost = $0.

Welcome

Hmmm...maybe I should get a vinyl transfer for the door that says just that.

Cute idea:  dated wrought iron candle holders mounted on reclaimed fence wood.  I could so do this.  This was noticed in a junk shop in Burnet. 

{always have your phone handy to take pics of cute stuff!}

If I were any kind of gardener, I would plant grape vines along the (6 foot) fence surrounding my garden.  Which I will be some day.  And I can.  And I already know that Pipoul Blanc will thrive!

Gina

Weekend re-cap: Wining and Dining

Saturdays are meant for getting the heck out of Dodge.  After a quick stop for breakfast here (sorry, no pics), we headed to Highlands to drop off our cargo and putsey a bit until it got too hot.

Next stop was Perisso's to listen to live music and sip wine in the shade. Social distancing was followed and we had our own picnic table with a great view. 

 I strolled around the vines a bit, but it was getting to be brutal in the sun.

 I hope we get to help them harvest this year!

 I set out a small charcuterie for us to enjoy.

We decided to stop into 7 Creeks - it is becoming one of our favorite places.  We had just missed both the food truck and the live music, but we enjoyed a chilled white wine and sat listening to breezes and birds.  Very relaxing!  

 Lots of happy, relaxed people, just staying safe...

 Things that summer is made of:  fresh air, lots of sun, breezes under trees, and wine...

 Turn left at the Texas barn, you can't miss it.

Hubby does all of the driving on the weekends, and I guess he doesn't mind it much since its the only time he leaves the house!

 At Highlands, I found a feather that an owl must've dropped.  Aside from deer, mostly we are seeing only the owls lately.  Not sure where the turkeys and coyotes are hiding.  Oh, and last weekend there were those two armadillos running through, spooking us a bit.  I am happy we haven't seen rattlesnakes, but there are still scorpions aplenty.

On Sunday we headed home before lunch - Hubby wanted to cook fajitas for Father's Day.  We invited all of our peeps, but only Firstborn was able to come...so there will be a lot of delicious leftovers!  We had grilled mixed peppers and onions,

...chicken and beef fajitas,

 ...made some really hot salsa...

 ...and an easy cheesecake pie topped with fresh strawberries.  Firstborn had us all to himself for socializing and eating!

The food was good, the company, too.  And with that, Father's Day, and the weekend, ended all too soon. 

Gina 

Empty Nest Menu #44

Full-on summer...bring it

Monday - Pesto Chicken Bites, chard* {order my veggie box}
Tuesday - Taco Salad Bowls with turkey taco meat and black beans, tomato, green onions, cilantro, shredded cheese, sour cream on shredded lettuce
Wednesday - Cowboy Quiche (made with pork sausage), chopped salad
Thursday - Salmon, black eyed pea salad
Friday - Crock Pot Ranch Pork Chops, one serving rice each, green beans
Saturday - Dinner with Bubbie in San Marcos {visit a new to us winery, walk a virtual 5K that I roped Hubby into}
Sunday - One Pot Spaghetti, lemony broccoli

*seems like every week I have to check my IF boxes for missing stuff - last week it was chard and nectarines...):  They will give you a credit if they leave something out, but you have to bring it to their attention.  Super annoying.

Gina

5 thing Friday - cargo, summer cooking, summer eating, Fiesta, foot tan

The pile of stuff we take to Highlands always looks excessive.  And Hubby always grumbles "what all is in here?!"  I spy: boxed wine, an empty water buffalo, the haircut kit, an overnight bag, a cooler of food, bug spray, a potty...

Its better to take the things we need for the projects we are working on...right?  I mean, a round trip to the Marble Falls Wally World or Lowe's is a minimum of 1 hour.  And a lot of items go up to Highlands, but don't get taken back.  Still, its a lot of cargo.

Simple campfire dinner:  sauteed onions, peppers, and tomatoes over cannellini beans, and pesto topped cod. One pot, no leftovers, and perfect summer fare.

 The wine club pick-up at Fiesta Winery in Lometa was GREAT.  Go here to hear the harpist - she was amazing!  There were food trucks and happy people all around.

Along with delicious wine, we discovered schnitzel!  Why have I never had this?  It was like heavenly chicken fried pork chop on a bun, coated in rainbows and served with unicorn smiles.  I need to learn to make it.

It was hot outside but we were cool in the shade, kicking back after a delicious lunch with some Tex Way Rose on National Rose Day.  

We fired up the Uuni and made pizza on Saturday, but in future we're gonna have to shorten the cooking time to one minute.  I made homemade pizza sauce and we used cut up rotisserie chicken and shredded cheese we found in the freezer, added to pre-made thin crusts.

 We don't use the Uuni near enough.

 Smoked salmon charcuterie with almonds and pistachios, pepper white cheddar, a smidge of cream cheese, and buttery crackers.  Served al fresco.

 I don't know if you can see this well, but I have a fisherman's sandal tan on my feet that looks reedonkerus.  And in my attempt to even it out, I might have gotten sunburned again...I think I'll just leave it alone.  Who looks at my feet besides me anyway?

Gina

Esperanza Vineyard wine club party

Instead of closing her tasting room for the summer wine club pick-up, our friend Judy of Esperanza Vineyard invited us to her property for strolling among the vines with a glass of wine last Thursday.  I don't know how you could say no to that, and I was in dire need of a day off during the week. 

Spring Branch is about an hour and a half from our house, through very scenic Texas Hill Country.  She met us in the driveway and said "park your car, get a glass of wine, and meet us in the vines" and a group of folks were heading out.  We made a beeline for the wine, then ran out to catch up with everyone.  I sure didn't want to miss the tour!

She has acres of beautiful oaks - she cleared out a lot of the cedar trees herself.  And all of the vines were planted by her, with help from her daughters.  A 10 foot fence keeps deer from doing their own brand of creative landscaping - she learned that the hard way.

She is one of the friendliest people we know and is working hard to get her winery off the ground.  Her tasting room in Blanco is a cozy place to sit and sip wine, and her wines are excellent. {read more about it here}  For part of the "tour" her daughter took over and showed us the first vines they planted.  The property was left to she and her siblings when their parents passed, so it has been both a work and an education in progress.

 We walked around admiring the place.  Met and made pleasant conversation with other wine club members.  And just enjoyed the heck out of a sunny and beautiful afternoon.

 She has a lot of Sauvignon Blanc planted, but also a bit of Tempranillo.  I'm sure I would make a terrible wine farmer - the work is back-breaking and so many things can wreck your grapes.  Deer, birds, too much rain, powdery mildew...to name a few.

 When we got home later in the day, we enjoyed some more of her wine in our tiny deck in the back yard.  It was a relaxing day, full of driving, walking, and socializing, and we were so happy to have taken the day off to spend in the country.

Gina

Empty Nest Menu #43

I added a couple of new recipes to my menus for the week, hoping it would break me out of the mealtime funk.  And after this round of meals we will stop using the oven.  Its just too hot outside!

Monday - Pinto Bean Soup, corn muffins {gonna start my Christmas shopping}

Tuesday - Pork Rib Chops, Copper Pennies, sauteed garlicky chard
Wednesday - Crockpot Brisket and Onions, BBQ beans, broccoli with lemon butter
Thursday - Overnight Mac and Cheese, leftover brisket, green beans
Friday - Turkey Sloppy Joes, avocado and low salt chips, skillet squash
Saturday - Pineapple BBQ Chicken Foil Packets {going to Perisso's for wine and live music in the afternoon}
Sunday - Eat here, or get a burger to go on our way home from Highlands

Gina

A small and thrifty sewing project

 I did a small sewing project on Wednesday that I'm sure I have blogged about before, but I can't find the post.  {Oh, well.} When I recently visited my mother, I helped her do some cleaning and dirtied up all of her cleaning rags.  I use them for everything and I usually wash them in hot bleach-y soapy water and hang them on the line to dry when we are done.  But I noticed that they were in pretty sad shape. {most of them probably needed to be thrown away!}  Time to make her some new ones, and as fate would have it, I had also ordered some new bath towels for Camp Rustown.  Meaning I could use one of the older towels to make cleaning rags.

I pulled out all of the cleaning rags I already owned and made sure they were all still useable.  (I have a tendency to use them until they fall apart!)  I trimmed off the stringy edges, folded them, and stacked them in that little white basket you see.  It lives under the kitchen sink.  I keep some in each bathroom, too - they are strictly for cleaning THINGS, not PEOPLE.  Then I kept out one of the ratty ones to use as a pattern of sorts.  I'll just save it in my sewing box as I'm sure I will do this little task for years to come!

Using my rotary cutter and mat, I got 15 new cloths out of one of the old towels I pulled from house circulation.  I used to purchase cleaning rags in packs of 10 at Wally World for about 5 bucks.  But why should I when I can just make them for nothing?  I also used to buy colored bath towels, but white ones make so much more sense - easy to see when they are dirty, easy to bleach, and easy to hang in the sun.

Then I sat at my machine in Bubbie's room and gave each of them a zig zag stitch, close to the edges to minimize fraying.  Fifteen new cleaning rags for my mother's house and few minutes feeling crafty and frugal before I cleaned it all up and went to work for the day.  These little projects do a lot to help me feel normal in these crazy times.  And it got me to thinking about what I want to sew and craft next.

Gina

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