Friday, January 31, 2025

I have the Itch... to Plant

 



Yesterday was a great weather day-with a high near 45.  There is ice everywhere though so moving around can be downright dangerous.  

Funny story, my granddaughter was here in the living room one day and as she looked across the street she saw this young man fall down his icy steps.  He was fine and brushed off his pants, looked around, and walked off, but she said it was like watching at a real life tik tok.  Poor guy, I'm glad he doesn't know we saw that.  If it was me I would have broken a hip.



The nice weather though has me wanting to start seeds.   I did bring in one rack to get ready for it and I'm looking at my seeds but really it's too early here, except for onions and houseplants of course.  I have propagated a couple of wandering jews already and I have decided to plant onions ha ha.    

If you are getting the itch to plant too, old farmers almanac has a list, after you put in your zip code, of when you should start your plants.

The junk you see in the floor to the left is our Spring to do list, paint, a faucet to put in, etc. I need to calm down, now is the time for that stuff I guess.    

  Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  My thred up link is also a refer a friend link.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.


Saturday, January 25, 2025

Good Deals at the Farm Market 1/25/25!

 



We went to LJ's Farm Market in Lapeer MI and bought some great deals.

Strawberries-2 quarts for $3.00 (6)

Blueberries -1 pint for $1.00 (4)

Lettuce -$1.00

2 pints of cherry tomatoes -$1.00 each 

apples-$3.75

1 tomato ($1.36 -he had to have it)

Bag of radishes -$1.99

Total - $23.10

We passed up the wonderful looking breads and sweets.   That was hard.

I believes he goes to the Detroit Market and brings it back. I'm glad he does!   I paid cash -it's 3% to use a card here.  

  Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  My thred up link is also a refer a friend link.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.










Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Cabin Fever Canning 1/21/25!

 

Our cat does not like this cold weather (it's 4 degrees this morning).  He has decided to sleep through this cold.

He loves going outside.  He goes with me to check on the chickens normally but he knows it's too cold for him now.   


In  order to combat cabin fever I decided to get with it and can.  Although sleeping sounds good too!   I finished the carrots we were given yesterday and today I'm on to the pinto beans.


I just let this thing go and I don't worry about it.  That part I love.  No more thinking it's going to fast or slow.  I just go about the house doing things I need to do.  

 Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  My thred up link is also a refer a friend link.

***If you are interested here is the link to the canner.   It's an investment for sure.  I'm weird I requested for my birthday/Christmas present.  

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.





Friday, January 17, 2025

Watching the Weather

 


My today's outside plans, after I mop the kitchen floor, is to put more bedding in the chicken coop, give them water and food (the food bin and electric water jug are big), and give them hay in their run.  We do have 2 to 3 inches of snow on the ground but after going outside to open up the coop (in my house coat) and forgetting my camera I decided this picture in the Fall will have to do.

The reason I'm making sure to do this today is the weather. Today (Friday) and tommorrow promise to be a balmy 35 then we go downhill.  Way down hill...so far down I'm worried about when we are going to get back up LOL.   

Mind you these are the highs.  

Let's see Sunday is a high of 15

Monday a high of 7

Tuesday a high of 3

Wednesday a high of 10

Thursday we are creeping back up to a high of 23

They call these alert days...I'm alerted. I always worry that Spring will never come...but it does.  

In the meantime...I have to pay the high energy bill (it's trending this month to $415)!  

How's the weather in your area?

  Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  My thred up link is also a refer a friend link.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.







Tuesday, January 14, 2025

When We Thought The World Was Going to End....

 

I was so proud of myself cleaning and painting the pantry this past week.  I stocked all my jars with  soup beans, lentils, black eye peas, kidney beans etc.   Looks kind of cool.  

Taking inventory of everything I realized we had more soup beans then we would ever need.  

Just look what I found:


Now, we have a deep believe that God would provide but he wants us to help him do that. No lazy people here.  So, when the pandemic hit we stocked up when we could, you know in case the world was going to end.  I guess one of the things we decided to overstock was soup (pinto) beans.  ha ha.  

Did we think that they wouldn't be able to grow any more soup beans,  the workers wouldn't be there to put them in bags, or that we wouldn't be able to get out to get them?  I'm not sure, we just kept getting more.  Oh boy do we have soup beans!  

I'll be canning soup beans soon but I hope the pantry needs soup beans because it's donation time.

  Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  My thred up link is also a refer a friend link.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.



Saturday, January 11, 2025

Easy Cheese Ball Recipe

 




I make a easy cheeseball every year and we all love it. With a side of ritz crackers you all ready for a snack in a matter of minutes.  This would be easy to take to a  potluck.  

This recipe makes two good size cheese balls.

Easy Cheese Ball Recipe

2- 8 oz pks of cream cheese

1package of dry ranch dressing

2 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans or walnuts

Mix together cream cheese,  dressing, and shredded cheese. Roll into 2 balls or Logs.  Then roll in nuts.  Be sure to wrap in plastic and store in refrigerator.

Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  My thred up link is also a refer a friend link.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.



Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Canning in January and Our Extra Fridge!

 


It was so neat when I wanted to try out my electric canner that strawberries came on sale for 99 cents a quart (the sale was last Friday and Saturday at our Meijer).  For some reason I was so nervous with this first time use but I read the directions and looked up youtube videos to watch to make myself more comfortable.  

I now have 7 pints of jam in January to help fill my shelves. 

My next project is canning pinto beans.  


With the cold weather, we now have an extra fridge on our unheated porch.  It came in real handy with all the strawberries we bought and keeping his pickled bologna cold.  Last night, husband remembered the pop we had in the garage that we had leftover from the holidays and brought that in.  It was well on it's way to freezing completely and that would have been a big mess!  Can you imagine the noise it would have made exploding? LOL

We have been in the high teens and low 20's for about a week. The wind chill yesterday must have been bad but I refused to know. We haven't had a big snow just the cold.    

How's everything were you live? I hope everyone is staying warm with the storms that have rolled in.

Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden**As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  My thred up link is also a refer a friend link.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, Free Kindle books, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.