Monthly Archives: May 2009

around the house, family

Pretty Little May

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“March went out like a lion, a whippin’ up the water in the bay.  Then April cried, and stepped aside, and along came pretty little May.  May was full of promises, but she couldn’t keep ’em quick enough for some.  Then a bunch of doubting Thomases, kept predicting that the summer’d never come.  But it’s comin’ by gum.  I can feel it come.  Look around.  Look around.  Look around!  June is bustin’ out all over, all over the meadow and the hill.  Buds are bustin’ outta bushes and the rompin’ river pushes every little wheel that wheels behind a mill.  Because it’s June.  Because it’s June.  Because it’s June, June, June.  Just because it’s June, June, June!”  — From the musical, Carousel

This is a song I have sung to my kids since they were little.  Evangeline, whose birthday is in June, has claimed it as her song.  I am thinking of it this morning because of the phrase, “Pretty Little May.”  I was looking at my last post, and I saw it was from 3 weeks ago and I realized May is nearly over.  It is truly almost June and almost summer.

May was full of promises  . . . The first promise was the one of walking/running.  I was not as faithful as I wanted to be.  I did pretty well for the first 3 weeks, but a combination of sickness, getting a new part-time at-home job, lots of rain, and all the end of school activities got in my way.  But this week I am back on track.  I am not giving up.  That is one of the great things about the little book I mentioned when I started the walking plan.  It reminds you that not meeting your goals, is no reason to give up.

My new part-time work is for an advertising professional whom I worked for last year briefly.  He is an older man who has been an ad exec for his entire life.  I am helping him with some phone and internet research.  So far, he is pleased with what I am delivering, and I am hopeful it will continue for a while.

School activities were many in May.  The highlights were Victory Day, a K field trip, and K Graduation for Charis.

Victory Day — School Carnival

 K Field Trip to Grant’s Farm

  Charis at K Graduation

School vacation is here, and there will be plenty of kids around for photo ops, so I expect to be posting more pictures in the coming weeks.  Hopefully, I’ll be a little more attentive to my blog.  If not, check back at the end of summer for another summary post.

 

cooking, helpful consumer items, money savers

Horne Gruel

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Last night, I made spaghetti for dinner.  I decided I wanted to “take it up a notch,” so I added some things to my normal boring spaghetti.  The result was pretty yummy.  Mark liked it so much he requested that I make it in large batches to keep on hand as “Horne Gruel.”  This made me think about how cheap it was to make, and now I am sharing it with you.

Ingredients

½ pound thin spaghetti

2 yellow squash (chopped in large chunks)

1 small yellow onion

2 – 4 T olive oil

1 pound ground turkey

1 26 oz. jar spaghetti sauce

Ground parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Put aside.

Sautee onions in olive oil.  As they start to become a little transparent, add chopped squash.  Sautee until squash begins to soften.  Add ground turkey.  I push the veggies to the outer sides of the pan and brown the turkey in the center of the pan until it is fully cooked.  When the meat is cooked, mix the meat and veggies together.  Do not drain.  (There ‘s not much excess oil from the turkey, and by now, the olive oil has been absorbed by the squash.)  Add the jar of spaghetti sauce, and simmer for a few minutes.

Add cooked spaghetti to the sauce.  Mix to cover.  Sprinkle liberally with parmesan cheese.  Mix in.

With buying all my ingredients at Aldi, the total cost for 8 servings was: $4.50 — less than 60 cents per serving!

My friend Lori is what I dubbed a “snooty cook.”  She is a terrific cook, and has great recipes that everyone should try.  However,  I am not that at all.  I am a “plain cook” who likes good flavors.  So I appreciate all the work that goes into snooty cooking, but I want the same sorts of flavor without all the work.  I think this recipe does just that.

One last thing, if you haven’t shopped at Aldi for groceries, you should.  I first shopped there when we first came to St Louis in 1995 for Mark to go to seminary.  Limited funds were a big issue to the family of a student, and I would often say we wouldn’t have made it through seminary without Aldi.

I think the prices now are a bit higher, but they are still lower than the big grocery chains.  All their store brand foods are of great quality.  Plus, they have double back guarantee if you buy something that doesn’t meet your standard.  I am not a spokesperson for Aldi, but I am a fan.  I found this blog entry that lists  some of their standard prices.  The prices may have gone up since the time of this entry, but these are certainly in the right ballpark.