$5 dinner!!

I would post a picture but we are done eating and there was not anything left! ( Should have thought to shoot a photo before we stared.
  It was definable a $5 dinner!  We had Spaghetti Pasta Bake with a small salad and  Italian bread.
Here's how  we did it-Last week we got a whole wheat Barilla  spaghetti   (1.89)  a can of Walmart  Tomato sauce for .69 and a package of Italian meatballs  for 2.50. We use   little less than half of all the ingredients.
 This week Bob made Sesame Noodles with some of the spaghetti.
Then he make the Pasta bake- break down of the ingredients- Pasta-  . 75  , sauce .35   meatballs- $1.25, mozzarella   .70 . We also had half a loaf of Italian bread for .50 . And a small salad- maybe  1.00- so our total came in at $4:50. There was a couple pieces of bread left.

Daily Visitors

This is  the Doe and one of her twin fawns,  They are not afraid of being close to the house.

 Bella at Midnight/ Diane Stanley is a story of an  girl who becomes a knight and a princess by the end of the book. Isabella's other dies  when Isabella is only days old. So she is sent to a cottage of a wet nurse. Her Father does not want anything to do with her because of the reminder of her  mother , so continues to stay in the lowly cottage even under protests from  her aunt.

   Her best friend is Julian who was also cared for by the family for a while His Father  is the King , but he is the last  one of 4 brothers.  Isabella and Julian  go  their  separate ways when it they are older because Julian is of royalty , although Bella still cares for him deeply. They are reunited in rather unlikely way to come to a very satisfying conclusion  of the story.

Weekly Reading- Listen to the Moon

  I have been  doing a lot of reading. One of my favorites was Listen to the Moon ( M. Morgurego) .  This is the amazing story of the author's grandmother who 'came out of nowhere'.   ' Lucy"was rescued  by Alfie and Jim Wheatcroft and taken to their  home on the islands by Sicily.

She is loved  and taken care of , even though she is found with a blanket with  German words on it. This is during the time of the beginnings of WWI. Traumatized by something or someone , she does not speak for the longest time.
Alfie ( the son, who is  a couple years older than she) makes the most progress with her, She listens to him and he can tell that she understands what he is saying. He protects her at school.

 The doctor is also supportive of the Wheatcroft. Mary the wife and mother dotes on the girl and loves her like the daughter she never had. The town is not so good to the family, because the girl is believed to be German.

The story unfolds slowly  as 'Lucy'  gets better, A piano, a German, and time bring the story to a very satisfying conclusion, I just wish there was another book so we can see what happens next.

Looks like a new house!

  The painters are almost done and it looks like we have a new house! We are waiting for the neighbors to comment - but that may not happen . Anyway we LOVE how it turned out.  I think they are going to do another coat on the front . The front shutters are not yet done.( Bob is doing those- and I may get to help)
This is not the best shot- got the sun coming through  but I just had to share!

Easy Vegetable side dish

 Melt butter and olive oil together. Throw in the rest of the ingredients.Toss so all is coated. Saute until desired doneness.  We like ours crisp tender. It works perfectly in the copper chef!

I am using my new copper chef pan and loving it.  We have a veggie  side dish that is easy to make and good for you too!  It is Sauted Cabbage!

Olive oil-  a little( add as needed)
butter-  1 1/2 tablespoons
Cut up cabbage ( for the two of us we usually use half a head)
garlic cloves- 2 or 3 cut fine (optional)
onion slice thin (optional)
salt
Pepper

Extras: bacon, shaved carrots, shredded brussel sprouts,  oregano,  basil, thyme, ( you get the idea here?)

Product Review- Copper Chef Pans

      We recently purchased  our Copper Chef Pans and we are loving them!  They are exactly what they claim. Very easy to cook on and to clean up.  Just wipe and you can start cooking again.  So far we have  made eggs( several ways) ,  sauted cabbage,  and pork chops.
 
       I , of course, had watched the infomercial , read  and watched reviews, and looked at some of the recipe video's before ordering.    We were in the market for new skillets because our  nonstick  pans were looking like the non-stick coating was coming off.  I did not want  nonstick again but was unsure on what to get that would work for us. We do a lot of cooking so we wanted something that would hold up for a while.








http://www.copperchef.com/