{"id":3979,"date":"2019-08-20T18:30:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T23:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/?p=3979"},"modified":"2019-08-20T18:30:22","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T23:30:22","slug":"long-time-no-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/?p=3979","title":{"rendered":"Long time, no blog!"},"content":{"rendered":"

No excuse.\u00a0 No reason for the lack of posts.\u00a0 I won’t even lie and say I’ve been too busy.\u00a0 It just seems it’s one of those things I can put on the back burner even if breathing is the only other thing happening.\u00a0 I’d claim to try to be better, but that may be a lie too.\u00a0 Yep, I’m a flake!<\/p>\n

Lately, I’ve been feeding the freezer and allowing it to feed me.\u00a0 I continue cooking for myself and when I do, I make certain to prepare extra to freeze.\u00a0 It sure makes daily meal preparation easier as I have quite a stash of pre-cooked entrees from which to choose.\u00a0 There’s spicy baked chicken, bar-b-que chicken, oniony chicken w\/rice, mushroomy chicken, roasted chicken w\/dressing, roasted turkey w\/dressing, bar-b-que pork ribs, creamy chicken\/spinach enchiladas, spaghetti sauce, chili, shrimp fried rice w\/veggies, hearty beef\/veggie soup, chicken noodle soup, pork chops smothered with onions, and shrimp gumbo with okra and rice.\u00a0 On days I don’t plan to cook, I decide what I want to eat for dinner and pull it from the freezer to defrost.\u00a0 Then, all I have to do is choose which side dishes I want to include (usually commercially frozen vegetables) and quickly prepare them.\u00a0 This system is nearly as easy as preparing a commercially available TV dinner but MUCH better tasting, less expensive and more nutritious.\u00a0\u00a0 In addition, this system keeps me from being forced to learn to prepare food for a family of one (depressing!).\u00a0 I love it!<\/p>\n

As soon as the weather cools a bit, I plan to make a big batch of pork tamales.\u00a0 They freeze so well and make excellent gifts.\u00a0 Though they may be months away, I’ve already received requests from family\/friends.<\/p>\n

During spring and summer when fresh vegetables are readily available, I purchase those that freeze well and I often use.\u00a0 This week, I bought bell peppers and celery.\u00a0 I use both a lot when I cook but it kills me to spend $1+ for a bell pepper when they are out of season.\u00a0 The local farmers’ markets have lots of fresh bell peppers on sale for 4-5\/$1, I’ve stocked up.\u00a0 I clean them thoroughly, de-seed, dice them and put them into the freezer.\u00a0 It’s so convenient to grab a handful from the bag when cooking something yummy.<\/p>\n

Today, my hands smell of celery!\u00a0 When celery was on sale this week, I purchased 2 big bundles and today cleaned them well and diced them for the freezer.\u00a0 I now have enough chopped celery to last months and months.\u00a0 This is MUCH better than discarding stalks of celery that have turned into brown water.\u00a0 It’s tough for a single person to use an entire bunch of celery before it melts!\u00a0 This way, I never lose any to the compost bin.\u00a0 I’m keeping my eyes opened for other veggies and herbs that freeze well.<\/p>\n

I’ve continued to knit small items for family.\u00a0 Though it’s currently too warm to wear them, I’ve made new hats for my son’s household.\u00a0 Each was very well received!\u00a0 I also made several new washcloths but didn’t photograph them.\u00a0 Jacob was very glad to receive them.\"3<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s hoping you’re staying cool during this oppressively hot summer.\u00a0 I’m so praying and looking forward to cooler weather!\u00a0 Stay safe and be kind!<\/p>\n

Shirl<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No excuse.\u00a0 No reason for the lack of posts.\u00a0 I won’t even lie and say I’ve been too busy.\u00a0 It just seems it’s one of those things I can put on the back burner even if breathing is the only other thing happening.\u00a0 I’d claim to try to be better, but that may be a (continue reading…) <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11,41,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3979"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3995,"href":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979\/revisions\/3995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shirlsu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}