charlie horse wake ups are never a good thing

we got woken up by me,
and screams in the night
i work us up, the cats up, the chickens up, the budgies up and i am pretty sure the ducks and mice up
today's show is brought to you by leg pains

(yes i am drinking a gatoraide RIGHT NOW)

i also got up to a dead mouse in the trap on the stove... THAT was a good thing for me if not for the mouse

bernie has my cold from hell now
he's sick as a dog but is going to work......actually i think he's sicker then i was!

now in what may end up to be HUGE news, i bid and won what looks like is going to be a le creuset soup pot for me!! a big 4.25 on.
it was on ebay as le creuset but within the listing the picture and copy was of a sitram cast iron pot. i emailed them, they said no it's le creuset
so i bid 41.00 and shipping was 19.99........ which if it is actually le creuset i got a huge bargain
actually i got a huge bargain even if it's sitram but i will complain if it is

i am starting to convert to cast iron now, long and slow is something i do already (*get your minds out of the gutter- i am talking about cooking)
so cast iron works, as does pyrex, & corningware----- both of which i use in the oven as when i first got married bernie bought us a small set of some off brand glass bakeware, and i got a fireking set of casseroles (brown ones, and i loved them until they shattered)

now i am wondering how much of my cooking was influenced by the cookware i had as well as the slim budget we lived on? slow cooking was best for cheap food

now what is exactly so freeken hard about tossing a small cheapo roast in a bit of water (or red wine) with garlic and onions and putting it in the OVEN at like 200 for like 2 hours... you don't really have to do anything - that takes like NO FREEKEN time
if you scrub a couple of potatoes and prick them over and nuke them for 6 minutes then toss them in the oven for the last 15 minutes to get them crusty you got bake potatoes.....
and if you throw some frozen green beans in a small pot of boiling water for 4 minutes.....there's your veg!
add up all your prep time i think it's maybe what? 10 minutes tops?
if you need the meat faster, raise the temp to 350, then depending on how thick.....it's like 20-30 minutes
take a freeken shower while it's in the oven
( that is the other secret to my cooking... everything is timed to come out of the oven when bernie gets out of the shower)

now when i worked full time outside the house ( and sometimes two and three jobs) i did once a month cooking..... then ( a milliontwo years ago) it was called 'freezer' cooking
buy whatever was on sale... say chopmeat ( ground beef)
make up meat loafs, sauce, hambugers (not cooked, just formed) stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage..... freeze it
next month do the same with say chicken
do marinades on parts in freezer containers
then say next month pork
and keep going
before you know it you got a full freezer, and varied meals all taking less time during the week
i did it monthly and our monthly food budget was 120.00 a month
i think our monthly food budget now is about 200
and now i stock for the year
it's not hard, but it does take changing your thinking a bit.
and let's face it you would take just as long getting in the car and driving to the fast food place, placing then waiting for your order
if you got that time, you got time to make one of my fast suppers
there is no excuse
i do find it so interesting that with more and more and more cookbooks being published ......more and more people are eating OUT
during a recession that is really a depression!

ok anyway, i love to cook, just not every day so this works well for me
as we still have to EAT everyday

now back to my legs....... they hurt but i think the gator aid will help
and on to the garden
i am so insanely excited about the baby pattypan squash i can't tell you all.......and watching it makes me soooooooo happy
it's about 1/4 of an inch long
and i got 5 new BIG cuc's coming along
with what looks like hundreds of 1'' ones coming as well
i been doing little stuff around the house, as i didn't get a lot done before colleen came
(who btw, i can't get a hold of again)
oye