Sayonaras

 Usually, I have ants coming into my home in the spring when it rains, but the past few months they have appeared in the cold weather. From what I have read in the minutes of the Robin Hood (condo) council minutes, other people are being bothered by these pests now, too. 

When they become rather numerous and frequent, I resort to spraying pesticide. The benefit is that the ant spray leaves a residue behind that keeps killing ants for quite a while. I find little black specks (bodies) instead of crawling insects on my kitchen and bathroom floors. 

This recent infestation has not been conquered by my normal measures. They disappear for a week maybe, then they are back. 

I see them in my bathroom now by twos or threes. They crawl out from under the bathtub where there is a small gap between the tub and the flooring. Once, they crawled out from under the toilet. 

When I bring the toilet tissue down to smash them, I have started saying sayonara. I don't think of myself hunting for ants, but looking for opportunities to say sayonara.

Stocking Up on Food to Hibernate

 Because of my Home Chef meals at the end of last week, I didn't do a grocery store order for pick up until Monday. I thought I would do another order this weekend.

 After seeing the weather forecast, I decided to go to Martin's supermarket this afternoon. We mainly needed milk for next week. We are now well-stocked for the winter storm headed our way. We are on the line between rain and snow. We will probably get some snow, however, and because of the plummeting temperatures that snow will probably hang around. Welcome to northern Indiana January. 

I missed two of my Bible study sessions because of COVID. The group has been on a break because of the school district holiday/winter break. On Monday around 9 a.m. it will probably be zero degrees when I head over to the main building at Grace Village to join the group. I also have choir practice starting up again in the afternoon. Those folks who live in the apartments have the luxury of staying inside to get to those activities. The rest of us will have to bundle up.

I don't have any other activities next week so I plan to hunker down and hibernate in my warm home. My husband gets cabin fever; we'll see how quickly he braves the cold for a change of venue. 

I baked some zucchini bread this morning from my thawed-out frozen grated zucchini from summer. I bought some croissants on sale at Martin's. I was pleased to find that Aldi's still has its "holiday" cranberry and almond chicken salad. Chicken salad croissant in our near future. Martin's had a quarter of a pie for sale this week. I picked out peach which we will eat tonight. I have a bunch of chicken cordon bleu pieces in the freezer. I think we may end up eating that for our Sunday mid-day meal at home for a change. 

The forecast is for highs below 20 degrees most of next week. Brrr.

Hope you are stocked up well for whatever is coming your way. 

Home Chef Once Again

 Though I don't order meals from Home Chef regularly because of the cost (the heavy shipping charge really boosts the bill), in the past few months it was the meal choices that didn't interest me. Finally, this past Thursday a box arrived with ingredients for two meals and a lunch that could be microwaved in 3 minutes.

I didn't take photos of the food. The lunch was a bit weird. It was an Oriental chicken dish of chicken thigh, sweet potato noodles, edamame, and the label said roasted vegetables. When I looked at the ingredients list, I saw red pepper but the container also had purple stuff that I did not see listed. Maybe some kind of cabbage? It made many of the other ingredients purple. I have never eaten purple chicken before.

 I wanted to see if one container would be enough for 2 people for a light lunch. I had ordered two containers; but we could have easily shared. To order the lunches, you have to reach the required minimum dollar amount Home Chef has established to place an order. Mostly, that means adding lunch to dinner choices. We may add lunch to our dinner orders in the future, but probably not the Oriental chicken. 

A Creole spice packet was included with the trout to sprinkle on before cooking in a frying pan. It was a tasty addition. My shallot sauce only vaguely looked like the picture. It was more a tan color than white. It was also greasy. The instructions said to let it cool and add a teaspoon of cold water to reduce the greasiness. Didn't really work.

 The meal was flavorful as the mashed potatoes had mayonnaise and cheese added. Since trout is not readily available in my grocery stores, I would probably order this again. It did not come with any vegetable so I cooked some carrots. 

The pork chops were good but nothing special. My husband said the sauce reminded him of stroganoff. Probably would look for something else to order. 

I get tired of meal planning sometimes. At least with Home Chef there are many options, except I am picky.

My amaryllis had 4 blooms on the first stem. About the time the first bloom was shriveling up a bit, the second stem tried to open. It was crowded next to the already-blooming stem. I cut off the drying bloom, and now there is room for the next stem's blooms. I check the progress each day with joyful anticipation. A nice touch to a new year.