The girls in Miss PD’s room. They are wearing their matching horse pajamas.

I like to joke that Miss PD is a puppy housed in a human’s body.  She loves to run and jump and dance.  She whistles to songs on the radio.  She gets up from the table while we’re eating a meal and tells us to watch her dance.  When she’s done she tells us, “Clap, guys!”

Miss PD has the most amazing hair. It is SO curly. No one in our immediate family has hair quite that curly. I am still learning how to tame her mane.

I have learned a lot from being Miss PD’s mom.  She is very different from her sister.  Some things that worked brilliantly with her sister don’t work as well for her.  Other things have been better with this child.  But one thing I now know is that kids are their own people and it’s my job to accept quirks and encourage the good stuff.

Happy birthday, my little pup!

Miss Petrie goes to school in an industrial/transitional area of Albuquerque.  It contains lots of businesses and one of the places I frequent near her school is a produce store that gets overstock from major retailers like Target.  Last week I scored veggie platters for $1.99 (usually $13!!), a bag of onions for $0.99 and steamable bags of little potatoes for $0.99.  I also bought two pounds of blueberries for $4, which is cheap this time of year.  I also bought 2 pounds of strawberries for $0.99 per pound.

As soon as I got home I processed all the fruit and veggies into baggies in order to freeze them and partition them out for recipes and lunches.  The veggie platters came with dressing, too, which is a bonus as it doesn’t expire until April.

As I went to pay, I used my store punch card and ended up getting $3 off.  I felt like I was robbing them when I left with five bags of produce for just over $12.  It’s not always convenient for me to go to different stores for all of our food needs, but I do get some killer deals at these little out-of-the-way places.

Enjoy your weekend.

I don’t really have any resolutions, because our family is continuing to move slowly forward.  I feel good about what we are doing for ourselves: gardening, cooking from scratch, I continue to work on my graduate classes, living frugally, working on our house, exercising, amongst other things.

I have been taking pictures and thought I’d do a quick picture-o-rama.  :)

We saw robotic dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum.

I let the girls pick their costumes from their play clothes. Miss PD was a princess. Yes, her crown says “Birthday Girl”. Miss Petrie was a vampire princess.

Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and bread. We had pie for dessert.

Fall hiking at the Petroglyph National Monument.

Miss PD in a poncho made by Grandma P.

I searched high and low for a little writing desk for Miss Petrie’s birthday and finally found one. I painted it white and now I need to get new girly knobs for the drawers. Pictures soon.

Radishes from our winter garden.

Miss PD running through a puddle on a *very* cold day.

Christmas morning and a roaring fire…on the tv.

Mr. Petrie makes us a “Christmas Braid” every Christmas morning. So tasty.

Miss PD in a princess dress on Christmas morning.

Mr. Petrie and I enjoyed the beauty of the Gila Wilderness on our trip.

We’ve been busy!  Have a wonderful weekend.

I can hardly believe my girl is seven.  She is getting so big and passing so many milestones, I feel like if I blink I will miss something.

We had a weekend of celebration, starting with a new desk for her room.  It’s a tiny writing desk.  Unfortunately, it’s a yucky golden pine color, but we plan to paint it white and add some fancy knobs.  She opened presents, we ate fancy pizza and cake and she will open m0re presents today.  We also took a birthday treat to her school.  We took Princess Popcorn (popcorn, candy, marshmallows) for each child.  Most kids were ok with that, but a few kids asked me when we were bringing out the cupcakes. It made me chuckle.

Happy birthday, my sweet girl!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Our family is looking forward to lots of good eating over the holiday.  I’ve already prepped the potatoes and yams by pre-cooking them in the oven and I have the turkey in the fridge defrosting.  On Wednesday we plan on making mini pecan pies.

I’ve been collecting food for the Thanksgiving feast for a few weeks now.  I finally finished my shopping on Monday, when 20 pound turkeys were $10 at the grocery store I frequent.  I purchased lots of good sandwich fixings for leftovers.

Sorry I’ve been so spartan on Casa Petrie as of late.  I’m taking a graduate class and two projects were due this month.  Whew!  I’m exhausted.

Enjoy your holiday.

Miss Petrie has been growing like a weed the past few months!  I bought her school pants in July, by September they didn’t fit her!  Then I bought her more pants and last week she could no longer get into them.  I wanted Miss Petrie to dress up for the show, but we had no clothes for her.  Even her tights no longer fit.  I rarely hit the mall, but it was a clothing emergency.

She got the whole sparkly deal, including shoes.  And while we were in line, another customer offered us a 20% off coupon. The whole thing was very reasonable.  I plan on extending the life of this outfit by having her wear it for holidays and pictures.

My other little Miss Petrie II has been growing as well, but I have a cache of clothing for her.  Last week I pulled out some clothes that I had been storing in the garage and placed them in the correct bin for later use.

I had lots of great clothes for winter.  Miss PD will be set.  She even has holiday clothes that will coordinate beautifully with Miss Petrie’s new outfit.

It has been worth my time to organize clothes for the girls.  And now that I know Miss Petrie is shooting up, I can be on the lookout for more clothes for her.  She caught me by surprise.

Enjoy your day.

It’s starting to get into the 30s in the mornings here in central New Mexico, so I went out this afternoon and took everything off that was remotely ready.  The tomatoes will ripen in a bowl on the counter.  The metal bowl has herbs: basil, mint and lemon balm.

We planted a small fall garden of carrots, green onions and red and white radishes.  I am not sure they will have enough time to mature.  I hope we at least get a few fall veggies!

Have a wonderful day.

It’s our eleven year anniversary this weekend.  Wow.  Where does the time go?  I am grateful every day to have found such an honest, loving, loyal man in Mr. Petrie.

Have a great day.

p.s. This picture was taken while hiking at the Valles Caldera in northern New Mexico, near Los Alamos.

One of the ways to make plain food more enjoyable is by adding a sauce or condiment.  The sauces I make are generally very inexpensive and easy to make.  A few sauces I make on a regular basis are:

• salsa and guacamole,
• cheese sauce using real cheese and milk,
• fruit sauce utilizing whatever soft fruits we need to use up,
• green chile sauce from the roasted green chile we buy and freeze,
• red and green chile sauce from powdered,
• yogurt dips such as dill dip or ranch dip,
• pesto from our own basil,
• cream cheese dips such as fruit dip and alfredo sauce,
• hummus and baba ganoush,
• and tomato sauce using our own tomatoes.

There are always tons of coupons for condiments and sauces and they can be very inexpensive.  We buy:

• ketchup,
• mustard,
• mayonaise,
• BBQ sauce,
• soy sauce,
• Schiracha chile sauce,
• Tabasco,
• A-1,
• sour cream,
• salad dressing,
• and tomato sauce and paste.

Some of the items I buy or make are really versatile and can be added to meat, veggies or pasta for a fun meal.  Here are some examples of what I cook.

• I can add salsa and guacamole to pretty much any food and it is great!
• Cheese sauce can be added to macaroni for homemade mac and cheese or potatoes for a fancy potatoes au gratin.  It’s also a great base for broccoli cheese soup.
• Fruit sauce can be poured onto pancakes, waffles, french toast, ice cream, or yogurt.
• Green chile sauce (which is much spicier than canned sauce) can be added to hamburgers, grilled cheese, and eggs.
• Red chile sauce is great for Frito Pie, in stews and in enchiladas.
• I serve yogurt dips with fresh veggies.
• Pesto can be added to pizza, pasta and sandwiches.
• Cream cheese and marshmallow fluff makes a wonderful fruit dip.  I will heat cream cheese, milk and pesto for a very tasty alfredo sauce.
• Hummus and baba ganoush are tasty as a dip with crackers or pita chips, in a pita sandwich, and as a dip for veggies.
• Tomato sauce (both homemade and store bought) can be used for pasta, pizza and rice dishes.
• The kids eat ketchup and mustard on lots of foods.  I’m sure no explanation is needed.
• Mr. Petrie uses mayo on tuna.  I am not a big fan of mayonaise.
• BBQ sauce is great on beef, pork and chicken.  We make BBQ chicken pizza regularly.
• Soy sauce is great on rice dishes or as a marinade for meat.
• Mr. Petrie uses Schiracha on stir fries and meat.
• Tabasco is good on beans and eggs.
• A-1 is great on meat.
• Sour cream can be used as a veggie dip, as a way to cool down spicy foods like enchiladas and in beef stroganoff.
• Salad dressing can be used on salads (haha), as a marinade for meat, as a cold pasta salad dressing, and as a veggie dip.

Although I have often tried to make gravy, mine always ends up lumpy.  Eventually, I would like to add it to my repertoire.

Any sauces you make to jazz up meals?

Spread the bottom of a baking pan with frozen berries (I had strawberries), put white cake mix on top of that and dribble one can of lemon-lime soda (like Sprite) on top of the dry cake mix.  Put it in the oven for 50 minutes at 350 F.  Add ice cream and serve to your happy family.  I read that you can mix the Sprite and cake mix in a bowl then put it over the berries, but it will be cake-ish on top, instead of a cobbler-y, crunchy topping.

Since you know I love a good cost break down…

• strawberries- $1.50 ($1/pound, so I used 1.5 pounds)
• white cake mix- $1
• 1 can Sprite- $0.21 ($2.50/dozen)
• scoop of ice cream- about $0.20

Total cost was $2.71 for the pan of cobbler and we got eight servings out of it.  The cost per serving for cobbler and ice cream was $0.54!  

I think this would be really good with raspberries or blueberries, too.  I haven’t found frozen fruit to be well-priced for a while , so the strawberries I used were the strawberries I bought fresh and froze for smoothies and cooking.

Enjoy your day.