Everything sublime is as difficult as it is rare. Baruch Spinoza

Monday, October 24, 2022

Soup and Such

I haven't been inside a grocery store since I was at Costco in February 2020. This sounds like a confession.


I got an order from Thrive Market yesterday. I'm still not used to Sunday deliveries but I suppose online shopping has increased by a lot and there are only so many hours in a day, leading to another day to be added into the schedule. Can you believe that small amount of items cost $60? Life is high-priced.



Which brings me to a favorite subject. Soup! This was a busy week for me, I made two different soup stocks, both pork based. This is smoked pork shank with cannellini, fennel, chard and the usual mirepoix. I had bones from pork chops in the freezer and made another stock to use with lentils. The freezer is overfull, I need to stop. But it's one of the few things I can do right now. It make me feel useful. Conundrums.

Tomorrow the new furnace will be installed. I hope it goes fast and easy. Scott said they are smaller now, even though the one being replaced isn't that old. Fingers crossed this will be the last furnace we buy.

Mark has cut the dead pine that was felled a couple of days ago into burnable pieces. I looked up burning pine, as I was always told not to. Every site I went to said it's ok as long as it's dry. It's been dead for a few years, so it's dry. The large box elder is too big for Mark's chain saw so he will have Junior cut that one for him. Maintaining trees on this place is a never-ending job. The chapters of our lives would make a riveting book! 

That's it from my small patch of earth. Take care.

10 comments:

Boud said...

I hear you on the filled freezer. I've had to stop adding stuff and start using it, mainly soup and desserts.

That grocery order is expensive, wow.

Sandra said...

We have both gotten carried away, Boud!

I thought so, too.

Lori Skoog said...

Can't believe you have not been to the grocery store since 2020! That has to be record breaking. I enjoy going and get there a couple times a week. We were just given notice by our insurance company that we have to cut down 5 trees (as they are too close to the buildings) or they will dump us. This was certainly not my day. I wish my freezer was bursting!

Sandra said...

Lori, that's awful. I've never been told to cut them down. I started having delivery when the pandemic started. Costco does delivery of many items, too. This year the Aldi near us started grocery pick up so that's what I do. It's become habit. Your freezer isn't full because you canned all that sauce! I don't can anymore, I freeze. Ergot, stuffed freezer.

Val Ewing said...

I have 9 trees to trim back around our place near the house and two sheds.
I haven't found anyone that can give me a price and actually do the job yet. Two guys gave me outrageous prices and said they didn't want to do the job so their quote was going to be high.

I had it all arranged and then the guy I hired to do it went to California for the winter and moved away.

At one time hubby could do all of it.

Grocery store. Hmmm. We have one not so nice grocery in our town and then Walmart. Our are is food limited as far as stores.

I am purchasing a few extra pies from our favorite Farmer's Market baker for this winter.
Life in the slow-er lane.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Wow, Sandra, I could not believe what i read about how long it has been since you were inside a grocery store. We never stopped doing our own shopping even during the pandemic, just masked up. You are certainly so right about the small amount of food money buys these days, yet we also have too many things in the freezer, many items bought "on sale" in duplicate. Thankfully, it is soup time of year and today's was a fish chowder made by my husband, Patrick. Later this week it will be a veggie soup and then a butternut squash or maybe both made together and added to the freezer stash!

Hope all goes well with the furnace install.

Sandra said...

That's a lot of trees to take down, Val. We are fortunate to have Bill and his family!

There's no shortage of grocers in the area, I mostly use Aldi.

Pies are a good thing to have plenty of!

Sandra said...

Beatrice, the pandemic kept me out of the stores. I have also had an undiagnosed problem with mobility which is the main reason I do grocery pick up now. It's a fantastic service.

Everything costs more so we need to do what we can to make it a little easier. Filling freezers and pantry helps.

The guys are here right now for the furnace install.

julochka said...

Husband has covid - we had escaped it for so long (and knock on wood + 4 vaccinations, I will still escape) - so I made soup as well. A eggplant soup made on the base of the coq au riesling I made on Sunday. Soup is so comforting and it was kind to his sore throat.

We put in a small wood-burning stove in the old part of the house. Right now, we're burning all the scraps from all of husband's building projects. We've burned a lot of pine over the years, so I've never heard that one shouldn't.

I hope your furnace project went well!

Sandra said...

It's good to hear from you, even though husband having covid isn't good. I think I told you I had it a year ago. Miserable. We get the next booster in November.

I was always told the pine tar was bad, but it seems it's a myth. Soup is a favorite, we had what was leftover of this one for lunch today. I love eggplant soup!

The furnace is installed and we are a bit poorer.