September 26 2019

Review: “Steamables” Red Potatoes

I have found a new and easy “cheat” for dinner time. Yep, you guessed it. These little bags of potatoes can be bought at my local Meijer store for just $2.99. These are just perfect for the two of us with no leftovers and no way for us to overeat. They are so perfect and yummy straight from the bag, hot out of the microwave. No need for butter or toppings of any kind. They are delicious just the way they are and Hubby agrees.

The flavor is so good, I eat them naked. Not me, silly! The potatoes are naked, I am fully clothed while eating, I assure you. We have splurged on these little gems about three times so far. Yes, I know you can get a lot more potato for you money in a much bigger bag, but sometimes it is all about convenience and portion control.

 

Yes, I can read. The bag says it contains four servings. That means the photos below contain two servings each. There were exactly eight small potatoes in this particular bag, and yes, we each ate four potatoes or two whole servings each. No, I am not skinny, why do you ask? Note the potatoes below may appear larger than actual size. It’s a close-up folks. I was doing my level best to capture the yummy taste in a photo, no do NOT lick your screen. Just go get a bag and give them a try if you want. They aren’t cheap as potatoes go, but perhaps you could give up one of those fancy coffees “they” think you are buying all the time and busting your budget all to pieces for and try something new for a change.

Yes, I cut through that potato with just the side of my fork. They are that tender.

These were so good, I just had to tell you about them. If you have tried them, let us know what YOU thought in the comments below.

Category: Review | Comments Off on Review: “Steamables” Red Potatoes
September 19 2019

Menu Planning

One of the important things I do to help us keep our budget under control is to plan what we will be eating for dinner each week. If you find you are having trouble thinking of new and interesting ideas, keep track of what you eat for a while to help inspire your menu planning. Don’t have a recipe? Search online.

Now you can write your menu on a chalkboard or dry erase board, back of an old envelope or whatever works for you. A few years ago, while walking through the local Staples store, I spied this lovely little tool, and decided to get it. It now has a place of prominence on the front of my refrigerator. I try to plan out the meals for the following week over the weekend.

I usually stsart my menu planning by looking at our Google calendar to see which nights we have something happening. To be honest, once I finish the menu, I usually take a photo with my phone so I have it handy for ready reference in case I can’t remember what I was planning for dinner that night while I’m at work. The meals are all up for grabs on any given night but sometimes the meals that take longer to make are scheduled on nights when we will have more time, so moving them around doesn’t always work well.

The example above was obviously a time when I was counting calories. It is probably one of the early ones, because I can tell by how neat and thin the writing is, that it was written with the marker that came with the board, and that went dry a few years ago.

This was obviously not a great photo, but works for what we need anyway. Sometimes, I get colorful like the week shown below.

The one below is for the current week. I remembered I had taken the photo and hadn’t added it yet, so consider it a bonus. If you want more specifics, feel free to email me or leave a comment below.

The most important thing about planning meals in advance is it helps you to make a grocery list. We all know when you shop with a list and try to stick to it, you can save money. Not only will you be eating healthier, you won’t be eating out unless it was planned ahead of time. This can also save money. Lately I have been taking inventory of what we have on hand and challenging myself to use everything up and buy as little as we can from the grocery each week. Sometimes this can backfire because you run out of everything and then you have a huge stock up week when the budget is completely blown, but in theory you saved more than enough in the weeks leading up to then to cover the budget deficit for the week.

So, do you plan your menu each week? If not, how do you know what to get at the grocery. Do you have any tips or tricks to share with us? Please give us at least one money saving idea or menu planning tip in the comments below.

You can find more interesting ideas on saving time (and possibly money) in this post from last fall, Finding Time to Write NaNoWriMo.

 

 

 

Category: Depth Year, Goals, Money Saving, Planning | Comments Off on Menu Planning
September 12 2019

Recipe: English Muffin Pizza

I know it doesn’t seem like a real recipe, and yes, anyone could make these.  So, the thing you can do is use up any old bread product, no matter how stale as long as it isn’t moldy or if you scrape the mold off first. You can just spread your baking sheet with bread product of choice. I would like to suggest using English muffins forked apart into two lumpy halves, or even bagels split into halves. Those are my personal favorites. You can toast them lightly under the broiler to make the bread more firm.

Spread your sauce of choice onto the pizza base. Pizza sauce is, of course, acceptable, as is pasta sauce of any kind or barbecue sauce. Feel free to be creative. Now, if you chose to use bagels, I recommend using a pepperoni slice to cover the hole in the middle so your cheese doesn’t melt through.

This is also the time when you load you bread with sauce spread over it with the toppings of choice. Consider the usual meats, pepperoni, sausage, chicken, ham, bacon, or you can even go meatless.

Consider making your mother smile by putting a fruit or vegetable on there while you are at it. Another good option, if you chose to go meatless, is to cover the hole in a bagel with a spinach leaf. Other great choices are green pepper (red, orange or yellow work fine too), onion, green onion, pineapple, tomato, mushroom, black olives, green olives, banana peppers, and/or hot peppers of any kind. I am sure I am forgetting something but basically, if it sounds good to you give it a try.

Top everything with the shredded cheese of your choice, and consider sprinkling with some Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese for extra goodness. Then you bake these under the broiler until they look perfect to you.

You MUST watch them while they are under the broiler as things can go south really quickly if you don’t watch them. For those that are not aware, when you use the broiler on your oven, the door is to remain open about two inches for ventilation and this gives you the perfect space to keep an eye on your creations lest they burn.

As you can see in the photo below, these were just on the verge of getting too done in the back and middle rows and we were very messy with our cheese.

 

So, what if you don’t have bagels or English muffins? Well, when we were kids growing up, we made what we called pizza bread. This was plain white bread, not toasted, with pizza sauce and a slice of American cheese with the plastic wrapping removed. We thought we were living large eating our fancy pizza. I have also used tortilla shells as a super thin pizza crust, but be careful not to overload them with toppings.

So, there you have it, my “recipe” for making English muffin pizzas. Remember, don’t be afraid to experiment, use up whatever you have around the kitchen. Consider making dessert pizzas using leftover pie filling or sliced fruits, maybe marshmallow creme with peanuts and chocolate chips as toppings. Be brave and please share what you came up with in the comments below.

 

 

 

 

Category: Recipes | Comments Off on Recipe: English Muffin Pizza
September 5 2019

Labor Day Research

I’m not sure what you did on Labor Day, but I remembered that it was the last day of the free census weekend on MyHeritage, so I got to work and labored for hours searching the census for both the US and Canada. I wasn’t exactly sure what I should look for because I had been away from my research for a long while. I decided that since I had never seen the Canadian census I should search it for a couple of the surnames I thought I could find on it. I methodically went through each year they offered searching for the two surnames and saving everything I found for a more in-depth look at a later time. I didn’t want to waste the little time I had left on this great day of free-ness.

After I ran out of Canadian census to search, I began by looking for my great-great grandfather, Thomas SOLON, in each census he would have been in the US for (1860-1900). I had seen most of them before, but didn’t have them saved in digital format, so made quick work of finding them again. I then decided to do the same for John SOLON the man we think was Thomas’ older brother. It turns out I had made a note on one of my genealogy websites about not being able to find this family in the 1870 census, but they were right there when I looked, so that was a win. I then decided to try to find John’s eldest son, Thomas, who was with the family in 1860 but then we knew nothing about him until he died in 1915 in Oklahoma.

1860 US John and Ellen SOLON Du Page, Will County, IL

Now it might be important to note that in 1860, the census listed John and Ellen as being born in Ireland, Thomas in England and James and Michael in Illinois. So we can estimate that John, Ellen and Thomas came to the United States sometime between 1850 and 1857. Also we can estimate that John and Ellen were likely married in Ireland or England before 1850. The census also indicated that John and Ellen cannot read or write and that John is a farm laborer with no real estate and a personal estate valued at $200.

When I found the family in the 1870 census, Thomas would have been about 20 and was no longer in the household with his family.

1870 US John and Ellen SOLON Colfax Twp, Champaign County, IL

I was able to search the census for any SOLON born in 1850 give or take five years either way. I found one that seemed like a possible fit. The age was about right and he was in Indiana instead of Illinois.

1870 US Thomas SOLON Washington, Daviess County, IN

On the 1870 census, this Thomas is listed as born in Indiana and he of all those in the house is not marked as having parents of foreign birth. As the head of the household is listed as a hotel keeper, we can guess this was a boarding house or hotel of sorts, so perhaps Thomas was either new to town or had no reason to build a home yet.

So, now I have a viable prospect for John’s son, Thomas, in the state next door to the one his family lived in and not so very far away really. Lets track this Thomas and see what happens to him.

1880 US Thomas SOLON Washington, Daviess County, IN

Looks like he stayed in the town of Washington, Indiana and was a shoemaker from the 1870 census until the 1900 census. In 1880, he lived at 130 South Street in what appears to be a boarding house. It says Thomas was 28 and born in Indiana with both his parents born in Ireland. The 1890 census was destroyed many years ago, so we cannot track anyone using that record, so we must move on to the 1900 census and see what it can tell us.

1900 US Thomas and Mary SOLAN Washington, Daviess County, IN

If you look at the rest of the info on the 1900 census it tells us that he owned his home, had a mortgage and it was a house, not a farm which makes sense for a shoe maker. It tells us that Thomas was born September 1846 in New York and Mary A. was born September 1843 in Maryland and that they have been married 10 years.

Looking back at some info I had sorted by location I found this among the records I had extracted years ago.

I found a couple more census I wish I had gotten copies of while I had access to them:

1850 Census Extraction

Washington Township, Daviess County Indiana 1850 census 
==========================================================================
Name             Age        Occ.           Birth      Twp.
==========================================================================
Solon, John      35         Canl/Digger    Ireland    Wash

 

1870 Census Extraction

CENSUS YR:  1870  TERRITORY:  IN  COUNTY:  Daviess  DIVISION:  Alfordsville  PAGE: 32/246b
==========================================================================================
LAST	FIRST		AGE	BIRTHPLACE	OCCUPATION
==========================================================================================
SOLAN	John		52	Ireland		Farmer
SOLAN	Mary		50	Ireland		Farmer
SOLAN	Thomas		21	New York	
SOLAN	John		18	Indiana		
SOLAN	Catherine	17	Indiana		(school in year)
SOLAN	Bridget		14	Indiana		(school in year)
SOLAN	James		11	Indiana		(school in year)
SOLAN	Mary		 9	Indiana		(school in year)
RILEY	John		16	Indiana		(school in year)

Extracts from the Indiana WPA Indexes for Daviess County

BIRTHS 

Child Name		 Father		Mother		Birthdate	Original Source
=============================================================================================
SOLAN Catherine    F W	 Jno		Emma CHURCH	Feb 14, 1906	Book  H-5   Page 20 
SOLAN ---          F W	 John		Emma CHURCH	Feb 14, 1906	Book CH-2   Page 32 

MARRIAGES 

Name		Spouse		  Date		Original Source
=============================================================================================
SOLAN James  	DUFFEY Catharine  21 Jun 1882	Book 5, Page 310, Fiche 3881
SOLEN William C	MATTINGLY Iola M  30 Jan 1917	Book 15, Page 418, Fiche 3881 (DOB 19 Dec 1894)
SOLEN John	GUIRE Mary M	  15 Nov 1855	Book 1, Page 447, Fiche 3881
SOLON Catherine	SUMMERS Wm Ed	  16 Sep 1884	Book 6, Page 1, Fiche 3881
SOLON Bridget	CAVANAUGH Owen	  14 May 1884	Book 5, Page 551, Fiche 3881

DEATHS

Name		 	   	Age	Deathdate	Location	Original Source
===========================================================================================
SOLON, Mary		F W 	75	Sep 05, 1900	Washington	Book  H-18  Page 81
SOLON, Katherine F	F W 	45	Oct 27, 1901	Washington	Book CH-6   Page 69 
SOLAN, Mary		F W 	75	Aug 08, 1903	Washington	Book CH-6   Page 87
SOLAN, Mary Ann		F W 	76	Apr 24, 1918	Washington	Book CH-7   Page 100
SOLAN, Emma		F W 	39	Feb 02, 1920	Washington	Book CH-8   Page 13

I also found the following newspaper reference:

The Daviess County Democrat
Vol. 17, No. 7. Saturday, January 5, 1884 also this same notice was in Vol. 17, No. 8. Saturday, January 12, 1884

PAGE 2
"LEGAL"
NOTICE TO THE TAX-PAYERS OF DAVIESS COUNTY"
Greenwood	Richard H.	Treasurer of Daviess Co.
"SHERIFF'S SALE"
Solon		John
Source URL: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~koliver/DaviessCountyDemocrat_01051884.txt

Now lets go back to what we know about John and Ellen’s son Thomas.

Oklahoma Land Patent Records
(http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch/)

Patentee Name  State  County 	Issue Date Land Office 	Doc. Nr. Accession/Serial Nr.
===================================================================================== 
SOLON, THOMAS  OK     Comanche  5/4/1909   Lawton  	02836  		   59338  (see it)


So we know from the death certificate that we have the correct Thomas. His younger brother Michael was the informant. This doesn’t do much to tell us where Thomas was all those years. I will need to look at some other census records, try to find marriage records, death certificates, obituaries, etc for Thomas and Mary SOLON who lived in Daviess County, Indiana and see what those documents can tell us about this shoemaker and his wife. The death certificate lists Thomas as single, but his brother apparently didn’t know him well enough to know his birth date, so perhaps he\wouldn’t have known if Thomas had married later in life and been a widower when he died.

I found digging into the census records to be an awesome way to spend the day. The fact that I could do the research without any additional cost was purely a bonus and a huge nudge to get me back into researching my family tree. To see more on the SOLON family as well as other lines I have researched, please visit Karen’s Kin. I have many many hours of work preserved there including virtual cemeteries and photos. If you have any info that might help me solve the mystery of Thomas SOLON and his ancestor, PLEASE get in touch with me so we can sort it out. What do you think, is the shoemaker the missing son of John and Ellen? The timeline looks like it fits or could fit, except there may be a different John SOLON who fathered the shoemaker according to the census extraction for 1870 that I haven’t got the real copy of yet. We shall see…stay tuned for further updates.

 

 

Category: Genealogy, Learning, Organizing | 1 Comment on Labor Day Research
August 29 2019

Cool Thing I Learned

I went to the grocery last week. I was only going to grab a few things, so I got the small cart thinking, I would spend less. Makes total sense, right?

Well, one of my super powers is packing things tightly into small spaces and getting the most into any give space. A useful talent most of the time, but not an inexpensive one. So the cart was as full as could be when I got into the checkout line and I was commenting to the cashier that I should switch to the big cart if I had any hope of getting my purchases to the car safely. She said not to worry that she knew all kinds of places to put things and we would fit them in. So I trusted her at her word and as the bags started coming off she instructed me as to where they could be placed without taking up the traditional cart space.

So here is the cart with everything contained on it.

So here is where the wondrous things take place. It starts out innocently enough. I already love the milk shelf as I think of it, just below the handle down near the back wheels, you can see it in the photo below. See the left cup holder, well you can hang a bag from that, just slide the handles over it.You can also hang a bag from the little triangle on the right side of the right cup holder after you slide one over the entire right cup holder just like you did with the left one..

See those little upside down U shapes just below the seat? You guessed it, you can hang another two bags from those!

Now, ypu know the cell phone slot between the cup holders (maybe that is meant for coupons?) If you look at it from the front, just below the handle there is another hook for bag handles.

So if you are counting, that is a minimum of six extra bags you can hang off the cart.

I have also seen those who buy bottled six packs of soda hang those half in and half out of the cart to fit them all along the top railing. We don’t buy soda any more so that doesn’t help me, but in case you do, I thought I’d pass that along as well.

So now you can see I easily made it out to the car with all my groceries without losing even one thing to the pavement along the way.

Sometimes you just have to pace yourself while shopping and rearrange things as you go to fit the most in the cart, and with these fun little hints, you will now be able to safely guide your small shopping cart safely to your cart too. Yep, I just doubled up on my blog writing again. Sorry, but a busy gal has to do what she has to do and this is the fifth Thursday of the month which means it is blogger’s choice tonight. Seriously, if you have read this far, THANKS!

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Pace
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

Category: Depth Year, Five Minute Friday, Learning | 1 Comment on Cool Thing I Learned