Week of December 5 - December 11

I'm kinda mixing up the length of my weeks, aren't I?  It just depends on when I get a chance to sit down and put the menus and recipes together.  I'm doing this on Sunday (12/12) morning, which seems to be working out to be the best time.

I forgot to mention that December 4 was my sister's birthday - Happy Birthday, Allison!

Clockwise, Allison (with glasses), husband Doug, son in law Chance and daughter Cara

So, going back to last Sunday (12/5), I intended to fix the slow cooker barbeque that our nephew, Todd, prepared for us over Thanksgiving in BR, but got busy that morning and didn't get it started in time.  So, Memphis Pizza Cafe to the rescue!

On Monday I finally fixed the barbeque.  Easy cheesy - well, not cheesy, but you get my point.  I bought Schnuck's creamy coleslaw from their deli and also gussied up some canned beans to go with it.  It was gooood!

Tuesday night I fixed this Stuffed Pepper Casserole from a Schnuck's recipe.  Frankly, I've been shocked to find that I like a lot of their recipes!  They have a Schnuck's Cooks kiosk set up in the store I usually go to (on Truse) and you can taste the recipe of the week there.  And I also want to put a little plug in for that store.  The employees there are so nice.  They always say hello and ask if they can help you find something.  Even the manager has walked aisles with me.  And - this is big, iPhone users - Schnuck's has an app called "Aisle411" that you can use to find things in the store, scan barcodes, get coupons, and more!  I don't know if Memphis has it yet, but I read about it on their website when I copied the casserole recipe.  I didn't spend a lot of time on the website, but it looked like it had good stuff.  If you're a Schnuck's customer, you should check it out.

On Wednesday Walter had a dinner meeting so I just had the leftover casserole.  It was better the second night.  Oh, remember my post about cleaning up around the Poplar-White Station Library?  I had contacted the library director on Nov. 19 about the sad state of the trash and weeds there.  Well, Ms. McCloy emailed me within a couple of days and told me that the district director would be contacting me.  So Wednesday I met with Ms. Norvel Adams-Walker and the branch manager and we discussed ways to improve the curb appeal of this branch.  You know, it's the same old story, not enough people and not enough money.  But we came up with a plan to get started.  Hopefully, you'll see some improvement there soon.  I was very gratified to have such a quick response and these ladies are genuinely interested in doing a good job with the limited resources they have.

Thursday night I went to a Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting at the main library to help give input for the Imagine 2040 transportation plan.  This evening was one of a series of public meetings hosted by the MPO and Livable Memphis.  I was thrilled to see the turnout, mostly young people who are intensely interested in improving Memphis.  Gives me great hope.  Walter says we're wasting our time because the MPO will do what it's always done, but he's so cynical.  The MPO staffer who facilitated our small group was definitely on board with our ideas and helped us articulate them.  He said that they had been hearing the same things at every public meeting:  less sprawl, take care of what we've got, better public transit, better walk/bike opportunities, more greenways.  So we'll see.  But if you don't ask, you'll never get, right?

Ok, back to food.  Thursday morning I made this Chipotle Chicken and Tomato Soup that I've made many times since the recipe was in Cooking Light in 2006.  Walter was able to just warm it up when he got home.  He also made a grilled cheese sandwich, judging by the dirty dishes...

A big day for us on Friday.  We sold Chase the house that he's been living in while he went to college.  He finally graduated, has a great job that he loves, and he's ready to be a real grownup!  Congratulations, Chase!

Friday night we went to the Half Shell and ran into Barney and Becky, so we sat together and visited.  Barney's daughter, Ellie, is getting married next Saturday night, so this is a busy and happy time for them.

Saturday morning I had another episode of some muscle spasms in my back, so Walter helped me go to the grocery store, then he headed off to Dallas to visit his Aunt Nell.  I just scrounged around for supper, cause I wasn't feeling too hot.  Took a muscle relaxant and went to bed at 7:15!  As I write this on Sunday morning, I'm feeling ok, but the spasms are still there.  Very annoying.

Ok, everyone, we're on the countdown to Christmas!  Are you about ready?