I guess that's the only way to explain it.   I have been cooking & preserving a lot these past few weeks.  Today after loading the crock pot with a chuck roast I had to go to town on business for the church. 
That roast smelled yummy all day!!   I did the laundry, swept out the house and made some cupcakes for the guys.  Well, I bought a cupcake carrier for a good price and had to justifiy buying it, haha!!!!!
Made lemon ones, they were really good. 
I texted the son and asked if he wanted B-B-Q or hot beef sandwiches.  He chose B-B-Q . You might wonder why I didn't ask Ritzy. Well Ritzy will eat ANYTHING I put in front of him.  That son, on the other hand is a bit picky.........(makes for a frustrated cook sometimes).
I ended up making half B-B-Q and half hot beef.  Drained the juices and added sauteed mushrooms to make the gravy. There were already onions and garlic in the juices cooked with the meat.  (Yeah, the onions are what the son will not touch.  I don't understand--he loved them until he turned old enough to learn what they look like.) Ritzy complimented me on the food.  The son's compliment was an empty plate ;-)
After eating I was going to sit outside in my swing by the firepit.  But........Ritzy was trimming some firewood that was too long and he would pick up a piece, lay it down, saw it, throw the small trimmed-off piece in the truck and stack the other piece.  I thought it was going to take him forever to get that done so.....here I go into the house for my gloves------somebody stop me----- and I go out there to help him.  Good-by fire and swing ;-(
After doing all he wanted we proceeded back to the fire when I realized that our temperatures are supposed to be below freezing in this part of Oklahoma tonight.  I told Ritzy to go and pull the 2 pepper plants ( a bell and jalapeno) we have and I would dry them.  We have already harvested a lot of peppers off these 2 plants this year.  Was a good year for peppers!!!
I brought the peppers in and started working on them........I DID NOT forget the gloves this time!!!!!
As I sit here -- I hear the dehydrator doing it's job and I will have dried peppers by morning ;-)
They will come in handy in the coming winter months...  I used the crushed jalapenos in  deer jerky. 
Tomorrow is open so far.  Gonna take a day off and rest......Here it is almost midnight and I am FINALLY getting sleepy........that being said, Ritzywife is out..........................

Even tho no pictures are posted, try to picture this:  I am eating some iced sourdough cinnamon rolls that are just out of the oven ... they sure are good...yummmm
They are small so I put 3 of them in a bowl and told Ritzy I knew he would want 3 of them and he said--"what if I want 4?"   Well, that lets me know he likes them.
I also have 2 dehydrators full of venison jerky that should be finished around midnight.  I made some the other day and it is just about gone.  The daughter's boyfriend likes it hot so I used some of those dried jalepenos I fixed a couple of weeks ago.  I ground them into a powder ( they were burning my nose as I was working on them) and added them to the meat mixture.  He loved it!!!!  I must say that if you like it HOT, this sure does the trick......
He sent me a text yesterday saying that he sure was trying to make that deer jerky last but he just could not stop eating it.   I told him not to worry cause I was making more today and would give it to the daughter tomorrow when we met for lunch........Let's just say, that made his day!!!!
***Ritzy just said---"Guess what hon......4 wasn't enough"  and there he goes into the kitchen for more.  I don't think that pan of rolls is going to make it thru the night ;-)
If he has a bellyache later it is NOT Ritzywife's fault..........
I can't believe it-----Ritzy just asked if I was going to finish my own roll, and I said "of course" so he went in after his 6th one!!!!!!!!   Dang, I'm gonna have to guard my food!!!!!
Sure am glad there are some Tums in the bathroom, hahaha!!!!!!
Last week was a very busy and stressful week.  my brother's wife's mother was laid to rest yesterday.  I played the piano for her "Celebration of Life" service in Claremore.  Earlier in the week my nephew  and I put together a DVD to play at the service.  He  played the guitar and I put the pictures together.  He did a wonderful job playing for his "Granny"......He has only been playing since June, but he played "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" as the background music...... I also made 2 CD"s of songs -- one song  played at the service and one at the graveside.
We then drove to Ft. Gibson for the graveside service.   On our way home we all stopped in Muskogee for a meal together and everyone in the resturaunt kept remarking about how big our "bunch" was.  There was about 20-25 of us.......they had no idea where we had just come from......All this made for a long day.
I tried to get caught up on housework today.  Tomorrow is the day I meet the daughter for lunch and a visit.  My sister-in-law asked if she could join us and I told her "of course" so we are going to have a good time eating and visiting.
The weather has turned a little cooler here and it feels wonderful.  Ritzy and I sat out by the pit fire for a while tonight enjoying the heat and watching the fire.
A few years ago Ritzy made a remark about all the flowers I was planting.  I always tried to plant them out of his mowing path.........well.........I am about ready to remind him of what he said because he and his "woodcutting" are about to take over every spare  inch of space around here.  Everywhere you look there is-----FIREWOOD!!!!!!   hahahahahahaha!!!!
People are coming to him almost daily wanting to buy firewood for the winter. ........ He has his regular (40 hr/wk) job and cuts firewood for something to do.  He loves doing it..........just as a hunter likes to hunt and a fisherman likes to fish.    Well, Ritzy loves to cut firewood!!!!  and Ritzywife is smart enough to stay away ;-)
I guess that's all I have for tonite......Ritzywife out....................

This past week to 10 days has been pretty busy.  My sister-in- law (brother's wife) lost her mother yesterday afternoon.  But you know, she had her family all around her and she just went very peacefully. 
The sad thing is -  just a year ago this woman found out she had lung cancer.  This is someone who never smoked a day of her life.  A short while later she had surgery to remove the cancer, which the doctors thought they did.  But this summer she started not feeling well and only a few weeks ago she was not able to eat and just started going downhill.  Went to the doctor and found that the cancer was everywhere.  Only about a week ago she came home after a short stay in the hospital for some radiation treatments......and by Thursday she was gone.  I could not believe how fast her situation changed.  You see,  I have known my sister-in-law and her family all my life.  We kind of "grew-up' together.
The good thing in all of this is that she had her family all around her as she passed.  Of course it was very hard on them, but they know that she loved them and  she knew that they loved her.  To me, that is the most important thing in our lives --- to tell our loved ones how we feel and not "hold it in"..thinking that it somehow shows "weakness" on our part if we show any type of emotion.........I told my nephews that it was just fine to show those emotions,  because we are emotional beings......it's just part of who we are!
Through all of this, I have gotten a chance to get closer to the youngest nephew ( he is 15)..... When I decided to leave last nite, I gave him a big hug and told him that if he needed to talk, he knew how to reach me.  He grabbed my things and  walked me out to my truck.  We hugged again and he said he had something to tell me....he said "You are my favorite aunt"......  Oh my goodness, that about made my heart melt ;-)
I told him how much that meant to me and said I was glad I could be there for him and his family.
My sister-in-law and her brother now have the difficult task of finalizing the arrangements for her mother's service.  I will have the honor of playing the piano at her "Celebration of Life" service.  I also made a Movie DVD of her life and that nephew (who has just recently started taking guitar lessons) played the background music. A beautiful song -- "Will The Circle Be Unbroken".  He was playing that one night while I was over there and I told him that he ought to play that at her service or as background to the DVD.   It took us a little while  to get all those pictures scanned and the music just right, but we got that DVD all finished.
I made copies for all the family so they could have something to watch and remember their "Granny" by.
After all of this, I was pretty tired last night.  I got home around 10.  After taking my bath I got into bed,   looked at  a few magazines and went to sleep.  I haven't slept that good in a long time.  I am quite sure that everyone in my brother's home slept good too.  They have been "on alert" since this started over a week ago.  The other night we were all talking and my brother was (whining, haha!!) about wanting a peach cobbler and his middle son was talking about the cinnamon rolls he had come and picked up at my house the other night, and that youngest son was talking about pie also.  So, yesterday when I went over there I took some apples, my apple peeler, and the "stuff" needed to make an apple cobbler.  I got it made and set it on the stove and I think everyone's mouth was watering.  Around 3 or so we ate lunch and then everyone  "attacked" that cobbler.  My brother made the comment that the next time I had better make a much larger one cause that one went way too fast, haha!!!!  I am just glad they liked it~!
There is a house that is for sale next to their property and that youngest nephew is trying to talk Ritzy and I into buying it cause he would have Ritzywife's cooking very close by.  hahaha!!!!!  I think the brother would like it too cause he was trying to "bargain" with me the other night.  It got so bad that he said he would change the oil and filter in my truck for a pie.   I'm thinking I just need to show him how to make one, hehe!!
Speaking of baking, I have some sourdough in there that is going to be used to make some sourdough cinnamon rolls after while.  YUMM, I can hardly wait!!!!!  Yeah, my two guys here have been kind of neglected, but they understood what was going on.  I put a chicken in the crockpot yesterday and it was done by the time they got home.   They both said it was good.....
Gee, I had more on my mind than I realized.....That being said.......Ritzywife is out!!

Hey, that's fun to write,  haha!   Have been busy the past few days.  Cooking, baking, cleaning, doing laundry, ticking people off.......oh, did I say that???
Sometimes you do your best and people still are not satisfied.  I say "not my problem"!!!!!
Yesterday I picked green and red bell peppers & jalapeno peppers from the garden.  This weather has been perfect for peppers.  I thought about having stuffed bell peppers last night but then another thought came to mind.  I have 2 dehydrators and have been using one to dry apples.  I got the other one out and cut up the bell peppers and loaded them onto the dehydrator.  Had about 50 or so jalapenos.  I had already strung some up so I cut some of these in half and proceeded to take the seeds out, barehanded, mind you.....not a good idea!!!!!!  I knew better, but I did it anyways...While loading the dehydrator with jalapenos I thought about making some cheese stuffed jalapenos to eat, so I saved about 15 of the biggest ones.  I proceeded to stuff them with cheese and wrap a piece of bacon around them.  Put them in the oven for 45 minutes.  Well, while they were cooking something came up that I had to leave, so I asked the son to watch them.  After I returned home, I asked if there were any left.  The son showed me there were about 10  halves left.  What was kind of funny tho, is that I was warned about the "heat" contained in these little peppers.  I ate them anyways, they were a little hot, but heck they are supposed to be........I got to the last one and oh my goodness it set my mouth on fire. (must have been some seeds in that one)
I asked the son later if he liked them and he commented that they were so hot that he couldn't tell if he liked them or not, hahaha!!  Well. he ate them, so they must have been ok....
Back to preparing those peppers with no gloves.....my hands seemed to be "ok" UNTIL I was cleaning my kitchen and ran hot water on them.   Oh, my goodness---my hands felt like I was holding them over a fire and I could not make it stop.  I was wishing I had used those gloves.
I searched online for a way to "make it stop".........Found that milk and tumeric would work so I tried it.  Soaked my hands for a few minutes, the heat went away and even when I took my bath it didn't return.  My hands are still a little sensitive today,  but I WILL NOT prepare jalapenos without gloves again.
This was not a fun lesson to learn, but a lesson well learned......
Anyways, I got all those peppers dried and crushed and now when I need bell peppers or jalapeno peppers in a recipe---I have them on hand!!!!  There is nothing worse than realizing you need something like this for cooking -- and it is 8 miles to the nearest grocery store ;-)
My niece's kids came over for a little while this evening.  We built a fire in the pit and had a weiner roast.  It was fun.......The nephew came in the house to play the son's X-Box and his sister and I stayed outside.  She was playing and I was enjoying watching her, then  she sat beside me in the swing and we were just talking about "stuff".........fun to do with a 5 year old ;-)
That about covers my weekend and now a brand new week is starting, I guess we'll see how that goes...
Ritzywife out..................................

This week has been pretty busy.  I didn't realize how long it had been since my last post until tonite.  Had a cousin's funeral to attend Saturday afternoon.  Saturday evening we attended my nephew's birthday party.  His birthday wasn't till the 4th but they had the party  during the weekend.  Saturday was also my brother's birthday, the little nephew's Papa.   Brother wanted a peach pie for his gift, so--Ritzywife made him one.  Sunday was church, then starts the workweek.  Monday I took my sister-in-law to Tulsa to get her mom's (who is in the hospital) car.  After Ritzy got home Monday nite, we went back to town to buy groceries.  Tuesday I had to make a trip to Chelsea to get some stuff at the dollar store.  Today my mom and I met the daughter in Owasso for lunch/shopping.   Went to church tonite and here I am.  Oh. I forgot to mention that yesterday I wanted to make an authentic Tex-Mex meal so I made the homemade corn tortillas, homemade chili/enchilada sauce and proceeded to make some cheese enchiladas.  They turned out really good.  I also made some pumpkin-cranberry muffins.  Was gonna used canned pumpkin, but didn't have any.......but.......I did have a "pie pumpkin" that I was using as decoration in my kitchen.  Gee, that little thing sure was hard to cut!!!   I processed that and used fresh pumpkin instead.  The muffins turned out great.   I also started some apples in the crock-pot last night to make apple butter.  Did some research online and found it could be done in the crock-pot.  I decided to give it a try----and I sure am glad I did.  The apple butter turned out wonderful!  It sure beat standing at the stove for hours stirring..... My parents have about 30 apple trees on their property....it's not like I am going to run out of apples anytime soon.  I will probably be making a lot of this butter.  Tonite I started another crock of them and also a dehydrator full of sliced apples.  They should be done by morning.  Will be making a lot of dried apples too.   The family loves to snack on them......
I was telling Ritzy that starting tomorrow at 6pm in Vinita they are having a display of part of the Vietman war memorial.  This will visit only 6 cities this year.  I told him that we should go to see this and pay our  respect to those soldiers whose lives were lost during that horrific war.  Makes a person stop and think about what is really important in life and who we should thank for our freedom. 
As far as I know, Friday is open and I will finally get to enjoy this beautiful weather we are having here in Oklahoma.  We better enjoy it while we can ;-)
Well now that I have cleared my mind, I think I can rest better. haha!!!
Ritzywife out.....................................