Sunday Dinner, September 13, 2000

It's been another busy week for me, and judging by what I've been reading on other blogs and Facebook, you've all been pretty busy as well.

It's now the middle of September, difficult as that may be to process, and our weather is mild compared to most Septembers in Arkansas. With the cooler weather I've been making more soups, casseroles and heartier dishes. This week's Sunday Dinner is no exception.

I bought a large beef chuck roast last week when I did my grocery shopping. It's in the freezer (I really need to get it out to thaw before much longer!) and I'm going to cube it, brown it and cook it, then thicken the broth to make gravy.

I have a big bag of egg noodles to cook and some sour cream for those who want to add it to their beef, gravy and noodles. Of course that makes it beef stroganoff when the sour cream is added, but for those who just want beef and gravy they can pass on the sour cream. It's kind of do-it-yourself beef stroganoff. ;-) (Thanks to my niece, Mikki, for the idea. :o)

I have some garden green beans and purple hull peas in the freezer that I've put up this week, and I also have some canned corn and a few other veggies I might fix to go with the beef and noodles. I'll take a quick poll when we get home from church to see what everyone wants and make my decision then about what side dishes to fix.

What's for Sunday Dinner at your place this week? If you'd like to participate, just share your menu/plans in the comments.As I mentioned earlier, this milder weather has made me want to cook heartier foods lately. When it's really hot I tend to fix more sandwiches and cold dishes, lighter fare rather than heavy casseroles and hot soups.

With our daily high temps topping out in the low to mid-80'sF and cool nights down into the 50's at times, I'm feeling the seasons changing. Fall is nearly here, and I'm also feeling an urgency to preserve the last of the garden stuff and make jelly, stock up nature's plenty now in preparation for the cold, barren days when this time of fresh produce is just a pleasant memory.

I've mentioned before how blessed I am that dear friends, neighbors and family are so kind to share their garden produce, fruit, other homegrown foods and wild fish and game with us. This Summer I've stuffed my deep freeze with sliced okra, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, green beans, purple hull peas, blackeyed peas, strawberries, deer meat and Mississippi River catfish.

I've also been stocking my freezer with soups and casseroles to take advantage of that fresh garden stuff. Whenever I cook soup or a casserole or other dish, I try to make a double or even triple batch so we can eat supper from it and then I still have at least 2 meals' worth to freeze for later.Friday I made some of MY HOMEMADE PORTUGUESE BEAN SOUP. I made a triple batch and we had it for supper and then I put 2 big bowls in the freezer for other meals. It will sure taste good on one of those nights when I'm just too pooped to think about cooking.

I also made up a triple batch of MY TACO SOUP for supper tonight. I did everything last night except add the browned ground beef. As soon as I finish this blog post I'll brown the hamburger, add it to the soup and simmer it for about 2o minutes. After we have it for supper tonight I should still have enough for 2 more meals that I can put in the freezer.

I don't know if I'm the only one, but I've just got this feeling that this is going to be an early and a bad Winter. I feel the need to stock up not just on food stuffs, but to build up my stores of household goods and make sure I have plenty of everything. Maybe it's just me feeling this way.I used some of those fresh green bell peppers and jalapenos to make some of MY HOT PEPPER JELLY last night, and some dear friends gave us enough golden green muscadine grapes to make 2 batches of muscadine jelly.

I made one batch last night and still have enough muscadines to make one more batch of jelly, but I'm about out of sugar. I'll have to extract the juice tonight and freeze it until I can get more sugar. There are plenty more muscadines left on the vines and our friends told us to take all we want, so Lamar will pick more next week so I can extract the juice and make more jelly.

Muscadines make the best jelly I've ever eaten! These happen to be a golden green cultivated variety. I've never made jelly with this type. We've always picked the wild golden red type and they make the prettiest ruby red jelly and it's delicious!

As Fall progresses I'll be busy stocking up, freezing, storing, putting away, canning and otherwise preparing for Winter along with my usual chores. I hope you're blessed to be able to put something away for Winter too.That taco soup is calling my name. I need to brown the burger and fix the soup, and I also need to get that beef roast defrosted in the microwave so I can get it on to cook for Sunday Dinner. I still need to study my Sunday School lesson and do some more Saturday night chores, so I'd better get this posted and get after it.

Y'all have a great Sunday. May God meet all your needs and may you have enough to share.