My husband put a cold frame over some lettuce that came up late (planted itself) when we started having frosts in September. We are still harvesting yummy buttercrunch lettuce! It even survived one night that was almost zero!

I will send a photo when my dog food comes in.

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Last Sunday the newspaper coupon insert had two coupons for free items. A candy bar, and a 4-lb bag of dog food. I can't resist a deal like that! I confess to being a bold dumpster diver. I met the newspaper delivery man (an old friend) at the recycling dumpster and asked if I could pull out the coupons from the Sunday papers before he pitched them out. He gave me about a dozen, and after he left, I found a few more. Today I was so disappointed to see that the dumpster had been hauled away. But there was another one, and it was already about 1/3 full. I found a BUNCH more Sunday papers with inserts! Altogether, I got 47 each of the two coupons! I had to special order the dog food from Albertson's because they never have that many bags on hand. We've already stocked up on dog food for the winter, but this kind is for little dogs. Our outdoor cats will eat it and enjoy the change! Yahoo!

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I received an unexpected check yesterday. Actually two. One was a $10 rebate for buying "free" cereal. Usually I put that in my savings, but I have been a good girl for too long. I spent some at the grocery store. They have a deal on Jello No-Bake Cheesecake mixes that is $6 for $10, with $2 off at the checkout. I rarely buy this even though I love it. But I sure did today. At $1.33 each, I got six. They will last a long time unless I fix them for church potlucks. We're definitely having one for Thanksgiving. I didn't even know they had a chocolate crust with peanut butter filling! That's how long it's been.

My computer went up in flames on Sunday. Fortunately my husband had filled out the warranty and sent it in. I called Gateway and they  are sending a box for me to ship it in. I asked how to save my files and they told me to take  out the hard drive and plug it into another computer and make a CD of them. I could not imagine doing this myself, so we took it to our internet server. For $25.00 the nice tech saved me hundreds of hours of work. I'm a journalist, and I had photos and articles on there that I couldn't afford to lose. Thank you, Lord! And my husband for taking care of that warranty.

I made a quart of bulgur wheat this week. Now we can have tabouli. We have everything else on hand -- lemons, mint, parsley, etc. Yum! The parsley has just about taken over my poor, neglected flower beds, and even after several hard freezes it still looks good. I keep drying a little more for tea. I love having parsley on hand. Buying a whole bunch is a pain, because I never use it all unless I dry the leftovers.

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The coming week is going to be clogged with have-to's, so I did some cooking ahead. It's all too tempting to want to run to the newly-established Asian Buffet. I started with Tuesday night's Halloween alternative at church. I made 27 burritos, which all disappeared. But I had beans and meat left over. ENCHILADAS :So I made tortillas Wednesday night and made 18 giant enchiladas. The sauce is easy, and way cheaper than buying it. Ditto for the tortillas. We worked on one pan of enchiladas and froze the other pan for later. TABOULI: We've been hungry for this yummy Middle Eastern salad for awhile, and I have all the ingredients on hand except for the bulgur. So I soaked some soft white wheat and sprouted it. This morning I spread some in a big jelly roll pan and dried it in the oven while we were doing morning chores and getting ready for church. I'll do the rest tomorrow. Now all I have to do is run it through the handmill and it will be bulgur. I can already taste the tabouli! The heck with politics! Good, nutritious food is never out of line. SQUASH: A large supply of winter squash begs to be used. So last night I found one that wasn't keeping very well and cut up half of that.one. Then I cut up another one. We like Kabocha-types, but they are very dry. So when I baked them (without the seeds, of course, and cut in eighths) I added an inch of water in the pan to soften and moisten them. We had some with salt and butter and a touch of Parmesan. Tonight we'll do that again with our canned ham. And tomorrow, I'll make "pumpkin soup." It's another favorite, especially with onions. BEETS: Tomorrow is my last not-so-crammed day for awhile, but I can put a few of those giant beets on to cook. They go well with lots of foods, and I have a recipe for Russian salad that uses beets, boiled eggs, sweet pickle sticks and a mayonnaise-based salad with dill in it. If I don't serve that every now and again, my husband asks for it. And once the beets are cooked, the rest takes about ten minutes. Now I have several meals ahead, and the rest of the week should go smoothly. There's another church potluck coming up next Sunday. Wonder if they would like tabouli?

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We had a wonderful 25th wedding anniversary party about a week and a half ago. Since our kids live far away, we did it ourselves. We used a fiesta theme, with giant honeycomb tissue pineapples and little Mexican piggy banks on all the tables. We hung toucans and ribbons from the ceiling, and served pie and sodas for dessert. We had planned a more elaborate party, but the flu swept through here and at least half our guests were sick and couldn't make it. One lasting reminder will always be a quilt. We asked people to sign quilt pieces, and this winter when things are miserable outside, I will stitch some rosebud blocks from a Debbie Mumm pattern and make a memory quilt to keep us warm.

Halloween Night is Hallelujah Night at our church. I made burritos (every single one got eaten) and had leftover filling. So Wednesday night I made more tortillas and some enchilada sauce. There was enough for 18 big enchiladas. We froze some and are eating some. I made the sauce extra mild this time.

Today we had to go to Twin Falls, and we love shopping at the Deseret Industries store there. We found my husband a great pair of waterproof winter boots, a DVD of one of our favorite movies, "Pay It Forward", and an embroidery hoop for me. I just gave my last one away to a friend who was in the hospital for over a week and needed something to do with her hands. She's home now, and still stitching. Anyway, the whole shebang cost $9.50. Is that cool?

A few nights ago, the coyotes started howling very close to our house. I've never heard them that close before. We worry about the animals, so we went out and Jim clapped his hands and shouted. They kept on howling. I  shined my flashlight in their direction, and they got quiet. Haven't heard them since. I guess we got the message across. Nothing against wild critters, but t hey can't eat my kitties.

Winter is closing in around us. The nights hover near zero, and the days are sunny but cold. I need to sweep the leaves off our path and into the flower beds where they can do some good. It's time to set up the kitty condo - a dog house that we put near our front door. Jim packs straw bales around it, and we line it with pillows and a wool blanket to keep the kitties warm. I'm allergic, so they can't come in the house.

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