Home at last and another use for paracord

I got home late last night.  It's sure good to be home other than the place was a mess.  Oops, I guess I forgot to call and tell them I was showing up.  It probably wouldn't have mattered because Army daughter and son-in-law have a very different definition of clean than I do, especially in the kitchen and bathroom.  I noticed that Army daughter bought more tomatoes while I was gone...on the vine!  She still doesn't like the ones in the garden.  I told her she could cut the vine and bring them in that way if she wanted.  It just makes me laugh.  She also said she didn't make any eggs for breakfast because there weren't any in the refrigerator.  Anyone heard of chicken coop?  Two more weeks before they move out.  I will miss them but I'll be happy to have a clean house once again. 

Army daughter had school tonight so I cooked dinner for everyone.  She did tell me to make this package of hamburger otherwise it would be too old.  Ok.  Hamburger it is.  I had girl go out to the garden and pick four ears of corn.  We also collected the eggs.  I took the dried bread and crushed it into breadcrumbs.  I took the hamburger and shaped it into a rectangle about 10 inches by 12 inches and put it on waxed paper.  I then cut the kernels off the corn (you can use a can of corn) and added one egg, a cup of breadcrumbs, an onion (I used 1/3 cup dried onion), some parsley, and salt and pepper.  I mixed that together and spread it on top of the hamburger.  I rolled it up jelly-roll style, pressed it well so it would stay together, and put it into a baking pan.  I baked it for an hour at 375.  

I also made potatoes.  First we dug them out of the ground and washed them off.  I cut them into pieces about an inch or so in size.  I put them into a plastic bag and added a bunch of seasoning including turmeric, garlic salt, crushed red peppers, onions, and a few other things I can't remember at this time.  I put a little bit of oil into a baking dish and baked them at the same time I baked the meatloaf.  

We also had some homemade dill pickles.  Grandson couldn't believe they were homemade because they were in one of those 1/2 gallon Vlassic pickle jars.  It's a nice jar and fits well into the refrigerator but they were really home made.  

I got tired of work's food, although we did get steak twice, yet it's better than Army daughter's cooking.  It's good to be home and getting to eat my own cooking. 

Another of the prep supplies I was able to pick up this week was a bunch of paracord.  When I asked for it from the supply they wanted to know if I was going to make some macramé plant holder or something since I didn't need it for my work.  I told them I was going to make a belt but also wanted to change my shoelaces on my boots.  They were getting pretty worn so I figured paracord would be the perfect shoelace. 

Someone told me that they used paracord but pulled the strands out of the middle otherwise the cord wouldn't go through the eyelets.  I didn't have that problem because my boots don't have small eyelets.  I did pull back the edge of the paracord and trimmed the inner cords back about 1/4 inch.  Then I melted the edge of the paracord to make it stiff.  It went through the eyelets just fine.  I normally double knot my laces so they didn't have a problem coming undone.  I expect these shoelaces to last a long time.  I'm going to change out the shoelaces in the grandkids shoes too.  What a great idea!