It's possible that you have a warm season grass and your neighbors have cool season grasses. Zoysia grass has been marketed as a "magic" solution and many people planted it in areas where it has a very short growing season. In NJ, it will survive the winter, but it will be brown in the fall, winter and spring while other grasses are green. If you've got zoysia, the only way to "fix" it is to wait until it's growing well and kill it, probably using something like glyphosate (brand name Roundup is the best known). Then in late summer/early fall, after the heat of summer, plant a new lawn using cool season grass. If you've got a cool season lawn and it's going dormant during winter, you probably need to fertilize with 1 lb of actual N per 1000 sq ft in the fall, after the top growth has stopped, but while the grass is still green.

Well, I'm going to go out on a limb here. I know Dave would disagree, but I think you may be able to sub onions for peppers in the Spaghetti Sauce recipe. I know when NCHFP did their salsa acidification study they found that full pints of onions and full pints of peppers were both acidified to within 0.07 pH of each other with the same amount (60ml) of lemon juice and the same processing time (15 minutes). "Full pint volumes of low acid vegetables (onions or peppers) were combined with ü cup of lemon juice (60 ml) to determine if consumer error could lead to unsafe acid levels in the guideline salsa recipe. Several varieties of onions were packed tight into a pint jar and weighed. From 263 - 295 g fit into jars from nine replicates. The maximum pint volume of green peppers weighed from 296 - 304 g for three replicates. After adding lemon juice, cooking, and boiling water processing, the full pint volumes of acidified onions had a pH range from 3.59 - 3.82 and full pint volumes of acidified green peppers had a pH range of 3.66 - 3.80 (data not shown). " I see no reason why the same volume of onion substituted for green bell peppers in a tomato-based sauce and pressure canned would be any different. Especially since NCHFP says you can sub them in BWBing (Choice Salsa) and that you can sub sweet peppers for chiles and vice versa, when the acidification study showed that jalapenos were a bit harder to acidify than either onions or sweet peppers: "Lemon juice (15 ml) safely acidified 100 g of each vegetable to below pH 4.0. Brine and solids pH measurements were nearly identical indicating acid equilibration within the 24 h period. When 30 ml of lemon juice was added to 100 g of vegetable the pH was safely reduced for: sweet green peppers (pH If you used the Spaghetti Sauce recipe and subbed onions for the peppers you would have 2C for 30 lbs of tomatoes. That's about twice as "tomatoey" as the juice blend, which says use no more than 3C of low acid (onions, peppers, or a mix) veggies to 22 lbs of tomatoes (or 4.09C low-acid veggies to 30 lbs of tomatoes). I would rather you use the processing time for the Spaghetti Sauce than the Juice Blend though, since you are cooking it down thicker.

You guys are funny. The chicken was $2.29 a pound which is unfreaking unbelievable for SLBL organic pasture raised chicken breasts and it was a loss leader (I am sure) for a local wholesaler. I used to buy chicken like this and prep it up for a couple of months worth of meals but I admit I haven't done it in years. I picked out my recipes, shopped for the stuff I didn't have on hand and had everything ready to go when I picked up the chicken. I label all the ziplock bags with the recipe name and date, placing the opened ziplocks in any container that will support them. Then I prep the marinade in multiple quantities, usually double, sometimes more, seperate it out into the ziplocks, add the chicken, seal and into the fridge. Then the next recipe and so on. When the second recipe is ready for the fridge the first recipe goes into the freezer. I freeze them flat. The soup and gumbo are in the fridge overnight before going into the bags and then the freezer. I start with the recipes that take the most prep work or need cooking first like the gumbo which has about 15 cups of finely diced veggies (all diced by hand - I don't like how uneven the food processor chops) and finish with the ones that are just measuring liquids. It took about 3 hours to do everything I did then about 3 hours lol to clean the kitchen. Here's the worst of it: Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup Skinnytaste.com Servings: 6 • Serving Size: 1 1/2 cups + cheese • Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 7 pts Calories: 260.9 • Fat: 6.6 g • Protein: 25.4 g • Carb: 29.9 g • Fiber: 6.7 g • Sugar: 4.1 g Sodium: 572 mg (without salt) Ingredients: • 2 tsp olive oil • 1/2 cup onion, chopped • 3 cloves garlic, minced • 3 cups low sodium fat-free chicken broth • 8 oz can tomato sauce • 1-2 tsp chipotle chili in adobo sauce (or more to taste) • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro (plus more for garnish) • 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained • 14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes • 2 cups frozen corn • 1 tsp cumin • 1/2 tsp dried oregano • 2 8 oz skinless chicken breasts (16 oz total) • 1/4 cup chopped scallions, for topping • 3/4 cup shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese • fat free sour cream (optional) Directions: Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until soft, 3-4 minutes. Slowly add the chicken broth, tomato sauce and chipotle adobo sauce and bring to a boil. Add cilantro and remove from heat. Pour into crock pot. To the crockpot, add drained beans, diced tomatoes, corn, cumin, oregano and stir.Add the chicken breasts; cover and cook on low heat for 4-6 hours. Remove chicken and shred with two forks. Add chicken back into the soup, adjust salt and cumin to taste. Serve in bowls and top with fat free sour cream, cheese, scallions and cilantro. You can also top with avocado or crushed tortilla chips. Enjoy! Maple Dijon Glazed Chicken Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts 1 cup Dijon mustard 1/2 cup maple syrup 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar salt and pepper to taste Directions: Place all ingredients in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Mix together and zip bag closed. When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on LOW for 8 hours (or HIGH for 4 hours). Sprinkle with fresh or dried rosemary for serving. Chicken teriyaki recipe Servings: 4 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes From Catherine McCord's Weelicious Cookbook. ingredients: 1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce 2 tablespoon honey or agave nectar 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 1 small garlic clove, finely minced 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 pounds) Mix everything together in a ziplock bag. Add the chicken. Freeze Thaw and bake in 350 degree oven till the chicken is done. Peach Ginger Bake 1 1/2 cups brown rice 2 1/2 cups water 1 jar Trader Joes Peach Salsa 1 tsp ginger powder 2 Tbsp ginger nibs or crystallized ginger finely chopped Put rice, water, salsa and ginger powder in ovenproof dish and mix well. Season 8 chicken breasts with salt and pepper and lay chicken breasts on top of rice, sprinkle ginger on chicken and bake at 375 for 45 minutes

llucy - Thank you for your kind support!! I felt so much better after reading your post. You are right, having to sacrifice the nook and eat at an island is never something I wanted to do. It would feel like a sacrifice, but if I was getting something otherwise fabulous in return, I would at least consider it. If I could snap my fingers and have the perfect solution, it would be to still have a kitchen table and any island seating would just be 1 or 2 spots for perching, not for dining. So, the U shape really does start to make sense. Thank you for the link to the Houzz ideabook! That really helped me and actually got a few new ideas flowing in my mind. The pantry doors will be changed, so that section can be made to look very different. sena01 - Thank you again for more options! It is so helpful to see things in 3d. The one with the bar table actually looked good - I just can't see needing the duplication of another table. But, it visually made the most sense probably. I'm going to play around with your idea of moving the dining nook! It's something else that I never considered and at first the new kitchen looked quite small, but then I saw the section against the dining room wall, so that might give me enough storage. Thank you again! tracie.erin - Thank you for drawing out this layout idea. It's actually fairly close to an idea proposed by a KD I met with. At the time, DH was not open to losing the U shape, so he kinda nixed it, but I'm going to explore this idea further. I like that I can still keep the kitchen table as the more I think about it, the more that seems important to me. Thanks everyone for your continuing advice and ideas! I can't even tell you how much this is helping me. DH is very busy and doesn't want to be too heavily involved in the details, so it's so valuable to me to get to talk things out with all of you! I'm having a GC over on Monday to discuss. I will report back once I have a better sense of my construction limitations.