One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1463 of 2143 - I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Castello di Amorosa Winery Tour Napa Valley, California

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 15, 2013 · 16 Comments

Have you ever taken a tour of someplace and thought, this is nice, but something isn’t quite right?

It looks too… staged.

For instance why are there sheep and ducks at this winery and why are those pots permanently attached to the wall? Don’t the peasants need those pots to fetch the sheep water?

Well that’s the feeling my friend El Presidente and I had when we toured the Castello di Amorosa Winery in Napa Valley, California last week. It was nice, but it felt fake.

I like to keep this blog upbeat and keep things on more of a positive note, so I almost didn’t even post about our trip to the winery because I felt like if I couldn’t give an pleasant description of our tour, why bother.

You know, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say it at all type of a thing?

But then I remembered, this is my blog, and I can write about whatever I want, for better or worse.

And really, it was a nice castle, even if it was an authentically-styled, 13th century castle and not the real thing and the guys downstairs in the tasting room all had fake Italian accents.

I mean really, what are the odds you are going to find 3 Italian guys and 1 Italian woman with broken accents at a winery all on the same day trying to aggressively sell cases of wine {that isn’t sold in stores} to people willing to pay $19 – $29 each for a tour?

Don’t get me wrong, I like history, and seeing replicas of 13th century tubs is great, but why not show people what really goes on in a winery?

I don’t know about you, but I think people would still pay to see the behind the scenes stuff like, like oh I don’t know, how to make wine. I don’t even drink wine, but I’ve been to lot’s of wineries before and they loved to tell the history about the place.

But that’s kind of hard to do when the place is less than 10 years old and is set up {in my mind} as a tourist attraction rather than a winery.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great the owner fulfilled his lifelong dream to recreate a castle. Castello di Amorosa is a place is beautiful place and would be a great spot for a wedding. But next time, I’ll do a little more research before I take another winery tour.

~Mavis

Have you ever taken a tour and been disappointed?

See More Napa Valley Winery Tours

Beringer Winery Tour

Rubicon / Inglenook Winery Estate

Robert Mondavi Winery

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Mavis Butterfield | Backyard Garden Plot Pictures – Week 37 of 52

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 15, 2013 · 14 Comments

Backyard Garden Plot Pictures – Week 37 of 52

I recently pulled up the beans and discarded all but two of the zucchini plants we had growing along the fence. Last year I was able to grow oodles of zucchini and other squash, but this year, not so much. I’m not sure if it was the location, soil, or lack of hot weather this summer but I’m kind of disappointed we didn’t get more zucchini {I can’t believe I’m saying that!}.

A few of the plants are starting turn yellow and die. Yep, fall is right around the corner.

On my to do list for today is picking pole beans. I’m not sure why one tepee is doing better than the other but I should have plenty of beans to harvest.

Can you see the purple cabbage to the right of the greenhouse? I so want to pick one!! But they’re not ready. 🙁

I think the potato towers are almost ready though. Maybe I’ll harvest them next week.

A view of the backyard.

Ye Olde Chicken Coop. The Girl and I are going to try and work on this area today. Ideally we would like to replace the bird netting with chicken wire and build up the garden beds around the chicken run. I don’t think we will get the whole thing done in one day, but hopefully we can make a dent.

The pumpkin patch. If you look closely you’ll notice a bunch of powdery mildew on the leaves. Which is a total bummer. We’ve had a lot of rain this summer and not a lot of hot weather and I think it has made a HUGE difference in our pumpkin crop this year.

The raspberry patch. Yep, it still needs to be weeded.

And those containers still need to be moved and replanted too.

There is SO MUCH TO DO, and so little time to do it.

Please tell me I’m not the only one feeling a little overwhelmed with my garden right now.

~Mavis

This years garden is being sponsored by the awesome folks at Botanical Interests Seed Company. You can check out their website HERE, order their new 2013 Garden Seed Catalog HERE, or visit my online boyfriend Ryan’s blog HERE.

Up for a tour? Read about our behind the scenes tour of Botanical Interests Seed Company.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Freezer Meals – Breakfast Burritos

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 15, 2013 · 16 Comments

The kids are back in school now, so that means we’re back to having a morning routine. I miss those lazy days of summer, but I’m making breakfasts and freezing them so I can press that snooze button a few more times before crawling out of bed. These breakfast burritos are the perfect, healthy breakfast made quick right out of the freezer.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 cups of cubed potatoes {I used red, blue & white}
4-8 sliced of cooked bacon, chopped {depends on how bacony you like it}
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 eggs
1/2 cup cheese of choice
8 small tortillas
{you can also add onions to this, but I completely spaced them!}

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the peppers until slightly charred, about 7 minutes. Add potatoes, bacon and red pepper flakes and cook until the potatoes are soft. Season with salt and pepper and remove from pan.

Whisk together the eggs in separate bowl. Reheat the skillet over a medium heat {add a touch more olive oil to the pan if desired}. Add eggs, scrambling until cooked through.

Set up an assembly line and fill tortillas with eggs, potato mixture & cheese. Roll up burrito-style and cool in the refrigerator. When cool, wrap each burrito in plastic wrap and place in a heavy duty Ziploc freezer bag. Freeze.

To heat, unwrap the burrito and place on paper towel. Microwave on high for one to two minutes until the cheese is melted and the burrito is hot. Gobble up and then have yourself an awesome day!

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

One Hundred Dollars a Month – Mavis’ Weekly Highlights

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By Mavis Butterfield on September 14, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Books, Books, and More Books from Amazon.com

Giveaway

Giveaway – Womanswork Gloves, Gardening Books, Seeds and More

Garden Updates and Chickens Too!

Mornings with Mavis

Recipes

Tips and Tricks

Weekly Shopping Trips and Stories

Videos

Friday Night at the Movies – 13 Going on 30

Peace Out Girl Scouts, have a great weekend!

♥ Mavis

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.