Planning a sandwich menu for a crowd

Here's our menu for our gathering last Sunday afternoon. In our invites we called it a light lunch, with a "start time" of 1:30 PM. Friends stayed until about 4 PM.

whole wheat buns and white buns for making sandwiches
sliced ham, sliced turkey, sliced Swiss cheese (w/ mayo, mustard, butter, salt & pepper available)
lettuce

grapes
baby carrots, broccoli pieces and cauliflower pieces, w/dip (Bacon Ranch salad dressing)
pretzels
peanuts
dried cranberries

frosted pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies
gingerbread cut-outs in the shape of leaves, drizzled with maple icing
a bowl of candy corn

self-serve pitchers of ice water, lemonade, and orange juice
self-serve pots of coffee, decaf and hot water for tea


This is not the least expensive menu we could have employed, but it was the most "self-serve" menu we could come up with, so that I could spend time with our guests.

Here's a tip for setting up the buffet table -- place the napkins and plates first, then follow with the side dishes, following with the sandwich fixings, then dessert. Guests don't tend to go overboard on the sandwiches, leaving little room for the less expensive sides. But they fill their plates in a more balanced way.

self-serve amounts

For amounts of sandwich ingredients:

2 to 3 ounces of sliced meat per person (or up to 4 ounces, if you're planning a game day lunch or for an all-men gathering)
1 to 1.5 ounces of sliced cheese per person (a little more, if you are slicing the cheese yourself, or if you're planning for more sandwiches. Remember, a slice of cheese is usually about 1 ounce.)
one-half head of leaf lettuce for every dozen people

For a light-lunch or reception crowd, count on 1.5 sandwiches per person.
For a game-day or meal crowd, count on 2 sandwiches per person, then follow up with additional snacks later in the game, or add substantial sides like potato or macaroni salad.
For a group of all men, count on 2 to 3 sandwiches per person.


For amounts of veggies and dip:

2 ounces of raw, trimmed veggies per person (if you're trimming the veggies yourself, you'll need more)
1.5 to 2 tablespoons of dip per person

For grapes:

2 ounces per person 



These amounts will leave you with some leftovers, but you shouldn't have way too much left over, nor shall you run out of anything.

With our group of 15 adults (mixed men and women), we went through just under 2 dozen sandwich buns, not quite 2 pounds (around 28 ounces or so) of meat, about 20 ounces of cheese, 1.5 pounds of grapes, 1.5 pounds of raw veggies and a cup and a half of dip. We also had pretzels, peanuts, dried cranberries and cookies on the table, which filled plates. We went through about 8 ounces of pretzels, 1.5 cups each of peanuts and dried cranberries.

And I have a winner . . .

So, for my teeny-tiny giveaway from last week, there is a winner --

Mary from Portland, please email me your mailing address! And whether or not you'd like the baggie of whole cloves to go with the canister of cinnamon sticks. (my email is  lili.mounce@gmail.com  )

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the tail end of September

These are the turkey-cream cheese-spiced fig jam-and watercress sandwiches from
 Wednesday. The stuff that looks like pickle relish is the spiced fig jam, a jam made
 from unripe, green figs (from our two fig trees), flavored with plenty of lemon juice
 and cloves. The watercress is our garden came back in early September. It's usually
 an early spring green, here.

Friday
turkey in gravy from freezer
*rosemary-garlic rice
frozen green beans
frozen peas
*apple pie

Saturday
leftover rice with beans
cantaloupe, strawberries, grapes (given to us)
tossed salad of lettuce, watercress, parsley and cherry tomatoes (given to us, even the dressing)
assorted pie (given to us)

Sunday
*olive, tomato, basil pizza
cantaloupe, strawberries (given to us)
*applesauce

Monday
hamburgers on homemade buns
cantaloupe (given to us)
*pears

Tuesday
black bean burgers, topped with leftover pizza sauce
*garlic toast (on bread that was given to us)
*watercress and tomato salad
*green, waxed and Romano beans

Wednesday
*turkey, cream cheese, watercress, spiced fig jam sandwiches, on homemade whole wheat bread
*fresh pears
frozen peas, corn and green beans

Thursday (my daughters and I were very busy cleaning all day, and this was the best I could do for putting dinner on the table)
*baked ham and pinto beans, with garden bell peppers and tomatoes
homemade bread and butter
frozen veggies (combo of corn, green beans and peas -- nothing exciting, but it did fill us up)

Friday
roasted chicken leg quarters, topped with marinara and sauteed green bell peppers
*rosemary-garlic brown rice
*sauteed yellow crookneck squash with garlic
*plum-rhubarb pie

Saturday
*Italian-style chicken and noodle soup (with tomatoes, green beans, squash, garlic and onions)
dinner rolls
*leftover plum-rhubarb pie

Sunday
a noodle dish brought to our house by friends -- very yummy! I added some heated up, leftover turkey sandwich meat, that had been sitting out for a couple of hours
steamed cauliflower and broccoli (I steamed some of the leftovers from our lunch gathering)
dinner rolls
*salad made with leftover lettuce from sandwiches, plus garden tomatoes
grapes, leftover from lunch
frosted pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies  :-)

Monday
ham and bean soup, using homemade chicken stock from Saturday, saved chicken fat from freezer, ham from Sunday's lunch, onion powder and leftover cooked pinto beans -- easiest soup I've ever made!
whole wheat dinner rolls
broccoli and cauliflower with dip (leftovers)
*ginger pear and apple crisp


* indicates item for this part of meal came from the garden or orchard

I took a lot of shortcuts in meal prep this week. My daughters had one week off in between the end of their summer jobs and beginning of fall quarter, and we stayed pretty busy. They had a lot of errands to run, things they had needed to do or get all summer, but never found the time. So I spent a lot of hours in the car. In addition, I've been planning an early fall gathering for Sunday, so have been busy with preparing and decorating for that event. (In other words, this gathering has been the impetus behind me getting the house all fall-like. So, don't feel like you're "behind" if you haven't decorated for fall yet. It may not even feel like fall where you live!)

So, I've been a bit busy, and couldn't do much more than sandwiches, burgers or frozen leftovers, most evenings.

Our gathering on Sunday was a light lunch. We keep a fund going for entertaining. We haven't used any of this money for months, so there is enough to cover the expenses of a simple lunch (and it won't have to come out of the grocery budget). But we did use many items that I have in stock here, anyways, such as roasted peanuts, dried cranberries, orange juice, lemonade, garden lettuce, coffee, tea, ingredients to make buns and cookies. I'll be using the entertainment budget to cover sandwich meat and sliced cheese, veggies/dip and grapes.

Last weekend, my daughters and I volunteered at a charity tea, and were gifted with a box full of leftovers, including a whole cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries, lettuce, parsley, watercress, cherry tomatoes, a Costco jar of peanut butter, and a small loaf of bread, as well as 5 slices of pie. We thoroughly enjoyed all of the produce items, and they filled out our menus for a few days. Using the watercress encouraged me to go out to our garden and really harvest our own late-summer watercress.

The fall garden is looking okay, not fabulous, but there is still plenty to harvest for the next month -- 4 heads of cabbage, Swiss chard, kale, lettuce, radish greens, beets, carrots, potatoes, only a couple of pumpkins, (and small ones at that), and some small onions. It's not abundant, but it is something, and will provide a good chunk of produce for October. In November, we'll need to rely on purchased vegetables, once again. Makes me sad that out delicious, fresh and organic produce is coming to an end for the year :-(

Moving into October, it looks like Soup-tober is back! I love a good supper of hot soup, fresh bread, and pie!

My edible decorating for fall

Fall is a fabulous time of year for edible decorating. Many produce items in fall are also long-keepers, so can remain unrefrigerated for a week or more. In addition, in fall, our homes are often cooler than they have been for months, extending produce life even further. And the colors and shapes of fall fruits and vegetables have visual interest.

As a person living a frugal lifestyle, edible decorating has a special appeal -- the decorations don't get tossed in the trash or need to be stored until next year, but they become part of the menu in future weeks.

For our gathering on Sunday, I had two places in the house where I wanted a little edible decoration -- the dining room table,

and a side table in the family room.

I didn't wash the squash and pumpkins, but used a slightly damp rag to wipe off any dirt. Soaking or washing in water could lead to premature mold development, if moisture settles into the crevices next to the stem. And as we'll be eating these over a period of a month, I didn't want to risk losing any to mold.

More on our gathering, later this week.

The little bare-branched tree is fully lit

I worked fast and furious, yesterday afternoon, getting the house all decorated for fall and Hallowe'en. We're having a few people over on Sunday afternoon. So, yesterday was my day to get the house in shape.

I put one more strand of lights on the tree, for a total of two strands. It's very festive, I think. And for a free decoration, not too shabby!

Here it is all lit up.

Have a wonderful weekend!

This is what happens when *someone* leaves the ficus on the deck a day too long, in fall!

Last October, the nights turned frosty, I became unusually busy, and the ficus became one of those "to-dos" that never got done. I had pulled the ficus up close to the house, hoping that would shelter it from the frost. And it looked like I got it into the house just in the nick of time.

To my dismay, about a week later, all of the green leaves began to fall off the branches. The bare tree sat in the kitchen, near the window, all winter and spring, with me hoping some leaves would sprout. No leaves ever sprouted. I pulled the tree back onto the deck, with the idea to removed it from the pot and begin again, with something else.

Mid-July, to my surprise, leaves began springing up from the base of the plant. I hadn't been watering it, or doing anything to care for it, so this was truly a surprise. My new plan was to get out the saw and cut the bare trunk and bare branches off, and begin again with this newly sprouting ficus.

Again, distracted with life, this never happened. Then last week, I was at Jo Ann's Fabric and Crafts, and what would I see there, bare-branch trees, covered in mini lights, selling for $29.99!! Well, I have the bare-branch tree, and I have strands of mini lights. I got one strand of mini lights wrapped around the trunk and some branches, and will work another strand on later this week, if I feel it needs it. I'm waiting till dark to check the lights.


So, here's a free fall/Halloween decoration for my house, all thanks to my neglect! Don't you just love it when something like this happens!

First day of fall, and . . . a tiny giveaway

So, you all know my giveaways are teeny-tiny, and few and far between. My apologies, but it is what it is.

I have a lot of shopping venues that I know many of you are not fortunate to have. I understand that. And it must be frustrating, at times, to read of a good deal I get n something, especially foods from the wholesaler (Cash & Carry). Well . . .

With the change of seasons, I'm already thinking and cooking with more of the sweet spices, like cinnamon, cloves, allspice, cardamom, nutmeg and ginger. Some spices are especially nice to have in whole form, for their appearance as well as flavor.

Whole cinnamon sticks were on sale last week at Cash & Carry. So, I bought an extra canister to send to one of you.

The postal limitation is to the continental U.S. (48 states). My coin purse isn't all that full, at the present, and postage goes sky-high when sending items outside of the 48 states.  I'm sorry about that.

So, if you're in the lower 48 (or you have an address I can send this to in the lower 48), and would like a canister of whole cinnamon sticks, just leave a comment, below.

I want to get this out to one of you quickly, so we'll end the entries at midnight PDT, Sept. 28.


In addition, if you'd like about a half-cup of whole cloves, I'll gladly add those to the package. Just so you know, these whole cloves would come out of my own canister (bought and opened a couple of months ago), not commercially sealed in a package, but poured out into a ziploc freezer bag. I can be a bit of a germ-a-phobe, so I understand if you would not want cloves from someone else's package. But I have plenty, more than I'll use in a year or two. If you didn't want to cook with them, they could also be used to make a pomander, or added to simmering spices.

So, that's about it for today. My daughters are on a 1-week break in between work and classes, so we're heading out for a girls-day.

You know this, right?

You can use leftover cooked grains (like rice and oatmeal) in muffins or other quick breads, by running them through a blender or food processor along with other liquid. Then add to your batter as part of the liquid portion.

A week ago, Sunday, I made a large batch of cranberry-almond-apple oatmeal, for breakfast. There were leftovers, which I worked on myself all week long. By Friday afternoon, I realized that I'd better use what was left, before it developed mold.

So, I ran it through the blender along with part of the milk for the muffins that I was making.

Voila -- Ginger-Pear muffins (with the blended oatmeal as my secret ingredient!).

In the past, I've also used plain, cooked rice, this way, in muffins, and seasoned rice pureed with milk, as liquid in savory biscuits. A plain or sweetened, cooked grain will work in banana bread, as the small amount of milk usually called for, or, as liquid in a coffee cake.

It works very well, and the oatmeal or rice is practically undetectable (with the exception of an odd piece of nut, here and there, when using a grain cooked with chopped nuts). This trick works best in a muffin or bread which is going to have a small amount of texture, anyway, such as my Ginger-Pear muffins, with the chunks of pears baked in, or, in the case of using cooked, brown rice, adding to a batter for a wholegrain muffin.

A reduced-dairy,vanilla-flavored coffee creamer

I can't have much in the way of dairy. And I don't like the chemically stuff in products like Coffee-Mate. I've tried the soy creamer from Trader Joe's, and it's not very rich and creamy, IMO. But I sometimes like a little creaminess to my coffee. Sooooo . . .

This is what I've been making and using all summer. A concoction of heavy whipping cream, soy milk, vanilla sugar and a drop or two of vanilla extract.

In a small pitcher, I combine:

• 1 ounce heavy whipping cream
• 3 ounces soy milk
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar, to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

I cover and store in the fridge.

4 ounces of my reduced-dairy, vanilla coffee creamer costs me less than 35 cents. The local Cash & Carry carries 32-oz containers of Coffee-Mate French Vanilla Creamer for $4.00 (or 50 cents per 4 ounces). So, I'm coming out ahead, in cost, and enjoying a more natural product. Your savings would be dependent on the cost of your ingredients.

With my lactose issues, I can't have milk at all, but I can have small amounts of heavy whipping cream. Heavy whipping cream has about half of the lactose of milk. So, when I use about 2 tablespoons of my less-dairy creamer, I'm getting the equivalent lactose of the amount in 3/4 of a teaspoon of milk. And I can just handle about that much at a time.

I realize that I'm probably the only one, here, who happens to keep a half-gallon carton of heavy whipping cream hanging around in the fridge. I do have unique circumstances right now, which are benefitting from the use of heavy whipping cream. But if you're inclined towards buying those flavored coffee creamers, keep this in mind for just after Thanksgiving, when you do happen to have some heavy whipping cream leftover. A 4-oz batch of this will only take about 1 ounce of heavy whipping cream, to add to 3 ounces of milk (any kind of milk, not just non-dairy). This will keep, refrigerated, for about 5-7 days (the soy version seemed to last longer than the all-dairy).

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers using our last turkey from the freezer

Turkey-Vegetable and Biscuit Bake

Friday
roasted turkey
gravy
*bread and herb dressing
*oven-roasted baby carrots and potatoes
*fresh pears
*cranberry sauce
chocolate chip cookies

Saturday
leftover turkey and gravy
*bread and herb dressing
*tossed salad of lettuce, tomatoes, marinated waxed beans, black olive slices
*sauteed yellow crookneck squash

Sunday
turkey in gravy
frozen corn
frozen peas
*applesauce
chocolate chip cookies

Monday
*sliced turkey, thyme-cream cheese, spiced fig jam sandwiches on homemade whole wheat
*Asian pear slices
*tossed salad of lettuce, tomato, olive slices, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries dressed in rosemary-chive blossom vinaigrette
chocolate pudding

Tuesday
turkey, vegetable and biscuit bake (I was in a time-crunch so didn't use garden veggies, but used frozen green beans and peas)
*Asian pear slices
chocolate chip cookies

Wednesday
black beans and rice
green beans
*tomato wedges
*pear-applesauce
chocolate chip cookies

Thursday
black bean burgers topped with quickie marinara and mozzarella
*rosemary-garlic rice
*sauteed garden vegetable medley (green and waxed beans, summer squash, tomato and green pepper with garlic and herbs) no time to pick garden veggies tonight, busy day making applesauce and pies, so we'll just have:
*apple sauce
*apple pie



*indicates some of this meal item came from our garden or orchard (or from a friend's orchard :-)  )


When baking cookies, the logical thing to do is bake all of the dough, all at once, right? In our house, if I want cookies to last for desserts for more than two or three days, I have to keep the cookies from getting "snacked-up". Sometimes I bake all the cookies and freeze half. Other times, as with chocolate chunk cookies, where they're at their best freshly baked (with melty chocolate), I freeze half of the dough, to bake at a later date. That's what I did this past week, which really pleases the melty chocolate-lovers in my family.

I roasted a whole turkey, my last one from November 2014. We made 5 dinners and 1 lunch from the turkey, plus froze enough turkey for about 6 more family dinners/lunches. And now I think I can do without turkey for a couple of months! My favorite turkey meal this week was the sandwich supper.

You read Thursday's entry correctly. We did have applesauce and apple pie last night. Thursday, a friend brought over 2 large grocery sacks of apples, which we turned into pies and applesauce. She's coming back later this morning for us to process the other half of the apples. Another very busy day. And now to find more space in the freezer. Yikes!!!

My pantry savings account

the pantry, but it doesn't include the closet under the stairs,
where I have baking items and the 16 jars of peanut butter stashed

My pantry is simply bursting at the seams these days. It may even cause a minimalist to break out into hives. But as I was looking through everything, this past week, I surmised that I had about 4-month supply of food, between my pantry, freezer and fridge, if I bought nothing else for that time period.

Yes, I think we could eat well-enough for about 4 months. Sure, we'd run out of milk and eggs, but we would have enough to eat, otherwise. I currently budget $185 per month for food-only groceries. So, at $185/month for 4 months, my "pantry savings account" contains about $740 worth of food that I could draw on in a very lean time.

freezer no.1

Lean times could happen to any of us, at any time. Job loss, medical emergency, unexpected repairs -- keeping a well-stocked kitchen gives me a safety net, should we need to feed ourselves in an extended financial crunch.

freezer no. 2

So, while the neat-nick in me would prefer a streamlined-appearing pantry and freezer, the one who looks after the finances in this family can appreciate the value of having a good stock of groceries. After all, I wouldn't keep my bank account balance hovering at a low dollar figure, simply because I didn't want the mess of all of those 0000s in there.

freezer no. 3

I've seen this mentioned in articles about frugal living -- for some folks, their pantry IS their only "savings account". In the most dire circumstances it's something not to be overlooked, when calculating what you have and can rely on if your income came to an abrupt halt. The contents of that pantry could feed a family a couple of weeks, at least. And any needed spending during that time could be diverted to absolute necessities, giving a family a week or two to begin on a plan out of their financial difficulties.


Twenty-something years ago, my husband was relatively new in a job when on a Thursday afternoon, rumors began flying that the company where he was employed was about to institute widespread layoffs. He was told to sit by the phone on Saturday, and wait for a call. Sure enough, he was one of the ones to lose his job. We'd only been married for a year and a half, had a baby and hadn't really accumulated much in the way of savings. He received a two-week severance pay, and then we had to rely on unemployment comp. There's a gap in receiving unemployment benefits. If I recall, we had to go 2 weeks without any pay at all, before receiving a UE check. And even when the UE checks began arriving regularly, the amount was significantly smaller than our previous, first job, post-student years, pay. (Those first jobs pay practically nothing, for many of us.)

I had been stocking my pantry (as opposed to just buying one week's worth of food at a time) for about 4 months, at that point. I remember that Saturday afternoon vividly. I let my once-per-week Mother's helper go. We turned down the heat in every room, except one, where the baby and I stayed most of each day. We let our landlord know of our circumstances (he was a jolly man, right next door, and very helpful with finding resources). And, I inventoried our kitchen's stock. With what I had right then, I figured that my husband and I could live on what we had, and only buy what we needed for the baby. And it appeared that we had enough in the way of groceries to last us about 4 to 6 weeks. Some of our meals were unusual in combinations of foods used. Some were repetitive. But as I had been stocking up on healthy items, all meals were relatively good for us (I wasn't much of a cook, at that point, so it was definitely "eat at your own risk").

We eventually got back on our feet. But those early days were managed with the knowledge that we had enough to eat for several weeks. At that time, I had been spending about $30 per week on groceries. So I estimate the value of that pantry savings account was about $180 to $240. For a young couple, just barely out of school, with a baby in tow, all those years ago, that $180-240 was a significant amount.


Now, every once and again, I survey my pantry, fridge and freezer and make guesses at how long we could go without buying anything at all. We're pretty well-stocked right now. This isn't the most stocked-up we've ever been, but it's awfully close.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you ever think about how long you could go without shopping, given what you have on hand right now? Do you calculate the value of the food you have stored up? Or am I just a crazy lady, who loves math, and has a few minutes to spare for the calculation?

Just for fun -- if anyone cares to make a guess at the value of their pantry savings account, feel free to share in the comments below! Just make an estimate of how many weeks or months what you have in stock could last, and multiply by how much you spend per week or month. I bet there are some really amazing pantry savings accounts out there!

I roasted my last turkey this past week and used these in the cavity, for our favorite Lemon-Herb Roasted Turkey

I had about 6 of these already-zested and juiced lemon "shells" kept in freezer (a couple of years ago, I posted on using every last bit of the lemon, by saving the shells after zesting and juicing). I didn't even thaw the "shells", but tucked them inside the turkey, still a bit frosty.

With the  herbs in the garden abundant right now, I included a large bunch of rosemary, sage, and thyme sprigs.

To enhance the lemon and herb flavors, I brushed the skin of the turkey with a mixture of about 1/4 cup melted butter, 3 tablespoons bottled lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme.

Using the lemon "shells" and garden herbs was a delicious way to bring flavor to the turkey, at zero extra cost.

You know I like to make use of every little scrap of goodness. I only buy about a dozen fresh lemons per year (using bottled lemon juice for most cooking). So, I try to not waste any part of those precious, few, sunshiny jewels.

Using the whole lemon

For most cooking, I use bottled lemon juice. It's more convenient and less expensive than using whole lemons, for me. But when I have a recipe that I'd like to include some of the zest of the lemon, then I make sure I use every last bit of that lemon -- the juice, the zest and the pithy shell.

Often times, I only need one or two components of the lemon for a particular recipe, usually the juice and/or zest. With the remaining part, I simply freeze it. The zest can be frozen in a small container or zip loc bag. The juice can be frozen in a small container to be used within 6 months to a year. And the pithy portion freezes well for about 6 months (picks up freezer odors after about 6 months), and then used inside whole poultry to be roasted.

Keeping fresh-squeezed lemon juice

If you are keeping freshly-squeezed lemon juice in the refrigerator, it should remain fresh-tasting for about 3 days.  Likewise, if you thaw a container of home-squeezed lemon juice, and can't use it all immediately, use the remaining amount within 3 days. In contrast, commercially bottled lemon juice is pasteurized and contains preservatives, to kill bacteria and extend the refrigerated life of the product, for up to one year. If you have a lot of fresh-squeezed lemon juice to freeze, it may be advantageous to freeze in ice cube trays, then transfer cubes to a zip loc bag once frozen.

Storing whole lemons

I seem to have incredible luck with keeping fresh lemons, as mine can keep refrigerated for several months. This last batch of lemons I bought in May, and I just recently used the very last of the bag. I keep them in the produce drawer in an open, and very loose-fitting, plastic bag. The plastic bag holds in a bit of the moisture, but by remaining open and loose, mold doesn't seem to develop. By the time I used the last of this purchase, the last lemon was not as firm as when newly purchased, but it was still in decent-enough shape to zest, juice and cook with.

Once a fresh lemon is cut, place the cut side down, into a glass dish or container and cover. Use within 3 days.

Freezing lemon slices to use in drinks later

While raw lemons will lose some their original texture in freezing, they can be added to drinks, both hot and cold, even after freezing. Slice whole lemons thinly, and place on a sheet of parchment or plastic wrap on a baking sheet, then freeze. Once frozen, transfer to a zip loc bag. One or two slices of frozen lemon adds both flavor and visual interest to beverages. Surprisingly, they do not come out of the freezer all mushy, as you might expect.



I have one more recipe to make this summer, using a couple of fresh lemons, Lemon-Rosemary Finishing salt. I posted about making the Lemon-Rosemary salt late in 2013. This is such a favorite, here. With an abundance of rosemary this year, I can't think of a single reason to not make another batch. Yum! I can taste it in my mind, already!

Homemade gummy candies using real (canned) fruit and/or fruit juice

A couple of weeks ago, we got to talking in the comments' section about making gummy candy. My friend, Sara, (if you read the comments' section, Sara is a frequent contributor) mentioned making gummy candy with her grown sons. Sara is quite an accomplished cook, so I trust her ability to search out recipes, then tweak them to work even better. I asked her to share her method and recipes for gummy candies, and to our good fortune, she agreed and has provided them, here, today. Thank you, Sara! 

If you have questions or comments, Sara has agreed to make herself available to answer them.

"Good morning, everyone.  I'm very flattered that Lili asked me to share our recipes for gummies with all of you, after the recent discussion of uses for lifetime supplies of unflavored gelatine.

One of our sons originally found a recipe for fruit-and-juice gummies from The Undressed Skeleton site. http://undressedskeleton.tumblr.com/post/42764785751   I have done a banana version, and it was very tasty.  This time we used leftover canned fruit; and this would also be good for over-ripe/imperfect fruit that is flavorful but not pretty. This makes a medium-soft gummy with a little tiny bit of texture, in a generous batch.

The recipe for all-juice gummies is from  the Elana's Pantry site. http://elanaspantry.com/gummy-bears/ Elana Amsterdam has many good recipes for other items there, as well.  The first time I used her recipe with papaya juice, it was excellent; but this time we wanted to try and get a stronger fruit juice flavor. For those of you with kids or grandkids who will want the most recognizable, "authentic" gummy, I think that this style may be a better choice, though both types are fun and tasty.  This recipe is fairly small, probably to accommodate the size of molds.

You can buy cute gummy bear molds, but on this blog, I imagine I don't have to apologize for being happier to just use something I already had.  In this case, I used the smallest-circumference cutter from a biscuit cutter set I already had to cut shapes from a sheet of set gelatin in a casserole dish.  If you're going to use molds, please refer to Elana's directions for how much to cool the mixture before putting them into the molds, etc.

Unlike the original recipes, we actually didn't sweeten either of our recipes this time.  We do not eat stevia, and did not think we needed additional sweetening with these flavors.  If you want a sweeter result, however, I did use a little touch of honey for the gummies last time, and they set up just fine. We also altered the order of preparation steps to an order we felt would reduce potential clumping.


Apricot-Pineapple Gummies

1 1/2 cups canned apricots
1 1/2 cups canned pineapple slices
3/4 cup pineapple juice
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup water
5 1/2 packets unflavored gelatine

Put apricots and pineapple into a medium-sized saucepan, and cook and stir over medium heat until hot and softened some.  Transfer carefully to blender and puree.

Measure pineapple juice, lemon juice, and water (cold or room-temperature) in a 2-cup measuring cup.  Then add the packets of gelatine fairly quickly and efficiently, sprinkling it around the surface and jiggling the liquid to keep it dissolving in and keep it from clumping.  (This makes more sense as you do it than when you explain it.)  It should be fairly firm by the time you've poured the last packet.

Return the warm fruit puree to the saucepan, and add the soft-gelled gelatine/fruit juice mixture, whisking constantly until softened and fully-blended. Pour into rectangular casserole dish (ours is metric, but approx. 7" by 11").  Let set in refrigerator until firm (this happens quickly!) 

Cut with knife or shaped cutter. Loosen the first pieces at the edge, if your cutter doesn't pick them up, as ours did some of the time.  The rest should pry up easily with the tip of a fork or little flat spatula.  Store in the refrigerator in a single layer on a plate covered with plastic wrap or in ziplock bags.

Black Cherry-Elderberry Gummies
(We use these two juice concentrates for health reasons as well as taste. You can find them for fairly economical prices on-line at places like Vitacost.com.)

1/4 cup unsweetened black cherry juice concentrate
2 tablespoons unsweetened elderberry juice concentrate (a.k.a. sambucus)
enough water to make 1 cup of liquid total
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 packets unflavored gelatine

Measure juices into 2-cup glass measuring cup, then add water to equal 1 cup.  Pour 1/2 to 2/3 of this mixture into a saucepan and heat to a simmer over medium heat.

Meanwhile, add contents of gelatine packets to remaining cold or room-temperature juice mixture, as described above.  When juice is heated, pour gradually back into measuring cup, whisking constantly.  Then continue to whisk until gelatine is dissolved and fully-blended.

Pour immediately into a 1-quart  square casserole (for thicker gummies) or 1 1/2-quart round casserole, and chill in the refrigerator until firm. 

The top surface of this batch was frothy. Flip them over for best presentation.

Cut, move, and store as above, except if your mixture was frothy, flip gummies to display the slick, shiny underside on top.



The number of gummies you are able to make from each recipe will depend on the size of your pan and your cutter, as well as the amount of waste in-between cuttings. 

DO be frugal, though, and plan to eat the "waste" strips and bits.  They may not look cute, but they taste just as yummy (and gummy!)  See photo of our bowl of gummy "ends and pieces"."


Looks good, Sara! I can't wait to try my hand at making these!

U.F.N.

Do you know what this means on a grocery store shelf's price tag? I've only seen this a couple of times, with a reduced price for that item. I've found these letters in the spot on the sale tag that usually displays the date when a sale price expires.

It means, Until Further Notice.

This was on the unit pricing tag on the shelf for Adam's Natural Peanut Butter, 16 oz jars (and yes, they're glass jars). The price was reduced from $2.89/16 oz jar, to $1.50. I bought 16 jars. This was an unadvertised price reduction.

When I have seen the U.F.N. price reduction before, that item has been discontinued by the store and/or manufacturer, and the reduced price is kept until inventory is sold out (usually within a week or two).

Anyway, I bought all of the chunky-style that they had on the shelf and a couple of the creamy-style (we prefer the chunky), for a total of 16 jars. That's about a 5 month supply for us.

Just a heads-up on the U.F.N.

I have also seen items with unadvertised reduced prices with expiration dates on the price reduction set about 2 months into the future, in contrast to most advertised price reductions lasting just about 1 or 2 weeks. In some of these cases, the item has been discontinued entirely.

Stores take some less-popular items out of their inventory all of the time. When there's just a few of the item, I typically see them on the clearance shelves. But when there are many of the specified item, stores will often leave them on the "regular" shelf, with the reduced or "clearance" price.

The house-brand butterscotch chips that I bought last month remained on the shelf with a reduced price until they sold out (about a week), and that spot has now been filled with another product.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am mentioning this because when in the store this past week, my first reaction was, "oh, so the price has been reduced indefinitely, so I can always pick up more at this price later". Then I remembered when I've waited before, the product had been completely sold out, and I missed my opportunity to stock up at a great price. And I want you to be able to snag a good deal when something like this comes up, too.

Share your savvy shopping tips, please!!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers in early September

Thursday
chicken-noodle soup w/ garden veggies
*rhubarb jello
*pesto-French bread roll
*tomato wedges w/ 1000 Island dressing

Friday
BBQ pork on buns
*sliced tomatoes
*kale and garlic, sauteed
*plum cobbler

Saturday
pork and beans
cornbread
*fruit salad with pear, apple, plums, blackberries
*tossed salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber
*leftover plum cobbler

Sunday
*homemade pizza with tomatoes, basil, olives, marinara and leftover pesto
frozen peas
*mixed fruit sauce

Monday (got home around 7:30 PM and had to make a quick dinner This is what we came up with)
breakfast sausage
frozen peas
frozen corn
bread and butter
assorted fresh fruit

Tuesday
Salisbury steak
brown rice cooked with herbs, garlic and canned tomato paste
*tossed salad of lettuce, tomato and cucumber
*fresh plums

Wednesday
falafel
leftover rice
*sauteed summer squash
*plum pie

Thursday
*hummus
on fry bread
*tossed salad of lettuce, tomato, marinated waxed beans, canned olives, sunflower seeds
*fresh pear chunks
*leftover plum pie

*indicates some of this item came from the garden and orchard

The summer garden is winding down. I have a few more weeks of daily vegetables for dinners, and then in October I'll be relying on purchased produce, more and more. I dug half of the potato patch yesterday afternoon. While the potatoes did not do spectacularly, I dug enough to save for planting in the spring, plus a couple of family meals. There's still the other half of the patch to dig, but that will come later, as the pumpkins sprawled over that half. I am thinking about changing up how I plant and grow potatoes, beginning next year.

I pick a basket full of plums each day. One basket is enough for one pie, with a handful leftover. Yesterday's basket was halved and frozen for a pie in winter. This weekend will be when I try to harvest the rest of that tree, then deal with all of the plums, likely about 20 quarts of halved plums, looking at the tree. After the plums, there are the late pears, the crabapples and the cranberries. Cranberries did not do well this year, but I have about a pint left from last year, in the freezer. And the berries this year will be enough for Thanksgiving and one more meal. The figs are still not ripe, but I estimate I have another 2 to 3 weeks with that tree, due to it's location (up against the house, on a south-facing wall). If they don't ripen, then I'll make more spiced fig jam. We've been eating some of this jam alongside baked chicken. It adds a nice flavor to the meat, in the same way having cranberry sauce with turkey is a nice complimentary pair. Grapes, yes I do have some grapes. I have about 3 small clusters of grapes ripening, in total. The birds often beat me to any grapes, but maybe this year, we'll be able to enjoy a few in a fruit salad.

In this past week's menus, Monday evening was one of those very rushed meal prep nights. We had been visiting my FIL and his wife for the day and didn't return home until 7:30 PM. In the car, as we were approaching our town, we brainstormed what we could put together that would hit the major food groups, decently. It wasn't a grand menu, but it hit the target, and only took about 10 minutes to get from freezer to table. It was a great reminder to me, that we really don't "need" to stop for fast food, on a busy day. Of course, it saddened my husband that we would not be stopping at Mc Donald's for a meal of burgers and fries. But it was healthier and saved us about $15.

If you had to tonight, what could you throw together quickly, with what you have in stock in your freezer, fridge and pantry?

The last 10 days have been super exhausting

I'm just going through one of those life phases where everyone is needing my energy. It set me up for a nasty stomach issue this week. I know that you know the kind of phase I mean. Anyway, I just felt completely useless yesterday. I kept trying to make myself do something productive, so I could feel good about my day. But came up short.

I have a friend who tells me when I have these sort of days, to make a 2-do list. Not a to-do, but 2-do. Put two things on the list, and anything else that gets done is just gravy. So my 2-do list yesterday was to make dinner for 2 nights (so tonight's dinner prep would be easier, and give me time/energy to get other things done today), and catch up on laundry.

The "gravy" part yesterday included hot-gluing these acorn pieces together. Oak trees are not plentiful in our area, so when we come across acorns, we pick up both whole and pieces. I am working on my "collection" of acorns. Jo Ann Fabrics sells decorative acorns for about $15, for a small box. That probably sounds ridiculous to some of you. But for me, that really is tempting. I imagine a large bowl of acorns on the coffee table in the family room. Or a tall, clear vase filled with acorns on the table in the entry way. Or, apothecary jars filled with acorns on a shelf in the living room. For now, I have barely a 1-pint jar of acorns. So, I'll work on my "collection" first, then do something decorative with them.

I'm hoping today is a lot more productive. My stomach issues are abating. I slept long, last night. Yes, today should feel much more productive.

Have a great day!

Pesto-French bread roll

This was a dinner item that I baked last week that was a big hit in our house. If you love pesto on bread, this is a nice presentation, nice enough for potlucks, dinners with invited guests, or to bring as a hostess offering at the next occasion.

I used a half and half whole wheat/white French bread dough (using this dough, 1/2 of a recipe), and homemade pesto.

To make the Pesto Roll-up:

Make one loaf of French bread dough. Just before forming, have your pesto (about 2/3 to 3/4 cup), ready to go. Roll out the bread dough to about the size of a sheet of school notebook paper (9 X 11 inches, roughly).

Spread the pesto on thickly, leaving a margin of about 1 inch of dough, uncovered along one of the long edges.

Roll the dough up tightly and pinch the seam. Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet. Allow to rise until double in bulk. Bake at 400 degrees F, until golden brown, about 25-30 minutes.

After a brief cooling, slice into nice rounds, revealing the pesto swirl.

My daughters and I had a sample of a similar bread offered at a local farmer's market. This vendor's bread used just chopped basil, with none of the other ingredients of traditional pesto (garlic, Parmesan, nuts, parsley). We think our own version was an improvement on the farmer's market bread. :-)

A small gift

This is one of the African violets that I grew from a stem cutting. I brought it with us as a gift to my father-in-law and his wife, yesterday when we drove up for a visit.

I wanted to show you how I put together a simple but nice presentation.

After pulling off all of the poor-looking leaves, I used a pink plastic shopping bag for a waterproof wrapper. I cut a square out of the pink bag, just big enough to cover the pot entirely, and for the four pink corners to fold out to embrace the plant nicely. The plastic is held onto the pot with a rubber band, and a ribbon tied on top of the rubber band. Very simple.

The African violet took 2 full years to grow from a single leaf to a full plant with blossoms. I have one more of these cuttings-turned-plant to give away. Looks like I'll be needing to take a few more cuttings this fall.

Anyway, just thought I'd show you how it all came together.

Sometimes a price difference between two similar items just does not make sense!

Sunflower seeds are among the least expensive nuts or seeds you can buy for snacking or baking. I like to add them to oatmeal-raisin cookies, granola, oatmeal, salads, and half and half with roasted almonds in pesto, in place of the traditional pine nuts. We also like to snack on them, as is, or mixed into trail mix. And I prefer the flavor of roasted sunflower seeds over raw ones.

I was buying sunflower seeds from the bulk section of Fred Meyer on Tuesday (my senior discount day -- 10% off -- yay! me for being 55). I had my choice between roasted or raw, hulled seeds. The roasted ones were selling for $3.99 lb, while the raw ones were selling for $1.49 lb. Which ones do you think I chose?! For $2.50 lb savings and 5 minutes of work, I think I can roast my own sunflower seeds.

While I roast whole nuts, like almonds in a low-temp oven, I roast sunflower seeds and any other small seeds in a pan on the stove. I add a small amount of oil to the pan. Heat over Med flame. (You can dry-roast them, but using hot oil coats each seed so they roast more evenly in oil, I've found.) Then I add the seeds, and stir constantly for about 5 minutes, until they've turned color, from gray to light tan. I dump them onto a piece of brown paper bag, to both halt the cooking and remove excess oil from the seeds. A little salt, and they're just perfect.

The other benefit to buying seeds and nuts raw, then roasting your own at home, is that the roasting process shortens the keeping-life of both nuts and seeds, about by half (according to nutrition.about.com). There really is no telling when seeds and nuts sold in a bulk bin were roasted, from a consumer's point of view. I have a much better chance of my seeds tasting fresh, if I buy them raw, then roast them at home, myself. And once home, they will keep much longer and I'll have more time to use them up. Less waste!

Don't you think that's crazy that there could be such a price difference for a convenience so very easily replicated at home?

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the week

Wednesday
*salad of lettuce, tomatoes, watercress, cucumber, baby beet greens
*baked chicken, smothered in fresh pesto
*brown rice, cooked in chicken stock, with herbs from garden
*leftover plum-blackberry pie

Thursday
*chicken fried rice, with egg, garden cabbage, kale, shallots
*fruit salad with apple, pear, blackberries, plums -- all from our garden
banana pudding cream pie (my son brought home a bag of overripe bananas from his office that were going to be thrown out)

Friday
*homemade pizza topped with marinara, cheese, basil, olives and fresh tomato
*marinated cucumbers
*sauteed yellow crookneck squash
leftover banana pudding cream pie

Saturday
bean, rice and cheese burritos
*tomato wedges with 1000 Island dressing
*leftover sauteed summer squash
banana bread

Sunday
homestyle macaroni and cheese
ham
*kale sauteed in ham fat
*steamed green and waxed beans
banana bread

Monday
*Tex-Mex black bean soup (with garden veggies, shallots, Swiss chard, summer squash, plus canned tomatoes)
sopes
*fruit salad (plums, apple, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, marshmallows)

Tuesday
*chicken and dumplings, w/ green beans, Swiss chard, carrots
*tossed salad, w/lettuce, tomato wedges and marinated black beans
hot fudge pudding cake

Wednesday
*black bean burger patties, topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella
brown rice cooked in chicken stock with garlic powder and onion powder added
*kale sauteed in ham fat
*fresh plums

*indicates part of this meal item came from the garden or orchard

So, this time of year, our fridge looks somewhat bare, almost all of the time. A good part of each day's meals comes directly from the garden, and is not stored in the kitchen. Like last night, the kale and plums were picked in the afternoon. Looking in our fridge, you would never guess that I could be making meals from it, would you? This isn't an end-of-week look to our fridge, either. It pretty much looks like this every day in late summer.

The day before, I run through my mind what main dish item we should have for the next day's dinner. Then in the morning, I rummage through the fridge for anything that needs using up, to add to dinner.

Last night's dinner :

With the black bean burgers, not only did I have the black beans cooked already, but I also had about 1/8 cup of leftover refried pintos from Saturday's burritos. And about 1 tablespoon of vinaigrette from the bottom of the bowl of last Wednesday's salad. Then the marinara was made with leftover pizza sauce (from Friday), chopped oven-roasted canned tomatoes (made on Monday for Tuesday's lunches), and the juice from the open can of tomatoes. All of those items were sitting in the fridge before this photo was taken. Leftovers rarely get shoved t the back of the fridge, here. If they're not frozen, eaten the next day, then they find their way into a dinner later in the week.

I think one of the things that helps with leftover management, for me, is NOT planning a week's worth of meals ahead of time. When I have menu-planned a week at a time, I have wound up with a lot of leftovers at the end of the week. Just my two cents. So, if you don't menu-plan extensively and you're feeling guilty about it, well, take heart, I don't do a lot of menu planning these days, either.

If you're wondering about our garage fridge, it currently has almost a case of butter, a half-gallon of whole milk thawing, some heavy whipping cream, assorted cheese, some condiments, along with the thawing pork roast for tomorrow's dinner. Our freezers, well they're a different story altogether.

Buying canisters of unflavored gelatin

Sorry I couldn't get this posted for yesterday. I was playing mental health non-professional for the day, emphasis on "non-professional". All's good now, but I was wiped out for a day. Back, now, though!

left: 2 new canisters gelatin from Amazon
right: old box of 32 packets from wholesaler, about 3 years ago

So, in posting about what I bought, grocery-wise, for August, I mentioned that I finally got around to restocking our supply of unflavored gelatin. Previously, I had bought this in individual, four  1/2-cup serving each, packets, through Cash & Carry. It was still a pretty good deal from Cash & Carry, but I was looking for a less expensive way to purchase gelatin. And as I bought this through Amazon, this is a purchase any of you would be able to make. So, thought I'd share just what a good deal this is.

I use plain, unflavored gelatin, plus fruit juice or pureed fruit, to make salads and desserts. It's a good way to use excess garden fruit, or make a homemade fruit sauce (like rhubarb sauce) portable for brown bag lunches. Or, to make a jello base, for adding chopped miscellaneous fruit from the garden, for a fruit salad. (Last week, I found a couple of apples knocked off the tree. I brought them inside, cut off bruises and other bad spots, then chopped and added to a homemade lemon jello, made with bottled lemon juice, sugar, water and gelatin.)

I also use gelatin in chiffon pies and sorbet. Pumpkin chiffon pie is my family's favorite version of pumpkin pie, as it's light and airy. I make this pie several times per year. Another favorite of ours, using gelatin is Chocolate Bavarian Pie -- a whipped, mouse-like chocolate pie. I've also turned orange juice concentrate plus gelatin and sugar, into an orange chiffon pie, one year, when needing a dessert, was about to move, so had an otherwise empty pantry. It was surprisingly good, for such an ad lib, last-minute dessert. So, that's primarily what I use unflavored gelatin for.

Unflavored gelatin has an unlimited shelf life, if kept cool and completely dry. As for expiration dates on gelatin, it actually has more to do with the packaging breaking down, rather than any deterioration of the product. So, stored properly, so no moisture gets into the dry product, my unflavored gelatin should last as long as it needs to, before consuming all of the product. Once opened, a canister like this can be transferred to a glass jar with tight-sealing lid, or the entire canister can be placed into a gallon-size ziploc bag.

for a price comparison:

Through Amazon.com, a 1-lb canister sells for $10.18 each (when buying 2 canisters). One canister contains 283 servings. So, that's 14  1/2 cents per four 1/2-cup servings (equivalent to a small box of Jello, or one of the packets of unflavored gelatin), if using the recommended 2 teaspoons gelatin granules per 2 cups liquid. Phew -- the take away in that is   14  1/2 cents

Through Cash & Carry (a wholesaler with better prices than my standard grocery store on this product), a box of 32 envelopes (to make 128 1/2-cup servings), costs $11.88. That works out to 37 cents per 4  1/2 cup servings, using 1 packet per 2 cups liquid.  37 cents

Buying in a canister is 60% cheaper than buying in packets through a wholesaler!!

Yes, I did have to buy A LOT of gelatin. But I look at it this way, now I don't have to think about buying gelatin again, for a lo-o-o-ong time. (And as I said before, it keeps indefinitely.)

For our home, the real value to buying unflavored gelatin is in transforming something that's become humdrum into something new and different. When using produce that is primarily only what I grow, for a season, there can be a lot of repetition. I don't have the option of just not buying more rhubarb next week, if we're tiring of rhubarb. When next week comes, we still need to eat rhubarb.

As a result, we eat a lot of rhubarb sauce and blackberry-rhubarb sauce in our family. It's made with fruit from our own property and is almost free. The only cost is the sugar. When we tire of the fruit as sauce, I can use a little unflavored gelatin and transform it into a fruit jello, adding a bit of interest to a food that has become boring. And trust me when I tell you that packing a container of fruit gelatin is so much neater in a backpack all day, than a similar container of fruit sauce.


(For how to make fruit jello, using real fruit or fruit juice, here's how I do it.)

Life took a turn towards the hectic yesterday

My afternoon was hijacked, yesterday -- by life. I've got to get some things straightened out today, but I'll try to get back to the blog tomorrow.

Hope you're having a great day!