I found another blossom that we like in salads

On top of the light green lettuce leaf in the salad spinner --

Isn't this pretty? This is a cluster of pale pink thyme flowers. They're tiny but packed with classic thyme flavor. Our thyme just began blooming last week. I've been using the little flowers to add punch to meals, including in salads or broken up over meatloaf and polenta. With some flowers, all they add is beauty to meals. But with thyme blossoms, even the flowers are loaded with flavor. I'm looking forward to other herb blossoms. I'll be trying them all!

What's Your Go-To Graduation Gift?

"It's that tome of year, when the world falls in love. . ."" oh no, wrong song, not that holiday. But it is that time of year -- graduation season. Who knew graduates would get a whole season? Eons ago, when I graduated high school, we got a day and a night. Then it was off to our summer jobs the following day. Now, according to Yahoo!, MSN, Fox News, etc, graduation is a season. In some ways, that's a good thing. In theory, a season gives me more time to figure out my response to the announcements that come in the mail. 

I'm really honored when a friend from years past counts me among those that they want to share this news about their child's major milestone. I do enjoy seeing the photos, and I want to offer my congratulations for their hard work and achievements. Deciding on how best to respond takes me a while, though. And I'm not the only one who is thinking through how to respond -- whether or not to send a gift, and if so, what seems to be the going amount to spend? A friend emailed over the weekend with just such a quandary. So I told her that I'd put the question to you, friends.

When you receive a graduation announcement, how do you respond?

• if you haven't seen the graduate in many years, nor kept an active friendship with the parents vs if the graduate is the child of a close, current friend
• or if the graduate is an extended family member (niece, nephew, grandchild)
• if the graduation is high school vs. university

What do you prefer to give a graduate?

• what's your budget for the above different scenarios?
• do you like to give cash? (How much is too much, how little is too little?)
• or small package by mail?
• or hand delivered gift?
• just a card?
• do you give handmade gifts?
• is there a difference if you're invited to the graduation, or to a party, or just received an announcement?

Some ideas that I've used in the past or that have been given to my own kids:

• cash in the amount that corresponds to the current graduation year -- some friends of ours gave one daughter $20.19 in cash, because this daughter graduated in 2019.
• if the graduate will be going on to university in the fall, I've given gift cards to restaurants or stores in their future university town, along with a small map showing the proximity of the restaurant or store to their campus.
• I've also given merchandise purchased from the future university book store, such as socks and ball caps, with the uni's logo.
• One university had electronic dollars that could be purchased by parents or friends for the students to use on campus and at some local eateries. This made a handy high school graduation gift for my nephew. Once on campus, he had some spending money to do things with roomies and new friends.
• For an inexpensive gift, I've given M & M's in school colors.
• For a graduate who won't be going on to further education but instead will be entering the work world, I've given practical gifts. 

Now, over to you, friends -- do you have a go-to graduation gift idea?

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Memorial Week

Friday
homemade pepperoni pizza, chopped vegetable and fruit salad (carrots, radish greens, apple, raisins, peanuts in a sweet and creamy dressing, brownies from the freezer

Around Wednesday of every week, I start looking forward to pizza Friday. It's my favorite meal of the week. And I think homemade pizza is the best pizza. 

Saturday
refried beans, cheese, and homemade salsa, homemade tortillas, carrot sticks

The beans were cooked from dried. I cook a large pot full of pinto beans every few weeks, then store them in quart containers in the freezer until needed. Homemade refried beans are super easy to make once the beans are cooked. At their simplest -- cooked beans in a pot, some water, chili powder, salt, and garlic powder, then mashed with a potato masher until smooth.

Sorry no photo of Sunday's dinner. It was rehydrated TVP in a tomato paste marinara over cooked spaghetti noodles, plus steamed carrots.

Sunday
TVP spaghetti, steamed carrots

Monday (Memorial Day)
grilled burgers on homemade buns with garden lettuce, lentil-barley salad with (food save) past-its-prime celery that I rejuvenated in chilled water overnight, chive blossoms, herbs, and radish greens, and vanilla-rhubarb sauce (I add a bit of vanilla flavoring to rhubarb sauce at the very end of cooking. It seems to offset the acidity of the rhubarb.)

I baked a large batch of hamburger buns the day before, dividing into packages of 6 (when son and daughter-in-law are here) or 4 buns (just daughters, husband and I) each. Hamburger and hotdog buns are easy to make and oh-so-good. I wrapped them while still warm and they stayed super moist until the next day's dinner.  I make lentil-barley salad a few times in summer. It's a nice, cool way to serve beans and grains on a hot day. The dressing is some variation of a vinaigrette, sometimes with mustard added, or sometimes even a creamy vinaigrette (with mayo). Any fresh herbs from the garden add some zip. In this salad, I added chive blossoms, garden parsley, and thyme.

Tuesday
open-faced hot chicken sandwiches (chicken in gravy from freezer over freshly baked bread), frozen corn that had previously been canned, green bean casserole 

Comfort food for a week of weariness. It's a tough time for my family right now.

Wednesday
cranberry-chicken salad (using 99 cent/lb chicken thighs) on a bed of nasturtium leaves, lettuce, chive blossoms, parsley, lentil sprouts, with crackers and carrot sticks

The chicken thighs were roasted, then meat picked off the bones. We saved the chicken fat for cooking later and tossed the bones and skin into the crockpot to make stock. The next day, I was able to pick about 2 tablespoons of additional meat from the bones, with which I made myself a nice little chicken salad for my lunch.

Thursday
refried bean, TVP and cheese burritos (food save --I had to rehydrate the tortillas with damp paper towels in between each tortilla in a stack in a bag, then microwave for about 15 seconds), apple wedges, honey-mustard carrots

We had these 4 flour tortillas lingering in the fridge for weeks. Fortunately, none of them got moldy. As said, I rejuvenated them with moisture and heat. They turned out great and made terrific burritos. And bonus -- one less thing in the fridge that could spoil or mold in future days/weeks. The hone-mustard sauce for carrots, is just that, a bit of honey and a bit of mustard. one mustard bottle was about empty, so I rinsed it with water and used that in the sauce. I also add a knob of butter and sprinkle of salt. Yum! My favorite way to eat cooked carrots.

I am making the most of what I can get from the garden right now. This week, I was able to use radish greens, lettuce, chive blossoms, parsley, thyme, rhubarb, and nasturtium leaves.

I made my last batch of waffles over the weekend. While the waffle iron was cooking, it began sparking in the back, then blew the fuse. I unplugged it from the outlet, then noticed the cord was barely hanging onto the waffle iron. The sparking left a scorched pot on the counter. (I was able to clean that off.) I've had that waffle iron for 30 years. It provided a lot of good service. My husband said it could possibly be repaired. So I won't throw it out just yet. This isn't the kind of repair my husband could do. But if I find someone who does this sort of thing, I'll see about getting it repaired. In the meantime, it's pancakes for us.

I hope you all had a great week and area looking forward to a lovely weekend. What was on your menu this past week? Any food saves recently?

Shopping and Gas This Week -- Last of May/Beginning of June

I grocery shopped in person at Fred Meyer (Kroger affiliate) this week. It had been 2 weeks since I last bought milk and we were, as I predicted, completely out of drinking milk at this point. I still had some slightly sour milk in the freezer, which I used. I made a small batch of biscuits one evening and some waffles over the weekend with this sour milk. My family still had plenty of homemade yogurt and cheese to get their dairy fix, though. I do have some powdered milk in the pantry. But I consider this to be true emergency milk. Running out of milk for two or three days doesn't constitute an emergency, IMO. 

So, I needed milk. I bought 1 gallon of whole milk for making another batch of yogurt and 3 gallons of 2% milk for my milk-lovers. The last time I shopped, I bought 2 gallons of 2%. This is my compromise while the price of milk feels high -- one shopping I'll buy 2 gallons and the next I'll buy 3 gallons. Milk, by the way, was $3.09 per gallon last week. I went online just now and milk has been marked up to $3.39/gallon. Thank goodness we don't drink organic milk. Name brand organic milk was $8/gallon at a store near me.

I found the "new" clearance section in Fred Meyer. Very little food items in that section. But I did find a deal on tissues (89 cents/box of 144 ct -- I bought 6 boxes, next winter's supply) and a box of foil that had been damaged for 99 cents. I slowly perused every aisle that I thought might have clearance items. In the packaged deli section I found 4 1-lb chubs of pork sausage marked down to 99 cents each. I bought all four. So, I'll tell you something about the sausage. When we were traveling to and from Arizona, one of the items that wee all really enjoyed from the included breakfasts was the sausage. In the car, we had talked about me buying some sausage for occasional breakfasts. Once home, I priced out the least expensive pork sausage. Cash & Carry Chef'Store had 6-lb rolls for $2.71/lb. Walmart carries the same brand in 1-lb rolls for $2.88/lb. I didn't get top buying the sausage, so I was very pleasantly surprised to find four 1-lb rolls on clearance at Fred Meyer for 99 cents/lb! 

In the meat department I found some 24 oz marinated pork tenderloins for $3.99. I only bought one of those, even though there were several. I'm not a huge pork fan (unless it's ham, bacon, or sausage), so this one will be enough for us. I'll may use it on Father's Day. As just a regular sale item, I bought 1 large family pack of bone-in chicken thighs at 99 cents/lb. Once I got the package home I divided it into 3 meal packets. And I also bought 2 bunches of bananas at 49 cents/lb. In total I spent $27.03. I had other non-food items on my list. One daughter needed some disposable cups for a sub teaching project and I needed another bag of potting soil for starting more radish seeds under lights indoors. My indoor radishes seem to grow better than outdoor ones. Even though I have a garden growing outdoors, I'll be growing the radishes indoors this summer.

It looked like there was still plenty of food in the store, but it did look like there was less of everything, fewer packages, items moved to the front of the shelf with no back-up stock behind those items, fewer choices in brand and style of many items. The produce department does not look bountiful, although there is still produce there. The tofu section was still down to just a couple of cartons. It's been almost a year now that tofu seems to be in short supply. Such an odd item to have low inventory. They were pretty low in inventory of infant formula, as well. On their website, you can still order most formula brands, but there are limits. On Walmart's website, they have more formula in stock in the store than Fred Meyer, it appears. But again there are low limits to how much one can buy.

In addition to shopping at Fred Meyer, I placed another online order for chocolate chips and cocoa powder through Walmart.com. (Yes, I did a little panic shopping.) I was pleased with how well the chocolate chips shipped the last time. They packed them in a foam-lined box with ice packs. The ice packs were completely melted by the time I received the box, but they still felt a little cool. More importantly, the bags of chocolate chips felt like the chips maintained their shapes and didn't melt into a large blob. So I bought another 6-package lot of chocolate chips and a few more cans of cocoa powder. I believe we have about how much chocolate and cocoa powder that I'd normally have going into the fall and holiday baking and candy-making season.

The least expensive unleaded gas is hovering between $5.30 and $5.50/gallon in my little town. One town over I can find gas for $5.09/gallon at a couple of stations. 

Inflation, inflation, inflation. I do feel we're being squeezed from every direction. Our homeowners' insurance comes due in July. It too went up quite a bit. But, we have our garden. I know we will be provided for, and abundantly so.

How was the shopping in your area this past week?

Does It Really Save Money to Wash Those Flimsy Plastic Bags

As I was washing out the plastic bags on Monday (yep, that's how I spent my Memorial Day, doing housework), I was calculating the cost of washing those thin grocery store, produce, and bread bags as compared to the cost of a roll of plastic wrap. We have several food items for which we prefer the flexibility/conformity of thin plastic wrap or bags as opposed to rigid food storage containers. When bags were free with grocery purchases, it seemed like we had an endless supply of them. Now that those bags are no longer available (most of our stores have switched to non-complimentary paper sacks), I've turned to washing most of our bags. (If a bag is torn or has held meat, I throw it out.)

If I didn't wash the bags to reuse, I'd use thin plastic wrap, the kind that sells for $1.97/200-foot roll at Walmart. I estimate I'd use a sheet about 12 X 20 inches on average. A sheet this size costs me about 1.6 cents. I washed 16 bags the other day, or the replacement for 26 cents of plastic wrap.

Water and soap isn't free, however. I washed all of the bags together in a large sink of water (with a squirt of soap in the wash water, clear water for 2 rinses). I used about 3 gallons of water in each sink-full, or 9 gallons of water total. A gallon of water (with wastewater disposal) costs me about 1.1 cents per gallon. I used about 10 cents of water and about 1 cent of dish soap. My water had to be heated, so I'll add 2 cents to the wash calculation. Washing my 16 bags cost me about 13 cents. I hung them to dry on the laundry rack afterward, no cost there. I saved myself about 26 cents on the plastic wrap. So, I netted 13 cents by washing the bags.

There's an extra factor to consider. If I had something more lucrative to do in those 10 minutes, I could have earned more money than I saved. However, I didn't have anything better to do Monday morning. I'll take the savings.

I wash bags every other week, about 15-16 bags per time. I wait until I have enough bags to make the work worthwhile. In one year, I'll save $3.38. I certainly won't get rich on that savings. But as is often quoted, pay attention to the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. Another way I look at it when finances are tight -- it's better to save some money than to spend some money.

Using Chive Blossoms

Some years we're eating quite a lot from our garden by the end of May. Not so much this year. It's been very cool and rainy for the entire month of May. Even the kale and chard have been sluggish. What I do have in abundance right now, though, are chives and chive blossoms. So, I've been brainstorming different ways to use them in meals. Here's what I've been doing with the chive blossoms:

I began with making chive blossom vinegar. Each year I make two or three kinds of flavored vinegar. Chive blossom is always one of them. I also make a green herb vinegar (usually rosemary and/or thyme). And some years I make a fruity vinegar (plum, blackberry, raspberry, or blueberry). Flavoring plain white vinegar is both inexpensive and extremely easy. And having a variety of flavored vinegars on hand throughout the year provides a head-start in making salad dressings from scratch. The above is one week old chive blossom vinegar. I'll leave the blossoms infusing in the vinegar for another three weeks before straining out the blossoms and decanting the liquid into a bottle. BTW, I use repurposed commercial pickle jars for the infusing process. One of the problems many folks have with reusing pickle jars is the vinegar odor is sometimes hard to eliminate from those jars. Well, no problem when making a flavored vinegar, right?

I've also been adding chive blossoms to salads. Monday night I made a lentil, barley, greens, and chive blossom salad. The blossoms have a fresh onion flavor when raw. 

We did burgers for dinner this weekend. I'm down to the last few whole onions, and I don't want to spend too much money on more onions until I can buy a 50-lb sack of the new crop in late summer. In place of sliced onions on our burgers, I made a 1000 Island type dressing for the buns, subbing chive blossoms for the relish I might normally use. The chive blossoms added a mild oniony flavor to the burger toppings.

I've also been cooking the chive blossoms. Cooking the blossoms mellows the oniony flavor. This is a potato and chive blossom soup. I used about 2 cups of fresh chive blossoms, cooked in almost a quart of veggie stock. I added about 1 cup of potato flakes, salt, and pepper to the soup. I simmered for about 15 minutes. At that point I removed the pan from the heat and allowed it to cool for 10 minutes. Then I pureed the soup in a pitcher blender. I estimate this soup cost about 25 cents (for the potato flakes) and made enough for 4 servings. This could also be made with leftover mashed potatoes or 1 potato diced and simmered in the stock. My stock for this soup was also a bargain. Last week, I peeled 7 large carrots to make a bucket of carrot sticks for snacking. I saved all of the peels and used them to make a stock. After simmering and then straining, I had about 1 quart of carrot stock, which I kept in the fridge until I made the soup over the weekend.

So far, these are the ways I've found to use my abundance of chive blossoms. I'll continue to seek out new uses over the coming week or two. Using what we've been given and grateful for it.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Late May

Friday
homemade pepperoni pizza from the freezer, asparagus soup made from scraps, canned pineapple, scratch fudge (daughter made)

Saturday
peanut butter and garbanzo bean hummus, homemade crackers,  carrot sticks, apple wedges

Sunday Brunch (provided by my daughters)
My daughters made a lovely brunch for all of us, including my son and daughter-in-law. This was our Mother's Day celebration, as we were in the process of driving home from Arizona on actual Mother's Day.
eggs and peppers, sausage, bacon, fresh blueberries, croissants, scratch cinnamon rolls, strawberry pie, pineapple-orange juice
Dinner was every man for himself. 

Monday
Mexi rice bowls -- rice, scratch refried beans (freezer), taco meat (freezer), shredded cheese, home canned salsa (using canned tomatoes), and the last bits from a bag of tortilla chips, plus radish greens (garden) bulked up with frozen broccoli cuts and seasoned with onion and garlic 

Tuesday
chicken breast in pasta sauce (freezer), macaroni, Parmesan, roasted cauliflower, and vanilla rhubarb sauce (using a pinch of baking soda to cut down on the sugar)

Wednesday
split pea and ham soup (ham and stock from Easter, frozen chopped sorrel from last year's garden, instant potatoes, salt and pepper), carrot sticks, apple wedges, scratch biscuits and rosemary-rhubarb preserves

Thursday
rice and spaghetti meat sauce skillet dinner (spaghetti sauce from the freezer), beet salad

Making asparagus soup from scraps

Last week I found asparagus on markdown. I used the main portion of the stems in two dinners during the week, setting aside the tough ends to use later.

On Friday I used those tough ends. 

I roughly peeled the ends (some still had a bit of skin on),

I chopped the peeled ends into small bits, setting them aside while I dealt with scraps from peeling. 

I was left with a pile of skins and tough white portions. I simmered these scraps in water for  about 30 minutes. 

When the peels were simmered, I strained the solids out of the liquid. I used this liquid to simmer the peeled and chopped ends. 

Once those pieces were soft, I pureed the batch in a pitcher blender. I seasoned with onion powder and chicken bouillon, then thickened with a slurry of flour and water. The soup was still a bit on the thin side, so I added some potato flakes and butter. Asparagus soup for the four of us made from the scraps that many folks toss out.

Sunday -- you know my trick for pineapple-orange juice, don't you? I have a reaction to fresh pineapple. So when we want pineapple, it has to be canned. When I open a can of pineapple, I drain the juice and freeze it for later. When making a pitcher of orange juice from frozen concentrate, I add whatever frozen pineapple liquid I have on hand. Dole Pineapple Orange Juice sells for $2.88 for a 58 oz bottle at Walmart. My homemade pineapple-orange juice costs about $1.50 for the can of frozen orange juice concentrate and I consider the pineapple liquid as a freebie. BTW, frozen orange juice concentrate has jumped from $1.33/can to $1.50/can at Walmart in just the last 2 weeks.

Wednesday -- my scratch biscuits are probably a bit untraditional, but they're super easy. First of all, I don't cut in solid shortening, I stir in liquid oil. Second, I don't roll out the dough. I pat it out on the floured surface. And third, I don't cut the dough into circles. After patting the dough into large rounds, I cut it into wedges. The cut edges of each wedge seems to be enough for the biscuits to rise.

The rosemary-rhubarb preserves is a favorite of mine on biscuits. The rosemary has a slight savory flavor that pairs well with a savory meal. As you can imagine, it's also delicious as a glaze on meat. To make rosemary preserves, I wash and pat dry a couple of stems of rosemary and add them to the simmering pot of rhubarb and sugar. Just before jarring the preserves, I remove the stems of rosemary. It's that simple.

My daughters have had a bit of a sweet tooth this past week. Wanting some candy, they made a couple of batches of fudge, using the boiled sugar solution method. They made a cocoa fudge (cocoa powder, sugar, milk, butter) and a peanut butter fudge. 

Our meals are tasty, simple and cheap. What was on your menu this past week? What do you do with the tough ends from asparagus?

Shopping and Gas for the Week -- Late May 2022

I'm sorry I'm having a hard time keeping up[ with answering comments this week. I'm incredibly tired. I had a mild cold a week ago and I'm still trying to get back on track with energy. The cold was very mild, The fatigue was the hard part. It wasn't Covid. I did a home test as my husband had to go in to the office the next day. So, I'm sorry if I'm slow to respond to comments.

Shopping this week

I didn't shop in person this week. However, I did place an order online for some baking supplies before prices increase. I'm thinking ahead to the fall and winter holidays. I added some more all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips to my pantry. Got to have that chocolate. A few weeks ago, I noticed Walmart had increased their price on packages of chocolate chips by 20 cents. I was online at the WM website and saw that a 6-pack of chocolate chips was selling for the old price per package. So I ordered a 6-pack of chocolate chips. I have found some odd deals like this on Walmart.com. The new (higher) price will be only on individual units. But multi-packs will still be at the previous price per unit for a little while longer, I just have to buy more at one time to get that lower price.

On the chocolate chips and cocoa powder, I anticipate more price increases. The US doesn't have the climate to grow cocoa beans. (The world's largest exporter of cocoa is the West African nation Cote d'Ivoire.) I expect with fuel prices surging, the cost to import cocoa products will increase. Throw in drought, fungal disease in the crops, and a pesky moth, and cocoa output may fall below demand. Anyway, priorities, priorities -- additional supply of cocoa powder and chocolate chips added to my pantry. The trick now -- I've just to keep us from using these up before next fall.

I didn't have any need to shop for other groceries this week. I mentioned last week that I bought less milk than usual and will be trying to get through the two weeks on this lesser amount. I've been digging through the freezer to find milk frozen in prior months. I came across several pints of milk that was turning slightly sour, so I froze it. I marked these containers "milk for baking." I've been extending our fresh drinking milk by using the baking milk when I make biscuits, pancakes, or muffins. If we run out of drinking milk altogether, I can mix up a pint or two of powdered milk to tide us over until I shop next Monday. The slightly sour taste is undetectable once baked into something. I thaw a container as needed, then come up with ways to finish it off within a day or two. 

Gas prices this week

I drove to the pharmacy to pick up my daughter's rx, but otherwise didn't drive this week. My daughters and husband drove a little bit. We've been coasting on the gas we bought driving home from Arizona. I expect we'll need a tank of gas this next week. With 4 people sharing one car, we rotate between who pays for the gas. It will be one of my daughters' turn this next time for gas. The lowest octane unleaded in my town is priced between $5.10 and $5.70 per gallon. If I'm willing to drive a little out of my way, I could get gas for $4.95 per gallon. I would only save about $1.82 on 13 gallons (our tank holds about 14.5 gallons) by driving to the next town north. That savings would be eaten up in less than 10 miles of town driving. I mapquest-ed the drive to one of the low price gas stations in the town north, and found the station was about 5 miles from our house. If I'm driving in that direction to run errands, then it would be a savings to get gas in that town. Otherwise, it makes more sense to buy gas at the least expensive station that is on my errand route. 

That's my shopping and gas for the week. Not a whole lot in either category. How about your area? Are you thinking of stocking up for fall and winter holiday baking yet? Or does that sort of shopping feel too soon for you? Are there any foods with imported origins that you've seen price increases on or that you anticipate price increases in the coming months? What's the price on gas in your area?

Making My Coir-Lined Basket Hold Moisture So My Plants Don't Die Again This Year

You know this one -- the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Whelp, that's what I've been doing each summer with this one hanging basket. It's one of those coir lined baskets that I've been using for planting nasturtiums. The coir has a lovely natural look. However, it just doesn't hold water very well. 

For the last couple of years, I'd plant the basket with nasturtiums, herbs, and salad greens, as I also did in my other baskets which are made of plastic. The plants in the coir basket drain too quickly and the soil would dry out so fast. My plants would dry out by early summer. But I kept planting in this basket, thinking "this year my plants won't die." But they always did. I had told myself I'd remedy this soon. Yet, still this year I planted the nasturtiums in the soil without changing anything -- insanity.

Of course, the plants were drying out before June even arrived. Although, not the ideal time to fix this situation, as I'd already planted the basket for the season, this week I decided to bite the bullet and fix things while I could.

I carefully removed the plants, then dug the soil out of the coir liner.

I took a piece of heavy plastic (a mailing bag that I repurposed) and cut it to roughly the size of the interior of the basket, making a couple of small slashes in the bottom for drainage. I lined the coir with the plastic.

I then trimmed the top edge so the plastic wouldn't be visible. I mixed 1/2 teaspoon of water absorbing crystals into the dirt then scooped the dirt back into the basket inside the plastic lining. After replanting the basket, I topped off the soil so that any bit of the plastic liner wouldn't be seen once the basket is hanging.

Hopefully this will fix the situation. But even if it doesn't, I tried something instead of continuing to do the same thing while expecting different results.

Bargain Bedroom and Deck Makeovers

The best way for me to get a fresh look to my home or outdoor spaces is to clean and tidy what I already have. 

I was thinking about this two weeks ago as I was cleaning up the bedroom. Then I thought about this some more yesterday as I was cleaning up the deck. Over the weekend, I'd been browsing real estate online in another city. (My husband had mentioned a job possibility in this other city.) We're not likely to move, but I was curious what was on the market right now. Anyway, I was "touring" one home in particular and asking myself what I'd change to make this house more to my liking. 

The first thing I thought of was I'd want to create a spot outdoors just outside the kitchen for having breakfast or drinking my morning coffee in the summer. Then I realized that I could create that space on our own deck right here at home.  A few years ago, one of the trees that hangs over the deck had grown too bushy to have our patio table just outside the kitchen door. This past year, I've done some needed pruning of that tree. Now, there is some space for our table. I just hadn't thought to move it back to its original spot. 

So I worked at cleaning up that area of the deck, cleaning up my potting messes, organizing the portable greenhouse, sweeping the deck, wiping off the railings, potting some flowers that I started from seeds, and rearranging the deck furniture (including moving the table over near the kitchen door). Earlier this spring, I had been looking at catalogs with patio furniture and was dreaming about what I could buy. How silly, when we have patio furniture already.

Two weeks ago, after returning from our sojourn to Arizona and staying in multiple hotel rooms as well as visiting my stepmom in her house, I felt dissatisfied with our bedroom. It just looked frumpy to me. One day I set out to organize, make slight adjustments to furniture and decor arrangements, and give the room a thorough cleaning. Wow! It made such a difference. I love our room again. The furniture might not be what I'd choose if I were shopping for bedroom furniture, but these pieces have meaning to me. Our bedroom set was my parents set. I won't ever replace them because they have sentimental value to me. The various knick-knacks that I have displayed are also dear to me. Many of the items were gifts to me by some special people in my life. I wouldn't want a magazine perfect-looking room, as that would mean that I would be putting away some of these special belongings.

So I was thinking today, twice in this past month I've been dissatisfied with my surroundings, originally thinking the problem was in the belongings themselves. But all it took was cleaning and tidying those items that I already own. There's a reason I keep all of the belongings that I do. Sometimes items are functional, and I need to have them for their use. Other items are things I selected because I liked the way they looked, and even now I still like them for their aesthetics. And, as mentioned, I also keep some of the things I do because of sentiment. All of the belongings that I keep are either useful, attractive to me, or remind me of special people. I like my belongings. So, when I want a fresh look to my surroundings, the answer isn't to replace what I own, but to clean, organize and sometimes rehab what I own. It's pretty rare that I replace items that still work. Occasionally, something doesn't work like I think it should, and those items I do replace. But for the most part, I use what I have, and consequently, my bank account is never depleted because of a shopping spree at the stuff-mart.

Cleaning and organizing -- the cheapest home makeover out there.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Mid-May

Friday
pepperoni pizza, carrot soup made from canned carrots, frozen broccoli cuts mixed with florets, brownies

Saturday
spaghetti and TVP marinara, canned green beans, brownies

Sunday
peanut sauce over rice, canned carrots

Monday
roast chicken, brown rice, gravy, asparagus, brownies

Tuesday
leftover chicken in gravy over mashed potatoes, asparagus, rhubarb sauce

Wednesday

chicken pot pie (scratch crust, chicken meat, gravy, frozen mixed vegetables), apple wedges, brownies from the freezer

Thursday

spaghetti and meat sauce, frozen peas, pumpkin-spice cookies

Was I spoiled by my daughters' cooking for April? Have I found ways to treat myself to more time off from cooking? What I've been doing for the last 2 weeks (first week of May I was on the road) is doubling or tripling the main dishes and freezing the leftovers. Some examples: I made taco meat and refried beans X 2, chicken breast in marinara sauce X 2, pepperoni pizza from scratch X 2, meat spaghetti sauce X 2, roasted whole chicken, yielding 4+ meals, freezing 1 large portion of roasted chicken and some chicken meat in stock for two future meals. I also made a large batch of hummus and froze part for another meal or snack and a double batch of scratch brownies (some for last week and some for the freezer). For now, I'm focusing on the mains. Most side dishes are fairly simple in my house. If I do make something more complex, I'll try to remember to double or triple the batch to freeze for a future meal. One thing that has become clear, though, is that I need better organization for my freezer, so that I can actually find these future meals. 

A couple of things that I'll mention about Friday's dinner -- the carrot soup was made with 1 can of carrots plus water, pureed in the smoothie maker, flavored with onion powder and chicken bouillon, then heated in cups in the microwave. It was very tasty, quick and easy, and a different way to serve canned carrots. The frozen broccoli was a mix of broccoli cuts (which are inexpensive, often have a lot of stem pieces) and broccoli florets (more expensive and only the florets). I mix some from each bag, about half cuts/half florets. It's my way of stretching the more expensive florets for my family.

Before I steamed the asparagus, I snapped off the tough, white ends. I saved these in a container in the fridge to deal with for tonight's dinner. I'll peel the tough ends, chop, then steam them to add to other vegetables in a stir fry. In the past, I've also peeled then added these asparagus bits to soups and casseroles.

The chicken dinners on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday came from the marked down whole chicken I bought at Fred Meyer on Monday. After pulling most of the meat off the chicken (and freezing a large portion), I simmered the carcass in the crockpot overnight. My daughter picked the remaining meat off the bones for me. I then simmered those bones, skin, and fat for a second time. The second run broth is not as rich as first run stock, but it does have flavor and I'm assuming nutrients. I froze this stock in quart and pint containers to use in making soups, stews, casseroles, or for cooking rice in coming weeks.

That's what we cooked this week. What was on your menu?

Shopping and Gas This Week -- Mid-May

Now that I'm shopping in-person again, I can get more deals. At Fred Meyer I found both asparagus (1.99/lb) and a whole chicken (1.12/lb) on markdown, selling on the sell-by date stamped on the products. The asparagus was slightly wilted and the chicken needed using or freezing immediately. I wound up serving both for dinner that night. While I did find these deals, there were very few markdowns at Fred Meyer. In fact, they've completely eliminated the general clearance rack, having just a day-old bakery rack where marked down canned goods and pantry staples had once been. No markdowns in the dairy department and very few in meats.

Milk is now $3.09 per gallon at Fred Meyer, up 90 cents/gallon in the last year. I bought 3 gallons this time instead of 4. My milk decision is part of a growing trend in the US. Families are buying half-gallons instead of gallons, quarts instead of half-gallons, and for those families that use more milk (like mine) fewer gallons per shopping trip. The 3 gallons will be a 2-week supply for us. We normally use 4 gallons in the same time span. When we run out, we'll just have to be out for a couple of days. The upside to this trend is there could be some gallons that get marked down in coming weeks. I expect they'll be scooped up quickly, however. But someone will get a needed deal. I also bought a 5-pack of garlic (we ran out of our garden supply from last summer over the weekend), a 3-lb bag of onions, and 2 bunches of bananas. I spent $24.48. I also used my gift card to Fred Meyer (my Christmas gift from my husband -- I asked for it) to buy myself a pound of fresh strawberries. But I didn't count that into my grocery spending, as I see these as my Christmas gift. In November, I told my husband that the thing I really wanted was some spending money to buy special foods just for me. He was more than happy to give me this gift card, and I've been enjoying a treat now and then since the holidays.

I also shopped at Cash & Carry ChefStore (restaurant supply) for the first time in months. In the last month, raisins have increased in price by 65 cents per pound at Walmart. I checked several other stores around me and found raisins at a lower price per pound at Cash & Carry, sold in a case of nine 4-lb bags ($2.24/lb). Yes, that's 36 pounds of raisins. The best-by date is December 2022, 7 months out. A case is about a 9 to 11-month supply for us. I'll freeze several bags, which will keep them beyond that best-by date. (Dried fruit freezes well.) I also bought 15 pounds of fuji apples ($1.03/lb), 20 pounds of carrots (59 cents/lb), 25 pounds of lentils ($18.95), and a 13-oz container of chili powder ($4.09). I spent $131.26.

Walmart.com sometimes has great deals on Folger's instant coffee when bought in cases of six 8-oz jars. There's a limit of 1 case. Wanting free shipping, I added some supplements that my family takes. My cost for the coffee was $20.22. 

For the week, my grocery spending came to $175.96. Last week I didn't grocery shop, so I think I'm doing fine. I expect to be paying more overall on groceries, but I have yet to set a new budget amount. 

Gas topped $5 per gallon in my area for the lowest octane unleaded, $5.09/gal at Fred Meyer, $5.15/gal at 7-11, and $5.49/gal at Shell. We don't have a Costco membership, but Costco gas is the cheapest around at $4.89/gal. I use gasbuddy.com to find the lowest prices in my area each time I need to fill up. If errands take me to neighboring areas, I check gas prices online for those areas, too. 

Speaking of Costco gas -- my son and daughter-in-law (who do have a Costco membership) drove their own car down to Arizona the other week. We had 3 possible routes from which to choose, 1) straight south through WA, OR, CA, then over to AZ, or, 2) east through WA, OR, ID, then south through NV, and finally over to AZ, or, 3) east through WA, OR, ID, then south through UT, then into AZ. Each route had its merits and drawbacks. Due south through CA meant fewer mountain passes and frequent towns but much more expensive gas in CA. Through NV was definitely the shortest in time and miles, good prices on gas, but lots of mountain passes and a long desolate stretch where there are no gas stations. The route through UT was what my son and daughter-in-law chose, as there were enough Costco gas stations so they could get the least expensive gas the entire drive, even if it meant they drove some extra miles. The two of them are pretty careful about evaluating their costs, so I assume they costed out the benefit to driving extra but getting cheaper gas. My husband and I chose the route through NV. My brother advised that this route can be very desolate and said we should map out our gas stops before setting out. We topped off the gas tank at every gas stop we came across. Our small sedan got pretty good gas mileage, so even with a smaller gas tank, we did just fine. 

What's the shopping like in your area? Are you finding very many markdowns or clearance items? How are you changing your grocery shopping during this period of inflation? What's the lowest price on gas in your region?

A Great Resource for Using Every Last Bit -- IKEA Scraps Book (free to download or just browse)

I wanted to share a resource that has a lot of great ideas for getting the most out of your groceries. It's the IKEA Canada's The Scraps Book:A Waste-Less Cookbook. It's free to download or just browse. It may take several seconds to load. But patience is a virtue. There are roughly 200 pages of ideas and recipes for using every last bit, from the obvious of using bruised fruit to the not so obvious of using banana peels to make "bacon" (p.27) or chutney (p. 57) or in a chocolate-banana peel cake (p.155). 

There's a recipe for watermelon rind pickle (yes, I make these that, too --- post in this link). There's also a recipe for watermelon rind jam (p.29). Now that's something I haven't tried, but surely will. You may be surprised (as I was) that corn silks are edible. There's a recipe for frying those yellow silks on p. 41. And I found another recipe for using radish leaves -- a garlicky, cheesy green risotto (p. 71). 

Remember last summer when we talked a bit about using carrot tops? Well, this booklet has a recipe for chimichurri that uses copious amounts of carrot leaves instead of the usual parsley (p.99) Did you know that the peels from winter squash are edible? Turn to page 107 for a skillet dish that uses squash and potato peels.

How about getting more use from spent tea bags (p. 173) or used coffee grounds (p. 13)? IKEA's got you covered.

If you have an ingredient that you'd like to find a use for, no need to read the whole booklet. There's a handy index at the back that's organized by ingredient name (p. 211-213)

Some ideas are old hat for many of us, such as using the leaves and tops of celery. But many other ideas are fresh and new.

This free booklet is filled to the brim with useful ways to use foods that we might otherwise throw out. I know, I sound like an advertisement for IKEA. I'm just enthusiastic to share what could be a good tool for many of us as we try to keep our grocery spending down and/or get the most out of gardens this summer. 

Happy reading!

A good friend passed this on to me, knowing that I am trying to get all I can out of what we grow and buy. I'd like to be a good friend, too, and pass this on to you.

Scratch Cupcake Donut Holes Courtesy of My Daughters

This past Saturday was the community garage sale in my area. There will be more garage sales throughout the summer, but this was the big one. I went out for a little bit, but I was feeling tired so only looked at a few sales. I did buy some brightly colored paper napkins to use for picnics and bbq's this summer, still in the sealed package, 50 cents/package. My daughters went to many, many sales. The came home with wrapping paper (25 cents/roll), clothing, a knick-knack or two, and a deep fryer, still in the factory-sealed box. They saw the fryer early in the day and told me about it. We used to have a fryer and I stopped using it because it was more fried food than we should eat, it wasted oil, and it was a mess every time I used it. I told my daughters they'd have to supply the oil if they bought this. (My experience has been that a lot of oil is wasted when deep frying.) They agreed and bought the fryer for $5.

Their first frying project was donuts. They knew they wanted cake donuts, but they didn't want the fried batter mess that can come with pouring batter into hot oil (a lot of burnt crumbly bits after frying). So they had this idea to fry some baked mini muffins. 

They then baked yellow cupcakes (scratch recipe, no papers, non-stick muffin pan sprayed with cooking spray) in the oven. After baking and cooling, they popped the cupcakes into the hot oil in the fryer for a couple of minutes each. Afterward, they glazed them with a homemade chocolate glaze and added sprinkles, chopped nuts, and coconut. They look like donut holes, don't they?

I wasn't expecting them to be that much like donuts, but they really, really were. I was impressed. They were crispy and cake-like. I tried my hardest not to eat too many of them. But like I said, these were good, and well you know how good intentions can sometimes end up.

I did ask one daughter, after the fact, if she would change anything. She said that now she wishes they'd tried frying a little of the unbaked batter (not baked cake) just to see how it would have turned out. She doesn't know if she'd prefer one over the other, but would like to see for herself the difference. Maybe we'll have another batch of donuts soon? I mean, for the sake of experimentation, of course.

Anyways, just some of the kitchen fun going on in our house this past weekend.