I'm back

Hi friends! Thanks for hanging in there with me these last couple of weeks. Thank you, all of you who offered positive thoughts and prayers on my and my family's behalf. That means the world to me.

Last week began rough but improved as my daughter's health made positive steps forward. This has been such a roller coaster of almost a full month now. My only advice for anyone going through a similarly rough patch is to keep taking steps forward, take each day as it comes, and try to make the best, next move possible when the move you want to make falls out of sight. One day when I couldn't see very many ways to help my daughter I decided to just take care of business and get her taxes filed so she could at least get some money infused into her bank account. I still need to do my own taxes and help my other daughter with hers. But I felt better getting this one item checked off my list.

Budget birthday celebrations

At the end of the week, my daughters celebrated their birthday. As always, we set out to celebrate this special occasion in a way that would make both daughters feel special, without overextending our budget.

My husband took the day off from work, we packed a picnic lunch, and drove to the nearby vintage town. Part of my daughters' birthday gift was a little spending money to use in vintage shops -- the two of them really enjoyed this. There's a picnic area down by the river that not many outsiders (tourists) know about. So we dined al fresco for lunch on the riverside. I smiled as I looked over, about 40 feet, where a restaurant has an outdoor terrace, overlooking the same part of the river, at a cost much higher than that of our little picnic of sandwiches, chips, carrot/celery sticks, hummus, tangerines and cookies.Afterward, we visited the pie place and shared some slices of pie. To top off the celebration, we came home and watched a movie that we checked out from the local library and had homemade cupcakes. At the end of the day, both daughters said that this was the best birthday ever for them. And it's not over yet! This next weekend, my son and daughter-in-law will join us for dinner and cake for a larger family celebration.

That's about it for today. Now I need to make dinner for my crew. I hope you all had a beautiful weekend, and your week is off to a great start!

Tired and Not Much to Say

It's been another rocky last couple of days. I'm very tired and can't think well enough to write much. But I wanted you to know I am here and will be back writing regularly again next week. Life will get back on track.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

What Are You Looking Forward to This Spring?

I'm rather worn down these days, so I began to think positively about the next few months. I came up with a list of what I'm looking forward to this spring.

• Easter
• bulb flowers like tulips and daffodils and bringing some flowers indoors
• driving north to either the daffodil or tulip festival in the Skagit Valley 
• longer days, lighter evenings, warmer temperatures
• eating some meals outside
• getting the taxes finished 
• bird-watching in my backyard (and hoping the birds that built a nest in a hanging basket last year come back this year)
• setting up a permanent spot for my sewing machine and buying some fabric to sew (using a gift card)
• long walks
• farmer's markets starting up again

What are you most looking forward to this spring?

Utilitarian Cooking vs. Fulfilling Hobby Cooking

My primroses are blooming. Time for me to transfer them to the large pots on the porch.

In the last few weeks, I've spent a lot of time sitting in medical waiting rooms. During one of my most recent waiting periods, there was a television tuned to Food Network. The longer the program ran, the more irritated I felt with the show. Now part of that was likely due to the nature of being in a medical waiting room. But the other part was genuine.

I should preface my thoughts: I don't watch Food Network regularly, as we don't have cable. My guess is Food Network also demonstrates less complicated meals than what I viewed. 

What irritated me wasn't the beautiful meal presentation or the use of top-notch ingredients. The meal looked very, very delicious and something I'd really appreciate being served. What was irritating me was the amount of man-hours spent preparing a single plate of food. 

There were 4 chefs working on the same meal, each taking a different component of the meal. The chefs were mostly working simultaneously, as I could observe the various chefs at work in the background while the host interviewed the others one at a time. My best guess is the meal took 20 minutes for each for the 4 chefs to prepare, perhaps longer with some content not seen due to film editing. Four chefs multiplied by 20 minutes comes to a minimum of 80 minutes of hands-on time for one dinner-type meal and doesn't take into account any pre-prep work, such as washing and trimming vegetables or getting out and setting up equipment. It also doesn't include what could be extensive clean-up with, for example, cleaning a pasta machine or food processor. 

My conclusion, for myself, is that I don't think I enjoy cooking enough to prepare elaborate meals. I think I'm more of a utilitarian cook. Our meals are tasty, nutritious, not horrible looking, and mostly easy for me to make. I'd rather spend time on other endeavors. To be honest, I have a short attention span. In addition, I think it bothers me that something I might put an hour and a half (or more) into would be consumed in 10-15 minutes. In contrast, when I work on a home improvement, furniture refurb, or home decor project, the tangible results last for weeks, months, or longer.

However, I can understand how someone else would find this type of cooking to be a fulfilling hobby. The results look impressive. There's an element of artistry that really should appeal to me. And I imagine the positive feedback from friends or family could make the work very worthwhile.

I do think there's a time and place for even utilitarian cooks like myself to prepare a "fancy" meal such as I saw on Food Network -- special occasions, family celebrations or holidays, entertaining guests, or some other meal experience where we linger over the meal more than our typical weeknight supper.

Both types of cooking have value. Some of us fall into one category, while some of us fall into the other category. Do you think you lean more toward utilitarian cooking or fulfilling hobby cooking? What do you think are the merits of each way? What draws you toward one type of cooking over the other?

A Little Freebie From My Gardening Starts

Two weeks ago I started my first-of-the-season seeds in a flat under lights. This afternoon I started a second flat. While working on indoor gardening, I noticed the first flat's seedlings needed thinning. About half of the flat was seeded in cabbage family plants -- two types of kale, cabbage, and Brussel sprouts. Some of the seeds I used were several years old, so I was generous with the seeds when planting. This meant there were bunches of seedlings crowding each planting cell. Some thinning looked to be needed.

You know what's in this salad spinner? The cabbage family seedlings that I thinned. (I left one stout seedling per cell in the flat.) Since the entire plant is edible with cabbage family plants, I added these thinnings to our dinner salad tonight, mixing in the end of the lettuce and red pepper bought last Friday and some lentil sprouts. The salad was delicious, looked bright and interesting, and made use of the baby plants that I pulled out of the flat to allow each cell to produce a single healthy plant.

A nice bonus from my gardening efforts.

Helping Each Other With Ideas for Stockpiled Excesses (Need Your Input)

As I was working in the pantry organizing this morning, I noticed I have a lot of peanut butter, like a whole lot of peanut butter. It seemed like we were eating a lot of peanut butter on a regular basis . . . until we weren't. Counting up my jars of peanut butter reminded me of Laura's comment the other day about getting a great deal on canned tuna in EVOO, good enough deal to really stock up. I think we all do this from time to time, find such a great deal we really stock up. Laura's tuna has an expiration date pretty far into the future, so she should be good to use her tuna supply before expiry. Some of my peanut butter, however, has already passed the sell-by date.

So here are some ways I'm cooking with peanut butter to use up my excess.

• Live and Learn's curried pumpkin-peanut soup (I sometimes use additional peanut butter in this soup when I want it to be a good source of protein for a meal)
• peanut butter energy balls (peanut butter, honey, milk powder, raisins)
• peanut butter on apple wedges ( a favorite lunch of mine)
• peanut sauce on noodles or rice

I'm looking for ideas, recipes and links for using peanut butter, if anyone here has suggestions.

And here's how we can help each other. If you have an ingredient or food in excess, mention it in the comments and those of us who have ideas that we've tried, can chime in.

My ideas for Laura and her bonus supply of canned tuna:

• Laura, you already mentioned tuna salad -- one of my childhood favorites was tuna melt, basically an open-faced tuna sandwich, topped with cheese and broiled until the cheese was melty
• tuna cooked with tomato, caper, olives, and garlic, tossed with pasta, similar to this recipe on Food Network 
• my mother's 1950s and 60s favorite way to serve tuna --Mexican tuna salad with avocado dressing -- canned tuna, lettuce, tomatoes, olives, shredded cheese, Fritos-type corn chips, avocado salad dressing (mashed avocado, oil, lemon juice, chili powder, salt)

What are some of your favorite ways to use either peanut butter or canned tuna fish?

Free Garden Seeds From Inside a Store-Bought Pepper

I've done this the last 2 winters, bought a red sweet pepper at the grocery store and saved some of the seeds for planting that spring. 

There are actually a few fruits and vegetables you can grow from produce purchases. I began my garlic with grocery store garlic, planting all the cloves from one head and multiplying over the years. I've planted sprouted potatoes, harvesting many times over what I planted. I've grown green onions in a cup of water on the windowsill from the leftover root end of purchased green onions. I've heard you can regrow Romaine lettuce and celery from their bases. Pumpkin, winter squash, and tomato seeds can be dried and saved to replant. And of course, there's always the avocado pit suspended with toothpicks partway in a bowl of water. My mother grew an avocado plant/tree for several years. It never grew large enough to be a tree. I knew someone who grew a pineapple plant from the crown of a fresh pineapple. She lived on Kauai and had the right climate to actually grow new pineapples on her pineapple plant grown from a crown.

With some of these plants, the variety you harvest might not look like the parent from which you took the seeds. I've found this to be true of winter squash seeds from market squash. Most of the peppers I grow from scavenged red pepper seeds are green or yellow at the time of my harvest. But I'm satisfied with the green or yellow ones.

Growing a garden dirt cheap is possible if you have a sunny spot in your yard and you're not terribly choosy about what you grow. Seeds and plant starts can be free -- remnants reclaimed from your trash or compost bucket.

Anyway, we've enjoyed our purchased red pepper for the winter months and now I've set aside my sweet pepper seeds for this summer's garden.

February Grocery Shopping 2023

February 3. We needed milk and a few other items. One daughter wanted to pick up some of her own foods, so the two of us headed down to WinCo. I bought 1 gallon whole milk ($3.17), 10-lb bag of carrots ($5.98), 1 head cabbage (88 cents/lb), 3.5 lbs gala apples (85 cents/lb), bananas (58 cents/lb), 3 avocados (48 cents ea), turkey breakfast sausage ($5.90/large bag), boneless skinless chicken breasts ($1.99/lb), white rice flour (53 cents), brown rice flour (51 cents), and wheat germ (38 cents). I spent $34.40.

The apples were in a 3-lb bag, priced at $2.98. However, I weighed the bag and it was 3.5 lbs, bringing my cost per pound down from 99 cents/lb to 85 cents/lb. The wheat germ was for making peanut butter energy balls, and the rice flours were for making myself some bread products that I could eat. I'll likely make pancakes, using the rice flour, an egg, soy milk, and the rest of usual pancake ingredients. The boneless skinless chicken is for lunch meat. I'll either cook and dice the chicken for chicken salad or cook and slice the chicken for sandwiches.

February 9. Several of us going to WinCo in the morning. My shopping included about a pound of grind-yourself coffee from the bulk bins as a Valentine gift to my husband (he prefers brewed coffee), $8.06, some truffles for daughters and son/daughter-in-law from bulk bins, $2.80, 8-lb bag (actually weighed 8.5 lbs) of oranges, $5.98, 3.5-lb bag of apples, $3.48, 8-oz mushrooms, $1.98, and more dates for me $2.95. total spent -- $25.25

spent so far this month --$59.65

February 14. Fred Meyer for our Valentine's lunch at home. I found chicken salad and broccoli salad marked down ($3.19 and $2.45), curried chicken salad in deli case (daughter's request) for $2.17, bacon-potato salad in deli case for $2.22, tub of melon cubes for $5, marked down bananas (49 cents/lb), a gallon of milk marked down to $2.89, frozen peas (VD dinner) for $1.25, rice-a-roni (VD dinner) for $1, jar instant decaf coffee, $4.99. Spent -- $25.77

While these deli items for a lunch were much more expensive than homemade lunch foods, I like to think that Valentine's Day is a holiday for me, too. So I took shortcuts. Our at-home lunch cost $15.03. Our Valentine's dinner also used shortcuts, the frozen peas and boxed rice side dish. For the rest of our Valentine's dinner, I made marinated teriyaki steak (steak cut from a roast bought in January), chili-lime chicken breast, scratch dinner rolls (from refrigerator dough I made over the weekend), sautéed mushrooms, and a plate of cookies (and plain rice for me). I guesstimate our Valentine's dinner cost just under $10 -- pretty reasonable for a special dinner.

My daughters spoiled me with gifts of fresh fruit, candy and snacks for Valentine's Day. These food items helped stretch our grocery budget for the month.

spent for the month so far -- $85.42

February 25. One daughter had been in the hospital for a few days and was discharged this day. The hospital is near WinCo. I would be needing a quick and easy dinner for that night to throw together once home. I decided on sandwiches and a large salad. I also needed produce, fresh and frozen. I bought 3 16-oz bags frozen green beans (98 cents each), 4 16-oz bags frozen peas ($1.28 each), 1 12-oz bag frozen broccoli (98 cents), 2 16-oz bags frozen corn (98 cents ea), 1 head cabbage (98 cents/lb), 4 avocados (48 cents ea), 2 bunches bananas (54 cents/lb), pint grape tomatoes ($1.48), 10-lb bag carrots, 6 lbs butter ($2.88 ea), 16-oz ham sandwich meat ($3.99), 14-oz turkey sandwich meat ($3.99), large red pepper (78 cents), 3-pack Romaine hearts ($2.48). Spent $53.33

One of the days my daughter was in the hospital I missed lunch and was growing very hungry and thirsty. I ended up buying myself a sandwich and bottle of water at the hospital. Spent $10.95

Total for the month of February -- $149.70

I got a few good deals this month and splurged a couple of times. I mostly cooked from scratch for almost all of our meals. And you know my family by now, we have simple food tastes.

What I bought

2 gallons milk

6 lbs butter

20 lbs carrots

2 heads of cabbage

7 lbs apples

5 bunches bananas

7 avocados

8.5 lbs oranges

pint grape tomatoes

1 red pepper

3-pack Romaine hearts

8-oz mushrooms (Valentine's dinner)

large bag turkey breakfast sausage

family pack boneless, skinless chicken breasts

16 oz sliced ham

14 oz sliced turkey

small amounts of brown and white rice flour from bulk bins

1/2 cup wheat germ from bulk bin

1 lb + fresh ground coffee (gift)

several individual Lindt truffles (gift)

dates from bulk bins

Rice-a-Roni (Valentine's dinner)

1 jar instant decaf coffee

5 bags frozen peas

3 bags frozen green beans

2 bags frozen corn

1 bag frozen broccoli

4 small containers deli salads, 1 cut melon bowl (Valentine's lunch)

How we managed on this month's groceries

Items we baked or made for snacks and desserts this month:

Valentine cut-out sugar cookies

pumpkin pie (from home-cooked pumpkin and scratch crust)

scratch brownies

roasted pumpkin seeds

scratch nut bars

peanut butter energy balls

whole wheat bread

scratch refrigerator dinner rolls

baked rice custard

scratch caramel sauce for apple dipping

stove-top popcorn

scratch pancakes and waffles

applesauce snack cake, using crabapple sauce made from our crabapples

scratch chocolate cornstarch pudding, adding in some sweet leftovers that had been lingering in the fridge (frosting and pancake syrup)

We used whole chicken, chicken thighs, boneless chicken breasts, turkey bacon, ground beef, and beef roast from the freezer (previous month purchases), as our meats this month. We continue to use grains, beans, butter, oil, baking supplies, peanut butter, nuts, and canned fruits, veggies, and tomatoes/tomato paste from our storage. And we have been using our frozen fruit (mostly foraged blackberries, but some dried rhubarb and dried cherries from our trees) and frozen garden veggies throughout the month. Our supplies are beginning to dwindle. I can tell because I have more empty spaces in the freezers and back-up pantry.

Going forward

I've kept our grocery spending low for several months now, in order to make up for the overspending in late summer and early fall to stock-up. I can now allow our grocery budget to creep back up to around $275 per month and feel pretty good about that amount.

World War Two Rationing Stories From Those Who Endured

For your weekend reading entertainment, I thought I'd share a site I came across a couple of weeks ago. Between 2003 and 2006, the BBC collected personal accounts of experiences during WW2 in Great Britain. There are so many stories in the collection. I used the search term "rationing" and came up with 50 pages with 20-25 entries per page for that one search term. Some of the accounts tell of the horrors of war, others relate how mother's contrived meals on limited foods.

Anyway, there's some very interesting reading in these pages and more than enough to fill many weekends. Here's the site:

WW2 People's War: An archive of World War Two memories -- written by the public, gathered by the BBC

Enjoy the stories!

Growing Things: Updates

 

Remember those "white" primroses I dug up and repotted so I could move them into large pots at the entry to our house? It turns out that not all of them are white. This one here is sporting a purple bud soon to open!

My week-old watercress sprouts (grown on a wet paper towel in a dish on a window sill) are coming along nicely. I removed the plastic bag and pushed the table closer to the window. Keeping the plastic bag now off means I'll have to remember to water the paper towel daily to keep these sprouts alive.

Old-Time Baked Rice Custard

As I've mentioned, I'm needing to restrict my grains to primarily brown rice for the time being. I told a good friend that I was making and eating a lot of baked rice pudding, using my mother's 1950s-era recipe. My friend asked if I could give her this recipe. I thought perhaps this recipe was on my blog, but I couldn't locate it. Perhaps I was just thinking of posting it and never did.

Anyway, I thought I'd share, as this really is a delicious, frugal, simple, and gluten-free dessert that the whole family can enjoy. 

Baked Rice Custard

2 well-beaten eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

1 1/4 cup cooked, cooled rice (I use brown rice)

1 cup raisins, optional

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dash cinnamon

Dash nutmeg

Oven 325 degrees F

Combine eggs, sugar, and salt. Gradually add milk. Add rice, raisins, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg

Poor into buttered 1-quart casserole. Set in shallow pan; pour hot water into pan 1 inch deep. Bake in slow oven 1 1/2 hours, or until a knife inserted in the center comes clean.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

So that was my mother's primary way to make this recipe. I've adjusted this to meet my need for simpler prep (skip the water bath), individual portions, and dairy-free.

I substitute soy milk for dairy milk, bake the custard in buttered custard cups, skip the pan of water as a water bath, and reduce the temp to about 300 degrees F. (The temperature can be reduced by 25 degrees F when not using the water bath method.) In custard cups, this bakes at 300 F for about 35-40 minutes and makes 5 to 6 custard cups.

I also like to change the recipe up a bit. One of my current favorites is almond-rice custard. I omit the cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and optional raisins and add 1 teaspoon of almond extract. For the almond rice custard, I like to top servings with raspberry or cherry preserves. 

I enjoy rice custard so much that I would choose this over cakes and cookies most days, which is a very good thing as I'm currently not able to eat cakes and cookies.

Another Spring Cleaning Task: Lining Kitchen Shelves

Actually, I only lined one shelf, the one that gets the messiest, where I store all of the bottles of cooking liquids like oils, molasses, soy sauce, vinegar, and honey. The oils, molasses, and honey are the worst offenders in the pantry. They drip down the sides of the containers and make a mess of the shelf.

I had put off lining this particular shelf for literally years. I didn't have shelf paper or anything to use in place of shelf paper . . . or did I? 

Remember all of that brown paper that came as packing material during the shutdowns? Okay, maybe you got lots of styrofoam pellets instead. I got reams of crumpled brown paper. I rolled up the paper and stored the rolls on end in a larger box.

I used some of the paper for creating a barrier between layers in boxes of onions, potatoes, and tomatoes harvested from my garden and stored in our cold room. I also used some directly in the garden to suppress weeds among vegetables. And I used some as gift wrap.

As I was cleaning up the "liquids" shelf in the pantry, I remembered my supply of brown paper.

I cut the paper to fit, taping down the ends.

I relined the pie tin that catches oil dribbles.

I made extra squares to go under the honey and molasses bottles so the jugs don't stick to the paper shelf lining. (The squares stick to the bottom of the bottles. As I lift a bottle or jug, the square paper comes with it, but not the shelf liner.)

And when I finished the job, this is how it looked. Nice, neat, tidy, and will be super easy to clean when the paper gets gunked up again. Bonus, I'll be able to compost the old paper and replace it with more of the free brown paper.

Yes, it would be nice if the paper had some sort of attractive pattern. But free is a pretty amazing price.

How do you store previously-used Ziploc bags?

I was washing zippered sandwich and snack bags the other day and wondering how others handle these -- if they save and reuse, how they wash, but especially how they store these previously-used bags.

We use these zippered bags for so many food items. They're just the right size when our leftovers and foods that need a covering are on the small side, like a few biscuits or cookies or an individual custard cup of my rice pudding. I find the bags to be easier to wash and dry than sheets of plastic wrap (which we also wash and dry until no longer usable). The bags will stand up on the tines of a rack to dry and are sturdy enough to last for many uses. Some of these bags are many years old. And they're in a variety of sizes. The original boxes are now long gone. So I had to come up with an organized way to store them for reuse so that my family members will actually reuse them.

After the bags are washed and have thoroughly dried, I sort them according to size and thickness (sandwich/snack vs. freezer bags). I roll up these piles and secure with a rubber band. I have an old roll and cracker basket that is long and narrow. And that's where I store the piles of rolled up bags. 

My family knows to check the basket first before getting out a new bag. 

When a bag is dirtied, it's stuffed into a tall container next to the kitchen sink. When that container is overflowing with bags, I know it's time to wash them all in a sink of hot soapy water. I wash and dry them all inside out, so the surface that will touch food is the cleanest part.

I know we've saved more than just a few dollars by washing and reusing Ziploc bags, as we've been doing this for decades, now.

What's your method?

Growing a Plate of Watercress Indoors on the Windowsill

Sorry I missed posting the last 2 days. We had a very busy weekend, followed by Valentine's Day (which was also busy). On Sunday, we had the opportunity to see the current play my daughter is in. As I've mentioned before, this theater is a comedy-only theater. And this current play was hilarious -- a very enjoyable time. Plus we got to see my son and daughter-in-law. Tuesday (Valentine's Day), was a busy day, too. Time with family members, a special lunch at home, then later a special dinner at home. It was fun and thrifty. 

Now I'm back, and I wanted to tell you about my latest vegetable experiment, this one indoors.

I started a plate of watercress seeds on a wet paper towel set on a plate on Monday. 

I covered the whole thing with a ziploc plastic bag to hold in moisture while the seeds germinate. I didn't cover the seeds with another paper towel, as I've read others do, but put the covered plate out of direct sunlight. 

2 days after starting the watercress seeds -- sprouts are appearing

The seeds are beginning to germinate. Watercress is a quick sprouting seed. Once more the seeds have sprouted, I'll move the covered plate to a southeast-facing windowsill. I'll loosen the plastic bag once the tiny plants begin to grow and will spritz with water daily. When the plants look sturdy enough to not have the plastic bag covering, I'll remove it and just keep the plate of watercress sprouts well-spritzed.

I collected these seeds from my garden watercress. It self-seeds throughout the garden, providing early peppery greens for us from mid to late-March through early-May. When seed pods began to set last summer, I pick off a few before the pods opened and spread seeds. I started my watercress with root-on watercress herbs purchased in the produce section of the grocery store 20 years ago. I planted the cress that we couldn't use before it wilted and it has just kept self-seeding all of these years.

Last winter I watched  several British Food Ministry films produced during World War II to help their population feed themselves during this desperately difficult period in history. At the beginning of the war, England was importing a lot of their food. One of the tactics used against them during the war was a blockade against shipments of food and other necessities, an attempt by the Axis powers to basically starve them into submission. One of the suggestions given by the British Food Minister was for citizens to grow watercress sprouts on a sunny windowsill in their flats or homes. 

Watercress is easy and inexpensive to grow, can be grown indoors in less sunny/warm months, and is high in vitamin C. Oranges and other citrus fruits would have been imports prior to the war. With importation blockades on the major shipping routes, oranges became very scarce. When a town could get oranges, they were usually reserved for children. England needed to find foods they could grow year round to provide the needed vitamin C for the entire population. 1 cup of fresh watercress has nearly 1/4 of the RDA of vitamin C for teens and adults and almost 1/2 the RDA of Vitamin C for children under age 13. And, a family could grow their own watercress as a daily dietary addition for just the cost of seeds.

I know I've recommended the following video before. Here it is once again with mention of growing watercress and mustard greens on the windowsill, beginning around the 1:00 minute mark.

Wartime Ministry Food, England: Mrs. T and Her Cabbage Patch

I'll keep you updated as to this watercress experiment. 

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers: A Week With Lots of Rice

There are two new objectives to our meals this week. One, I'm currently on an elimination diet to get my digestive system back on track. This has actually been going on (and getting stricter with time) for a few months. I'm currently not doing milk, yogurt, cream, glutenous grains, oats, xanthan gum, guar gum, locust bean gum, carrageenan, or tree nuts. The second objective for this and coming weeks is to use our frozen garden produce at least once each day. Many days, I use this produce in breakfasts or lunches. But I will also mention in the dinners this week where we used some of our freezer stash. 

Friday (just 2 for dinner tonight, so I went simple)

chicken fried rice (adding our frozen celery leaves and carrot leaves)

pumpkin pie (the filling was made with soy milk and I had mine without crust)

Saturday

refried sprouted pinto beans, mexi-style

brown rice

Cole slaw, made with cabbage and our sprouted lentils

Everyone else had flour tortilla chips in place of rice.

Sunday

chicken and vegetable soup (using our frozen beet greens)

garlic toast (I skipped the toast)

The family had brownie pudding for dessert. I had rice pudding made with soy milk.

Monday

beef stew (adding our frozen beet greens)

orange wedges

Everyone else had dinner rolls. I had 2 rice flour pancakes.

Tuesday

ham in gravy (with our frozen chives) over

brown rice

roasted pumpkin

spiced apple compote (our apple chunks from freezer)

Wednesday

meatloaf

brown rice

our frozen beet greens and onions, sautéed

Everyone else had mashed potatoes in place of the rice.

Thursday

curried lentils (using our apples, frozen, plus our plum preserves in place of chutney), over

brown rice

It's a good thing I like brown rice. For grain foods this week I had steamed brown rice, fried rice, brown rice pudding (made with soy milk), and rice flour pancakes. I really believe my main issue is with dairy and not gluten. Sometimes going on a strict eating plan for several weeks to months will help me get back to eating other grains, just not the milk, the various additives, such as the gums and carrageenan, or most tree nuts. My insides are feeling better, but I miss wheat products. 

On the frozen garden produce front, I've been organizing our freezers again, this time to bring all of the frozen produce into one place. I hope next week to finish that chore. By having all of the produce in one place, I will be able to plan meals to use this all up before we begin harvesting from this coming season's garden, orchard, and berry patch.

What was on your menu this past week? Do you have frozen garden produce to use up still? 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We'll be getting together with our son and daughter-in-law -- always nice to have the whole family together.

A Festive Plate of Valentine's Cookies

I have my daughters to thank for this plate of Valentine's cookies. One daughter made the sugar cookie dough a while ago and froze it. And the other daughter rolled it out the other evening, cut them into hearts then baked and decorated all of them. She used 3 different cookie cutters, a fluted-edge one from my mother, large plastic freebie cutter from our bank (many years ago), and the small heart cutter from their childhood Easy Bake Oven. My daughter gathered all of the topping/decors she could find from my baking cupboard and just went to town. 

I practically didn't need any coffee the next morning when I stumbled into the kitchen and saw this festive tray of Valentine's cookies.

My mother baked cookies to add inexpensive merriment to our family's holidays. When my daughter told me what she planned on baking, I asked specifically that she use my mother's heart cutter for some of them and sprinkle those with colored sugar crystals before baking, just as my mom did. Seeing those cookies on the platter brought back a flood of fond memories from my childhood. My daughter never had the chance to meet her grandmother. Yet, 60 some years later, the granddaughter is baking cookies just like her grandmother used to make.

Do you bake Valentine's cookies or make any special treats? 

You Have to See This: More Oven Cleaning (this time the racks)

I got my oven racks so clean, with so little work. This just amazed me. I put both racks into my farmhouse sink (a bathtub would also work for this task), added about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of Great Value automatic dishwashing powder (so, just the cheap stuff), and filled with very hot tap water to just over the highest protrusion from the racks. I left it there while I went to wipe the sides of the oven's interior. Ten minutes later I checked on the racks and could see this. 

Holy smokes! The baked on grime was dissolving from the racks and leaching into the water, without me touching the racks or water in any way. When I saw this, I had to grab my camera and show you. I couldn't believe that the racks were getting cleaned while sitting in the sink.

I went back to the oven to clean up my mess, then move some laundry from the washer to the dryer. About 25 minutes after last checking on the oven racks in the sink, I found this.

The grime was really coming off the racks. I decided to drain the sink and wipe the chrome bars, using an old sock/rag.

This rag was white when I began wiping, by the way. The grime had softened pretty well at this point, and I was able to wipe a lot of it off.

What I couldn't wipe with a rag, I used the green side of a scrubbing sponge. Quite a lot came off with the scrubber. I had an errand to run, so I plugged up the sink and added another 1/2 to 2/3 cup of dish powder and more hot water just to cover the racks. I came back an hour later and used a stiff brush to get the rest of the grime off.

This is how clean I got the racks with very little actual work. (But don't tell my husband this job was so easy!)

My oven is looking so good. I baked part of dinner in it tonight, and not only could I see clearly through the window, but the racks looked almost new, too. 

I can check oven-cleaning off my spring cleaning list. On to the next job.