Frugal This and That

We're in another expensive period. So I thought I'd focus on areas that we are able to save. I can't help that the oven element burned out and the washing machine needs another part. But there are some frugal things that I can do in other areas. So here's where we've been frugal lately.

• I made a quart and a half of eggnog yesterday afternoon, giving away a pint to my son and daughter-in-law.
• I continue to bake cookies for the baking gifts that I'll be giving this Christmas. So far I've made gingerbread men, peppermint swirls, chocolate chip meringues, and today I baked caramel nut bars. Next up, I'll bake some shortbread, using the mold that my daughters gave to me for Christmas last year. Even with the high cost of butter and eggs this year, home-baked goodies are still a budget gift when you know the recipient will enjoy them. (We have several non-bakers in our circle who always appreciate these goodies.)
• We finally had the salvage yard come and tow away our old, old car. It hasn't run for many, many years. Repair work would have been cost-prohibitive. We hung onto it I guess out of nostalgia. The car belonged to my in-laws. My father-in-law passed away in 2019. Even as the car got older, FIL and MIL continued to think of it as the beauty it once was. So we never got rid of  it while they were alive. Then 2020 happened and many of our plans never materialized. We are finally now getting rid of it. And we got paid to have it hauled off! (For anyone wondering, yes, we did try to sell it. No takers.)
• I washed all of the plastic bags and used cling wrap today. I had gotten behind on this task and noticed we were using more and more new cling wrap. Washing the dirty bags means we'll go through less new wrap in the future and delay the purchase of a new roll.
• I baked 3 loaves of sandwich bread to get us through the week.
• I used ChatGPT to give me some suggestions on movies to watch when I was under the weather. I was able to stream several good titles for free and keep myself entertained during those days.
• I moved the "farm" indoors for winter. I brought 3 of the large plastic containers that I started with seeds in late summer into the kitchen and put them under lights. I have 2 radish tubs and 1 watercress tub. Outdoors I still have 1 more each radish and watercress tub. When we finish harvesting everything in these indoor three, I'll move those two inside. I'm hoping to collect seeds from the watercress. They had flowered while outside and are forming seed pods. If I'd left the container outside for very much longer, there's a good chance the seed pods would become moldy from the cold rains. In addition to these indoor greens under lights, I'm growing lentil sprouts on the counter once again. Between the watercress, radish, and sprouts, I can make a decent salad for myself to go with lunch everyday. Sometime in January I'll take a 6 week break from growing veggies.
• I skipped grocery shopping last week and have been making do with what we have on hand.
• I did go get gas for the car and used a 50 cent per gallon reward. I waited until the car was nearly empty so I would get maximum value out of that per gallon reward.
• My husband is repairing the washing machine and the oven himself. That right there is a savings of a couple of hundred dollars for the service call.
• We've eaten all of our meals at or at least from home this month. Both daughters and my husband take their lunches made at home to work. 
• I cleaned out the fridge last week so I could make sure we used everything up before it spoiled, using some beef fat, beef gravy, pumpkin stock, slice of avocado, wilted celery, softening potatoes, wrinkly apples, and eggs well past their expiry.
• We continue to keep the thermostat for the furnace set fairly low, about 65 degrees during the day and 60 at night.

That's about all I can think of right now. How do you handle those unexpected expenses when they just keep coming your way? Does it help you to focus on areas that you have more control?

Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie?

Do you share Christmas cookies with friends and neighbors? This year I'm adding a couple of neighbors and my daughter's boyfriend's family to my cookie list. I also gift a bunch of each type I bake to my son and daughter-in-law.

I bake mostly the same cookies every year. These are cookies that seem 'special" to us because I only make them during the holiday season. But I do prefer cookies that are on the easy side.

This is one such recipe. I modified one of my mother's recipes for chocolate-vanilla swirl cookies, making them peppermint and vanilla just for the holidays. They're so popular with my family that this year I'll be doubling the recipe. Here's the single recipe, in case you're interested.

Peppermint-Vanilla Swirl Cookies

These are a refrigerator cookie. You form the dough into logs or blocks, store the dough in the fridge for a days or two, then slice and bake when convenient to you. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening or butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I use imitation vanilla)
1 tablespoon milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
red gel food coloring
peppermint extract, to taste, about 1/2 teaspoon

an extra teaspoon or two of flour for the red dough to stiffen

Thoroughly cream the butter and sugar.  beat in the egg yolk. Mix in vanilla and milk. Stir in the salt and baking powder, then stir in the flour a cup at a time. The dough should be fairly stiff.

Divide the dough into two portions. 

White dough: Wrap one portion in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate for 2 hours. 

Red dough: with the other portion of dough, mix in enough red gel coloring until you're satisfied with the red. Mix in peppermint extract to taste. Stir in the extra flour until the dough is as stiff as the white dough. Wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Roll each half into a large rectangle about 1/8 to  1/4-inch thick on waxed paper. Square up the edges and make sure both portions of dough are about the same size.

Turn the white half onto the red half (removing the paper) with the red extending about 1/2 inch beyond the white dough at the far end from you. Roll the dough up tightly, jelly roll-style, away from you. Gently seal the edge of dough to the roll. Roll this log in a fresh sheet of waxed paper, twist the ends of paper. Chill thoroughly, overnight is preferable.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Slice the dough into 1/4 inch thickness and place on prepared baking sheet, leaving an inch or two between cookies. Bake for about 12 minutes, until set. Cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet then remove to cooling racks. Yield about 3 to 4 dozen.

You'll notice that this recipe uses a yolk only. I save the white to make a small batch of chocolate- chocolate chip meringue cookies later in the week, using this recipe here.

Yesterday I baked the gingerbread dough (using this recipe) that I mixed and refrigerated on Tuesday. I know some people like to do a huge baking day and get all of the holiday cookies baked at once. I prefer to break the work up into manageable chunks and do a little each day.

Will you be baking any cookies this holiday season? What kinds? Do you have a favorite easy to make Christmas cookie? Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie to eat? Are you a bake-them-all-up-in-one -day or do-a-little-each-day sort of baker?

What it looks like to get beef in bulk directly from a rancher

Our Most Recent Beef Delivery

I know that many here read my posts not necessarily out of desire to do what I do, but instead out of curiosity of what something looks like in someone else's life. Since I know many have not bought meat regularly from a rancher, I thought I'd show you what it looks like for us. 

What this post is not:

This is not an endorsement or sales pitch for the rancher that I contract with, nor is it a pitch to get you to buy your meat from a rancher or small farmer. 

What this post is: 

Showing you what we receive in each order, and how the arrangement works for our family

I was sick last week. Right in the middle of my sneezing fits, sore throat and fatigue, my beef delivery arrived. Like a big girl, I put on some real shoes (but still in my pjs and robe) and dragged the box from the kitchen door to the garage. I then sorted, listed, and marked each individual packet of beef before freezing.

Some points about how this works for us

• I signed up for the least often delivery but with still the lowest price per pound, which is once every 3 months. The rancher appreciates that I'm a regular customer, and he can count on me to purchase a set dollar amount/weight amount on a regular basis.
• The rancher decides what goes into each delivery. There's a good balance of cuts each time. And it's a set amount of weight for every delivery, 30 pounds.
• Our arrangement can be flexible. I can temporarily suspend deliveries, if our family becomes deluged with beef and needs to catch up. I can also request specific cuts or grind. For example, if our family really enjoyed a lot of ground beef, I could specify X-pounds of ground every delivery. Or, if I wanted additional roasts, steaks, or briskets for specific times, I can put in a request for that. Otherwise, I leave it up to the rancher to choose what I will receive. Within that framework, I know that I will never receive any organ meats or too many bony cuts.
• The meat is packed directly out of their freezer and arrives at my house still frozen solid. It's packed in a styrofoam cooler with dry ice. 
• The box is shipped to me. I don't pick it up.
• Each cut of meat is wrapped in butcher's paper, with no plastic, and is clearly marked with what type of cut it is.
• The cuts vary a little each delivery. Sometimes I receive more steaks, other times more roasts.

What we got this past week (totaling about 30 pounds)

• 1 large heal roast
• 1 arm roast
• 1 large rump roast
• 4 sirloin tip steaks
• 2 sirloin steaks
• 2 rib steaks
• 1 porterhouse steak
• 1 New York steak
• 1 large skirt steak
• 1 package fajita meat (about 1 pound)
• 2 packages stew meat (about 1 pound each)
• 9 packages ground beef (about 1 pound each)

In previous deliveries we've received briskets, filets, short ribs,English roasts, and kabob meat in place of some of what we received this time. 

Thirty pounds may sound like a lot of beef. We're a household of 4 adults. As we receive 30 pounds every 3 months, that works out to 10 pounds per month, or 2.5 pounds per adult per month, which is about 2/3 pound per adult per week. But that would only be if we ate all of the beef. We don't. We also share some of the beef with our son and daughter-in-law and other guests. So I guess we each consume closer to about 1/2 pound of beef (meat, bones, and fat) per week. 

How I handle and manage each delivery of beef

• I itemize our delivery on a pad of paper as I unpack the cooler. I consult this list regularly as I plan meals.
• I mark each packet with an initial for the month (in this case a "D" for December) and the year. This way I can ensure I'm using up the oldest packages first.
• Although I have four different freezer spaces, I store all of the meat in just one of those spaces. So after itemizing and marking the packets, I put them all away, still frozen, into the 0 degree F stand alone freezer. By keeping it all together, I can quickly see how we're doing on meat throughout the period, and we don't "lose" any meat in one of the other freezers.

Leftover styrofoam coolers

I'm not thrilled to be amassing styrofoam coolers. But I have been putting them to good use. When we cleaned out the deep freeze this summer, I packed all of the freezer's contents into these coolers to keep it all cold/frozen. I also used one cooler to make my fall floral displays for the wall pockets by the front door, cutting down one cooler to fit the planters, then poking floral picks into the styrofoam slabs. This coming spring, I'll put some of them out on a free pile. I'm sure someone can find good use for clean, good condition coolers. I will hold onto a couple of coolers for my own use, though.

My thoughts on our choice

I'm pleased to be doing a part in keeping a small independent rancher in business as he works to support his family. The quality of the meat is higher than what I was buying in the grocery store. It simply smells better when cooking, and the taste is better. It's more expensive, but that is the tradeoff for making this sort of choice.

So, that's what buying beef in bulk looks like for my family.

Have you ever bought beef directly from a rancher? What was your experience?

Cute Way to Gift a Pair of Socks

We gift simple items like mittens and socks to friends, family, and their kids. Both mittens and socks make inexpensive gifts. A couple of years ago I posted how I turned pairs of mittens and chocolate bars into cute snowmen.

This year I'm turning pairs of socks into cute little "cupcakes." The cupcakes were simple to make, requiring no real skill. I had everything I needed on hand, and they came together quickly. What more could I ask for, right?

What I used:

For each sock cupcake:

• 1 pair of crew length socks (no show would also work, knee highs could be too thick once rolled)
• 1 rubber band
• 1 white paper coffee cup
• scissors, both paper scissors and pinking shears (for the cup's edge)
• a toothpick
• a red pom pom (for a cherry on top)
• hot glue
• ribbon for the cup

optional

• cellophane wrap
• twist tie

How I made them

1-I cut about 1-inch from the top of the coffee cup, then zig-zagged the edge with the pinking shears.

2-I laid the socks out, overlapping the long edge of one onto the other by about 1/4-inch. I then rolled the socks up slightly at an angle to produce a swirl effect. 

3-I used the rubber band to secure the socks, adjusting the swirls as needed. I then popped the pair into the trimmed cup.

4-I made a dot of hot glue on the pom pom and poked a toothpick into it as far as I could get it. I then trimmed the pointy end off the toothpick so it wouldn't damage the socks. 

I poked the pom pom toothpick into the center of the swirl of socks.

5-I added a ribbon bow to the paper cup to make it festive for the occasion, securing the back of the ribbon onto the cup with hot glue.

The gift is basically done at this point. For presentation, I also wrapped my "cupcakes" in cellophane, securing with a gold twist tie. We save cellophane from other gifts and wrappings, so I always have a few pieces on hand. I wrapped the cupcake in a long rectangular piece of cellophane, up and around on both front and back, taping it in place on the backside while the "cupcake" laid on its front.

So easy. Yet it makes a pair of socks as a gift look actually fun!

My Quick and Easy Christmas-y Outdoor Wall Planters

So, if you recall, I filled our wall troughs with autumn floral, greenery, and mini pumpkins in early September. I had stuck a bunch of floral picks into brown spray-painted chunks of styrofoam.

The other day I pulled those blocks of styrofoam out, leaving the floral arrangements intact, and stored them in a dry place until next September. I left the supporting white styrofoam in place in the planters to help support our Christmas arrangements.

Today I took a few minutes to go clip some cedar and fir branches in the yard and gathered some red plastic ornaments, pine cones, and ribbon from my decorating  and craft stash.

I laid the evergreen branches on top of the white styrofoam, arranging a few smaller cedar pieces upright to add a little height, then topped the greens with pinecones and ornaments. Adding a plaid ribbon bow to each was the final touch. I spent less than 30 minutes, including finding everything and cleaning up. And here's how they turned out.

It may be simple, but it adds a little bit of color to the front porch and was my favorite price -- free. 

Later this week, I'll do something similar on the mantel in the family room, using evergreen branches from our yard, pinecones, more plastic ornaments, and some fairy lights that I stretched out on the mantel as part of our fall decor.

Christmas Breakfast Menu from the Late 1800s/Early 1900s

I'm currently putting together our Christmas Day menus and procuring the needed foods. This morning I headed over to Fred Meyer and took advantage of the 97 cent/lb half-ham deal. So I know I have a ham I can work with for brunch and/or dinner.

While poking around on the Internet Archive site (archive.org) the other day, looking for Christmas menus from times past, I came across a gem of a cookbook from over 100 years ago, The White House Cook Book; A Comprehensive Cyclopedia of Information for the Home, by Hugo Ziemann and  Mrs. F. L. Gillette.  The original copyright was from 1887. The publication date from the edition on archive.org was 1913.

This cookbook was written for the general public as both a practical guide to cookery/housewifery and a source of interesting information about White House hospitality during the later 1800s. There are menus for everyday meals, holiday celebrations, and also state occasions. There’s a menu for Gen. Grant’s birthday dinner, Mrs. Cleveland’s Wedding Lunch, and a menu for a 1,000-guest buffet. On the practical side, there are suggestions for teething children, making poultices, and a cure for ringworm.

Would you like to know how to seat 50 people around the table?  Here's what the layout would have looked like at a White House state dinner.

There was in fact a page of Christmas menus.

Here's the Christmas Day Breakfast Menu (found on page 500):

Oranges

Boiled Rice

Broiled Salt Mackerel

Poached Eggs à la Crème  (poached eggs smothered in a warm thin white sauce)

Potato Fillets (sounds a lot like French fries, sliced into 1/4-inch sticks, fried twice, until puffed)

Feather Griddle Cakes  (yeast leavened pancakes)

Wheat Bread

Coffee

My family would probably skip the mackerel and maybe the boiled rice. The pancakes, eggs, potatoes, coffee, and oranges sound nice. Although it sounds to me like a lot of work on Christmas morning. I think I'll keep working on our Christmas day brunch menu.

How about you? Have you begun planning your holiday meals for later this month?

Holiday Tip #2

Well what do you know? The holiday tip list is longer than one item. Ha ha.

Here's the tip:

If you'll be baking a ham for Christmas or New Year's, don't forget that you can use all parts of that ham. This particularly applies to bone-in hams. 

image:https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/glazed_baked_ham/

Four parts of a bone-in ham to make sure you use

1-Obviously, all of the meat is useful as is.

2-Liquid drippings from baking. Drippings are a combination of caramelized meat juices and liquified fat. This liquid makes a delicious gravy, even if you don't plan on using the gravy with the meal for which you baked the ham. The gravy would be wonderful on biscuits or mashed potatoes another day. Like other parts of the ham, the drippings can be frozen until needed.

3-Ham bones make delicious, flavorful stock. I like to oven-roast the bone after just about all of the meat has been picked off of it.  I place the bone on a baking sheet with raised edges and roast at about 375 degrees F for 20 minutes. Then I place the bone into water and simmer for several hours. The baking sheet may have some fat on it from roasting the bone. I pour that off into a container and save it in the fridge to use in cooking. Once the bone has simmered in the water for a few hours, I remove it from the heat, cool and pick the remaining meat off to use in soup, pouring the stock into freezer containers. 

Most folks dispose of the bone at this point. However, there is such a thing as "second stock," where the now-spent bone is simmered with vegetables and herbs in fresh water, extracting the last bits of flavor and nutrients (such as collagen). Second stock can be used as liquid in soups and stews, or as cooking liquid for vegetable dishes (where ever you might splash a bit of water). Second stock can also be used to dilute and stretch a first-run batch of stock when making soup.

Ham stock is really great in split pea and navy bean soups, as well as to make a nice binding sauce for casseroles when combined with some milk, flour, and seasonings. If you can't make the stock the same week that you bake the ham, wrap the bone in foil and/or plastic and toss it in the freezer to do later.

4-And finally, all of the fat on the ham can be rendered to be used in cooking later. I store our rendered ham fat in the freezer and chop off a bit as needed when cooking. 

To render the fat from a ham, dice the ham fat into 1/4-inch dices. It doesn't matter if there's a little bit of meat on the fat. Dice it all. In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the fat dices over low, stirring occasionally. The fat will liquify slowly. When the fat is just about all rendered, you will have both liquid fat and small, dark and crispy bits, known as the cracklings. Cracklings are tasty for topping bowls of soup, fresh salads, added to cornbread or biscuit dough, or topping creamy pasta dishes, adding flavor much like bacon bits. Any cracklings that I'm not using right away I store in the freezer. Also, if you don't think you'll get to rendering ham fat in a timely manner, you can cut off and freeze the pieces of fat until a day that you do have time for rendering. 

We use ham fat for sautéing veggies, cooking egg dishes, and pan or oven-frying. If the ham fat seems to have too over-powering of a taste for a particular dish, I dilute it with part vegetable oil for that dish.

Years ago I posted about rendering ham fat for use in cooking later. See this post. I get many clicks on this post during the holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Years. So I thought some of you might also be interested in these how-to's.

I feel that using as much of a meat product as possible not only saves some money, but it's also a respectful thing to do for the animal used for cooking, and it spares other foods in the chain for the global population. *stepping off my soap box now*

I was at WinCo this morning. Their hams are priced at $1.89 for a butt portion bone-in ham. Fred Meyer has bone-in hams on sale this week for 97 cents/ lb with a $25 purchase. If I can think of $25 worth of food or household goods to buy at Fred Meyer, that may be the way to go. Will you be baking a ham this holiday season?

What Was in My Grocery Cart for November 2024?

Nov 4  I did my shopping at Walmart this week. I bought a pint of whipping cream, head of cabbage, bunch of bananas, 1 can of apple juice concentrate (for making spice cider on Thanksgiving, mixing in some crabapple juice and a sliced tangerine), 4 packs turkey snack sticks, 2 3-lb boxes elbow macaroni, 1 gallon milk, 2 2-lb bags powdered sugar. Spent $34.62

Nov 10  Fred Meyer after church for instant decaf coffee. We also got 1 bagged salad for free with coupon, and 2 bags of tortilla chips. Spent $10.47 

Nov 17 My husband and I stopped at Fred Meyer after church for milk While there we also checked the clearance aisle. I bought 1 marked down jar of coconut curry sauce (my husband wanted this -- it'll make an easy meal), 4 dented cans of green beans, 5 large cans of mixed nuts (no idea why these were marked down, but they were a steal), and a bunch of bananas. Spent $34.11

Nov 18 My daughter was near WinCo in the AM, so she stopped in and picked up some apples for us. spent $4.

Nov 23 My big shopping for the month at WinCo. 10-lb bag of all-purpose flour, 5-lb bag bread flour, 10-lb bag potatoes, 1 acorn squash, turkey breakfast sausage, 1 lb sliced pepperoni (for pizzas), natural peanut butter, salt, frozen fish sticks, mayonnaise, 5 lbs carrots, 8 lbs butter, dried dates, 2-pack pork sirloin roasts, celery, bananas, mushrooms, tangerines, apples. Spent $97.88

Nov 25  I needed to get just a couple of last things for Thanksgiving Day. First I stopped at Grocery Outlet 12 oz frozen sausage (for stuffing), 12 oz bacon. Spent $5.49 at GO. Across the street, Walmart 2 packs turkey snack sticks, 1 canister onion powder. Spent $8.44 at Walmart.

My total in person spending for November was $195.01. Eek! That's a little more than I'd planned. We also paid for our next batch of beef this month, even though we won't receive it until December. That cost $359.00 So, my total spending for groceries in November came to $554.01. December's spending will be a lot lower, even with Christmas and New Year's to shop for, simply because December won't be a beef month for the budget.

What I bought:

fresh, frozen and canned produce

head of cabbage

3 bunches of bananas

bagged salad mix

several pounds of apples

10 lbs potatoes

celery

bag of tangerines

fresh mushrooms

5 lbs carrots

acorn squash

frozen apple juice concentrate

4 cans green beans

dairy

pint whipping cream

2 gallons milk

8 lbs butter

meat

6 packs turkey snack sticks

turkey breakfast sausage

sliced pepperoni

fish sticks (for busy days, cheaper than fast food for a family)

2 sirloin pork roasts (for smoking)

pork sausage

pork bacon

large order of beef

pantry foods

6 lbs dried pasta

4 lbs powdered sugar

jar of instant decaf coffee

2 bags tortilla chips 

jar coconut curry sauce

5 large cans mixed nuts

10 lbs all-purpose flour

5 lbs bread flour

mayonnaise

dates

small jar onion powder

from the bulk section

natural peanut butter

salt

This was a very heavy meat purchasing month. Not only did we pay for our next batch of beef, but I also bought a few pounds of pork, lots of sausage (for Thanksgiving sausage and for daily breakfasts), and enough pepperoni for 5 pizzas. The turkey snack sticks add up. But I'm willing to buy them because they make a healthier snack than carb-heavy cookies, cakes, and breads. 

I also stocked up on butter this month, adding to the stash each time I found it on sale. I now have about 20 lbs of butter in the freezer. If it's still at it's lower price of $3.48/lb later this week, I may buy another few pounds, enough to get us through all of the holiday baking and tide us over till Easter sales. 

There are some foods we could do without (like the tortilla chips). However, a little fun food goes a long way in keeping spirits upbeat. For example, I used almost one entire bag of tortilla chips to make beef and bean nachos one night for dinner. I was using up some of the last of the garden tomatoes and green onions in this meal, too. My family loved having nachos as the dinner that night.

I didn't buy a whole lot specifically for Thanksgiving, as I've mentioned before. I figure I save quite a bit by cooking so much from scratch for this holiday. As Thanksgiving is "just" a meal holiday in preparations (as opposed to gift-giving with birthdays, Christmas, and other holidays), I can find the time to cook for a week leading up to the big meal.

That wraps up November. How did you fare with grocery shopping this past month? How much butter is too much to keep on hand in your household?

Holiday Tip # 1

I have no idea how many holiday tips I'll offer this season. Could be this becomes a list of one. I guess I'll keep count now that I've begun numbering them. Anyway, here's my first tip for the holiday season:

Pumpkin-Spice Eggnog made with frozen, then thawed eggnog

If you buy or make more eggnog than your household can consume before it spoils (or you lose interest), you can indeed freeze it now and thaw it later for drinking (or cooking/baking). And it will keep at 0 degrees F for apparently a long time (a couple of years or possibly more).

The date on this container simply says 2022. I'm guessing this was late in the year 2022, like December, and not early in the year, like January. So, let's say this is 2 years old.

I thawed it overnight in the fridge the other day. When I took the lid off, it looked like this, a little separation going on.

However, when I poured it into a jar so I could use the immersion blender on it, it seemed to reconstitute itself. So the separation issues may have not been serious ones, and this may have been drinkable without using a blender.

But, I did blend it all together, restoring its smooth, creamy consistency. I also added a good dollop of homemade pumpkin butter, transforming plain eggnog into Pumpkin-Spice Eggnog.

I could only taste a tiny bit, dipping a spoon into the 'nog and licking it, due to sensitive digestive issues with cow's milk. But I thought it was very delicious. And my two daughters completely agreed. (My husband is not a fan of pumpkin-spice as a flavor and wouldn't even taste this.)

In my family, we rarely go through more than a pint or pint and a half of eggnog in a week. We enjoy it, but it is very rich. So we drink this beloved Christmas beverage in small cups. Whether I make my own or buy eggnog, I find it best to freeze leftovers in pint containers, which is what I have done here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The pork roast just before it went into the smoker. It smelled so wonderful when it was done smoking. I won't know until tomorrow if it tastes as good as it smells. And after using the smoker, I got it all cleaned up for winter storage. 

The cherry pie. I am so looking forward to having some of this pie. Cherry pie is one of my favorites. I still have the pumpkin pie to bake. I'll do that first ting in the morning. I prefer a freshly-baked pumpkin pie over one baked a day or two early. I don't like a soggy bottom crust. 

I also have to roast the chicken. It's rubbed all over with an herb butter and waiting in the fridge to roast tomorrow. And I'll make a gravy with the drippings afterward. The rest of the meal will be cooking preassembled casseroles or reheating menu items that are fully cooked. It looks like I'm almost done with the prep. I hope all of your holiday work is about done now, too.

Wishing you all a lovely and festive Thanksgiving!

Is this year's Thanksgiving dinner frugal?

I made pie pastry and both fillings today. I'll fill the pie shells and bake tomorrow.

A recent survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation indicates that the average cost per person for Thanksgiving dinner this year is roughly $5.80, which while lower than 2023 or 2022 (which were the peak cost per person for Thanksgiving meals in the USA of all time), is about 19% higher than 2019. So, if your Thanksgiving dinner cost feels high to you, that's because it still is. Only time will tell if the next 4 years see a dramatic decrease in grocery prices.

As for me and my family, here's how I've made our Thanksgiving dinner as frugal as I could. I posted my menu yesterday. I'll repost so you don't have to look it up.

Roast chicken with sage-tangerine glaze

Smoked pork roast

Bread, sage, onion, celery, sausage dressing

Mashed root vegetables

Green bean casserole

Sweet potato casserole

Carrot, celery, olive tray

Garden greens (kale, radish greens) and dried plum salad in sweet and tangy dressing

Gravy

Cranberry relish

Pumpkin Pie 

Cherry pie

Whipped cream

Sparkling cider and sparkling water

The whole chicken was one I bought in summer and has been sitting in our deep freeze since. The glaze is made from garden sage, home-canned crabapple jelly, and the zest and juice from 1 tangerine (bought the other day at WinCo).

While at WinCo, I found a 2-pack of pork sirloin boneless roasts marked down for quick sale, for about $2.20/lb. That's a great price for boneless pork roasts these days in my area. I'll make a rub from garden herbs, garden garlic and some spices. Tomorrow, I'll smoke the roast in my Mother's Day gift smoker.

The stuffing/dressing will be made with homemade bread, homemade chicken stock from the freezer, garden celery, garden sage, onion, and sausage bought at Grocery Outlet (salvage store) on Monday.

The mashed root vegetables are made from WinCo russet potatoes, garden turnips, garden garlic, onions, and carrots. The purchased veggies are budget ones.

The green bean casserole contains 4 dented and clearance-price cans of green beans (Fred Meyer), homemade cream of mushroom soup concentrate, and homemade onion-bread crumb topping. 

The sweet potato casserole is made from 2 clearance shelf cans of yams that I had in the pantry (Walmart, bought a year ago), clearance pecans from 2021 stored in the freezer, eggs, spices, homemade brown sugar, and butter.

The vegetable and olive tray is made from all store-bought ingredients. However, I had the can of olives in the pantry. Olives are very expensive these days. If I had to buy them right now, I would just skip them.

The salad uses homegrown greens and homegrown plums, with a dressing of homemade herb vinegar, olive oil, salt, and homemade crabapple jelly.

Gravy is made from the roast chicken drippings, flour, and homemade chicken stock from the freezer.

My son and daughter-in-law are bringing the cranberry relish.

The pumpkin pie will use home-cooked carving pumpkin, eggs, homemade brown sugar, spices, soy milk (so I can eat some, too) and homemade crust.

The cherry pie will contain our tree's cherries frozen from last summer, sugar, lemon juice,, almond extra, and homemade crust.

I bought the whipping cream a few weeks ago at Walmart. I'll use part to top pies and part to make more eggnog in early December.

The sparkling cider was a gift from my daughter's boyfriend a few weeks ago. (He came to dinner one night and brought 2 bottles. We drank one. He offered us the other to use on Thanksgiving.)

The canned sparkling water was leftover from our 4th of July gathering.

That explains what is going into everything we're having for Thanksgiving dinner. Here's what I actually bought specifically for Thanksgiving (even if we'll be using the leftovers for other meals):

• 2 lbs tangerines -- $2.88
• pork roast -- about $3.10
• bundle of celery -- 98 cents
• frozen sausage -- $1.99
• 10 lb bag russet potatoes -- $3.48
• 5 lb bag of carrots -- $3.48
• 4 cans green beans -- 45 cents ea, total $1.80
• fresh mushrooms -- $1.98
• onion powder -- $1.00
• pint whipping cream -- $3.37

Our total additional cost for Thanksgiving dinner is $24.06. The other foods used in the meal were purchased over time, intended for everyday meals. We would have to eat anyways on Thursday. So I don't figure those into the added cost of hosting a holiday meal.

I bought foods on clearance as I saw them throughout the seasons (canned yams, canned green beans, pork roast, pecans). I made my own products to substitute for commercial convenience products (canned soup, onion topping, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, salad dressing, homemade bread). Some of the newly bought foods are "budget foods," such as the carrots, potatoes, and celery. I shopped at "budget stores" like Grocery Outlet, WinCo, and Walmart. Some of our dishes will contain homegrown fruit and vegetables. However, the bulk of what I've used to make this meal were purchased. I don't think a person needs to keep a garden to do Thanksgiving frugally. The right menu selections combined with smart shopping and using what's on hand can produce a very yummy, budget celebratory meal. 

In answer to my question, I think for a holiday dinner, especially one where we're hosting guests, this year's Thanksgiving will be somewhat frugal while still being tasty and festive. 

Work today so I can enjoy Thanksgiving with everyone else

I'm guessing that a fair number of you friends are either on the road to family or busy getting Thanksgiving preparations underway. I'm busy getting things done to host Thanksgiving at our house.

Last week I made up a list of work to be done with a calendar for when to do each task, beginning with tasks for Saturday. On Saturday I finalized the menu, went grocery shopping for everything we'd need, and made sure everyone knew how they would participate in the preparations.

Sunday was a day of rest.

Today, Monday, I finalized the menu again in the morning, then went shopping for the other items we'd need for our meal. Both daughters were home in the afternoon, so we made a lot of progress on our work list. We got the guest bathroom cleaned, all of the downstairs vacuumed, the dining room table set, the Christmas tree out and set up (we decorate after Thanksgiving dinner), the trunks of ornaments brought downstairs, the meat out of the freezer, a loaf of French bread baked for the stuffing, and a batch of no-milk condensed cream of mushroom soup made for a casserole. Oh, and I finalized the menu again later in the day. I also made beef stew for dinner and a batch of coconut-almond bar cookies so I could lick the bowl as my appetizer for lunch.

So far, this is the "final" menu

Roast chicken with tangerine-sage glaze

Smoked pork roast

Bread, sage, onion, celery, and sausage dressing/stuffing

Mashed root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, turnips, browned onion and garlic)

Green bean casserole

Sweet potato casserole

Carrot, celery, olive tray

Garden greens (kale, radish greens) and dried plum salad in sweet and tangy dressing

Gravy

Cranberry relish

Pumpkin Pie 

Cherry Pie

Whipped Cream

Sparkling cider and sparkling water

It sounds like a lot, I know. I do like to send our guests home with leftovers. And I like to have variety. We have folks with very different dietary preferences, and I aim to please if I can.

Tomorrow is another day of preparations. I'll be up early getting work underway. Wishing you well as you travel or prepare for your holiday.

Pumpkin Spice-Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies and how to modify recipes using home-cooked pumpkin

With clouds and rain returning this afternoon and Thanksgiving just around the corner, today seemed like a great day to bake an easy pumpkin treat. These are a soft cake-like bar cookie. What I love about cake-like cookies is they often have less sugar and butter. This recipe uses just 1/4 cup of butter and 2/3 cup of sugar. As a bonus, they have one whole cup of pumpkin puree, which means we all get a little bit more nutrition in our cookie. If the recipe below looks remotely familiar, that's because I modified the applesauce-raisin bar cookies I opted about last month to use pumpkin puree and chocolate chips (plus a wee bit more spice). Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice-Chocolate Chip Bars

¼ cup butter or margarine, softened

⅔ cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup pumpkin puree (use slightly less by 1 tablespoon if using thick or canned pumpkin)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 ¼ to 1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or any combination of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg to equal the amount)

¾ cup chocolate chips (I use mini chips, but regular chocolate chips or chocolate chunks would also be good)

confectioners' sugar, about 1 tablespoon for dusting after baking

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Grease a 9X13 inch baking pan. (I use a Pyrex one.)

In a medium bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Beat in egg, then pumpkin puree. Stir in salt, spices, and baking soda. Stir in flour and chocolate chips.

Spread in the prepared baking pan. Bake for about 25 minutes, until done in the center and edges are golden.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Dust with the confectioners' sugar and cut into 24 squares.

(My husband 's comment,"these aren't going to last long." I think they're a hit.)

Home-cooked pumpkin puree and recipes that assume you're using canned pumpkin

This was a question from Kris in the comments the other day. I realize that many folks don't have time to follow the comments and then follow-up on answers to questions there. So, I thought I'd post about how to handle the often times, more watery consistency of home-cooked pumpkin compared to canned in baking recipes.

You have a couple of choices in how to compensate for the less thick home-cooked puree. 

1) Dump your puree into a mesh strainer set over a bowl and leave it to strain in the fridge overnight. 

2) Cook the puree down in a saucepan, stirring frequently, until of comparable thickness to canned pumpkin. 

3) Bake your puree in a metal baking pan in a 300 degree oven for about 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes, bringing puree from the sides into the center and vice versa.

4) Adjust the liquids or dry ingredients when baking. 

For recipes that include other liquids (such as pie, cakes, muffins), reduce the other liquid by 1 to 2 tablespoons, amount depending on how much liquid the recipe calls for. So, for pie I reduce the milk/cream by 2 tablespoons. With muffins, I often reduce by about 1 tablespoon. With pancakes, I reduce the liquid judging by the thickness of the batter. I can eyeball how thick a pancake batter needs to be.

With recipes that don't include other liquids, such as drop cookies, I add 1 extra tablespoon of flour to the cookie dough.

Decreasing the liquid or increasing the flour seems to work well for me, although I do strain off excess liquid after pureeing just before packing in freezer containers.

Can you use carving pumpkins for food?

This pumpkin -- 13.66 lbs, 33 cents/lb, total cost $4.51.

These pumpkins are referred to as "carving pumpkins," Jack-o'-lanterns, or field pumpkins. They're inexpensive in stores because they are easy to grow given the right conditions. They need space,  full sunlight, warm summers, and long growing seasons, all things my own yard lacks. Anyway, their variety tends to be stringier and more watery than those labeled "pie pumpkins." Despite that, for the price, they're a great food for use in recipes.

Cooking

This is the first of two carving pumpkins that I bought this year. On Monday, I used the skin-on, stove-top cooking technique for this one. 

I halved the pumpkin and scooped out the seeds, then cut the flesh with the skin of the pumpkin still on into 1-inch wides strips, omitting the stem and the blossom end. I used as much of the pumpkin as I could, including using the flesh just under the stem, and only cutting away a tiny amount of the pumpkin to remove the scar of the blossom end. I should back up just a tad. When I bought the pumpkin, I looked for one with minimal scarring on the skin. I generally trim away scars, as they don't puree as smoothly as the rest of the skin.

Okay, back to cooking the beast. I cooked the pumpkin in two large batches in a medium stockpot. I added about 1 cup of water to the pumpkin slices at the start of cooking, just to get things going. I brought the pot to a boil, reduced to a simmer, and covered, cooking until the skins were so soft I could cut them with the edge of a spoon, about 40 minutes. I stirred the pieces from time to time, when I thought about it. This wasn't a super hands-on job to perform.

Once well-cooked, I removed the lid from the pot and continued cooking for about 20 minutes longer to reduce the liquid. After that, I removed the pot from the heat and allowed the pumpkin to cool for an hour. 

At that point I pureed it in the food processor, straining it in a mesh strainer in batches. The strained out liquid was reserved in containers to use a soup stock and as liquid in smoothies or baking.

The final result was about 8 1/2 pints of pumpkin puree, 

1 1/2 quarts of pumpkin stock, 

and about 1 cup of seeds for roasting and snacking. Disregarding the value of the stock and the seeds, my pumpkin puree works out to be about 53 cents per pint, less than half the price of pumpkin puree in my grocery store. Admittedly, home-cooked pumpkin puree is more watery than commercially-cooked puree. So this isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison.  Still, if I could reduce the liquid content of my puree to that of store-bought, I believe home-cooked would be considerably less expensive than buying pumpkin puree.

We use pureed pumpkin in numerous ways, in smoothies, in baking and pancake/waffle making, in soups and sauces, and most recently, in quiche. I use the stock in soup and as liquid in smoothies. And of course, we enjoy the seeds roasted and salted. I find inexpensive carving pumpkins to be a great food source for tight budgets, full of vitamins, minerals, protein, complex carbs, and fiber.

I have one remaining large pumpkin to cook. That one is over 15 pounds. I expect it will yield about 9 pints of puree. 

Electricity and Internet Outage

Hi friends,

We had an electricity and internet outage from last night just after dinner until this morning around 9 AM. Both are now restored. I'll be back this afternoon with the post I was working on then. Have a great rest of your day. 🌞