Orange-spice tea for a penny per teacup

 

I still have a nice supply of good tea, from my husband's generous gift last Christmas. However, I've been fancying a cup of orange and spice flavored black tea, reminiscent of Constant Comment, if you're familiar with that tea. Here in the Seattle area, there's also the well-known Market Spice tea, I believe named for the Pike Place Market. Anyway, it's a nice orange, spice and black tea blend, perfect for a chilly autumn afternoon.

In the Northern Hemisphere, we are about to enter the fresh orange season. Oranges may be available year round, but in late fall and early winter I often find them at rock bottom prices. If you remember, I use my orange peels extensively. I infuse vinegar with the peels. I make candied orange peel in sugar syrup. And I zest the oranges (using a veg peeler and my food processor), to save in the freezer for baking and tea.

Our limited grocery budget now means that my afternoon tea has to either come from my current supply, or be cheap, cheap, cheap! Here's my version of orange-spice tea, using dollar store black tea, orange zest, ground cloves and cinnamon and a bit of sugar.


In a small teapot (about 10 oz.), I infuse about 1/2 teaspoon of frozen orange zest in a full pot (10 oz) of water. I do this by microwaving the water and orange zest for about 1 minute 20 seconds. The orange zest is slower to infuse than tea, so I give it this first infusion.

Next, I add 1 cheapo black tea bag and a tiny pinch of ground cloves, plus 1 slightly larger, but still tiny, pinch of ground cinnamon. I microwave this infusion for about 40 seconds, and allow to steep for a minute or two.

I add a bit of sweetening (sugar, stevia or honey), and reheat my infusion, as needed. I have 2 lovely teacups of orange-spice black tea, for the cost of a cheap bag of black tea, a penny's worth of sugar and spices, and the zest of an orange that I might otherwise consider as garbage.


You can bet that this year, of all years, I'll be making the most of every last orange peel that comes my way. I still have a small amount of zest and candied orange peel in the freezer from last year, but that supply is going fast. I used some of the orange zest in a batch of cookies this past weekend, along with chopped dried cherries, pecan pieces, nutmeg and chocolate chips. Oooh yum! I'm glad that it's cookie baking season again!

Early autumn menus on $170/month for a family of 5

So far, so good, with keeping the grocery budget around $170 per month. Time will tell when the garden is put to bed for the winter, as to whether or not we can continue spending this amount on groceries.

Early autumn for us is late September through mid October. I've listed our dinner menus for this time period.

Upon returning from our vacation, I jumped right into my busy season. So, you will find repetition in some of the meals (I made double and triple batches of many main dishes, for easy cooking on busy nights).

As with August meals, we continued in September with many vegetarian dinners. In early October I roasted our last turkey, purchased last November for about 30 cents per pound. The leftover turkey was frozen in ready to use family-size portions, to be used throughout October and into early November.

The autumn garden is producing kale, broccoli, Swiss chard, mustard greens, sugar snap peas, beets, potatoes, pumpkins and carrots. Our cranberries, late pears and apples are now harvested. The crabapples will be harvested this coming weekend. Homegrown produce is now supplemented with some canned tomatoes and produce stand deals. I have been stopping by the produce stand about once a week, finding bell peppers, hot peppers, cantaloupe and corn on the cob, for very good prices.

Here's what we've been eating:

Monday

lentil curry (make double to freeze) with brown rice
sliced pears from our trees

Tuesday

black bean, tomato, bell pepper salad
corn on the cob (fantastic deal at the produce stand 7/$1)
French bread

Wednesday

veggie chili (make super large batch for later in week)
corn on the cob
garden salad
French bread (leftover)

Thursday (babysitting day -- easy dinner)

leftover lentil curry with brown rice
sauteed garden kale and onions

Friday

roast turkey (last one from the freezer), gravy
roasted garden potatoes and onions
mashed garden pumpkin
bread and butter

Saturday

leftover turkey in gravy on homemade buns (make double batch of buns)
grilled onions
cantaloupe
garden zucchini pickles

Sunday

turkey in homemade BBQ sauce on buns
cantaloupe
garden tomato and basil salad

Monday

turkey teriyaki with garden kale and broccoli
brown rice

Tuesday

Italian lentil-vegetable-sausage soup (make large batch)
sourdough biscuits
cookies and pears

Wednesday

leftover lentil soup
mashed winter squash
pizza (make an extra pizza for freezer)

Thursday (babysitting day -- easy dinner)

baked beans
Yorkshire pudding wedges
sauteed garden kale and onions
sliced pears (from our trees), smothered with almond custard and topped with cherry preserves (I finally got my appetite back on this day -- can you tell?)

Friday

night out with daughters for the girls, leftover soup and garlic bread for the guys

Saturday

homemade pasta (fettuccini), with sauteed garden tomatoes (the last), garden zucchini, onions, and some of big batch pasta sauce (made several containers for the freezer), topped with cheese
cantaloupe (twice this month I found a deal on cantaloupe -- 50 cents each)

Sunday

turkey pot pie (leftover turkey in gravy, onions, sage, parsley, chard, carrots, potatoes, green beans, topped with pastry crust)
mashed garden pumpkin
cranberry sauce (with homegrown cranberries, picked this day)

Monday

clean-out-the-freezer casserole (rice, tomatoes, cooked lentils, turkey stock, chives, chopped onions, tomato paste, pizza sauce, combined, then topped with bread crumbs mixed with herbs and grated cheese)
cantaloupe

Tuesday

split pea soup
sourdough biscuits
cantaloupe
cookies

Wednesday

teriyaki turkey (from freezer) with garden broccoli and kale
brown rice
apple salad (apples, chopped dried fruit, nuts in a fruity dressing)

Thursday (babysitting day -- easy dinner)

homemade pizza from the freezer
tomato-basil soup (made with canned tomato paste, fresh basil, onions, lemon juice, salt, water)
cantaloupe

Friday

leftover turkey in gravy from the freezer, with leftover cranberry sauce
stovetop stuffing (made with bread bits and pieces in freezer, turkey stock, onions, butter and sage)
sauteed garden Swiss chard and garlic
pumpkin pie

Saturday

homemade pasta (it was so good the other Saturday that we want it again, and the kids help a lot with it) with sauce and turkey Italian sausage from freezer
garden veggie medley (whatever is left in the garden) with onions and garlic
leftover pumpkin pie

Sunday (quick and easy dinner)

scrambled eggs
pancakes
sliced pears


Breakfasts have consisted of protein shakes (for the daughter trying to gain weight), toast, pancakes, muffins, cinnamon buns, oatmeal, granola, and yogurt. To-go lunches have had a combination of a sandwich (peanut butter and jam or vegetarian bean spread), a container of soup, a piece of fruit, a container of rhubarb sauce, applesauce or pear sauce, a muffin, bag of popped corn, and/or cookies. Weekend lunches have often been leftover soup, fried rice, or toasted cheese sandwiches. I am working on planning my own weekday lunches. Without a plan, I tend towards a series of snacks, and no real lunch. But I'm working on that.

With cooler weather, we are eating more soups and chili, and fewer salads. I like keeping a large container of homemade tomato soup in the fridge. It makes a delicious and warming quick bite to eat for anyone who is hungry, and also can be packed into microwaveable containers for to-go lunches.

You can see, we eat a lot of basic, humble meals. I really haven't the time or energy to do gourmet-ish meals. And that suits us just fine.

Humble cooking -- that's what's for dinner.