Pancake Squares

Oh my goodness! I think I've really ventured out into the territory of laziest mom of the year, with this one. But it worked!

I love the idea of pancakes for dinner on a busy evening. But what about when you don't even have the time to flip pancakes on the griddle. I had a meeting to get ready for and go to on Thursday evening. I thought about leaving the batter and griddle, hot and letting everyone make their own, as they came in the house. However, the last person to come home, sometimes doesn't even walk through that door until 8 or 8:30. I didn't want to leave pancake batter out on the counter for 2 hours, and the griddle going the whole time. So, while I got ready, the pancakes cooked themselves, and they didn't need flipping. How's that for efficiency? They tasted great, everyone had their share, and I was able to make dinner with less hands-on time.

• jelly roll sheet pan, with raised edges
• oven at 375 degrees F
• 2 tablespoons oil and butter combined, for best flavor, for ease you can just use 2 T oil
• pancake batter that uses about 2 cups of flour, total, enough to make pancakes for 5 adults

Have your batter ready to go. Once the baking sheet and oven are hot, you want to pour/spread it all in the pan, quickly. If you are baking pancakes for more than 5 or 6 people, you'll want to use 2 jelly roll pans, to ensure the cakes are not too thick.

Begin to preheat the oven to 375, with the pan and butter/oil in the oven. When oven is hot enough, the pan will be, too.

Take the jelly roll pan out of the oven, once hot, and use a metal spatula to spread the oil and butter over all of the bottom of the pan. Pour the batter into the pan, spread as needed. (It doesn't need to come all the way to the edge of the pan, but close to it.)

Return to hot oven and bake for 15-18 minutes or until baked all the way through. Cut into squares and serve.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Early January

Tuesday's Quick and Easy Dinner

I'm taking shortcuts, where I can and enlisting help from family, each week. I'm busy with other pursuits for the time being. Besides, it was time for a break from intensive meal preparations, ongoing since 1987.

Friday

• lentil, vegetable and ham soup
• pumpkin muffins with cream cheese

Saturday
My husband cooked dinner for us tonight. He doesn't cook very often, but has agreed to help out once per week, for the time being. He did a good job, too.

• rice and lentils
• carrot and celery sticks, with Bleu Cheese dressing as dip
• cranberry, pecan and oatmeal cookies that I baked earlier

Sunday

• chicken, black beans and vegetables, over
• brown rice
• steamed broccoli
• cookies

Pumpkin, Ham and Sage Cream Sauce for Pasta

Monday
I usually make this dish with sausage. Ham was what I had, so ham it was. And it was still yummy. This is an excellent pasta sauce for an alternative to traditional tomato or cheese-based sauces.

• pumpkin, ham and sage cream sauce, over
• whole wheat penne pasta
• tangerines
• cookies

Tuesday

• chicken fried rice with veggies (chicken leftover from the legs on Sunday, rice leftover from Sunday's dinner, too -- relatively quick to prepare)
• grilled canned pineapple slices
• cookies

Wednesday

Last Friday, I made double the amount needed for dinner that night. I froze half for use tonight, Wednesday. I'll be doing this every week, for my current menu plan (next 8 weeks). Wednesday is one of 3 easy nights per week for me, now. Okay, who am I kidding, they're all easy nights, these days!!

• leftover lentil and vegetable soup
• leftover pumpkin muffins and cream cheese
• rhubarb-blackberry sauce (from end of summer, and in freezer)

Thursday

I have a meeting tonight, so it shall be a quick and easy meal -- breakfast for dinner.

• turkey bacon (bought on markdown 2 weeks ago and kept in freezer)
• pancakes
• stewed prunes (prunes from the freezer, last summer's harvest)

So far, I've only made a couple of adjustments to the meal plan that I made at the beginning of the year. I substituted canned pineapple for the blackberry-rhubarb sauce, on Tuesday, as the sauce wasn't thawed completely, yet, and I thought grilled pineapple would go well with the Asian inspired dish. And I served steamed broccoli on Sunday, in place of canned green beans. Something fresh is nice in a winter of canned vegetables.

Cooking is going well. I get enough of a break from preparing dinners on several nights per week, that when I do have to cook the full deal in the afternoon, it's not such a burden. And none of the changes that I've made are costing us anything extra.

How was your week? Anything special on your menu this past week? Who else does breakfast for dinner on a regular basis? What do you serve besides pancakes or waffles, when you make breakfast for an evening meal?

Have a wonderful weekend, all!

Financial Responsibility of My Adult Kids Living at Home

We are living in a generation of young adults still living with their parents. For many of these YA's, it's a matter of necessity, either familial/social structure or financial.

Sometimes, a young person has a schedule that is adaptable enough to help an aging or ill parent, by living at home. Other times, the social structure of a family is welcome to a YA, as marriage is increasingly delayed in this generation.

Mostly, though, the need is financial. A young person might be trying to launch a non-traditional career. (I know a young man who is trying to get his music career off the ground, and lives at home with his parents.)

Or, a young person might be paying off hefty student loans, while still in the early years of a career. (I know a married couple that had to move back in with her parents, to help them pay off combined student loan debt.)

And if your young adult is living in a large metropolitan area, rents can exceed a young person's ability to earn.

I looked into rents for my 2 daughters, near their campus in the city of Seattle. These are not fancy-schmancy apartments. I first checked 2-bedroom units, knowing they might want a private and quiet spot for studying, each. At $1300 and up per month, that was out of the question for us. I checked the 1-bedroom apartments. This would be moderately doable. Not ideal, but okay. The 1-bedroom units that I found began at $1100 per month. So, I was curious. What about studio apartments, in someone's basement, or above their garage? I found a studio apartment, attached to someone's home, for $1000 per month.

We're not talking luxury, here. These are bare bones, just starting out apartments. Many are in sketchy neighborhoods. Heat and electricity is extra. A lot of young adults, just starting out can't afford rent in the city.

Young adults still living in their childhood homes, aren't all lazy bums, sitting on their parents' couch all day, eating Cheetos and playing video games. There are some real reasons for these YA's to need to bunk in with Mom and Dad, well past the age when we would have felt that was acceptable for us, at their age.

So, how is a parent suppose to financially treat their 20-something kids living under their roof? This is what we've chosen with our own grown kids.

To Pay Rent or Not Pay Rent

My son has a stable career, now. He lives at home with us. He benefits from both financial and social/familial support in our house. He is saving to buy his own place, in the area. I would imagine he will be ready for that step, soon. In the meantime, he's been paying us rent since he landed his first career position after university. This is expected of him, not for us, his parents, but as part of being a responsible adult. He pays all of his own bills, otherwise, such as his car and insurance, any incidentals he may need, etc. He even goes on his own vacations, now.

Our daughters are still in college, full time. They work, full time in summers and part time during the academic year, depending on their course load for each quarter. They don't pay "rent" per se. However, they each give us the majority of their summer's earnings, every year, which is put into their university fund.

We, their parents, provide room and board, all school-related expenses, including bus to/from campus, family vacations, and many incidentals, such as laundry soap, shampoo, school supplies, admission to academic-related events and shows.

But they pick up the tab for clothing, cosmetics, hair cuts, movies out, gifts for others, transportation to non-school events, and food other than what I provide at home or family dinner's out. They haven't received an allowance since they turned 18.

Yeah, it's a hard reality. You celebrate your 18th birthday, and suddenly you have to foot the bill for all of the fun stuff in a young person's life.

After they graduate, they will be welcome to continue living with us, here, as they embark upon their career journeys. But they will be charged rent, as their brother has been, scaled to whatever they can earn in their chosen fields.

I think it's acceptable for a parent to financially help out their young adult children, by allowing them to live at home. But I also feel it's beneficial for the young person's emotional development, to charge rent and have their YA's paying their way, so to speak. There's a way to help our kids, without stunting them, emotionally. Requiring some financial responsibility from them, scaled to their abilities, is the route that we have chosen for our own YA's.

What do you think? Would you (or do you) allow your young adult children to live with you? Would you charge rent? How long are you comfortable allowing YA's to live at home?

Evaluating the Budget at the Beginning of the Year

These roses have nothing to do with this topic, but I wanted to show them to you,
 anyway. I cut both of these in early December, just before the cold weather began.

I do this, without fail, every year, in the first week of January. Sometimes, it brings good news. Sometimes, it illuminates areas where I need to work harder. And sometimes it shows me that life can be full of storms.

One afternoon last week, I sat down with our budgets. Evaluating the budget requires a couple of hours. I look at each category, and check to see if we put aside enough money every month to cover each of the bills for their category. Then I make adjustments to the dollar amount in the various categories, according to their need.

I value this activity for a couple of reasons. After a month of holiday splurges, inspecting the budget refocuses my thoughts on sensible spending. And it serves as a reminder for those areas that I had planned on seeking to reduce spending. It's also a motivational tool. It shows me where we are doing this whole budget thing very right. I like to give myself a pat on the back, an "atta girl", for working so hard, year round, to squeeze a little more buying power out of every dollar. And then, of course, it serves as a tool for determining how much we need to adjust our tax withholding for the new year.

At the end of the afternoon, I have reset our new budget for the year, made changes to tax withholding and established new savings and preparedness goals for our budget.

So, how'd we do this year?

Most of the categories in our budget will remain unchanged, as we are on target with our setting aside funds for those areas.

In electricity, we have been slightly over-saving. Yay! I was able to cut that area down, by a few dollars per month, in 2017.

Our emergency savings, which would be used in the case of job loss, continues to grow, monthly. I never let a month lapse without putting something into that fund, even if it's only $3. $3 each month, for one year, results in $36. In 10 years, that $3 per month results in $360. While I try to put more into that fund, I don't consider $3 to be trivial. We began this particular savings fund in 2008. You all remember how unstable everything felt in 2008 and 2009, right? That was the impetus for this savings fund.

Heating -- we're doing well, as winter unfolds. We are spending a little into the surplus, set aside the previous year. We will hopefully end this heating season with another surplus.

For 2017, I have a new goal for our heating budget. We will attempt to set aside enough in savings to cover a complete winter's heating, in advance of the coming winter. In normal years, we have some surplus, monies put aside in the warmer months, combined with our monthly allocation in every month of the year. What I am working towards is a surplus that is large enough going into the heating season, with or without monthly allocations during the heating season, to feasibly pay all of our heating for one season.

This surplus heating budget will function much like our stockpile of groceries. It will cover us, in the event of a job loss or severe financial circumstances. Heat and food are the two recurring expenses which are vital to survival. (Our home is paid for. Otherwise, housing would be the third recurring expense, vital to survival.) So, we will set aside a small amount extra, each month, from now until November, and see how we do. Much will depend on how cold of a winter this one proves to be.

The main area in which I have been wanting to reduce some of our spending is the non-food grocery and household expenses, things like hygiene items, cleaning supplies, lightbulbs, batteries, postage stamps, kitchen items like plastic wrap and aluminum foil. You know that I don't buy a whole lot of those items, anyway. But I have been meaning to work at finding less expensive alternatives to the products that I already purchase. This goal pops up every single January. I hate that we spend so much on this category. Item by item, I am slowly (very slowly) finding new ways to buy the same or similar products.

A year ago, I discovered Cash & Carry's store brand of freezer bags. They're a better quality than Dollar Tree's freezer bags, so they can be reused a few times, each. And they're cheaper. Automatic dish detergent is another product on my list. I was close to being out of the Dollar Tree stuff, and our local DT store and their online store were out of stock of what I had been using from them. So, last month, I bought a box of Kroger dish detergent powder, using my Senior Discount. I paid less per ounce for the Kroger stuff (compared to Sun brand at DT). I'll see how it performs later this month.

I have significantly reduced my use of postage stamps, by using online, phone and auto-payment plans for everything from tuition payments to the garbage pickup service. It's only a little bit of savings. But several little bits add up to one large bit, over time.

So, the non-food grocery and household expenses category is one of my areas of focus, for this coming year. If I can just shave $5 off per month, that will be a savings of $60 per year, and I'll feel like I'm making strides in this area.

We have a few shuffles in the budget, as well, like moving monthly allocations out of savings for travel, and into savings for education expenses. And removing a savings for a new water heater entirely from the budget, and putting that money into savings for a new furnace.

That's about the short of my budget evaluations last week. Do you take time each year to go over your budget from the past year and reset the new year's budget? Does doing so help motivate you to stay the course? What areas of your budget have you been doing well in, and in which areas do you want to make some improvements?

Continuing to Use Our Holiday Candles

Dinner by candle light is such a pleasant experience. This time of year, the dinner hour is quite dark, outside. A little candle light is warm and welcoming.

These are the tapers that were on our New Year's dining table. While they are mostly burned, they still have some burning time left,  for my family's enjoyment. Instead of putting the candles aside (or worse yet, throwing them out), we've been continuing to use them, singly, on the kitchen table at dinnertime.

Dining by the light of these leftover candles is a lovely experience. It puts something to use that might otherwise not get used. And it saves us a bit of money on the electric bill by not using the overhead light during dinner.

Making really great ham stock

I know it's a bit late to be giving you my ham stock method, for use with your ham bone from New Year's or Christmas. Unless you tossed what was left of your ham bone into the freezer, to deal with later. In any case, you can mentally file this away, for use after Easter, if you wish.

But I did want to share how I make ham stock, as I've now run into several people who have never roasted the ham bone, before the simmering part of making stock. Roasting the bone really boosts the smokey flavor of the stock.


After trimming away all of the good slices of ham to freeze, and cutting off any thick bands of fat to use for rendering, (as I showed how to do, in this post on how to render ham fat for use in cooking later) I roast the meaty ham bone in a 350 F degree oven, in a shallow baking pan, for about 20 minutes, or just until some of the edge pieces are browning.

I remove the ham bone from the oven and put it into my crockpot, still sizzling hot. In a kettle or saucepan, I bring about a quart of water to a boil. I pour this hot water over the ham bone in the crockpot, and top off with additional water, to cover the bone completely. (Boiling the water before adding to the crockpot gets the temp of the stock up to a simmer faster.)

Then, I just put the lid on, and set the crockpot to cook on LOW for 10-12 hours. I do all of this in the evening, so that my stock cooks while I sleep. It is then ready for me in the morning. Easy peasy, right?

The cooked stock is ladled into large containers and refrigerated for a couple of hours, until the fat has risen to the top and partially solidified. This fat is scooped out and reserved for cooking, in a container in the freezer.

Any remaining meat is picked off of the bone, and frozen in 2-cup amounts, covered in a few cups of the good stock. Meaty ham stock makes excellent lentil/bean soup, pumpkin soup, or potato soup.

I also freeze some stock, without meat, in 1 or 2 cup containers, for adding flavor to savory sauces or gravies, where a recipe might ordinarily call for water.

I made some really delicious lentil soup last Friday, with a quart of that ham stock. It was flavorful enough to not need much in the way of seasonings. (I did add some olive liquid and canned vegetable juice plus a pinch of salt, for flavor and to use those items that had been accumulating in the fridge.)

Just thought I'd share.

By the way, you can also freeze the thick bands of fat, to render for cooking fat plus cracklins', on another day. That's what I did, and when I have some time, I'll get to that rendering.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the first week of the new year

Friday

• leftover baked potatoes, topped with cheddar and butter
• leftover baked squash
• leftover applesauce
• leftover black bean and corn tortilla bake
• tangerines

Saturday

• leftover roll-up sandwiches from lunch with my father-in-law's birthday luncheon
• leftover smoked turkey soup
• tangerines
• Christmas cookies
• eggnog and juice

Sunday -- New Year's dinner

• ham
• mustard-glazed carrots
• au gratin potatoes
• dinner rolls
• olives and watermelon pickles
• a chicken wing and mushroom dish (brought by guests)
• a sticky rice dish (brought by guests -- my favorite, so yummy!)
• sausage and pineapple (brought by guests)
• a crab and vegetable dish (brought by guests)
• pumpkin cake roll w/ whipping cream
• ice cream (brought by my son's girlfriend)
• sparkling apple cider and tea

Monday

• leftover ham
• leftover au gratin potatoes
• leftover carrots
• blackberry cobbler with leftover whipped cream

Tuesday

• ham-fried rice, with cabbage, onions, carrots and peas
• leftover blackberry cobbler and whipped cream

Wednesday

• pumpkin-ham soup
• homemade whole wheat bread, butter and vanilla-rhubarb jam
• carrot sticks, pickles and olives
• leftover cobbler

Thursday

• potato and ham casserole au gratin
• canned pineapple chunks
• cole slaw
• cranberry-mustard

A lot of ham for the week, eh? And potatoes a few times in the week, as well. the potatoes that I had in the pantry were beginning to sprout. So, I've moved all of them to the fridge (along with 20 lbs of potatoes that I put in the fridge, immediately after buying in November). we're also now moving on to the frozen wild blackberries. I have about 15 quarts of frozen blackberries to use this winter. I made a double blackberry cobbler early in the week that used 2 quarts of the berries. The flavor and aroma is reminiscent of late summer.

While our garden produce is gone for several months, the dead of winter has its perks, too. I've been opening the jars of homemade jams and pickles, recently. I finished off one jar of raspberry jam earlier this week, and opened a new jar of vanilla-rhubarb jam. If you grow rhubarb, you might want to try making some vanilla-rhubarb jam this coming spring or summer. The flavor tastes like pie. Do you have any preserves from last summer? What are your favorites?

In addition to the spritely flavors from some home-canned preserves and pickles, I'm also just enjoying simple foods, once again. Whole wheat bread, cooked carrots, pumpkin soup -- just some very humble foods after a month of feasting. I'm guessing that many of us will agree on the welcomeness of humble meals, following the prolonged holiday period of gorging.

What was on your menu this past week? I hope your new year is off to a grand beginning!

How we look at the non-fun expenses, like repair bills, is a choice

If you "own" anything at all, in this world, then you know that at some point, that thing will need replacement or repair. It should come as no surprise. Everything wears out, eventually.

Our overall budget reflects this basic fact about earthly belongings. We know that things wear out and need fixing or replacing. Three years ago, we began saving for a new water heater. Just after Thanksgiving, this year, our water heater sprung a leak, all over the garage floor. It hadn't been functioning properly, anyway, for the past 2 years. So this was, indeed, no surprise. (That water heater was 20 years old.)

And then in another area, our mechanic informed us that our tires were worn out, at the legal limit for tread depth. We save for car repairs and replacement every year. It's built in to our budget. Cars are work horses for many of us. And with all of the service they give us, nearly every single day of the year, they do need maintenance, as well as repair, on a very regular basis. Brand new tires went onto our one working car last week.

A new water heater and set of tires aren't cheap. While we had the money in savings, this did consume a big chunk of our readily available "cushion". And coming right at the holiday period, the comfortable and prudent thing to do was to curtail gift spending, as much as possible.

Receiving tires and a water heater for your main Christmas gift sounds depressing, doesn't it? But it doesn't need to be. How we see our world can be narrow and defeating, or it can be freeing and up-lifting.

I choose to see receiving tires and a water heater for Christmas, in a positive light.

The new tires are my and my family's safety on the road. Did you know that once a tire reaches the legal tread depth limit that it takes 2 extra car lengths, (at speed of 50 MPH) to come to a stop, in wet weather, compared to a tread depth at double that legal limit? [http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/12/how-safe-are-worn-tires/index.htm; https://www.kwik-fit.com/tyres/information/uk-tyre-law]

Here in Seattle, it's no surprise that I drive on a lot of wet and slick roads. I had to make a long drive on New Year's Eve, in the dark, in active snowfall, in a small sedan, without 4-wheel drive. There were SUV's and trucks whizzing past me, making my visibility even poorer. But I had my new tires. Chances of a blow-out or a spin-out were greatly reduced, because of these new tires.

And do you know what else? The guy who put the new tires on my car, also cleaned my hubcaps! You know how dirty hubcaps can get, right? I now have clean hubcaps and new tires. Plus, I got a free calendar, a cup of coffee and popcorn for my daughters. Our safety and all of these extras were my Christmas gift this year.

Our old water heater wasn't putting out much hot water for the past one to two years. Every morning was a gamble as to whether or not my bath would be warm enough or so cool that I barely dipped myself into the water before shiveringly hopping out to towel off. There was never enough hot water for the whole family, so if hot water was important to each of us, we all allowed intervals to lapse in between each shower, bath or load of laundry.

With receiving a new water heater as a primary Christmas gift, what I really got was a reliably hot bath or shower, every single time. Every. single.time. my bath is just how I like it. I can luxuriate in hot water all morning long, if I want. Or at least not have any more chilly bath times. And the dishes are coming out cleaner from the dishwasher. There is less scraping and wiping, as the clean dishes are removed from the dishwasher. The other thing, our hot water is cleaner, too. No more sediment, no more flaking bits from the deteriorating dip tube. I no longer have to clean the kitchen faucet aerator screen, which had to be done a couple of times per month, to keep the wacky spray at bay.

It's all in how you look at things. Safe tires, hot water and no leaks can be viewed as awfully nice Christmas gifts, don't you think?

A tasty use for leftover cranberry sauce

The condiment with the ham is nothing more than whole berry cranberry sauce stirred with yellow mustard. I served this with ham the other night, and it was a hit. It's a sweet-tangy sauce, much like a honey mustard.

While I used yellow mustard, this would be yummy with Dijon mustard.

I blended about 1 part yellow mustard with 2 parts cranberry sauce.

It was delicious with ham, but would also be a good dipping sauce for chicken strips or pretzels.

A super simple use for leftover cranberry sauce.

Stewardship and how it is linked to frugality

One of the elements of my faith is the understanding, between me and God, that everything I have, has been given to me. And that I don't really "own" any of it, but have been entrusted to be a good steward of what's been given to me.

Fulfilling this role, as a good steward, has a few purposes. 1) it allows me, personally, to be more generous when giving to others; 2) it helps to protect resources for others in this world, now and in the future; and 3) being a good steward preserves what has been given to me, to use in times of greater need.

On Monday, I started this new week out using stewardship while managing my kitchen.

Specifically, I preserved every ounce of goodness that came out of our New Year's ham. In the bottom of the roasting pan from the ham, liquid accumulated during the cooking process. I scraped the fat off of the chilled liquid, and stored away in the freezer, to use in cooking later. And I froze the defatted liquid to save for making a ham and lentil soup, on Friday.

I also began menu-planning for the next several weeks. The months of January and February seem to be devoid of great deals in my local supermarkets. Since I am well-stocked in supplies, and I pretty much know what all I'll have on hand, for the next 2 months, this is an ideal time of year to menu-plan for a 6-week block.

I did my planning on my laptop. I have a Mac that came with Numbers (the application that provides a format for making charts). I used Numbers to make a 6-week calendar, and plugged in my meals.

I began with a blank table, like this. I selected one with an alternating colored/white pattern.

I then filled in the days of the week at the top, and numbered all of the colored blocks, for the dates of the months.

Once I had a blank calendar, I filled in my meals. I have a copy of this on the fridge, so family members can check to see if something in the fridge is slated to be used in another meal.

By planning out what I'll be preparing in the next 6 weeks, I can ensure that little will be wasted, meals for my busier days will be provided, with less work for me, and I can focus many of our meals on the inexpensive foods that I stocked up on, in the fall, allowing us to keep our grocery budget at its low level.

Creating a great year ahead

Oh my goodness! Were the holidays a marathon, or what?

I had a few gifts that I made near the last-minute, that I didn't show to you.

some individual packages of cocoa mix

jars of homemade vanilla-plum jam, in jars from Goodwill (20 cents/jar). tied up with raffia and twine

a small batch of guest soap

On New Year's day, we woke up to some snow on the ground and the sun shining. A stark, but beautiful, beginning to another year. We had our last holiday gathering in the late afternoon/evening, on January 1st, hosting another family for a belated Christmas dinner. Once the dinner dishes were cleaned up, the freshness of the new year could settle in with me.

In planning the year ahead, it occurs to me that great years don't just happen. We have to make the choices that make the year a great one. Here's to creating the best year yet, despite what happens all around us.

Happy New Year!!!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the week of Christmas

Friday

• fully-loaded baked potato soup
• bread
• orange juice-cranberry sauce smoothies
• pumpkin pie

Saturday (Christmas Eve)

• spaghetti and meatballs in marinara sauce
• canned green beans
• leftover pumpkin pie

Midnight snack

• hot cocoa, sitting by the tree, after the late Christmas Eve church service

Sunday (Christmas Day)

I served 2 meals on Christmas Day, brunch and dinner. I've included the menus for both of those meals.

Brunch

• turkey bacon (on clearance for $1.39/12 oz package earlier in the week)
• canned pineapple chunks
• the almond-filled pastry that I made, in this link
• saved pineapple juice from canned pineapple, blended with orange juice, as mentioned in this link
• copious amounts of coffee

Dinner

The inspiration for our casual, snacky Christmas dinner was a frozen package of marked down Lil' Smokies, the tangerines that I bought for putting in stockings and a gift card to Jack-in-the-box. We split 1 order of chicken strips, 1 order of egg rolls and 2 orders of onion rings. With everything else we had, it was enough.

I required everyone to participate in putting this dinner together, as I did for our Thanksgiving dinner. My 2 daughters made the pie, I made the dip and washed/peeled the carrots and celery, my husband cut the celery and carrots into sticks, and my son and his girlfriend simmered the cocktail sausages in the bbq sauce while I ran out to get the Jack-in-the-Box. No one person carried the entire burden of a holiday meal on the holiday.

• Lil Smokies cocktail sausage in bbq sauce
• tangerines
• carrots and celery sticks, with Ranch dip
• Jack-in-the-Box snacks -- chicken strips, onion rings, egg rolls
• pecan-chocolate chip pie
• hot tea and milk

Monday

• homemade cheese and olive pizza, using the leftover marinara sauce from Saturday's spaghetti and meatballs combined with leftover bbq sauce from Sunday's cocktail sausages, as the pizza sauce
• cole slaw
• last of the pecan-chocolate chip pie

Tuesday

• baked acorn squash
• baked potatoes, topped with cheese, Ranch dip, butter and Lemon-Rosemary finishing salt
• applesauce
• Christmas cookies

Wednesday

We were invited to friends for a Christmas tree candle lighting (real candles on their tree). There were lovely appetizers and desserts, enough to completely fill us. So no need to make any dinner tonight.

I don't know if you remember one of my shopping trips at Kohl's over the summer, with a $10 off coupon. I brought this box of candles, tied up with a red ribbon, as a hostess gift. I paid 38 cents at Kohl's, after coupon. (Oh and by the way, my 32 cent "holiday" entry mat, in the background, has been making merry at our front door, all season!)

Thursday

I still have 3 more get-togethers with family/friends, in the next couple of weeks. This afternoon, I was baking 2 pumpkin cake rolls, and assembling and wrapping the last couple of gifts. Whew! Dinner was fast and easy. 

• corn tortilla, black bean, salsa, olive and cheese thing (no other word than "thing")
• leftover baked squash
• Christmas cookies

I hope your week was jolly. Just a few more days and then it's back to routine, which will be welcome. Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy New Year!

December 2016 Grocery Spending Journal

I'm posting the end of the month grocery spending journal, now, as I'll be posting our weekly Cheap & Cheerful Menus, tomorrow, and then it's on to New Year's! So, closing out December's budget today, and anything I spend between now and January 1st will fall into January's budget.


Dec. 2 Cash & Carry for all-purpose flour, 50-lbs on sale for $9.99. I had planned on buying 2 bags (100 lbs), but they only had 1 bag left, and that bag had a tear. They offered me $3 off that bag. They taped it up. It didn't look like much had leaked out, no more than 1 lb. So, I bought probably 49 lbs of all-purpose flour for $6.99, or about 14 cents/lb.

Dec. 3 Dollar Tree, I buy 1 box of graham crackers, 1 box of Wheat Thin type crackers, and 1 box of Ritz type crackers -- spent $3

Dec. 9 WinCo -- I buy 8 packages of semi-sweet chocolate chips, at $1.68 each, 1 bag of coconut for $1.38, 2 bags of marshmallows for 98 cents each, and cocoa powder, for $2.06. I received 12 cents in bag credit.Total spent -- $17.72

Dec 10 Fred Meyer, Senior discount day. I bought half-gallon of almond vanilla milk for $1.99. I received a 16 oz jar of roasted peanuts, free, a bottle of Kraft BBQ sauce, free, and a small bag of Werthers caramel candies, free. I spent $1.99

Dec. 13 Fred Meyer, another Senior Discount day. I bought 4 15-oz jars of natural peanut butter, at $1.35 each, 1.27 lbs of salted, roasted almonds, at $4.49/lb, less a $2 off coupon, 3 packages of hot dogs for 80 cents each, 4 packages of flour tortillas for 89 cents each, 2 8-oz bricks of cream cheese, for 89 cents each, less a 45 cent coupon, 4 red-tape bananas at 49 cents/lb, 1 head of cabbage for 49 cents/lb, 6 half-gallons of whole milk and 4 half-gallons of orange juice, at 89 cents each. I spent $27.37

Dec. 14 Target, picking up stocking stuffers. I also buy the 70 oz bottle of Market Pantry Medium Salsa, for $4.99

Dec. 14 WinCo for some items for a veggie platter. I bought broccoli crowns ($1.10), baby carrots (98 cents), celery (98 cents), grape tomatoes ($1.48), Ranch dressing mix (58 cents) 16 oz mini-marshmallows (98 cents), 28 oz bag of tortilla chips ($2.98). Total spent $9.08.

Total spent for December, so far -- $71.14

Dec. 19 QFC for shank hams, unsliced, at $1.29/lb, limit 2. I also find turkey bacon on markdown for $1.39/12 oz package. I bought 7 packages. Total spent $39.64

Dec. 20 Fred Meyer for another bonus Senior Shopping discount. I bought a half-gallon almond milk for $1.79 (coupon plus discount), 2 lbs of BarS Meat franks, marked down to 79 cents/lb (went into the freezer right away), 5 lb box of mandarins for $5.99 (this will be the only box of mandarins I buy this year, likely, as they are so much more expensive than navel oranges), 1 bundle of celery at 69 cents/lb (83 cents for a the bundle), box of white cake mix (Friday Freebie), 2-liter of 7UP soda (Friday Freebie), package of Tim Tam cookies (Friday Freebie).  Total spent today -- $10.19

Total spent for December, so far -- $120.97

Dec. 25 I bought a $15 gift card to Jack-in-the-Box, at Fred Meyer, for the bonus fuel points. We used this gc on Christmas Day, along with $3.95, for a total of  $18.95

Dec. 26 at Fred Meyer for discounted items. I bought candy for Valentine's Day and next Christmas, but the cost of these will come out of our holiday budget. I also bought a 16 oz container of marked down candied glace cherries (the kind used in baking and fruitcake), for $1.79

Total spent for December 2016, $141.71

What I bought:

Produce

4 bananas
1 head of cabbage
4 half-gallons of orange juice
70 oz jug of tomato salsa
3/4 lb broccoli crowns
1 lb baby carrots
2 bundles of celery
3/4 lb of grape tomatoes
5 lbs of mandarin oranges (tangerines)

Dairy

2 half-gallons of almond milk
2 packages of cream cheese
6 half-gallons of whole milk

Meat

4.25 lbs of mixed meat hot dogs
23 lbs of bone-in ham
5.25 lbs of turkey bacon

Pantry

1 box of graham crackers
1 box of Wheat Thins type crackers
1 box of Ritz-type crackers
8 packages of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag of coconut
2 bag of mini marshmallows
2/3 lb cocoa powder
16 oz jar of peanuts (freebie)
Kraft BBQ sauce (freebie)
bag of Werthers candies (freebie)
4  15-oz jars of natural peanut butter
1.27 lbs of smoked almonds
4 lbs of flour tortillas
Ranch dressing/dip mix
28-oz bag of tortilla chips
1 box of Pillsbury cake mix (freebie)
1 package of Tim Tam cookies (freebie)
2-liter of 7UP soda (freebie)
49 lbs of all-purpose flour
16 oz glace cherries

Other

Some fast food for Christmas snacky dinner -- chicken strips, onion rings, egg rolls


Not nearly as extensive a list of foods this month, compared to November. Our pantry, fridge and freezer are simply too full, right now.

My budget coming into December was $190 plus a carry-forward surplus of $11.84, for a total amount available to spend of $201.84. I spent $141.71. I now have $60.13 in surplus to roll over to January.

Our fridge, freezer and pantry continue to look full. We received a Honey-Baked ham, still frozen, as a Christmas gift. As we'd already planned our Christmas dinner, I put the ham in our freezer. We now have 4 hams. I'll use one on New Year's Day, that will leave 3 half hams for this next year. I also have 1 whole turkey and some turkey leftovers, still in the freezer, plus some turkey bacon, ground beef and hot dogs. We're set for meat, unless I find a great price. We seem to be well-stocked in baking ingredients and canned goods. I'll need vegetable oil and yeast, soon, but nothing els, really on the "need" list.

Later, next month, I'll do some planning for special meals this spring (birthdays, Valentine's Day and Easter), to make sure I set aside some of the meat and goodies for those specific meals.

I hope your budget fared well this month.

Refrigerator triage during the busy holiday week

Over the holidays, it's easy to overlook some of the highly perishable foods in the refrigerator. There are so many goodies, coming and going, that some ordinary foods, that would normally get gobbled up, are pushed to the back, to spoil before use.

Before that happens (or before it happens too greatly), I begin some refrigerator triage.

First, I use anything made with meat, or that has touched meat, in the cooking.

This past week, that meant some marinara sauce which had meatballs cooked in it, and some bbq sauce which had cocktail sausages cooked in it. I combined those two sauce remnants, to use a sauce on a homemade pizza.

Next, I use any soon-to-expire dairy products.

This meant milk, whipping cream and sour cream in our house, this past week. I pushed the milk on anyone who would drink some. In the process, we started a new tradition in our home. After the late church service on Christmas Eve, we all joined in the living room for some hot cocoa. It was a very pleasant late night, together. I believe that this will continue forward, as a tradition in our family. And I used the last of the sour cream in a dip on Christmas night. I already mentioned whipping up the last pint of heavy cream, to freeze in mounds for future desserts.

After the meat and dairy, I inventory, and make plans to use, all of the fresh produce.

I found 2 acorn squash, 1 butternut, 1 spaghetti squash and 1 small pumpkin, all needing to be used. I cooked the 2 acorn squash, first, as they looked to be on their last legs. The other 3 squash will be cooked within the next 10-14 days.

I also have about 15 pounds of aging potatoes to use in a hurry. It looks like the next few meals will be heavy on the squash and potatoes.

I also had 3/4 of a lemon and a handful of fresh rosemary that was gifted to us earlier in the month. I peeled the lemon, and sliced and quartered the rest of the lemon. The lemon zest will be combined with the rosemary to make some of the Lemon-Rosemary Finishing Salt in this link. The quartered slices went into the freezer, for sage-honey-lemon tea that I drink when I have a cold.

In addition, I have a glassful of fresh parsley in the refrigerator. Just before the very cold weather set in, in early December, I cut all of the remaining parsley in the garden. I put it in a glass of water and kept it in the fridge. Several weeks later, it still looks okay. I will use as much as I can in the next day or two.

And, I found about a dozen very wrinkly apples, in the garage fridge. I had wanted to make a pie with some of them. Sometimes, though, there's just no time for what we want, and we have to go with what is easy. So, I made a quart of applesauce, instead.

That leaves us with fresh carrots, celery, onions, cabbage, oranges, tangerines and not-quite-aging potatoes in the refrigerator to use over the coming month.

That's about it on the highly perishable items left in our fridge. I had about 1 cup of rice pudding that went too long in the fridge and had to be thrown out. But otherwise, it looks like a very low-waste holiday period.

Clearance shopping right after Christmas

I'm not a huge Christmas clearance shopper. But I do have a short list of items that I buy after Christmas.

Clearance Christmas/holiday items that I could use in the very near future

• a specific holiday-themed gift that I was wanting to gift to a friend, in just a few days -- saved 75% by waiting until the 26th to make that purchase (Bath & Body Works's Christmas clearance sale)
• eggnog (we still drink eggnog through New Years)
• whipping cream
• potted plant, for a hostess gift for New Years

Clearance Christmas items that are useful year round or later in the year

• candles -- tapers and votives (I mostly look for white candles, but green votives also look nice, outdoors in summer)
• candy wrapped in red, gold or silver foil for Valentine's Day, birthdays or anniversaries (I picked up some nice truffles, wrapped in red, for this year's Valentine's Day.)
• candied fruitcake whole cherries, for baking (Valentine's and President's Day). In the past, I've used fruitcake mix, 2 years after purchase, stored in the refrigerator -- a long shelf-life.
• candied fruitcake multi-colored mix -- I like this mix combined with raisins, in a bread that I make at Easter
• gift wrap in solid colors or simple, non-specific-to-Christmas prints, like stripes, and ribbons/bows

Clearance Christmas items that I bought to save for next Christmas

• candy for the stockings (my house is kept on the cool side, year round. I double bag the candy, and keep in a storage trunk, in a seldom-accessed closet. The candy (mostly chocolates, but also candy canes) looks and tastes fine, the next year.
• gift wrap and gift bags for next year
• an ornament to give as a gift next year

Leftover holiday foods that you can freeze

This happens to all of us, right? Too much whipping cream, a great deal on cream cheese, extra cranberry sauce, eggnog on markdown. All of these foods can be frozen.

• whipping cream (the kind in a carton, not in a spray can). Whip with confectioner's sugar and vanilla, as you would for a dessert topping. Spoon dollops onto a saran wrap-lined baking sheet, or the inside of a metal lid to a cookie tin. Place in freezer for several hours or overnight. Peel frozen dollops off of the saran wrap and place in a large, ziploc freezer bag, and keep in the freezer until needed. Use one by one, as desired, thawing directly on top of pies, or inside cream puffs, for about 15 minutes before serving.
• cream cheese freeze in the package. To use, thaw overnight in the fridge and use in spreads or making cheesecake. A small amount of liquid may seep out of thawed cream cheese. Just pour this off, or stir it back in. If using thawed cream cheese as a spread, I put it in a small bowl and beat it with a spoon, until soft and creamy again.
• cranberry sauce freeze in an ice cube tray. Use in smoothies, in a glaze for meat, or as an accompaniment for roasts and poultry. My favorite way to use leftover, frozen cranberry sauce is blended with orange juice.
• whole cranberries any leftover, whole cranberries can be frozen in a ziploc bag. Later in winter or spring, pour out what you need, rough chop them, still frozen, in your food processor and use in cranberry bread.
• eggnog freeze as you would milk, by pouring a little out of the carton, to allow for expansion, and freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. The texture change is much like that of frozen and thawed milk. I don't drink eggnog, but my kids all agree, frozen, then thawed eggnog, is much better than no eggnog. 
• gravy mostly I freeze sliced meat in leftover gravy. But every once in a while I have way more gravy than we have meat. I freeze leftover gravy in 1 cup amounts. When thawed, watery liquid separates from a gelatinous lump. Once heated in the microwave, the gravy can be stirred back together.
• turkey carcass or ham bone if I don't have time to turn these into stock, right away, I wrap and freeze them to make good soup stock another day. I still have my turkey leg bones in the freezer, wrapped in plastic wrap, until I have some time to make a big pot of soup. I try not to let these sit in the freezer longer than a couple of months, for best flavor.
• baked goods, including Christmas cookies, breads, dinner rolls, and slices of pumpkin or apple pie. All freeze well.
• cut fresh herbs if you bought any herbs to use in preparing the holiday meals, you can mince and freeze whatever is left over. Freezing is my favorite way to keep fresh herbs like cilantro, which goes slimy, quickly, after cutting/purchasing. And having some herbs, minced and ready to add to sauces and soups makes future meal prep all that much simpler. I just put the minced herbs in a ziploc bag, freeze, then use within about 4 months. The amount that I need at any one time, easily breaks off of the frozen hunk.
• part of a lemon or lime if I don't need the whole citrus in a recipe, I slice and quarter the remaining lemon or lime, put in a ziploc bag, and use later, in water or tea.
• sparkling apple cider it will lose its fizz, but sparkling cider can be frozen, to thaw for a beverage another day, either on it's own, or mixed with other fruit juices, or part of the liquid when making gelatin desserts, or in a glaze for pork roasts, or in homemade teriyaki sauce/marinades.
• cinnamon sticks and whole cloves from spiced, hot beverages whole spices, rescued from pots of hot beverages can be frozen and reused, later in the season. Having been used once, they won't have quite as much flavor as they initially did, but are still useful in lightly infusing beverages, or adding fragrance to the air by simmering in a pot of water on the stove or in a mini crockpot.
• raw egg yolks or whites when I've only used a yolk or a white, and don't anticipate needing to use the other part of the egg within 2-3 days, I put the leftovers into a container for the freezer. Egg whites can be frozen, as is. Allow to come to room temp before using. Frozen egg whites don't whip as fluffy as fresh whites, but can still be used in whites-only recipes or added to omelets/scrambled eggs/quiches. Egg yolks need a pinch of salt to stabilize the texture before freezing, 1/8 teaspoon per 4 yolks, beaten into the yolk, then freeze.
• hard-boiled egg yolks hard-boiled egg whites do not freeze well, but the yolks, do. This is a great method for freezing leftover fresh yolks. Slip the leftover, raw yolks into a non-stick pan with about 2 inches of water at the bottom. bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, cover and allow to stand for 12 minutes. Remove from water with a slotted spoon, and freeze in a ziploc, to use, crumbled as a garnish or in egg salad, later.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the week before Christmas

Friday
One daughter was with friends all day, the other was with me, Christmas shopping. We covered a lot of territory in one day, and I managed to finish all my shopping. However, we came home much later than I had anticipated, and needed to throw together a speedy dinner.

• leftover pizza for one person
• hot dogs, with cheddar and salsa in a flour tortilla, for the rest
• canned green beans
• canned pineapple chunks

Saturday

I worked at a fundraiser luncheon for the day. The lovely ladies, there, always bless me with food to take home. Once home, I made a soup from leftovers in the fridge, and served the rest of our blessings from the luncheon to go with it. 

• bean and veggie soup
• assorted sandwiches
• tossed salad
• fruit salad
• chocolate cake

Sunday

We're decorating the Christmas tree this afternoon into evening. Our family still all gathers together to put ornaments on the tree and have a simple, snack-y supper.

• grape tomato and colby-jack kabobs
• veggie tray and dip
• crackers and cream cheese/herb spread
• smoked almonds
• nuts bars and brownie cookies
• orange segments
• tortilla chips and salsa
• cola

Monday

• turkey and vegetable soup from the freezer
• baguette slices spread with a mix of leftover salmon spread, leftover Ranch dip and some cream cheese
• Swedish rice pudding

Tuesday

• homestyle macaroni and cheese
• cole slaw
• carrot sticks
• fruit salad of banana, canned pineapple, tangerine and orange

Wednesday

• turkey in gravy from the freezer
• baked potatoes, topped with sour cream (for most of family, mine just plain)
• canned peas and green beans
• orange wedges

Thursday

• French dip sandwiches (using roast beast given to us last weekend, and kept in freezer), on
• homemade buns, with
• homemade onion soup as the au jus
• oven fries
• sauteed cabbage

Such a busy week! Are you about done in, too? I've relied heavily on home-prepared foods from my freezer, and simple sides like cole slaw, carrot sticks, canned vegetables and orange wedges. 

What was on your menu this past week? Did you have to take more shortcuts, in meal prep, than usual?

Wishing you a peaceful and joyous Christmas.

A decorative, filled bread/pastry, that resembles baby Jesus in swaddling cloth, for Christmas (Crèche Bread)

This method of forming a loaf that looks like a braid (but isn't) is easy enough for most beginners, yet looks quite impressive.

I know this as Crèche Bread, which is French, but from my Scandinavian heritage (go figure). So, one of those things that has been changed and passed down for several generations. I'm not sure where it was altered with the French translation. But Crèche refers to the nativity scene, with Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloth, in a manger. The dough folds over in layers, as if "wrapped" in cloth.


This method works well with yeasted, refrigerator roll doughs. The refrigeration helps relax the dough so that it can be rolled out thin. If you use a standard yeast bread dough, leave it slightly soft (not too much flour), and refrigerate the dough before rolling out.

This folding technique is for a filled bread, but it doesn't have to be, it could be "empty" and just be pretty. The filling can be sweet, such as chopped nuts, raisins, cinnamon and sugar, or sweetened cream cheese topped with jam or lemon curd. Or it can be savory, such as cream cheese, shredded hard cheese, sausage crumbles and/or herbs. The loaf in this photo is for our Christmas morning bread, filled with a sweetened, almond paste.


Have filling ready and waiting.

With chilled dough (just before final rise), on a floured surface, roll out into a large rectangle, about 1/4-inch thick.

Transfer dough to a large, buttered baking sheet. Some dough might hang over the sides at this point. The sides will be folded over the center, and the ends will be tucked under, after filling.

Use a knife to mark dough, by scoring, into thirds, the length of the rectangle. Don't cut all the way through, just score. These are markings, only. Make the center third slightly wider than the side thirds, as the side strips will stretch while folding.

With a small, sharp knife, cut diagonal strips in the dough, on outer thirds, 1 to 2-inches apart, all the way down the length of the rectangle. Don't cut into the center third.

Place your filling down the center third, and spread to within 1/2-inch of side slits and top and bottom edges.

Beginning at the top, fold the strips inward, covering the filling, alternating and overlapping, from side to side.

Flatten and seal the ends, then tuck each end under.

Neaten up the sides and strips, gently.

Allow to rise till double. Optionally, just before baking, you can brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar, coarse salt, and/or chopped or sliced nuts. Bake (375 F degrees, until golden brown, for most doughs).

I baked this loaf the other day, wrapped it in foil, put in the freezer, and will warm it on Christmas morning.

Making homemade bread look "fancy" -- braiding dough

A braided loaf of bread looks really impressive. But it takes less time to execute, than shaped rolls, and only requires rudimentary braiding skill (can you braid hair? then you can braid dough). Because it is easier and faster than shaping rolls, I like to use a loaf of braided bread when I am tasked with bringing rolls to an event or dinner.

I have 2 methods of braiding bread dough. One method uses a refrigerated roll dough. And the other, this double-braid method, uses any yeasted bread dough. You can even buy frozen bread dough for this method of braiding. In any case, it makes the finished bread "fancy" enough for gifting, or for serving at holiday meals.

This is the loaf I made a week ago, using a fruit and nut, yeast bread dough. But you can use plain bread dough, whole wheat, rye or French bread dough for this sort of braid.

With bread dough that is ready for it's final rise, divide into thirds. Use 2/3 of the dough for the bottom braid, and 1/3 of the dough for the top braid. Set the 1/3 portion aside and begin working with the 2/3 portion.

Using your hands, roll the larger portion of dough into a long log (about 15 inches), and flatten slightly.

With a knife, cut the flat log into long thirds. Gently roll these strands, on a floured surface, to round out the cut edges.

Pinch the 3 ends together, gently, and begin braiding, as you would hair.

If your braid is loose at the "beginning" end, flip it upside down, undo that first pinching, and re-braid that end, only. Doing this, should tighten up your final result, into one uniform braid. Place this bottom braid on your buttered, baking sheet.

Now, work your 1/3 portion of dough, the same way as the 2/3 portion: rolling into a log (but this time, make your log about 18 inches long); flatten and cut into 3 strands; braid; check for looseness; pinch together any breaks. My braid, above, had two problems. It was too loose at the "beginning" end, and it had a break. I flipped it over and re-braided/tightened the "beginning" end, and I pinched the break back together.

Place the second braid on top of the first braid, allowing the ends of the top braid to fall over both ends of the bottom braid.

Use the palm of your hand to gently smash down the ends of the top braid, onto the baking sheet.

Tuck these flattened ends under the bottom braid. Doing this is what gives the finished loaf a neatly-braided look, after baking.

Allow to rise until nearly doubled in bulk, and bake.

My other method for braiding dough isn't really a braid, at all. I especially love this other method for a Christmas morning bread. I baked a filled loaf, yesterday afternoon. I'll write up a post for that one, for tomorrow morning. 

I used a standard, refrigerator yeast roll dough, and filled with an almond filling. At other times, I have used nut/cinnamon/sugar filling, fruit/nut fillings, and cream cheese/herbs (for a savory filled bread).

This bread-braiding method comes from my Scandinavian heritage. I've always called it Crèche Bread, as it resembles the baby Jesus, wrapped in swaddling cloth, in the manger. However, when I went to verify that that is indeed what it is called, I couldn't find it anywhere, online. In any case, check back tomorrow, if you'd like to see a simple, but impressive method for filling and "braiding" bread dough.

Have a great day!

The snacky foods for our Christmas tree decorating gathering . . .

. . . all from what we had on hand.

It's a family tradition for us all to spend one evening together in December to put up our Christmas tree and other holiday decor in the house, and have a snacky sort of dinner, together. I don't make special purchases at the store, but instead I use whatever I find in our pantry, fridge and freezer. Even though I don't buy a lot of snack foods, routinely, it's always surprising how much of a meal I can throw together with what I have already.

This year, we had tomato and cheese cube kabobs (leftovers given to us after working at a fundraiser), smoked salmon spread (salmon from the freezer, a gift over a year ago), candy canes (bought last year at Dollar Tree), tortilla chips and salsa, smoked almonds, some cheese and onion pastries (son's girlfriend brought those), dried cranberries, veggies and dip, nut bar cookies and brownie cookies (leftovers given to us after working at the fundraiser), and orange segments. We had cola, which I was a "Friday freebie" a while ago at Fred Meyer, and hidden in the pantry until now.

The dinner was affordable, fun, festive and very easy on the cook! My kind of holiday cooking.