A September Recap for Groceries

Happy October, friends!

In September, I shopped on 2 occasions, 1 time hitting 3 stores, the other time just 1 store (trips 3 weeks apart), spending $182.30. That amount is greatly supplemented by the use of our emergency pantry/freezer, which I stocked in late spring and early summer. I spent more than I had planned in September. (My goal is to keep monthly spending to about $100 to $150, bringing my average monthly grocery spending to about $250 to $300/month when the use of emergency pantry is factored in). However, a good chunk of what I bought this past month contributes additional stock for the fall/winter pantry and freezer.

I'm shopping in-person for the time being, and 3 weeks seems to be my comfort zone. Any longer and I begin to feel antsy about running low on a few key ingredients. Any closer together and I worry about not-completely-necessary virus exposure. 

Here's what I bought:

Walmart (twice in month)

jalapenos -- for salsa

kosher hot dogs --Labor Day weekend

1 loaf of bread, some sandwich meat, and sliced cheese for a picnic -- Labor Day weekend

2.75 lbs beef stew meat

a couple dozen bananas

2 heads cabbage

2 bags pretzels

1 box graham crackers

2 bags oyster crackers

2 boxes cheerios-type cereal

several decaf and regular instant coffee

3 lbs dried black-eyed peas

12 canned corn

8 canned carrots

10 canned green beans

13 gals milk, whole and 2%

4.5 dozen eggs

6 frozen broccoli

2 frozen broccoli/cauliflower mix

12 frozen apple juice concentrate

6 frozen orange juice concentrate

1 bag frozen French fries

Dollar Tree

6 bags frozen blueberries 

Cash & Carry/Smartfood Service

25-lb bag of carrots
50-lb bag of onions
#10 can tomato paste

1-lb yeast

5-lb frozen peas

6-pack green bell peppers

50-lb whole wheat flour

cantaloupe

There are a few items that I bought that were just fun foods, since we're not eating out or getting take-out at all, such as French fries, sandwich meat, cheese, and a favorite bread just for a family picnic, good hot dogs for a cook-out, and the pretzels and crackers. These "treat" foods have been so enjoyed by my family; even the cold cereal was met with significant appreciation.

Going forward, this past week I did a thorough inventory and made up a shopping list of exactly what I want to buy in October to complete my emergency winter pantry/freezer. I am close to finishing and when I am done filling my stock, I'll be able to slide through the holiday season with minimal shopping. I'm not expecting a doomsday scenario with the virus, but my plan is to just stay out of stores this fall/early winter, if I can. I did read in the Wall Street Journal that stores are putting together "pandemic pallets" full of goods for this fall and winter in preparation for any surge in shopping. That's good news. No hunting for yeast, toilet paper, or flour. Last spring was a wild time to be shopping.

I'm still working away at the harvest this week. I picked the last bucket of plums this afternoon. I left about a dozen on the tree for my squirrel friends to find. Wasn't that nice of me? In reality, these were plums that I couldn't get to without risking life and limb. I started another batch of cucumber pickles, too, today. I feel so blessed this year. 

I hope that you're all enjoying a beautiful first day of October! Be back soon!

Garden-Fresh Potatoes Galore

Last spring, when this virus was first unfolding in the US, I made plans to plant an entire bed of potatoes in my vegetable garden. The bed I chose was one of the strawberry beds, an 8 X 4 bed. I transplanted all of the strawberry plants out of that bed and into the other beds to clear a spot. 

In the fall of 2019, I made the decision to not grow potatoes any more -- they're a lot of work to dig. So, we decided to eat all of the potatoes that I dug that fall and not save any for replanting. When spring rolled around and I changed my mind about the potatoes, I thought I was out of luck with the seed potatoes. Yet, to my delight, while cleaning out the garage in late March I came across a bucket of our potatoes that hadn't been touched. It wasn't a lot, maybe 2  pounds of potatoes. Next, I dug through the old potato bed in the garden and found a few stragglers that I had missed in the fall. Then I added 2 russet potatoes from my pantry that were sprouting. All totaled, I had about 4 or 5 pounds of potatoes to plant in the prepared, former strawberry bed.

With each mowing this summer, we mulched the potato bed with grass clippings. I'm not sure I'd recommend grass clippings as a sole mulch for potatoes, as they tend to mat with time. But they did do their job of holding in moisture and providing a dark place for potatoes to grow under the mat. In future years, I might add layers of shredded paper to the grass clippings.

The Harvest

First off, remember those 2 russet potatoes from my kitchen that I planted? Do you want to know how much I harvested from those? Well, I planted 2 russet potatoes, and I harvested -- drumroll please, wait for it -- 2 russet potatoes (wah wah). Yep, my russet potatoes only produced a single russet potato each. Fortunately, I did not put all of my potatoes into 1 egg basket (I know, mixed metaphors there). Instead, in addition to those russets, I planted  seed potatoes from our own potato stock that I knew from experience would be productive, purple fingerling potatoes. And were they ever productive. I harvested about 42 pounds of potatoes. And to make things even better, I only damaged 3 potatoes in the digging. (I can still use those damaged potatoes, just need to do so right away -- next week or so.)

I've always thought that growing potatoes is a great way to rejuvenate garden beds. I say this for 5 reasons: 1) I work the soil before adding the potatoes, digging deeper than I might if just planting lettuce or tomatoes; 2) I mulch potato beds heavily throughout the growing season, which not only helps hold in moisture but also blocks out weeds. I only found 1 single weed in the bed when harvesting; 3) that mulch, whatever I choose, gets worked into the soil when I harvest, enriching and aerating poor or depleted garden soil; 4) potatoes are harvested at the end of the growing season, meaning I leave a bed clean and weed-free for planting new vegetables in late winter or early spring (in this case, I'll move strawberry plants back into that bed in late fall); and 5) my rejuvenating work rewards me with lots of delicious, garden-fresh potatoes.

My back and shoulders are rather sore from yesterday's marathon potato-digging, but my mind is at ease, knowing we have enough fresh potatoes to last several months.

Making Plum Vinegar

Our Italian Prune tree has gifted us with so many ripe plums this year. In the last two weeks, we've eaten copious amounts of fresh plums and open-faced plum pies. And I've been making plum jam, plum chutney, and dried prunes to enjoy in winter. Today, I started a batch of plum-infused vinegar. I make most of our salad dressings from scratch, so it goes without saying that we use a lot of vinegar in our kitchen. I vary my homemade vinaigrettes by using a variety of flavored vinegars, from herb and chive blossom vinegars to fruity, berry vinegars. 

This plum vinegar is made with white vinegar and fresh, ripe plums. I've used regular distilled vinegar, as that is what I had. In an ideal world, I'd use a white wine vinegar for clearer flavor. 

This is how I made my plum vinegar:

• After washing the plums, I pitted and sliced them. For each pint jar, I used 1 cup of sliced, fresh plums. 
• I filled the jars with the plum slices, then poured vinegar over all to the fill line on the jars. I capped with a plastic lid and put away to infuse in a dark cupboard for about 6 weeks. I'll check the vinegar level after a day and top off if needed. (Sometimes there are air pockets between the plum slices that I miss when filling the jars with vinegar.)
• In 6 weeks' time, I'll strain the fruit out of the vinegar, add a pinch or two of sugar to sweeten and intensify the plum taste, and pour into bottles. That's it!

This is the time of year to be thinking about handmade gift-ables for the holiday season. Fruit-infused vinegar is so easy to make, yet so lovely to receive. A pretty bottle of flavored vinegar tied up with a bow and left on a neighbor's front porch in December would be a treat for the eye as well as the palette.

I hope all is well with you. I think about you all daily and wish I could be connecting with you more often. The harvest should be winding down dramatically in the next couple of weeks. Enjoy the rest of your day!

When Unhealthy Air Keeps Me Locked-up, I Turn to Google for DIY Instructions

The wind that we were expecting late Sunday, to scour out the smoky inversion, never arrived. And now, the forecasters are saying we could be in this "unhealthy" to "very unhealthy" air for most of this week. A now-sore throat combined with apprehension about what the smoke could do to my car's engine mean that I won't be going any where, any time soon. I had planned on doing a grocery shop this past Saturday, at which time I'd pick up the chili powder that I need for making more salsa.

In a moment of make-do attitude, I looked up recipes for homemade chili powder. Sure enough, there was a recipe that called for ingredients that I had on hand, primarily the dried chili pods (I use them for enchilada sauce, so I usually have a bag of them in the pantry).

This is what I used: dried red chili peppers, ground cumin, dried oregano leaf, garlic powder, and my handy, ancient (1980s) coffee/spice grinder. 

Following the recipe's instructions, I cleaned out the peppers then roasted them in a low oven before grinding them down. The chili powder tastes delicious, like mild versions of chili powder. The entire process, including rinsing the dried chilis, de-stemming and deseeding, roasting, then grinding took about 20 minutes, tops, and about half of that time I was simply waiting for the pods to roast or cool.

The bonus to making your own spice blends, such as chili powder, is if someone in your household has sensitivities to additives or is on a low-sodium diet, you can often leave those ingredients out. In checking the label on my empty chili powder container, the commercial kind had the following ingredient list: "spices (including red pepper, chili pepper), salt, garlic, silicon dioxide (anti-caking agent)."

If necessity is the mother of invention, then quarantines and other isolations are the mother of DIY via googled instructions.

If you're wondering this is the recipe that I mostly followed for the chili powder.

The "Super Massive Plume of Smoke" That Settled over My Area

 

A couple of you were asking about my area and the fire situation. While we do not have any fires near us, we are blanketed by a thick plume of smoke and haze from the California and Oregon fires. The other evening, one news source dubbed this a "super massive plume of smoke."

Here is a photo from this morning at about 9 AM. This is what the smoke and haze looks like in my backyard. The camera doesn't pick up the brownish tint of the sky or yellowish light throughout the yard as well as I am seeing out my window. If you look closely at the bottom of the V in the clearing between the trees, you can make out the silhouette of a couple of evergreen trees in the distance. These are behind the trees that you can see more clearly. Again, the camera doesn't pick up this image as well as I can see. But, these trees are on our neighbor's property, just over our property line. The smoke and haze are obscuring the view of these trees this morning. 

The air quality this morning is right around 200, depending on what source I check. This is the "unhealthy" to "very unhealthy" range for all individuals. The news has advised us to stay indoors with the windows closed. Even with windows closed and running an air purifier in one room 24/7, I've had a dusty feeling in my mouth and throat since yesterday morning. Parks, beaches, and some businesses have closed for the weekend. While this is not an emergency for my family, this is such a strange occurrence. I thought I'd update what it's like this morning for my area north of Seattle, for those of you who have expressed concern for our welfare.

BTW, air quality is expected to begin improving for us tonight into tomorrow morning. Until then, I am held captive indoors by air.

Is it ever economical to make preserves with store-bought ingredients?

Common wisdom is that if you want to save money, you shouldn't buy ingredients to make your own preserves, pickles, or relishes. While in many cases that's certainly true, I've found several instances where it did save me money to make some of my own preserves using store-bought ingredients. 

One of my favorites is tomato salsa. I make my salsa with almost exclusively purchased ingredients, including the tomatoes. I use canned, whole tomatoes that I buy in institutional-sized cans (known as #10 cans). I can get about 7 or 8 pints of salsa using 1 #10 can of tomatoes (cost me $3.10 to $3.50 a #10 can). I also buy the onions in bulk (50-lb sacks, at about 20 cents/lb), and jalapeno peppers (under $1 a pound). The other ingredients include garlic or garlic powder, salt, chili powder, vinegar, oregano (I grow), cilantro (I grow), and red pepper flakes (sometimes use those free packets that you can ask for with a pizza purchase). 7 to 8 pints of salsa cost me about $4 to make, or about 50 cents per pint jar, which is about 1/3 the cost of the cheapest commercial salsa at my local Walmart.

I love, love, love blueberry preserves. Bit I don't like the price so much. Walmart sells Smucker's Blueberry Preserves (18-oz jar) for $2.68. Bonne Maman 13-oz Wild Blueberry Preserves are even pricier at $4.34. I can buy a 10-oz bag of frozen blueberries at Dollar Tree for $1 ($1.60/lb) or a 40-oz bag of frozen, wild blueberries at Walmart for $4.88 ($1.95/lb). A 10-oz bag of frozen blueberries contains about 1  1/2 cups. So, using the Dollar Tree blueberries, I need 2.66 bags of blueberries, about 5  1/4 cups of sugar, 3 oz of pectin, and 2 tablespoons lemon juice (lemon zest in strips is also nice). This makes about 48 ounces of preserves for a cost of about $3.50 to $3.75, or the equivalent of $1.31 to $1.40 for an 18 ounce portion, half the price of Smucker's Blueberry Preserves. A comparable amount of wild blueberries (if I wanted to go the Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves route) would cost an additional 58 cents per batch, or $1.10 to $1.17 per 13-oz jar. That's almost 1/4 of the cost of Bonne Maman preserves.

You may recall that I make watermelon rind pickles, using the white portion of the watermelon rind. This part of the melon would otherwise be discarded, so I consider it to be free to me. However, I do have to buy sugar, spices, and vinegar to make those sweet and tangy pickles. If you can find watermelon rind pickles in your store, you'll see that they run about $4.75 to $5.00 for a 10-oz jar, or $7.60/16 oz. Even if I compared the price of homemade watermelon pickles to a more ordinary pickle, such as a bread and butter cucumber pickles, the least expensive jar of B & B pickles at my Walmart costs $1.84/24 oz. My homemade watermelon rind pickles cost me about 25 cents/16 oz (or 37 cents/24 oz).

Pickled carrots are another good example of making a pickle frugally with store-bought ingredients. I can buy carrots in 25-lb bags for under 40 cents per pound. The vinegar, spices, and sugar are also pretty inexpensive, so these pickles are a bargain to make and yet so nice to add to winter meals. Most of us likely wouldn't buy pickled carrots. So, a better cost comparison to the homemade pickled carrots is once again, the bread and butter cucumber pickles. Homemade carrot pickles cost me about 65 cents for a 16-oz jar, or 97 cents for a 24-oz comparison (to Walmart's B & B pickles) portion.

The trick to making preserves, pickles, and salsas inexpensively is to look for the main ingredient to be inexpensive to begin with, such as canned tomatoes, fresh carrots, to-be-discarded watermelon rind, or frozen blueberries. Sometimes this means buying in institutional-sized packages, other times on sale or from a discount store, or even buying "seconds" or imperfect produce. There are a couple of bonuses to making preserves and salsas with store-bought ingredients. One, even if it's a bad garden year, I can still make some much-enjoyed extras for our winter table. And two, I can make most of these preserves in the off-season, too, when I'm not overwhelmed with other end-of-summer tasks. 

Do you have any favorite frugal canning recipes that rely mostly on ingredients from the store? Please share!

Not Naturally Inclined Toward Organization

One of my activities for this summer has been decluttering and organizing cupboards, drawers, shelves, and closets for the whole house (with exception to others' personal spaces). The obvious advantage of doing this is less frustration when putting away or retrieving needed items. The bonus (which may or may not be greater than the organization part) is uncovering all of my forgotten supplies, often times in duplicate. A thorough annual or semi-annual clean-out is a necessity for keeping all of my family's belongings accounted for.

For example, I found 2 new rolls of clear packing tape. Packing tape is obviously good for sealing packages to be mailed. It also doubles as "scotch" tape for gift-wrapping, repairs torn freezer bags, laminates paper items (like recipes recorded on paper/cards), cleans lint and hair from clothing and upholstery, etc. We find this kind of tape so useful that I buy a couple of rolls per year.

I also discovered that I have enough pj bottoms for another winter season. I had thought I would need a new pair when one of my two current favorites wore thin in the seat this past winter. I also have enough sweat and fleece jackets to get through another cold weather season. And, I found that I had more socks than I need, so I donated 4 good-condition pairs to one grateful daughter. 

I pulled all of the gift items together that I've acquired over the past two years and now have them in one spot -- the designated gift closet (where they should have been all along). I've got a great start on holiday and birthday shopping/gifting for the coming season. 

In the kitchen I found several stashes of cleaned, gently used freezer bags. We now have enough freezer bags for all of our freezing needs this summer and fall. 

I also discovered that we can stop buying hair conditioner now. I think I have enough hair conditioner to get through this pandemic and the next one. 

And, we have not one but 2 ping pong balls for our table. I found each ball in a different cupboard. Go figure.

You may not know this about me, but I am not naturally inclined toward organization. When it comes to putting things away, my mind scatters in a multitude of directions. To give you an example of what I mean, I'll tell you about my recipe card file. 

The sorting dividers for my recipe box are alphabetized index cards (with A, B, C, etc tabs). I can never settle on just one section for a particular recipe card. For instance, with my recipe for rhubarb custard pie, some days I think "I'll file this under R for rhubarb, so when it's rhubarb season again next year, I'll know where to find it." On other days I think, "this recipe is for a pie, so I'll file it under P for pie." And yet on another day, I'll find myself certain that the most logical place for this card is under D for desserts. Even if I had the kind of divider cards that said Desserts, Entrees, Vegetables, etc, I might still find myself conflicted over which section to place the card. Can you imagine what it's like when I need to actually find a particular recipe card? I was making salsa this morning and had to search through several sections to find that card. I ultimately found it under T, you know, for tomatoes. *smacks hand on forehead* 

And if you think this sounds bad with me trying to organize a house, imagine what it's like when you throw a bunch of other people into the mix. No one here really gets my "system." So I may put item X away in the drawer with other Xs. Yet my husband will put item X in the drawer with Ys. Most of the time, we all just hunt around for whatever we're seeking. This really does make a good case for not packing cupboards and closets completely full, and instead leaving lots of air space around each item for better visibility. And that brings me back to my big task this summer -- getting rid of everything not truly necessary and organizing what is left. 

I sometimes throw out something that I later regret. This used to really bother me. (You know -- "I just knew I shouldn't get rid of that do-hickey. Now I am do-hickeyless right when I most need one.") I now look at this as one of the "costs" of getting and staying organized. Just about everything we do has a cost of some sort, be it time, money, or effort. So I may have a regret or two after this summer's clean-out. But for the most part, the wee bit more of sanity we'll enjoy when retrieving or putting things away will out-weigh the expense of replacing those do-hickeys.

I would like to say that the flip side to my lack of inclination toward organization is that I'm creative and spontaneous, and loads of fun to be around. However, I'm sure my mother would point out that I can be creative and fun while still putting my socks away in their proper drawer.

Back to decluttering my drawers.

Are you the naturally organized type? What are your secrets?

An August Recap for Groceries

Hi friends!

I often feel that my life doesn't relate much to the lives of others. I guess I feel peripheral, if that makes any sense. Despite that, today I thought I'd write a little bit about my mundane life, anyways, because there might be something in it that resonates with someone.

For the last several months, I've been using a variety of methods for getting my groceries while minimizing my risk of this virus, including Walmart's curbside pick-up service, Walmart's shipping, Target's shipping, Amazon, and more rarely, a quick in-the-store-grab-and-pay for a small basket of specific items (no more lingering or browsing the grocery stores). 

This morning, I did the Walmart curbside pick-up part of August's grocery shopping. They were sold out of Great Value mayonnaise this week, so I ordered Market Pantry mayo through Target.com (as part of a larger order to get free shipping). When I place an online order for groceries, I not only open a tab on my laptop for Walmart, but also for Target and Fred Meyer. Target's mayo was 3 cents more per quart than Walmart's, but it's available to ship this week. I compare prices and decide if it's worth it to me to shop a second or even third store for specific items. 

Yep, comparison shopping did not come to an end for me with this pandemic. I just acquire the groceries differently now. This month, I shopped 3 places -- target.com, Walmart online/curbside, and in-person Fred Meyer. 

For a while, I was using the earliest pick-up time slot, 7 AM to 8 AM. That was often the only time slot left during a week. Fortunately for this night owl, other time slots have opened up. This morning, I opted for the 8 AM to 9 AM slot. One daughter was coming with me as she needed to swing by Hobby Lobby for an art supply. (See, we're still batching errands, too.)

What I noticed about this month's grocery order

As in July, I spent far less on food than in April, May, or June. August's total grocery spend came to $92.18. This low total reflects that we're eating from our stores of food, plus the items that I bought did not include meat or cheese (stocked up on those in previous months) but were primarily canned, fresh, and frozen fruits and vegetables, some pantry items, and several gallons of milk bought early in the month.

Walmart has the option for them to make substitution choices if my requests can't be met. I always tick this box, as the substitutions have been a pretty good deal for me. In two instances, I was subbed a significantly larger size of the foods at no extra cost to me. This order, there was 1 non-food item with a favorable substitution --  a 34-oz bottle of hand sanitizer for the price of an 8-oz one. I was not as thrilled with the other substitution on this order. I had ordered frozen cauliflower, but was subbed the broccoli-cauliflower blend. This wouldn't be an issue, except I'd planned on using the cauliflower in places where I might have used pasta. I can still pour marinara sauce over the cauli-broccoli mix, but it won't have the same visual effect. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. My disappointment is not great enough to return the substitution. I can still use this product and it did not cost me anything extra. I'll try for the cauliflower the next time I place an order.

July's order came with a couple of surprises. They were marketing gadgets, fridge magnet clips, but still very useful to me. These large clips are useful as chip-clips to hold bags closed. This month's surprise was even better -- a free sample of a fresh peach. The peach was boxed and marked as a sample, so I know this wasn't an error. Lucky me, I get a free treat! I don't know if including these surprises is a new "thing" with Walmart, but I'm happy to accept them.

So what did I buy in August?

watermelon
corn-on-the-cob

fresh carrots

onions

cabbage

bananas

milk

canned beets

canned carrots

ketchup

mustard

mayo

coffee

decaf

oyster crackers

graham crackers

box of donuts (took these to the beach with coffee as a morning treat)

frozen wild blueberries (cheaper than the non-wild ones, go figure)

frozen cauliflower and broccoli blend

frozen peas

frozen broccoli cuts (cuts are less expensive than the regular frozen broccoli)

frozen brussels sprouts

frozen apple juice concentrate

The fresh produce will supplement what we have coming in from the garden and will be consumed in the next few weeks. We'll use some of the canned and frozen produce now, but a good chunk of it is tagged for use this fall and winter.

The weather this week has been all over the map. Early in the week, we were roasting in 90+ degree heat and eating cold salads for dinners. The temps have since plummeted 20 degrees and brought rain and clouds. Last night I made baked beans, mac and cheese, carrot sticks and watermelon for dinner -- a much more fall-like meal for our household. I have homemade burgers planned for tonight, but only if it dries up around here.

That's about it for this week. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Fresh Apples and Sea Glass

Yesterday was an apple-picking day. When we planned our orchard, we guessed at when some fruits would ripen in our own yard and hoped for a variety of fruits and berries that would be ready over the course of the entire season, not all at once. We began with 5 apple trees. We've now lost two of them and are down to an early, a late, and a very late apple. 

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been finding some of the early apples here and there on the ground in the garden, partially chewed then discarded by either raccoons or squirrels. Time to beat those little rascals to our fruit, even if they're still a bit green. So, yesterday I took the large stock-pot, 2 ladders, and a jacket with deep pockets out to the orchard. Luckily for me, I'm still able to keep my balance on the ladders. I climb, fill my pockets with apples, then descend to add to the stock-pot. I came away with an overfull pot of apples yesterday. 

I did pretty well, only dropping 2 apples out of the whole bunch. When I realized I was getting tired and was likely to make a mistake or lose my balance, I called it quits for the day. This afternoon, I'll see if I can reach those last few apples.

The ripening of the early apples serves as a reminder that summer doesn't last forever and cooler weather is on its way. It's a bittersweet moment. I love the coziness of fall weather, but I love summer so much and know that I will miss it terribly until it arrives once again next year. This feeling serves as an impetus for me to get out there and do those summery things that I love, such as beach combing for sea glass. 

Remember my wire-wrapping jewelry? Well, I'm working on wrapping some of the sea glass that I've collected over the years to make pendants, earrings, and beads for a necklace or bracelet. The learning curve isn't too steep for wire-wrapping sea glass, but my technique is still definitely an in-progress thing. But it's been fun seeing what I can do with my collection of glass pieces. Here's a piece of green sea glass wrapped in silver wire to use as a pendant.

Back to those apples -- later yesterday afternoon, I cooked a pot of caramel sauce for dipping apple pieces. 

If you love the taste of caramel apples but are not keen on the precision for making a thick caramel coating for whole apples, an imprecise caramel sauce is just the thing. I like to cut the apples into wedges and place them around a pool of caramel sauce. This makes a delicious dessert or snack for my family members (and of course, for me).

And now, I'm back out to the orchard to get those last early apples. I hope you are enjoying these fleeting summer days!

Using My Emergency Food Supply

Back to my emergency food supply . . .

Building a supply is just the first part of utilizing an emergency food storage. Using everything up in a timely manner, minimizing redundancy, and maintaining variety in meals for the duration of the supply is the next step.

The other week, I mentioned that I have a simple but very effective manner for using all of the foods that I've stockpiled. This is literally a quickly scratched out plan, using a leftover calendar and page of a notebook.

Back in early May, I spent an afternoon taking inventory of several of the backbone ingredients to our meals, such as grains, meat and other protein sources, and fruits and vegetables. I could easily see that for some foods, we had an ample supply. So, metering out the use would be as simple as deciding to use each a set number of times per week. For example, we have enough rice and pasta to just say, "okay, we'll have rice 3 dinners per week and pasta for two." No need to make any sort of elaborate use-scheme for metering out those ingredients. Similarly, I bought enough raisins, peanut butter, and jarred applesauce to simply bring out 1 or 2 containers of each at the beginning of each month. Other foods, such as dinner protein sources, were a tiny bit more complex and therefore required more calculations and planning. 

For dinner protein, I have quite a variety in the freezer and pantry, including canned tuna, canned chicken, chicken leg quarters, b/s chicken breasts, whole chickens, breakfast sausage, pork bacon, turkey bacon, loose ground beef, frozen burger patties, hot dogs, a whole ham, frozen eggs, TVP, and an assortment of beans. I tallied up the servings of each protein source, then plotted out their use on a sheet of paper, allotting an entire calendar year. I've used tally marks to indicate how many meals of each protein source are to be used in each month. I made sure to plan for some holidays and celebrations, for which we might want specific foods/meats. 

not at all elaborate -- my quickly scratched out distribution of dinner protein
foods, using a page in a notebook. A bit of a mess, but it works.

To use this distribution chart, I circle the tally marks as I plan for each meat/protein when making out a rough menu plan each week. I received a free, small calendar this past January and had not yet figured out how I would use it. Anyway, this seemed like the perfect little planning tool for our dinner menus. Once per week, I take out the distribution chart and plot out the protein sources for each night of the week, noting the meats for the week first, then filling in with eggs, TVP, or beans for the non-meat days. If for some reason we don't use one or more of the meats for a month, then those foods become bonus meats to use in lunches. For example, we didn't use 1 batch of hotdogs and 2 cans of chicken in July. Those meats will now be added to August lunches.

July's dinner ingredient planning.
The upper left corner of the menu is where I add my grocery shopping totals.
I shopped twice for groceries in July.  Most of July's food
came from the emergency pantry/freezer stocked in April and May.

I spend about 5 minutes per week rough-planning our dinners. I don't choose recipes during this planning time, but merely allocate what meats we'll be eating on which night. As I do other things during the week, I figure out how we'll prepare the meats. In addition, our garden's abundance is also plotted out on the calendar as I see what needs using up. The other household members each cook a night per week, so the calendar (posted on our fridge) is there for them, too, to see what foods they should use in their meal.

I'm not one to go to elaborate planning for meals. This solution was simple, cost nothing, and has been a boon to our dinner planning for the past 3 months. I expect it will continue to be a success as we go into fall and winter, too.

I mentioned above that I took note of celebrations and holidays when distributing the protein foods by month on the first chart. With Thanksgiving and Christmas in a yet unknown period of transmission of the coronavirus, I've saved whole chickens to be used in lieu of turkeys for those holiday meals. I've also set aside special breakfast foods, such as sausage and bacon for holiday and other celebratory breakfasts.

You may be wondering, how is this an emergency food supply if we're currently using it up? Every couple of months, I am refilling most of the basic foods in our storage, so that we could continue to have an emergency supply for as long as we feel it's needed. This approach gives me the freedom to watch for sales and deals as I fill the developing gaps.

Anyway, this is the scheme that I've developed for using our stockpile. An easy-peasy plan for our emergency pantry -- no waste, no redundancy, and low effort meal planning. 

I hope you're all having a wonderful first week of August!

Our Sunday Brunch Cook-Out

Since we're still only gathering outdoors with our son and DIL (and they are the only ones outside our household that we're gathering with), we decided on a cook-out brunch for July's get-together. This worked out well. We were able to maintain some physical distance while spending good time together. After brunch, we set up the croquet set and enjoyed some backyard fun.

Our Menu

Make your own kabobs, using the following:

• chicken-apple sausage (cut into chunks)
• pork breakfast sausage
• pork bacon (strips cut in half to thread onto skewers like ribbon candy)
• bell pepper chunks
• pineapple chunks
• onion chunks
• new potatoes, purple fingerling from garden (pre-cooked for about 11-12 minutes in pot of simmering water)
• Chinese sweet sausage (brought by son and DIL)

extra dishes to round out the meal:

pan of overnight cinnamon rolls

quiche (baked the day before)

berries and bananas (garden raspberries and blueberries)

orange juice, sparkling water, and kombucha (brought by son and DIL)

I set up all of the food on a table on our deck. Each plate was lined with a sheet of waxed paper so that uncooked meat would not contaminate the plates from which we'd eat. My son and his wife went up to the deck to fill their plates first, then our household followed after they were done. (My son and DIL have more interactions with other people than we do, so we're just being ultra-cautious not to be in such close proximity that we're breathing directly on each other.)

We each assembled our own skewers on our own waxed paper-lined plate (threw out our waxed paper after putting the kabobs togethers and roasting). Then we each cooked our own skewers over a fire in the patio fire ring. At this point we helped ourselves to the extra dishes and beverages then ate our brunch in chairs set up on the patio.

I had almost everything in my kitchen to create this menu, only adding the chicken-apple sausage and green pepper to my shopping order for July. It was fun, changed things up, and very budget-friendly for us.

Entertaining within our current pandemic restrictions can be tricky. At least for right now, it's summer and the weather allows us to gather outdoors.

Sorry I wasn't here last week. I was busy all week, in large part, cleaning up outdoor spaces (scrubbing the brick patio, cleaning the deck, etc). I hope you all had a wonderful week!

My Emergency Freezer Storage

Although a dry storage pantry is a good way to keep many foods, I've found that's it's more economical to keep some foods in frozen form. This would include eggs, some of our milk, and most of our meat. 

• Powdered eggs are very expensive, yet fresh eggs are relatively easy to freeze and take up just a small amount of freezer space (see this post on freezing eggs). 
• With regards to milk -- as many of you likely discovered this spring, powdered non-fat milk is expensive. Powdered whole milk (I use whole milk for making yogurt) is even more so. Most of us only have so much freezer-space to give over to those large gallon jugs of milk. So, I freeze several months' worth of whole milk for making yogurt and enough jugs of 2% drinking milk to get through about 1 to 2 months. The rest of our emergency milk is powdered non-fat, bought as cheaply as I could find.
• I do stock some canned meat. However, for variety and economy, fresh meat kept in the freezer is my preference.

So, what all did I buy (or plan to buy) for my emergency freezer supplies? Here's my list:

eggs and dairy

• eggs, frozen in pint containers, 6 eggs per each container, total of 10 dozen -- egg prices are still low, so I may add another 5 dozen eggs to the freezer in the next couple of weeks. This would give us a 3-month supply of eggs.
• whole milk, frozen in gallons for making yogurt, enough to make yogurt for 3 to 4 months. (I will add some 2% gallons for drinking as room allows in the next few weeks.)
• 5-lb bags of cheese (I was able to buy a few bags of mozzarella when prices were super low -- about $1.70/lb)

meat

• frozen whole chickens
• frozen hamburger patties (Walmart, GV, less expensive per pound than fresh ground beef)
• frozen hot dogs
• frozen bacon (both turkey and pork, bought before prices skyrocketed)
• frozen pork sausage links
• frozen ham
• I may add 1 or 2 whole turkeys this fall

fruits and vegetables

• frozen foraged and garden berries -- we plan on picking wild blackberries again this year. Last year we picked 16 ice cream pails full.
• chopped rhubarb -- I freeze it on trays then put in a gallon ziploc
• quarts of homemade rhubarb sauce
• frozen orange and apple juice concentrate, enough for several months (Walmart, GV)
• some garden herbs, basil and rosemary -- they retain more flavor when frozen as opposed to dried

fats and oils

• frozen butter (restaurant supply, case of 30 1-lb blocks, bought when prices were super low)

There's a major difference that affects quantity and choice between a dry storage and freezer emergency storage -- capacity. Unless you live in an RV or tiny house, your capacity for dry storage is actually quite large. You can store canned goods in spare closets, laundry rooms, basements, cabinets/armoires/trunks in living spaces, under beds, behind sofas, almost anywhere except bathrooms (too humid for many goods). In contrast, with freezer storage, the limit is quite obvious. Many of us just have the freezer attached to our refrigerator. Some of us also have a stand-alone freezer. I'm quite fortunate to have abundant freezer space. 

If I had to prioritize freezer space while thinking of frugality and stocking up for an emergency, I would focus on meat (because the price on meat can fluctuate greatly and I wouldn't want to be caught out with too little meat for an extended period), eggs (they take so little space to store in the freezer and we know that egg prices rise every fall through winter), canned juice concentrate (also takes up little room, with cans fitting in gaps between other items), and some butter (but only if found on sale). 

With surplus garden or foraged produce -- if my freezer space were limited, I would focus on canning those items. And for the milk, I would keep powdered milk on hand instead of freezing gallon jugs of milk, as milk takes up a lot of space in a freezer and powdered is a good alternative in an emergency.

Also, you should know that I have other foods in my freezer, just none that I bought specifically to get through an extended period without shopping. For example, I freeze leftovers, homemade stock, homemade bread and buns, ice cream in season, other meat that I find great deals on, some frozen veggies, and odds and ends from the garden. These are items that we use on a regular basis and are not held aside to use at a later date.

In addition to the emergency pantry, we have always planned on using the garden and orchard for at least a little fresh produce from March through October. The garden and orchard have always been a component of our "back-up plan."


Next week, I'll share how I ensure we use everything spread over a long period, while maintaining a lot of variety every week.

How to Save Money on Annuals for the Landscape

The title of this post is deliberately misleading. Most of us want to know that top secret tip for how to buy a thing and spend less money. But often, we can save the most money by just cleaning up what we already own.

I usually cut the lavender when in the bud stage to dry the buds for culinary and craft use.
This year, I decided to let the lavender flower for an extended show of color and fragrance
on the deck.

I've been busy in the yard all week. I've pruned trees, hoed the moss and weeds out from under various trees and shrubs, weeded perennial beds, and swept the hard surfaces. This cost nothing but time and labor. 

In previous years, I've bought annuals to pop into pots and beds around the yard to brighten the landscape. This year, I kept my wallet closed and skipped the flats of annual flowers. Instead, I've brightened the landscape by doing those previously-mentioned yard-tidying chores. And you know what? It's really beginning to look nice.


This strategy works for many of our belongings and living areas. If you tidy and clean your home, it won't be new, but it will look heaps better. If you mend, remove stains, and iron your clothing, your outfits won't be hot off the catwalk, but you'll look quite presentable. And, if you wash that old car, it's appearance will outshine the fact that it is now in its second decade of service. 

Taking care of and cleaning up what we own is one of the oldest techniques for saving money while still looking good.


So, that's what I've been doing this week -- making my yard and garden sparkle with time and hard work, saving my money by not buying annuals.

For the flowers, this year I chose to enjoy the many perennials and flowering shrubs that grace our property. When possible, I have moved pots and troughs of perennials and flowering herbs to spots where we will most enjoy their *free* blooms. 


One daughter mowed the front lawn today. Next up, get a daughter to wash the car and my husband to help scrub the patio furniture. Sparkle, sparkle.



I'm writing up what's in my emergency freezer to post late this week (maybe on Saturday), for those interested. I hope you're all enjoying beautiful summer weather.

What's in My Emergency Pantry?

For me, an emergency pantry is not about a dooms-day scenario or apocalyptic end times.

An emergency pantry is . . .
preparation
An emergency pantry is . . .
prioritized savings
An emergency pantry is . . .
Plan B

Winter of 2008-2009 and winter of 2019 showed the PNW that mild winters are not guaranteed, here. Some years, the roads are unsafe for several weeks for my little car. Do I want to be one of the folks whose preparation for a storm begins the evening before it hits? Or do I want to be one of the folks who is comfy in my pjs watching for those first snowflakes? Beyond snowstorms, an emergency necessitating an already full pantry can come in the form of a layoff, accelerated food inflation, or as we've found this year, less-safe conditions for shopping in stores.


My pantry "savings account"
Financial experts tell us to pay ourselves first, that is, put money into savings before anything else. This is a way to prioritize how our income is spent and reduces the chance that we find ourselves without an umbrella on that proverbial rainy day. A full emergency pantry is another way to prioritize savings. It means that at some point along the line, I have chosen to stock my emergency pantry instead of buying that fun pair of sandals for the summer, or eating out at a favorite restaurant, or taking a long, holiday weekend at the beach. I have actively chosen eating over non-essential spending.

Plan A is for us to maintain a good income, a solid savings strategy, and good health, so that we can continue to cover the basics and have some of the fun stuff, too. Plan A is obviously the best-case scenario of life. But when stock markets fall, employment falls apart, widespread viruses hit, or road conditions prevent deliveries or shopping, Plan B, the emergency pantry, will keep us fed for weeks or even months.

One of the issues with emergencies is they usually happen unexpectedly. Keeping a large stock of fresh foods on hand at all times would mean that my household might have a lot of spoilage. So, shelf-stable foods like canned goods and dry foods work best for an emergency pantry. Keep that in mind as you read the following list of foods that may not be part of a typical, weekly grocery list.


So, what's in my emergency pantry?

I tried to cover the basic food groups in quantities enough to outlast several months without stepping into a store or placing an order.

My emergency pantry is filled with grains, dried beans, canned chicken and tuna, powdered milk, seasonings, pasta, small amounts of flour packed in plastic packaging, ditto on the sugar, peanut butter, raisins, applesauce, canned carrots, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes, instant mashed potatoes, solid vegetable shortening, vegetable oil, dried cheese, soup base, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, canned pineapple, canned green beans, and lots more. 

Here's a run-down of what I've got in dry storage:

(Where applicable, best place for price that I've found is in parentheses.)

dairy

• powdered cow's milk, enough for 3 to 4 months
• powdered soy milk, the year's supply as it's less expensive than liquid
• powdered coffee creamer, about 1/2 pound
• cheddar cheese powder, about 1 pound
• Parmesan cheese, 1 large container per month (Walmart, GV in-store)

meat and vegetarian protein

• canned tuna, a couple dozen cans (Great Value, Walmart in-store or online)
• canned chicken, a couple dozen cans (Walmart, Swanson)
• dried beans, several varieties, about 30 lbs -- 2 lbs per week's use (Walmart in-store and online, restaurant supply)
• TVP (nuts.com, 25-lb case, gluten-free)
• peanut butter, 1 large jar per month (Walmart GV, in-store)
• canned and bagged nuts

fruits and vegetables

• jarred applesauce (Fred Meyer and Walmart, store brand, 1 or 2 jars per month)
• canned pineapple (Walmart, GV, in-store)
• large canisters of raisins (Great Value, online)
• canned cranberry sauce (Walmart)
• canned pumpkin (Walmart end of last season, GV)
• canned yams (Walmart)
• canned tomatoes and tomato paste (restaurant supply in #10 cans)
• canned green beans (Winco and Fred Meyer -- last fall's sales)
• canned corn (Winco and Fred Meyer -- last fall's sales)
• canned spinach (Great Value, in-store)
• canned carrots (Great Value, in-store)
• still looking for good deals on canned peas and canned peaches
• dried herbs, garlic powder, onion powder (garden on first 1, Walmart on last 2)

grains and starches

• instant mashed potatoes (Great Value, Walmart, in-store)
• whole wheat and white flour (restaurant supply and Walmart)
• cornmeal
• brown rice (restaurant supply, 50-lb bag)
• white rice (Great Value, online, 20-lb bags)
• barley
• rolled and steel cut oats (restaurant supply, 25-lb bag)
• popcorn (restaurant supply, 12.5 lb bag)
• pasta, I bought 3 pounds for every month (Walmart and Dollar Tree -- 3-lb box GV macaroni about 60 cents/lb, in-store Walmart, 4-lb box spaghetti GV, Walmart, online in two-pack, 64 cents/lb)

fats and oils

• gallon jugs of vegetable oil, 1 gallon for 2 months (Walmart, in-store and online)
• solid vegetable shortening (Great Value, in-store and online)

extras

• granulated sugar (Although I buy 50-lb sacks of sugar at the restaurant supply, I also keep two 4-lb bags of sugar over-wrapped in a plastic ziploc. This is "just-in-case" sugar.)
• molasses (for making brown sugar, pancake syrup, or in cakes and cookies)
• vinegar (for making baking powder substitute or salad dressings or marinades -- I bought an extra gallon for emergency pantry)
• baking soda, a few pounds (for making baking powder substitute, use in cleaning, or in baking, as is)
• cocoa powder (Walmart, in-store, GV or Hershey's)
• chocolate chips (making candy, melting for s'mores patties, baking cookies -- Walmart, in-store)
• extracts
• salt
• beef and chicken soup base
• spices -- large containers from restaurant supply
• corn starch
• future vegetables in the form of seeds
• coffee/tea
• canned olives
• mayonnaise, a couple of jars (need to get a jar or two of mustard, still)
• still looking for yeast in my area

Almost all of the above is in addition to my regular pantry. I keep the bulk of this on a set of shelves behind a door in my office.  Many folks keep their emergency supplies in a basement on shelves or in a garage on shelves in well-sealed storage totes. But for those who lack a basement or completely rodent-free garage (this is us), I can testify that shelves in a closet (or in the open) in a spare bedroom, office, or den also works. 

Although the purpose of this pantry is for emergencies, it is a working pantry. That is, I am currently using items from it; however, I replenish what is used on a monthly basis, rotating the stock so I'm always using the oldest items first. In this way, we have ample emergency supplies, but risk nothing to overextending the expiration dates.

For my own emergency pantry, I selected items that would be normal or normal-substitutes for my own family. An example of a normal item-substitute is the instant potato flakes. My family prefers whole potatoes. But whole potatoes are subject to spoilage. It's not really practical to store 40 to 50 pounds of whole potatoes in my office. I'm also not the biggest canned spinach fan. But canned spinach is shelf-stable -- doesn't take up valuable freezer space. I can make-do in recipes with the canned stuff, should an emergency strike. Ditto with carrots and using the canned for the emergency pantry instead of fresh carrots. 

What's not in this pantry is snack foods. Items like crackers and chips would be raided from the emergency pantry long before any actual emergency hit. So, I stuck to inexpensive basic foods that need some sort of preparation. There's little chance my family will gorge on pasta; but if they did, the cost of pasta was so low, it would be okay.

To determine how much of each food item was needed, I simply multiplied the amounts that I know we normally use in a month by the months that I expect my pantry to sustain us in an emergency. I spent about 2 months procuring everything for my emergency pantry. 

I compared prices between Walmart online, Walmart in-store (using the free pick-up service), Target delivery, Fred Meyer (using pick-up), and Cash & Carry (our restaurant supply store). There were limits on many items, so the purchases were spread over a few visits/orders. While most of the time, buying foods in-store was less expensive than ordering online, there were a few exceptions and I noted those. Often times, the online deals were due to buying multiple quantities. But at least in one instance, the online product was simply cheaper than the in-store version.

With what I bought in addition to what I already hand on hand, my family of 4 adults could live for several months (6 or more), without any further shopping.

About cost . . . I used our vacation money for 2020 to pay for all of the above. However, this is simply pre-paid food. With a few exceptions (powdered milk, for example), I paid close to what I would normally when shopping on a monthly basis. An example, the canned spinach was 48 cents for a 13.5 oz can, or 57 cents/lb. I normally buy frozen spinach for about 80 cents/lb in 3-lb blocks at the restaurant supply. With the canned carrots, also 48 cents each, my normal good price on fresh carrots is about 45 cents/lb. So, for some foods, I came out a little ahead and others a little behind my normal spend for the item. As a result, I feel okay about the cost to stock this emergency pantry. No one likes to spend a huge chunk of money on basic items. But for peace of mind as we possibly approach a second wave of this virus, which in turn could result in employment instability (this has been a worry for our family, living on one income), this was a good move for my family.

I consider my freezer to be an extension of our emergency pantry. Many foods are either more economical, save time, or retain a higher level of nutrients when in frozen form. I'll write up what I bought for our freezer this next week. 


When I began writing this post, I wasn't sure if I would publish it. However, as Kathryn (in the comments a couple of days ago) requested more information about stocking an emergency pantry, I went ahead and finished this up to post. Kathryn, I hope this post answers your questions. You've seen how I prepare meals for my family. I mostly use basic ingredients, cooking from scratch, and try to vary the resulting food. Especially for an emergency pantry (which would only need to be the sole source of food for a limited time), this seems to be the most cost-effective way to provide meals, even if there would be some redundancy.

Reclaiming What is Rightfully Ours: Using Unripe Sweet Cherries before the Birds, Raccoons, and Squirrels Get Them

Every year, same story. Those pesky pests (squirrels, raccoons, blackbirds) beat us to the cherries before we can enjoy even a handful. Earlier this year, we began scheming how we could beat those rascals to the punch.

Yesterday morning, after chasing 6 blackbirds out of one cherry tree, I made a call in my house for all hands on deck. The family joined me to pick all of the reddish cherries we could find. We left the yellow and barely peachy ones on the tree, but got a bucket full of the red, but unripe ones. (These cherries would normally be dark red when ripe, like a Bing cherry.) When picked underripe, the cherries are not as sweet and lacking a bit in flavor.

After lunch, I set out to pit and use these cherries. I decided on an open-faced pie. Cherries meant for eating fresh tend to be quite juicy, so a pie without a top crust would allow for evaporation of liquids. I added sugar, lemon juice, and almond extract until the flavor was just right. The lemon juice gave the cherries the tartness they needed while the almond extract boosted the cherry flavor.

In the end, it was 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 3/4 cup of sugar, and 1  1/2 teaspoons almond extract that gave cherries enough for 1 full pie just the right flavor. I also tossed the cherries with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to help thicken the juices. In hind sight, I would increase the cornstarch to 3 tablespoons for thickening.

This is how full the pie pastry was before baking, to give you an idea of how many cherries will yield a full pie.

I baked the pie at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Then I reduced the temp to 350 degrees F and baked another 30 minutes. At this point, the crust and some of the cherries were browning, so I covered the pie with an inverted pan (our skillet which has lost its handle was just the right diameter and depth) and baked for another 15 minutes.

After baking, this is how much the cherries "shrunk" down. 

The family agreed -- this pie was absolutely delicious.

There are enough of the ripening cherries for me to do this one more time later this week, if we can keep those pests out of the tree.

Making the most of what we can get from our garden this year.

Homespun Holidays: Our 4th of July Dinner Using What's on Hand

Here's our menu for the 4th's cookout dinner. It uses many of the components of our other summer meals, so I thought I'd share, here.

hot dogs in homemade buns

scratch macaroni and cheese

jello salad using pureed vanilla-rhubarb sauce/plain gelatin as the base with sliced homegrown strawberries and banana slices, all topped with whipped cream from the freezer (leftover from the winter holidays)

large tossed salad containing homegrown Romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, watercress, and radish seed pods, frozen peas (thawed), turkey bacon bits, grated cheese, homemade sourdough croutons, and a scratch dressing

carrot curls, watermelon pickles and olives

s'mores --graham crackers, marshmallows, and large, semi-sweet chocolate patties made from melted chocolate chips

Earlier in the day, we plan on having a combination birthday/Easter/4th of July cake, followed by an Easter egg hunt -- events that we didn't get to celebrate as a whole family due to lockdowns. I baked the cake layers in advance and froze them to make my day just a little bit simpler. I've got the layers thawing in the fridge now, and will frost them Saturday morning. After the cookout, we'll have some fun with fireworks. It will be a long and busy day, that's for sure.

Wishing you all a safe holiday!