My Tomato Seedlings Grown from Seeds

I started a bunch of tomato plants the last week of February and have been growing them under lights indoors ever since. This is what my six-week old plants look like now. I'll be able to transplant these out to the raised bed garden, under plastic tunnels, after the 22nd of April. The Farmer's Almanac says I could transplant these out around the 12th to 18th of the month in my area, but my particular microclimate is a bit cooler than other parts of my zip code, due to lots of tall evergreen trees all throughout my neighborhood.

Anyway, just updating. The plants are looking healthy. I hope they will size-up a bit more before planting time.

So, a cost analysis -- I bought seeds this winter, spending about $3 for enough seeds for two seasons, so estimating $1.50 for the seeds for this batch of plants. I also bought potting soil in which to start the seeds and have been using electricity for the grow lights. A high estimate for a batch of 10 seedlings (some to give away and some to plant) is around $2.75 to $3.00, or 28 to 30 cents each plant. In some past years, I've bought a 4-pack of small seedlings for around $2.50, or about 60 cents per plant. And in other years, I've bought the much larger plants for about $2.50 to $3.00 each plant. 

Starting from seeds -- 30 cents each. Buying small seedlings -- 60 cents each. Buying large plants -- $3.00 each. 

The happy side bonus is that I get to watch the plants grow bigger and bigger with each passing week. You can't put a price tag on happy moments, can you?

Happy Easter!

 

Wishing you a Happy Easter!

Our Easter Menu

Mounce, Grace. Easter Watercolor. 2021.
Watercolor and gouache on paper. 7 in. x 10 in.

Yet another holiday celebrated as an outdoor event! We plan on having a cook-out (surprise, surprise), so that we can have our son and daughter-in-law with us. Our plan is an early afternoon brunch. And we'll once again use our patio fire ring. With the fire, we all stay warm as we roast our main dish. Here's the menu:

Brunch Kabobs (ham chunks, smoked beef sausage, green and red pepper chunks & mushrooms)

Egg and Cheese Strata

Baked Apples

Tomato and Watercress Salad

Grilled Canned Pineapple Slices

Banana Bread

Orange Juice, Coffee, Tea

Rhubarb Pie

All simple foods, wholesome and made from scratch. I think it will be delicious. As you can see, this is not at all a traditional Easter Dinner. Hopefully by next year, we'll be back to normal holiday celebrations. What are your plans for Easter?

 

Pom Pom Chick Critter

Just wanted to show you my cute (and itty bitty) pom pom chick friend. He looks like he's ready for Easter.

My Worst Cooking/Baking Fail Ever: Whole Wheat Brick

It was mentioned in the comments last week that doing a post on our worst cooking or baking fails might be fun. So, I'll share mine, and you can add yours in the comments. 

I was 19 and sharing a house with two girlfriends for the summer, while we all did local farm and cannery work. (I know, I used to live such a glamorous life. Aren't you envious?!) My roommates worked the day shift driving combines while I worked 3rd shift (overnight) packaging asparagus. My sense of time was askew all summer long. I slept in the day and was up all night. I did my grocery shopping literally at the crack of dawn, after my shift ended. On my days (nights) off, I was often at a loss for something to do. If I tried to sleep during the night, it would throw me off for my next shift. So, I just stayed awake on my nights off, reading, playing solitaire (with actual cards), going to the 24/7 laundromat in town, going for midnight bike rides, and baking or cooking.

One night, I had a thought to try baking yeast bread. I'd never baked yeast bread before, but had baked a lot of biscuits, cookies, and cakes growing up. I went to the grocery store and bought a small bag of whole wheat flour and yeast. It was around 3 AM when I came home, and my roomies were sound asleep.

Being young, stupid, and impatient, I thought something like this, "oh, you don't need to really follow these instructions to make bread. I'll just mix up the dough and bake it." I used all whole wheat flour and didn't knead the dough at all. I don't think I even knew what kneading bread dough looked like. I just stirred together the flour, water, sugar, salt, butter, and yeast, then plopped it all into a loaf pan. The recipe on the bag of flour said that this made 2 loaves. We only had one loaf pan. So into the single loaf pan that dough went. I didn't allow the dough to rise, instead I popped it into the oven as soon as the oven was hot.

I decided to lie down on the sofa and listen to some music, quietly, while my bread baked. Our range was really old and didn't have a timer function. So, we'd have to keep an eye on anything we were cooking. I bet you can see where I'm going here. I fell asleep, and the next thing I knew my roommate was yelling at me to wake up, saying that the house smelled like smoke. (no smoke detectors in those days) I was able to retrieve my blackening brick of whole wheat from the smoky oven. Was that thing ever a brick! It was not sliceable. It was not at all salvageable. I did learn a lesson on following instructions. I wouldn't try making yeast bread again for another 9 years after that disaster.

This was the one cooking/baking that I would give myself a grade of a complete F. F, not only for the result being a failure, but also to myself for thinking I didn't need to follow instructions. Oh well, we're all young and stupid once, right?

Your turn. Share your biggest cooking/baking fail ever.

March Grocery Recap

I'm going to finish this up for the month a day early. For March, I had roughly 3 1/2 grocery trips. Early in the month, I piggy-backed on my daughter's shopping at Target for 1 gallon of milk, spent $2.59. A few days later I was shopping at Fred Meyer for garden items and picked up a bag of ground flax seeds for $3.29. Mid-month, I did a pick-up order at Walmart to begin restocking a couple of things, spending $46.20. Because I'm also shopping in person at WinCo now, I also shopped there mid-month to pick up regular food items to get through the month. I spent $62.99. And finally, the other day, I did another pick-up at Walmart to restock flour. I spent $37.70. My monthly spending for March came to $152.77.

This is what I bought:

3 gallons vegetable oil, Walmart, $4.44 each

8 10-lb bags flour for bread, Walmart, $5.98 each (these bags are airtight, reusable zippered plastic and can store without probs with bugs; exp date is Feb. 2022)

1 5-lb bag whole wheat flour, Walmart, $4.14 (trying a new brand)
2 5-oz bags dried cherries, Walmart, $2.98

1 bag oyster crackers, WinCo, $1.19
2 boxes crackers, WinCo, $1.28, $1.58
1 box animal cookies, WinCo, $1.38
1 box toasty o's cereal, WinCo, $1.68
10-lb bag sugar, WinCo, $4.95
1 bag chocolate chips, WinCo, $1.68

1 can black olives, WinCo, 98 cents
1 jar mayo, WinCo, $1.98

1/2 lb pastel M&Ms, WinCo, $1.95

2 jars instant decaf, $6.32 ea

bag of ground flax seeds, $3.29

3 gallons 2% milk, 1 gallon whole milk (for making yogurt), WinCo, $2.28 ea for 3, $2.78 for 1
1 gallon whole milk (for making yogurt), Target, $2.59
2 lbs shredded sharp cheddar, 2 lbs shredded mozzarella, WinCo, $4.98 each

2 18-ct eggs, WinCo, $1.45 ea

8-ct box all-beef corndogs (special dinner for daughters), WinCo, $4.58
refrigerated cinnamon rolls (special breakfast for daughters), WinCo, $1.69

10 lbs apples, WinCo, 50 cents/lb
1 bundle celery, WinCo, 98 cents
1 head cabbage, WinCo, 48 cents/lb
8 bananas, WinCo, 42 cents/lb
3 cans frozen orange juice conc, WinCo, $1.30 each
3 cans apple juice conc, WinCo. 99 cents each

I didn't shop for meat as I had planned. I'll get to that in the next week. I did stock up on flour for yeast baking. (I also keep standard all-purpose flour on hand.) I'm also trying out a small bag of 100% whole wheat flour from the same company. 

We are still eating out of our freezers and pantry. In addition, our garden is now producing kale, watercress, and chives for us several times per week, and the sorrel will begin producing in early April. 

We've been baking several times per week lately. A pan of brownies one day, applesauce muffins the next, followed by a couple of loaves of sandwich bread, cupcakes, pie, etc. There is always something to snack on in the kitchen. Breakfasts are toast, cereal, oatmeal, fruit, and/or yogurt. We've had a lot of homemade soups for lunches lately. Plus sandwiches, eggs, fruit, veggies, yogurt, cheese. As I've mentioned in past posts, dinners are homey and filling scratch foods like pizza, macaroni and cheese, eggs, meatloaf, chicken casseroles, chicken and dumplings, beef stew, chicken nachos, chicken salad, bean/TVP burritos, rice and beans, TVP meatballs and spaghetti, etc. 

These past few months have been rather easy on the budget, but I expect next month will be a big-spend month. I want to pick up several packages of meat and will need to restock some pantry items from the restaurant supply. Buying those institutional-size packages may be cheaper per unit, but up-front they seem costly. And that about wraps up my grocery spending for the month.

Pressing Spring Blossoms

These beauties fluttered out of a re-used envelope I had sandwiched between a stack of books and my nightstand. I'd completely forgotten about doing this last spring and came upon them this past week quite serendipitously as I was cleaning and organizing. A Johnny Jump Up blossom is charming and uplifting to find in the garden but an even greater treasure to "find" as a pressed flower in the still off-season.

I pressed these on a whim one afternoon, with no particular end purpose other than to preserve them. However, there are many crafty things that can be done with pressed flowers and leaves. A couple of crafts that I've done: framed "prints" made with pressed leaves adhered to art paper, as well as greeting cards and gift enclosures made with card stock and pressed blooms. I've also seen more impressive projects, such as pressed flower phone cases, pressed leaf candle lanterns, and lacquered pressed blossom trays.

While pulling weeds from pots, I noticed that I have a nice Johnny Jump Up plant in one of my deck containers. The plant looks healthy and will hopefully provide a lot of blooms for me this spring. 

I pressed leaves and flowers every summer growing up. I had almost forgotten about that simple pleasure, then last year I pressed just a couple of blossoms. I'm so glad that I remembered to try this again, as pressing flowers is such a beautiful way to celebrate spring and summer. And I'm equally glad that I found these pressed flowers when I did. Otherwise, I might have forgotten to press more blossoms next month when the Johnny Jump Ups bloom in my area.

How about you? Do you ever press flowers or leaves?

An Ugly Pie is Better Than No Pie

I was thinking that sometimes the foods that I prepare are not all that attractive. If I were to grade my meals, I think they'd be B-students on average. I rarely produce something that is A-level, and have only produced a complete F item, once. I should say that my grades would be based on several factors: appearance, taste, economy, and nutrition. Most of the time, I do well on economy and nutrition. Taste ranges from so-so to pretty good. Appearance seems to run the gamut. I've produced some remarkably unattractive meals before. And I've also produced a few really nice-looking meals. 

My pie fell in the less-attractive category this time. Here's a comparison:

A Pinterest pie

My pie

But here's the thing, it doesn't matter to my family one bit that I made an ugly pie, so long as it was tasty. And that's why I say an ugly pie is better than no pie. My family is smart enough to value mediocre-looking meals rather than have no meals at all.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with these thoughts. Perhaps I'm thinking about the futility of perfectionism in some areas of our lives. The pilot of my next airplane flight -- yes, I want perfectionism. The next time I need dental work that involves a drill -- yes, I want perfectionism. But the appearance of our daily meals -- hmm, I think my time may be wasted on perfectionism in that area.

Anyway, the pie was delicious!

Update on Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate Made in the USA

So, I have 2 updates on frozen apple juice concentrate. I had reached out to Tree Top customer service to ask if every step of production for their frozen concentrate apple juice was USA. The reply I received was that, yes, all apples are grown in the USA and all bottling/packaging is done here in the USA as well.

In addition, I picked up WinCo brand frozen apple juice concentrate last week and it, too, is a product of the USA. (The lids of frozen juice concentrates are stamped with country of origin.) I now have 2 USA frozen apple juice concentrate brands to choose from in my area. The bonus with WinCo's product is it was actually less expensive than Walmart's product of China frozen concentrate.

As with the frozen blueberries from Dollar Tree, "made in the USA" doesn't always means "more expensive." In an ever-increasing spiral of grocery prices, that's a good thing to know.

I was just thinking about how good we have it

We take so many items from our daily lives for granted, don't we? For example, take bread, that staple that many of us can't seem to live without. Many of us buy our bread and some of us bake our bread. Even baking bread from scratch has so many modern shortcuts.

I know some of us use bread machines regularly. I use a stand mixer to mix and knead the dough. I still have to form the loaves and bake them in an electric oven. But that's nothing compared to how bread was made in the home for century after century. 

Imagine if you had to dedicate an entire day of the week to baking bread. That isn't so far-fetched. This was typical throughout the 1800s. Housewives would set aside one day of the week just for baking. Baking day may have produced bread and maybe a pie or two. Baking those items alone really would take the better part of a day. The yeast would have to be proofed before adding flour. The dough was mixed and kneaded by hand. A fire would have to be built for baking. Loaves would be formed, risen and baked. Perhaps a pie or two would be made to take advantage of the prepared oven. The clean-up would surely take much longer than today. Perhaps water would be hauled from a well or nearby creek. The water  would need to be heated on the cookstove or over a fire. Bowls, pans, and boards would be scrubbed, perhaps using a homemade soap that may or may not have cleaned all that well or perhaps scouring with sand or cleaning with a combination of vinegar and ash. Pans would need to be thoroughly dried before putting away to prevent rusting. On top of baking bread and a couple of pies, the housewife would also need to prepare 3 meals from scratch and do some housework. That sounds like a full day to me.

We were out of bread, here, so I baked a week's worth on Tuesday. My yeast was instant, so no proofing was needed. As I said above, my dough was mixed and kneaded by an appliance. I did form it into loaves, myself. Modern ovens start with the push of a button, so when I want to bake again, for a pie or other items, I can easily do so. No need to add extra baking work on this day. After my loaves were baked, my dishwasher cleaned the pans for me. And because they're not made from tin, I let them air dry.

In addition to baking bread, I was able to complete several other tasks, go for a 1-hour walk, and take a brief afternoon nap. We really are quite spoiled.

Birthdays at Home Are the Best!

Hi, Friends! It feels like I haven't written to you, here, in several days (okay, it's been just about 4 days, I think). I feel a bit disconnected, like I'm out of my groove. But here I am, back to writing. 

It's been a very busy week around these parts. We celebrated our twin daughters' birthday over the weekend, and it just plumb wore me out. My son and daughter-in-law were able to come over and the weather cooperated just long enough for us to have a cook-out on the patio. In addition to roasting frankfurters over a fire, we had buns, sweet potato fries, onion rings, beet salad, and roasted Brussel sprouts for an early afternoon meal. I had baked a scratch German chocolate cake the day before (that was amazing), which we served for dessert. Everything I served was from what we had on hand. Just as we finished eating, a few sprinkles came along. So, we masked up and moved indoors to open gifts and sit and talk for a while. 

I think some of the happiest moments for a parent are when all of their children are gathered together. At least that's how I felt on Saturday.

Sunday was an incredibly lazy day for me. I barely moved all day. I must admit, part of that could have been the super large slice of cake I had on Saturday! I spent the better part of Monday cleaning everything up. Cleaning provides a wonderful opportunity to think about life and stuff.

One of the things that this pandemic has taught us is just how little we need in order to have a good time. In years' past, we sometimes went to a restaurant or movie theater as part of a birthday celebration. Now, we are content to celebrate at home, using foods from our pantry, fridge, and freezers, and just spending time together. The birthday gals said they really enjoyed their pandemic birthdays, this year and last. And we all enjoyed celebrating with them.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Have a great day!

Busy Weeks Call For Easy Dinner Plans: Your Favorite Busy Day Meals

At the beginning of this week I knew it was going to be a busy one. This is always such a busy time of year for me. Four family birthdays, tax preparation, getting the vegetable garden in, and pruning all of the fruit trees means that I have to get and stay organized for a couple of months each year in late winter and early spring.

On Sunday afternoon, I took a few minutes to write out 5 brief dinner menus, using those easy family favorites that I keep tucked in my back pocket, like secret weapons. Here's what's been on the dinner menu for Monday through Friday this week:

Monday
Live and Learn's Curried Pumpkin and Peanut Butter Soup (this is such an easy soup, I don't even measure any more)
freshly baked bread (that I baked for the week's bread supply)
watercress salad

Tuesday

tuna casserole -- made with canned tuna, TVP (for extra protein), canned cream of mushroom soup, lots of diced celery, lots of frozen peas, cooked pasta, onion powder, and salt

Wednesday

frozen corndogs

frozen French fries

canned beet slices in vinaigrette 

black olives

roasted frozen Brussel sprouts

cupcakes

Thursday

canned spinach frittata

sausage links

instant mashed potatoes topped with shredded cheese

jarred applesauce

Friday

homemade pizza

canned green beans

These were as easy as meals get around here, with Friday's homemade pizza being the most labor-intensive of all.

I'm always looking for more inspiration and you, friends, seem to know some of the best easy meal ideas. What are the easy meals you keep in your back pocket? Share your favorites in the comments!

Substitute for Cake Flour (and When It Matters)

I was making some scratch confetti cupcakes for my daughters' birthday yesterday, using a white cake recipe and some pastel cake/cookie sprinkles mixed in with the batter. (That's them above, iced with a buttercream frosting and topped with pastel M&Ms.) My white cake recipe calls for cake flour, but what I have is all-purpose flour. 

What is cake flour and why and when does it matter?

Cake flour is a refined wheat flour that is made with a lower protein wheat than all-purpose or bread flour. It's the protein (gluten) that forms stretchy bonds in bread dough -- nice for holding a piece of bread together but makes for a slightly dense cake. Cake flour makes a finer cake with a smaller crumb. For most scratch cakes, the difference in end result is minimal between using all-purpose or using cake flour. (And that's why I don't keep cake flour on hand, but instead use a substitute when it might make a difference.) Some cakes, like a light white cake or angel food cake do turn out lighter using cake flour.

So, is there a good substitute?

There sure is -- corn starch (or cornflour, but not cornmeal). Using corn starch in place of a small amount of all-purpose flour reduces the total grain protein content and makes a lighter crumb. Some shortbread-type cookies call for cornstarch in addition to flour. The end result is a more tender cookie than a similar cookie using flour only.

The cornstarch plus all-purpose flour substitute for cake flour

1 cup of cake flour equivalent can be made from 2 tablespoons (or 1/8 cup) cornstarch plus 7/8 cup of all-purpose flour. 

For every cup of cake flour called for in a recipe: measure 2 tablespoons of cornstarch into a 1 cup dry measuring scoop. Then add all-purpose flour to fill the 1 cup scoop. Increase or decrease according to this ratio. So, if a recipe calls for 1  1/4 cups of cake flour (which is what my 10 cupcake recipe calls for), measure 2  1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch into a measuring cup, then fill with all-purpose flour to 1  1/4 cups. 

FYI, arrowroot can be used in place of cornstarch, for those with sensitivities to corn.

Little cakes topped with chocolate candies -- always a hit with my family!

A Fun Day Ahead

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all you Irish folks and Irish-wanna-be's!

In addition to the holiday, today is also my two beautiful daughters' birthday. We'll have a bigger family celebration over the weekend, when their brother and sister-in-law are able to come over. Today, I have a few surprises in store for them. They didn't want to be part of the planning this year but instead wanted to be surprised. I used part of our grocery budget for a secret breakfast item and favorite dinner item. They know there's something, just not what the something is/are. (These are items that I rarely ever buy.) And I will use a gift card for an additional surprise today followed by a movie streamed through Roku tonight. It should be a fun day and evening for the two of them.

I hope you have a great day today and enjoy lots of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, soda bread, or whatever ticks the boxes for you!

Love Languages and Gifts

Do you recall that book about love languages? I was thinking about the book in connection with how my family celebrates special occasions. I know some of you have commented that giving gifts on special occasions is not really a thing in your family. I hope I haven't made you feel badly by posting about my own approach to giving gifts for holidays and special occasions.

According to that book, there are five basic ways of showing and receiving love, named love languages: words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch. I think most of us would say that we respond to more than one love language. In my own family, we all enjoy giving and receiving gifts. That doesn't mean that we're greedy people or too stuff-focused. It's just one of our ways to demonstrate our love for one another. 

I was also thinking about how my family doesn't really spend money on ourselves, aside from basic living needs. The things on which many other families do spend hold less appeal for the members of my own family, including personal indulgences. So, giving gifts is a way for us to remind one another that we are each worthy of having something special every once in a while. It's just how we are and how we approach holidays and birthdays. It's our love language.

I also like to express and receive love through acts of kindness (often baking or sewing for a loved one or taking over someone's chores) and spending quality time with my family members (I think I've blogged a lot about that subject).

Other families and individuals express and are receptive to love in other equally valid ways.  And I think this is reflected in how they engage on a day to day basis, as well as how they celebrate special events. Have you thought about your own love language?

Different Brands of Milk May Affect Yogurt-Making

I had a yogurt-making experience that I wanted to share, in the event that this might happen to someone else.

I've been making yogurt since 2012 and up until my batch at the end of February, I'd never had the yogurt not set-up. With that last batch, the yogurt only partially set. I'm careful about using the correct temperatures during each step (and I even calibrated my thermometer to be certain). I couldn't figure out what went wrong. I use starter from previous batches that I freeze in small amounts shortly after the yogurt is completed. I was down to just one container of starter in my freezer after this failed batch. On a hunch, I decided to try a different brand of milk for the next batch of yogurt, using this last container of starter.

Success! This batch of yogurt set-up beautifully. I don't really know what was different about the milk used in the failed batch. I had noticed that my yogurt this winter had been missing it's usual tang. So something was definitely different about that milk. With this recent batch, the yogurt is not only thick, but that tang is back.

Here's my message for anyone who makes their own yogurt and has a failed batch: After you've considered everything about your process, such as the temperatures for each heating and cooling step, the constancy of temperature maintained in your incubator while the yogurt was setting, the viability of your starter, and the ratio of starter to milk, try a different brand of milk. One brand may be pasteurized and processed in a slightly different way from another. This may not change the milk's nutritional benefits, but can alter the milk just enough so that homemade yogurt batches fail. The milk doesn't need to be an expensive brand. I only use house-brand milk, this recent batch the house-brand from a different store.

After I had success with this recent batch, I found other folks had similar experiences with failed batches, one brand of milk worked, another didn't.

I'm sure you're curious about what I did with the failed batch of yogurt. I ate it anyway, thickening it with soy milk powder before adding vanilla and honey. I suppose I could have used it in baking, making pancakes, or making cream soup. 

Anyway, just sharing my personal experience with changing brands of milk after a failed batch of yogurt.

Your Favorite “Irish” Foods for St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is in just a few days. My family has a couple of favorite themed foods for this holiday. One is a shamrock-shaped cookie. Some years I make gingerbread shamrocks and other years I make sugar cookies, either frosted with green icing or sprinkled with green sugar crystals or any green sprinkles leftover from Christmas baking. 

Shamrock-shaped cookies and I go way back. When I was in the 4th grade, my mother was one of the room mothers for my classroom. This meant that for special days in the school year, my mother and one other mother made treats for all of my classmates, and we had a little party in the last 30 minutes of the school day. St. Patrick's Day was on a Tuesday that year. I remember because the afternoon before, I got to help my mom make some cookies while she stood at the ironing board, pressing my father's shirts for work. (Monday was laundry day, and it always ended with a pile of shirts to be pressed.) My mother let me use her shamrock cookie cutter to cut the dough that she had rolled out. The baked cookies were set aside while we all ate dinner. After I went to bed that night, my mom decorated the cookies. The next morning, I peeked under the lid of the large, rectangular Tupperware carrier sitting on the kitchen counter and saw that my mother had frosted the cookies in white and green, making curlicues of green frosting on all of the leaves of each shamrock. I remember feeling so proud of my mother's cookies, thinking about them as I waited through the day in school. The skinny, red second hand of the classroom's wall clock clicked throughout the afternoon hours, the movement from one second to the next feeling painfully slow. At last, the two room mothers appeared in the doorway. They poured cups of punch and placed those beautiful cookies on napkins, one for each of us. We lived just up the hill from the school, so my mother walked home with me after the class party. She said something about my big smile as we stepped off the curb and into the street. I just said that I was feeling happy that day. 

The other food that I can't not serve for St. Patrick's Day is cabbage. I love cabbage. I love it as a slaw or sautéed with onions. The caramelized onions add sweetness to the pungent, cooked shreds of cabbage. This delicious dish only needs a sprinkling of salt and a dash of pepper to finish.

I've shared two of my favorite St. Patrick's Day foods and now I'm wondering, what are your favorite Irish-inspired foods for St. Patrick's Day? Share in the comments! 

Being More Mindful When Grocery Shopping

Back to the discussion on principled buying . . .

With food, in addition to avoiding specific countries or companies for ideological reasons, I also want to take food safety seriously. Some countries have very weak safety guidelines concerning pesticides, fertilizers, water and soil contamination, and chemical preservatives like formaldehyde and sulphur dioxide used to make "old" produce appear to be fresh. In addition, some countries have different standards for "organic" than North America and the EU, meaning that a product may be labeled "organic" but not meet the guidelines that you've come to expect. 

Most of us are tuned in to where our fresh produce comes from, but do we really know where our packaged and frozen foods are coming from? I did a quick inventory of my own pantry, fridge and freezers and found:

• orange juice concentrate from Central America
• apple juice concentrate from China
• coffee from Mexico
• hazelnut spread (my daughter's) from Mexico
• other hazelnut spread (also daughter's) from Germany
• honey from Canada and Argentina
• cocoa powder from Holland and Germany
• shredded coconut from the Philippines
• mixed nuts from Argentina, Mexico, Vietnam, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Bolivia, Peru, Columbia
• canned pineapple from Thailand and Indonesia
• boxed pasta - "made with imported ingredients"
• canned tuna from Thailand
• unflavored gelatin from Brazil
• yeast from Mexico
• frozen Asian stir fry vegetable blend from China, Mexico
• frozen chicken breast fillets from Mexico
• frozen broccoli from Mexico
• frozen blueberries from Canada

No indication but most likely not USA-produced:

• black tea
• chocolate chips

It's not that all of the above countries are in question. I completely trust the safety of the honey and blueberries from Canada and the cocoa powder  and hazelnut spread from Germany and Holland. I was just very surprised by some items. The peanuts in the can of mixed nuts came not just from the US ( as most of us would imagine) but also from Argentina and Mexico. And who would have thought that my big bag of yeast was produced in Mexico?

A lot of products don't indicate on the packaging where the contents are produced. Some brands are better than others at this. Many of Walmart and WinCo's house-brand items are produced outside of the US. But there are also a lot of their house-brands that are stamped USA. Here's a contrast -- my canned mixed nuts were from 9 different countries in addition to the US, while my bag of Great Value pecan halves were USA-only. 

Some highly recognizable name-brand foods that you would think are American products are actually from other countries. For example Dole canned pineapple. Dole canned pineapple chunks, slices, and crushed are products of the Philippines and Thailand. Dole canned pineapple juice and Dole jarred pineapple chunks are products of the Philippines. If you want Hawaiian Dole pineapple you have to buy fresh pineapple that is labeled product of Hawaii. 

USA-produced is not always most expensive. Sometimes the bargain version of a food is the USA-produced one, such as the Dollar Tree frozen blueberries that I bought. DT's frozen blueberries are stamped "product of USA" while the more expensive frozen blueberries from Walmart are stamped "product of Canada."

A complicated case is found with apple juice. Most of the frozen apple juice concentrate available in the USA is now made in China. The store-brands of frozen apple juice concentrate (AJC) from both winCo and Walmart are stamped with "Product of China." Old Orchard's website indicates that they source their apple juice concentrate globally (including from China) for bottling in the USA.  Bottles of Mott's apple juice are stamped indicating that the product is made with apple juice concentrate from China and Turkey. There are two bright spots in apple juice production in the US, Tree Top and Martinelli's. The apples used in Tree Top apple juice are 100% grown in the USA. Tree Top supplies most of the American-grown and processed apple juice concentrate in the US. Martinelli's is another "made in the USA" apple juice, using 100% USA apples. Not concentrated, Martinelli's is bottled in large glass bottles or individual-size bottles and rather pricey. Apple juice particularly concerns me, because I use commercial apple juice as a base for some of my vegetable juices and my family really enjoys apple juice. I question the safety of China-produced apple juice. There was a study a while back concerning high arsenic levels in China-produced AJC compared to USA-produced AJC. Going forward, I'll be more likely to spend extra on USA apple juice and try to save money in the food budget elsewhere.

Although my family doesn't eat a lot of frozen fish, I have read that those products could be a concern, and I'm mentioning it because I know a lot of folks do buy frozen fish. Frozen tilapia and cod from China is often farm-raised. I have read a few articles that raise concerns about the farm-raised tilapia from China. The fish are raised in crowded and sometimes polluted water, possibly using more chemicals than are healthy. I don't want to tell you what to believe, so I recommend you search for more info on this, if it is a concern to you.

It isn't always just a matter of finding a USA-version for X,Y, or Z. There are some foods that I can't find as USA-produced, such as cocoa powder, canned tuna fish, or fresh bananas (not on my list, but something we consume a lot of). And there are some foods for which I could find a US substitute, but those would be very expensive, such as Hawaiian coffee and shredded coconut or South Carolina black tea. Due to their cost, those products would be more along the lines of specialty food items, in my opinion, and not basic groceries.

My personal plan is to choose one item that most offends me (based on country of origin) and try to work a better choice into our budget. When I've found ways to make that work, I'll add the next item. And, so on, until I feel satisfied with the sourcing of all of my family's food. 

In the end analysis, if my budget were constrained and I had to choose between buying my food from a non-preferred country vs not buying enough food, buying enough food, even from a "bad" country, wins hands-down. It's like my thinking concerning buying organic produce vs buying "regular" produce. If buying "regular" produce means I buy and eat more fruits and vegetables than if I were to buy organic produce due to budget constraints, I think it's a better choice to buy the "regular" produce. The additional nutrients of more produce would hopefully outweigh any negative effects from residual pesticides and fertilizers.

Fortunately, there are some workarounds that remain frugal options for many of us. Growing a vegetable garden, going to local u-pick farms and orchards, buying from local farm stands, and eating in-season produce are all ways to ensure your produce is grown in the country(ies) of your choosing while not spending more for those items. And as you can see from my list of non-USA foods in my own kitchen, there were only about 2 dozen different foods that were produced outside the US. And of those, there are only about a half-dozen that I feel I should look into finding alternates. That's not too overwhelming.

(It's true what they say, writing something out helps clarify one's own mind about a topic.)

Putting Principled Buying into Action

Last week ,when I talked about my gift shopping for my daughters, my discussion was about trying to find products that were made by my own personal standards. To be specific, not wanting to buy from countries whose government treats some of its people reprehensibly or from companies who support causes that are in opposition to my own beliefs, as well as wanting to buy from American small businesses whenever possible to keep money in fellow American's pockets.  It was mentioned in the comments that I was fortunate to be able to shop by my principles. 

I am fortunate. But I'm not spending more money than previously on categories like gifts, clothing, and household needs while I practice principled buying.

So with that in mind, I wanted to share how we afford to shop by our principles and deal with the often higher cost of products that are American-made, small business-made, or imported from countries that provide a fair wage to their workers. If my budgets for gifts, clothing, and household items have not risen, and I'm avoiding buying the super cheap stuff that comes from some countries, something has to be different with my shopping, right? 

Here's how we're doing it. We're using those tried and true frugal methods to save on some items, so that we can afford to buy those more expensive other items from companies and countries that are on my personal "approved" list. 

• I am repairing, refurbishing, and repurposing as much of our clothing and household items as I can, so that I postpone replacing items further into the future. I've currently got 1 pair of mittens, a sock, a pair of blue jeans, and a bath rug in the mend pile. If I were to buy all of those items new, I'd spend well over $100. That same $100 will pay for replacing a piece of clothing or a household item that is past repair and bought according to my principles.
• I have been asking for basic clothing items and necessities as my gifts for Christmases and birthdays. Last year for my birthday, I received a pair of basic leggings and a sweatshirt. For Christmas, I received a requested headband and hair conditioner. I used a gift card from my birthday 2019 to buy new underwear. And I used another gift card from Mother's Day 2018 to buy my everyday shoes. Money I didn't take out of our budget is money that can go toward principled buying.
• We're also turning to thrift stores for many items. Thrifts stores do more than just prevent stuff from ending up in landfills or provide merchandise super affordably. Thrift shops often have a charitable cause or benefit a needy group. Thrift shops provide job training for folks that have had a hard time breaking into the job market, fund homeless shelters, fund non-profit rehab centers, sponsor soup kitchens, and subsidize childcare centers for lower income families. Thrift stores don't operate to pad wallets of stockholders or CEOs. Their prices would be much higher if that were the case. Instead, their focus is on helping people. Shopping thrift stores saves me money and makes me feel good about my choices. And the money I save by buying a needed thrifted top or saucepan compared to buying new is money that I can put towards those more expensive principled purchases.
• I'm also shopping online marketplaces for gently-used or new-condition items. Online marketplaces are like garage sale Saturday every day, but with a phenomenally large selection. I like that by buying an item from an individual seller, I put more money into that person's pocket and less into a large corporation's. And I save some money in the bargain. 
• We are still shopping at Dollar Tree for some items. Dollar Tree has a surprising amount of Made in USA items. I just check labels on everything. I needed a new box of envelopes. Same brand, but one set of envelopes were security envelopes and the other set were plain envelopes. The plain envelopes were made in the USA and the others were imports. I bought the plain ones.
• When it comes to giving gifts to others, I am reducing the number of gifts, overall, and prioritizing the items most wanted so that I can shop by my principles. The bonus -- buying and giving less means that fewer items might wind up on a closet shelf or in another giveaway box. When I first set out to shop for some small gifts for my daughters I was thinking spa items. I had thought about some bath soaks, bath bombs, maybe some bath oil or shower gel, a loofah, a bath brush, a shower cap, and some chocolates. As it turns out, by buying only American-made, small business, or marketplace items, I was able to buy 1 bath bomb, 1 packet of bath soak, 1 bottle of shower gel, 1 chocolate bar, and 1 shower cap (small business-made) for each daughter. I spent the same amount of money that I would have spent on a larger selection of cheap imported items, but I think I did more good with my money. Will my daughters mind that I didn't get everything on my list? Not at all. Here's another one -- I needed a $15 to $20 gift for someone recently. I chose to buy coffee beans from a company that donates a share of its proceeds to a cause that is close to my heart. The recipients of my coffee bean gift were delighted to receive the coffee and happy to hear about the cause the purchase benefitted. (This is a cause that they also support.) I am taking the same amount of money that I would have spent, but directing it toward companies, organizations, or people of my choosing.

So that's how we're affording to buy clothing, gifts, and household items in a principled way with the same size budget we've had for years. The harder category to shop in this way is food.  I have a post in the writing that I'll finish up for tomorrow on that.

I wanted to add, if my choice was to buy a small Dollar Tree gift for someone in my life or not buy a gift at all, due to a very small budget, I'd definitely buy the Dollar Tree item. I think it's more important to make another person feel good and appreciated than to satisfy principles. And if one of my family members needed clothing that didn't obviously look mended (for instance, work apparel), I'd buy a cheap import item if that is what my budget dictated. Sometimes, keeping principles means putting others' joy or self-esteem ahead of our own desires.

There are several categories for which there isn't a good American-made or small business product. We're doing our best, making changes where it is possible, and not sweating the rest.

Using up Jam and Jelly

oatmeal and plum jam bar cookies -- almost like a breakfast bar

I've mentioned this already, that I'm trying to use up my surplus of different jams and jellies before the next jam and jelly season begins. 

So far, we've used jam and jelly this winter in jam sandwich cookies (my daughter made heart-shaped shortbread for Valentine's Day and sandwiched them with blackberry jam), oatmeal and plum jam bar cookies, fruit granola (two versions), smoothies, fruity yogurt and oatmeal, as topping for pudding, in a cream cheese spread, in creamy dressing for fruit salad, in vinaigrette dressing for tossed greens, and as a dipping sauce, in addition to spreading on bread products.

I counted my jars yesterday and discovered that I still have 31 jars of jam and jelly left. I know, that sounds like a lot of sweet spreads. So, I started a list of the various ways I could begin incorporating more jam and jelly into my cooking. 28 ideas so far.

Cookies

• Oatmeal and Jam Bars (used a whole jar of plum jam)
• In Thumbprint cookies
• In Sandwich cookies -- spread between 2 sugar or shortbread cookies

Breakfast

• Making fruity granola
• As filling for jam and cream cheese overnight, stuffed French toast
• As filling for crepes
• Spread on breads, muffins, biscuits, scones
• To top pancakes, waffles, or Dutch Baby, as is or thinned to make a syrup
• Swirled into yogurt or oatmeal
• Layered with fruit, cottage cheese or plain yogurt, and granola for a parfait
• Blended into smoothies or shakes

Baking and Desserts

• As filling for a layer cake or topping for a single layer cake
• Dropped into batter in muffin tins, 1 tablespoon dropped into the center of cornbread batter
• Baked into jam swirl bread, like making cinnamon bread, but using jam instead of cinnamon and sugar
• As filling for mini tart shells
• To glaze fruit in a pie or tart or fruit served as is, such as pear slices glazed with raspberry jam
• As an ice cream sundae topping
• Topping any kind of cream cheese concoction
• Spooned over rice pudding, tapioca, or cornstarch pudding

Salads

• Blended with mayo for a sweetened dressing for fruit salad
• Blended with a vinaigrette for a sweet and tangy salad dressing -- especially good on spinach salad

Savories

• In a sweet and sour glaze over cooked meatballs
• To top brie cheese before baking
• Melted jam blended with spices (ginger) and seasonings (garlic powder) and a bit of soy sauce for a dipping sauce for chicken strips
• To make a glaze for meat (pork roast, ham, poultry)
• Mixed in with mustard to use as a condiment
• Inside a grilled cheese sandwich or a turkey or ham sandwich
• Mixed into chicken salad

What else? How else can I use some of these jars of jam, jelly and preserves?