Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a summer week

Friday

Bean and vegetable soup, w/sliced hot dogs
Cornbread
Tossed salad

Saturday

Tea sandwiches (given to us)
Tossed salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes given to us)
Macaroni salad (given to us)
Grapes (given to us)

Sunday

Leftover tea sandwiches (given to us)
Tossed salad (given to us)
Vegetable and egg fried rice

Monday

Salisbury steak covered with Hunter's Sauce
Macaroni salad (given to us)
Creamy dilled cucumber salad (given to us)
Steamed carrots

Tuesday

Rice and beans, topped with cheddar
Tossed salad of lettuce, celery, black olives and shredded cheese, with homemade creamy vinaigrette
Fried corn tortillas
Stewed, frozen plums

Wednesday

Kale and onion quiche
Steamed carrots
Blackberry rustic tart

Thursday

Kale and onion quiche
Steamed carrots
Mixed fruit rustic tart


On Saturday, the girls and I volunteered our kitchen and serving abilities, again to our church's monthly fund-raising tea. After the clean-up, the lady who coordinates the teas gave us enough leftovers for a couple of night's meals. making dinner on those nights was easy-peasy.

Later in the week, I knew I'd want Thursday off from cooking duties, so I made a double batch of everything, on Wednesday. Maybe it was a bit boring to eat the same thing 2 nights in a row. But it solved the problem of how to cook when I wouldn't be home for much of the next day.

I am trying to use up my saved fat in the freezer. The ham and bacon fat is always used quickly. Next easily used would be either the chicken or the beef. The least popular reserved meat fat is the turkey fat. So, I am making efforts to use that one up. The kale quiches had such a strong flavor, anyway, with the kale and onion, that the turkey fat flavor went unnoticed. I'll be remembering that the next time I cook some kale.

My grocery bill went up by about $30 this week, and will go up again another $20. That's $50 spent, bringing me up to around $110 for the month, so far. I found sharp cheddar cheese on sale for $8.98/5 lbs. I bought 15 pounds. And I'll be stocking up on coffee tomorrow. Last week, I'd thought about buying coffee, but it was $6.99 a can at Fred Meyer, and that was more than I wanted to spend. So, I'd thought to myself that we'd just manage to get by with much, much less coffee until Senior shopping day in August, when I'd save 70 cents, at the least. Well, wouldn't you know it, coffee is on sale at Fred Meyer this week, same cans, for $4.99. By not buying any last week, I saved $2 per can. I like that! Coffee goes on sale in early fall, so I'll buy enough to get to then, and hope to find it on sale, on a Senior discount week, then stock up for winter.

I resisted going out to eat on several occasions. Yesterday afternoon, coming back from errands and a stop by the beach, I was very tempted to buy a burger and fries. Then I thought, maybe just the fries. And then I talked myself out of both of those ideas, and into a peanut butter on whole wheat, with the last of the macaroni salad, and a sliver of the blackberry tart. It was a wonderful lunch, all homemade, and didn't give me a stomachache. I'm glad I resisted the take-out.

What were the yummy things you ate this week?

So, that's it for me for the week. I'm working on some Christmas gifts. Maybe I'll give you a peek next week, if they seem to be turning out okay. Have a great weekend!

A loose clasp on my tea balls

If you drink loose-leaf tea, you know the frustrations of a tea ball whose clasp will not stay closed.

You fill your aging tea ball with tea leaves, close the clasp, drop it into a mug, and then pour water over it.You can't dunk the tea ball up and down, as it comes open too easily. And even when the tea ball is just resting at the bottom of the mug of water, the ball manages to open itself, just enough to allow leaves to float out and into your tea.

Yes, this is my frustration, with not just one tea ball, but with both of my tea balls. I tried using pliers to tighten the clasp, to no avail. I considered buying a new tea ball. But it bothered me that 2 tea balls that otherwise work for steeping tea, would no longer be used, simply because of a loose clasp.

My rather crude fix involves a rubber band from a bundle of radishes. The rubber band must be somewhat food-safe, if it's been holding my produce together for several days, right? Anyways, after I fill my tea ball with loose-leaf tea, I wrap a rubber band around the outside, holding the whole thing together. Found my fix. It's not pretty, but it does the job!

I wanted this to be as effortless as was promised

Getting labels and their adhesives, off of glass jars with baking soda and vegetable oil

After I soak and peel the label off of jars, I'm left with that white adhesive on the glass jar. I can scrub and scrub, or I can try a short-cut.

There are commercial solvents on the market to remove labels and stickers. But if you don't happen to have any, or you wish to use something totally harmless, and that you have in your pantry right now, this may work for you.

Using a paste of baking soda and veg oil has worked on a couple of jars, but not on all of them. This was one of the stubborn labels, on a jar of peanut butter.

I peeled as much of the label off, as possible.

Then I spread a mixture of 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, generously onto the remaining label.

As advised, I let it sit for about 30 minutes.

I used a clean, dry, rough rag to rub the label off. Not much came off, so I used a table knife to scrape the rest of the paper off. But it left the adhesive residue.

So, again I generously wiped the paste onto the jar and allowed it to sit.

When I came back, I used the same, dry, rough rag to wipe the adhesive off. I will say, almost all of it came off. I had to rub vigorously in places.

Then I washed with soapy water, dried with a towel and it did come pretty clean.

It just wasn't nearly as effortless as the other jars I had cleaned. So, just one of those things that sometimes works very well, and sometimes you have to put extra effort into it to get it to work.

Overall, I did much, much less scrubbing than just with soapy water, on these really stubborn labels. So, it did work well, in that sense. And it didn't cost me any extra money, buying a commercial product. And it didn't dry my skin out or require me to wear gloves. So, yeah, it was worth it. Just not totally effortless.

I've been keeping this dish of baking soda and oil paste in the cupboard, and using it for a month or so. I had to use some the other day, when I discovered a piece of chewed gum was stuck to the kitchen counter. I pulled up the bulk of the gum, then spread this paste onto it, and wiped it up with a clean rag. On chewing gum, stuck to the counter top, this was brilliant.