DQ Free Cone Day 2019

photo source: https://www.dairyqueen.com/us-en/Promotions-US/

Do you have a Dairy Queen in your area? This coming Wednesday, March 20 is DQ's Free Cone Day. Not all DQ's participate, and not valid at mall locations. Phone your local Dairy Queen to see if they are participating in this offer on Wednesday, the 20th.

Birthday Dinner for My Daughters

The birthday dinner this year was a little more tricky to pull together than previous years, as there was very little wiggle room for "special" ingredients. However, my daughters and I brainstormed what we could do with what we have and still make the meal a special one. Now, you need to understand, "special" to my daughters does not mean steak, lobster, roast or anything that you might normally think of for a special, home-cooked meal. "Special" to my daughters meant burgers and fries for this birthday. So, for their birthday dinner, that's exactly what we did.

I had ground beef in the freezer, the ingredients to make buns, plus ketchup, mustard, canned tomatoes, garden watercress, a tiny amount of onion, plain yogurt, garlic powder, a packet of au jus mix, and cabbage (for a slaw-style salad). I did splurge and bought one 2-lb bag of seasoned French fries, for a little over $2 at Walmart.

I baked a batch of burger buns on Saturday, so the basic burger was covered. Because this was a special burger meal and because our selection of on-hand ingredients didn't match what one would think of as usual burger toppings, we put together some different toppings, which we billed as "gourmet." Here are the toppings from our "gourmet" burger toppings bar:

• au jus for dipping French dip-style (surprised me, this was very popular with all)
• tzatziki, without the cucumber, using strained yogurt, olive oil, mint (didn't have dill), lemon juice, garlic powder, salt (also very popular)
• salsa made from canned tomatoes with jalapenos, to which I added fresh onion, garlic powder, chili powder, salt, chipotle powder, pa inch of sugar, and vinegar, cooking it down for about 20 minutes
• watercress
• rosemary mustard, made last summer
• plus the usual ketchup and yellow mustard

Our birthday dinner menu was as follows:

• burgers with our "gourmet" toppings bar
• seasoned fries from a package
• cole slaw, made with a vinaigrette mixed with yogurt
• cookies and cream birthday cake
• 1 bottle of sparkling cider to toast the birthday gals
• 1 bottle of homemade lemonade
• 1 bottle of water

We served the lemonade and water in empty sparkling cider bottles, as we did for one daughter's graduation reception last June. I have saved the quirky-shaped or nicely-colored cider bottles that we've received over the years. They make nice bottles for water on the dinner table or for taking lemonade on a picnic.

The entire meal used an extra $4.12 out of our grocery budget for the Oreo-style cookies and the seasoned fries. That's considerably less than what we had originally planned for their birthday before we knew about the upcoming income reduction. 

Cookies and Cream Birthday Cake

Today is my daughters' birthday.  One of the ways that I show them my love is to bake a special birthday cake. This year's cake is mostly about taste and texture, and less about beauty. I gave a lot of thought to what kind of cake to make for them. One daughter really loves Oreo cookies, and the other loves cookies and cream ice cream. So, the logical choice for this year's cake was a cookies and cream cake.

I had a white cake mix in the pantry, along with plenty of cocoa powder and confectioner's sugar. The only ingredient that I needed to buy was 1 package of Oreo-type cookies, which I found at Walmart for just under $2.

Once home, I mixed the cake mix according to package directions, then folded in 12 crushed cookies. I left some kind of large chunks, as you can see in the split cake. The cakes baked in slightly less time than the mix instructions suggested.

After baking, I cooled the cakes, then split each so that I would have a 4-layer cake. Between the layers is the dark chocolate frosting which also is glopped onto the top of the cake to hold the cookie "garnishes." The dark chocolate frosting is simply a homemade, cocoa powder buttercream frosting.

After the layers were assembled, I frosted the sides and top with a cookies and cream frosting -- a vanilla buttercream frosting into which 12 crushed cookies are folded. I used a baggie with a corner cut out to pipe globs of dark chocolate frosting on the top, after which I placed a half cookie into each chocolate blob around the edge, and 1 whole cookie in the center. To finish the sides, I took some cookie pieces and crushed them finely with a rolling pin in a bag. I then scooped up the cookie crumbs, and pressed them onto the sides of the cake. The crumb finish kind of hides any messiness of the cookies and cream frosting. I'm hoping this will be a hit tonight.

A Couple of Early Garden Herbs and Greens for Making Salads

In our cool maritime climate, I can count on a couple of herbs and greens to return early each spring, from which I make some of our early-season salads. These include watercress, sorrel, garlic greens, chives, violet blossoms, and the fall-planted Swiss chard and kale.

Yesterday afternoon, the sun was out, warming our yard for the first time in months. I ventured out to the garden to see what could be poking through the winter-weary ground. This is what I found.

This is watercress. I planted it about 15 years ago, from a small bundle of watercress which still had its roots, purchased from the produce section of the grocery store. I was using watercress in tea sandwiches and had a few leftover stems with roots attached. I thought that I might as well see if it grows if planted. It did, and it reseeds itself every year. I particularly like sprigs of watercress in place of lettuce on egg salad sandwiches. But it also makes a nice green for an early salad.

Here's what a single stem of a watercress plant looks like. Despite its name, it doesn't need to grow in standing water. In fact, it grows throughout my vegetable garden. Watercress is high in vitamins A, B6, B12, C, folate, and the minerals magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, and iron. Watercress may help fight breast cancer and may help prevent colorectal cancer. It may also help thyroid, cardiovascular, and bone health, and may help prevent cognitive decline. (www.organicfacts.net)

These are garlic greens. Garlic greens are the above ground, immature portion of garlic. What most of us think of as garlic is the bulb of a mature garlic plant. In early spring, the bulb sends up shoots that look a bit like fat grass stems. As the season progresses, the bulb grows and begins to form sections. At that time, the green portion turns brown and dies back.

Garlic greens have the same immune-boosting and anti-bacterial/inflammatory benefits of the garlic bulb, but the greens are milder in flavor. A few shoots snipped into bits adds a nice zip to salads and sauces.

This is sorrel. Sorrel is a perennial herb, coming back very early in the spring in my region. The tender baby leaves are good in salads, imparting a tangy, almost lemony flavor. Sorrel is high in oxalic acid, so the recommendation is to eat it in moderation. Sorrel is rich in several vitamins and minerals, and it is known as a digestive aid, as well as being beneficial for diabetics. It is reactive to aluminum and cast-iron, so it should only be cooked in stainless steel or enameled pots. Cream of sorrel soup is a well-known use of this herb, but it is also delicious in omelets, quiches, mixed in with mashed potatoes, added raw to hummus, and fresh used in chicken sandwiches or salads. 

Due to the health warnings about oxalic acid, anyone concerned about adverse effects should read this article from www.verywellfit.com.

These are baby sorrel leaves. When picked young, both stalks and leaves are tender. Later in the season, the stalks are stringy and are best removed from the leaves before using in cooking.

I plant both kale and Swiss chard late in the summer for early spring harvesting. Early spring is a low time for the garden and a period of high produce prices at the market, so having something for garden harvesting is welcome. The chard and kale will bolt some time in April, but for now, we have something fresh and green.

My salad spinner is full of herbs and leafy greens. Time to make a salad. An herb salad is so highly flavored that I treat it almost like a condiment. I chop the pieces small, then dress in a sweet vinaigrette and serve in small portions. Its bite is refreshing and wakes up the palate during an ordinary supper.

These early garden herbs and greens will continue to produce for about a month, adding variety to our budget-vegetable rotation of cabbage, carrots, onions, and canned vegetables.

Will You Be Buying Cabbage this Week?

In my area, gone are the days of cabbage priced at 19 cents per pound during the week of St. Patrick's Day. However, today's price is still a fair deal. This week in my area, green cabbage is advertised at 49-50 cents per pound (checking those online flyers for all the stores near me). That's a good enough price for me to stock up for use as an everyday vegetable.

In my new budget, there's a distinction between everyday vegetables and special occasion/holiday vegetables. For this month and next, I've set a price limit on everyday vegetables at 50 cents per pound. Keeping to that limit, I found fresh carrots, onions, potatoes, and cabbage, as well as canned green beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, white beans, and tomatoes. I will buy what my budget allows from that list this month. We have some frozen peas, canned and fresh pumpkin, and kale, watercress, and chives in the garden to round out the veggie selection.

As for the cabbage, I bought 8 heads of green cabbage this week. If stored properly, cabbage can keep up to 2 months in the fridge. Given this will be a primary vegetable for us in the next month, I expect we will consume it all before the 2-month mark.

What are your favorite ways to prepare green cabbage? Our three primary uses for cabbage include: sliced and sauteed with garlic, soy sauce, and sesame oil, with or without meat; some sort of slaw as a salad or to top sandwiches; and added to tomato or chicken-based soups. With 8 heads of cabbage, I am looking for new ways to prepare this vegetable.

Alternative Hot Beverages: Tisanes

the color comes from the spices -- there is no tea in this beverage

In cutting our grocery spending this month, I was forced to take a long hard look at our non-nutritive beverages. I am a long-time coffee-lover. I also love a good cup of tea. I've talked here about switching from caffeinated to decaffeinated beverages in 2018. This has actually been one of those fortuitous changes, not only because I feel better physically, but also it has now allowed me to venture into alternative hot beverages, as I am no longer tied to finding a source of caffeine.

Last week when I found that great deal on ground beef I realized that in order to really stock up, I would have to cut a few items from my list. One of those items was decaffeinated instant coffee. This was a struggle for me. After loading up my cart with packages of ground beef, I headed to the coffee aisle. I put a container of decaf into my cart, then took it out again, put it back in, then after some shopping, I put it back on the shelf. I still had some decaf at home, so I knew there would be a little for the month, but not a lot. I am stretching it out and making it last. Seeing my supply of decaf coffee and tea dwindle got me to thinking about some alternative hot beverages that I could make at home, using what I have on hand. As they don't need to have any caffeine, my options are wide open.

Our cabinets are filled with herbs, spices, and flavorings. Some of these won't be used before their flavor has been lost, so I thought I might as well begin experimenting with homemade tisanes. A tisane is basically an herb or spice tea without the Camellia sinensis  (the plant that is the source of tea leaves). Tisanes can be made from dried or fresh leaves or petals, such as mint, basil, lemon balm, or chamomile, or tougher material, such as bark, roots, or berries, like cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, or ginger. Tisanes can also be made from fruit, such as berries, stone fruits, or fruits with cores, like peaches, cherries, or apples. In addition to the plant material, most of us also keep liquid flavorings, such as vanilla or almond extract. All of these pantry staples can make economical, delicious hot or cold beverages. And for those of us with shrinking grocery budgets, there is no need to outlay any additional money for the ingredients for these alternative beverages, if we use what is sitting in our cupboards.

Preparing a tisane usually follows one of two approaches, decoction or infusion. The choice of approach is dependent upon how much heat and time a material requires to extract the full flavor. So, for a tough item like cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, cardamom berries, chunks of apple, or a slice of fresh ginger root, a tisane will require greater heat and longer brew time, such as through decoction. Decoction is the term for simmering substances in water for a period of time to extract the full flavor, anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes. Strain out the solid pieces and serve. Stainless steel or enameled pots are recommended for simmered tisanes. Aluminum is reactive and should be avoided.

The approach for extracting flavor from softer material, such as blossoms or leaves, consists of pouring boiled water over the substance and steeping for 3 to 5 minutes. This method is called an infusion. This is all that is necessary to impart the flavor of soft plant matter, and in not subjecting it to prolonged heat, this simplified approach preserves the bright notes of delicate material.

This week, I've been making tisanes with whole cloves, broken pieces of cinnamon sticks, and ground ginger. Ground spices could also be used, but I was not satisfied with using ground cinnamon in my tisane, and heated cinnamon in water becomes slimy. I have used ground cloves to add a bit of a punch to second-batching my spices. If venturing into the world of tisanes interests you, I think something spicy, such as cloves, cinnamon, and ginger is a good starting point, as it is like many teas with which most of us are already familiar.

Second-batching
This is my term for reusing the tisane spices in a new pot of water for a "second batch." I use the same broken piece of cinnamon stick and the whole cloves, plus I add a couple of pinches of ground cloves and ground ginger to the fresh water. After 40 minutes of simmering, I have a fresh pot of the tisane. Second batches seem to require slightly longer simmering time than first batches.

My recipe (if you could call it that) for a spice tisane is 20 whole cloves plus 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, a 1 1/2-inch piece of cinnamon stick broken into 4 to 6 pieces, and 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger in 6 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. A personal preference -- a bit of sweetening brings out the flavor of the spices, while the addition of milk recalls steaming mugs of chai latte.

Leftovers can be stored in a glass jar in the fridge for about 5 days. When making tisanes with whole spices, I store the beverage with the spices still in the liquid. However, when making a tisane with leaves, petals, or fruits, I strain the solids out of the liquid before storing. I think the keeping quality increases when soft material is removed from the liquid. And knowing this, I am more likely to drink the leftover beverage if I believe it has been properly stored.

I have a variety of spices in my cupboards that should make delicious tisanes. I will be experimenting with different blends in the coming months.

Need Some Springtime Cheer?

Here's how my speckled eggs turned out. A reminder, I used regular eggs, blown-out and painted for this project. I had the eggs and paint already, so this didn't cost me anything.

I love how they turned out. And today of all days needed some cheer.

Here are the eggs after putting on about 4 to 5 coats of acrylic paint. I painted in small bits of time, over the course of 3 days.

For speckling the eggs, I placed them all inside of a cardboard box, in the bathtub. The overspray should clean out easily with a little cleanser. I speckled with a toothbrush dipped in paint and rubbed over the tines of a large fork.

There were some blobs of dark paint that needed a little touching up with the original paint. However, that only took a few minutes and then my eggs were ready for display. The nest is Spanish moss in a compote, and the whole arrangement now graces our kitchen table.

The best part of this project was painting the eggs. I listened to some peaceful Gregorian chants while painting. The whole experience was completely relaxing.

The Very Low Grocery Budget

A blog friend wrote to me over the weekend, asking for suggestions for managing a shrinking grocery budget. Without going into details of my friend's situation, I replied, "yes, this is something to which I can very much relate."

About a week ago, I found out that our income would be cut significantly. We have about 2 months advance notice, but I believe that this is no time to delay implementing changes. So, for the foreseeable future, we have cut our food-only grocery budget to $125 per month. To give perspective, my grocery spending had hovered around $225 to $250 per month for the last year. Essentially, right now we have to halve this area of spending. When we sat around talking and asking ourselves if we could do this, the answer was that we don't have any choice right now. So, yes I believe that with God's help, we can do this. What I said to my family was that there would always be plenty of food in the kitchen. It may not be their first choice, but it would be healthful and as delicious as I could make it.

In the coming few weeks, I'll share some of the changes that we have implemented to help reduce our costs. The first is something that has been evolving in our house over the past year and a half and will now be an official part of our plan. You may know, my young adult daughters live at home. Both of them are working currently, and as such, they each have some disposable income. They buy their own "special" foods. If they want a food item that is not on my regular list or within my budget, they know to buy it themselves. This may be chips, chicken nuggets, all-beef hot dogs, pizza rolls, or a particular brand of cookies. They pay for it, and it is theirs. Yes, our cabinets, freezers, and fridge have packages labeled in Sharpie with names, and we all respect each other's property. I believe that this has been a really good experience for them. The two of them are learning to shop smartly and weigh whether or not a particular food-want is truly worth it. So, that was one of my first suggestions to my friend, as I know she has a 17-year old at home who has a part time job. Giving pizza, burger, soda money to her teen could be something that she could let go of. When I was a teen, if I wanted something that my mother wasn't planning on buying for the family, it was up to me to buy it for myself with babysitting money in the early years and part time job money later on.

How we stand right now -- we pretty much depleted our surplus stores of food in February, so I'd say we are close to the position of any other family with a sudden loss of income. I have shopped at 2 of the 3 stores in which I plan on shopping for the month of March and have spent about $87 of the $125. I came across an unheard of price for ground beef a week ago, at 85 cents per pound on mark down, with my Senior discount and stacked with a coupon. This is my stock-up item for the month. I bought 21 pounds at that price. Choosing one especially low-cost item for the month and stocking up on it was my second suggestion to my friend. Had it not been for the ground beef, I would have chosen a 50-lb bag of pinto beans as a stock-up item. I'll save that for next month when my budget is replenished.

Speaking of -- I must go tend to my pot of beans. That's all for now. Hope you are well.

Earning a Small Amount of Money By Logging What I Am Already Doing to Improve My Health

If you don't know this yet, Walgreen's has a program where if you track your healthy and health improvement behaviors, they will reward you in the form of bonus dollars to use in the store. Now, it's not much, but it's basically free money for keeping a daily log of sleep amounts, weight, blood pressure readings, blood glucose readings, exercise, and smoking cessation.

For me, three of these activities are already on my daily list. So, simply logging into Walgreen's site once a day earns me 60 to 80 points daily. In a little over a month's time, I earn $2. Like I said, not a lot of money. However, I think the real value is the motivation that the program provides for me, to keep up with maintaining good health.

There's nothing in it for me if you sign up. I just thought I'd share what I've been doing to keep myself motivated and earn a couple of dollars along the way. Here's the link if this interests you.

Mug Cakes to Go

A little impromptu "picnic" in the mall's food court over the weekend necessitated the making of a super quick, scratch dessert -- mug cakes in mason jars. I mixed the batter in a bowl and divided between 4 small mason jars. Next, I microwaved for 1 minute. Screwed some lids on and we were set for dessert. Yum! Along with sandwiches and bananas, we had a nice little lunch all packed in under 10 minutes.

The food court at our local mall has lots of tables, some near a large fireplace, others up against large windows. It makes a nice place to take a "picnic" on a cold, winter day. Afterward, we did a little window shopping and got in a good walk. Malls are also great places to go for a walk when its cold or rainy outside. Just leave the credit cards at home.

Online Comparison Grocery Shopping

The internet has certainly changed the shopping experience, don't you think? One of the best frugal uses of the internet is to comparison grocery shop between several local stores. No need to keep a price book for stores that provide their prices online. Just pull up your favorite stores and search specific items.

After I took a thorough inventory of our current supplies, I made my list of must-haves to get through the month of March. Then, I pulled up the websites for Fred Meyer, Walmart, and Cash & Carry -- stores which are local for me, are my usual low price go-to's, and have their prices listed online. I went through my must-haves list, one by one, and checked each store's current price per item. From that information, I was able to create a shopping list for these 3 stores in order to get the lowest price on each item.

Some store sites make it easy to find their prices by the user providing their store location of choice and using the search bar. Other stores do make you jump through a very small hoop to get the local store's pricing. Walmart is one such store. That small hoop is the navigation of the site as if you were filling a cart online. For instance, this is my local Walmart, found through the grocery.walmart.com page.

By clicking on the orange box "View Store Details," I am brought to this page. See the orange box that says "Start Shopping Now?" Clicking on that box gets me into the price lists for my store. I can use the search box to access pricing for anything that Walmart carries in that store. There's no need to actually put anything into a virtual cart. I just use the search function until I've gone through my must-haves list, then close that tab.

So, on my laptop, I had tabs open for all three of my favorite stores, which meant I could jump between stores to check for the low price leader for each item. It was pretty easy and assured me that I would be getting those lowest possible prices for my area, with one exception. The exception is a local favorite, WinCo. WinCo does not have an online price list. My best way to quickly access pricing information is with my previous shopping receipts. I also have an idea of what items WinCo usually beats every other store in my area.

Once in the stores, I keep my eyes open for special deals not listed online. This week, I found cabbage at Walmart and ground beef at Fred Meyer at unexpected low prices. I made on-the-spot decisions for how much to buy and what to nix from my list to accommodate these purchases. This week, I saved several dollars by using the internet to comparison shop for groceries, yielding an extension of my rather small budget to include more food for our household. I do this for other products. It only makes sense to do this for grocery shopping, as well.

Do you compare grocery prices online, too? What other ways have you found to comparison shop for your groceries?

How My Canning Jar Ring/Lid Looks Painted

Just thought I'd show you what the painted version of the glued-together lid looks.

The whole project took just minutes to glue and spray paint. But I think the end result is a canister that looks respectable sitting on the countertop. I may still add a decorative knob on top, or may not. I'll see how I feel when I do a couple more jars to complement this one. I have an area of the counter dedicated to making hot beverages -- a little coffee and tea station.
Just thought I'd share the finished painted look.

On Amazon, a single, one-piece black mason jar lid sells for about $1.33 (in a pack of 6 for over $8).

I was able to make my own version for free, using what I had on hand (used lid and ring, and spray paint from another project many years ago). I'll be using this idea for lids for some mason jars candles that I am making as gifts.

Springtime Craft/Decor Project: Speckled Eggs

I see these in the stores every spring. I think they're beautiful and always wish to buy a package for myself, but they seem kind of expensive, at about $15 for a dozen. Well this year, I'm making my own. I have acrylic paints in a variety of shades -- blues, greens, brown, black, and white. And I've begun saving whole eggshells. I've been blowing out the contents of eggs as I've needed them.

So far, I have 5 intact shells. I am working toward a dozen speckled eggs. After blowing the insides out, I wash them out with hot soapy water, shaking up the water inside the eggs to get them clean. I've set the carton next to a heat vent to dry them thoroughly.

Once I have enough, I'll seal the holes with paintable caulk, then paint and speckle. I hope to have these done by mid-March. I'll share photos once I get them painted.

Supplies needed for making speckled decor eggs: intact hollow eggshells, painters' caulk, acrylic paint, paintbrush, toothbrush.

Updated:
To blow eggs: wash the exterior of the egg and dry; use a pin or needle to poke a small hole (like in the above photo) in the pointed end; in the flatter end, poke a slightly larger hole, using a small nail to enlarge the hole made with a pin (if it cracks just a little -1/4 inch long cracks, that should be okay as it will be covered up with painter's caulk); blow through the pointed end, every so often using the pin/needle to break up clogs and the yolk through the flatter end hole. Blowing eggs with smallish holes can be troublesome. The trick is to get the hole size just right. You could try slightly a slightly larger hole than what I've pictured. I wanted minimal caulking to perform on my eggs, but will experiment with a larger bottom hole in the next one I blow out.

this is the size of hole on the flat end of the egg

For fun, I also thought I'd show you some other eggs I have blown out, with larger holes in the flat ends. These are for confetti eggs. If you ever read the Tightwad Gazette, the author mentions making confetti eggs for her kids when they were young. The holes are larger so that you can fill the eggs with confetti. The eggs are dyed after blowing out but before filling with confetti. Once filled, the large hole is "patched" with a small square of colored tissue paper and white glue. When my kids were in the 6 to 13 age range, they enjoyed having a bunch of these eggs to throw, smash, and shatter on Easter (outside, of course!). These five eggs are leftovers from many years ago. I'm waiting for some younger friends to whom I shall give these.

Surprise Meal Inspiration When Whittling Down the Fridge, Freezer, and Pantry

As I mentioned a little over a week ago, in early February, we decided to halt grocery shopping and use up as much as possible from our freezers (3) and fridges (2). It's actually been kind of fun to see what we have, then make something from it. It's also been great to have those "instant" meals of frozen leftovers. We did run out of milk last week, with no plans to buy more until March. As none of us rely heavily on milk for nutrition, this is no big deal. Whereas many households use cereal as a mainstay for breakfast, our family has always been happy to have alternate quick foods like banana bread or toast, which maybe supplemented with a slice of cheese or yogurt (while that lasted). I was going to say that we are also running low on fruit, until I began listing what we do have. We have a handful of tangerines, raisins, dried cranberries, dried prunes, bottled lemon juice, frozen blueberries, frozen blackberries, frozen plums, frozen cranberries, frozen orange zest, and frozen juice concentrate. I'd hardly say that is the same as "running out of fruit!" We also have a good amount of vegetables, in canned, frozen, and fresh forms.And, there is still meat in the freezer. The good news is that eating down the freezer is requiring us to use the pieces that no one has really wanted, such as the leftover turkey legs from Thanksgiving.

Despite still having quite a lot of food, just thinking that we're not grocery shopping for most of the month adds a suggestion to our subconscious that we are being deprived. In response, I have gone above and beyond what is called for to make sure my household feels that there is plenty of great food left. I have pulled out several boxes of snacky foods, such as crackers, granola bars, and pop-tarts. I moved the case of Cup Noodles to a front and center spot in the pantry. I made chocolate peanut clusters, 2 loaves of banana bread, roasted some raw almonds, boiled some eggs, and made more flat soda jello. My daughter made cereal-marshmallow squares (rice crispy treats with other cereal) and a blackberry pie. We were out of hot dog buns so I used corn tortillas and made hot dog taquitos to go with frozen sweet potato fries for dinner one night. Another night, I pulled frozen eggs and cooked yams from the freezer, plus 1  1/2 softening apples from the fridge to make a frittata, sweet potato casserole, and an apple and raisin crisp. When I was tempted to buy a chocolate treat for myself one afternoon, I came home and made a tiny batch of chocolate covered almonds, using chocolate chips and some of the roasted almonds.

Still, today and the next few days will prove to be the most challenging for meal and snack prep, as our supplies continue to dwindle. One freezer is now empty. Taking a quick survey of what's left, we've and made tentative plans for the week's meals. I found a block of turkey breakfast sausage and a bag of prunes to use in a breakfast for dinner meal tonight. My daughter will be making a pumpkin and chicken sausage soup along with another blackberry pie, all using frozen ingredients, for tomorrow night's dinner. Friday night, I'll make something Tex-Mex themed, using some frozen cornbread, frozen cooked beans, cheddar cheese, frozen canned tomatoes, onions, and seasonings. The amazing thing is that I think we could probably go another 10 days without shopping and still eat well.

We may have been mildly inconvenienced, but we accomplished a couple of significant goals. We used up foods that had been lingering for a long time and might have been thrown away at some point, due to the deterioration of food quality. We saved a lot of money on groceries this month, spending approximately $90 for February, which is about $130 under budget. We proved to ourselves that we don't need as much variety as we think we do. We found new possibilities for meals and snacks. Of course, we'll be happy to have our supplies replenished in early March. It is nice to get things cleaned out, every once in a while.

The message that I get from this experience is that most of us probably have a couple hundred dollars worth of food in storage. Should any difficult financial situation arise, most of us could live for several weeks without spending any money on food. It's like a little emergency savings account.

Turning Used Canning Jar Lids/Rings into Storage Jar Lids

You know this, right? For dry storage, you can hot glue canning jar lids and rings together to make lids for storage jars and canisters.

I found that this works best when I apply the hot glue to the lid edge (as opposed to the inside of the ring). I can get the glue on faster and press the lid into the ring before the glue sets up. I allow the glue to firm up for a couple of hours before using the "new" one-piece lid. The great thing is I used pieces that might otherwise end up in the garbage. The lid has been used in canning, while the ring is showing some rust inside.

This is the lid to my new coffee canister. I'll be spray painting the lid and attaching a knob later this week.

How Serendipitous!

About a year ago, I found this Spode cup at Goodwill for $1.99. Then last weekend, I found the saucer at Value Village for $1.99. A matching cup and saucer for $3.98! These pieces in this pattern sell for a minimum of $10.00 on ebay. I'm pretty certain that I could get $10.00 for the pair at a garage sale in my area. But I won't sell them, at least not yet. I'll get some enjoyment from the pair for a little while. I love treasure hunting at thrift stores. I find the loveliest items for a fraction of what similar pieces would cost if new!

Water Flavoring Squeezy Thingies

Okay, so I got this water flavoring as a freebie at Fred Meyer this past fall. I discovered that I really like this stuff. However, I'm not about to spend $2.99 to buy more when the majority of the cost is the plastic container. So, I set out to make my own, reusing the container from the used-up freebie item.

Basically, this stuff is artificially-sweetened, fruit flavoring. You squirt a little bit into a glass of water and it colors and adds a hint of flavor to a glass of water. I like this because I drink more water if I use it. It's not super strong, like a glass of punch, but just lightly flavored. The way that the container works prevents one from using enough to make a glass of super sweet water. And if artificially-flavored Kool-aid isn't one's thing, then this is also possible to make with lemon juice and stevia or other powdered sweetener.

I was super pleased that the lid just screwed off. The place on the container where the lid meets the bottle was concealed beneath the plastic wrapping. After twisting off the cap, I mixed some Kool-aid powder and a couple of packets of artificial sweetener in about 1 tablespoon of water, then poured it into the squeeze bottle. I sampled some squeezed into a glass of water and adjusted the Kool-aid and sweetener until one or two squeezes was just right for my taste. That's it. I keep this in the fridge and expect to go through it in about 3 weeks or so, at which point I'll wash it out and refill, probably trying lemon juice and stevia or Splenda.

Recueil du Jour

My Valentine's roses continue to be pretty, although it is a considerably shorter bouquet than one week ago. To get the most out of my bouquet, I trim the roses and refresh the water every other day, I re-vased them in a smaller container, and I plucked any browning petals and dry leaves off of the blooms and stems. Just adding fresh water makes the entire bouquet look brighter. I am saving the fallen petals in a baggie in the fridge, with the plan to try making some rose water when my flowers are completely spent.

In the comments on the creative savv facebook page, Sarah Nosworthy gave info on treating drooping roses, saying that "trimming the stems and doing a five minute boiling water blanch will remove air bubbles. Then [plunge] into cold [water]. Works for sunflowers too." When I asked for more detail, she replied, "only the stems and only needs to be a few centimetres or an inch or so." Sarah once worked in a florist's shop. So, the next time around with grocery store rose bouquets, my game plan is to try dunking the stem ends of drooping roses into boiling water for a couple of minutes, then plunge into cold water. And if any of the roses are still drooping, then I'll try the straight pin. Anyway, thank you, Sarah for the professional!

Here's one of this week's desserts, in honor of President Washington, cherry cupcakes. I made a half of a recipe of yellow cake, substituting almond extract for the vanilla, adding chopped candied fruitcake cherries, and baking in red and white cupcake liners. The frosting was donated to the household by my daughter, who grabbed it from the free table at work in December. It was a white, fluffy frosting, to which I added cherry Kool-aid powder and some cherry pie filling. The frosted cupcakes were topped with a spoonful of cherry pie filling. A couple of things about the cherry pie filling. This came from Dollar Tree ($1/can) and the brand is Mother's Maid. We originally tried this brand on Christmas to top cheesecake. We all think this is pretty good for a dollar store pie filling. Just sayin' as some dollar store brands are just so-so. The other thing to tell you about is our encounter with a mouse in the house, prompting the creative use of food that we have on hand.

A Mouse in the House

Sometime, in the past several months, it appears that we had a little guest. I went to get a package of cookies out of the spare pantry (a closet in the hall where I sometimes stash packaged foods), and the package had been torn into. On a shelf beneath this package, there was another package that had not only been chewed, but the plastic packaging bits remained on the shelf. The four of us spent about an hour that evening going through every food item in our house and moved it all to the fridge or freezer. Fortunately, it looks like our “friend” only got to those two items. We have no idea how he got in, or where he went after his little nighttime nosh, but have now set up traps in strategic places in the house. We decided that absolutely every food item not already in hard packaging should be stored in the fridge or freezer. The up side to this is that we also decided not to grocery shop until we actually have room in the fridges or freezers to store anything. Our recent bout with snow conditions helped greatly with this goal, as we were trapped for several days and unable to navigate the ice-packed roads for over a week.

On the food front — we are searching the freezers for lingering leftovers, breakfasting on crock-pot oatmeal, and basically using what we have. Before the mouse discovery and superfluous snow, I had made one quick stop at a grocery store to pick up produce and a couple of other essentials in anticipation of really bad roads for a few days. Otherwise, I haven’t done any major grocery shopping in the month of February. After the snow, I bought some marked down avocados and mushrooms, whole wheat flour for baking bread, frozen blueberries, and a couple of loaves of marked-down bread (50 cents/loaf, too good to pass up). It’s the third week of February and I’ve spent about $90 on groceries for the month. Surprisingly, we’re doing okay with making meals and snacks from what we have on hand. If we had to have a mouse in the house, this is probably a good time for it, as there are few grocery bargains in the early months of the year, and our freezers are somewhat well-stocked from holiday sales. So, the cherry cupcakes were more inspired by needing to use up some of what is on hand than a past president's birthday, but we can claim patriotism, right?

This was our Valentine's Day dessert, a cheesecake that only called for 1 8-ounce bar of cream cheese. When we originally planned for cheesecake, I thought we had a lot of cream cheese still in the freezer. However, I only found 1 bar. The recipe that we found is from this blog -- Watts Cooking, by Aimee. 

Our Review

The cheesecake was delicious. It was not as dense as those made with New York-style recipes, which often call for as many as 4 bars of cream cheese. Yet we enjoyed this very much. Our only objection was how thin the cheesecake turned out. If we make this recipe again, we’ll use a smaller pan. For this one, we used a 9-inch springform. Otherwise, if you're making cheesecake and only have 1 bar of cream cheese, this recipe is very good.

I made another batch of garlic cheesy bread, using canned biscuits. This time I added chopped salami, lots of mozzarella cheese, and lots of dried oregano and frozen rosemary. It was really delicious and would make a great bread item to go with grocery store fried chicken for springtime picnics. Can you tell that I'm ready for winter to end? I'm planning picnics by the lake already.

One last thought for today, I'm planning a couple of inexpensive Easter crafts, based on items that I've seen in stores. I'm excited to try one of them this next week. I'll let you know how it goes afterward. Have a lovely evening!

My Take on the Knitted Cosmetic Cloths

Live and learn asked if I would knit some of these for myself. The answer is -- I miscounted as I was knitting, and I had one leftover. So, I tried it out for myself to see what I thought. I love these! I was one of those women who either went to bed with a full face of make-up or used disposable, pre-moistened cloths on days that I wore foundation/tinted moisturizer or eye make-up. My two complaints against the commercial make-up wipes is that the ingredients are not compatible with my skin type so I needed to wash and moisturize afterward, taking time and energy that I’m not happy to spend late at night. And secondly, the cost and single-use aspect of a purchased, disposable product bother me. With the knitted cloths, I use a little of my moisturizer (which also happens to be the product that I use to I cleanse my face) and wipe off the foundation and eye products. I liked the way the knitted cloth worked so well that I began knitting more for myself. So, my answer is, yes, I am sold on the effectiveness and ease of these cloths. I will finish knitting a total of 4 of these cloths, my estimate for how many days per week I have anything on my face that needs removing.

With my daughters, one has tried them and likes them, and the other daughter has yet to try them out. So, we'll see what the verdict is with the younger generation, later.

Salvaging Droopy Roses in a Bouquet Using Straight Pins

Hi, there. I've been taking some time to recharge since Valentine's Day. But this morning, I wanted to share with you how I salvage drooping roses in a bouquet.

Can you see the angle of the stem just below the bud on this rose? (It's actually to the upper left of the blossom.) This stem was the first to droop (on Friday), and the first that I repaired. (In a later photo, you can see this rose, repaired with a pearl-headed pin.)

Grocery store roses can be a real bargain, compared to those from the florist. However, I've had an issue with some grocery store roses. I sometimes get a batch whose buds begin to droop about a day after receiving or buying them. 

This latest batch, bought from a grocery store on Valentine's Day, began to develop a couple of droopers on Friday, despite trimming the ends, keeping them in adequate water, and using the floral preservative. My solution for this batch came from a dozen florist's roses that I received once. Those roses had a short length of wire in each stem below the bud. So, for this past week’s roses that were drooping just below the bud, I thought I would substitute a straight pin for the florist wire in the stems.

a different stem beginning to droop

About a half-inch below the place on the stem where the rose was drooping, I pushed an ordinary straight pin up through the stem (toward the blossom), being careful to keep the pin inside the stem and not poking through the other side. 

if you look closely, you can see the pin head on the right side
 of the stem, an inch below the blossom

Above, I’ve used a dark blue pin. But in the photo below, the large pearl-headed pin is more visible. (This rose had the greatest degree of drooping, by the way, and was the first rose that I salvaged with a pin.)

Below are the roses on Friday, after I’d “fixed” the ones whose buds were flopping at the top of the stem. 

I repaired 5 of the stems between Friday and Saturday.

Here they are this morning (Tuesday). You can see the pearl-headed pin in a rose at the front of the bunch. The rose has maintained the integrity of its appearance, as have the others in the bunch.

And here’s a shot of the dozen from above so that you can see that the repaired rose (the furtherest to the left) is opening similarly to several of the other roses.

Obviously, floral wire would be easier to conceal, as there would be no head protruding from the stem. However, I am fine with the small, dark blue and green heads of the smaller pins, as they are barely noticeable and readily available to me. I'll leave the pins in until I take my bouquet apart, then return them to my sewing supplies.

It's too early to tell if the bouquet will continue to look uniformly good. So far, though, it looks like this little “fix” has salvaged my Valentine's roses.