September's Grocery Plans

Yes, we really did go through 9 gallons of milk this month! I thought maybe we might have 1 extra gallon leftover. But nope -- we must be heavy-duty milk consumers. Well, 3 of those 9 gallons were made into yogurt. Does a 6-gallon milk consumption sound any better?

Making the Plans

This week, I've been reviewing what we went through this past month, surveying the pantry and freezer, and working on the shopping plans for next month. We need milk again, as well as yeast for baking bread. We have enough eggs, chicken, and beef to last through September. In addition, September should be a good month for our garden. Even though we have a huge stash of blackberries, we will need some pieces of fresh fruit for lunches. I don't want to spend or allocate all of our budget for the month, up front, but instead want to hold some back in case I find some unexpected great deals or to save for fall sales, later. I will be watching for canned vegetable sales, and deals on fresh green peppers and bottled lemon juice.

At the end of August, we have $7.08 of the budget remaining. Add to that a coupon for $5 off any purchase at Fred Meyer plus the $135 that I have allocated, so we have $147.08 to spend on food.

Budget - $135 plus $7.08 + $5.00 = 147.08

My List

WinCo

cocoa powder, $2 worth

chocolate chips winco/Walmart 1.88/12 oz – only if < 1.88/12 oz, otherwise wait

powdered milk, $1 worth - bulk bins

coffee creamer, $1 worth - bulk bins

raisins, $1 worth - bulk bins

check chili powder price < 4.91/lb

Sprouts

peaches 3 lbs/$1, 9 lbs – before 9/4

jalapenos, 5/$1

Fred Meyer (Senior Discount Day -- get up and out early, hoping for milk on markdown)

Simple Truth coconut milk, ½ gal. (45 cents w/ $2 off coupon)

milk, 6 gals 2%, 3 gals whole, 2.06 ea (18.54)

tea bags, One of the Perks, 100 ct., 1.07

decaf tea bags, One of the Perks, 100 ct., 2.24

hot dogs, 1 pack, Heritage Farms, 75 cents

Chicken of the Sea canned tuna fish, 69 cents, 5 oz (get 5)

Walmart

decaf coffee, 3.57

bananas, 10 lbs (later in month, over a couple of visits), 4.20

House Foods tofu, firm 16 oz 1.44 (2)

Great Value frozen orange juice, 12 oz, 1.23 (3)

Cash and Carry – will wait to see what specials are, hold out if I can until 2^nd set of specials mid-month

Red Star yeast, 2 lbs 7.38

Fiesta pinto beans, 50 lbs, 21.98

10 lb bag carrots, 4.57, check also for 25-lb bags of juicing carrots

onions, 50-lb bag, 12.55

cheese, 12.50/5 lb bag, this is a maybe (still have some cheese in freezer)

Simply Value canned whole tomatoes, #10, 2.89

chili powder, 3.99/13 oz, First Street (4.91/lb)

So far, $114.27 max for grocery planning. I may or may not buy cheese and/or chocolate chips. And I may add a little bit of fresh produce as I find deals on veggies that don't grow in my garden.

My usual run down the highway goes something like this: Sprouts, WinCo, Cash & Carry, and Walmart. These stores are all along the same major highway in my area. So, if it sounds wasteful for me to stop at Sprouts for a bag of peaches and some jalapenos, or WinCo for a few items from the bulk bins, understand that the actual extra gas usage is not too bad for each individual stop. Fred Meyer is not along this run and has a specific day of the month for my shopping tied to a discount. Fred Meyer also sells gas at a competitive price, so I plan this shopping stop separately from the rest.

The cocoa powder, powdered milk, and coffee cream powder are for making cocoa mix (yes, it is that time of year again, isn't it?).  I was going to get some tea, but decided to save these items for November. I've got enough other teas on which I can rely for 2 months. The pinto beans, yeast, and onions will be stock-up items for the month. And I'm adding to our stock of canned tuna. We don't eat a lot of canned tuna but it is one of the meats that is shelf stable, so I think it's good for an emergency pantry. And the canned oj is to add to what I think we will want this winter. I have a few cans in the freezer already. I am buying a few cans each month to build up a supply -- Walmart's price is pretty good.

As you can see, I'm holding back a lot of our money this month. I'll spend about $35 to $45 at the farm stand's end of season sale on November 1, buying apples, pumpkins/squash, garlic, cabbage, and sweet potatoes. In addition, when the November minimum-spend-to-buy-a-turkey deals come out, I want to have plenty of foods on my shopping list to be able to get the cheapest price per pound on our turkey.

You know, there's a part of me that enjoys making out this list, but also a part of me that feels quite stressed by it all. Will I have enough to get us through the month? Is there enough produce, meat, and easy to grab food for my household? It really would be easier if I shopped once per week and loaded up my cart, without too much thought to cost. But this is the best way that I can ensure we keep to our budget and still eat well.

Using Less Butter and Extending Our Grocery Budget

For those of us on a tight grocery budget and using butter instead of margarine, the price of butter can be a bit of a pain-point, right? Really, $3 or more for a tiny 10-in by 3-in box just seems so out of proportion compared to how much food you can get for that same $3. 

For the past year, my usual price per butter, buying store-brand on a senior discount day, has been $2.51/lb, and I realize that is a good price for butter. This last week, I was able to buy 5 pounds on a special 2-day only sale for $1.99/lb. I bought all I was allowed to, obviously. But 5 pounds wouldn't last long in a household of 4 adults, for whom I cook and bake almost entirely from scratch, unless I implemented some butter-extending techniques in my cooking practices. My hope is to make this butter last until the fall/winter holidays, when stores will have their baking sales and I can buy additional butter at a low price. And I think this is doable, as for the past 2 months, we've been able to hold our butter consumption to 1 pound per month. I consider this quite a feat for my butter-loving family, as previously we'd go through almost a pound of butter per week. How have we accomplished this?

Below are several ways that we've cut our butter consumption and extended our grocery money.

• using more oil in all types of cooking and baking. Vegetable oil at Walmart (Great Value brand) is $4.98/gallon. Per the USDA, a gallon of vegetable oil weighs about 7.7 pounds. At Walmart's price of $4.98/gallon, a pound of vegetable oil costs 65 cents, a lot more economical than dairy butter and somewhat more economical than the price of margarine in my area. I have been buying our vegetable oil from Cash & Carry in a 35 lb cube (a lighter-weight plastic pour container inside a cardboard box). I pay about $17 to $18 per cube, so my vegetable oil costs 51 cents/lb. Other stores that carry vegetable oil in 35-lb cubes include Sam's Club and Costco Business. A 35-lb cube sounds enormous, but it's just about 4.5 gallons of oil. For our family of four adults, with baking and cooking almost exclusively from scratch, we are using about .8 of a gallon of vegetable oil per month, or just under .85 oz per person per day. Considering we are also consuming far less meat than ever (once or twice per week), this is a healthy amount of fat to consume for us. The Department of Health and Human Services (as referenced in SFGate) recommends 200 to 450 calories from unsaturated fat sources per day for normal adults. That's 1 to 2 ounces of unsaturated fat. We're within these guidelines as we also eat nuts and seeds and their products.
• making soft butter (how-to's right here) and making it even softer by mixing in more oil than I previously had. I now use a ratio of just under 1 part vegetable oil to 1 part butter, with a pinch of salt stirred in to compensate for flavor in this blend. I previously used about a 1:2 ratio of oil to butter. This soft butter is very soft. It retains its opacity on room temperature bread but quickly melts on anything warmed or toasted. It is soft and spreadable directly out of the fridge.
• reserving butter to use as a spread on bread or to impart flavor to cooked vegetables. This is an informal rule in our household right now -- we save the butter as much as possible, using it almost exclusively for spreading on bread or adding a small amount to cooked veggies/potatoes. We feel that the butter flavor is most appreciated in those applications. 
• substituting oil for butter 100% in most of my cooking and baking and using part oil, part butter in the rest of the baking. I've made drop cookies with half butter, half oil with success, and I've made bar cookies, like brownies, using all oil with success. I also make scratch biscuits, muffins, and snack/coffee cakes using only oil. I do like using a 50/50 blend of butter and oil for scratch scones and delicate cakes (as for a scratch birthday cake), for the flavor that butter adds to those products.
• using oil to add richness to cream soups and sauces, such as for making a bechamel or white sauce. I start the roux with oil instead of butter, mix in my flour and add milk.
• using saved fat from cooking meat, such as chicken, beef, turkey, and ham fat. Here are several ways that I use meat fat, including how I clarify strong-flavored fats.  In addition to saving any fat that is normally rendered in cooking (left in the pan after cooking meat), I also render any fat chunks that are left on the meat after cooking, such as found on some of the lesser-expensive hams.
• greasing baking casseroles and pans with vegetable shortening (Crisco) instead of butter. Great Value brand (Walmart) is 99 cents per pound. I prefer greasing bakeware with a solid. I have had better success with items coming clean from a pan when using a solid compared to an oil.
• using oil in skillets in place of butter, for eggs, veggies, and lean meats. 
• using oil instead of butter to make croutes (crispy/crunchy, oven-toasted bread slices) by pouring a spoonful of oil onto a baking sheet, dipping one side of the bread in the oil, then turning and dipping the other side before oven-toasting. Croutes don't get soggy as quickly when adding a wet topping (like a poached egg or sloppy joe filling) or when used as an accompaniment to stew and hearty soup (using croutes as dippers). I also make great garlic toast in the same way, dipping both sides in oil and adding a sprinkle of garlic powder and salt to the top side of the bread before placing in the oven to toast.
• using other spreads on toast or bread, such as the inexpensive peanut butter that I bought 2 weeks ago (50 cents/lb), homemade jams, and cream cheese (I stock up when I can get it for 90 cents/8 oz, which would be $1.80/lb).
• topping popped corn with a flavorings, seasonings, and popcorn salt instead of adding melted butter.

Basically, if a recipe calls for butter, I will try it at least once with oil or a mix of oil and butter to see if I like the final product. Often times, I can't even detect a difference between using oil vs. butter. In the few times I can detect a difference, I often don't object to the change -- it's just different, in my mind. In the rare instance that I don't like the change, then the next time I slightly increase the amount of butter and decrease the amount of oil that I use. In other words, I experiment until I find that point where I'm satisfied with the final product, but at the same time saving the maximum amount of money.

sources:

https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/41880/33132_ah697_002.pdf?v=42487

https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/recommended-amount-unsaturated-fat-per-day-6385.html

Progress Plus What I've Been Doing With the Runny, Tail End of Jars of Homemade Yogurt

Here's my "blackberry freezer." It's about the size of a dishwasher. Hard to see, but that top shelf is completely full, so is the bottom shelf, and in the middle, there's enough room for about 4 more quarts of blackberries. I think we have had blackberries in some form or another for every day of this month, plus we've been freezing as many as we could.

Remember last week, I soaked spinach seeds in a dish of water overnight, then planted them in seed-starting trays the next day? Well, they are coming up! I think soaking them overnight helped speed the germination. These plants will fill the trough in which I currently have the beets -- we're eating those quickly! We should at the very least have enough leafy greens from the garden through October this year.

If you make you own yogurt, this is one of those questions most of us have -- what to do with the runny last bit of yogurt at the bottom of the jars? Well, this summer, I've been using that runny yogurt/whey to start a batch of creamy salad dressing. I simply add vinegar, oil, salt, and dried chives to the yogurt and shake it up well. Then I stir in some mayonnaise, and I've got a jar of creamy, almost ranch-type dressing. 

I think this is a good way to use something that is no longer appetizing. Waste not, want not.

Trying a New Pattern for Hand-Crafted Earrings and High Hopes for September's Grocery Budget

Thank you to all of you who participated or read along (live or later) with the live chat on Saturday. It's always nice to have people to hang out with and chat about things we have in common! I hope that this was as helpful for you as it was for me.

I made another pair of earrings last night and wanted to show them, here.

The design is a trefoil, and I felt it was easier than the Celtic cross earrings. I began and finished with this design in under 2 hours. I am also looking at making a couple of twisted wire bracelets as Christmas gifts, to accompany the earrings. Updates to come . . .

So, this is the last week of the month. I am putting together my grocer shopping list for September and have a couple of pieces of good news for our grocery budget.

I already mentioned that I think we can spare an extra $10 from other areas to add to groceries. In addition, I received a $5 off coupon for Fred Meyer, which I'll use on Senior day, and a $2 off any product from the Simple Truth brand. ST is the brand that I usually select for soy, almond, or coconut milk, and it is a store brand, so I'll also save 10%. That means a 1/2 gallon of coconut milk will cost me about 45 cents. I had this deal a couple of months ago, so I'm thrilled it is being repeated. Other good news in groceries -- over the weekend, I had a coupon for butter for $1.99 per pound, limit of 5. I bought the limit (and picked up 2 freebies while there). My "good" price for butter has been $2.51/lb on Senior day. With this weekend's deal, I saved a total of $2.60. $2.60 may not sound like a lot of money to many people, but when your budget is so small, $2.60 as a percentage of the overall budget, makes a big difference in what I can buy. Now with 5 extra pounds of butter in the freezer, I can skip buying butter for several months, or until I find this price again (which might happen right around Thanksgiving). This frees up a few dollars each month for other food items. 

All combined, we'll have about $20 extra dollars for food spending for September. I'll post my list later this week.

I've been fortunate to find several bargains on groceries lately. Have you been finding any particularly good deals on groceries this month?


Seeing as it's the last week of August, I thought today would be a great day to hit the beach. picnic lunch, check, frisbee, check, sketchbook and camera, check, sunglasses/sunscreen, check. A budget-friendly way to spend some precious time with my two daughters. I hope that you all have a great day today!

Live Chat Saturday: Christmas/Holiday Gifts Festive Foods

Cheery Potholder

Good morning, all! I hope that between us all we can come up with lots of great holiday gift ideas. In our family, we also have 2 birthdays in fall, so I will use some of these ideas for birthday gifts.

So, I'll start with my list.

Cheery Knit Potholder
Since I like to do one knitting project each year, I searched for easy to knit ideas. I really, really love this potholder idea.

(Link)This easy to knit potholder is made double-thickness by folding over a knitted or crochet square and crocheting the edges together.

If you click on the link, you'll find a blue-gray clickable box for downloading the free pattern. I don't crochet very well, so I plan on knitting something very similar, then crocheting just the edge. Cute, don't you think? These remind me of a Scandinavian Christmas. And as I am half Scandinavian, that appeals to me a lot.

I am contemplating knitting a rectangle instead of a square, so that my finished potholder would be wider. The yarn used is Lily's Sugar 'N Cream Twists in Barnboard for the body of the potholders and Sugar 'N Cream Country Red for the edging.

Both of these yarns were hard for me to find locally. Online, the best deal I found for both the Barnboard and Country Red was at Ben Franklin Online (craft supplier) for $1.99 per skein, plus shipping. I played around with the shipping estimator on the page with the shopping cart and was able to have up to 3 skeins of yarn for a shipping charge of $3.63. That means each skein would cost me $3.20. This was the best deal that I could find on a small order of these yarns, including shipping. The site where the free pattern is found also carries these 2 yarns. But the price per skein is $2.99 and the shipping for my area was $7.95 for 3 skeins. Also, the amount of yarn the pattern states is required is 2 of each color, which looks to me is too much for the Country Red edging, don't you think? If I wanted to make just 2 or 4 of these potholders, I would guess that at max I would need 2 skeins of Barnboard and 1 skein of Country Red.

A pair of these potholders would make a nice gift.

Celtic Cross Earrings

Handmade Earrings
Are you up for a small challenge? For the last week and a half, I've been teaching myself how to use wire to make these earrings. I spent about 20 to 30 minutes on 5 separate evenings practicing twisting the wire to form these Celtic crosses. On the 6th try, I was able to make the first pair of earrings that I thought looked good. I think that's pretty good for learning a new craft, and to me, that indicates that for anyone who has some craftiness, they could learn to do these. Just find a simple pattern to begin with, master that, then move on.

the supplies that I used

the tools that I used 

I followed the instructions provided in this video. I bought the wire, crystal beads, and fish hook ear wires at Michael's, using 40% off coupons for all items (a couple of different visits to the store). I also bought one pair of round-nose pliers at Michael's, again using a 40% off coupon. To pay for all of this, I used a gift card that was given to me for my birthday. All of my supplies and tools cost me about $14. (They would've been much more if I had not used 40% off coupons for every item.) The pliers are now a tool in my craft supplies and will be used many more times. The beads, wire, and ear wires can be used for another 14 pairs of earrings. So, I estimate that each pair of earrings cost just under $1. Similar earrings are selling for between $15 and $25 per pair on Etsy.

I'll be making a couple of different designs. Here's one that I thought I might try next.

I love the look of these earrings. I have always wanted to learn how to make jewelry. I thought I'd need to have welding supplies to do so. Now I know a way to craft jewelry with very simple tools. 

In addition to the pliers that I bought, I also used our household needle-nose pliers and wire cutters.

Men's T-Shirts

Men's Short-Sleeve T-Shirts from Michael's and Long-Sleeve T-Shirts from JoAnn's
Michael's has better color choices and prices than Joann Fabrics in the short-sleeve t-shirts, but JoAnn's offers long-sleeve t-shirts. Both stores have great coupons and sales. The blue and green t-shirts in the photo are short-sleeved and from Michael's. I got them last weekend on a 40% off sale for $2.39 each. The black t-shirt on the right is long-sleeved, bought from JoAnn's, using a 60% off coupon, for $3.99. For my area, these are crazy good prices for basic t-shirts. The shirts may no longer be on sale in your area, but the coupons that are available almost weekly at Michael's would give you the same price as what I paid.

https://melissaknorris.com/how-to-make-an-evergreen-swag/

Evergreen Swag
This will actually be a birthday/Thanksgiving gift for a young couple. They live in an apartment and don't have a yard that they can raid for evergreen trimmings.

Instructions for making a swag can be found on this site, with additional helpful information for keeping the evergreens fresh for an extended time on this site.

We have lots of evergreens, here. I can make a swag for their front door for about the cost of ribbon and a door wreath hanger.

Homemade Blackberry Pancake Syrup
Some of that blackberry pancake syrup, bottled in a nice bottle will make a nice gift for someone who doesn't have the inclination to make this themselves. For bottling, here in Seattle, there is an online vender who has a walk-in store, where you can buy just 1 bottle if that's all you need.  Specialty Bottle is a Seattle-based operation that carries a wide variety of shapes and sizes of bottles and jars.
A single traditional 8 oz syrup bottle sells for $1.79 plus tax.  Or an 8-oz square, swing-top bottle sells for $2.63, plus tax. Shipping is based on weight and can really drive the cost of bottles up. But I mention Specialty Bottle because they have a storefront in SODO, and their prices are really great, for those in the Seattle area.

I'm also a fan of buying bottles at thrift stores and sterilizing them at home to fill with syrup. And of course, repurposing any bottles that you already have is the best way to "recycle" any glassware. I save bottles that I think have appeal as gift containers. I wash and sterilize them at home and replace any corks with new ones.

This bottle is a nice one for homemade fruity syrup.
I'll clean it up, remove the label, and make
a new hanging tag to tie around the neck of the bottle.

If you're using a bottle that needs a cork and are buying new corks, make sure that they are made for bottling and not crafts. Bottling corks usually specify if they are for beer or wine. Beer corks are slightly smaller in diameter. But both would be appropriate and safe for food purposes.

No blackberries for making syrup? You can make a blueberry syrup using frozen blueberries. Instructions for making and canning syrup from berries (including frozen blueberries) are on the National Center for Home Food Preservation site. Dollar Tree sells 10 oz bags of frozen blueberries for $1. This about 1  1/2 cups of blueberries and should make enough syrup to fill one to two 8 oz. bottles. And because these blueberries are frozen, you can make blueberry syrup long after summer has left us. 

The long bar of lavender soap that I made 3 years ago.
I cut it into smaller bars with a kitchen knife.

Handmade Soap
In 2016, I made 2 types of soap, honey-oatmeal and lavender. I used melt and pour soap, soap scents and essential oils, soap colorant, ground oatmeal and lavender buds, plus a spaghetti box that I used for the mold. Here's a link to how I made the oatmeal soap.
And here's a link to how I made the lavender soap.

Both types of soap were well-received. I have enough leftover melt and pour soap base that I can make one more batch of soap. I'd like to alter it somehow from these two types. Any suggestions on how I could change the scent or shape of these soaps with minimal extra expense?

gift for Christmas 2015

Ornament Balls Filled with Drinking Chocolate
In 2015 I made these for my brother's family. They were wow-ed by the appearance. I bought fillable plastic ornaments from Michael's (on sale, I believe) and layered in cocoa mix, milk powder, crushed candy canes, and ground chocolate. These ornaments would easily be filled with other powders, such as bath salts or soup mixes. Here's the post where I gave info for making these filled ornaments.

Pumpkin Cake Roll
While a pumpkin cake roll makes a beautiful dessert to take to a potluck or serve at home, it also would make a nice gift during the holidays. My recipe comes from Libby's, with just a couple of tweaks from me.

Buche de Noel
The chocolate cake roll that is frosted to look like a log makes a beautiful holiday dessert. Once the cake is filled and rolled up, the decoration part is really easy. Frost with cocoa-buttercream icing, use a fork to draw the bark lines, trim with leafy matter, such as kale and red berries (Skittles or M&Ms), and sprinkle some powdered sugar for snow.

Corn Relish -- need a recipe
For many years, we had a family friend who made a corn relish using canned corn, peppers, vinegar, sugar, and maybe something else. Anyway, she gave some to us and my family loved it. I've wanted to make it since, but I'm afraid she has passed on and I don't have a recipe. Have any of you made a canned corn relish that you then canned? Do you have a recipe you could share? I'm thinking my family would be pleased to have this again this Thanksgiving, and using canned corn means that this i=should be quite frugal to make.

I can add photos of any of your ideas if you email them to me. I'll update this post periodically, as needed.

So, there are a bunch of my ideas. Now it's your turn! I'm so looking forward to this.

These are from Ruthie: play cookies, for children's tea parties or kitchen play.

Ruthie says, "Two pieces of felt, cut like a sugar cookie are sewn or even glued together, topped with a yo-yo (like the old yo-yo quilts) - topped with a button.  Be sure to sew the yo-yo and button on before adhering the bottom piece of felt.  You don't really want the stitching to show through on the bottom of the "cookie"."

Also from Ruthie, "Another idea is to record yourself (or anyone else) reading a favorite story and giving that with the book.  You could have grandma reading a bedtime story anytime.

I also really enjoy knitting dishrags in bright colors.  They are so cheery and don't get so dingy looking." 

Love these, Ruthie!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Mid-August

Tuesday's dinner

A week of frugal meals, using basic staples & garden/ foraged produce

We're in a groove. We've found ways to use our cheaply-acquired staples in tasty entrees, sides, and desserts. The 50 cent/lb peanut butter, 90 cent/lb ground beef, 59 cent/dozen eggs, 37 cent/pound pasta, and free garden vegetables (ours and donated) and foraged blackberries featured heavily in our meals this past week. Some meals were simpler than others. But all meals were very inexpensive, Just goes to show that you can save money, use some of the cheapest foods, and still feed your family well.

More blackberry foraging

We harvested several more pails of blackberries this week -- filling up that freezer and using fresh blackberries as our primary fruit. Blackberries were added to homemade yogurt (with homemade blackberry syrup to sweeten), in blackberry pie, and simply eaten fresh, topped with jam or honey. 

Excitement -- on our last foraging expedition (yesterday), my daughter and I were chased by a very protective yellow jacket. I think we were just too close to his or her nest. That experience brought my suppressed bee-phobia to the surface, to say the least! I need to get over it, at least for another week of blackberry foraging. We are up to 19 ice cream pails of blackberries for the season and hoping to fill 2 or 3 more.

Friday's dinner

The supper menus

Friday
lentil and vegetable soup, using chicken soup stock as the base, lentils, tomato paste, onions, garlic, garden herbs, chili powder, and some zucchini and greens that were gifted to us
zucchini bread (using the other half of the gifted zucchini)
fresh blackberries topped with jam for dessert

Saturday
noodles in peanut sauce (using that uber-cheap peanut butter from the new dollar store and deeply-discounted noodles from Walmart, plus garlic and red pepper flakes)
sauteed garden greens (the gifted ones, again)
fresh blackberries

Sunday cookout
hot dogs in homemade buns, with some of the new homemade ketchup
salad of garden greens with homemade 1000 Island dressing
fresh blackberries

Monday
kale quiche
fresh blackberries

Tuesday
BBQ lentils over thick slices of toast
everything garden salad with lettuce, kale, tomatoes, cucumber, and beets
zucchini stuffed with bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, herbs, salt and oil

Wednesday
spaghetti in meat sauce (I added the scooped out part of last night's zucchini to the sauce)
garden green beans

Thursday
pizza, using quick and easy scratch pizza dough, w/ minimal rise-time, leftover spaghetti meat sauce, and mozzarella cheese
green garden salad, with lettuce, kale, and cucumber in homemade salsa/mayo dressing
scratch blackberry pie, using 2 patties of this scratch pastry dough, made in bulk ahead of time and frozen  and the afternoon's freshly picked blackberries


If I had to pick one meal that was my favorite, I'd say Tuesday's dinner. The BBQ lentils were made with the last of the stale bottle of cola from Christmas, some tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, onions, chicken fat (frozen - part of "waste nothing"), garlic, and soy sauce. 

Since we didn't have buns and I didn't feel like baking any, I sliced homemade wheat bread thick and dipped both sides of bread pieces into a baking pan that had oil in it, then toasted in the oven, turning, and sprinkling lightly with salt. 

The stuffed zucchini was very delicious. If you have surplus, large zucchini (or a neighbor who offers theirs to you), try stuffing some. Use a melon baller to scoop out some of the flesh of halved lengthwise pieces, creating a well in the center of each half. Then fill the well with seasoned bread crumbs with or without some cheese added. Drizzle with oil and bake at 375 for about 25 to 30 minutes, until the crumbs are browned and the flesh of the summer squash is tender but not soggy. Very tasty -- even my summer squash-hating family member loves this. 

The salad was also tasty. I boiled the whole beets, after which the skin just slipped off. I then cut each beet into fat juliennes and tossed with dressing. The dressing was simply leftover 1000 Island dressing mixed with a little salt, vinegar, and oil.

Live Chat Tomorrow Morning: Christmas in August

One last thing, tomorrow morning, from 9 AM to 11 AM, PDT, I'm hosting another chat session. The topic this time is Frugal Christmas and Holiday Gifts and Foods. These can be purchased, homemade, or semi-homemade gifts and foods. You can provide links to other sites in the comments. Just follow the instructions in this post. If you have a photo that you would like to share, either screenshots or jpeg, email them to me at lili.mounce *at* gmail.com. I'll upload them to the post so others can see them. I've got a handful of ideas and projects that I'm working on that I'll share. I hope you can be there. But if not, you can still read and add comments later.

Enjoy this last week of August, everybody!

Starting Vegetable Seeds Very Late in the Season for a Fall Harvest

For the most part, I should be focused on what I can harvest from my garden in the next month. It's pretty late in the season to even contemplate starting vegetable plants from seed for a current-season harvest. We have already passed that mark in the season where daytime highs have begun to drop, leaving my area with about 2 months of non-freezing temperatures. But I'm giving it a try anyway. I had the seeds and seed starter trays already, plus a pot full of soil that I could rob to fill those starter trays, so I thought this was a gamble I was willing to risk.

On Tuesday afternoon, I put a bunch of spinach seeds into a small dish of water, allowing them to soak overnight. The purpose of an overnight soak was to give these seeds a good chance at germination. Wednesday afternoon I filled the seed starting trays with soil and planted all of those seeds. I've got the trays on a table on the deck and will wait for the seeds to sprout.

I have a large trough on the deck that is currently filled with our beets. I've been harvesting a few at a time over the past month and expect to have pulled all of them by mid-September. At that point, I'll transplant my new little spinach seedlings into the trough and pull the trough up against the house, next to the kitchen door. The plants should get enough warmth from  being up against the house and still be within eyesight so I can make sure I water the trough often enough. My hope is that we will have spinach for picking from early October through mid-November. The spinach will add to the Romaine lettuce, Swiss chard, and kale that we have in the garden right now and will continue to harvest through early to mid-fall for our greens.

I may be just a little too late or I may have just squeaked in on time to plant a green like spinach in my area. Only time will tell. My attitude is taking a risk is better than sitting on my hands.

Other vegetable seeds that can be planted in August for a fall harvest in many regions include:

• kale
• Swiss chard
• lettuce
• pac-choi/bok choi
• turnip greens (likely won't get large roots, but the greens are still good)
• beet greens (same on roots as turnips, still great for greens)
• arugula
• radish -- perhaps for roots, but surely for greens

I plan on going through the rest of my seeds to see what else I can start in a tray to transplant once the green beans are done for the season. I'm think I have some turnip seeds that would make good greens this for this fall.

Many of the vegetables on the above list will hold (won't grow but stay edible) even after a light frost. Some, like kale, actually improve in flavor with frost and will hold and allow for harvesting in my garden until mid-December, then put on new growth when the soil begins to warm slightly in March.

It may be hard to imagine, but for many of our regions, it's still not too late to start a few seeds, perhaps in pots up against the house.