The carrot greens in the pots are almost 20 inches tall!

I wanted to show you the progress on my carrots grown from seeds in pots on the walkway in our garden.

This is my farthest along pot of carrots out of six. One pot was badly damaged by slugs. It's now only partially full of carrot plants, so not a total loss. The other pots are somewhere in between that one and this one in the photo. This pot is also the first that I seeded, then thinned. So that explains part of why it's a little further along than the rest. My garden is only partly sunny, getting about 4 to 5 hours of full sun per day and about 2 to 3 hours of filtered sun.

I planted Danvers Half Long carrot seeds beginning in mid-April. In June I thinned the carrots, using the greens in cooking. In early July I thinned this pot again. I now have about 40 carrots of varying sizes growing in this one pot.

The largest carrot that I can right now is about 3/4-inch across the root top. I don't dig around the soil much. I just happened to notice this one large top showing a little.

I read a tip this season on growing carrots. The writer said he attributed his super large carrots to watering the plants twice a day. I've been trying that when I can. Perhaps that will help my carrots grow big, too.

The tallest leaves in this pot are about 20 inches from the soil surface. My pot is about 16 inches deep and 16 inches across at the opening. 

My plan is to begin pulling carrots from this pot in mid-September for fresh eating. I expect I will finish harvesting all of the carrots in late October or early November, and I will store them in the fridge wrapped in paper towels plus large plastic bags. We were eating our garden carrots in winter last season. And they stayed fresh and crisp for us stored that way.

It's clearly possible to grow some veggies in small spaces, such as balconies, tiny patios, or front porches and steps. So often we think we need to have a lot of land to grow some of our own food. That's just not true. I've known folks who grow enough veggies in a small front yard that they give away armloads to food banks each week in July and August. 

Something to chew on. . .

Video Recommendations: A History of British High Street Shops

I just wanted to share two video links with you that I really enjoyed and thought others might two. The videos follow how shopkeeping and businesses  on Great Britain's "high streets" changed over a century, from the Victorian era through the 1970s. 

The rise and decline of High Street shops parallel what has happened to Main Streets all across the US and Canada, small businesses gave way to large supermarkets, followed by big box stores. 

Of interest to the modern day consumer is some history about shady business practices, such as incorporating cheaper (and unhealthy/potentially harmful) ingredients in order to boost profits during the Victorian era. We're all aware of the garbage fill ingredients in many packaged foods today. Profits are a manufacturer's bottom line.

Another topic that caught my attention was the transition from small, personal shops to large impersonal supermarkets. Automation made food very affordable. But it also changed the shopping experience. Today, I see a sector of the population trying top regain that small shop, personal experience, by shopping farmer's markets, or patronizing locally-owned businesses. I love visiting our farmer's markets in summer. The stall vendors are often eager to engage with me, telling me about their products and asking questions about how my family does meals. I imagine shopping 100 years ago involved similar exchanges.

And of course, there's a bit of drama between the people enlisted to experience the various periods. But that's par for the course.

Anyway, I thought the videos were very entertaining and somewhat informative. If you find yourself indoors and wanting something new to watch online, here they are:

What Was It Like To Be A Victorian, Edwardian, and Inter-War Shopkeeper? | Turn Back Time | Absolute History

World War Two, the 1960s, and the 1970s | Turn Back Time | Absolute History

"New" Casual Summer outfit (plus pants' alteration question)

This is my "new" summer outfit for around the house. I was really just looking for the pants, but came home with both the pants and top. I bought both at Value Village, pants about $5 and top about $4. I absolutely love the pants. They're roomy in the hips and legs, which allows me to do all sorts of physical work in them, without any binding or constricting.

The problem is this, they're at least a full size too large. I couldn't try them on at VV, as VV took out their fitting rooms in 2021. But I knew they would be too big anyway. I just didn't have a realistic plan for what to do about it.

My original plan was to make two darts in the back. 

However, the back pockets have extra fabric that extends up to the waistband, making the pants fabric plus pocket fabric too thick to do an inconspicuous dart.

After checking online, the neatest way to take these in would be to remove the waistband, take in the back seam, redo the top stitching, add a seam to the waistband just above the back seam (to make the waistband the right size for the resized pants), then resew the waistband back on. That sounds like a lot of work to me. have any of you taken a waistband off of a pair of pants in order to take the pants in? What would you do to size-down a pair of pants styled like this pair?

For the time being, I'm borrowing my daughter's belt to hold the pants up. They're really great pants. They just are too big in the waist and slip down without a belt.

p.s. I love the top more than I thought I would. This length of sleeve comes to the elbow and conceals upper arm flab.

A Successful Food Save and Three Other Frugal Things From My Week

Between the raccoons, squirrels, and blackbirds, it didn't look like we were going to get any cherries from our 2 trees this year. One tree was already bare. 

After many mornings, afternoons, and evenings of chasing critters out of the tree, I had had enough. Last weekend, the four of us picked almost every pink or partially pink cherry on the tree. We wound up with a small bucket full of cherries. 

I pitted the cherries, then made a sauce with all of them along with some chopped rhubarb. I bumped up the cherry flavor with almond extract (sorry Live and Learn at the mention of the extract) and some sugar and a pinch of baking soda. I made about 1 1/2 quarts of rhubarb-cherry sauce, which was devoured by my family.

In past years, we've had to pick unripe cherries, too. My go-to use for these cherries is pie filling. Pie just isn't in the cards for me right now, so I made the sauce. A delicious way to use fruit that we would not have had. now if I can just keep the critters out of the apple and plum trees.

My daughters made us a red, white, and blue gelatin dessert for the 4th of July, using blue and red Kool-aid powder, sugar, plain gelatin, and marshmallows. Jello brand blue jello was over $1.50 for a box last I checked. Homemade colored gelatin made with Kool-aid powder costs about 40 cents.

We wrapped our 4th of July cutlery in plain white napkins, then sealed with patriotic stickers that we received in the mail. A little thing, but everyone enjoyed choosing their napkin.

The wood seats to the chairs I'm refinishing. If you remember, both wood seats had ventilation holes that were 5/8-inch in diameter. I bought a 5/8-inch wood dowel, sawed of 1/4-inch lengths and used wood glue to secure the disks in the holes. They were a tight fit, which is a good thing. I sanded all parts that were protruding, then used wood putty to fill any cracks/gaps. 

That about wraps it up. Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

A Girls' Day Out: A Meal on a Budget and With Dietary Restrictions

Last Friday my daughters took me out for a day to our nearby vintage district and farm community. As I mentioned before, the little town we visited hugs the Snohomish River. Most of the tourists spend their day in the shops and restaurants up the short hill from the river. Few even know this park down along the walking path by the river exists. There are only two ways to get down to this spot, either the sloping walking path from one end of town, or a set of wooden stairs that are practically hidden from view about midway through the town.

The city has set up two picnic tables under a large tree just off of the walking path. Most of the time, we are the only ones interested in using one of these tables. In March, when we convinced my husband to join us as my daughters celebrated their own birthday in Snohomish, the four of us had both picnic tables to ourselves at noon. We had great weather that day, with highs in the low 70s. In addition, the large tree had not leafed out yet, so the sun chased away any chill we may have felt when we first sat down.

On Friday's outing, we arrived with our picnic gear and found one table occupied by a man with his guitar, but the other table was available. In all of our years visiting this town and picnicking by the river, we have never had anyone use one table while we used the other. That's how unknown this area with tables is.

My daughters packed a fantastic lunch for us all to enjoy. They made chicken salad, using leftover roasted chicken from earlier in the week, and brought both slices of bread and rice cakes for the chicken. They also made a marinated green bean salad by making a vinaigrette for canned green beans, allowing to chill overnight. They cut carrot sticks, brought whole apples, potato chips, roasted peanuts, and iced tea. And for dessert, they packed jellied fruit slices and caramel rice cakes. Doesn't that all sound fabulous? Everything was delicious and they made sure I could eat almost all of it (except the bread slices). The food was plentiful and we had leftovers to enjoy the next day, too.

Our musician companion at the other table provided background music for ambiance. And we were treated to a view not only of the river, but of others enjoying the beautiful day. We watched 2 people on jet skis enjoying the river and several hang gliders coming down into a large grassy field on the other side of the river.

Our lovely lunch in the park was refreshing. I can't imagine feeling so refreshed after a lunch in a restaurant with the clatter of kitchen work, dishes, and other diners' conversations. We had peace, beauty, and tasty food. What a way to enjoy lunch with my daughters!

Our picnic made me think of all of the other opportunities summer presents for picnics. My family has done picnics at local beaches, in tree-filled parks, on benches in the small "town square" of a neighboring development, and in our own backyard. There's something special about a meal outdoors, away from phones, internet, the doorbell, and household  chores. We now plan to make picnicky a regular feature of this summer. How about you? Do you enjoy picnics? Are there any picnics in your upcoming plans for this summer? What are some of your favorite picnic foods?

A Girls' Day Out, part one

Visiting the city of Snohomish

Up early. While my daughters packed a picnic lunch for us, I leisurely enjoyed my cup of coffee, made my breakfast, and showered for the day. My legs were aching this morning and I feared our day out would be postponed.  But I pushed forward and pulled myself together. We were about 25 minutes late getting out the door. but we still arrived at our destination in plenty of time to find free and convenient street parking in front of the shops.

https://www.snohomishthenandnow.org

The small historic downtown district of Snohomish is just up the hill from the Snohomish River. The original businesses served the agricultural community as well as a logging industry. On the front step of several of the old buildings, the original business names are still there, set in tile at the entry -- Snohomish Drugstore, First Bank, etc.

Today the old buildings house a mix of old and new merchandise in antique shops and mini-malls, and one-of-a-kind clothing and interior decor shops, along with a handful of restaurants and bakeries. The original wood plank flooring inside the buildings remain, creaking with every step and is in no way level. Hallways eclectically zig this way and that, taking you to new discoveries just around the corner.

The antique mini-malls work like this: the owner of the building or large storefront has divided the interior into many cubicles. Each cubicle is rented to a vendor. The vendor stocks and manages their cubicle, coming in once a week for a few hours to restock, tidy shelves, and get payments for merchandise sold. The owner of the building either operates as cashier or hires cashiers that serve all of the vendors from a single desk in the building. Price tags on merchandise are coded with numbers that link the merchandise to the particular vendor, so income can be directed to the vendor whose merchandise was sold.

While there is some overlap in what is sold from one cubicle to another, or one building to another, the individual cubicles are interesting to look through and get a sense of what interests the particular vendors. One cubicle was stocked with good-condition furniture from the 1960s and the 1970s. I recognized the look as one found in many of my friends' homes (as well as my own) growing up. Some vendors specialize in one or two types of items. There's a vendor whose cubicle is filled with nothing but old lunch boxes.  Another vendor sells old tools and once useful farm equipment parts. I saw a few cubicles filled with vintage clothing and accessories. Many vendors sell dishes or vintage cooking equipment. 

Some vendors may be selling off their personal collections, but my guess is some of these vendors scour thrift shops, garage sales, and tag and rummage sales to purchase items to add to their cubicles. As a shopper, that means I need to know prices on items that I'm hoping to find. I know I won't find thrift store prices in Snohomish. But I hope I'll find better prices on previously-owned items than what I might find on sites like Ebay. What I do find is a ton of selection to choose from, selection that would be slim if I were doing the leg-work of thrift store/garage sale hunting myself.

Vendors sometimes put the contents of their entire cubicles on sale. They're like any other business. They need to make sales so they can pay their bills. So when business has been slow, they mark everything down 25% or 30%. I have a couple of different dish collections that our family uses during the year. When I break a piece, I wait for our annual or semi-annual trek to Snohomish to find a replacement. I may check 50 vendors (individual cubicles) to find a replacement dish that I think is a good value. Sometimes, one of my patterns just may not have much availability and all prices on those pieces may be higher than I want to spend. So I'll wait until another visit to look again. Other times, my patterns may be there in abundance. I may see pieces in that same pattern in 15 or 20 cubicles. In those instances, I'm likely to find at least one sale.

Okay, so what did I buy? This past visit, I had some birthday money to spend. One of the items I was looking for was a gravy boat to use with our fall and winter dishes (the time of year we're most likely to serve gravy). I was flexible with the actual pattern. I would consider gravy boats with a similar look to our dish pattern, if the price was right. I did find a gravy boat that I liked, priced at $14. I made note of where I saw it, but decided to look further. One of our last mini-malls was at the far end of the downtown strip. The prices here are often better than in the central buildings. This 5-level mall has space for 200 vendors, and is packed floor to ceiling with items. As I knew what I was looking for, I made a quick pass by every cubicle. On the main floor in a corner, I found a vendor who carried a couple of my patterns and was having a 25% off sale. The regular pricing for pieces was acceptable to me, so the sale price was a bonus. They had a gravy boat in the exact pattern we use for fall and winter, on sale for $9, a price much. much lower than I could find on eBay, Etsy or any other second-hand website.

Some shops carry a mix of new and old merchandise, often repurposing vintage items used in new ways.  I picked up a one-of-a-kind, repurposed-item, artisan gift for a friend in one of those shops. I also bought a new "stars and stripes" dish towel for our family, using the rest of my birthday gift money. 

I kind of had themes or ideas of what I was looking for on this day out. I've been looking for new summer dish towels. I have also been looking for more decor for the 4th of July and other patriotic American holidays. And I was wanting a brown, transferware gravy boat to use in the colder months. If I were to shop in these stores with no idea of what I wanted, I think I would be visually overwhelmed. The amount of merchandise is staggering. I hit the mark on what I had hoped to buy with my gift money, and I found a birthday gift for a friend. The shopping was productive and fun.

More on our girls' day out coming up. In the meantime, have a lovely 4th of July. I'll be back on Wednesday with another post.

The Rest of My Week . . .

Here we are post-midweek for the end of June, almost the 4th of July. I've been working hard in the garden and refurbishing various outdoor furniture and decor items. Later this week, I get a day out. My two daughters promised to take me somewhere for my birthday. They took my husband/their dad out for a day back in late April. This week it's finally my turn. Yippee! I haven't had a full day off in ages. 

Our destination is the nearby farm community and small vintage town. We'll bring a picnic lunch to eat by the riverside. We've already begun to put some things together for our picnic. I roasted a whole chicken on Monday and carved then froze some of the breast meat to use in sandwiches. Since I can't have bread, I've bought a package of rice cakes that I can have. I also baked a batch of almond flour chocolate chip cookies and a batch of regular chocolate chip cookies to bring for dessert. If we have enough raspberries that are ripe, we'll bring those. And I've asked that we have some cold, cooked and marinated veggies. So, we'll cook and marinate those tomorrow. My daughters want to surprise me with a few other treats. In addition to the picnic lunch, we'll go into the antique and vintage shops, then visit a farm or two. 

Once we come home, I have a dinner in the freezer that will only need reheating. So it truly will be a day off for me.

Beyond this day out, I'm also preparing for our 4th of July celebration. My son and daughter-in-law join us every year for the 4th. We'll play some croquet, cookout over a fire, then set-off some fireworks. Our menu will be a simple one, the hot dogs, corn on the cob, watermelon, roasted baby potatoes and garlic scapes, sautéed garden greens and garlic, then s'mores for dessert.

What are your plans for the 4th of July? Have you come up with a menu yet? Will you be hosting or guesting? What's in your plans for the rest of this week?

I'll be taking the rest of this week off from blogging, but will post details about our day out Monday afternoon.

Wishing you all a wonderful rest of your week!

The most cost-effective way to improve your surroundings is to clean and repair what you already own.

This is true of the things you find to be necessities as well as the little luxuries that enrich your day-to-day living. 

the umbrella stand spent too many winters outdoors in the elements

I kept that thought in mind while I gave our patio umbrella the once over. We've had this umbrella for 15 years. The canvas covering had become dingy and stained, and the stitching had given way at stress points. The black paint finish on the stand had eroded from winter rainfalls and now revealed the concrete under that paint. The umbrella no longer looked attractive in my eyes.

I could just replace our old and worn patio umbrella. Instead, though, I chose to spend 2 afternoons bringing this one back to life. 

I sponged the cleaner on with a rag then hosed it off after 5 minutes.

Yesterday, I cleaned the canvas, laying it out flat on the brick patio and using an outdoor cleaner that is safe for many types of surfaces (30 Seconds Outdoor Cleaner). After rinsing the cleaner from the fabric, I stretched it out to dry overnight.

I used some of the Rust-Oleum spray paint
that I'm also using on the thrift store chairs.

With the canvas clean and dry, I set out to put this umbrella into order. I gave the concrete stand 3 coats of black spray paint. The concrete drank that paint right up.

In between coats of paint, I resewed the torn seams and hems of the canvas then fitted it back onto the umbrella frame.

Under the umbrella are 2 of the 4 free-pile chairs
that we picked up 2 years ago.

Once all coats of paint on the stand were dry, I plugged the umbrella back into its stand, canvas cleaned with seams repaired and the stand repainted.

I spent two partial afternoons cleaning and restoring this umbrella, perhaps about 4 hours total, with a cost of about $2 in supplies. Our umbrella may not be new, but it does have a new lease on life, with hopefully many more years of service for us.

Celebrating Independence Day on a Budget

 

I picked up these 6 painted metal, patriotic garden stakes at Value Village for $3.50 total last week. They still had the UPC stickers attached.

I'm reluctant to spend very much money on holiday decorations that will only be on display for a few days each year. So I check thrift stores, garage sales, free piles, and stores like Dollar Tree for decor for holidays that don't seem to have a "season" for display. I can still have a few decorative accents in our home or yard, while spending very little money.

While at Value Village, I noticed they had quite a few of these patriotic home and garden decor pieces -- various plaques, garden decor, and mantel knick-knacks. Someone at some point paid the full retail price for all of these items. They later decided to replace those pieces with something new, donating the cast-offs to a thrift store. 

The way I look at it, paying retail price entitles a person to be the first owner of a good. I can understand the desirability of being the first owner. But for not being that first owner, I get a substantial discount on the good I buy at thrift stores or garage sales. 

There is a downside. Because secondhand decor pieces are so inexpensive, there's always a temptation to buy more stuff than I really have use for. I'll just have to muster some self-control.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Father's Day Week (Plus Photos From My New Project)

Friday    movie night - we watched Miss Potter (the story of Beatrix Potter)
chicken breast cooked in sauce of tomatoes, salsa, garlic, cumin, then shredded
rice and herb stuffed grape leaves
roasted turnip and beet root
tossed green salad (various greens from the garden)
rhubarb-blackberry crisp for the family, I had an almond flour chocolate chip cookie

Saturday
I made a vegetable and ham soup, using ham and chicken stock from the freezer, chives, turnip greens and thyme from the garden plus 2 grocery store carrots. It was delicious.

Everyone else had cornbread, and leftover rhubarb crisp with the soup. I had a banana.

Sunday Father's Day
Our big meal is lunch today. We had chicken-apple sausages, roasted vegetables (baby potatoes, carrots, onions, zucchini - a bagged mix), corn-on-the-cob, watermelon, tortilla chips and salsa, fruit juices, almond flour biscuits, pecan pie, vanilla ice cream, and almond flour chocolate chip cookies. 

My daughters baked the pie. They used a smaller pie plate than we normally use and filled a custard cup with some of the pecan filling to bake for my no-crust portion. Aside from the pie crust and ice cream, I was able to eat everything on the menu.

It rained off and on all day. I had a brief patch of no rain to dart outside and grill the sausages before the rain returned. My husband's wish for Father's Day was to play his favorite game. It's sort of a role playing board game. The box said the game is suitable for people as young as 10 years old and can be completed in 2 hours. It took us 7 hours. Maybe we're not as sharp as 10 year olds. 

Anyway, it was fun, although the evening went late. My son and daughter-in-law left around 11 PM. I hadn't planned a dinner, just the lunch. So I brought out whatever snack things I could find and offered beverages. It was a fun day, despite the late bedtime.

We didn't have much leftover from our lunch, just a half of a watermelon. We'll use that in meals during the week.

Monday
chili from the freezer (last week I made a double batch and froze half)
leftover cornbread for the family
last of the leftover rhubarb crisp for the family

I was so tired this day. Even though we stayed up late the night before, the sun woke me at 5:09 this morning. I chose an easy dinner and used one of my freezer meals. 

Tuesday
stretched leftover chili, adding some garden vegetables and canned tomatoes to make enough for one more night
garden salad

black olives
freshly baked bread and butter for the family
blackberry-rhubarb sauce

Wednesday
pancakes and syrup
sausage
watermelon and garden strawberries

I made my own pancakes using a gluten-free mix. They were good enough. But I didn't care for the cinnamon in the mix.

Thursday
Swiss chard frittata
brown rice
fruit salad (watermelon, strawberries, banana)

juice

Those were our suppers this past week. This was the first full week that I was gluten-free and dairy-free. Meals that I prepare for the family are a bit tricky, as I have to make sure that I have enough to eat while still making foods my family enjoys. Breakfasts and lunches are easier. On days my husband is working from home, I make a quick lunch for him and my daughters get their own lunches every day. For myself, I make my lunches 2 to 3 days at a time. I plate the extra servings and refrigerate, yielding a full, ready-meal for me to quickly microwave. I do the same for breakfasts. I make 3 days of breakfasts at a time and refrigerate the 2 extra plates of foods. I'm much more likely to eat well if I take the time to make several healthy parts of each meal. And I'm more inclined to take that time if I know I am saving time on future days, by making extra up front. 

My breakfasts are eggs with some sort of veggie in them, no cheese or milk, plus bacon or sausage and raisins or other dried fruit. Dried fruit gives me the sugar I need in the morning, compensating for not having a bread product with breakfast. Lunches are some chicken, sweet potatoes or quinoa, salad or cooked veggies, cooked apples, and some fresh berries. It's been advised that I eat as many of my fruits and vegetables in cooked form for the time being, hence the sautéed apples and cooked veggies. One of the biggest challenges of not having bread products, dairy foods, or many of the snack foods my family eats has been getting enough to eat each day. So I make myself big breakfasts and lunches, having meat or eggs at most meals, and serving lots of produce sides. Still, by 4 PM I feel like I could eat another meal. I may have to start preparing large, balanced snacks in advance, too.

That's it for food. Now, onto my latest refinishing project. . .

making this table

look like it was meant to go with these two chairs. And for anyone wondering why I bothered refinishing the table to black legs with brown stained wood top, now you can see I was trying to make all three pieces look like a set, a bistro set. 

So my new project is refinishing these 2 chairs.

It's hard to tell in this photo, but the tubular metal part of the chairs is, how do I explain this, sort of a mottled or antiqued, oil-rubbed bronze. The under color of the metal is copper, while the top color is dark bronze, rubbed away deliberately in spots to reveal copper.

The chairs were from a thrift store. I paid $5 each, the going price for chairs at thrift stores in my area.

Refresher photo for the table. I dunno, but I think the 3 will look like they were meant to go together once I finish the chairs.

Good weather returned mid-week, so I set up a spot in the garage while my two daughters had the car for work for the day. The chair seats are upholstered cushion over a wood seat. I didn't know what condition the wood would be in. I took my chances that the wood part of the seats would work okay for my plan. The seats unscrewed easily from the frame of the chairs. Getting the upholstery staples out were another story. But I'll worry about the seats later.

It turned out that the wood seat is in kind of rough shape -- 3 ventilation holes that will need plugging and a lot of sanding work needed. But I'll work with what I have. If I don't like it at the end, I can see about cutting new wood seats out of a sheet of plywood. But I'll at least try to work with what I've got. These will be outdoor chairs, so I'm not going for perfection.

With the seats off, I gave both chairs a light sanding to help the paint adhere. You can see the copper color better in this photo.

I used the rest of the can of black spray paint from the table project. I had given the table legs 2 full coats of black paint and one final spot coat for any missed places. There was at least a half can of paint remaining to get a start on the chairs.

I had just barely enough paint to give both chairs a light first coat. I'll need to go out to Home Depot and pick up another can to finish the chairs and do one small project coming up. 

My plan with the chair seats is to sand them well, plug those holes (maybe a dowel rod cut to fit  the holes, then glued in place and sanded), then paint the seats black on both sides and all edges and seal the finish. I'll keep you posted with photos when I finish.

That was my week. What were the highlights of your week? Any projects that you're working on? What was on your menu this past week? Did you end up with leftovers from Father's Day to use in the weeks meals?

Wishing you a wonderful first weekend of summer!

Can You Believe Some of the Items I Find on Free Piles? Here's the Latest!

Out walking in the lovely neighborhood next to ours, we spied this Ninja coffee maker with a "free - almost new" tag on it. It even had the owner's manual with it.

Not only does it make coffee by the carafe, but there's also a pull down stand for placing a mug to do one cup at a time. I found this late last week at just the right time. I had decided to try brewed coffee in place of my instant for a while. And just great luck that I would find a coffee maker for free that could make a cup of coffee on demand.

Taking walks in neighborhoods where folks get rid of nice items (either through free piles or garage sales) pays off. That's my kind of exercise.

Seen any good garage/yard sales or free piles yet this season?

Baking With Almond Flour

raisin-spice almond flour cookie

This past week I finally made the commitment to myself to stick with a limited diet in order to get some relief from my digestive symptoms and pinpoint the offending food(s). I slipped up one day last week and had a slice of bread, 2 graham crackers and some soup made with instant potatoes. One or all of those foods caused so much pain I could hardly function for a day. That was the motivation I needed. 

So I went to Trader Joe's and bought some almond flour. (I wanted to go easy on the rice for a few weeks, as rice sometimes bothers my gut, too.) I'm new to baking with almond flour, by the way. My past gluten-free baking has relied on rice flour.

I brought the almond flour home and proceeded to make the cookies on the back of the package. 

The recipe calls for 1 egg plus 1 egg white. I didn't want to have to deal with the leftover egg yolk, so I made a 2/3 batch of the cookies, using only the whole egg and skipping the white. Much math later and I had a lovely batch of 16 good-sized chocolate chip cookies that were completely grain-free and allergen-free (for me that is, others could have an allergy to tree nuts or eggs), containing almond flour, butter, brown and white sugar, egg, salt, baking soda, vanilla extract and chocolate chips. 

Those cookies were so incredibly good. The texture is that of a soft cookie and not overly sweet (my batch used a total of 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of white and brown sugar combined). I still had several left when my son and daughter-in-law came over on Father's Day. Knowing that my daughter-in-law is also gluten-free, I offered them some cookies at dessert time. Both of them loved the cookies.

Also on Father's Day, I had planned on baking some sort of bread product to go with our lunch. I found several good recipes for almond flour biscuits that looked like something both my daughter-in-law and I could eat, made with almond flour, butter, eggs, baking powder, salt, and honey.

photo credit: foolproofliving.com, the site where I found this biscuit recipe
https://foolproofliving.com/almond-flour-biscuits/

The biscuits were also a hit with my family, very buttery and rich. I'll be making these again very soon.

trying to get the portion of butter just right for the recipe -- it looks
like I'm stacking building blocks from the 1-lb butter block. 

By Tuesday morning, we had polished off the chocolate chip cookies and the biscuits, so it was time to bake another batch of something. This time I decided to tweak the Trader Joe's cookie recipe to make raisin-spice cookies.

I made the raisin-spice cookies slightly smaller than the chocolate chip ones, so this batch made 20 cookies. In addition to subbing raisins for chocolate chips, I added pinches of ground cinnamon, ginger, and cloves to the dough. These are very addictive. But again, as with the chocolate chip cookies, they're not overly sweet and I feel like they may have some health benefits with the almonds and raisins.

If you're not familiar with almond flour, here's a little information. There are two kinds of almond flour, blanched and unblanched. The blanched almond flour is made with almonds after blanching and removing the skins, while the unblanched almond flour is made with the almond skins still on the nut meats. The blanched flour is preferred by many bakers due to its uniform color and texture. However, the unblanched almond flour is often less expensive and adds a nice home-baked appearance to the cookies or muffins. For your information, I used only blanched flour in both the chocolate chip cookies and the biscuits, but I used half and half blanched and unblanched flour in the raisin-spice cookies. 

In addition to the almond flour that I bought at Trader Joe's, I also bought some unblanched almond flour from the bulk bins at WinCo on Monday. WinCo carries both blanched and unblanched almond flour. The blanched flour was about $4.50/lb, while the unblanched flour was about $3.89/lb. I wanted to try the unblanched in cookies and see what I thought of it. As I said above, I used a mix of both types of almond flour in my second batch of cookies and thought the cookies were good and didn't suffer from using part unblanched. Price comparison between Trader Joe's and WinCo's bulk bins, Trader Joe's 16-oz package of blanched almond flour was $6.49. So there's about $2 or more savings by buying the almond flour from bulk bins. The one caveat, if someone has celiac, I'd be hesitant to buy a gluten-free flour from a bulk bin where in-store cross contamination is a possibility. WinCo does dispense its almond flour (and other gluten-free flours) from containers that require pulling down on a handle and the flour flows out, as opposed to dipping a scoop into a bin. Their method of dispensing these flours likely minimizes in-store cross contamination.

Another thing to know about baking with almond flour (whether the flour is the blanched or unblanched variety), almond flour relies on eggs as both a binder and leavening. Regular wheat flour, in contrast, is a binder in itself and holds doughs together. A quick look at many almond flour baking recipes may surprise a person by the number of eggs called for. In addition, almond flour tends to result in denser products than those based on wheat flours. But we didn't find that an objectionable quality in either cookies or biscuits. I imagine almond flour layer cakes might not be as light and airy as traditional cakes, unless several eggs were used for leaven. 

So, that's been my experience with baking with almond flour this past week. I prefer both the texture and flavor of the baked products using the almond flour over my previous baking with rice flour. But I see a place for rice flour for some folks who need to be gluten-free. Rice flour is more economical than nut flours, and rice flour is less likely to pose allergies compared to tree nut flours. 

Anyway, for myself, I'm just hoping to heal my insides so I can get back to normal living. If almond flour can help me, then I'll be happy to use it.

Have you baked with gluten-free flours before? What was your experience? Was there any that you'd never use again? Any that were particularly good?

The Finished Garage Sale Table

Hi, friends! For those of you lucky enough to get a 3-day weekend, I hope you've enjoyed the extra day off. If you didn't get a 3rd day to your weekend, you have my sympathies.

It was a very late night last night. (More on that tomorrow.) So, just a quick post from me today. I've got a photo of the finished table, that $5 garage sale table. 

And to refresh your memory, here's the before photo.

I love, love, love the way the table turned out. It's got the vibe I was looking for. I had forgotten how much I enjoy refinishing furniture, a hobby I had when we were first starting out.

Anyway, the project was pretty easy, it cost very little, and I had a good time doing the work.

I'll be back tomorrow!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Mid-June

Friday
frozen pizza (freezer stash)
eggs and mushrooms
stuffed grape leaves (freezer stash)
roasted turnip roots
sautéed turnip greens and garlic
scratch cinnamon rolls

Saturday use it up supper -- a variety of leftovers to be eaten
plus
sautéed kale and rhubarb pie

Sunday
spaghetti and meat sauce
Sautéed Swiss chard

leftover pie

Monday
ham, egg and vegetable (including turnips and beets from the garden) fried rice (freezer stash)
scratch brownies

Tuesday
chili (freezer stash)
vanilla-rhubarb sauce
cornbread (freezer stash)

Wednesday
ham and lentil soup (freezer stash)
cabbage, kale, and carrot leaf slaw
leftover cornbread (freezer stash)

Thursday

eggs with peppers and onions

rice

corn (freezer stash)

carrot sticks

Turnips

We're in turnip season right now. I harvested turnips twice this week. I use almost all of each turnip plant. We use the roots, chopped, tossed with oil, salt and pepper then roasted. We use the leaves, shredded and sautéed with onions and garlic. And we use the stems. I chop the stems into 1/4-1/2-inch bits and freeze them in ziplock bags. I add these bits to purchased frozen chopped broccoli to stretch the broccoli.

I made a batch of ketchup this week. I used the ingredient list on a purchased bottle of ketchup as my initial guide. Our purchased ketchup label wasn't specific about what spices were used, so I looked up an old recipe for ketchup for that info. I taste compared the small amount of purchased ketchup remaining in the bottle with my batch on the stove and adjusted different ingredients until it was just about right. Kind of surprising how much sugar I needed to add to get the taste right. Anyway, my family seemed to like my ketchup well enough.

One of my goals this past week has been to empty the small stand alone freezer so I can defrost it. The frost is so great that it's taking up space that I need to store some of the garden harvest. However, it sure seems like when I take a few things out to use in meals or stash in another freezer, more freezer stuff appears. I know that's not possible, but there seems to be an endless amount of frozen food in that freezer. Once I do get it emptied, it should thaw quickly (a day or two). Then I can fill it back up! The good news is we have way more juice concentrate that I had thought. When at Walmart a couple of weekends ago I noticed that frozen orange juice concentrate had gone up quite a bit since I stocked up in late 2021. It's now $2.14/can. In 2021 it was $1.39/can. I also have enough frozen butter to get us through a few more months. Anyway, I noted in our menus which items came out of that freezer.

The last few days I've been working on our Father's Day meal plans. I'll use several foods I have on hand. but I also went grocery shopping for some special foods. I bought frozen corn on the cob, a watermelon, some frozen roasting vegetables (baby red potatoes, carrots, onions, and zucchini), and two kinds of juice (blueberry-pomegranate and apple-cherry). I have some chicken-apple sausages in the freezer, pecans for baking a pecan pie, and tortilla chips and salsa. We're doing lunch on Sunday, so I'll also make coffee and tea. The weather looks less than lovely for Sunday, so we'll spend our time indoors. 

Do you have plans in place for celebrating Father's Day? How was your week? Any special meals that stand-out in your mind?

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!