Mary, Mary, quite contrary . . .

how does your garden grow?

I've had that nursery rhyme in my head, running on a loop, the past couple of days. I thought you might like to see what's coming up in my gardens.

One of two self-fertile cherry trees. This one blooms first, sometimes too early for the bees.

The tulips that I planted last autumn. I had forgotten what I'd chosen, so this was a delightful surprise!

One of five apple trees. This is the first to bloom and will give us fresh-eating, red apples in late August.

A very unpretty garden area. I worked on this most of yesterday morning. It was back-breaking work for this old biddy. (I plan on milking my old lady status as long as I can, that is until someone mentions putting me in a "home". Then I'll become capable and able-bodied once again!) I cultivated the weeds out, brought in 5 bags of top soil, raked it well, plopped down some stepping stones, then planted pole beans, 2 kinds of bush beans, some pumpkins, and have the row cover on to warm the soil for tomatoes seedlings. This is a temporary garden area. Eventually I'd like to add a small garden house to this part of the yard (my term for a shed with a window and covered front porch).

Next month's salads -- leaf lettuce on the left, spinach seedlings on the right.

The shallots that I planted in October. The bulbs will be ready to dig in July.

The blueberries are about to bloom.

I am trying out a new kind of pea for our garden. These are self-supporting. The packets say they don't require any trellis. We shall see. I've planted both snap and shell self-supporting peas up against the low stone wall that I built a few years ago from found rocks.

The rhubarb is so ready to pick. I just haven't had time to make anything with it since Easter and rhubarb pies.

Lemon balm can be cut for tea any day now. It's the first of my tea herbs every spring.

This is the small pond in our yard. There's a large, natural pond at the back of the property.

We have a pair of ducks who like to come up to the small pond to sun themselves in the afternoon.

The strawberry beds and raspberry beds. My husband is working on paving the walkway between the berry beds.

This is a boxwood hedge that is near the street edge of our property. I grew that hedge from cuttings off of 1 bush. On the other side of the hedge are two pear trees, on either side of a crabapple tree.

The pear tree on the left is just now in bloom. This is the tree that gave us those beautiful pears last September.

The hostas are just now coming up. These are the earliest of the different varieties.

The Italian prune tree is just now leafing out, and has a few blossoms forming. Last year was a bumper year of plums, so this year may be leaner. Fruit trees sometimes get into alternate-year bearing habits. There is a way to break that cycle. Thin the blossoms in a bumper year, before fruit forms.

The red and black currants are in bloom now. Their blossoms are not at all showy.

The red currants do rather well in the shade of a cherry tree. 

The bleeding heart is in bloom now. When I bought this plant, it was touted as a May bloomer in our area. But here it is in bloom in April. Go figure!

I dump all the coffee grounds at the base of the blueberry bushes. The grounds acidify the soil and add a mulch to hold in moisture. Blueberries don't like to stand in water, but they do like a steady level of moisture.

My parsley that I started from seeds was way overgrown for the light garden. I finally got it planted out into the herb circle.

And, of course, I found several of these! I popped the tops off, to keep seeds from spreading, until I can get out there with a shovel and dig them out.

So, what's coming up in your garden?

Making changes

Today is my birthday! In addition to celebrating my birthdays, I make what I call birthday evaluations. I  look back at the previous year or years, and find areas that I would like to see improvements in my life going forward. As aging does make itself most evident in our health, these changes are often about improving my health, so I can enjoy the rest of my time in this life. And there's one area that I began working on a few weeks ago.

I was cleaning out a drawer and found this, a pedometer. It's one of those cheap plastic ones that they hand out for free, at health insurance fairs put on by employers.

I vaguely recalled Dr. Oz saying something about how a person should put on about 10,000 steps per day, to lose weight. So, having been unable to lose more than 2 pounds since the first of the year, I was curious just how many steps I put on per day. Surely, being the active person that I am, I was way beyond that magic 10,000.

Oh, how very humbling. That first day, I put on about 2,000 steps. How could this be? Me, always busy, always doing. But I didn't find the pedometer until about 10 AM. Perhaps I had missed counting a lot of steps.

The next day, I put the pedometer on bright and early, anticipating that big number at the end of the day. Embarrassingly enough, my so-called active lifestyle only put about 3,500 steps onto the counter that day.

Day 3, try again. Today, surely I would see a lot of steps at the end of the day. This was the day of the week that I babysit 6 very active little boys for 3 hours. You would think all the chasing around would really boost that number. Not exactly. Better, but still just a little over 5000 steps. I am getting no where, in a hurry. It's no wonder I've only lost 2 pounds since January.

So, it became clear that if I wanted to put 10,000 steps on per day, I had to make changes. I began by challenging myself to increase the steps in 1,000 increments per day. Mid last week, I was up to 15,000 steps per day. This requires brisk walking for 1 hour straight at some point every day, plus maintaining a high level of activity. I can't do this every day. I would say I'm averaging 10,000 per day. I have some days where I'm just spending too many hours in the car, driving daughters around, or at my desk pushing papers around, to have time to do some serious walking. It's frustrating, because I can have very good intentions. But can't fulfill them due to schedule constraints.

Anyway, this is my big change for this coming year of my life. I hope to become a more active person and shake off some of this fatigue that I've had for the past several years.

I was curious (and you may be, too), just how many calories are burned in all these steps. (Certainly a great many, one would think!) 3,000 steps burns, on average, 100 measly calories. Oh rats! That 300 calorie slice of birthday cake will take 9,000 steps or 1 and 1/4 hours of walking, just to burn it off.

How about you? Do you ever make birthday evaluations of the past year with hopes for the improving your life for the next? Or are you the live each day as it comes sort of person? I happen to be an over-thinker, I over-think just about everything. I envy the person who can just take things as they come.


Happy birthday to me! And many more (just keep stepping, just keep stepping)!

How to make an indoor "plant", instantly, for nothing

I had this problem spot in the powder room next to the kitchen. There's a lovely, weathered steel, wall-hung shelf with three weathered steel cups/planters. The cups had remained empty for quite a while, and this just looked unfinished. 

One of my thoughts was to cover 3 styrofoam balls with moss and rest in the cups. I have moss, just no styrofoam balls, and I was wanting to do this with no additional cost.

I knew I wanted something just green, so as not to compete with any of the other floral-themed items in the room. And it had to be low-"growing", but not alive, as there is no natural light in this powder room.

I have seen some lovely mini, faux-boxwood topiaries in home decor shops. And that's where my inspiration was born.

Boxwood cuttings (and those from other evergreen shrubs) can last in water for a very long time, several weeks to months, with just a change of water once per week. A floral preservative can help keep the water clear, as well.

So, I went out to the front garden and took several clippings off the hedge. I set out 3 jelly jars. I trimmed the stem ends of the boxwood until they looked about right. Then filled the jars with water, plucked the bottom leaves off the stems, and placed them in the water-filled jars. The jars can not be seen when placed in the weathered steel planters.

Voila! A long-term, temporary solution for my wall-hung planter, using what I had here at home.

Translate this idea for other cheap and cheerful decorating

• weddings, graduation parties, Mother's Day teas, baby showers -- this idea translates well to table decor, several jelly jars placed in terra cotta pots, filled with evergreen cuttings, make free table decorations
• needing a quick "plant" as green space-filler, for the mantle above the fireplace, the coffee table, a book shelf -- use several filled jelly jars, clustered together inside a copper, brass or ceramic planter
• have a dark corner where you'd really like to place a plant, but a living plant won't survive the lack of sunlight? The entry hall in your home is the gateway to your family life. A "plant" of boxwood (or other evergreen) cuttings would be welcoming to all who cross your threshold. Our entry hall is on the north side of the house and plants definitely do not thrive there. I'll be adding some evergreen cuttings in a pot to the table in the entry.

Keep this in mind, if you're needing a quick plant, say, for party/holiday table decor, instant decorating update, or background filler for a family photo.


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Seasonal lighting changes

firelight and candlelight are always my favorite kinds of light

My favorite type of lighting, for all seasons, is candles. But candles are not always the practical choice, are they?

A simple thing, such as changing your light bulbs for the spring and summer season, can save you $50 in those 6 months, on your household electricity.

In the most used rooms (the kitchen and family room) I change the light bulbs twice per year, once in early autumn, and the other in early spring. We have different lighting needs with the different seasons. In the cold, dark days of winter, I need very bright, full spectrum lighting. I use the GE Reveal bulbs for many of our light fixtures in winter. They do seem to chase away the winter blues.

In the brighter, sunnier days of spring and summer, my light needs ease up. The sun is higher. The days seem brighter, and my work space of the kitchen and family room don't need to be quite so bright. Those full-spectrum lights are expensive to purchase and to use. I could just leave them in, but I would spend more on the electric bill, when that's not necessary.

5-light hanging fixture with 25 watt bulbs each

For several years, I have changed the 60 watt bulbs, over the kitchen table, to 25 watt bulbs, each spring. And then back again to the brighter lights in fall. Based on using those lights about 6 hours per day, I have always estimated our savings to be about $3.65 per month.

This year I decided to take the plunge and buy some CFL indoor floodlights for the kitchen ceiling can lights, as well.

I wasn't sure just how well I'd like the CFL as indoor flood lights, so I just bought 1. There were two to choose from, one the standard, which I bought, and another which is supposed to give a more pleasing indoor light, for $2 more. I thought I'd try out the one that was cheaper first. I placed it in one of the cans and thought it was quite good.

the area above the sink
the 2 exterior lights are CFL indoor flood lights
the center light is a standard flood light

The next time I was at the store, I picked up 5 more. We have 6 can lights in the ceiling of the kitchen, another 2 in the adjacent hall, and 4 more in the family room ceiling. I replaced all the 65 watt can lights in the kitchen with the CFLs (17 watt, I believe). I used them for several days, then ultimately decided that having all 6 as CFLs gave too much of a green cast to my 2 main work areas. Fortunately, using CFL bulbs is not an all or nothing proposition. Some fixtures can have the standard incandescent bulbs, while the rest can have the CFL bulbs.

Our kitchen can lights are divided into 2 strips, one along the stove/counter area and the other along the sink/fridge/counter area.

the area above the stove
the 2 outside lights are CFL indoor flood lights
and the center light is a standard flood light

I took the center CFL out of each strip of can lights, and replaced with the standard indoor flood bulb. The quality of the lighting is now quite good, with 4 of the 6 can lights containing CFL indoor flood lights. I use these lights about 8 hours per day (our kitchen is long and narrow and doesn't get that much natural light). Based on this use, I should save about $4.60 per month.

The remaining 2 CFL indoor flood lights I placed in the next most used area, the family room. We have 4 can lights in that room, so I replaced 2 of the standard flood lights with the leftover CFL ones. I would guess we use the lights in that room about 3 hours per day, and expect to see a savings of about $1 per month on those 2 bulbs.

In total then, changing these bulbs seasonally, I expect we'll save just over $9 per month. I spent just over $40 for all the bulbs. The CFL indoor floods are rated to last 9  1/2 years. They will pay for themselves before I change the lights on those fixtures for fall/winter.

You wouldn't think that changing the light bulbs for 6 months of the year, would amount to much. Over the course of the life of the bulbs, I should save close to $500. And this only takes about 2 minutes per bulb to do.

We use the cheaper, bulb and spiral-shaped CFLs in other fixtures throughout the house. In the entry hall we have 2 pendant lights and 1 bowl light with 3 bulbs. As these lights are suspended from a vaulted ceiling, they are difficult for me to access to change the bulbs. I chose CFLs for these fixtures mostly because I didn't want to have to change the bulbs very often. But it's nice that we're saving money on those as well.

In covered light fixtures in the kitchen and laundry room ceilings, I've mixed CFLs with incandescent, using one of each in each of these covered fixtures.

However, in the bedrooms, bathrooms and dining room, I still prefer the incandescent bulbs, and for the time being will continue to use those.

So, you see, using CFLs doesn't have to be an either/or situation. I have found areas of the house where they work well, sometimes on their own, and sometimes mixed with standard incandescents.

How about you? Do you use CFLs in your house? Have you tried the LEDs yet?

This week . . .

The cherry blossoms on the dining room table faded and were replaced with some branches of red-flowering currant.

My son bought his first car. He saved, researched, shopped and found just the right make, model and mileage. He paid cash, and bought a 3 year old Prius, for his daily commute to and from work. And, he shopped around for a good deal on insurance, and maybe found his dad and I a new company (it's time for us to shop around for insurance, too).

I began hardening off the tomato seedlings that I started from seeds. They'll be ready to plant under a row cover in another 2 weeks.

My husband began taking out some overgrown shrubs, that we were going to hire out the work for, saving us about $200, (after cost of renting a chain saw). And I can already see that this year's strawberries and raspberries will get a better dose of sun.

I got the laundry rack out again. I looked it over. The metal supports need de-rusting. Last summer that sounded like too much work. This year, I think I can do it in the next few weeks. But I've been using the rack to dry several loads of wash, anyway (just avoiding the rust areas).

My sourdough starter did not die of neglect over winter, but sprang back to life over the weekend,

and I baked two loaves of San Francisco sourdough.

I had music playing in the background, from a small kitchen radio. It's just a little thing, but it was soothing. I hadn't had music on regularly since the holiday season.

I made myself a hazelnut latte one afternoon, when I was really needing a pick-me-up. I have a bottle of hazelnut syrup in the cupboard that needs using up. This seemed like a good day for it.

(File this one under odd things I do so that I will appear to be "more normal" to outsiders.) I ran out of liquid hand soap for the kitchen sink. Our family has just been using liquid dish soap for the last week. So, I poured some of the dish soap into the hand soap dispenser, but it looked too neon pink. I diluted it with water, still too pink. So, with about 20 minutes to spare before my son's friends would begin to trickle in (they use our kitchen to cook their dinner every Sunday evening), I did a little fix-up job on the dish soap. The label on the soap dispenser says "lavender and chamomile", so that was my inspiration.

I got out the blue food coloring and stirred a bit in. Perfect color. Then I added some lotion. Great feel on the hands. Next I dropped in a few drops of lavender soap fragrance. Beautiful fragrance.

And finally, as I had added water at one point in the beginning, my creation was a bit too thin, so I worked in some thick hand cream. This is such a nice hand soap to use now. It cleans my hands without stripping the oils. I may just continue to "make" this hand soap in the future.

The tulips on the deck are just now beginning to bloom. Aren't spring flowers wonderful?!

How about you? What's new at your place?

Beautiful Everyday Living: the dinner hour

No, this is not a post about how beautiful I think our house is (although it does have some shining features). This post is about how we bring beauty into something so simple as weekday family dinners.

All of our lives are so jam-packed with activity -- meetings, sports and dance practice, school, church activities, work (and the long commute home). These extras can pull a family apart, just at the time of day when we're needing to come together.

What we all really need is a pause, a time to enjoy our families, a good meal, and the homes that we've taken the time to make special and unique.

Beautiful everyday living is our family's way of savoring the moment, and in this case, the weekday family dinner.

For the last month, we've been having our family dinners in the formal dining room. It's such a perfect place for dinner. There are no visual distractions, such as pots and pans, a pile of mail, or schoolbooks. Those distractions only serve to remind us that we need to hurry up so we can get back to the work of life.

Well, why is it so important that those dishes get done ASAP? Why do I really need to go through the day's mail this very minute? Most of the time, I can afford a few extra minutes to listen to my family, and hear how their day went. The dishes and mail can wait. My family is growing up and will only be here, in our home, for a little while longer. I say, make the family the priority, not the distractions.

The dining room is not only a peaceful respite for us all to gather 'round, but the table itself is a nice, generous size. We have this to thank my son for. He and his friends gather here every Sunday evening, for game night. And they like the space of an extra leaf in the table.

This is fantastic for our family dinners. A little extra space always feels like a luxury. For quick breakfasts and lunches, the smaller kitchen table is just about right (although, I caught one of my daughters in the dining room with her breakfast oatmeal earlier this week. She said it's just so much nicer in the dining room -- Agreed!) At the dining room table, we all have much more elbow room. No accidentally kicking my daughter every time I cross my legs under the table.

I don't worry about spills and mishaps in the dining room. There's a sealed wood floor, with no rug, underneath the table. I use cloth placemats for every day, which are very washable, and require no ironing. And the table and chairs themselves, I don't worry over, as this set is 47 years old (or young, however you look at it). My parents bought this set in 1966, and it has seen many years of wear already. It is still holding together quite well.

To enhance the beauty of dining everyday, I use cloth napkins. They're so much nicer to the touch. When I'm shopping for cloth napkins for everyday use, I look either for a print or a dark solid, as both will conceal stains well. When my son and friends get pizza, I make sure to set out my ancient (bought 30 years ago) burgundy-colored cloth napkins. These napkins were a great investment. They have yet to reveal a single stain.

Lighting can either be harsh and make you want to hurry up, or it can be gentle, and make you want to linger. This time of year is perfect for the use of candles on the table. They're very flattering, gentle on the eyes, and again, add that feeling of luxury. There is just enough light outside at the dinner hour, that 2 candles are all the light we need. I buy my candles at the dollar store, so even this expense is minimal.

For nothing more than the water to fill a vase, I can have fresh blossoms on the table everyday, from now until early October. This week we have the cherry blossom branches from my pruning last weekend. I had to take some branches off, anyway, that were blocking a walkway. So I  thought, "I might as well bring them indoors to unfold their beauty".

As a mom, I find there is one more advantage to our using the dining room on a daily basis. My kids have the opportunity to exercise their manners and social graces, under my watchful, but kind eye, preparing them for occasions outside the home.

Preserving some of the freshness of spring: freezing asparagus

The summer between freshman and sophomore year in university, I had a seasonal job in the Bird's Eye frozen foods processing plant. Specifically, I worked the asparagus harvest. I was tried at many stations -- the cutting room (ooh, now that was a scary place, the things I saw!), the steam blancher, sorting and packing, and finally, where I spent the bulk of my employment there, I was the single quality control person for the overnight shift of the asparagus.

Yes, you read that right, this 19 year-old version of me was in complete charge of quality control for half of that plant's asparagus harvest (the other half was manned by someone on the day shift). My supervisor came around, once per week, to watch me work for all of 10 minutes. I can scarcely believe that the quality of a food product would be at the mercy of a university student. But that's how these operations work.

My job entailed checking all the boxes for things that didn't belong, weighing and adjusting the amounts for each box, and removing any asparagus which had obviously gotten stuck in a crack in the steam blancher for several hours. You could say I got a crash course in preparing asparagus for freezing, that summer, long ago.

Fast forward to today, I did not lose my taste for asparagus that year, and I enjoy eating my fill each spring, and freezing several pounds for meals later. I have my own "system" for the preparation and packing of asparagus. I froze about 4 pounds last week, enough for 6 meals.

I begin the day that I bring the asparagus home from the market. I place all the spears upright in a container with water, cover with a plastic bag and store in the fridge, until I can get to it, usually within one day.

I do all this in parts, assembly line fashion. I use: 1 9 X 11-inch baking dish for rinsing asparagus, cutting board and knife, 1 large pot of water, 1 mesh strainer, 1 colander in an ice water bath, 1 spare dinner plate for draining, 1 dinner plate covered with a tea towel for blotting, a slotted scoop, plastic bags, a drinking straw

I fill a 9 X 11-inch baker half full with water, and rinse the spears, laying down, removing stray strands of grass.

If the spears have portions of white still on them, I trim these off. You can snap the spears, or cut. I find cutting to be simpler. If I come across a spear that feels tough to cut, I simply cut higher up the spear until it feels tender.

I save these scraps of trimmings in a container in the freezer, for making stock later.

I cut the spears in half, on the diagonal (it looks prettier that way, and camouflages the tips from the ends, just a bit).

Meanwhile, I prepare my blanch and cooling stations. I fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil.

I fill a large bowl with ice water, and set a colander in the water.

I place a dinner plate next to the ice water bath, for draining.

I set another plate out and cover with a dish towel (for blotting). And I keep a supply of bags handy for filling.

When the water has come to a boil, I fill a mesh strainer with trimmed and halved asparagus spears, and immerse in the boiling water for 30 seconds. I use the same timing method my mother always used. I count briskly, 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi, etc to 30 Mississippi. This approximates 30 seconds, and doesn't require me to fuss with a timer.

I quickly pull the strainer out of the boiling water, and use a slotted spoon to scoop any stray spears into the strainer.

I dump the contents into the ice water bath/colander set-up. This quick-cools the asparagus so that it doesn't continue cooking.

When the asparagus is cooled (I swish it around the ice water for a minute or two with my hand), I pull the colander out of the water and set on the plate to drain.

Once drained, I unload the contents onto the dish towel, to further blot.

I, then, fill small bags with the blanched pieces,

and set these bags in the fridge, as I go, unsealed, to begin the chilling process.

When I have finished blanching, cooling, filling bags with all the asparagus, I use a drinking straw to suck the air out of each bag, and seal it shut. This is poor man's vacuum sealing.

I separate all the sealed bags in the freezer, to insure rapid freezing. Once all are frozen solid, I pack them together in a large freezer bag.

It should be noted, if you want crisp-tender asparagus, you'll need to eat it fresh. Frozen asparagus loses some of its original texture. But I enjoy this frozen asparagus in dishes like chicken (or ham) and asparagus crepes in cream sauce, or, asparagus, rice and chicken bake, or, thawed and marinated in vinaigrette to add to salads. If you find that you don't enjoy the texture of frozen asparagus, then my next favorite way to use it is pureed in cream of asparagus soup.

Just a favorite way to save some of spring's freshness.

March grocery money journal (and Easter wrap-up)

I usually spend the day after a holiday cleaning up -- putting things away, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, that sort of thing. I also like to give thought to how the holiday went. Did I overestimate how much I could do (one of my stumbling blocks)? How was the menu received? What would I change for next year? What went especially well?

I think Easter was fairly well-planned this year. We got an early start on the day, attending our church's earliest service (we are not first service people, more like walking in 5 minutes late to the last service types. But for one Sunday, we figured we could manage this. And it did help us start the day out right, and gave us the luxury of extra time throughout the day. The brunch menu had one too many items for a quickly prepared meal. I ditched the sage biscuits at the last minute. We just wanted to get brunch prepared quickly. So, if a savory bread is a priority for next year, I'll make the biscuit dough ahead of time and freeze, until just before baking. The rest of the menu came together quickly, with the help of all of my kids. We had very pleasant weather, so had brunch on the deck, and actually needed the comfort of the umbrella's shade.

The dinner menu was perfect and very simple -- one meat entree, one starchy side dish, and one plain vegetable (I didn't even butter or salt the asparagus). We cut the pie up, before dinner, placing at each person's spot at the table, so I didn't even need to get up to serve dessert. This menu was a keeper. I'll be doing the same next year. What did you serve for Easter? Any changes you'd make to your menu for the future or things you know you'll definitely do again?

In addition to post-holiday work and wrap-up, I had the task of reconciling the budget with our expenses, so we could move forward into April's budget. As you will see, we sort of deviated from our usual ultra-frugal grocery spending, sort of a lot! But, we had the surplus from previous months to tap in to, so we're okay overall. I also think I got some excellent deals on meat, butter and eggs, and even bought and froze some asparagus for future meals. Our freezer is completely packed, and could hold us over for a month or more, if need be. I like that feeling. So, without further ado, here's my grocery money journal for March.


March 1. Stopped in at QFC for milk. Bought 1 gallon ($2.59) and found turkey franks for 89c a package. Bought 2 packages. Total spent $4.37

Also, Cash and Carry restaurant supply. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts - frozen, 1 gallon vegetable oil, 4 qts soy milk, bananas, 5 lbs carrots, 2 lbs raisins, 5 lb bag fuji apples. Spent $36.21

March 2. Monthly stop at Trader Joes for cocoa powder, eggs, almond milk, sliced almonds, tofu, more bananas, and bagged navel oranges. Spent $16.07

March 3. getting gas at Safeway, popped in for 1 gallon whole milk -- $2.59

Total spent for month-to-date -- $59.24

March 5. Needed tea and decaf coffee. Spent $12.27 (gulp, that's a lot to spend on beverages) at Fred Meyer. I don't shop there often, as they're not as convenient for me, but they have my favorite teas, and good prices on coffee.

March 7. Out of milk, so stopped at QFC on way home and found 3 gallons of whole milk marked at $1.99 ea, with sell-by date of March 17. Spent $5.97

Still trying to use up frozen fruit and veggies in one of the freezers. I've made blackberry sauce and plum sauce to go with dinners this week. Also, some cooked pumpkin and sweet potatoes from autumn were used. The last bit of both of those were combined and baked into a loaf of yeast bread, flavored with nutmeg and cinnamon, in the bread machine. It made very delicious toast on Saturday and Sunday morning.

Total spent month-to-date  --  $77.48

I finally transferred the remaining frozen garden fruits and vegetables from the small freezer into the other spare freezer. I unplugged the small freezer, to remain off until mid to late summer. I've got it thawing now, and will give it a thorough wipe-down in the morning. I came across several more containers of frozen blackberries, tomatoes, blueberries and strawberries. And to think, the rhubarb is already coming up and we shall begin the rhubarb harvest in a little over a month! The spring garden is underway.

March 14. Stopped at Safeway, while there found eggs for $1.09 doz. only 2 left, and cabbage for 49 cents per pound, bought 6 heads. Spent $9.24  month-to-date total spent $86.72

March 15. Two weeks since the last time I stopped at Trader Joe's. That's an improvement over the once a week stops of previous months.. I am trying to do a better job of stocking up, so I'm not running to the store so often. At Trader Joe's, today, I bought bananas (18 at 19 cents each, all stages of ripening, these should keep for about 1 week), tofu, a 4 lb bag of oranges and a treat for my birthday girls -- real maple syrup for their birthday breakfast of blueberry pancakes! Spent $13.39 By the way, we usually make pancake syrup with white sugar, molasses, water, maple extract and a pinch of salt. I just thought this would be a treat to have the real thing. It was $5.49 for 8 oz. You can see why we hardly ever buy the real maple syrup.

Also stopped at the Cash and Carry restaurant supply for the first time in 2 weeks. I bought 10 lbs potatoes ($1.33), 4 lbs peanut butter ($8.67, the price on peanut butter appears to be trickling down just a bit), 5 lbs of apples, 5 lbs of carrots, a 2 lb bag of powdered sugar and 5 lbs of shredded cheddar cheese. Total spent $28.65

Month-to-date spending is creeping up. $128.76 for the month, so far. Aside from what I'll want to have on Easter, I think we're almost covered for groceries for the month. I'll still need eggs and milk, as always.

March 20. This afternoon was the day that my daughters wanted to have their ears pierced (a birthday gift from me to them). The jewelers who pierces ears is right next door to QFC. I popped into QFC and bought a gallon of whole milk and a dozen eggs, for $2.50. You must be thinking "wow, they have super low prices." Alas, I had a coupon for the eggs -- free. The milk was on sale for $2.50/gallon.

Month to date spending -- $131.26

March 27. Albertson's had a great price on boneless, skinless chicken breasts ($1.69/lb), I bought the limit - 10 lbs. Also found some mark downs in the packaged deli, 2 packs maple sausage, 4 packs Nathan's kosher beef franks, and butter (1 lb for $1.88 - limit 4). I also found 1 package of ground beef for $2.99/lb for 7% fat/93% lean ground beef. I packaged and froze this for burgers one night and meatballs another, for later next month. Also, I happened by the fresh deli, and found Black Forest ham on sale for $3.96/lb. I bought enough very thin slices to make stuffed chicken breasts for 10 servings (once for Easter, and again for one of the April birthdays). When I got home, I divided the chicken breasts into cooking portions to freeze, and went ahead and made all the stuffed chicken breasts for the 2 dinners. I had some Swiss cheese that had been given to us, so I pounded out the chicken breasts, laid a slice each of ham and Swiss in each one, then rolled up. They're in the freezer now, and I'll bread them to bake on the day that I serve them. Total spent today -- $51.23

March 28. Walgreen's had eggs on sale for 99c/ dozen. I bought 12 dozen, plus 1 gallon milk for $2.49. Spent $14.37

TOP Foods is one of the all-around, low-priced stores in the area. They had butter for $1.77/lb w/ coupon, limit 2 and sirloin tip roasts for $2.47/lb (I bought 10 lbs). I'll cut one of the large roasts into steaks and stew meat and the other into 3 smaller roasts, and freeze. 

I also picked up sugar snap peas, garden peas and a variegated sage plant for the garden. (Since these are food plants, they come out of the grocery budget). Spent $33.56

Last stop of the day, my favorite produce stand, Country Farms, opened today!! It's right next to my daughters's school. I've been watching them set up all week. Today I bought a 10 lb bag of oranges for $3.98, 4 avocados for 25c each, red garnet yams for 69c/lb and almost 5 lbs of asparagus for 99c/lb. I've got the asparagus standing in water in the fridge now. Most of it, I'll chop and blanch and freeze, but some of it is for Easter dinner. 99c a pound is a pretty good price for asparagus here, and I've had trouble growing it in my garden. I'd like to build a raised bed dedicated to growing asparagus, and amend the soil and choose a site that will foster it's growth here. But that will have to wait until next year. It's a bit late to plant asparagus roots for this season.

So, this has been a bit of a stock-up month. I am hoping to get by one last store, again for butter, to buy as much at this low price as I can, but only if it's on my way somewhere. No real gain if I'm spending an extra dollar or two on gas, just to save a dollar or two on food. Otherwise, for the month so far I've spent $243.24. Over budget (and I was hoping to come in low, oh well), but I still have surplus in the grocery budget from a couple of months ago, to draw from.

And, I am now well-stocked on meat, enough to last us a couple of months, so that's good. I do wish that I had a meat grinder, though. It's crazy that best price on sirloin tip roasts were less than best price on ground beef. I'll be keeping an eye out for vintage hand-crank meat grinders at second hand stores. I may try to "grind" some beef in my food processor, for the occasional times when we'd like burgers. I'm totally turned off of fast food burgers these days. I'd much rather make my own and be able to see with my own eyes, what goes into both the burgers and the buns.

March 29. I stopped in at the Cash and Carry after school on Friday. I was going to put it off until Monday (which would be April's budget), but I really needed some soy milk for baking this weekend. Since I'm just going by the Cash and Carry once every 2 weeks, this would also be my opportunity to stock up on needed supplies. Pinto beans were at a good price for the 50 lb sack --$25.96, and I was almost out of whole wheat flour, stone ground was $18.39  for 50 lbs. I bought 4 quarts of soy milk, 2 pounds of margarine (I prefer butter for most uses, but a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of butter and margarine makes my cookies turn out better), 5 lbs of carrots and 2 lbs of raisins. We decided to skip the peanut butter this time, and have egg salad sandwiches for most lunches for the coming weeks. With the price of peanut butter still high, these days, and finding eggs on sale for so low, egg salad will be the better bargain. Spent $61.28

March 31. After church stopped by Albertson's to pick up 4 more lbs of butter at $1.88/lb. Spent $7.52. Total spent for the month $312.04

Way, way, way over budget, but still within our budget plus surplus amount.


I am in the process of planting our vegetable garden. I do just a little bit of work each day. And before I know it, I'll have the spring garden all planted.

I began fruit and vegetable gardening as a way to save money. Now, I just find great pleasure in going out to the garden, and picking the freshest produce for our family's meals. I believe that I would garden even if I didn't save any money with it. The fresh flavor can't be beat. And I know for a fact that there are no chemicals sprayed on my produce. Plus, having it all right there, at my back door, I find that I am more likely to step outside and pinch off just a bit more of this, and use a handful more of that, as I cook.

A sampling of our March springtime menus
From the garden, we now have watercress, sorrel, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, chard, broccoli, and rhubarb.

Breakfasts

Cranberry-orange bread with cream cheese

Rhubarb oatmeal and milk

Scrambled eggs and chard, with toast

Lunches

Weekends -- various soups using the greens from the garden, lentils, asparagus blanching water for stock, along with toast, buns or cornbread

Weekdays -- peanut butter and jam sandwiches, or egg salad and watercress sandwiches, along with fresh fruit, fruit sauce made with frozen fruit from last summer, or raisins

Dinners

Vegetable-beef soup (using watercress and thyme from the garden) with French bread croutons, gingerbread cookies

Cream of greens soup (assortment of garden greens in a cream soup base), popovers, cole slaw

Beans and greens (kale from garden) over rice

Chicken and dumplings with sorrel, sage and parsley from the garden, and onions and carrots from the store

Chicken fried rice with cabbage (from pre-St. Patrick Day sale), carrots and onions

Sage and orange marmalade roasted chicken with gravy, cornbread-sage stuffing, watercress and orange pasta salad, braised cabbage

This next month, I'm looking forward to even more coming from the garden. Late in the month, we'll begin harvesting lettuce for fresh salads, and the rhubarb should become quite abundant.

Did you find any great deals at the grocery stores in your area this month? What are you looking forward to at the market in April?

Easter greetings to you!

Happy Easter!

In the wee hours of this morning, I realized that we never dyed our Easter eggs. I boiled a dozen eggs on Friday, left them in the fridge, and totally forgot about them! We may get around to dying the eggs today, or we might not. Perhaps I'll do them myself on Monday. Is there any such thing as April Fool's eggs?

We'll actually be having our plastic egg hunt outdoors this year! This will be only the second time ever (for us) that we have had good enough weather for an outdoor hunt. And after church, we'll enjoy our brunch on the deck. Now this is an Easter gift for us, to be able to enjoy the outdoors on this holiday, and even when Easter is so early for the year.

Yesterday, I continued working in my new area of the yard. I planted a pink-flowering rhododendron and 2 hostas to the area. My daughters helped me to haul rocks for my dry river bed. And I moved some errant grape hyacinths to a small cluster up against the walkway. I am beginning to really "see" this area's future. I picked out a spot that would be lovely for a bench. 

My husband has finished building the low retaining block wall for one of our fig trees. I just need some soil for it, and I'll transplant the fig.

I also spent some time in the kitchen yesterday. I made 2 rhubarb pies, using the last of the frozen rhubarb and the first of some spring rhubarb. I also made enough pie pastry for 3 more pies, lined the tins with it and they're now in the freezer for pies later. With the scraps of pie dough, from all 5 pies, I rerolled the dough for a meat pie topper, for a chicken pie later this week or next (also tucked into the freezer).

And now, I think I hear the pitter patter of some grown children's feet, eager to begin the Easter celebration. Oh, and giggles and whispers coming from my daughters's room. Aren't we all still kids on the inside, no matter what our age says? I am sending Easter blessings and greetings your way! Have a wonderful day and I'll be back on Tuesday for my regular post.

Sincerely,
Lili

Easter menus, plus a recipe for a sweet yeast bread

I hope that you are having a fabulous Easter weekend! Mine shall be filled with gardening on Saturday, and church and family meals on Sunday. Don't you love knowing what everyone else will be eating on a holiday? I do. Sometimes knowing what someone else is preparing will spur ideas for me. And sometimes, I just like eating vicariously.

So, here's what's cooking in my kitchen on Easter.

Easter Brunch

Scrambled Eggs with Chard

Maple Sausage

Orange wedges

Austrian Almond Braid Bread *

Sage Biscuits

Pineapple Juice

And for Easter dinner. . .

Easter Dinner

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Potatoes Au Gratin

Asparagus

Rhubarb Pie

Coffee and Tea

I like to prepare as much ahead of time as possible, so that I'm not spending all my time in the kitchen and away from the rest of the fun. 

The other day, I stuffed the chicken breasts, rolled up and froze. I'm thawing them overnight in the refrigerator. Tomorrow, I'll bread them and brown in a frying pan, then bake for the remainder of the cooking time. I will hopefully get to the pie this afternoon. I also baked the Austrian Almond Braid, earlier this week.  I wrapped and froze it, to thaw in the morning, and put a glaze on it at the last moment. In case you're interested, here's the recipe.

Austrian Almond Braid 

2 & 1/2  to  2 & 3/4 cups flour

2 & 3/4 teaspoons dry yeast (or 1 packet)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter or shortening

2 tablespoons water

1 egg, at room temperature

1 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/4 cup candied mixed fruit, chopped

1/4 cup chopped or sliced almonds

Almond Icing

(This bread is delicious with a total of 1/2 cup just about any combination of candied and dried fruit. Today, I used some candied fruitcake fruit, dark raisins, and chopped, homemade candied orange peel. I also like dried cherries or cranberries with the almonds.)

In a large bowl, stir together 1 cup of the flour, sugar, salt and yeast. In a microwaveable container (I just use my large Pyrex measuring cup), heat milk, water and butter for about 1 minute (until the butter becomes very soft, about 120-130 degrees F). Stir together. allow to cool slightly. Pour the liquids over the dry ingredients, and beat well, until smooth.

In a small bowl, beat the egg with the almond extract. Add to the dough, and stir well. 

Mix in 1/2 cup of flour. Add the dried/candied fruit and almonds. Add more flour to make a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured counter or board and knead until smooth and satiny, about 5-10 minutes.

Cover dough, and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

Divide dough into 2 parts, one 2/3 of the dough, the other 1/3. 

With the 2/3 dough, divide this into 3 parts. Roll each part into a long strand, about 15 inches long. 

Lay the 3 strands out side by side, and pinch one end of the 3 strands together. Braid these strands. Pinch the bottom ends of the braid together. 

Place on a buttered baking sheet.


Take the 1/3 dough and divide into 3 parts, roll into strands about 18 inches long. Braid these 3, pinching both ends of braid. Lay on top of the large braid and tuck the ends of the small braid under the large braid ends. 

For a soft crust, brush with oil. But truthfully, I never bother with this step -- too much work. Cover with a towel and set in a warm place (80 to 85 degrees F) to rise until doubled, anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Bake in a preheated oven, at 350 degrees F, for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden. Remove to a cooling rack. Once cool, glaze with Almond Icing. Decorate with additional chopped almonds, if desired.

Almond Icing

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

In a small bowl, stir all together until smooth.

Wishing you Easter blessings!