So I found a use for paper towels

The other week, I mentioned that I use leftover fast food paper napkins to help drain fried foods. Well, the other day, I remembered one other good use (for either paper napkins or towels). To place at the bottom of a grocery store plastic clamshell, full of berries.

If strawberries are left in the plastic clamshell for more than a few days, the moisture from the bottom layer of berries has no place to escape to, and I find I'm inclined to discover moldy berries after just a handful of days.

However, if I place a paper napkin under the berries, inside the clamshell, my berries keep fresh and in good condition for up to a week (if they don't get eaten). And I get a few uses out of these paper napkins. Because they don't become truly soggy with this use, I just fold them loosely and put in the cupboard above the counter. I use them a few times over the course of the season, and they end their useful life, either to drain fried foods, or to wipe out a greasy pan.


The trick is to get the paper towel/napkin under the berries, without unloading the entire clamshell. Here's how I do it.

right-side up

After I pull out a few berries for that first meal or snack, I reseal the clamshell shut.

upside down

I carefully turn the clamshell over and rest on the counter.

Then I carefully open the upturned container and lay a couple of unfolded paper napkins over the berries, inside.

I reseal the container, and once again turn the clamshell over, very carefully. That's it. The paper napkins are now on the bottom of the container, under the berries.

For other fresh produce, I prefer to use my salad spinner for storage, or wrap items in a non-linty tea towel. I'm reluctant to use a tea towel for storing berries, due to potential staining. But I've been thinking to try some unbleached muslin fabric squares at the bottom of berry containers. I'll let you know how that works when I try it.

In my mind, using paper towels/napkins isn't an all or nothing proposition. I am satisfied to use them very, very sparingly, while still finding alternatives wherever I can. I just think that's a sensible approach.

Favorite Uses for Cabbage

Many of us bought a head or two of cabbage this past week. Now, the challenge is to find interesting ways to use it up.

Cole slaw is always a good stand-by. I also like to add it to stir fries and fried rice. But two of my favorite ways to use cabbage are for a particular soup and in a salad.

The soup is one I used to order in a diner near us over 20 years ago. This restaurant called it Cabbage Patch Soup. I've done my best to replicate it over the years. However, I've never settled on a set recipe.

Basically, it's a tomato-based soup, with onions, garlic, carrots, celery, canned tomatoes, ground beef, or crumbled, cooked Italian sausage, or TVP granules, or as in our case the other day, lentils, plus lots of shredded cabbage. If I have some homemade pasta sauce, I'll add that, as well as added oregano and salt, as desired.  The key to Cabbage Patch Soup is to add the shredded, raw cabbage just 5 minutes before serving. Here's an approximate recipe, in case you want to give it a try.

Cabbage Patch Soup

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 of a large onion, chopped
8 oz. any meat (Italian sausage, Kielbasa, smoked sausage, ground beef) OR a combination of 1/2 cup dry lentils (or 1  1/2 cups cooked beans) and 1/2 cup barley OR 1 cup of dry TVP (textured vegetable protein) granules 
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
14 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drain and save liquid
1 to 2 carrots, sliced
1 to 2 stalks celery, diced
2 tablespoons tomato paste OR 1 cup of marinara sauce
herbs, 1/2 teaspoon total of oregano, savory, or basil
1 teaspoon chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
optional, splash of vinegar
2 to 3 extra-large handfuls of shredded cabbage

• In a large pot, heat vegetable oil. Saute onions, chopped, sliced or ground meat, and garlic until meat is cooked and onions are translucent. Drain excess fat, if needed.
• Add stock plus the liquid from the can of tomatoes (set drained tomatoes aside). Add sliced carrots, celery, dry lentils and barley (if using). Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer 30 to 40 minutes (until lentils and veggies are tender).
• For more intense tomato flavor, add tomato paste or marinara/pizza sauce. Adjust seasonings to taste by adding salt, pepper, chili powder, plus oregano, savory, or basil. (I also like to add tang with a spoonful of vinegar added to the soup.)
• 5-8 minutes before serving, add TVP granules (if using) and shredded green cabbage. Bring back to simmer and cook 5 additional minutes.

Garnish with grated Parmesan or sour cream, if desired. 


Using cabbage in tossed salads

My other favorite way to use up the cabbage is added to other raw, green veggies and tossed with a vinaigrette dressing.

The other night I had some lettuce, cucumber, and celery that needed using up. I tossed in some shredded cabbage and leftover homemade raspberry vinaigrette. Used in a salad this way, the flavor of cabbage is downplayed considerably. But it still adds a nice crunch.

So tell me, what are your favorite ways to use cabbage? I bought 4 heads this past week. Perhaps you can guess, I'm very eager to hear how you like to use cabbage.

In my ultra-happy place!

Yesterday, my two youngest turned 19!! Wowza! Where did those years go?!

That event made my day an extra happy one. (I sometimes can't believe just how fortunate I am. I have 3 kids that I really enjoy spending time with.)

On my kids' birthdays, I have my own celebration throughout the day as I make preparations. Music blasting in the kitchen while making cupcakes, lots of singing and dancing. (Do you know how hard it is to get the cake batter into those small muffin papers, while dancing and singing?!! I wasn't exactly neat!)

And everywhere I went, I couldn't help but broadcast that the day was my girls' birthday. Most of the places I go, the clerks and employees all know my kids, and often ask how university is going, or how my oldest is enjoying his job. So, I couldn't help but share the current status of two of my kids.

I've been told that my happiness is infectious. I guess that I spread a little bit of Lili Happy everywhere I went yesterday.

I'll be back to frugal-living blogging again tomorrow. For now, you can picture me dancing in my kitchen. (My toes just can't stop tapping!)

Are you sure that the mustard jar is really empty?

This is the final installment of my leftover bonanza from last weekend. Over the course of the weekend, I emptied over 20 containers, dishes, and jars. That's a lot of leftovers!

Mustard keeps for a very long time. It has so much vinegar in it, it's very well preserved. I buy yellow mustard in 1 gallon jars. (I bought this jar in 2009). To minimize any contamination, I transfer contents from the big jar to smaller jars, as needed. (We're not serving right out of the gallon jar.)

When it looks like the jar is empty, I pour in about a tablespoon of vinegar. I shake the jar up, then lay on its side in the fridge, turning every couple of days. this softens up any mustard stuck to the sides of the jar. It can then be scraped out at almost the consistency of the original mustard. You'd think the mustard jar could now be pronounced empty. Not just yet. There's usually enough mustard still in there to flavor some more vinegar.

On Saturday, I added about 1/2 cup of vinegar to the jar. I shook and I shook and I shook that jar, until almost everything stuck to the sides and lid had come off in the vinegar. With this mustard-infused vinegar, a half-jelly jar of sweet pickle juice, vegetable oil, and shallots, I made a mustard vinaigrette for a marinated lentil salad.

To go with the marinated lentil salad, I cooked some pasta.

My "secret" pasta sauce ingredient

To top the pasta, I mixed one of those pizza joint, garlic dipping sauce condiments and the leftover pasta sauce from the top shelf of the fridge. My family thought the garlic dipping sauce really punched up my homemade sauce.

Rounding out the meal was a batch of stewed plums, made with frozen plum halves, the set-aside blackberry juice from breakfast, the rinsings from a jar of blackberry jam (the runny jam that served as syrup at breakfast), and the rinsings from a jar of orange marmalade. In one dish, I managed to empty 3 containers from the fridge and 1 from the freezer. Not bad.

Sunday's lunch: or what do you do with two-week old, leftover frosting?

When we decorate cakes, we scrape all the remaining frosting, all colors, into one bowl. It looks a lot like mud at this point, and not the appetizing kind of mud, as in Mississippi Mud Pie, but the greenish kind of mud you'd never think could be appetizing.

This frosting is leftover from a cake my daughter decorated a couple of weeks ago. The last icing tube hadn't even been squeezed out. I did my best to salvage what I could from the tube, and mixed it in with the rest of the frosting. It did look like mud. Now what flavor could go with the color of mud? Chocolate, of course!

I added more milk, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder, and ended up with about 1/2 cup of chocolate frosting.

In the fridge, I also had two "empty" peanut butter jars.

I was able to scrape out about 1/2 tablespoon of peanut butter from these two jars. Add that to peanut butter from a fresh jar, and we had the makings of lunch.

For lunch on Sunday, I made . . . drum roll please . . . peanut butter and chocolate frosting sandwiches -- aka Reese's sandwiches.

They were very yummy, but a tad on the dessert-y side.

At the end of the weekend, this is what the fridge looked like. While not completely cleaned out, it's quite an improvement.

Anyway, I have a family to feed. An empty refrigerator was not my goal. My plan was simply to use up odds and ends before they would spoil. I think sometimes we lose sight of what our aim is. If you have a household to prepare meals for, then spartan-looking fridges work against that purpose, not towards it.

This was a fun challenge for me. I was amazed by how much of our meals I could make from leftovers and near-empty jars. And I think the creativity that went into our meals made them more lively.

This weekend, not so many leftovers to use up. But I am working at the church tea tomorrow. Who knows what leftovers I'll be bringing home from that event?!

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Our salvaged lunch (and some other interesting finds in the fridge)

It's surprising how much stuff can accumulate in the fridge in just a couple of days. You would never believe that most of these leftovers "happened" this week. Throughout the weekend, I was amazed that I could still find things that needed eating up. 

(I must admit, there was one science experiment lurking at the back of the fridge. And actually, it really was an experiment from last summer. Some things just don't pan out. I'll reveal it later, and hopefully deter you from trying this out yourself.)

Here's the continuation of my weekend leftover challenge.

Lunch looked like it would be interesting on Saturday. Leftover turkey and dumplings, 4 lonely-looking oven roasted potato wedges, about a cup and a half of cooked pinto beans, corn tortillas, an almost empty ketchup jar, and some pumpkin pie. How do you divide this between 5 people?

I considered making a master casserole, combining the majority of the leftovers, or maybe some soup, blended with the leftover turkey stock sitting on the fridge's top shelf. Hmm. It could work, or. . . I could have a mutiny on my hands. And so I thought, "perhaps today would be a good day to have a this-and-that lunch".

We divvied up the turkey and dumplings. Anyone who wanted any could have some. Easy peasy there.

The 4 potato wedges were quickly spoken for. (Really quickly spoken for!)

Needing to find more for our lunch, I grabbed a few more containers.

This . . .

. . .became this. (Now I realize that it tasted better than it looks here.)

So I took the cooked pinto beans, almost-empty ketchup jar, along with some onion, oil, chili powder, cumin and salsa, and I made a small batch of bean dip.

I know what you're thinking, "Ketchup? In bean dip?" It's tomatoes, onion, vinegar, salt, right? All good. Turns out ketchup works well enough in a bean dip.

Topping the bean dip was sour cream (and yes, that price tag does say 59 cents! The container was squashed, but seal still good -- yippee!), and more salsa.

To go with the bean dip, I made chips with most of the remaining corn tortillas. Most of us had chips and bean dip, topped with sour cream and salsa. Kind of a snacky part of lunch.

I think I'd been snacking, as I was frying with this plate of chips!

I have to tell you, when I make homemade tortilla chips, I have no self-control. I kept frying and frying, yet the plate of chips didn't seem to grow. I was eating all of the chips, as I fried them.

But usually, I allow 2-3 corn tortillas (cut into 6 wedges each), as a serving.

Many of us were feeling full (we'd all just had a waffle breakfast a few hours earlier) just as I was bringing out the remainder of a pumpkin pie. It looked like about 2  1/2 slices were left. So it was divided between my two daughters, who had missed out on pie 2 nights in a row this week. And, um, I managed to put down a tiny sliver of the pie myself, you know, just so there'd be no leftovers, of course. ;-)

Before I move on to the culinary delights of dinner, I spent some time in the afternoon cleaning out more containers for meals later on.

Not very appetizing, are they?

I had some turkey stock, turkey gravy and drippings from my most recent roast turkey (earlier in the week, not last Thanksgiving, I promise!).

But those 3 containers turned into some delicious gravy!

Putting those 3 together, I made a batch of gravy to go over turkey slices for the freezer. I had enough gravy to top 2 meal's worth of turkey.

Any guesses what this could be? It turned into a rather tasty ingredient in Sunday's lunch!

And no, that was not the science experiment. This is:

Last summer, I was reading online about making my own mint oil, using mint leaves from my garden and vegetable oil. The directions said to leave the mint leaves steeping in the oil for a couple of weeks. My leaves became very moldy. It was truly disgusting. You can't believe everything you read online.

So, this is the oil after removing the mint leaves. I composted the leaves, and now need to dispose of the oil.  This is one of those, "it's just too disgusting to deal with" things. And that's my excuse for why it has resided at the back of the fridge since July.

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Understanding current prices on seasonal food items

So, for a lot of folks, this is just way too homework-y to bother with. But others may appreciate my methods a bit more. That's fine, either way. I'm never insulted if you don't want to bother with many of the things that I do.

I watch seasonal prices and store ads very closely. When I think that sale prices are higher than I was expecting, on any particular food, I do some research. (We really are very fortunate to have the internet and search engines.)

This week, it's green cabbage that I'm looking into. I received the store flyers on Tuesday, for sales running Wednesday through next Tuesday (March 18). I was expecting cabbage to go on sale for about 39 to 42 cents per pound at a couple of stores, for St. Patrick's Day this year. Instead, it's running on ad for 48 to 59 cents per pound. What's up with the higher prices, I wondered.

So, I did a little bit of online searching. One of my favorite sites is thepacker.com. Basically, it's market news on produce for the US. They give detailed info on what a particular market is doing this year. Evidently, according to thepacker.com, the Florida cabbage supplies are tighter this year. This is good for the grower, as he'll get a higher price for his cabbage. Bad for the consumer, who will pay more per pound. Cold temperatures are too blame, in Florida, for a slow planting season, and lowered supplies. When supplies are tight, the prices are higher. According to thepacker.com, expect prices to be higher than normal on your St. Patrick's Day cabbage. The other two major winter growing regions in the US are Texas and California. Texas is also seeing a reduced cabbage crop, due to weather, by about 30%. I didn't read anything on California's contribution to the cabbage market, but given how much coverage has been given to the California water crisis, I would expect produce coming out of California to be higher than previous years, as well.

What does this mean to me? Well, the prices that I'm seeing on green cabbage, at my local stores (especially the 48 and 49 cents per pound), may indeed be about as low as I'm going to see for early spring (the month of March and into April, for my area). So, I will still buy 4 or 5 heads of cabbage, for our family, as 49 cents per pound is still a great price for fresh produce (just not as great as the 39 cents/lb I paid last year). And cabbage will again be featured heavily in my menus for early spring. (It's a great vegetable, high in vitamin C and vitamin K, as well as many phytonutrients, which may help protect against cancer and lower bad cholesterol.)

Understanding the current prices on foods helps me plan my purchases. In some instances, I get enough of a lead on a tight market to stock up a bit, in advance of a price hike. A couple of years ago the US had a bad peanut crop. There was enough advance warning on what this would do to prices that our family was able to stock up considerably on peanut butter, enough to get through almost a year at the old price.

Other times, just knowing that I'm getting about as good a price as can be expected simply makes me feel a bit better about having to spend more.


(For those of you hoping to find another installment on my leftover meal challenge, that'll be posted tomorrow. I know, you're all on the edge of your seats- the suspense!)

 

A leftover challenge (and a very liquidy breakfast)

First of all, before I go into what I did over the weekend, you need to understand something. I have a very warped sense of fun, very warped. I enjoy setting these peculiar challenges for myself. The fun part is in how creative I can be in fulfilling the challenge.

So, Saturday morning, I opened the refrigerator door to see this -- a leftover bonanza!

Yeah, it is kind of hard to find anything in there, isn't it?! How would anyone know what was edible and what wasn't, with all the opaque containers and plastic bags over everything.

My challenge, then, was to use all of the odds and ends over the weekend, without creating new leftovers.

I didn't have a master plan, but just took each meal as it came, and tried to use as much of this stuff as I could.

After a peek into my stuffed fridge, I quickly shut the door to go veg with a cup of coffee for 30 minutes. I knew that eventually I would have to prepare breakfast. I enlisted suggestions from one of my daughters. She kindly offered to help make breakfast. (It's nice having daughters who like to cook.) We settled on waffles. (Waffles are a popular choice around here.)

These wouldn't be just any waffles (but you knew that already). From the fridge, I pulled out all the almost-empty jars of yogurt, 5 in total. Empty, with the exception of the weird yogurt liquids which accumulate at the bottom of the jar.

half-way through scraping jars

I also got out the strainer and a bowl. I scraped out each jar and strained the whole batch. Of my many culinary talents, I would have to say that using a rubber spatula has got to be at the top of the list. Pronounce a container to be empty, and I can still get another serving out of there. (I've been honing this skill for 27 years now.)

I managed to scrape all of this yogurt from 5 "empty" jars

Anyway, I was able to salvage a little over a cup of yogurt, enough to flavor with vanilla and sugar to top the waffles. The strainer, by the way, was to separate the unappetizing liquids from the more palatable yogurt. I saved this liquidy stuff to use in the waffle batter.

About 1/3 of a cup of whey from straining the yogurt

After scraping the jars, I then rinsed all of them with a bit of water. I poured these rinsings into a measuring cup. I had about 1/3 cup of rinsings, to add to the yogurt whey. This made up about half of the liquids I would need for the waffle batter.

The jars after scraping and rinsing them out.
The "stuff" in the measuring cup is the rinsings.

Along with the vanilla yogurt, we also had some runny (liquidy) blackberry jam, and a bowl of blackberries from the freezer.

Okay, remember my rule, to not create new leftovers? What do you think happens when you thaw frozen fruit? You get more liquids. Adhering to my rule, I set the liquid aside, to use in making dinner. No new leftovers, so far.


In the next installment: what I found that I could use in meals for the rest of Saturday.

Riveting. I know. I lead an exciting life.

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How are you today?

No real post from me, except I wanted to know how you are today, and how is the weather where you live?

We've had a good share of rain here, with street flooding, mudslides and train track wash-outs. Much of our area is hilly, so if you live at the top or the bottom of a hill, your home is at risk during periods of heavy rainfall.

What about your area? Are you in part of the world where the spring thaw has hit, ans hit hard, putting rivers and streams at risk for flooding? Is the sun shining brightly and bringing cheer to this hard-to-get-going Monday (first work day of Daylight Savings Time). Or does it still feel like winter where you are? How are you today?

Have a great day!

Leftover makeover: leftover soup becomes a family-size casserole

I make a lot of soup for dinner in winter. Which means, we have leftover soup on a regular basis. Sometimes there's enough for another family meal of soup. But when there's not quite enough for all 5 of us, I transform leftover soup into a meal that stands on its own.

My favorite leftover soup makeover wouldn't win any culinary prizes, but it's easy, filling and tasty -- It's Soup Casserole. Here are two versions, to give you an idea of how I make mine.


Broth-based Soup Casserole

When using a "thin" leftover soup, such  chicken or turkey noodle, I beef up the extra ingredients with some veggies, pasta, leftover baked potato or rice, onion and garlic. For 4 or 5 servings:

about 2 cups any kind of liquidy soup (this one is made with lemon-herb turkey noodle soup)
about 3 cups leftover cooked rice, pasta, beans or combination of (if I'm short in this category, I cook up another portion of pasta, or add a chopped, leftover baked potato)
1 cup of any vegetables
1/4 cup minced onion (optional)
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
additional salt and seasonings to compliment the soup's ingredients (I just used more of the lemon zest, rosemary and sage that I had in the soup)
1/2 cup to 1 cup of topping (grated cheese, buttered bread crumbs) -- this is what "makes" the casserole.

Butter a large casserole dish. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Gently mix the ingredients in the buttered casserole dish.

Add topping. Heat for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly or topping is browned and crispy.


. . . and here's my version using a heartier, thicker soup.

Turkey Tortilla Soup Casserole

When I have a very flavorful and hearty soup, I can often leave out the extra veggies, onions and garlic.

The other night I made another soup casserole, using leftover turkey-tortilla soup (minus the tortillas). There were enough canned tomatoes, carrots pieces, beans, potatoes, onions and garlic in the leftover soup, that I didn't need to add anything other than a pinch of salt, some cumin and some chili powder, along with a fresh batch of rice.

I used:

about 2-3 cups leftover tortilla soup (containing turkey, pinto beans, canned tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, onion, garlic and seasonings)
about 3 cups of cooked brown rice
vegetable oil
extra salt, cumin, chili powder

I oiled the casserole dish, spread the cooked rice in the dish, and drizzled with vegetable oil.

Next, I topped this with with leftover soup, and tossed gently with the seasonings.

Just before baking, I sprinkled lightly with just a bit of extra chili powder. Baked, uncovered, in a 350 degree F oven for about 30 minutes, until completely heated through, and rice was crispy around the edges.

It was tasty, easy and filling. This made enough for 5 hearty servings plus leftovers for one lucky person's lunch.

Soup Casserole makes the most of our homemade soup leftovers. The hard work has already been done in the preparation of the soup. By simply combining with a few basic ingredients, I can stretch a small amount of leftover soup into family supper.

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Is it spring yet?

The first part of yesterday was gorgeous and spring-like. The sunshine and mild weather lured me out into the garden. This was my first day of real garden work for the season. I tackled some pruning, weeding, raking and transplanting before the skies clouded over and the rain came back.

While I was outside, I snapped these photos.

the crocus out by our front door

the area I worked in last summer, clearing the weeds, laying the river rock, placing the stepping stones, planting rhodies and azaleas, then this past fall planting both daffodil and crocus bulbs. the daffodils are in among the river rock, while the crocus are in the bare earth between river rock and stepping stones

the crocus I planted in the fall are just coming up now. I wonder if they will always be a few weeks behind their cousins by the front door, or if their later growth is due to being planted just this fall?


I've chosen 2 new sites for work this spring and summer. One is the extension of the spring low garden, and will be planted with primroses, red-flowering currant bushes, grape hyacinth, petite daffodils, anemone, rock cress, sword fern and hosta. I'll be dividing plants in my garden for transplanting to this area.

The other area is an extension of the cranberry patch. This area has been so weedy and ugly. We'll be clearing it and taking some cranberry plants from the patch to fill it. This will kill two birds, make an unpleasant area look better, and increase our cranberry harvest.

I can't decide which phrase suits this better -- "Always a work in progress!"  Or, "A labor of love!"

The thing that I am content to live without: paper towels

I did buy a roll of paper towels . . . about 3  1/2 years ago. A few friends from the neighborhood were over to take on a messy craft. And I thought some of my friends would be more comfortable using paper towels than rags, even my nicer rags. I did set out a stack of my nicer rags, just in case someone would prefer to use those instead of paper towels. The rags sat side by side with the pristine roll of paper towels. Well, guess what? Not a single paper towel was used. Every one of my friends chose a rag to wipe up their messes with! What a great bunch!

So, that lonely roll of paper towels sat on the top shelf of the pantry for 3  1/2 years. Occasionally someone would tear off a sheet and use it. I would use them myself, to wrap salad greens in, before storing in a plastic bag in the fridge. And I used a few paper towels to drain some fried foods at the stove.

About a year ago, we finally ran out of that one roll of paper towels. I thought about buying more. But, you can probably guess this about me. I find myself too cheap to buy even one roll of paper towels when I know there are so many alternatives to them. That's right I'm just a cheap old bird!

So, here's my list of what I use now, that I would have used paper towels for, years ago:


For draining deep-fried foods 

I use brown paper bags, torn into 10 inch squares. I like to top a few layers of brown paper bag with a single take-out napkin, unfolded.

The take-out napkin helps pull the oil away from the fried food. When I don't use a take-out napkin, the oil tends to pool on the brown paper bag pieces, leaving the fried food to sit in the oil. Our supply of take-out napkins is hit or miss, and depends heavily on someone going through the take-out restaurant drive-thru, but bringing the take-out home and using their cloth napkin at the table. The leftover paper napkins get squirreled away for future use in frying.

For washing windows

I am addicted to using newspaper for windows. I use the store circulars, printed on newsprint, that come in the mail. They leave my windows squeaky clean.

For greasing baking dishes

In the early years of living away from home, I used a corner of paper towel, dipped in butter to grease my baking pans. It's how my mom always did it. Then I realized that the waxed papers that butter come wrapped in make excellent pan-greasers. As it turns out, almost everyone else already did this with butter wrappers. So no great revelation on that front. I just wonder why my mom always used a paper towel to grease a baking pan?

For cleaning up ordinary spills

We keep a stack of rags in the laundry room cupboard just for this. These rags are old dish and hand towels, and are just the right size for this sort of clean-up. I also use these rags on my Swiffer mop. They wrap around the mop head, and are secured with two fat rubber bands.

For cleaning up disgusting messes or really filthy ones that may not come clean in the laundry

We keep a second stash of disposable rags, cut from extremely worn t-shirts. You know those shirts that are so thin you can literally see right through the fabric. Most of these rags were previously pj tops, worn until they're indecent in mixed company.

I cut these very worn t-shirts into pieces about the size of a paper towel. After using, we throw them out.

Examples of disgusting things I've had to use these for include cleaning the shower drain (you know that thing that looks like a moldy mouse that you pull out of a shower drain that 3 women in the family, 2 with very long hair, have used on a regular basis), cleaning up after a sick cat (both ends of sickness are too disgusting to use a washable rag on), wiping off the dipstick for the oil reservoir in the car's engine, and wiping up oil-based paint or varnish and cleaning the brushes.


I sometimes have a difficult time remembering what I used to use paper towels for. If I were to buy another roll, it would likely be for the exact same reason as the last time, to make someone visiting my home feel more comfortable about cleaning up after a project. I "get" that other people may simply prefer paper towels over rags. We all have certain things that, to us, just feel normal. But for me, for now, paper towels are something that I am content to live without.

A gift of a flowering African violet

I've given flowering, potted African violets as small token gifts for friend's birthdays, or when someone needed  a bit of cheering up, or even as a thinking-of-you gift following the passing of a friend's loved one. They don't cost me much of anything. Just soil, a pot, a plastic wrap and ribbon, plus my time and love.

I like to keep a few of these growing, hopefully having one at all times that could be flowering, ready at hand for a gift. But my supply dwindled to just the one, "mother plant".

Time to begin another set. This past October, I filled a 4-cell seed starter with soil. Then I plucked 4 leaves with stems from my mother plant, and inserted into the soil. I kept the soil damp, watering a coupled of times per week. I lost one leaf entirely, but 3 remain, with one having sprouted new leaves already.

It usually takes about 12 weeks for a plantlet (the grouping of small leaves) to develop from the time of cutting. I'll be keeping an eye on the other 2 leaves, hoping for another couple of plants.

This one, with the baby leaves attached, will be ready to pot up into its own pot in about 3 or 4 weeks. I want it to become strong and healthy before changing pots, but not wait so long that the plant has outgrown it's space and water supply.

It can take 6-9 months to go from baby plant to flowering one. But I have patience.

(Some experts recommend trimming 1/3 off the initial leaf at time of cutting. I've never done this, and still have success with propagation.)

Have you experimented with propagating plants? There's a method for propagating lilacs with just leaves. But I've never tried it, and am hoping to get more information on this method sometime.

No hot dog bun? No problem!

The only hot dog buns we ever have, nowadays, are homemade ones. That's not just a cost situation, but commercial hot dog buns often have stuff in them that I can't eat. So, homemade it is.

But I don't always plan ahead and make buns, or my freezer stash of homemade buns has been depleted. So, what to do? What to do?

We have 3 solutions. One, was my mother's favorite. I'm sure this is the universal, substitute hot dog bun. (You remember these, too?!) A slice of soft, fluffy sandwich bread, the fluffier, the better. Something like Wonder Bread. Lay the hot dog on a diagonal, from corner to corner of the slice of bread. Pull the remaining corners up, and you have a wrap-around, slice of bread for a bun. This works just fine, and I often do this for myself, if heating myself a hot dog. But frankly, as a kid, I always felt that this was somehow inferior.

The second solution also works in a pinch, but is better suited for homemade bread, as you need it unsliced. I slice a double wide slice of bread. Cut in half, into two long rectangles. Then make a slit partially through the bread, on the cut edge, about where a cut would have been made to make two slices out of the one.

You have something like a hot dog bun. This works best with fresh and fluffy homemade bread, and not dry homemade bread. The one here was on bread that was a few days old, and didn't hold together very well. Can be a solution, but not my family's favorite.

The third solution is one I use for many types of buns, including sloppy Joe buns and slider burger buns. I use biscuit dough. It's just a basic scratch biscuit dough recipe. If I make half a recipe (a mini batch using 1 cup of flour), I have just enough dough for 5 or 6 hot dogs. (Or, 5 or 6 sloppy Joe buns, or, 10 slider buns.)

I roll the dough out into a large circle, about 1/4-inch thick. I score the circle into 5 or 6 wedges. I lay 1 hot dog on each wedge, nearest the wide edge of the triangle. Then simply roll up, as for a crescent roll. Place seam side down on a baking sheet, and bake the wrapped dogs at 400 F degrees for about 15 to 17 minutes (until the biscuit wrap is baked). If you're using fat sausages, you may want to preheat the sausage in the microwave or in a skillet, first, so that it will be thoroughly cooked through.

One daughter especially loves these. When her sister heard I was making these last Friday for a quick supper, she insisted that I make an extra, for the daughter who loves them so much. (That daughter had an evening out at the opera, with one of her classes, and would miss dinner. The lucky girl!)

Basically, this is a homemade version of the Pillsbury crescent roll, hot dog wraps. But about a buck cheaper. Sometimes, I add a slice of cheese on top of the biscuit dough, just before placing the hot dog on and rolling. Other times, I spread the inside dough with prepared mustard, for extra flavor. As they're not true hot dog buns, with an opening for pouring on the condiments, my family enjoys dipping them in ketchup or BBQ sauce.

That's it! Quick and easy supper for a Friday evening.

Does your family have something favorite for Friday supper?

February Grocery Money Journal

There are just a couple of items that I am keeping a watch for good sales, this month, mayo and oats. We're trying to use up the contents of the freezers and pantry, so I won't go out of my way to buy produce or meat. But if I find a good deal, well . . .

Feb. 3 In-store coupons and sales at Albertson's. Mayonnaise (30 oz. for $2.49, I buy 4), Planter's peanut butter (16.35 oz, I buy 6), chicken hot dogs (78 cents/12 oz, w/ coupon, limit 6), butter (1 lb/$1.99, w/coupon, limit 2). We go through about 5-6 jars of mayo in a year. I may come across a better price, but likely with limits, so I buy 4 jars. That should get us through mid-summer, at least. While hot dogs are not great food, we do like our Saturday night cook-outs around the fire, beginning in spring, so these chicken dogs should get us started. Total spent $27.56

Feb. 6 Stopped by QFC looking for milk. Found 3 gallons of skim milk for $2.09 each, and 4 pints of whipping cream for 59 cents each. I've frozen the whipping cream already, some as cubes to add to soups/sauces, some in pints for making ice cream later, and some whipped and in mounds, to top dessert for Easter dinner. Spent $8.63

Feb. 6 Dollar Tree for soy milk, buy 4 quarts. Spent $4, total for month -- $40.19

Feb. 11 Dollar Tree for spinach seeds, 6 packets @ 25 cents ea, for $1.50 spent

Feb. 11 Albertson's to use coupon on whole milk -- 2 gallons at $2.29 each. Spent $4.58, for a month to date of $46.27

Feb. 12 Trader Joe's for 13 bananas, and 8 oz of cocoa powder. Spent $4.96

Feb. 12 Cash and Carry restaurant supply for 25 lbs of oats ($16.49), case of 12 qts of soy milk ($11.88), 40 oz bag of fresh spinach ($4.38), 40 oz fresh mushrooms ($5.48). Spent 40.41. for a month to date of $91.64

Feb. 20, stop by QFC on way home from work, hoping to find marked down milk. Instead I find red-taped bananas (49 cents/lb) and a marked down 24 oz. bag of broccoli florets for 99 cents (that's 66 cents/lb). Spent $1.71

Feb. 22 Albertson's for eggs on sale for $1.25/dozen, limit 4 w/ coupon. I buy 4. Spent $5

Feb. 23 I go online to see the Walgreen's ad on Sundays. Milk is $1.99/gallon for the week, limit 2. On the way to church I stop in and buy 2, and on the way home I buy another 2. Total spent $7.96

Feb. 25 I have a bunch of errands to run in neighboring town, all along the main highway. There are 2 Walgreen's along my route, one near home and the other, across the street from the post office (one of my errands). So this is how the errands go -- 1) stop at Walgreen's, buy 2 gallons milk, spent $3.98; 2) stop at Trader Joe's for bananas (buy 22 at 19 cents each, spent $4.18); 3) post office to drop something in the mail; 4) across the street to other Walgreen's, buy 2 gallons milk, $3.98; 5) Cash and Carry restaurant supply for 2 lbs of raisins, $4.59; 6) Gas at lowest price station in area; 7) go to first Walgreen's for 2 more gallons of milk, $3.98 total spent on these errands -- $20.71

Month to date spending -- $127.02

Feb. 27 There's a Walgreen's on the way to my Thursday job. I put an ice chest into the trunk of the car, with an ice pack, and stopped in at Walgreen's on the way to work, and then again on the way home from work, buying a total of 4 gallons of milk for $1.99 each (2 whole milk for yogurt, and 2 2% milk for drinking). Spent $7.96.

Once home, I was able to put 6 gallons into the freezer. Once frozen, I can turn them on their sides, and put them in the stand alone freezer, freeing up a bit of space in the larger freezer for another couple of gallons of milk.

If milk prices really do jump up 60 cents per gallon, as reported on the news this month, I should at least put off buying milk for another 2 months, with my frozen milk.

Total spent for the month of February -- 134.98

Unseasonably warm winter or confused daffodil?

I think a bit of both.

Yesterday began as a kitchen day. It had been a while since I did a fair amount of baking (and we were almost out of bread). I baked 4 loaves of whole wheat sandwich bread, a dozen cinnamon-raisin buns, a batch of cinnamon granola, a small batch of cupcakes (my sweet tooth kicking in), and I made a quart of Greek yogurt. I finished up just in time for a gorgeous day to come to my yard.

I was able to have lunch on the deck, haul one of the laundry racks outside to dry a load of clothes in the almost-spring air, and wandered into the garden to check on the bulbs that I planted this past fall. That's when I spied this daffodil all poised to bring spring to me! Alas, the sneak peek at spring was short-lived. Rain and cooler temps are expected to return later today.

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Now for the boring part of this post (boring for you, maybe, but exceedingly helpful for me).
I spent a good share of Tuesday afternoon rereading last year's January, February and March grocery journals. January and February were low-spend grocery months, but March was quite high. We could afford that last year. But our budget has changed since then.

Not wanting to repeat some of the excessive spending from last March, I took some time to look over the journals. I was able to pinpoint some particulars to avoid for this March, hoping to be more mindful of our budget. To that end, I am mentally preparing for potential sales and mark downs. Deciding in advance, should specific foods come up for sale this next month, how much am I willing to spend on each, and how much in quantity am I willing to stockpile. This is an important step for me. If I establish my boundaries in advance, I am much more likely to keep my spending in check.

I mention all of this, as keeping records has helped our household live within our means, regardless of income. Writing it down (or typing it up) keeps us accountable. Just knowing that it will be recorded somewhere keeps a check on a good deal of my spending. It's like a budget report card. The written record is the evidence of good or poor spending choices.

In addition, this record gives me something to look back to, evaluate and learn from. When I'm feeling down about our finances, I can look to success in meeting our budget, and remind myself that we're doing well given our circumstances. And, I can reflect on our spending and find areas for improvement, or pitfalls to avoid.

I feel confident that we'll be able to reduce our grocery costs for this March, as compared to last year. A bit of preparation makes all the difference for me.

Sometimes, I think we're just a tad too squeamish

There are times when upon later reflection, I've realized that I was unreasonably squeamish about something, usually food.

The company where my son works brings in take-out for lunch everyday, as a perk for its employees. One day last week, they had take-out Chinese for lunch. There was a large carton of white rice and a smaller one of brown rice leftover. The office was just going to throw this rice away at the end of the day, when my son spoke up and said he'd take it home.

My initial thought was, "ewww! Leftovers from people I don't even know!" I considered dumping it into the compost. Then I came to my senses. We gladly eat at church potlucks, with 100 or more people in attendance. I don't know all the people who've enjoyed those potlucks. We've eaten at restaurant buffets, and not only do I not know the other patrons, but I have no idea how long anything has sat on the buffet. This was rice, almost untouched with the exception of a spoon. My son not only works with these people, but considers them work-friends. So why was it that one kind of communal food was okay with me, but not another?

A good friend was relating her weekend evening with granddaughters. They had dinner at my friend's home, but left half glasses of their milk. My friend refrigerated the milk, to use in the next days. At first I had that same reaction as before, "ewww! Used milk!" But these were her dear granddaughters. How many times have we shared a lick of an ice cream cone with our child? Or tasted the baby food right from the infant's spoon? Or shared a brownie, piece of cake or cookie with our spouse? My reaction then seemed completely incongruent with other behaviors of mine.

You all know that I buy mostly marked down milk. There's usually 4-7 days left until the sell-by date. I see many other folks reach around the marked down milk, for a fresher container at regular price. This is totally reasonable, if you think that the container won't be used before it expires, and need a longer use-by window to consume the entire container. But what if you know that your family will indeed use all the milk before the sell-by date? My family goes through 1 gallon of milk every 3  1/2 days. I can easily use at least 1 marked down gallon of milk before the sell-by date comes around.

What about those bananas marked down because they are looking ripe? I mentioned to a friend who's been trying to reduce her grocery bill, that when I shop regular grocery stores for bananas, I always buy the red-taped ones, to save some money. She had that same reaction about my banana choice. "Ewww! Old bananas, yuck!" I pointed out that most of our store's red-taped bananas are just barely ripe, and just about ready for consumption. While I wouldn't want to eat a black banana, as is, I am more than happy to eat a perfectly ripe one. I suggested to my friend that she could buy a couple of the ripe bananas, then another couple of less-ripe ones (at regular price) for later in the week. She thought this was a reasonable compromise. When you think about it, if you're shopping for produce just once per week, by the end of the week, all of the produce left in your kitchen is "old". If reducing the grocery bill is important to your budget, then buying a few marked-down items to use early in the week, could be a help.

So, back to the rice that my son brought home last week. I did decide to use it that next day. I made a garlic and peanut sauce to pour over the white rice for dinner that night. And the day after, I mixed the brown rice with oatmeal for breakfast. Both dishes were very delicious. And I feel good about not wasting the food.

A little squeamishness has saved many a life, avoiding potentially harmful bacteria. But sometimes, I do think we're a bit too squeamish. Mostly, we just need to use common sense and think things through.

Waste nothing: How I use the whole lemon

You already know how I use the whole orange (whole orange muffins, citrus-spice infused vinegar cleaners, candied orange peel). I also try to use the entire lemon when I buy fresh lemons.

When buying whole lemons in the supermarket, most of us view the juice and zest as the valuable portions, regarding the shells as something for the compost heap. But the shells can be useful, too, for adding a citrusy accent when cooking poultry.

To use whole lemons,

first, I zest the lemon (I zest lemons the same way that I zest oranges), saving some as bits, and some as threads, in the freezer.

Next, I halve the lemon and juice it. If I don't need the lemon juice right away (if I only needed the zest of the lemon for the recipe that I'm working on). I freeze this juice in small containers, labeling the quantity of juice.

Finally, I freeze the juiced  and zested shells in a large plastic bag, to use as part of the flavoring and aromatics in poultry.



To use:

ZEST -- the zest "bits" are great for adding to cakes and muffins, while the "threads" make a beautiful finishing touch on baked goods, or servings of chicken or fish.

JUICE -- The juice, if frozen in various small quantities, can be pulled out of the freezer, in the exact amounts that I need for recipes.

SHELLS -- I take several lemon shells out of the freezer, and use them:

• cut into 1/8ths and added to marinade for Mediterranean chicken (add garlic, oregano, salt pepper and lemon shells w/ some juice), OR,
• my favorite method for infusing flavor into whole turkeys -- I slip the shell halves into whole chickens and turkeys, along with garlic, onion quarters, and a bundle of sage, thyme and rosemary, as an aromatic "stuffing", both adding flavor to the poultry, and to the pan juices for sauce or gravy.