How to Render Ham Fat to Save for Use in Cooking

At the very end of using a baked ham, I always have chunks and pieces of fat. Rather than throw these chunks out, I render the fat to use in cooking later.

Rendering fat is an old-fashioned method for preparing solid animal fat to use later by separating the fat from any other tissue in the fat. Lard, for example, is a rendered fat. The happy by-product of rendering pork fat is the cracklings, those small bits of crunchy, tasty roasted fat, which sometimes have a bit of meat in them.

When you render ham fat, those bits of fat, the cracklings (with maybe some meat), have a taste and texture similar to bacon bits. The rendered fat, itself, tastes like ham or bacon. I use it in cooking the same way I would use saved bacon fat.

To render fat:

In the process of using a baked ham, simply set aside all of the fatty bits and chunks that you don't want to consume in their current state. On both the shank and butt portions of ham, there can be a substantial swath of fat across part of the exterior. Go ahead and bake the ham with the fat on, scoring well to render fat while baking. Not all of the fat will render in such a large swath without severely overcooking your ham.

initial batch of fat dices rendering

With all of the leftover chunks of fat which you trimmed and saved, cut the pieces which appear to be only fat (no meat attached) into 1/4 to 1/2-inch dices. In just a few minutes of cooking, these very fatty pieces will give off enough rendered fat to thoroughly coat the remaining dices, allowing your main batch to render evenly.

• Place about 1/2 cup of fatty dices into a heavy-bottomed saucepan or dutch oven (depending on amount of ham fat to render, more fat = bigger pot).

• Heat over low, and allow fat to render slowly. Stir occasionally. On my gas stove top, I use a gas mark 2, out of 1 through 5.

cracklings removed to a sieve over a small bowl

• When there's a nice pool of rendered fat, and this first batch is done, use a slotted spoon to scoop the cracklings out of the pot and into a sieve, which is placed over a dish to catch drippings. 

• Add the remaining fat dices (again about 1/4 to 1/2-inch dice) to the rendered fat in the pot.  (I prefer to leave all my dices about 1/4-inch, as I just like the smaller "bits" to add to salads or to top soups.) 

• If you have any especially meaty bits, add those to the rendering about half-way through, to ensure that they don't burn. Continue to render the fat slowly, stirring from time to time.

some of the meatier dices I add about halfway through cooking main batch

• At the very end of cooking, remove the cracklings to a strainer/sieve or scoop into a piece of loosely woven cheesecloth. Use the back of a spoon to press out the fat into the dish below. Alternatively, put the cracklings into a cheesecloth spread over a dish, then squeeze out the liquified fat into the dish to save.

pressing the extra fat out of the cracklings to save for cooking

• The liquid fat is your rendered fat to be used in cooking, just like reserved bacon fat.

• The cracklings can be used in recipes for cornbread and egg salad, or to top soup, salad, and casseroles. Store cracklings in the fridge, or if not using within a day or two, freeze. Rendered fat for use in cooking can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for several months.

I used this batch of cracklings to top a bean and veggie soup --
tastes like bacon bits , Yum!

Rendering the fat from your ham is a way to make use of every last scrap. Hams are expensive; so why not make use of every last bit. Instead of tossing those chunks of fat, salvage them for cooking use. 


You'll find this post, and many others like it, a click away,  through this link (click) -- there's a compilation of my recipes, shopping lists, and menu plans that illustrates how I feed my family of 4 adults on $125 to $135 per month.

Cheap & Cheerful for the week

Sunday
pinto bean burger patties
*brown rice cooked in chicken stock with garden herbs
*yellow crookneck squash, sauteed in chicken fat with garlic
*tomato wedges with 1000 Island dressing (leftover tartar sauce combined with ketchup)
*fruit salad of blackberries, bananas and early pears

Monday
*rosemary-bean soup, with garden rosemary, beet greens, 2 bunches of shallots, garlic, new potatoes, ham stock (w/ bits of meat). This would have been nicer made with white beans, but pinto beans were what I had.
scratch cornbread, using bacon fat for most of fat in recipe, oil for the rest
*cucumber-dill salad
*blackberry-rhubarb sauce

Tuesday
baked ham (I needed to make room in the freezers, so pulled a ham out to thaw, late last week)
*garden green and waxed beans
*sauteed zucchini and crookneck squash
*tomato wedges
*leftover brown rice, cooked in chicken stock w/ garden herbs
toffee bars (made with half chocolate chips, half butterscotch chips which were on sale)

Wednesday
leftover ham on scratch biscuits (using up whey from straining yogurt, and pureed "skimmings" from making the yogurt)
*pears, apple and blackberries (blackberry picking in the afternoon)
*tossed salad with leafy greens (baby chard leaves, watercress, lettuce), cucumber, and tomatoes
toffee bars

Thursday
*ham fried rice, with veggies from garden (shallots, carrots, cabbage, zucchini, green beans)
*fresh blackberries
toffee bars

Friday
ham and gravy on scratch biscuits
*cole slaw
*fresh pears

Saturday
*rice and beans, topped with fresh, chopped tomatoes
*cole slaw
*fresh blackberries
toffee bars

Sunday
*hamburgers on homemade buns, with garden lettuce and tomatoes and homemade dill pickles
*sauteed zucchini and yellow crookneck squash

Monday
*garbanzo bean soup, with garden veggies (chard, carrots, shallots, green beans, tomatoes), topped with cracklings from rendering ham fat
homemade French bread with pesto
*blackberries with vanilla yogurt

* indicates part of meal was prepared with fruit or veggies from the garden/orchard or the wild (foraged)

Our kitchen fridge looks rather bare these days, especially the produce drawers. That's because, this time of year, we don't store our produce in the fridge. We store it in the garden!

I realize that keeping a garden isn't possible or desirable for a lot of folks. This is just something that I used to dream about when I was younger, the possibility of growing most of our produce. In actuality, we grow about half of our fruits and vegetables. With a family of five, I feel we would need a much larger yard to devote to growing all of our produce, given that our growing season is limited, and we are surrounded by tall evergreens. We definitely eat what is in season and local -- ha ha!

Digging my shallots

Shallots are from the onion family and to me taste like a cross between mild garlic and onion. Their mild enough that they can be used raw, minced in salad dressings. I particularly like them, as they fill a gap in my cooking staples. I typically find 50-lb sacks of onions on sale in late August or early September. My shallots begin maturing in mid to late July. So, with the shallots, I can have something onion-y for that 5 to 6 week period in summer, when I am often all out of purchased onions.

I've been digging these 1 or 2 clumps at a time, to add to recipes. My shallots give me a 5 or 6 fold increase. For every 1 shallot I plant, I get 5 or 6 in return. I planted these in early spring this year. Previously, I had planted them in October, per the instructions I was originally given with my initial purchase of the shallot bulbs. But this past fall was a difficult one for me, and many things I might do in "normal" years was put off. So, I didn't plant these until early in March. And as it turns out, these shallots seemed to gain in size better than fall-planted ones. I'll give it a shot again next year, and see if my results are the same.

These shallots are descendants from my initial purchase 19 years ago. I bought 1 dozen shallot bulbs, planted them out, and saved a few more each year. This spring, I planted 36 shallots. I estimate I will dig a total of about 180 to 200 shallots from this planting. I will save about 40-45 from this year's harvest, and plant in early spring. I will lose a couple over winter, so 40-45 should give me roughly what I had this past year.

Oh, and I found that shallots keep well in a paper bag in the fridge, over winter. I was using up the last of the shallots from last summer, in late spring this year. I had forgotten that bag was in the fridge, and was happy to find it when I ran out of purchased onions.

I've only begun digging them. I could just dig them all at once, but I was just out in the garden, gathering some veggies for dinner and quickly dug an extra few bunches. I'll dig the remaining shallots over the course of the next week or two.

My garlic is also almost ready to dig. Garlic is so cheap in the store, that the only reason I plant it every year is that one year, I had several purchased cloves of garlic that sprouted over winter, so I planted them out. And lo and behold, they grew into garlic bulbs. I've continued on for about 16 years with descendants from those first few cloves of garlic. These do not size up as well as the garlic I find at the produce stand, but for something that's free, I'm happy to do it, and have slightly smaller heads of garlic. I haven't dug any this year, so who knows, maybe these will also have sized up better than usual.

Another decent deal with a coupon

This has been my week for coupons!

In my post yesterday, I said I'm willing to pay more for a necessity than a want. There is something that's been a "need" for several years, and I've posted about it a couple of times -- our bedsheets.

The Cal King fitted bed sheet has been patched and patched for the last 3 years. I finally gave up on patching it sometime this past year, as it became uncomfortable to sleep on. Instead, I began using the flat, flannel sheet for that bed as the bottom sheet, tucking it back in on all sides, every morning, instead of a fitted sheet. Then using the still-good flat percale sheet for the top sheet.

Imagine how fine and dandy it's been sleeping on flannel in this hot, summer weather!!! Ha ha!

A month ago, I scouted out some sheets at Bed, Bath and Beyond, knowing that some time in August they'd be sending out coupons, as a back-to-school promotion, for university students going off to live in the dorms.

I got my coupon for 20% off and raced on over to BB&B, hoping they'd still have the color choice I wanted in a Cal. King sheet set. And yay! they did. Instead of paying $59.99 for a set, I paid $47.99. It's still a lot of money, but a necessity that I was willing to spend more for.

I had been going back and forth between buying a new bed (that was smaller, going for a Queen instead of this Cal King) and just buying new sheets. For now, it's a lot less expensive to buy a new sheet set, than a new mattress and box spring. And as frugal spinster pointed out, back in the comments in one of my "sheet dilemma" posts, I can always use these larger sheets on a smaller bed, by taking in the corners on the fitted sheet, to adjust the size. So, I'm not really wasting money, if in 2 years time we do downsize this bed to a Queen. I expect these sheets will last for another 8 years or so, at which time, maybe I'll be ready to make that decision to downsize beds.

Anyway, just thought I'd update you on the big sheet dilemma (because I know, "Enquiring minds want to know").

And if you are needing something from Bed, Bath & Beyond, you can get a 20% off coupon, for signing up for email offers. The coupon is good on one item. Also, check the glossy folder that your grocery ads come bundled in. That's where I found my 20% off coupon, in a bundle delivered a week and a half ago.

How do you assess what is a "deal" and what is not?

While in a second-hand shop in Poulsbo, I was thinking about this. What is a deal? Some of the criteria that came to mind were the following.

What's the margin between our income and our necessary expenditures.

What feels like a deal to me may sound like an extravagance to you, and vice versa, simply based on income and one's cost of living. If one's income is so pinched that there's nothing left after paying bills on the necessities of life, then spending even $5 on a non-essential will feel too extravagant. It's not a deal if buying it means you can't pay one of your bills.

Is this a "need" or is this a "want"? What would I be willing to pay for a similar item? And can I resell it for what I paid for it?

A needed item takes financial priority over a want. And depending on how desperate that need is, I could find myself willing to pay more than usual, and might still think it's a deal.

This, in itself, can be variable. If all my undies are tattered beyond repair, I'm going to be far more willing to spend money on that first pair of new undies, than on the sixth pair. (In fact, make that the first two pairs, so I can actually wash them.) The sixth pair can sort of fall into the "wants" category, rather than "need", as I know from experience that I can get by on just a few good pairs, doing laundry regularly. 

But I do think about it while shopping, "is this such a great deal? What am I willing to spend on similar items?" For the undies, I compared the price of pretty undies, to that of nice trouser socks, a few dollars, but not $10 or $11 each pair (the regular retail price on my favorite Maidenform undies). I have been replenishing my undie collection this spring and summer, one pair at a time, using Kohl's and Penney's $10 off coupons. I can get a pair for just a couple of dollars, with coupons. Same for nice quality trouser socks. 

I might not consider whether or not I could resell the undies or socks, but other clothing items, yes, I most definitely would consider resale value. Like that pj top I got at the thrift shop a couple of weeks ago. I spent 99 cents for it. And, yes, I could sell it at a garage sale for 99 cents. My daughters use the same criteria, when shopping for clothing. One daughter bought a cute, black knit tunic, to wear over leggings this fall. When she was considering her purchase of 99 cents, she said to me, "I could list this on facebook at school for more than this price and recoup my money".

For a decor piece for the house, I realize that decor falls under the "want" heading, nice to have, but I'm going to hold out for a really great deal before buying. I'm not as willing to part with my money for a "want".

I mostly shop at second-hand shops for decor pieces. I can find better quality, at a fraction of the price of a newly-crafted piece, by shopping second-hand. 

I have price points in my head, as for what I think is a deal on wall decor and knick-knacks. Basically $8 to $12 for a piece of wall art, if it's exactly how I want to use it (no new paint job, no new pane of glass, etc -- ready to hang). If I have to do anything to bring it up to my requirements for use, repairs or paint jobs, then that piece either needs to have collector's value, or needs to be close to free, $1 to $2. I have paid more, in the past, but at this point, we're not "needing" to cover as many walls as a few years ago. I can wait for that stellar deal to show up. 

Knick-knacks are harder to pinpoint my price on. I look for things that have resale value, are collectibles, but still in the "cheap" or "budget" categories. But I try to keep to the price that the exact same item might sell for on ebay. For the most part, any collectibles I buy, I find for under $10.

Knowing what items might sell for on ebay is key to getting a great deal, I've found. And it's so easy to check ebay for comparables, if you're willing to spend a few minutes looking things up. You no longer need to be a collector or dealer to know a good deal when you find it.

In Poulsbo, we browsed several second-hand shops. The one with the best prices, overall, was not on the main drag, but one street over. Even though they didn't all carry the exact same items, I knew the ebay prices for several key items that are always on my watch list, and could compare prices on similar items, between the stores. This made the main-street shops interesting to look through, but not at all tempting for purchases. I also discovered that Poulsbo shops had better prices, overall, than my favorite local vintage district, by doing a few of those price comparisons.

In practice

I had another one of those $10 off coupons to Kohl's this week. I had a few "needs" on my list, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. (No undies in my size, style, color and fabric this time, and no nice trouser socks for winter, yet.) 

So, not wanting this coupon to be wasted, I began searching the store for "wants". I was only interested in using this coupon if I found a stellar deal on something off my "wants" list. We're okay with the margin between our income and expenditures, right now. We're putting money into various saving's funds every month, so a "wants" purchase of a couple of dollars is within our budget.

After browsing the housewares, bath and bedding departments quite thoroughly, I headed over to the home decor aisles. Of course, I stopped at the clearance section first. I found a nice wall-mounted shelf that I liked, a wall-hung coat rack that was also nice, and then this -- a decorative mirror, with small shelf and a couple of small hooks (not for coats, but scarves and mittens would work).

This decor piece was originally $69.99. That's not even in my ballpark range of what I would spend on my wildest day, for this type of item. It's not an antique (or even vintage). It has no "collector's value". And it's not even solid wood (so it can only be refinished by painting). It's lovely, though, and just my style for the short wall, at the end of the hall, near the garage door. But not for $69.99.

It had been marked down numerous times, and now was priced at 80% off, for $13.99. Okay, that sounds better, and almost within my range for wall art/decor. But on an ordinary day, under ordinary circumstances, no I would not pay $13.99 for this. Not because it's not worth that price to somebody, but for me, I am able and willing to keep looking around. It's just a tad out of my range (by about $2) for a "want" of this sort. And that is key -- that I have time on my side for finding a piece for this particular spot in the house, so I am able and willing to keep looking.

However. . .

Remember that $10 off coupon? After the coupon was applied, my cost for this decor piece was $3.99. Forget that it was almost 95% off of the original price. But $3.99 fits in the margin between our income and our current necessary expenditures. 

I would actually pay a few dollars more for a similar item, up to about $12. I couldn't find anything comparable on ebay for this price. Shipping alone would eat up that $3.99. I did find one mirror that I felt was comparable in style and quality on ebay, and it was selling for about $30.00, plus shipping.

I could definitely resell it at a garage sale for at least what I paid for it. (Garage sales are overpriced, IMO, in our area. But people are willing to pay those higher prices.)

And while it's a want and not a need, it does fill a gap in decor for this particular wall. I had been thinking this wall could use a mirror, to reflect light in a dark passage, and as a last-minute "do I look okay" check.

I'm not likely to find anything comparable to this item, for less than this, at a garage sale, flea market, thrift shop or off craigslist. Anything I could find in a "free" pile would likely need paint and or repairs (costing a couple of dollars and my time). 

So, when I spied this mirror, it only took me seconds to figure that this, indeed, was a great deal.

How do you determine if something is a great deal or not?

Pear picking time, once again

Saturday evening, I went out to check the early pears. Not only had the pears gained in size over the week, but about half were almost ripe enough to eat right off the tree, the other half could be picked and stored in the fridge, until we are ready for them (then ripened on the counter for a couple of days).

Two pears had already fallen from the tree. It looked as if they'd been on the ground for about 2 days or so. I washed them, cut off the bad spots, and used in a fruit salad with dinner.

Sunday, late afternoon, my daughters and I picked the tree. I only had one pear so high up that I needed to use the pear picker. We call this model, "Pear Picker 3.0" It's an improvement over "Pear Picker 2000", in that no duct tape was needed (which was a good thing, as we are out of duct tape at the moment). I turn a portable, tall sprinkler upside down and stuck the spike-end into the bottom of a used coffee cup (from church). The coffee cup was secure on the spike and just the right size to hold 1 pear at a time, from the safety of a lower rung of the ladder.

Pear Picker 3.0 did the job. I was able to reach that highest pear, gently push up on the pear, break the stem and lower the Pear Picker (with pear in the cup) to safety! Only one pear was dropped in the entire harvest, which is an improvement for me. That pear is resting on the counter, ripening, and will be used in a smoothie or yogurt later this week.

We harvested over 50 pears from this tree, this year. That's enough to last the entire month of August, and maybe into September. I love these pears. They look so beautiful, have a soft skin, are super sweet, and are an early fruit.

What we packed for snacks, meals and drinks for our day-trip to Poulsbo

This was the view from the bench we chose, for our al fresco breakfast.
Nice, huh?

So, as I mentioned last Friday, my two daughters and I had an adventure day. We went to a small town, across the Puget Sound, called Poulsbo. Poulsbo is Norwegian in origin. It's fun, touristy, filled with all kinds of shops, galleries, restaurants, an aquarium, waterfront park often with free entertainment, nature walks on a boardwalk around Liberty Bay and some historical sights. It was a jam-packed day, and it really did feel like a vacation.

Purchased food on these trips can add up quickly, so we planned ahead and packed a cooler with snacks, beverages and lunch.

We have several individual-size thermoses. I filled mine with coffee from home, and my two daughters's thermoses with milk. These were our beverages with our breakfast. We bought pastries at the Norwegian bakery on Front Street, for our breakfast. No sense in buying coffee and milk, when I could bring some from home, and the thermoses kept everything appropriately hot or cold.

There are several nice benches that overlook the marina, at the waterfront park. We chose one in the sun, to warm us up in the chill of the early morning. This was our view from our waterfront dining location.

We left the cooler in the trunk of the car, parked in the free parking lot at the north end of town. At lunch, we went back up to the car (a short walk -- this IS a small town), and filled a daypack with the lunch items. We brought egg salad sandwiches, the second half of a can of Lay's Stax potato chips, some apple wedges, and a 1/2 gallon container of chilled water. The egg salad, I prepared the night before, but didn't make into sandwiches until the morning that we left, so the bread would not get soggy. I added watercress and lettuce from the garden to those sandwiches. The apple wedges were drizzled in a bit of lemon juice. It really doesn't take much lemon juice at all, to prevent browning on the cut apples. The potato chips were purchased earlier in the week, at Dollar Tree, for our picnic lunch at the park on Tuesday. We ate half the can then, and saved the other half for our day trip to Poulsbo. And the container of water was chilled overnight in the fridge, then packed in the cooler with ice packs in the morning. The water was perfectly chilled at lunchtime. We used a bit of the water to rinse out our thermoses from breakfast, into the bushes in the parking lot. Then each filled our thermoses with water for drinking at lunch and beyond.

Also for lunch, we purchased a large salad, to split between the 3 of us, for a fresh treat with our lunch.

A nice "spread" for our picnic lunch in the shade of the gazebo,
but still overlooking the water.

There's a large gazebo in the waterfront park, with a couple of picnic tables, well-sheltered from the heat of the sun. By 1 PM, it was toasty in the sun, so we found a table close to the water, but still in the shade.

While eating lunch, there was live entertainment at one end of the park. The SeaFair pirates were making a port o' call for the weekend and regaled the tourists at the park with their pirate songs.

I packed paper plates, plastic cutlery and napkins from home. I also packed plastic cups for the water, but we found it simpler to just fill our thermoses with water, and skip the cups.

We also had homemade gingerbread cookies with us, for snack time.

We had planned on dining out for dinner, but we were all still full by late afternoon. So we hit up an ice cream shop for cones for each of us, just after 6.

We spent an entire day in Poulsbo, only purchasing food items that we felt would enhance our experience -- the breakfast pastries, the salad at lunch, and the ice cream cones in the early evening. There are public drinking fountains, which we used to fill our thermoses. We took advantage of the free chilled water offered at the ice cream shop, when we got our cones. None of us really felt we missed out on anything by not buying beverages or full meals.

When members of our family take these little excursions, we find that the fun is really in the togetherness (and sometimes silliness -- see daughter in above photo), and not in eating meals in restaurants. The new-to-us atmosphere is often all we need for ambience. And who could ever argue with waterfront dining on a beautiful summer day?! Throw in a few singing pirates, and what's not to love?

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for early August

Thursday
hummus on homemade pita bread triangles
*Mediterranean cucumber-tomato-rice salad
*blackberry-rhubarb pie

Friday
*falafel
*pasta salad with pesto dressing
*Romano beans sauteed in bacon fat
carrot sticks
*leftover blackberry-rhubarb pie

Saturday
Spanish rice and black beans
*sauteed garden beans and summer squash in sausage fat
*homemade blackberry-cheesecake ice cream

Sunday
*open-faced burritos (the tortillas came out stiffer than usual), with refried beans, leftover Spanish rice, homemade yogurt, green onions, cilantro
oven-roasted, canned tomatoes
*leftover blackberry-cheesecake ice cream, with homemade "magic shell"

Monday
*chicken-pasta salad, with baked garlic chicken, tomatoes, cucumbers, leftover oven-roasted canned tomatoes, cooked green beans, garden carrot (first one!), Parmesan cheese, black olives and pasta
French bread
*blackberry cobbler topped with leftover blackberry ice cream

Tuesday
*leftovers soup -- basically I cleaned out the fridge and supplemented with garden veggies, combining leftover baked chicken, black beans, canned tomato juices, canned tomatoes, garden squash, waxed beans, Swiss chard, chili powder, cumin and garlic powder
French bread
*blackberry-rhubarb pie

Wednesday
barbequed pork sliders on homemade buns
*Romano beans sauteed in bacon fat
*fruit cup, using 1 ripe fig from garden (woo hoo -- a ripe fig!), free banana and some blackberries
*leftover blackberry pie*

Thursday
homemade pork and beans
brown rice, cooked in chicken stock
*oven-roasted root veggies (beets, shallots, new potatoes, carrots -- all from garden)
*fresh blackberries
chocolate-dipped frozen bananas

Friday
away in Poulsbo until after 8 PM, so when we walked in the door, we made pbj's. Not exciting, but it did the job!

Saturday
fried fish (cod fillets), with homemade tartar sauce
cheddar-bay biscuits
*green beans
*fresh blackberries


*indicates some items from each dish came from the garden

We've had fresh, wild blackberries with all but 3 of the last 17 dinners. That's a lot of blackberries!

I opened the very last #10 can of whole, peeled tomatoes last week, from my stock-up purchase last fall. I guessed the very amount that I needed for the year on the whole tomatoes. On the canned tomato paste, I overestimated how much we would use in one year by a full case (6 of the #10 cans). Whole, canned tomatoes went on sale this week at Cash & Carry, so I bought 3 cases, to get through 1 year. We really enjoy them oven-roasted. Probably one of the best canned veggie side dishes that I make.

At this point, almost all of our produce is coming from the garden or the wild. I am down to 1 lemon in the fridge, and a pound of corn in the freezer, some canned pumpkin and the canned tomato products, for purchased produce items. Not needing to buy fruits and veggies frees up a lot of our grocery money for stocking up on pantry items, right now.

More summer fun

Chocolate-covered, frozen bananas

I used the last of my recent batch of "magic shell" to cover some banana halves that I froze overnight. These were free bananas, from my son's office this week. Dipping really wasn't a practical option, so I used a rubber spatula to spread the "magic shell" over each banana. Yum!

Off on an adventure today! I'll catch up with you next week. Have a wonderful weekend!

Thrifty summer fun with my girls

One bottle of nail polish, 3 pairs of feet, some open-toed shoes, a bit of "girl talk",

and one afternoon of fun.

"Quickie" ketchup

This is "quickie" ketchup. I don't always get around to making ketchup with a recipe. When we had our homemade burgers the other day, and we realized that the ketchup jar was about empty, one daughters asked, "mom, can't you just make some "quickie" ketchup?"

Well, of course I could. It's what I've been doing for the past several months, in lieu of making a big batch of ketchup on the stove.

"Quickie" ketchup is canned tomato paste, sweet pickle juice, soy sauce and water to thin. That's it. It's all made to taste, primarily tomato paste, with just a couple of splashes of sweet pickle juice and soy sauce, then thinned to the right consistency with water. I don't cook it, but simply stir it all together. It keeps in the fridge for about 3 weeks, so I just make enough for a few meals at a time.

I love that it is mostly tomato paste (which counts towards veggie/fruit servings), and uses up some of the sweet pickle juice left at the bottom of the jars, when the pickles have been consumed.

Shopping school supplies for the home office and small Christmas gifts, as well

My two daughters have this week off from work. We're using the time to do a couple of fun things, but also to get some basic errands taken care of.

Yesterday, we went to Target for spiral-bound notebooks for both of them. While there, we bought some office supplies for home, and some small gifts to fill a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child.

Whether you're shopping at Staples, Target or the dollar store, this is an excellent time of year to buy not only the school supplies needed, but also to refill some office supplies and to buy some small gifts and stocking stuffers.

For all of this, I paid $10!! We got enough notebooks to get through all 3 quarters, and likely have a few left over for next year, 18 notebooks in total. And those notebooks were just 17 cents each at Target this week. We were trying to see if we could spend $25 on school supplies. Target's current deal is spend $25 on school supplies and get a $5 Target gift card. Well, we couldn't find enough items to stretch much beyond $10, let alone $25.

If you have young children in your life, you can purchase a couple of these well-priced items for a very small amount of money, and put together a fun little gift. The crayons were 40 cents, the markers were 74 cents, a package of glue sticks was 30 cents, and the package of 2 mini-notebooks was just 50 cents. Watercolor paints are also a nice little gift, combined with a pad of paper. All of these would make nice stocking stuffers, as well.


While out and about, we were passing Five Guys. I suggested we have hamburgers for lunch. One daughter exclaimed, "are we going to Five Guys?" I said "no, but I have burger patties and buns in the freezer at home. And we have homemade dill pickles, plus lettuce and tomatoes in the garden." I estimated that we spent $2 on our burgers, yesterday. We couldn't buy even one burger at Five Guys for that price, and I think ours tasted much fresher, too!

We came home, quickly put together our lunch, and enjoyed the quiet of our own backyard.

Homemade "magic shell" ice cream topping (and dipping chocolate for fruits, candies and cookies)

This is not an item that you can use straight out of the pantry, but requires some microwaving. However, sometimes the convenience of a pantry item comes at a cost. Compare the ingredients' list for the commercial product vs. a homemade substitute.

Self-hardening chocolate ice cream topping

The commercial product's ingredient list:

Sugar, Sunflower oil, Coconut oil, Cocoa, Chocolate, Contains 2% or less of: cocoa processed with alkali, soy lecithin, milk, salt, vanilla.


My homemade version:

Chocolate Chips
Crisco-type Shortening, or Coconut oil


A little background for how I came to making my own dipping chocolate, for making chocolates, dipped strawberries, dipped brownie bites and cookies and for use as a homemade "magic shell".

I had a great aunt who was a part-time chocolatier. She sold her hand-dipped chocolates every November, to raise money to bring her son home from university on the east coast.

My great aunt was a widow, while still raising 3 children. Her son was accepted to a very good school on the east coast, with a scholarship to cover his tuition, supplies and housing. But there was little additional money for my great aunt to bring him home over the holidays, each winter. She had always been a fantastic home-baker. And her hand-dipped chocolates were well-known in their small community in Utah. If you were lucky enough to receive a box of her chocolates at Christmas, you considered yourself very fortunate. In the summer before her son went away to university, my great aunt's circle of friends suggested she take orders for her chocolates, to be delivered in November. She followed their advice. Every year, she was able to raise enough money for train fare home from Connecticut, as well as to buy gifts for the rest of her family.

When she was in her nineties it became important to her to pass down her recipes and method, to interested family members. She invited her grandchildren and a few cousins to come and learn. One of my second-cousins now makes her chocolates every Christmas, to honor her memory. As I always enjoyed baking and candy-making, I was sure to show up on her doorstep for "lessons",

She, of course, used a confectioner's grade of chocolate, called couverture. Couverture is a very high grade of dipping chocolate with at least 32% (and as much as 39%) cocoa butter. It's an extremely creamy, silky, delicious chocolate that has that perfect "snap" when broken or bit into. You can buy it both tempered and untempered. (Tempered will simplify candy-dipping.) My great aunt drove an a hour round trip to buy her chocolate, each fall.

When I asked about grocery store ingredients that I could more readily buy, she suggested the bars of chocolate sold in the baking section. Those chocolate bars have more cocoa butter than chocolate chips.

Although my great aunt's instructions were for using a tempered chocolate, for dipping hand-formed centers, I have found that I can make a respectable product, using a straight-forward melting with a fat addition.

And she used the double boiler for her chocolates. But for homemade confections, to be consumed fairly quickly, I've found the microwave to be a real time-saver.

Chocolate chips will work and make a perfectly acceptable product that you're just going to spoon over ice cream or dip strawberries into, and eat immediately.

If using chocolate bars or chocolate chips, you will need to add a fat to create a dipping consistency. (In the old days, housewives used food-grade paraffin wax -- even though it was "food grade", it's not recommended now, as it's indigestible to the human body.)

So, the extra fat my great aunt recommended, if I was going to use a grocery store bar of chocolate, was Crisco shortening. She said not use butter or margarine, when melting chocolate, as those two can contain enough water to cause your melted chocolate to seize. And using a liquid oil can result in a chocolate that doesn't harden as well. (However, liquid oil is useful to rescue slightly overheated chocolate.)

In recent years, it has become trendy to use coconut oil. It's a saturated fat, and below about 76 degrees F, it remains solid. So, coconut oil is also a good choice for making dipping chocolate at home. (Crisco, by the way, doesn't melt until about 117 degrees F.)

I choose to use Crisco, as I always have a can of it in the pantry for pie pastry, it is flavorless, and it works very well for making dipping chocolate.

How I make "magic shell", enough for about 4-6 bowls of ice cream (any leftovers can be used to dip fruit, brownie bites, edges of cookies/biscotti, or saved, in a sealed container, and reused at a later date)

you'll need:

4 ounces chocolate chips -- roughly 2/3 cup (semi-sweet). Do not use "chocolate-flavored" baking chips. They don't seem to melt as well, perhaps less or no cocoa butter. The better quality chocolate you use, the smoother your chocolate dip will be.

Milk chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, mint chips, vanilla chips or butterscotch chips may also be used, but they have a higher sugar content and therefore scorch more readily. To avoid scorching, use 1 tablespoon of fat per 4 ounces of chips, and microwave only on 20 to 30% power. After the first 2 melting intervals, reduce microwave time to 20 seconds, each. Much care needs to be taken with these other chips, to melt slowly in the microwave.

2 teaspoons crisco-type shortening, *or*  1  1/2 teaspoons coconut oil (for "magic shell" our family likes an additional 1 teaspoon of crisco, stirred in at the end of melting, for a thinner and slightly softer chocolate coating. But for dipping cookies, brownie bites, peanut butter centers, fudge, fondant centers or strawberries, the straight 2 teaspoons crisco for every 4 ounces of chocolate is what is recommended for a firm, crisp coating.)

• Melting chocolate slowly will give you the smoothest dipping chocolate. It could take 3 minutes or so, depending on quantity.

• It's important to melt chocolate slowly and evenly. If using a bar or chunk of chocolate, break it into 1/2-inch or smaller pieces. 
• A glass container will absorb the heat from the chocolate, and keep the chocolate stable.
• In an absolutely bone dry, microwaveable, glass container, place the chocolate chips or chunks, and fat. Melt in the microwave on the LOW to MED (30 to 50% power, or DEFROST) setting for 30 seconds. This first melting will basically just melt or partially melt the fat, and not the chocolate. Remove and stir the fat into the chips/chunks. 
• Microwave again, on LOW (about 20 to 30% power), for 30 seconds, then stir. Repeat this about 3 more times (or until the chocolate is almost melted). Stir between each melting, scraping down sides.
• Chocolate pieces that are indeed melted can retain their original shape. You will only know if the chocolate is not quite melted by finding lumps which do not stir out.
• When the product is near-completely melted (but not all the way), remove from the microwave and stir for about 30 seconds. This final stirring will incorporate any small amounts of semi-solid chocolate. 
• If you would like a thinner stream of melted chocolate and softer consistency, stir in an additional 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of Crisco (this is better for ice cream topping, than for dipping candies, strawberries or cookies, as it is slightly softer).
• Microwave at full power for about 8-9 final seconds. Stir. 
• Drizzle immediately over bowls of ice cream. It will firm up in about 30-60 seconds, depending on thickness. 

• Reduce or increase the quantity of both ingredients, as needed to make more or less, but keep the proportions of chocolate to fat. 
• Also, if you reduce the amount being made at any one time, remember that it will melt much more quickly than a larger amount.
• Melting chocolate is not the same as tempering chocolate, but works fine enough for homemade confections.
• Without tempering the chocolate, your final product is susceptible to fat bloom (the powdery white film that develops on chocolate, over time). Fat bloom takes a few days to appear, so this dipping chocolate is best for items that will be consumed soon. 

when the chocolate coating has a matte finish, it has hardened
(homemade blackberry-cheesecake ice cream underneath,
want to make blackberry sorbet later this week)

• Leftovers can be saved and reused. Melt at full power in 10 to 12 second bursts, stirring well, in between, scraping down sides of container. Do this a coupe of times, until thin and drizzle-able.

For a really gourmet, chocolate-aficionado treat, use bar chocolate, sold in the baking section of the grocery store. These chocolate bars have a higher concentration of cocoa butter than chocolate chips and melt more smoothly and are creamier in taste and texture.

Price comparison

So, using chocolate chips, bought on sale for $1.99/12 oz package (66 cents for 4 oz), and 2 teaspoons of shortening (estimate at less than 5 cents), 4 ounces of homemade "magic shell" costs about 70 cents. The name brand of self-hardening, chocolate ice cream coating sells for $2.00 for 7.25 oz., costing about $1.10 for 4 ounces. Hmmm, what would I rather eat, the less expensive, mostly chocolate version (the homemade one), or the more expensive, but less chocolate tasting, store-bought version?



An FYI about Crisco and other solid vegetable shortenings -- if you feel like your pie pastry is different than it used to be (10 to 15 years ago), but you are still following the exact same recipe, Crisco reformulated their product a few years back, as new information became available about trans fats. They wanted to be able to claim 0 g trans fats per serving (1 tablespoon), which actually means it has less than .5 g per serving (products can have up to .5 g per serving and still claim 0 g, rounding down). They changed their formula, and so this could explain why your pie pastry just doesn't seem the same as it once did. Other manufacturers of solid vegetable shortening wanted to follow suit, so it doesn't matter if you're using Crisco brand or a store brand. (information from livestrong.com)

July 2015 Grocery Spending Journal

My new grocery budget is $185 per month. I went over last month by $3.91. So, for the month of July, I have $181.09. Yay! That's a lot of moolah for groceries this month! The trick will be for me *not* to get carried away with the idea of feeling like we have loads of grocery cash, but stay my course of practical purchases.

July 2. Cash & Carry for 10 lbs 80% ground beef, $25.90 or $2.59/lb, 1/2 gallon heavy whipping cream, $7.45, 1-lb box cornstarch, 99 cents. Spent $34.34. (In case you wonder about the heavy whipping cream purchase, this is in large part as a way to top off some calories for my daughter needing to gain a few pounds. Any that is leftover, we'll use to top desserts, for the rest of the family. 1/2 gallon will last us 1 month. But we may be able to get her weight up to her healthy zone, in a month or two, adding whipping cream and more meat to her diet. So, not a long term monthly expenditure.)

July 5. stopped at Imran's ethnic market for apples, 39 cents/lb. Spent $1.69

July 6. Dollar Tree for my once/month stop. Only food item is soy milk (1 qt.). Spent $1

July 7. Fred Meyer -- Senior Discount Day -- love it! Everything I bought qualified for the 10% off, even the bulk bin items next to the nutrition center. Instant dry milk powder (enough to make 8 quarts, though I'll be using this in recipes, and not to mix up liquid milk as that's too expensive a use for this product), $6.11, 18-oz canister of dried plums, $4.49, dried dates at $2.49/lb, 85 cents, whole almonds at $6.29/lb, $1.95. Total spent $13.40

Cash & Carry. The weekly item this week is boneless pork loin, at $1.59/lb. Sounded like a good change of pace for us. I bought a 9.62 lb pork loin (to divide into smaller roasts for the freezer), for $15.30, a 5-lb jug of honey, for $15.29, a 4-lb bag of raisins for $8.59, 5-lb box of frozen cod fillets for $18.90, 10-lb box of pork breakfast sausage links for $18.99, and a 2 gallon box of milk for $4.18. Total spent $81.25

Month to date spent (I know I'd better figure this out soon) -- $131.68

A very meat-heavy month, so far.

July 9. Albertsons, they have 1-gallon milk on sale for $1.99/gallon, limit 2 w/coupon. I pick up my 2 (both whole milk). Spent $3.98.

July 18. Albertsons, they have medium eggs on sale for 99 cents/dozen, limit 4 w/coupon. I pick up my 4, my 2 daughters and I get cookies that were samples in bakery, then leave. Spent $3.96, and now I have fresh eggs again!

July 24. Albertsons, medium eggs on for 99 cents/dz, limit 4 again, bacon for $2.59/16 oz, limit 4 w/ coupon. Spent $14.32

Cash & Carry for 50-lb sack of white sugar, $20.99, 50-lb sack of all-purpose flour $11.99, wedge of Parmesan cheese (2.29 lbs @ $4.48/lb) for $10.26. Spent $43.24

On the Parmesan cheese wedge, I checked the price per pound at Albertsons and it was over $11 per pound, so Cash & Carry seems to be a great place for that. While Parmesan cheese falls under "luxury item" for our budget, it is aged over 12 months, which means I can digest it. When I make pizza for the family, it's best for me if I leave one little section without mozzarella, and only put sauce and other toppings. That little section is mine. But if I have aged Parmesan, I can put that in my little slice, and have cheese, too. Cash & Carry's regular price on that Parmesan is $5.59/lb. I paid $4.48/lb.

total spent for the month -- $197.18, over by $16.09. I did buy some treat items, but I'm glad that I did, this month. We are eating very well. The list of what I buy isn't always representative of the variety in our meals. If I were reading this list, I too would wonder, "what in the world is she feeding her family?!!" It really does look unbalanced, doesn't it? That's the nature of stock-up shopping. But in case you missed yesterday's post, Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the week, go back one day and you will see that we're eating well and balanced.

What I have bought for the month of July:

Meat
10 lbs ground beef
9.62 lbs boneless pork loin
5 lbs frozen cod fillets
10 lbs breakfast sausage links
4 lbs bacon

Pantry
16-oz box cornstarch
1 quart soy milk
medium-size box (to make 8 qts of liquid milk) of instant powdered milk
1 cup dry roasted almonds, unsalted
5 lbs honey
50 bs white flour
50 lbs granulated sugar

Dairy
1/2 gallon heavy whipping cream (this is the really good stuff, 40% fat, they should put warning labels on these cartons, "warning, you could get seriously addicted to this whipping cream". It has such a high fat content, that I can have small spoonfuls of this, whipped, if I want. Most "heavy whipping cream" sold in supermarkets is 36% fat.)
4 gallons milk
8 dozen medium eggs
2.29 lbs Parmesan cheese

Produce
9 Red Delicious apples
18 oz dried plums
1 cup dried dates
4 lbs raisins

(This is for live and learn -- it's my homemade "magic shell" for ice cream. I'll post my directions on Monday.)

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the last week of July

Thursday
kale-cheddar quiche
brown rice (cooked in chicken stock with herbs)
mustard glazed carrots
apple slices  (2 apples from our tree)
leftover blackberry-rhubarb crisp

Friday
scrambled eggs
breakfast sausage
fried rice with carrots, green and waxed beans, Swiss chard, shallots and garlic
rhubarb-blackberry sauce

Saturday
linguine and meatballs in marinara sauce
cucumber-dill salad
gingersnaps

Sunday
refried bean, rice, yogurt, tomato, cheddar burritos in whole wheat tortillas
oven-roasted canned tomatoes w/ basil and Parmesan
rhubarb sauce
lemon bars

Monday
bean burger patties, topped with marinara and mozzarella
cornbread
flour tortilla chips (mostly for me, as I can't have the cornbread -- milk, but everyone else enjoyed the chips, too)
medley of Romano, waxed and green beans
fresh blackberries (the berries at the back of our property are now ripening. I picked a quart today)

Tuesday
chicken in gravy, over brown rice
sauteed kale and shallots in bacon fat
cucumbers in chive blossom vinaigrette
fresh blackberries (picked another quart today

Wednesday
chicken-vegetable soup
pumpkin muffins
pickled beet salad
blackberries

Fortune-telling: Butter prices down the pike

(I know you all think that I have way too much time on my hands, hence these posts on the forecasted price of eggs and butter. But in actuality, I have the same amount of free time as everyone else. I just happen to use my free time a bit peculiarly, as in reading domestic, Oceanic and European dairy reports.)

In the comment's section, the other day, the price of butter at the supermarket came up. What are your supermarket prices like on butter, these days? The regular price is upwards of $3 per pound in my area, at the regular grocery stores. I've been buying most of my butter at Cash & Carry, in bulk, 30-lb cases of butter prints. ("Butter print" is the term describing pounds of butter that are wrapped, all in one 1-lb block, in a single sheet of printed waxed paper.) I do get a more favorable price per pound than the standard supermarket price, with exception to loss-leader sales.

Anyway, I was reading a bunch of dairy reports and forecasts yesterday, trying to get a handle on what the future price of butter might be this coming fall and winter.

So, the rise in prices in late 2014 was due in large part to increasing exports of US butter. It made more financial sense for dairy producers to sell US butter overseas, where they could get a better price. This increased income for farmers meant that they could pay down debt, increase herd size and pay for expensive feed. And as we all know, this meant a reduced supply for US consumers, and a higher price for us as a consequence.

From what I've read, production will increase in the immediate future and down the road into 2016, with increased herd size. It's also been projected that exported butter will drop down as the international market becomes saturated. (If producers can't get their favorable high price internationally, due to saturation of the market, selling domestically will again increase.) So, as the domestic supply of butter increases, albeit in small bits at a time, butter prices (which have already pulled back in the wholesale market since the end of last year), will ultimately drop a bit more at our local supermarkets.


So what all this boils down to is this -- it's my thinking that butter prices will be better this year, over last year, for the November/December holidays. Don't sue me if I'm wrong! LOL! But this is just my hunch.

You could still see butter as a loss-leader in one of your stores, as summer draws to a close. With dropping wholesale prices on all dairy in recent months (price of cheese and liquid milk has come down in my area -- yours, too?), retailers would not take too big of a hit if they put butter as a loss-leader near the end of summer, very beginning of fall. (This season change corresponds with consumer changes in cooking and baking, as we move away from easy barbeque cookery and back to the warm air of a kitchen wafting with baking and cooking aromas.) So, with this reasoning, I looked back through my grocery journals, and found that butter was on sale for $2/lb at Fred Meyer (limit w/coupon), the week of September 16, last year.

Your best price on butter will almost always be a loss-leader item, probably with purchase limits (unless you have a wholesaler in which to shop, as I do, or an Aldi's). To maximize what you are allowed to buy, within the limits, remember that each time you shop at a store in the week something is advertised, you are a "new" customer. You are allowed to buy the limited item, again, in that same week, unless the wording of the ad says something to the effect of "limit 1 per family/household" -- very, very rare, though. (If a store with an advertised item has a limit and I want more, I make a point to stop in as often as I can, bringing as many family members as I can with me.) In our family, I send each adult family member through the line with the limited amount. I wouldn't do this with young kids, as that doesn't "feel" right to me. But with my adult kids, it's plausible that they're at the age they could be living on their own, doing their own shopping and cooking. It's just that in our family, we allow our adult kids to live at home, in exchange for some rent. So, if you find butter as a loss-leader, maximize your purchase, enough to get you through till mid-November (US), or possibly early October (for Canada), and/or December, when the holiday baking sales will feature butter as loss-leaders, at least once in the season.

Right now (July and August) we're in a marketing lull with regards to butter as a loss-leader at supermarkets. The items you typically see in summer on loss-leader are things like hot dogs and other BBQ supplies.

Those are my thoughts on butter prices for the next several months. Does anyone have any other insights into prices on butter in the near future?



What you can do right now, to get you through to a good sale on butter:

• use vegetable oil in baking/cooking, in place of butter
• use fat alternatives, like pureed pumpkin, applesauce, bananas, in place of butter in baking
• save meat fat, to use in cooking, in place of butter/oil
• clarify pork fats, like bacon fat, to use in place of solid shortening in pie crusts and blended with butter in flavorful cookies (like peanut butter cookies) *more on clarifying bacon fat at the bottom of post
• make your own soft butter for table use, using 3 parts butter to 1 part vegetable oil

Clarifying bacon fat to use in baking

I have done this a couple of times. It's an age-old method for removing the smokey flavors from bacon fat. I've never done this with other fats, but I assume it would as well.

Pour melted bacon fat into a saucepan. Add 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat, and allow to cool. Once cooled, chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes, until the fat hardens on top of the liquid. Drain off the dirty water. Add 2 cups of clean water, and repeat the simmering for 5 minutes. Do this 3 or 4 times. The water will become clearer  and the fat will be milder in flavor, with each boiling.

After the final simmering, chilling and draining, remove the bacon fat to a container to save in the fridge until use in baking. 

I used this in pie pastry (in place of lard/shortening) and cookies (blended half and half with butter). We thought it was acceptable enough. It is time-consuming, but is something you can do in the kitchen while other prep work is going on. And it will spare you some money spent on butter. I originally did this as a "pioneer" lesson while homeschooling my kids. It was one of those "let's see if this really works" sort of lessons. Fun times!



Not to rub salt into your wound, but boy am I ever glad I decided to buy that case of 30-lbs of butter this past winter when butter prices dropped to about $1.67/lb at Cash & Carry. I was on the fence whether to just buy enough for a couple of months or to go for it and buy the case. But I based my decision on this -- December at Cash & Carry saw their "holiday" sale on butter priced at about $1.84/lb. So, in January, when the price was almost 20 cents less than what had been already a "good" price, that swayed me. Cash & Carry's sale prices are for the most part steady, staying the same price point for several seasons. Except, every once in a while they have a stupendously low price for an item. (Last fall, we bought several #10 cans of pureed pumpkin for a pittance on one of these extremely rare sales.)

My winter pj's are looking a bit shabby . .

. . .and I won't be showing them to you!!

So, although we're still mid-summer, I am thinking about my winter pj's.

I lost 1 pair of pj pants last winter when they could no longer be patched or repaired. Another pair of pj pants are definitely on their last legs. I've been repairing this pair for the last 2 years, and the fabric is now getting rather thin.

And my pj tops, well, they've seen better days. I've been wearing a couple of long-sleeve t-shirts that had become too stretched out, stained with a torn seam here and there, to actually be worn as outerwear.

As well, I admit it, I just want prettier pj's this year.

Sunday afternoon, I took my 2 daughters to St Vincent de Paul (local thrift store), for their 99-cent-all-clothing sale (every Sunday), as they were needing some new jeans for work this summer. While they were trying on jeans, I was perusing the clothing aisles for myself. I found what I was thinking was just a t-shirt that I thought would be cute on one of my daughters. Showing it to her, she said, "that would be a really cute pajama top". That's when we both noticed the label said "sleepwear". Okay, so, being occasionally selfish, I responded, "second thought, not a cute t-shirt for you, but a new pajama top for me!" Moms get to have new stuff, too!

So, 99 cents and I have the first part of my new winter pj set. I thought I'd check out Jo Ann Fabrics for some cute flannel for the pants, using a pattern I've had and used several times (I last used this pattern for my daughters pj pants Valentine's Day 2013). Having used that pattern many times, I know just how little fabric I can get by with. As soon as I choose some fabric, I'll show you what I found.

No more tattered winter pj's for me!

Egg prices and other fabulously exciting information

On facebook, last Friday, I mentioned finding eggs on sale again this week, and reading the USDA weekly report on wholesale egg supply and pricing. This prompted other thoughts and queries (of course, right? Doesn't everyone carry on these odd egg conversations in their heads?).

So, back in April, I went to plan my Easter egg stock-up. I went back through my grocery journals and found that eggs typically went on sale again in July. I think I mentioned this in a blog post about stocking up on eggs. At the pre-Easter egg sales, I stocked up on enough eggs to get through till another egg sale, in July. I bought 20-some dozen eggs in April. I froze about 8 dozen, and used the rest of them as fresh eggs.

Was I ever right on eggs going on sale again in July! I surprised even myself, as I'd never formally made this connection before. Now all this could change by next year. You know how that is, you just get something figured out and it all changes!

Anyway, 2 weeks in a row, medium eggs were on sale locally for 99 cents/dozen. Which given how expensive eggs have become in the last 2 months, 99 cents for medium eggs is pretty fab.

I went online, did some reading at the USDA website and found out this -- historically (over last several years) wholesale egg prices are relatively low in July. Wholesale prices also dip in May, but I didn't notice any particular retail activity with eggs in our markets. Wholesale egg prices historically go up a small amount in August, then come down and remain steady for September, October, November. They then peak in December, again, dropping back down in late January. Visit this page, for this information: egg-cite.com.

There remains one complication for this year's egg inventory, the virus which infected US chicken flocks (which prompted the current shortage of eggs, and hence rising egg retail prices). There is some worry that wild bird migrations in fall could lead to new infection in domestic chickens. All of this could prompt reduced flocks again and higher eggs prices. But we don't know on that, and right now, the USDA is working with poultry producers towards minimizing any spread of disease. Forewarned is forearmed, so to speak.

Whether or not the Avian flu returns with the wild, migrating birds to a significant degree, I am taking my own precautions, with regards to our family's supply of eggs. What I do know is that historically, I have an opportunity to stock up on eggs in summer through fall. And I will need to have a supply of eggs for cooking and baking for the November and December holidays (when egg prices might be high again).

Tracking prices in my area and stocking up

My expectation/hope is to find large eggs around $1.50 to $1.89/dozen as a loss-leader sale item, likely with limits on purchase amounts, within the next 3 months. That $1.50 to $1.89 per dozen would put a loss-leader at 50-80% higher for LL pricing than previous years. But based on current mid-west wholesale prices on eggs, this is about what I feel I can expect. In the PNW, there are a few grocery stores who use eggs as a semi-regular loss-leader. I'll be watching the ads for those stores.

As well, our Cash & Carry's prices tend to reflect what is going on in the wholesale market. This can give me an idea as to whether a store's front-page, advertised price is a good one or not. Currently, C & C has bulk large eggs (a case of 15 dozen) for $2.85/dz. This isn't a sale price, but their "regular" price. Compare this to Walgreen's ad this week. Walgreen's has large eggs for $3.49/dz. So, for me, I can see that Walgreen's price isn't my "best".

In April, I determined that 22 dozen eggs was about a 5 month supply for our family, with no restrictions on using eggs. I could stretch that to 6 months or so, if I'm more careful with egg use. It's now the end of July. If I want enough eggs to get our family through Christmas and New Years, and into January, I'll need about 25 dozen eggs, between now and January. I'll freeze as many as I can, for those last 3 months-worth. The rest will keep, refrigerated, for a month to 6 weeks past the sell-by date.

This past time, with freezing eggs, I found a method/quantity that works well for me. It's easy, and minimizes my work. I run the eggs through the blender, with the salt or sugar needed to stabilize the yolks. Then I pour into half-pint and pint-size containers and freeze.

When I needed eggs, I would thaw a container, and keep in the fridge. As I needed each egg, I'd measure out 1/4 cup for each large egg called-for in a recipe. The thawed eggs kept for about 3 or 4 days in the fridge. If on the last day of what I felt they would still be "good", I still had 3 or 4 eggs worth of blended egg left, I simply planned that night's dinner around the remaining eggs, like a quiche or frittata.

Freezing eggs in larger containers than a single egg simplified the freezing step. (My other method of freezing eggs is one at a time in a muffin tin. But with a muffin tin, I have to remove the frozen eggs from the tin and put in bags. Not a huge deal, but enough extra work to make the job of freezing the eggs sound like more work.)

About the future of egg prices

I suspect that we will ultimately pay higher prices for eggs, even after flocks have been restored. The current method of commercial poultry production leaves our domestic poultry vulnerable to viral infections and widespread disease. Backyard chickens are less vulnerable to disease, as they frequently are allowed to roam and see more hours of sunlight. Backyards are generally warmer and drier for the chickens. The Avian flu virus doesn't spread as well in warm and dry climates. 

Commercial poultry producers will need to make changes to their methods of operation, if they want to avoid mass-euthanasia of their flocks. And that will lead to higher costs for the producers, and higher retail prices for the eggs. I think that's just something we'll need to come to terms with, as consumers.


Just thought I'd share this information with you. Because I know you're just riveted with all of this egg-information! LOL! But really, it could be helpful to someone reading, who wants to plan their grocery spending, as I do.


And an FYI, if you're in the southern hemisphere, if you reverse the calendar for months when egg inventory is high/low, I would assume that wholesale egg prices would drop in January for you. Anyone in Australia, New Zealand, or any other country south of the equator -- have you noticed lower prices on eggs at particular times of the year?

Waste not, want not : what do you do with milk about to sour?

Make chocolate pudding cups, of course!

Somehow, we got ahead on the purchasing of milk, and there was no place to store it in the freezer. So, I had this 1/2 jug of 2% milk sitting in the fridge long past the sell-by date, over a week. I knew it was on its last legs, and quite frankly, I was very surprised that no one had complained that it was tasting off. (I can't drink milk, so I have no way to verify whether or not the milk was beginning to sour. And I'm not about to fill the minds of my family members with thoughts that their milk could be less than perfect, so I didn't ask any of them if it tasted off.)

So I set out to use it all up in a day. When I was thinking through all the different ways I could use up milk, pudding was a stand-out winner, as it could be flavored to mask any off tastes, and it uses a lot of milk in one batch -- I could use up over 3 cups of milk in a single batch of pudding cups (as opposed to pancakes, muffins or cake which would only use about 1 cup per batch).

My pudding recipe actually calls for 2  1/4 cups of milk, but I used 3  1/2 cups, and allowed it to heat, slowly, and evaporate some of the water content, leaving us with a very rich, nutrient-dense pudding. (It's the same sort of thing I do when making yogurt. I allow the milk to heat slowly, reducing the liquid by about 1/4. With yogurt, this yields a thicker product.)

To make sure it would taste yummy and be eaten right away, I made the batch of pudding, chocolate-flavored. Thanks to my resident pudding fiends, that jug of milk is now history, and we had happy tummies, here.

(The rest of that jug was consumed with dinner that night. For the future, I plan on watching how much milk I buy and whether or not there's room to store excess in the freezer.)

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for mid to late July

My daughters and I were not the only ones picking blackberries the other evening. There was a mom and her young son picking, as well. They filled an ice cream pail of fresh blackberries. My daughters and I picked 3 quarts before heading home for dinner. We had blackberry shortcake that night, and was it ever yummy! Something to repeat, for sure.

I've been putting more effort into our dinners, lately. Not fancy, but terrific meals, nonetheless. Here's what we had this past week:


Thursday
black bean burgers topped with quickie ketchup
homestyle macaroni and cheese
sauteed kale in bacon fat
fresh blackberries w/ vanilla yogurt

Friday
baked chicken smothered in pesto
brown rice
yellow wax beans and diced tomatoes
cucumber-dill salad

Saturday
chicken and black bean tostados, with lettuce, canned tomatoes, black olives, plain yogurt, cilantro, green onions
preserved figs

Sunday (son comes home after a week out of town)
homemade pizza
cucumber-dill salad

Monday
hamburgers on homemade buns
oven fries
large tossed salad with leafy greens, beets and cooked green and wax beans (all from garden -- whoopie!)
raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, topped with whipped cream

Tuesday (blackberry picking in evening with daughters)
refried beans and rice
sauteed garden greens in bacon fat (beet greens, Swiss chard, mustard greens, kale)
blackberry shortcake

Wednesday
ham sandwiches, with mustard, spiced fig jam and lettuce
creamy tomato-basil soup
blackberry-rhubarb crisp

Yesterday . . .

. . . I got up way too early. I've now decided that 4:45 is NOT a good time to get up and make coffee, no matter how awake I feel at the time. I discovered that I did NOT get more done, simply because I got up earlier.

. . . I enjoyed some time downloading music for free though our local library. Our library participates in Freegal, a free music service available to library patrons, which allows 3 free downloads per week, and 3 hours of streaming per day. They have a pretty good selection of music, but not everything I might want. I am building a nice library of music for myself, though, and for free.

. . . I went blackberry picking again with my daughters after work. We picked 3 quarts of blackberries. We could have picked even more, but we were hungry for dinner, so will plan on coming back to that spot again another day.

. . . We used some of those blackberries for blackberry shortcake. Who says shortcake HAS to be made with strawberries?! This was yummy. I baked the shortcakes earlier in the day, using a sweet, rich biscuit dough. After spooning the fresh blackberries onto the shortcakes, I drizzled some runny blackberry syrup (from last year), then topped with whipped cream. Yum!

. . . I checked the pumpkin patch and it looks like I have a couple of pumpkins and spaghetti squash developing already. I'm making plans for some September meals.

. . . I found the last of a package of corn tortillas in the fridge, needing to be used up. So, I fried some chips for my daughters to take in with their lunches tomorrow. Home-fried tortilla chips are so delicious, and not overly salty, like a lot of commercial chips.

. . . Although I was tired all day, I did get a fair amount of housework done, laundry, vacuuming and  bathrooms cleaned for the week.


How was your day?

Garden accessories on the cheap

There's something about elevating an urn or a planter that gives that piece distinction in the garden. Like putting a piece on stage.

I've drooled over many lovely urns and pedestals in catalogs, over the years. What I'll usually do is find the planter/pot/urn that I like at a place like Home Depot, on clearance online, or if I'm lucky, at a yard sale, but make-do on the pedestals.

The rear planter in the above photo gets it's elevation from none other than an 8 X 16 concrete block, that we already had in the stack of leftover construction materials. I topped the concrete block with a ledge stone, leftover from some stonework on the front of the house a few years ago.

Here's an urn that I saw in a pricey catalog many years ago. They had it paired with a very nice pedestal. They wanted about $50 for the pedestal, alone. I found the urn, on clearance at another online catalog, minus the pedestal. I checked around with our extra supplies, and found that these small square pavers fit the base of the urn perfectly. I placed a stack of 2 pavers on top of some larger pavers, for a pedestal effect -- all from our stack of leftover construction materials.

Here's another, smaller urn, from Home Depot. While not a perfect fit, this 8 X 8 concrete block makes a good enough pedestal for this urn and it's mate, the two which are flanking the steps down into the sunken garden.

Mid-July, can hardly believe it but we went blackberry picking last week!

Wild blackberries are usually an August thing in our neck of the woods. But a week ago Saturday, my daughters and I took a very long walk around the area and found many of the blackberries were beginning to ripen.

As both daughters like to add fresh blackberries to yogurt for breakfast, I suggested we meet up at the bus stop one evening and do some picking. I brought containers for each of us, and in a half an hour, we picked 2 and a half quarts!

We used some of those fresh berries with dinner that night, topped with honey-vanilla yogurt. And the next morning, my 2 daughters did indeed add blackberries to their breakfast yogurt. Since they were already washed and drained, I froze the remaining berries in ziploc bags, to use in pies, cobblers, smoothies, syrups and jam, sometime in the future.

My daughters and I will be meeting up at their bus stop in Tuesday evening, this week, to pick another 3 or 4 quarts of blackberries. This early blackberry season is a real blessing to us. Our raspberries and blueberries are about done for the year, and there are very few early apples this year. These blackberries are our fresh fruit for the next couple of weeks (that's when the early pears will be ready).