Cheap and Cheerful Suppers for the First Week of October

pan-roasted Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.

It was a delicious week of autumnal foods. The weather turned chilly on Tuesday. I was eating dinner with one daughter and we were talking about the tomatoes in the garden, thinking they should be picked right away. So, we took a break from eating and went out to the garden to pick the rest of the large tomatoes. I'm so glad that we did, because the weather did not grow warmer, only wetter. The Brussels sprouts were on markdown -- such a treat to have! Oh and so were the mushrooms. I bought 3  1/2 pounds of marked down mushrooms. Now I'm getting hungry!

Here's what we ate this past week. Anything autumnal on your menu?

Saturday

• Kielbasa
• *Hashbrowns
• Corn tortillas topped with cheese and *tomato slices
• *Plums
• *Kale

Sunday

• Bean soup with *veggies
• *Apple wedges and *plum halves
• Crackers

Monday

• *Vegetable, egg and tofu fried rice
• leftover cake

Tuesday

• Beef, sausage, mushroom stew, with assorted *vegetables
• Bread
• *Apple wedges

Wednesday

• Chicken thighs in mushroom gravy (made double of the chicken and veggies, and froze a dinner for 4) -- I used a mushroom gravy mix, fresh mushrooms, celery, and green onions for the sauce. The gravy mix was 69 cents, a bargain considering it made for a simple meal.
• Roasted Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes
• *Tossed salad
• Homemade Rice-a-roni

Thursday

• Beef and bean chili, using garden *tomatoes (made double, freezing leftovers for another dinner for 4)
• Crackers
• Applesauce

Friday (easy supper night, fast food without the drive-thru or expense)

• Corn dogs (WinCo -- 25 cents each)
• Sweet potato fries (Dollar Tree -- small bag, but enough for a family of four, $1)
• Tossed salad of *cucumber and *tomato from the garden and lettuce from WinCo, dressing made with mix from WinCo's bulk bins (about 50 cents for the salad and dressing)
• update on price of supper -- I decided to add 4 strips of turkey bacon to the salad, extra protein and flavor. That extra adds about 39 cents to the cost of dinner, and 2 grams of protein for each person. For dessert, we also added 4 chocolates from some Dollar Tree boxed chocolates (yes, you can sometimes buy boxed chocolates at Dollar Tree!), adding about 29 cents, total. The cost per person for dinner, then, is about 79 cents, plus beverages (2 members of the family may have a glass of milk each, the others stick to water; add 10 cents per glass of milk). Under $1 per person for a quick, easy, and fast food-ish meal.

*indicates item is from our garden or fruit trees

chicken thighs in mushroom gravy

Proud of Myself for Not Buying More Holiday Decorations

When it comes to holiday decorations I am not nearly as disciplined as I am with buying groceries. I like to pick up a new thing or two for the various holidays, even if its just at the dollar store. But this year, I resisted the impulse to buy any more fall holiday decorations, and just reused all of the decor that I've bought in previous years. I mixed it up a bit to make it look fresh for this year, putting decor pieces in different places. In the early years of making a home this is how I kept our space looking fresh, by moving things around.

For me, for right now, this is not as much about not spending money, but more about not accumulating more stuff. So, my rule for fall decorating is "don't unnecessarily add to the accumulation of stuff." The non-spoken part of that rule is that I "can" buy consumable items to use as holiday decor, such as pretty squashes. Besides, I think that natural items, such as squash and pumpkins, make some of the loveliest of fall decorations. They just have an upside, and that is that you get to eat them as fall turns over into winter.

Here's my kitchen door. Nothing fancy, but it makes coming and going through the kitchen (which, let's face it, our kitchen door is used by family and guests more than our front door) so pleasant. The faux leaf garland was from Dollar Tree the year before last, and used to wrap around the front "Welcome" sign. The bow at the top, also from DollarTree, graced an outdoor light fixture the past two years. The faux pumpkin is a must for outdoor pumpkins in our neighborhood (squirrels like to nibble on pumpkins left outside), and is from three years ago. And the window clings I already mentioned (you can't see them in the big photo, but they're on the upper portion of the glass inset). It's homey, did not cost me a penny this year, and won't add to the stuff in storage after fall is over.

P.S. I am so proud of myself for not buying more stuff. I have a bit of a "stuff addiction."

An October Afternoon

(These are the window clings that I bought last year at Dollar Tree. I saved them on their original plastic sheet, tucked in a drawer. Took me all of 5 minutes to put them up for the season. Second year using them -- if I use them for ten years, the cost will amortize to 10 cents per year. Not bad!))

Hi friends!
I'm back, that is, back in the best capacity that I can be for now.

One of my thoughts has been centered around how I can continue blogging when I'm down, tired, busy, or sick. I'm just going to try a few simpler things. For today, I'll catch you up on my start for October.

Okay, only the 3rd of October, and I am 3/4 done with October's grocery shopping. I have 4 stores at which I shop, and I've been to 3 so far. I hit Dollar Tree and bought all of the snacky stuff, plus a bunch of breakfast items, and bread, loads of bread. I hit the jackpot with their bread rack. They hd just put out a bunch of Oroweat -- English muffins, bread, bagels -- and I really stocked up. I think we may have enough bread in the freezer for 2 months. At $1 per loaf, it was a steal. They even had one of my all-time favorites, Honey Wheatberry.

Following Dollar Tree, I hit up WinCo for their great deals. WinCo has a fabulous bulk bin section. Some of the items in the bulk bins are as inexpensive as buying the institutional sized package at Cash and Carry. I keep a mental price book for the various staples. With this, I can quickly determine if something is a great buy or not. So, at WinCo this month I picked up various bulk bin staples, like whole wheat flour, ranch style dressing mix, chicken soup base, dried veggie soup mix (good for quick lunches or snacks for one), TVP, and some candy for Halloween treats. I also bought bagged cereal, frozen juice concentrate, breakfast sausage and turkey bacon, kielbasa, corn tortillas, produce, and a few other pantry items.

Next stop, Fred Meyer for Senior discount day. I as able to get out early for my shopping at Fred Meyer. I have found that this is key for getting the marked down deals and regular sale items, especially now that our Fred Meyer has switched their sale-cycle to Wednesday through Tuesday. FM sale-cycle used to run Sunday through Saturday. So, on Senior day, there would still be plenty of the sale items available. Now with the sale cycle completing on Tuesday, (the day for senior discount), they are often out of the sale item. They will give me a raincheck, but when I come back to buy the raincheck item, it's no longer senior day, so I don't get the senior discount. Anyway, something peeving me about FM these days. So, I did get out early -- ran a brush through my hair, no shower, no make-up, grabbed my shoes and jacket and left. I bout enough milk, eggs and butter to get through the month, as well as coffee (decaf for me), more produce, hot dogs, applesauce, apple juice, and lots of meat. I found Italian and breakfast sausage on clearance, plus got a great deal on ground beef and chicken thighs. Yesterday afternoon, I spent some time dividing up the ground beef. This afternoon, I've been diving up the chicken thighs while cooking a couple of chicken and mushroom casseroles (one for tonight and leftovers for tomorrow, and the other for the freezer).

My last shopping stop will be Cash and Carry. But that will have to wait until we have room in the fridge and freezer. We're topped out right now. In recent months, I have limited my shopping to one stop per month at each of the 4 stores. I make these stops at the very beginning of the month, and I believe that this is working out pretty well for us. I buy a wide variety of produce, and we eat the short-keepers first, like berries, leafy greens, bananas, and any marked down produce I found on the rack. By the end of the month, we're eating cabbage, celery, carrots, onions, squash, apples, and oranges, as well as frozen and dried produce.

Among my chores this afternoon, I also washed a bunch of salad greens to keep in the fridge. I break leaves off of a head of Romaine, wash, then wrap in a tea towel and keep in the fridge in a plastic bag. I was tempted to buy the bagged lettuce for quick lunch salads, but I knew that if I spent 5-10 minutes washing my own lettuce, I would save a couple of dollars on salad greens.

I did buy lots of fun foods. For example, I bought a box of frozen corndogs from WinCo and some bags of sweet potato fries from Dollar Tree. You see where I'm heading with this, right? Friday night, a night when everyone wants a restaurant dinner (fast food or other), I have corndogs and fries planned. add in some apple wedges and a salad and my total cost for the family is under $3 ( with free apples and tomatoes from our garden). And I still have an easy dinner night.

Well, dinner is in the oven and on the stove. I need to clean up the kitchen before serving, so I'll wrap this up. I hope that you are having a wonderful October. Another time, I'll post some fun things that we're doing this month. Have a lovely evening!

An August sentiment: Where did these gigantic zucchini come from?

For those of you who keep vegetable gardens, you'll be able to appreciate this August sentiment -- each mammoth zucchini seems to be larger than the last. Wednesday, I thought I had "caught up" on all of the zucchini. Then Thursday afternoon I was picking tomatoes for dinner and found yet another mammoth zucchini hiding under the leaves. So, what's a cook to do?

Besides zucchini bread, relish, and veggie medleys, here's something really delicious that will use one very large zucchini in one blow -- baked, stuffed zucchini.

Here's the size of one from a couple of weeks ago. I put a banana next to it to give you an indication of size.

To stuff:
I used a melon baller to scoop out the center of each half. (Those scoops of zucchini flesh were then later chopped and added to vegetable soup.)
I stuffed mine with a mixture of cooked, chopped chicken breast, bread crumbs, herbs, garlic, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese. After filling, I topped with additional Parmesan.
On an oiled baking sheet, I baked the stuffed halves for about 35 minutes, at about 350 degrees, until the cheese was browned on top. The zucchini part was crisp-tender.

You can also stuff with loose Italian sausage, or bread crumbs, herbs and cheese. Since you want the zucchini part to cook well, keep your fillings dense. So, if just doing bread crumbs with cheese, add a bit of milk, beaten egg, or just water to the crumb mixture. This way the filling and the zucchini will cook to about the same doneness.

Bumps in the transition from one cook to many cooks

When there was just one person in the home procuring, managing, and cooking all of the food, staying on top of all of the supplies was fairly straightforward. I knew what I had prepared, what was leftover, and what needed using up. Now, we have multiple cooks in the house, but still one person doing the procuring and managing of supplies. It's not readily known by the rest of the crew what we have in abundance or what needs using ASAP. Asking me what they can use is a regular occurrence. Not that this is bad, but it does put me in the position of saying, "don't use that" or "I'm saving that." Those kinds of statements make me sound like an ogre, when in fact all I'm really doing is trying to manage our stock until the next month rolls around, so that we can all enjoy the foods in the house.

My solution has been to create a weekly list of what we have in abundance and should be used. It's a simple list, kept on the refrigerator. I preface the list with a statement reflecting that the first items in each category are ones that should be used first. I also indicate that not everything is in ready-to-use condition, and may need harvesting. This week, in produce we have apples that need using, and in protein sources, we have lots of eggs. I've also included items that are saved for specific recipes, so those won't be used indiscriminately. Hopefully, this makes me seem less like an ogre about food.

My list focuses on produce and protein sources, as those are the items most frequently asked about. The produce is significant because we have items that won't keep terribly long. And the protein is asked about because it is not self-evident. Meat/eggs may be stored in the freezer, the fridge, or even pantry (canned meat). To complicate matters more, we have 3 freezers, 2 refrigerators, and multiple cabinets in the kitchen, along with 2 pantries. Everyone seems to figure out the grains and dairy products on their own. The bonus to making this list is the act of reading the list, by the cook on duty, stimulates thoughts on what to make. Since sometimes food is just food, reading a list that says we need to use eggs, zucchini, and apples may make a cook whose feeling less-than-inspired to simply scramble some eggs, steam zucchini, chop apples, and serve with bread. Just food, but it gets the job done.

We're seeing the financial benefit, as well, and wasting less fresh produce, which is super important right now as the garden is in high production. Just thought I'd share what is working for us.

Taking a vacation when there is not enough time or money for a full-fledged one

This past year has been busy and expensive, leaving little time or money to get away. So, how do we do a summer vacation under those circumstances? We take a one-day vacation. We choose a nearby tourist location, about 1 hour away from us. Then we get up with the birds and drive to that destination, staying as long as we feel like it. By the time we leave to come home, we often do feel like we've been on a vacation.

Because we don't have a hotel or even a campground stay, and our vacation is just one long day, we can afford a few luxuries which we would otherwise forgo. For example, we bring coffee, milk, and fresh fruit with us, but make our first stop of the day at a local bakery or donut shop, where everyone makes their selection. Then, we take our breakfast to a public park, preferably one with a nice view. The day before our mini-trip, we make a stop at the grocery store to buy snacks. I may spend as much as $15 on snacks for one day. But that cost is less than what we'd spend for one stop at a restaurant for snacks for all of us, let alone multiple stops. We also pack a picnic cooler full of lunch items, ice water, and juice, then find a nice park in which to picnic. In the late afternoon, when we're hot and tired, we stop in an ice cream shop for a cone, each. As a result of keeping our costs so low, we also treat ourselves to a souvenir or two, or splurge on admission tickets to some sort of entertainment, or a nice dinner out.

Why am I telling you all of this? This is the week that we're taking our one-day vacation. We've been planning this all summer, and now the time has arrived. Yep, I'm pretty excited to go away for a day.

We're going to a small tourist town by the name of Poulsbo. It's a 30-minute ferry ride, plus 30 minutes or so in driving from our house. It's on a bay, has a large public park on the waterfront, second-hand shops, tourist-type shops, art galleries, an aquarium, an historical museum, a church tower with bells ringing every hour, a Scandinavian bakery, lots of restaurants, a walking trail along the water's edge of the bay, and sometimes live entertainment outdoors.

If you had to choose one spot, about an hour-drive away from where you live, with lots to do to fill one day, where would you go?

Now this is summer to me -- fresh basil pesto

Another specialty food I like to make in summer is pesto. You can buy cheap pesto in the supermarket, the kind that comes in jars, priced around $3 for 6-8 ounces. But if you check the label, the ingredient list contains ingredients other than the basic basil leaves, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, salt and pepper that you find in a recipe for this condiment. And if you read the reviews you'll find that the flavor can be very "off" on some of the jarred brands. You can also buy "fresh" pesto, the kind that comes in a plastic tub and must be kept refrigerated. Those are good, and in checking the ingredient list, the manufacturers stick to the basic pesto recipe. But they cost about $5 for a 6-oz plastic tub.

Pesto is super easy to make, and if you grow your own basil, and shop carefully for the other ingredients you can make a batch for about half of the supermarket price, in about 5 minutes (including washing the basil leaves), using a food processor.

How I buy the ingredients economically:

pine nuts -- I use about half the recommended amount because I don't like a super strong pine nut flavor. I like to just barely detect the pine nuts. You can buy pine nuts in bulk bins at some stores, for around $20/lb. That sounds like highway robbery, I know. If you go light on the pine nuts (like I do), you can get by with about a dollar's worth to make a batch of pesto. The the price does not seem so terrible, for the authentic pine nut pesto.  (You can also buy pine nuts through Amazon in an 8-oz packet for about $10. Pine nuts freeze very well, and since their flavor is so distinct, in our house, at least, they're not likely to get snacked on.) For more frugal pesto, almonds and/or walnuts are also good a choice and about 1/3 of the price of pine nuts. In fact, almonds are my "usual" nut for pesto.

olive oil --most recipes call for extra virgin olive oil. I use a blend of 3 parts olive oil to 1 part regular vegetable oil. I do this so that the pesto remains spreadable when refrigerated. But it also holds the cost down a bit. In addition, I use about 2/3 the amount of oil in the recipe, for a less oily condiment, and that also brings my cost down. I've been buying olive oil in the bulk section of WinCo. They have dispensers for a few liquid items, such as honey, olive oil, and agave syrup. It's a good price and I can buy however much I need.

Parmesan cheese -- I wait until I find a good sale, buy from bulk bins at WinCo, or I buy a large bag at Cash & Carry. The bulk bin kind of Parmesan is the powdery kind and not as good, IMO, as the fresh shreds. Fred Meyer had a coupon last week for 50 cents off Kroger brand Parmesan. The coupon combined with my Senior discount made the price reasonable-enough. I have also subbed some mozzarella for about half of the Parmesan, before, and still had a very delicious result.

basil -- if I didn't grown my own basil, I wouldn't buy fresh basil for the purpose of making pesto. There are alternative greens which can be used, but the basil flavor will not be there. I know someone who makes pesto with a variety of greens, and they enjoy it immensely. I do have basil in large pots on my deck, and there are more leaves that we can eat, unless I make pesto.

garlic -- for ease and price, I use dried garlic granules, bought in a bag in the Hispanic section. It's good, and super easy to use.

So, all totaled, the batch of authentic pesto that I made the other day (loosely following Ina Garten's recipe) using about half of the pine nuts, and no walnuts (allergy), not the full amount of oil, and in a 3:1 olive oil (from WinCo)/ vegetable oil ratio, Parmesan shreds bought on sale, with coupon, and with discount, garden basil, garlic granules, and some salt, I figured my 6-oz batch cost about $2.50, or about half the price of commercial fresh pesto.

A tip for keeping fresh pesto -- basil leaves oxidize and turn a very un-pretty brownish green. After each use, shake the contents down to level the top surface, then drizzle with a bit of oil and tilt the jar around a bit to coat the entire top surface of the pesto. When you use it again, stir the oil into the pesto first. Then after use, top with a bit of oil, again, as before. Kept refrigerated, pesto will last about a week. It can be frozen for about four months.

When is buying fruit for making preserves the frugal thing?

There are two kinds of jam that I think is frugal to make. 1) jam with any kind of free fruit. This would include fruit from our bushes and trees, foraged fruit, and any fresh fruit that is going soft and I would enjoy in jam. 2) The second kind of jam that I like to make does use purchased fruit. However, it is frugal if the only commercial versions of this flavor of jam are an expensive brand, such as cherry preserves or blueberry jam. Both of those flavors are only available in "gourmet" brands of jam, in my area.

A week ago I posted a photo of some Bonne Maman preserves jars.
This is a très expensive brand of jam. For some flavors, this is the only brand available in regular supermarkets.

I love blueberry jam. The 13-oz jars of Bonne Maman Blueberry Preserves are $4.99 at Fred Meyer or $4.69 at WinCo.

By making my own blueberry jam with purchased, fresh blueberries, I can make about 3 of those jars-worth of blueberry preserves for about $3.80, including berries, sugar, lemon juice, pectin, and new lids for the previously-used jars, for almost one-quarter of the cost. That's $1.27 for 13 ounces of homemade blueberry preserves. I use several sizes of jars in one batch, so some jars can be for our consumption, while others make perfect gifts.

   

While it may not be very frugal to make many types of jam with purchased fruit, it can be frugal to buy fruit to make specialty preserves. And, well, sometimes I'm just a "specialty" kind of gal. (Not that I'm high maintenance! ha ha)

July 2018 Grocery Journal

Okay, so last month I scrapped the idea of a journal, as I was buying for 3 major celebration events. Plan -- get back on track for the month of July. we'll see how I did.

July 3. Senior shopping day at Fred Meyer. I bought 3 cans of tuna (80 cents each), 1 can pineapple chunks (1.16), 3 jars peanut butter (2.06), 1 box graham crackers (1.79), 1 can Amp energy drink (freebie), 1 19-ct granola bars (2.69), 2 cans frozen orange juice concentrate (1.35), 2 large jars applesauce (1.59), 16-ct frozen corn dogs (3.68), 1 gallon ice cream (4.49), 12 lbs various shapes pasta (33 cents/lb), 1 large zucchini(98 cents), 5 lbs baby potatoes (3.14), 1 cucumber (79cents), 1 green pepper (89 cents), 8 oz sliced mushrooms (1.29), 1 container salad tomatoes (2.69), 1 lb. baby portobello mushrooms (3.05), 2 quarts yogurt (1.79), 4 individual soy yogurt (1.39), 2 quarts soy yogurt (5.99), 3 gallons milk (2.33), half-gallon soy milk (1.70), 3 packages kielbasa (1.79),3 packages hot dogs (75 cents), almost 13 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (25.43 total), 4 dozen eggs (1.79), 6 bananas (67 cents total), 2 loaves Italian bread (1.19), 4 loaves whole wheat bread (1.61), 1 loaf whole grain bread (freebie), container of blueberries (2.00). Also bought, as special items for family members -- 2 lbs turkey breakfast sausage ($3 total), 4 pot pies (89 cents each), 2 packages all-beef hot dogs (6.00 total). Total spent --  $139.17

July 8. snacky stuff from Dollar Tree -- marshmallows, pop tarts, a large dark chocolate bar -- spent $5

July 12. Cash and Carry wholesaler. 10 lbs baby red potatoes (4.83), large container grape tomatoes (4.08), 1 lb garlic granules (5.69), 3 lbs bing cherries (4.98), 3 lb bag boiler onions (1.46), dozen kiwi fruit (5.75), 3 18-oz containers tofu (1.69), 3 lbs broccoli florets (4.98), 2.5 lbs sliced mushrooms (6.37), 5 lbs shredded mozzarella (11.28), 5 lbs bulk Italian pork sausage (9.69), 5 lbs loaf sharp cheddar (12.77), #10 can tomato paste (5.09), #10 can diced tomatoes (2.97), 10 lbs carrots (3.75), 3-pack celery (1.78). total spent $90.54

July 18. Fred Meyer, get freebie of Ghirardelli chocolate squares, 2-pack, and 2 gallons milk (1.29). Spent $2.58

July 20. Stopped in Fred Meyer, while in the same shopping/banking complex, just to pick up 2 Friday freebies -- 2 bags of candy, 1 Swedish fish, the other a sour gummy candy. We'll save these for a movie night. spent $0

July 31. Was going to buy the chicken breasts on sale, but they were out (got a raincheck). But I also picked up last week's Friday freebie, a Kind bar. spent $0


So, total for the month spent -- $237.29

Not too terrible. I had a regular budget of $225, plus an additional amount of $10 to go towards 4th of July special foods, bringing me up to $235. I had $26.37 extra going into the month, leftover from May, giving me a total allowable amount of $261.37.
Bottom line -- I have $24.08 surplus now going into August.

We are back to a family of four eating almost every meal from home. I've increased the grocery budget so I can buy more produce and meat. I've also allowed for $5 at Dollar Tree for snacky stuff. This next month I've had requests for chips and pop tarts. $5 is pretty much a bargain, considering it keeps us satisfied with eating at home. I also feel that several of us at home need a pick-me-up these days. We're doing that with food. I'm buying things I never would have bought, or would not have bought as much, to satisfy our wants. I am trying to do that economically, however.

This next month -- I'll pick up the boneless skinless chicken breasts for which I have a raincheck. I'll also be looking for fresh peaches (August is the month I find great deals on peaches, here), and watermelon (good, inexpensive fruit, IMO), honey, olive oil, and all of our regular items. I'll be shopping at Fred Meyer (for senior discount day on Tuesday), WinCo (I can buy honey and olive oil in the bulk section, they supply the container), Cash and Carry (for potatoes, celery, broccoli florets, sliced mushrooms, tofu, butter, olives, and Parmesan cheese), and Dollar Tree (for snacky stuff).

Our garden is doing well, and provides a fair amount of produce. This month we're picking red apples, pears, tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, kale, swiss chard, lettuce, figs, and blackberries.

How did your grocery spending go this past month? Any special foods you're looking forward to buying in August?

When I have too many salvaged jars . . .

In the comments from the other day, live and learn asked if I ever get too many jars to store, and then what I do. When space is at a premium, I save the prettiest jars, recycle the stinky, ordinary jars (like pickle or salsa jars), and I start making gifts with the ordinary, but not stinky, jars (like peanut butter jars).

Every so often I find a great deal on Adams natural-style peanut butter. We prefer the natural kind, so my "usual" is Fred Meyer natural. But sometimes there's a great deal on Adams which beats the FM price. Adams still uses glass jars. I reuse these glass jars as long as I have storage room for them. But when I don't have room. . .

This was a gift to someone recently. I had baked maple-pecan cookies, and I wanted to share. The cookies are in an Adams jar, with the lid ribbon-tied with a square of muslin. Nothing fancy or time-consuming. But it made the gift of a few cookies, prettier, and the jar could then just be tossed into recycling when they were done with the cookies. Not shown in the photo, I used a thin piece of black ribbon to tie 2 tea bags to the entire jar. I think the recipient liked the gift. I made someone smile, and my monetary cost was next to nothing.

Salvaged jars

You already know that I love glass jars. Many of my repurposed jars are just ordinary peanut butter, pickle, or salsa jars. Here are a few of the less-than-ordinary ones, and what I'm using them for.

These tiny jars are perfect when packing lunches or snacks. We use them for small amounts of dip for vegetables, or for a handful of raisins or peanuts. The jars are small enough to fit into my small-ish handbag.  These jars are hard to come by. One of them held a small amount of sea salt, and the other two came with boxed breakfasts at a convention (one holding a single portion of honey and the other, a single portion of jam).

The next set of jars were scrounged from several sources. One jar came from a free pile in the neighborhood, another two were from Goodwill for 20cents, each, and I have a fourth jar, needing emptying, from preserves bought for an event that I hosted. These are Bonne Maman preserve jars. I love the jars, but the preserves are kind of pricey.  All the more reason to reuse the jars for something else. My plan is to make some candle jar gifts for this coming autumn and winter holidays.

I had been pricing  nice candle jars online, and found something I liked that were about $1.50 per jar, plus shipping. So when I saw a bunch of the Bonne Maman jars at Goodwill, I was more than willing to find a couple, for 20 cents each. I think I like the Bonne Maman ones better than what I saw online. The repurposed preserve jars have a wider opening, which I think is nicer for a candle.

image retrieved from : http://www.quirkylifestyle.com/2013/07/diy-scented-candle.html

I was not the only one who had this thought to repurpose Bonne Maman jars into candle jars. Beautiful, don't you think?

Quitting caffeine

Ask yourself this question: what does it take for you to give up something you really enjoy? The answer for me is vanity and comfort.

I mentioned quitting caffeine in the comments the other day, and said I would follow up on it. This past year, hot flashes and night sweats began for me. (The fun of menopause, yay!) One month I could be totally composed when talking with friends and acquaintances, and the next I was a sporadically-sweaty mess. I don't just mean underarm sweat, I mean full-body, face, neck, just under the bra-line. If I wore a dark t-shirt, the sweat on my mid-section showed through. If I stood in sunlight, even if indoors by a window, I broke into a sweat and had to begin disrobing. I remember one Sunday, working at our welcome center in church, I was talking with a woman that I only barely know, and the flashes began. I had dressed in layers, but still I had to begin peeling them off. Fortunately, this woman is near my age, so if she hasn't begun this phase of our bodies, she will soon. That's the vanity part.

Comfort is the other motivating component for me. At night, waking up as I feel the heat rising, it's like someone is turning a dial which is raising my body temperature. Then feeling cruddy for the rest of the night. And two other comfort-related things that I didn't even connect to my caffeine consumption, heart palpitations and muscle twitches. Since I was in my early 20s I have had occasional heart palpitations. It would feel like my heart was racing, beating extra hard, or fluttering. This would last about 20 to 30 seconds. I was in college the first time I noticed the palpitations. I went to the health center and the nurse just said it was probably stress and not to worry. My mom told me she had the same thing for years. So I just lived with them, thinking this was just part of the "normal" of my own body. Well, guess what? Quitting caffeine has also put a stop (or almost stop) to the heart palpitations. I have had 1 event of extra hard beating (when at rest) in the last 6 months. In comparison, this used to happen to me once per week or more. I had no idea that my caffeine consumption was doing this.

The other caffeine-related comfort item that I dealt with for many years, but didn't know it was the caffeine, was muscle twitches. When I was in my 30s I developed a chronic and painful muscle twitch in the thumb of my right hand. It was so painful that I brought it up to my doctor. I was referred to a neurologist. Both my primary and the specialist said it wasn't anything significant and would likely go away on its own. Gee, thanks. That twitching (and associated pain) lasted for months, and then would come back from time to time (every other month, for a day or two). At about the same time, I developed other twitches, although most of these would last about 2 weeks, and then disappear as mysteriously as they came. Since quitting caffeine I have only had a couple of minor incidents of muscle-twitching. The twitching in my hand has not returned at all in 6 months. This is a complete change. Even when the twitching was not so severe as to cause pain, I could look at my hand at any given time and see the muscle contracting under the skin. It's completely at rest now.

So, I wondered, did quitting caffeine bring about these positive changes? I went to doctor google and found that yes, caffeine can cause both heart palpitations and muscle twitches or spasms. The twitching may have been an indirect result of caffeine consumption, as caffeine is a diuretic, which can result in an imbalance in electrolytes. And the heart palpitations may have been too much stimulant running through my body.

These issues weren't so significant that I would think to discuss them with my doctor, except for the painful twitching which got me referred to a neurologist. I brushed them off as just part of my body. I wasn't really drinking all that much caffeinated coffee or tea, a few cups per day, spread out over the whole day. I never would have guessed that I would benefit as much as I have from quitting caffeine.And when I say quitting, I really mean, making a severe reduction in consumption. I still drink decaf coffee, and have small amounts of chocolate, both have some caffeine, but not in the league of fully-caffeinated coffee or even tea.

One other benefit I have noticed, I'm a restless sleeper. About 2-3 nights per week, on average, I wake around 3 or 4 AM, and lie there awake for an hour or more. I used to become so irritable when I would have a wakeful period in the night. It bugged me, terribly. Now, I don't feel that irritability. I lay there awake and think about things for a bit, then pleasantly drift back off to sleep. My sleep is more relaxing. This change also happened as soon as I was off fully-caffeinated coffee.

So, what caffeine do I drink/eat and what do I avoid? I never drink caffeinated coffee. I ask and double check, when ordering decaf coffee in a restaurant. This is one area about which I am vigilant. It feels weird to have to draw such a hard line on it, but I know myself, this is the only way I can keep my caffeine consumption mega-low. I always choose decaf. I know there is decaffeinated black and green tea, but I have stayed away from it, for the most part. Again, I think I just don't want to tempt myself and think, "well, 1 cup of regular tea can't hurt me" then the slippery slope begins. Eventually I'll feel more sure of myself with this. Instead, I drink herb teas. I like the fruity ones (I think its Celestial Seasonings that has some wonderful fruity herb teas), plus mint tea, lemon balm, and lavender/camomile blend. I grow the ingredients for the last 3 teas. I also like spicy infusions, like part of a cinnamon stick, a couple of whole cloves, and a few slices of fresh tart apple infused in a pot of simmering water.

For the most part, I don't drink soda. The sugared ones give me a tummy ache, and the diet ones give me a headache. If I want a sweetened, chilled drink, it's either iced herb tea, juice or lemonade. I still have a little chocolate, here and there. I make soy cocoa, by the cup for myself, when I want it, using 1  1/2 teaspoons of cocoa powder. I have an occasional dish of chocolate ice cream (by occasional I mean that I've had one dish of it this summer), I eat a few pieces of chocolate per month, like a dozen Hershey's Kisses spread out over a month. Instead, I am making the deliberate choice to select a different-flavored sweet, like black licorice or fruity flavored baked goods and candy. I love Australian-style black licorice. WinCo carries it in the bulk bins for a really good price. When I'm not near WinCo, the next best price on Australian black licorice is at Dollar Tree. I think I kind of got stuck in a rut of always choosing chocolate for candy. Lately, I've been thinking about the types of treats I would choose when I was a child and young teen. It wasn't so chocolate heavy, but instead I enjoyed more of the fruity flavors.

How did I quit caffeine, and did I get a headache? I quit gradually, over many months. I began by mixing regular coffee, half and half with decaf coffee. Then after a few months I reduced the regular coffee to about 1/4, and so on, until one week I just decided, "this is the  week" and I just started making myself decaf coffee all of the time. At that point I also stopped the caffeinated teas, and reduced my chocolate consumption. Not a single headache which was related to cutting out caffeine. I'm not as alert as I used to be in the mornings. I would never schedule something which required a keen focus before 10 AM. But I just accept that. I can do normal stuff in the early hours, I'm just not super alert. And speaking of headaches, my migraines are now less frequent, and they last 1 day less (2-day migraines instead of 3-day). I don't know if that has anything to do with the caffeine. It could also be a hormone adjustment with this phase of my body.

As for those hot flashes and night sweats, I noticed an immediate benefit. Drinking a cup of coffee was a hot flash trigger for me. I would have just finished half a cup and a flash would begin.  I still have hot flashes and night sweats, but they seem less intense, and less frequent. It was a few flashes per hour with the caffeine. It's now a few times per day, and not so bad. I haven't had an embarrassing moment of a huge drench of public sweat since the first of the year, which is exactly when I quit the caffeine. Some of this may be due to my body adapting to the hormone shift, but I also believe that part of it is the lack of caffeine coursing through my veins at all times.

I have also learned which clothing items are a no-go for me right now. Fleece is pretty bad for hot flashes. It traps too much body heat, which can also be a trigger. I wear a lot of cotton. I almost bought a super pretty dress to wear to my daughter's graduation. But the fabric was too sweat-inducing, I thought. In the end, I wore cotton pants and a cotton top. I sleep in cotton sleep-shorts and a baggy cotton t-shirt, which makes sense for summer, but in winter I was also sleeping in lightweight clothing. 

So, my vanity and my comfort motivated me to do something really good for my body. I never could have given up caffeine if it had just been because maybe it would be better for my health. I was able to quit temporarily with each pregnancy, but that was it. For 35 years I drank a lot of coffee.

For comparison sake, how much caffeine is in various food and drink?


for 8 oz beverages:

herb tea, root beer, citrus soda -- 0
decaf coffee or decaf black tea -- 2-5 mg
cocoa made with 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder -- 8 mg
brewed green tea --  25-29 mg
cola -- 24-46 mg
brewed black tea -- 25-48 mg
instant coffee -- 63 mg
brewed coffee -- 95-165 mg

for chocolate treats:

half-cup of chocolate ice cream -- 2 mg
1 Hershey's Special Dark Miniature or 4 Hershey's Kisses, milk chocolate -- 4 mg
chocolate cake with chocolate frosting -- 9 mg
1 oz dark chocolate 69-85% cacao (like Lindt) -- 23 mg


Keep in mind, the stronger the brewed coffee or tea, the more caffeine. So, if you use loose-leaf tea and use more than what would be in a tea bag, your cup will have more caffeine. Percolated and boiled (Greek or Turkish) coffee has more caffeine than drip or French press. If you're getting a Starbucks coffee beverage, your drink may have more than 8 oz of coffee. A 24 oz Frappuccino, made with regular coffee has 130 mg caffeine. As well, different beans and different roasts have different amounts of caffeine, for example, 8 oz. of Starbucks Pike Place roast has 155 mg caffeine, 8 oz of Starbucks Clover brewed coffee has 170 mg caffeine, while 8 oz of the Blond Roast has 180 mg. And the size names don't indicate quantity. The Short isn't even on the printed menu. But it's the 8-oz size beverage at Starbucks. You have to ask for it, specifically. The Tall is 12 oz, the Grande is 16 oz, and the Venti is 24 oz. For your information, a Venti Blond Roast has 475 mg caffeine.

I wasn't drinking Venti Blond Roasts, daily, but I was consuming in the neighborhood of 400 mg of caffeine each day. It didn't seem like a lot, as it was spread out over the whole day. My coffee mugs hold about 12 oz, so my one cup of coffee was really 1  1/2 cups.

It should also be noted that chocolate has theobromine, another stimulant. Some people are more sensitive to it than others.

Anyway, that's my story of quitting (or mostly quitting) caffeine. I'm not legalistic about it. I realize that I am still getting maybe 15 to 25 mg of caffeine per day, but that is about 1/20 of what I had been consuming. And with fewer and less intense migraines, practically no heart palpitations or muscle twitches, less intense and fewer hot flashes/night sweats, I think this was well-worth making the change. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer.

Pancakes for 1

Sometimes I'm the only one who wants pancakes for breakfast (or I'm the only one home when making my breakfast). Pancakes don't have to be a "batch" item. You can make just one pancake. I now do this a couple of times per week for myself.

for one 5-inch pancake:

2 tablespoons flour
between 1/8 and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder (it's basically 1/16 of a tablespoon)
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
about 2 teaspoons oil
about 2 tablespoons milk
splash of vanilla extract

Heat a small skillet over Medium (I use a non-stick that has lost most of its non-stickness).

In a small bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Add liquids and stir. (I use a small rubber spatula to both mix the batter and scrape/pour into the hot skillet. Saves some washing.) 

Add a bit of oil or butter to the hot skillet. Pour all of the batter into the hot, buttered skillet. Cook, flip, cook, serve.

I typically eat just one large pancake alongside a scrambled egg, when I have a "pancake breakfast." (And when I scramble the egg, I reuse the pancake batter bowl, after a quick rinse. Again, saves washing.) I top the pancake with fruit and consider this a complete meal for me.

Just a note: because eggs set at a lower temperature than a flour/milk mixture, an egg-less pancake batter should not be too thin, and they need to cook thoroughly on the bottom side before flipping.

Why there was no June Grocery Journal

I know I've been sporadic in posting, lately. However, the lack of a June grocery post was not an accident. I didn't keep a journal last month, and here's why: I barely shopped for "regular" groceries. Almost all of the foods that I bought were earmarked for 3 specific events that we hosted, the reception about which you've heard, Father's Day, and a going away party for a friend. In addition to the "regular" grocery items of eggs, milk, and bread bought in early June, we lived off of the leftovers (plus items already on hand) from those 3 events. 3 parties, well-spaced throughout the month, kept us in supply of produce, meat, cheese, crackers, desserts, nuts, etc, for all of the non-party days of June.

I had previously decided that the food for these gatherings would not come out of our grocery budget. But I did over-buy, so I figure we ate a full-month's budget of groceries out of the leftovers. (There was no realistic way that I could separate out the costs for our regular meals from the party supplies.) My plan, then, is to just consider us "even" for June, and pick up on the budget beginning July 1. So, I am back to "regular" grocery shopping. I used my senior discount this past Tuesday to pick up a month's worth of essentials, and will make a trip to Cash and Carry for cheese and produce later this week.

And that's why you didn't see any sort of grocery journal post for last month.

How do you handle the grocery budget when buying for a large party? Do you make a separate budget for the supplies, or do the supplies need to come out of your regular grocery budget?

When the big jug of milk is a better deal but it is more than we can use before expiry

This is a dilemma that small households face. Milk in one-gallon jugs is often cheaper per unit than quarts. But there is too much milk for one or two people to use before the expiration date. My own family is becoming sporadic with milk consumption. I never know if we'll be able to consume a full gallon in time. I have mentioned that I often freeze milk when I find a great sale. I am now freezing milk because we can't finish a full gallon in time.

So, when I open a gallon, I pour off 3/4 of the milk into quart-sized containers for the freezer. I know that we can finish off one quart in a timely manner. Then as we need milk, I thaw a quart (takes half a day on the countertop, or 24-48 hours in the fridge). I keep an eye on our current supply of milk, and plan ahead as much as I can.

But you know me, I like the presentation to be attractive. I don't want us feeling like we're eating out of old yogurt containers. So I've been using some of my collection of ceramic pitchers. I have pitchers in all sizes, from small enough just for cream or pancake syrup for one or two people to large enough for a pitcher of water for the dining table. This little pitcher, here, is the perfect size for about 3 cups of milk, which is a good amount for our family to keep at the ready. In addition, it looks nice on the table. It doesn't have a lid, so I just use a small square of plastic wrap over the top.

My point is, our family is able to still buy the larger, economical size of containers of milk even though we don't consume as much as we once did. This is a habit that I can continue well into the empty nest years, as long as someone in the house still consumes milk.

Bargain price on a staple of my summer wardrobe

A simple white t-shirt is a staple for my wardrobe in summer. I wear them with jeans, capris, shorts, and casual skirts. A plain white women's t-shirt, bought in a clothing store, runs about $8 to $12. Thinking outside the box, and shopping in a craft store, a similar t-shirt can be had for a fraction of that price. This past week, I found a great deal on a summer shirt.

One daughter and I were picking up t-shirts at Jo Ann Fabrics for a family project. Jo Ann's had the Buy 1 Get 1 Free deal going on for a few days with the t-shirts used for tie dye, painting, iron ons, and silk screening. The regular price is not horrible, at $6.49 for women's styles, and $4.49 for kids and basic adult t-shirts. But with the Buy 1 Get 1 deal, that made the women's t-shirts (more body hugging style with a slightly lower scoop neck or v-neck) $3.25 each, and the basic adult shirts $2.25 each. With this deal, my daughter and I each got an extra shirt to keep as a white t-shirt for summer. Later in the week we went back for 2 more shirts for other family members. The B1G1 deal was no longer on, but I had a 50% off coupon with me, and my daughter was able to pull up a 50% off coupon on her phone. So, we were able to buy 2 more shirts at the lower prices of $3.25 and $2.00. In addition to white, these shirts come in a variety of colors, BTW.

I checked Michael's crafts, online, and this week they have the basic style, short sleeve t-shirt  for both kids and adults, in a bunch of colors, for $2, even cheaper than my deal at Jo Ann's. Hobby Lobby's shirts are slightly more expensive at $2.79, on sale. I consider a casual shirt in the $2 price range to be a great deal. My guess is these shirts are offered at such low prices because crafts stores expect that you will also buy paints, dyes, and transfers to enhance the shirts.

You may be thinking, "but the sales will have passed, soon." True. Here's the thing, when the shirts are not on sale, I can often find a 50% off (or more) coupon that is good on 1 regularly priced item, yielding that same great deal on a simple t-shirt.

For a casual weekend shirt, or a layer under another shirt, I think these shirts are a great addition to my family's wardrobes. Father's Day is past, but there are birthdays, and other holidays looming on the horizon, for which I think another couple of these t-shirts would make great gifts. My husband wears basic t-shirts around the house on weekends. For $2.00 to $2.25 per shirt, he could have 4 new t-shirts for $8.00 to $10, or about the price of 1 men's t-shirt at a store like Kohl's. Like I said, these comes in lots of colors.

Now, for that family project that I spoke of. . .

Sunday afternoon we had fun tie dyeing some shirts. And after using the dye for these shirts, 3 of us used the leftover dye, dumped into buckets, thinned with a little water and combined to make nice tones as over-dye for some of our existing clothing. I over-dyed a washed-out light blue t-shirt into a bright mint green one, a daughter dyed a pair of washed-out lavender long underwear/pjs a lovely shade of lilac, and the other daughter over-dyed her gray heather, short-sleeved sleep shirt into a magenta heather. one. Didn't want to waste that last bit of dye.

In preparation for the 4th of July -- making a batch of homemade rosemary mustard

For dinner on the 4th we're doing sausage, veggie, and potato kabobs. As a condiment, I've made some rosemary mustard using: ground mustard seed (the powder-kind of mustard), salt, water, rosemary from our garden, a spoonful of honey for sweetness, and vinegar. It's mellowing in the fridge for the next few days (the flavors mingle, the mixture thickens, and the heat reduces with time).

Homemade gourmet mustard is so easy to make, yet so economical. On Amazon, herb mustards range in price from $3.50 to $5.00 for a 6 to 8-oz jar. Yet it can be made at home for a fraction of those pricey jars.

By buying ground mustard in a 10-oz canister from Cash & Carry, for $3.49 (pricing similar to Costco), my cost for an 10-oz batch was about $1.15. Alternatively, I could have saved even more, by buying ground mustard from bulk bins at WinCo, at about $2.49/lb, yielding a cost of just under $1.00 for a 10-oz batch. If I had needed to order ground mustard online, I found it selling for just under $6.00 in a 1-lb bag, which would have brought my cost up to about $1.20 per 10-oz batch. Any of these scenarios is at most about 1/5 of the cost of buying commercial gourmet mustard.

Gourmet mustard is a great way to use up those odd bits of liquid leftovers, such as the last of a bottle of white wine, champagne, beer/ale, apple juice, or sparkling cider, by substituting this leftover liquid for all or part of the water called for in a mustard recipe.

The actual preparation for homemade mustard is under 20 minutes, including a 10-minute waiting period before adding the vinegar, and chopping herbs. Bonus -- it keeps in the fridge for several months.

A little jar of homemade mustard makes a lovely little gift, as well. The varieties are endless, by changing up the liquids and mixing in chopped solid additions, such as cranberries, herbs/spices, jalapenos, or horseradish; varying the sweet/hot ratio by adding honey, agave, or maple syrup, and timing the addition of vinegar to adjust the heat; and/or altering the texture by using some whole mustard seeds in addition to the ground mustard.

So, our full menu for the 4th of July looks like this:

• using our fire ring for roasting, we will each assemble our own kabobs on our home-fashioned, marshmallow/hotdog-roasting, long-handled skewers (as seen in this post). We'll be choosing from chunks of 3 kinds of smoked sausage (turkey, beef, pork), small, pre-cooked potatoes, zucchini chunks, green pepper pieces, pineapple chunks, and cherry tomatoes.
• condiments for the kabobs: homemade rosemary mustard, barbecue sauce
• rolls from the freezer, leftover from our reception in early June
• green salad of lettuce and kale from the garden
• this creamy rhubarb gelled salad using rhubarb from the garden
• red, white, and blue mini cupcakes from the freezer, leftover from the reception
• s'mores, of course

Homemade berry lemonade -- pennies a glass

If you happen to have an excess of berries this summer, berry lemonade is both thrifty and delicious. I've used strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries to flavor lemonade made with bottled lemon juice and sugar.

This past month, I've focused on using up surplus frozen, wild blackberries from previous years. The procedure for making berry lemonade is the same for all berries. Simply mash or puree the berries, press through a sieve with the back of a spoon, and stir in lemon juice, sugar, and water.

For 2 quarts of berry lemonade, use:

1 to 1 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen berries (thaw first, if frozen)
7/8 to 1 cup sugar, depending on taste
scant 1 cup lemon juice
water to the 2 quart level



Berry lemonade is an excellent use for berries that are going soft, or are overripe when picking, as their soft texture will make them easier to mash. I use a vegetable masher in a bowl with the berries, then follow up by pushing the berry pulp through a sieve set over my pitcher. If the berries are very sweet, then less sugar is required. And likewise, if the berries are tart, then you may prefer the greater amount of sugar.

My cost for homemade berry lemonade (using homegrown or wild-picked berries) is about 7 cents per glass, about one-third of the cost of store-brand berry lemonade from frozen concentrate (at about 20 cents/glass), and twice as flavorful.

Re-purposed sparkling cider bottles used for chilled water

In addition to serving blackberry lemonade in our new punchbowl at the reception a couple of weeks ago, we also had chilled water available on a few tables in the house. I save glass bottles that I find attractive in shape or color. I had a total of 6 clear glass bottles that I wanted to reuse for chilled water for this event. Some of the bottles had a unique shape or tint to the glass, which I felt made the presentation of the chilled water more interesting.

I have found that the paper labels on the sparkling cider bottles are relatively easy to remove with a bit of soaking in water (compared to something like the labels on peanut butter jars). Once the labels are off, there is the "sell-by" stamp to remove.

This is easily done with a little baking soda on a rag. The stamp literally rubs right off with the baking soda.

half of stamp rubbed off with baking soda

now completely gone

With bottles completely cleaned, the evening before our reception I filled the bottles, recapped, and chilled in the fridge overnight. The next day, I placed filled bottles, along with stacks of cups, in key places where guest might congregate. The bottles served an extra purpose in their lives, and looked attractive in the process.

I had been thinking, this might be a good way to serve homemade lemonade or iced tea at backyard BBQs this summer.

The punchbowl makes a comeback

Punchbowls have fallen out of favor in recent years, likely due to easier methods of providing beverages for large gatherings, combined with the hassle of storing a punch set. However, I think they can be a money-saver for some frugal households. Here's why:

I bought this punch bowl, cup and ladle set at Value Village for $6.99 this past month. I already have 12 punch cups in this pattern, which I bought at a thrift store several years ago, so the new set brings me up to 24 cups. My old cups have been well-used, so I won't factor in their cost in this calculation. The punchbowl has an 8 quart capacity. We had about 30 guests at the reception, the other weekend. I made 2 gallons of blackberry lemonade, using bottled lemon juice, sugar, and frozen wild blackberries. If  I had served commercial beverages, I would have bought 2 2-liter bottles of soda pop and 2 half-gallons of juice, spending around $6. Each quart of homemade lemonade cost about 25 to 30 cents. 8 quarts cost me $2.00 to $2.40 -- a savings of $3.60 to $4, compared to buying commercial beverages. My punch cups were sufficient in number for our guests, so I saved about $2 to $3 on purchased plastic cups (bought in 10-packs from Dollar Tree). So, my savings from this punch set is now up to $5.60 to $6.00, or about $1 short of the cost of my new punch set from Value Village. I will be hosting a similar reception in one year, when my other daughter graduates. It will take me less than 2 receptions to pay for the cost of the punch set. I will use these pieces for several other events in my own home, and now there is a punch set in the family to be loaned out to others.

Should I want to sell this set, I could make $20 or more in profit. This same pattern punch set is currently selling for $24.99 on ebay. So, my purchase price of $6.99 was a pretty good deal.

I almost always see punch sets in Value Village and Goodwill, which is a good thing for those of us wanting to buy a set. When I went out shopping last month, I was pretty confident that I would find a set or at least a punchbowl.

The bonus with buying this punch set was in avoiding single-use beverage containers, which would end up in a landfill.

A Good Steward: the too-thin oven mitt

I repair many household objects, not because I can't afford to replace the items, but because fixing what I already have is much less wasteful, and that makes me feel good. Case in point, our oven mitts had become too thin for comfort in key spots. I only spent $1 each for these mitts (at Dollar Tree), so I know I could replace them cheaply. But I just don't want to throw an item away that could be repaired for free, and in just a little time.

I used some scraps of fleece fabric, leftover from making baby clothing 23 years ago, and assorted thread in colors as close to the sage green of the exterior of my oven mitts.

I turned each oven mitt inside out. I traced around the outside of the mitt on large scraps of fleece, then cut along those trace lines. Using my sewing machine, I sewed the fleece to the inside surface of the mitt, using a tight zig zag stitch along the original seam line of the mitt, sewing through the fleece and both parts of the mitt. I only stitched the sides and fingertip area of the mitt, leaving the opening edge free of stitching, at this point. Then, I turned the mitt right side out, and carefully stitched the fleece to the mitt, along the opening edge, attaching fleece to only one part of the mitt (so as not to close the mitt with stitching).

Due to the limited room inside the existing oven mitt, I only attached fleece to one half of the mitt. For the second mitt, I attached the fleece to the opposing side of the mitt, giving me a left and a right-handed oven mitt. My family now knows that to use these mitts they must put the palm of their hand against the new fleece lining, to get the benefit of additional lining between hand and hot baking dish.

It's not a perfect sewing job, but the mitts can now be used again.

Thoughts on our weekend reception

My daughter's graduation weekend about did me in; but I survived! It really was a full weekend, beginning early on Friday and ending late in the afternoon on Sunday. Most importantly, I am so very proud of my daughter's hard work and achievements. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about --  that pride that you feel about your own kids' successes.

I am still putting furniture back into place, though I am nearly done. Live and learn, you asked if I thought I might not put all of the furniture back into place, after experiencing the house with less in it. I think that's a really interesting question. Whenever we have a big deviation from our everyday routine, whether it be for a vacation, or a change in how we use our home, we have that moment to assess our usual way of doing things. I know that when I am on vacation I tell myself that I want to continue some of the aspects of the vacation once home, and bring more enjoyment into my everyday life. Using our home for a reception this past weekend did make me rethink some of the little things that I can do on a regular basis to bring more enjoyment into ordinary life. For example, using candles more often. I have a few nicely-scented jar candles. I had a lemon and mint leaf one burning in the living room throughout the reception. One of our guests asked about the fragrance. The candle not only looked appealing, as the small flames flickered in the late afternoon sun, but the fragrance added to the ambience. I have several candles that I can put to use for more ambience in our home. As for the furniture, I don't have any place to store excess furniture. We don't have a basement or a weather-proof attic. For now, it all has to stay.

So I overbought. I think we'll be eating leftovers for a while. I froze a good chunk of leftover deli meat, some cupcakes, and some bread products. My daughter helped me pick out the cupcakes, and it just so happened that she wanted the red, white, and blue ones (they have a strawberry filling). We'll have some of those on the 4th of July. There were a few, unopened packaged items (crackers, cookies, and a box of chocolates). I have tucked those away for future gatherings or celebrations. For those items, I don't look upon them as part of over-buying, but as advanced preparation for a future event or need. The box of chocolates might make a nice hostess gift the next time we are invited to a friend's home. The cookies will be useful for an upcoming coffee hour after church. The crackers will come out for a family gathering later this summer. On top of all of the leftovers that we'll use in the future, I was able to send a huge grocery bag of food home with some helpers.

The 4 food stations worked really well. Some guests found a spot in the house and stayed put, while others meandered to the different open rooms. I had different goodies in each room, so that made for a bit of a surprise for the guests that moved about. For the most part, though, the family room seemed to collect the most people. Perhaps that was the tower of fresh strawberries and whipped cream perched on the coffee table in that room? One moment that particularly made me happy was when one friend said to another as she was arriving, "there is food all over the house." That just made me happy, as my aim was to provide abundance to share with our friends. Happy feeling!

I am very glad that I didn't bother with tea or coffee. For a late afternoon reception, the blackberry lemonade and water were all that were needed. Coffee and tea would have been one more thing to keep an eye on, as I don't have a large coffee urn or other way to keep hot beverages in their hot state.

All of the little details that you think you need, but you really don't have time to take care of, well, you really don't need them. At least I didn't. I wanted fresh cut flowers throughout the house. I didn't have time to get outside to do that. But, as you can guess, it didn't matter and I could have saved a tiny fraction of my mental capacity by realizing that fact while I was in preparation-mode. I didn't buy plastic forks, because my menu was all finger foods. A friend brought a cake, so I did need forks of some kind, after all. I simply pulled out our regular forks for those who wanted some of the cake. Of course, I had my husband search the trash for forks before taking to the garbage can. That's how we lost a spoon from our flatware set, 30 years ago. The point being, as I had planned on finger foods, most folks would not need utensils, and the few who did could use our everyday forks -- no need to buy plastic cutlery.

It was all good. I could have simplified the menu a bit more and bought a bit less. I have this information going forward, and as I'll be doing a repeat of this reception next year when my other daughter graduates, I am ready for the challenge. I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

Making room for party food -- an interesting supper of odds 'n ends leftovers

On Friday I will be making a trip to Cash & Carry (a wholesaler that primarily serves small restaurants, but will also sell to the public) to pick up a large amount of produce, cheese, and sliced meats. I will need all of the fridge space I can spare, both for the purchase and for the trays that I prepare with all of this food. In addition, I will have water and blackberry lemonade to chill. I have a garage fridge, too. I am moving everything I can, which won't be needed for Sunday, into that fridge. Unfortunately/fortunately, I did my senior shopping on Tuesday, so that fridge is already quite full. My back-up is a picnic cooler which could hold items like condiments, which would free up a bit of extra space in the fridges.

Earlier this week I began cleaning out the fridge by using up all of the odds and ends of leftovers and almost-empty jars of various items. Wednesday's dinner did a great job of using these bits.

I made an odds and ends soup, using leftover bean soup, leftover, previously frozen canned tomatoes, and some diced tofu. I added chili powder and a bit of salt. The soup was quite tasty and just enough to serve all of us without any leftovers to go back into the fridge. I also made a very good jello and fruit salad, using the sweet leftovers of cranberry cream cheese spread, blackberry lemonade, red currant jelly, and the last bits from 2 jars of applesauce. I combined all of this with some dissolved, plain gelatin, and a spoonful of sugar. Once set, I scooped into individual dishes, and topped with sliced bananas. I thought it was very tasty, and a great way to prevent food-waste. Bonus --  one lucky family member got the scrapings of the practically empty peanut butter jar on their buttered bread, which accompanied this soup and jello salad supper.

Today's lunch found a lingering, single hot dog and bun. As of now, there is someone's small bowl of canned tomatoes, a single slice of salami, a slice of cinnamon swirl toast, and 2 halves of peeled, raw carrots. I'll be asking to whom those items belong this evening. (Plus there's my daughter's punch -- she buys this herself.) Otherwise, I think my fridge is ready to be filled!