Hybrid Shopping to Save Money

When I think of the word "hybrid", I usually think of something with two components that makes one working whole, like a hybrid engine. My hybrid shopping actually has three components, in-person/in-store, in-person/pick-up, and home delivery. 

I began using a hybrid approach to shopping last spring to minimize virus risk. I am now continuing to use my hybrid approach to save the maximum amount of money while saving my energy and time.

I shop in-person at a couple of stores to buy those items that are true deals -- priced lower than any other store. A couple of these stores don't offer curbside pick-up, so shopping in-person is my only option. Other stores do offer pick-up service, but I might only need a handful of items and not meet the minimum spend for free service.  So, I am left with shopping myself, the old-fashioned way, where I actually have to push my own cart!

I also shop via in-person pick-up at Walmart, because I can usually meet the $35 minimum for a free pick-up. I am only buying from Walmart those items that are best deals, made in USA, and/or are only available locally through Walmart. This is usually just a handful of items, such as bathroom tissue, bar soap, dish detergent, and a few food items.

In addition, I order a few items once every couple of months from walmart.com or target.com to be shipped to my home. I discovered that some items that I would normally buy at my local store are actually priced lower if bought online to be delivered, using free delivery on a minimum spend. With Walmart.com's $35 minimum order for free delivery, this is easy to meet once every 6 weeks or so for our supply of coffee, decaf and one or two other items. Some items are priced the same whether bought in-person or shipped, so I add those items to whichever order (my pick-up or my shipping order) based on where I need to spend more to make the minimum $35 for free shipping or pick-up.

So, how much am I saving by combining these three approaches? Last week, I put in two orders at Walmart, one for pick-up and one for delivery. I didn't need much, but I did compare prices online for each item. I spent $47 for a curbside pick-up and just over $35 for a delivered order. I saved 39 cents on a large jar of Folger's coffee, 18 cents on a smaller jar of Folger's decaf, 38 cents X 2 for a couple of bags of Wheat Montana ww flour, 40 cents X 4 for four bags of dried cherries, and 50 cents on a multi-pack of bar soap. That's a total savings of $3.43 simply by choosing shipping for some items and pick-up for others. This savings is on top of having compared prices with other grocery stores.

It didn't cost me a single extra cent to split my order this way. Often times, when we're shopping around town trying to get the best deal, we're spending extra money (gas for our car) and time to shop those different stores.

This coming week, I'll be shopping in-person in another store to pick-up other essentials for our household, focusing on those items that are best deals in that store and/or made/grown in USA-only products.

All in all, I'd estimate that by comparing my different shopping options, I'm now saving about $25 to $30 per month while buying the same basic foods, and I'm not running all over town each week to do so. 

Food Not Wasted Is Money Saved

Gingerbread made with leftover cooked ginger root,
past-dated heavy cream, and"old"rye flour

This last week has been one of using up leftovers. Some of these leftovers we ate, as is, and others we made-over into new foods and dishes. Not only does not wasting food save money on our grocery bill, but it also means that we aren't taking more of the world's food supply than we will use. Here's what I was able to "save" this past week:

• the ginger root that I used to make a syrup for homemade ginger ale -- I diced the cooked ginger root slices tiny and added to batter for a gingerbread cake. I also used rye flour that has been in my pantry for about 4-5 years.
• whipping cream several weeks past sell-by date with slightly soured smell and a bit gloppy -- used in the batter as part of the milk for husband's birthday cupcakes and batter for gingerbread
• leftover cream filling for my birthday copycat Hostess cupcakes -- added cocoa powder, vanilla extract, powdered sugar to make a creamy chocolate frosting for husband's birthday cupcakes
• 2 tablespoons pizza sauce from Friday's pizza dinner -- made a cup of Italian tomato soup for myself, adding chicken bouillon and water
• as mentioned earlier, cheese sauce (leftover from brunch), tomato slices (leftover from burger bbq), cooked bacon (leftover from brunch) -- put together with toast and made Welsh Rarebit
• leftover washed lettuce leaves from burger bbq fixings and leftover celery and carrot sticks from birthday bbq -- chopped the celery, carrot sticks, and lettuce to make a salad for dinner on last Sunday

What have been your "food saves" lately?

Some Highlights of My Week in Pictures

Using up leftovers from last weekend, one night I made Welsh Rarebit for a quick supper. We had bacon, tomato slices, and cheese sauce leftover from brunch and a bbq. All I had to do was toast some bread and assemble.

Violets are in bloom all over our yard this week. I picked a bunch of the blossoms and leaves to press to use in making a card for someone special. I hope the colors of the petals and leaves hold.

So, this is our greenhouse. I wrote about this a few years ago. It has a tubular frame with 5 shelves, and has a plastic cover that slips over the top and zips at the sides. It's portable and can be disassembled easily, but we leave it up year round and use it for winter storage for patio cushions and empty pots.

One of 5 edible hanging baskets. It contains 1 green leaf lettuce, 3 small red leaf lettuce (hard to see as the red is so dark), 1 thyme cutting that I rooted in water earlier this year, 1 nasturtium seedling, 1 tiny parsley seedling, a bunch of radish sprouts (to use as greens, so tightly-packed), and a few spinach sprouts. They all just need to grow, now!

I trimmed up the rosemary plant on both sides to make room for a couple extra lettuce seedlings. The rosemary that I trimmed has been used in meals this week.

Another free pile yielded 4 of these lime green and white chairs. Yes, they were free. I was on a walk with one daughter, so we had to carry the bunch home.

And finally, one last batch of cupcakes for spring. Yesterday was my husband's birthday (4 spring birthdays in our family), so I baked these up in honor of his birthday.

We had about 10 days of beautiful weather, so I've been working and walking outdoors as much as I could. I overhauled the pumpkin patch, hoping for a better yield this year. My husband built another bed for ever-bearing raspberries. I've been hauling soil and compost to fill it. I moved a blueberry bush into a sunnier location, hoping it will produce better. And I started some seeds directly in the garden. Rain is expected to return over the weekend. I guess it's not summer after all. Oh well, the water will be good for the garden and the bare spots in the lawn that I patched.

How was your week?

Free-Pile Find -- A Shepherd Hook for Garden Lighting

One of the wonderful outdoor decor finds from last week's free-pile is this black metal shepherd hook-style plant hanger. I could immediately see that this would make a great candle hanger for the garden.

Once home, I used some household wire to turn a canning jar into a hanging candle holder.

I wrapped one length of wire around the top of the canning jar, just below the threads, twisting a loop on opposite sides of the jar.

I used another length of wire to make the hanger, attaching an end to each of these side loops.

Finally, I twisted a loop at the top of the suspending wire to secure the candle holder onto the shepherd hook. The lit candle added ambience to the garden during our Saturday evening celebration.

Also at the free pile was this nifty plastic tray -- just the thing I was needing to add more plant capacity to my greenhouse.

My Homemade Ginger Ale

To make ginger ale at home, I used a ginger syrup and club soda. I checked several recipes online for the ginger syrup and settled on a hybrid of several versions. Here's what I made mine.

Ingredients:

1 hand ginger, peeled and sliced thin
4 strips of lemon peel (6 or 8 might be nice for more lemony flavor)
3 cups water

scant 1  1/2 cups of granulated sugar

Ginger is easiest to peel if you cut the segments apart. Then you can use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin before slicing or mincing.

I peeled the ginger, then sliced into 1/16-inch slices. I had about 1 cup of slices when done.

In a stainless saucepan, I placed the 4 strips of lemon peel, sliced and peeled ginger, and 3 cups of water. I brought it all to a boil, reduced the heat and simmered, covered, for 10 minutes.

Next, I stirred in the sugar and brought back to a boil. Once boiling, I reduced the heat and simmered gently, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I allowed the infusion to cool with a lid on for 1 hour. After an hour, I strained the syrup through a mesh sieve and chilled it. 

After simmering, I had about 2 cups of strained syrup.

To make ginger ale, I used about 3  1/2 to 4 tablespoons of syrup for every 8 ounces of club soda. The sugary syrup causes the soda to really fizz up, so I discovered it was better to add the soda to a bottle or glass first, then add the syrup.

I wanted the ginger ale in bottles for self-serve on Saturday. However, I think this homemade version has more fizz when made fresh for each serving, pouring the club soda in a glass first, then spooning in measures of the ginger syrup.

My homemade ginger ale is very gingery and not nearly as sweet-tasting as commercial ginger ale. Because . . . frugal -- I've saved the cooked ginger pieces in the fridge in an airtight container and will chopped them fine to add to ginger cake later this week.

This was fun and delicious. I'll try it again very soon and maybe add more lemon peel and perhaps a bit of lemon juice.

Moisture Absorbers for Soil in Hanging Baskets and Window Boxes

I wanted to show you a product that I've been using the past couple of years. I've been adding this to soil in hanging baskets in order to reduce the amount of watering needed. There are several brands on the market. I use Soil Moist.

I bought this 3-oz packet a couple of years ago and still have quite a bit left. The packet instructions say to use 1 1/2 teaspoons of granules for a 10-inch diameter basket or equivalent measure for window boxes. You need to mix this into the bottom 2 or 3 inches of soil --  the root zone. This year, I've started fresh with my baskets' soil. I scooped soil into my basket, sprinkled the Soil Moist over it, then mixed it in with my hand before topping with more soil.

Using a moisture retention product doesn't eliminate watering, but it does hold enough moisture that I can water less often. The packet says that their product can cut watering up to 50%.

I wanted to show you just what 1 1/2 teaspoons of this product looks like both dry and wet.

Here is 1  1/2 teaspoons dry granules.

I began adding water and the granules quickly sucked it all up.

So I added more and more water, until I had added just over 1 cup of water to that 1  1/2 teaspoons of Soil Moist. At that point, I quit, as my bowl was getting full. But this is pretty amazing stuff, isn't it? 

A Peaceful Birthday

a cream-filled chocolate cupcake à la Hostess cupcakes

While excitement can be enticing, for me a quiet and peaceful birthday is preferable. One daughter was home all day, so she and I went for a long walk in the morning, stopping by a free pile and garage sale along the way. We snagged some gardening supplies and outdoor decorations for the great price of FREE. The other daughter came home around 1 PM and the two of them cooked a nice, late brunch for the 4 of us. The weather was gorgeous all day, so we dined on the deck. After brunch, I worked outdoors, organizing the portable greenhouse and potting some hanging baskets. My lovely daughters also made dinner for the four of us, which we ate while watching a movie using the roku. I also made the ginger ale syrup to use on Saturday night when we celebrated as a 6-some (with son and daughter-in-law). Just a very nice, laid back sort of birthday. 

A few days previous, I had mentioned a momentary longing for a Hostess cupcake, the kind with a cream filling. Well, my two daughters made a batch for us to have as my birthday dessert on Friday. They followed a scratch chocolate cupcake recipe of mine, filling with a copycat Hostess cream filling, and topping with fudge frosting. The copycat cream filling is one of many found online that contains marshmallow cream, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, hot water, and shortening, like this one. My daughters modified the recipe slightly, making a marshmallow cream substitute with mini marshmallows and corn syrup, and then adding a bit of butter to taste at the end of mixing all of the ingredients. Very delicious and satisfied that longing.

Making Soda Pop

Did you know that there are a couple of kinds of soda pop that you can make at home? I have an aunt who was legend for her homemade root beer at family reunions. She flavored hers with sarsaparilla, sassafras, vanilla bean, and licorice root. This has been on my must-do summer fun list for years. I'm thinking this year on the 4th of July, my family will make root beer.

There's another flavor of homemade soda that I really enjoy and will be making today -- Ginger Ale. There are a few ways to carbonate flavored soda: dry ice, yeast, water kefir, and using club soda or seltzer water. Each has its merits. 

I'm going for easy, so I'll be adding club soda to a homemade ginger simple syrup. Ginger simple syrup is easy to make, simmering fresh lemon and fresh ginger root in water, sweetened with sugar, and cooked down to syrup stage. Finally, the syrup is strained before adding to the beverages, such as club soda or tea.

There's a reason I'm making ginger ale today. It's my birthday! Today, I'm choosing activities that will put a smile on my face. Making ginger ale is one of those fun projects to celebrate the day.

Have a great weekend!

Dyeing Polyester Fleece

Hard to get the lighting right on this.
It's more uniform in color than it looks in the photo.

My daughter Grace had a white bathrobe made of polyester fleece that she wanted dyed another color. I looked into dyeing synthetic fabrics and found a product made by Rit called DyeMore. Synthetic fabrics don't grab onto the traditional Rit dye very well. DyeMore is supposed to be a solution for these fabrics. 

Grace wanted her white robe dyed camel-colored. DyeMore in Sandstone looked like it would produce the correct color. I read and followed the online directions precisely, including using a high-heat dye technique instead of using my washing machine for dyeing. 

I pre-washed the robe in warm, soapy water to remove the manufacturer's finish. Using my very largest stainless steel stockpot, I brought 3 gallons of water up to 200 degrees F, as instructed, before adding the contents of the well-shaken dye bottle. I then submerged the robe. I kept the dye bath on the stove over Medium heat the entire time, noting polyester requires longer than nylon and other synthetics. I stirred as instructed. Then  a little after an hour (the recommended time by the dye manufacturer), I drained the dye bath and robe into the washer and washed it in warm soapy water and dried.

While the robe took color well, it grabbed more of the yellow and less of the tan than I had expected. It turned out more of a creamy yellow than camel. Fortunately for me, Grace loves this color as much as she says she would have loved a camel-color. There was also an issue with the threads on one of the pockets dyeing more tan than yellow. I hope that fades. I also wonder how this fleece color will launder over time. I've had many dyed items fade significantly with numerous washings. I guess we'll find out.

I was reading online that it's a gamble when dyeing synthetic fabrics. You never know how true the color will dye. While I was disappointed the color wasn't what I thought it would be, I'm relieved that this satisfied my daughter. 

Have you tried dyeing synthetic fabrics? What's been your experience with using fabric dye?

Fragranced Candle Not Burned All the Wax?

My son and daughter-in-law gave me this wonderful candle for Christmas. I used it while working out all winter and enjoyed its relaxing fragrance. Like so many jar candles, this one couldn't burn all the wax. There's about 1/4-inch of wax at the bottom of the jar. It's still delicately fragranced. And I didn't want to lose that aspect of the candle. I thought it might make a nice "sachet" for my pajama drawer.

I've got the remnant of wax in the jar set inside a drawer and am pleased that it gives just a hint of fragrance to my pjs. I'll eventually melt the wax and combine it with wax from similarly-fragranced candle remnants. But until then, it makes a nice "sachet".

Hanging Salad and Herb Baskets

We have 6 hanging baskets for plants for our house (5 are matching). In 2018, I had them all filled with flowers. Then in 2019 I thought to fill them with nasturtiums for edible blossoms. In 2020, I planted them with red leaf lettuce. Unbeknownst to me, one basket had a hitch-hiking nasturtium seed in the soil and gave me a very pretty little plant alongside that basket's lettuce. At the end of last season, I thought I'd like to grow several types of plants in each basket. That's what I'm trying this year. Here's a photo that I saw online that I'm trying to imitate.

So far for the baskets, I've started parsley, red and green leaf lettuce, and nasturtium seeds, plus I took cuttings from my existing thyme plant. I can add radish, spinach, and cilantro seeds directly to the baskets when transplanting my seedlings and cuttings. I think they'll be pretty. It looks like the best appearance comes from a very full basket. So, that's my goal. These will all hang along the eaves of the back of the house, where we get the most sun exposure. 

Pretty and edible -- that puts a smile on my face!

I was needing a new potholder . . .

If you remember, a couple of years ago I patched my oven mitts. That fix lasted a good two years. So, I'm satisfied with the work done then. However, my oven mitts have now developed actual holes (not just thin spots as before) right where my fingers need to be when I grab a hot baking pan out of the oven. In fact, I got a sharp surprise about a month ago when grabbing the pizza out of the oven. Ouch!

Anyway, I've been looking at oven mitts in stores and online for a few weeks. Most of what I find in the stores are all made in other countries. As I'm still trying to buy from my preferred countries, this left me with shopping through Etsy. As we all know, Etsy can be a bit expensive.

One afternoon, I just thought, "utilitarian items don't need to be pretty. It's okay with me if utilitarian items look utilitarian." Thinking in this way gave me the freedom to just sit down and sew a potholder, using some of my fabric scraps.

If you're practiced at making over blue jeans, you know that you wind up with lots of denim pieces like lower jean legs (jean shorts anyone?). A cut off lower leg of a pair of jeans is just the type of thing that a packrat like me will hold onto for years. Because, well, you know, you just might need that piece of denim. 

I used one denim leg (along with other scraps as an insulating layer) to make this denim potholder.  Using scraps that I had on hand meant little risk should it not turn out and no expense. The whole project took less than an hour and was ready to use that very night when making dinner.

It's nothing special to look at. But it is a utilitarian item, after all. Why am I telling you about my new potholder made from blue jean scraps? I know that sometimes I have a hard time beginning a project because of fear of failure. In sewing projects, that failure might be not turning out as well as my mind envisions. In these cases, I have to give myself permission to fail before I even begin. Using scraps that were free to me is just such "permission." Nothing at risk, but a lot to gain -- makes me think of the Nike slogan, "Just do it."

Now that I've actually made this one (and solved our potholder problem), I'm wishing I'd done this several weeks ago. Having a usable potholder would have saved my family members a burn or two. 

Sorry to Be AWOL Last Week

If you look really close, you can see my beet sprouts.
These are from seeds I saved from a beet plant last year.
I wasn't sure if they'd sprout or not and began to think not after 3 weeks.
Then one day, they surprised me!

After Easter, I crashed and crashed hard. I was exhausted to the point that I knew I couldn't do everything that I would normally. I had to drop a couple of items from my usual list in order to put in serious effort on other agenda items. So, I'm sorry that keeping up with this blog was one of the things I had to drop for the week. 

Easter is like many other significant holidays for me. Every year, I put a lot of work into pulling the entire holiday together for my family. I know many here don't "do" holidays to the extent that my family does, so I don't tend to post all that I do. Anyway, we had a wonderful Easter. I hope that you did, too! 

My Tomato Seedlings Grown from Seeds

I started a bunch of tomato plants the last week of February and have been growing them under lights indoors ever since. This is what my six-week old plants look like now. I'll be able to transplant these out to the raised bed garden, under plastic tunnels, after the 22nd of April. The Farmer's Almanac says I could transplant these out around the 12th to 18th of the month in my area, but my particular microclimate is a bit cooler than other parts of my zip code, due to lots of tall evergreen trees all throughout my neighborhood.

Anyway, just updating. The plants are looking healthy. I hope they will size-up a bit more before planting time.

So, a cost analysis -- I bought seeds this winter, spending about $3 for enough seeds for two seasons, so estimating $1.50 for the seeds for this batch of plants. I also bought potting soil in which to start the seeds and have been using electricity for the grow lights. A high estimate for a batch of 10 seedlings (some to give away and some to plant) is around $2.75 to $3.00, or 28 to 30 cents each plant. In some past years, I've bought a 4-pack of small seedlings for around $2.50, or about 60 cents per plant. And in other years, I've bought the much larger plants for about $2.50 to $3.00 each plant. 

Starting from seeds -- 30 cents each. Buying small seedlings -- 60 cents each. Buying large plants -- $3.00 each. 

The happy side bonus is that I get to watch the plants grow bigger and bigger with each passing week. You can't put a price tag on happy moments, can you?

Happy Easter!

 

Wishing you a Happy Easter!

Our Easter Menu

Mounce, Grace. Easter Watercolor. 2021.
Watercolor and gouache on paper. 7 in. x 10 in.

Yet another holiday celebrated as an outdoor event! We plan on having a cook-out (surprise, surprise), so that we can have our son and daughter-in-law with us. Our plan is an early afternoon brunch. And we'll once again use our patio fire ring. With the fire, we all stay warm as we roast our main dish. Here's the menu:

Brunch Kabobs (ham chunks, smoked beef sausage, green and red pepper chunks & mushrooms)

Egg and Cheese Strata

Baked Apples

Tomato and Watercress Salad

Grilled Canned Pineapple Slices

Banana Bread

Orange Juice, Coffee, Tea

Rhubarb Pie

All simple foods, wholesome and made from scratch. I think it will be delicious. As you can see, this is not at all a traditional Easter Dinner. Hopefully by next year, we'll be back to normal holiday celebrations. What are your plans for Easter?

 

Pom Pom Chick Critter

Just wanted to show you my cute (and itty bitty) pom pom chick friend. He looks like he's ready for Easter.

My Worst Cooking/Baking Fail Ever: Whole Wheat Brick

It was mentioned in the comments last week that doing a post on our worst cooking or baking fails might be fun. So, I'll share mine, and you can add yours in the comments. 

I was 19 and sharing a house with two girlfriends for the summer, while we all did local farm and cannery work. (I know, I used to live such a glamorous life. Aren't you envious?!) My roommates worked the day shift driving combines while I worked 3rd shift (overnight) packaging asparagus. My sense of time was askew all summer long. I slept in the day and was up all night. I did my grocery shopping literally at the crack of dawn, after my shift ended. On my days (nights) off, I was often at a loss for something to do. If I tried to sleep during the night, it would throw me off for my next shift. So, I just stayed awake on my nights off, reading, playing solitaire (with actual cards), going to the 24/7 laundromat in town, going for midnight bike rides, and baking or cooking.

One night, I had a thought to try baking yeast bread. I'd never baked yeast bread before, but had baked a lot of biscuits, cookies, and cakes growing up. I went to the grocery store and bought a small bag of whole wheat flour and yeast. It was around 3 AM when I came home, and my roomies were sound asleep.

Being young, stupid, and impatient, I thought something like this, "oh, you don't need to really follow these instructions to make bread. I'll just mix up the dough and bake it." I used all whole wheat flour and didn't knead the dough at all. I don't think I even knew what kneading bread dough looked like. I just stirred together the flour, water, sugar, salt, butter, and yeast, then plopped it all into a loaf pan. The recipe on the bag of flour said that this made 2 loaves. We only had one loaf pan. So into the single loaf pan that dough went. I didn't allow the dough to rise, instead I popped it into the oven as soon as the oven was hot.

I decided to lie down on the sofa and listen to some music, quietly, while my bread baked. Our range was really old and didn't have a timer function. So, we'd have to keep an eye on anything we were cooking. I bet you can see where I'm going here. I fell asleep, and the next thing I knew my roommate was yelling at me to wake up, saying that the house smelled like smoke. (no smoke detectors in those days) I was able to retrieve my blackening brick of whole wheat from the smoky oven. Was that thing ever a brick! It was not sliceable. It was not at all salvageable. I did learn a lesson on following instructions. I wouldn't try making yeast bread again for another 9 years after that disaster.

This was the one cooking/baking that I would give myself a grade of a complete F. F, not only for the result being a failure, but also to myself for thinking I didn't need to follow instructions. Oh well, we're all young and stupid once, right?

Your turn. Share your biggest cooking/baking fail ever.

March Grocery Recap

I'm going to finish this up for the month a day early. For March, I had roughly 3 1/2 grocery trips. Early in the month, I piggy-backed on my daughter's shopping at Target for 1 gallon of milk, spent $2.59. A few days later I was shopping at Fred Meyer for garden items and picked up a bag of ground flax seeds for $3.29. Mid-month, I did a pick-up order at Walmart to begin restocking a couple of things, spending $46.20. Because I'm also shopping in person at WinCo now, I also shopped there mid-month to pick up regular food items to get through the month. I spent $62.99. And finally, the other day, I did another pick-up at Walmart to restock flour. I spent $37.70. My monthly spending for March came to $152.77.

This is what I bought:

3 gallons vegetable oil, Walmart, $4.44 each

8 10-lb bags flour for bread, Walmart, $5.98 each (these bags are airtight, reusable zippered plastic and can store without probs with bugs; exp date is Feb. 2022)

1 5-lb bag whole wheat flour, Walmart, $4.14 (trying a new brand)
2 5-oz bags dried cherries, Walmart, $2.98

1 bag oyster crackers, WinCo, $1.19
2 boxes crackers, WinCo, $1.28, $1.58
1 box animal cookies, WinCo, $1.38
1 box toasty o's cereal, WinCo, $1.68
10-lb bag sugar, WinCo, $4.95
1 bag chocolate chips, WinCo, $1.68

1 can black olives, WinCo, 98 cents
1 jar mayo, WinCo, $1.98

1/2 lb pastel M&Ms, WinCo, $1.95

2 jars instant decaf, $6.32 ea

bag of ground flax seeds, $3.29

3 gallons 2% milk, 1 gallon whole milk (for making yogurt), WinCo, $2.28 ea for 3, $2.78 for 1
1 gallon whole milk (for making yogurt), Target, $2.59
2 lbs shredded sharp cheddar, 2 lbs shredded mozzarella, WinCo, $4.98 each

2 18-ct eggs, WinCo, $1.45 ea

8-ct box all-beef corndogs (special dinner for daughters), WinCo, $4.58
refrigerated cinnamon rolls (special breakfast for daughters), WinCo, $1.69

10 lbs apples, WinCo, 50 cents/lb
1 bundle celery, WinCo, 98 cents
1 head cabbage, WinCo, 48 cents/lb
8 bananas, WinCo, 42 cents/lb
3 cans frozen orange juice conc, WinCo, $1.30 each
3 cans apple juice conc, WinCo. 99 cents each

I didn't shop for meat as I had planned. I'll get to that in the next week. I did stock up on flour for yeast baking. (I also keep standard all-purpose flour on hand.) I'm also trying out a small bag of 100% whole wheat flour from the same company. 

We are still eating out of our freezers and pantry. In addition, our garden is now producing kale, watercress, and chives for us several times per week, and the sorrel will begin producing in early April. 

We've been baking several times per week lately. A pan of brownies one day, applesauce muffins the next, followed by a couple of loaves of sandwich bread, cupcakes, pie, etc. There is always something to snack on in the kitchen. Breakfasts are toast, cereal, oatmeal, fruit, and/or yogurt. We've had a lot of homemade soups for lunches lately. Plus sandwiches, eggs, fruit, veggies, yogurt, cheese. As I've mentioned in past posts, dinners are homey and filling scratch foods like pizza, macaroni and cheese, eggs, meatloaf, chicken casseroles, chicken and dumplings, beef stew, chicken nachos, chicken salad, bean/TVP burritos, rice and beans, TVP meatballs and spaghetti, etc. 

These past few months have been rather easy on the budget, but I expect next month will be a big-spend month. I want to pick up several packages of meat and will need to restock some pantry items from the restaurant supply. Buying those institutional-size packages may be cheaper per unit, but up-front they seem costly. And that about wraps up my grocery spending for the month.

Pressing Spring Blossoms

These beauties fluttered out of a re-used envelope I had sandwiched between a stack of books and my nightstand. I'd completely forgotten about doing this last spring and came upon them this past week quite serendipitously as I was cleaning and organizing. A Johnny Jump Up blossom is charming and uplifting to find in the garden but an even greater treasure to "find" as a pressed flower in the still off-season.

I pressed these on a whim one afternoon, with no particular end purpose other than to preserve them. However, there are many crafty things that can be done with pressed flowers and leaves. A couple of crafts that I've done: framed "prints" made with pressed leaves adhered to art paper, as well as greeting cards and gift enclosures made with card stock and pressed blooms. I've also seen more impressive projects, such as pressed flower phone cases, pressed leaf candle lanterns, and lacquered pressed blossom trays.

While pulling weeds from pots, I noticed that I have a nice Johnny Jump Up plant in one of my deck containers. The plant looks healthy and will hopefully provide a lot of blooms for me this spring. 

I pressed leaves and flowers every summer growing up. I had almost forgotten about that simple pleasure, then last year I pressed just a couple of blossoms. I'm so glad that I remembered to try this again, as pressing flowers is such a beautiful way to celebrate spring and summer. And I'm equally glad that I found these pressed flowers when I did. Otherwise, I might have forgotten to press more blossoms next month when the Johnny Jump Ups bloom in my area.

How about you? Do you ever press flowers or leaves?

An Ugly Pie is Better Than No Pie

I was thinking that sometimes the foods that I prepare are not all that attractive. If I were to grade my meals, I think they'd be B-students on average. I rarely produce something that is A-level, and have only produced a complete F item, once. I should say that my grades would be based on several factors: appearance, taste, economy, and nutrition. Most of the time, I do well on economy and nutrition. Taste ranges from so-so to pretty good. Appearance seems to run the gamut. I've produced some remarkably unattractive meals before. And I've also produced a few really nice-looking meals. 

My pie fell in the less-attractive category this time. Here's a comparison:

A Pinterest pie

My pie

But here's the thing, it doesn't matter to my family one bit that I made an ugly pie, so long as it was tasty. And that's why I say an ugly pie is better than no pie. My family is smart enough to value mediocre-looking meals rather than have no meals at all.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with these thoughts. Perhaps I'm thinking about the futility of perfectionism in some areas of our lives. The pilot of my next airplane flight -- yes, I want perfectionism. The next time I need dental work that involves a drill -- yes, I want perfectionism. But the appearance of our daily meals -- hmm, I think my time may be wasted on perfectionism in that area.

Anyway, the pie was delicious!

Update on Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate Made in the USA

So, I have 2 updates on frozen apple juice concentrate. I had reached out to Tree Top customer service to ask if every step of production for their frozen concentrate apple juice was USA. The reply I received was that, yes, all apples are grown in the USA and all bottling/packaging is done here in the USA as well.

In addition, I picked up WinCo brand frozen apple juice concentrate last week and it, too, is a product of the USA. (The lids of frozen juice concentrates are stamped with country of origin.) I now have 2 USA frozen apple juice concentrate brands to choose from in my area. The bonus with WinCo's product is it was actually less expensive than Walmart's product of China frozen concentrate.

As with the frozen blueberries from Dollar Tree, "made in the USA" doesn't always means "more expensive." In an ever-increasing spiral of grocery prices, that's a good thing to know.

I was just thinking about how good we have it

We take so many items from our daily lives for granted, don't we? For example, take bread, that staple that many of us can't seem to live without. Many of us buy our bread and some of us bake our bread. Even baking bread from scratch has so many modern shortcuts.

I know some of us use bread machines regularly. I use a stand mixer to mix and knead the dough. I still have to form the loaves and bake them in an electric oven. But that's nothing compared to how bread was made in the home for century after century. 

Imagine if you had to dedicate an entire day of the week to baking bread. That isn't so far-fetched. This was typical throughout the 1800s. Housewives would set aside one day of the week just for baking. Baking day may have produced bread and maybe a pie or two. Baking those items alone really would take the better part of a day. The yeast would have to be proofed before adding flour. The dough was mixed and kneaded by hand. A fire would have to be built for baking. Loaves would be formed, risen and baked. Perhaps a pie or two would be made to take advantage of the prepared oven. The clean-up would surely take much longer than today. Perhaps water would be hauled from a well or nearby creek. The water  would need to be heated on the cookstove or over a fire. Bowls, pans, and boards would be scrubbed, perhaps using a homemade soap that may or may not have cleaned all that well or perhaps scouring with sand or cleaning with a combination of vinegar and ash. Pans would need to be thoroughly dried before putting away to prevent rusting. On top of baking bread and a couple of pies, the housewife would also need to prepare 3 meals from scratch and do some housework. That sounds like a full day to me.

We were out of bread, here, so I baked a week's worth on Tuesday. My yeast was instant, so no proofing was needed. As I said above, my dough was mixed and kneaded by an appliance. I did form it into loaves, myself. Modern ovens start with the push of a button, so when I want to bake again, for a pie or other items, I can easily do so. No need to add extra baking work on this day. After my loaves were baked, my dishwasher cleaned the pans for me. And because they're not made from tin, I let them air dry.

In addition to baking bread, I was able to complete several other tasks, go for a 1-hour walk, and take a brief afternoon nap. We really are quite spoiled.

Birthdays at Home Are the Best!

Hi, Friends! It feels like I haven't written to you, here, in several days (okay, it's been just about 4 days, I think). I feel a bit disconnected, like I'm out of my groove. But here I am, back to writing. 

It's been a very busy week around these parts. We celebrated our twin daughters' birthday over the weekend, and it just plumb wore me out. My son and daughter-in-law were able to come over and the weather cooperated just long enough for us to have a cook-out on the patio. In addition to roasting frankfurters over a fire, we had buns, sweet potato fries, onion rings, beet salad, and roasted Brussel sprouts for an early afternoon meal. I had baked a scratch German chocolate cake the day before (that was amazing), which we served for dessert. Everything I served was from what we had on hand. Just as we finished eating, a few sprinkles came along. So, we masked up and moved indoors to open gifts and sit and talk for a while. 

I think some of the happiest moments for a parent are when all of their children are gathered together. At least that's how I felt on Saturday.

Sunday was an incredibly lazy day for me. I barely moved all day. I must admit, part of that could have been the super large slice of cake I had on Saturday! I spent the better part of Monday cleaning everything up. Cleaning provides a wonderful opportunity to think about life and stuff.

One of the things that this pandemic has taught us is just how little we need in order to have a good time. In years' past, we sometimes went to a restaurant or movie theater as part of a birthday celebration. Now, we are content to celebrate at home, using foods from our pantry, fridge, and freezers, and just spending time together. The birthday gals said they really enjoyed their pandemic birthdays, this year and last. And we all enjoyed celebrating with them.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Have a great day!

Busy Weeks Call For Easy Dinner Plans: Your Favorite Busy Day Meals

At the beginning of this week I knew it was going to be a busy one. This is always such a busy time of year for me. Four family birthdays, tax preparation, getting the vegetable garden in, and pruning all of the fruit trees means that I have to get and stay organized for a couple of months each year in late winter and early spring.

On Sunday afternoon, I took a few minutes to write out 5 brief dinner menus, using those easy family favorites that I keep tucked in my back pocket, like secret weapons. Here's what's been on the dinner menu for Monday through Friday this week:

Monday
Live and Learn's Curried Pumpkin and Peanut Butter Soup (this is such an easy soup, I don't even measure any more)
freshly baked bread (that I baked for the week's bread supply)
watercress salad

Tuesday

tuna casserole -- made with canned tuna, TVP (for extra protein), canned cream of mushroom soup, lots of diced celery, lots of frozen peas, cooked pasta, onion powder, and salt

Wednesday

frozen corndogs

frozen French fries

canned beet slices in vinaigrette 

black olives

roasted frozen Brussel sprouts

cupcakes

Thursday

canned spinach frittata

sausage links

instant mashed potatoes topped with shredded cheese

jarred applesauce

Friday

homemade pizza

canned green beans

These were as easy as meals get around here, with Friday's homemade pizza being the most labor-intensive of all.

I'm always looking for more inspiration and you, friends, seem to know some of the best easy meal ideas. What are the easy meals you keep in your back pocket? Share your favorites in the comments!

Substitute for Cake Flour (and When It Matters)

I was making some scratch confetti cupcakes for my daughters' birthday yesterday, using a white cake recipe and some pastel cake/cookie sprinkles mixed in with the batter. (That's them above, iced with a buttercream frosting and topped with pastel M&Ms.) My white cake recipe calls for cake flour, but what I have is all-purpose flour. 

What is cake flour and why and when does it matter?

Cake flour is a refined wheat flour that is made with a lower protein wheat than all-purpose or bread flour. It's the protein (gluten) that forms stretchy bonds in bread dough -- nice for holding a piece of bread together but makes for a slightly dense cake. Cake flour makes a finer cake with a smaller crumb. For most scratch cakes, the difference in end result is minimal between using all-purpose or using cake flour. (And that's why I don't keep cake flour on hand, but instead use a substitute when it might make a difference.) Some cakes, like a light white cake or angel food cake do turn out lighter using cake flour.

So, is there a good substitute?

There sure is -- corn starch (or cornflour, but not cornmeal). Using corn starch in place of a small amount of all-purpose flour reduces the total grain protein content and makes a lighter crumb. Some shortbread-type cookies call for cornstarch in addition to flour. The end result is a more tender cookie than a similar cookie using flour only.

The cornstarch plus all-purpose flour substitute for cake flour

1 cup of cake flour equivalent can be made from 2 tablespoons (or 1/8 cup) cornstarch plus 7/8 cup of all-purpose flour. 

For every cup of cake flour called for in a recipe: measure 2 tablespoons of cornstarch into a 1 cup dry measuring scoop. Then add all-purpose flour to fill the 1 cup scoop. Increase or decrease according to this ratio. So, if a recipe calls for 1  1/4 cups of cake flour (which is what my 10 cupcake recipe calls for), measure 2  1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch into a measuring cup, then fill with all-purpose flour to 1  1/4 cups. 

FYI, arrowroot can be used in place of cornstarch, for those with sensitivities to corn.

Little cakes topped with chocolate candies -- always a hit with my family!

A Fun Day Ahead

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all you Irish folks and Irish-wanna-be's!

In addition to the holiday, today is also my two beautiful daughters' birthday. We'll have a bigger family celebration over the weekend, when their brother and sister-in-law are able to come over. Today, I have a few surprises in store for them. They didn't want to be part of the planning this year but instead wanted to be surprised. I used part of our grocery budget for a secret breakfast item and favorite dinner item. They know there's something, just not what the something is/are. (These are items that I rarely ever buy.) And I will use a gift card for an additional surprise today followed by a movie streamed through Roku tonight. It should be a fun day and evening for the two of them.

I hope you have a great day today and enjoy lots of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, soda bread, or whatever ticks the boxes for you!

Love Languages and Gifts

Do you recall that book about love languages? I was thinking about the book in connection with how my family celebrates special occasions. I know some of you have commented that giving gifts on special occasions is not really a thing in your family. I hope I haven't made you feel badly by posting about my own approach to giving gifts for holidays and special occasions.

According to that book, there are five basic ways of showing and receiving love, named love languages: words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch. I think most of us would say that we respond to more than one love language. In my own family, we all enjoy giving and receiving gifts. That doesn't mean that we're greedy people or too stuff-focused. It's just one of our ways to demonstrate our love for one another. 

I was also thinking about how my family doesn't really spend money on ourselves, aside from basic living needs. The things on which many other families do spend hold less appeal for the members of my own family, including personal indulgences. So, giving gifts is a way for us to remind one another that we are each worthy of having something special every once in a while. It's just how we are and how we approach holidays and birthdays. It's our love language.

I also like to express and receive love through acts of kindness (often baking or sewing for a loved one or taking over someone's chores) and spending quality time with my family members (I think I've blogged a lot about that subject).

Other families and individuals express and are receptive to love in other equally valid ways.  And I think this is reflected in how they engage on a day to day basis, as well as how they celebrate special events. Have you thought about your own love language?

Different Brands of Milk May Affect Yogurt-Making

I had a yogurt-making experience that I wanted to share, in the event that this might happen to someone else.

I've been making yogurt since 2012 and up until my batch at the end of February, I'd never had the yogurt not set-up. With that last batch, the yogurt only partially set. I'm careful about using the correct temperatures during each step (and I even calibrated my thermometer to be certain). I couldn't figure out what went wrong. I use starter from previous batches that I freeze in small amounts shortly after the yogurt is completed. I was down to just one container of starter in my freezer after this failed batch. On a hunch, I decided to try a different brand of milk for the next batch of yogurt, using this last container of starter.

Success! This batch of yogurt set-up beautifully. I don't really know what was different about the milk used in the failed batch. I had noticed that my yogurt this winter had been missing it's usual tang. So something was definitely different about that milk. With this recent batch, the yogurt is not only thick, but that tang is back.

Here's my message for anyone who makes their own yogurt and has a failed batch: After you've considered everything about your process, such as the temperatures for each heating and cooling step, the constancy of temperature maintained in your incubator while the yogurt was setting, the viability of your starter, and the ratio of starter to milk, try a different brand of milk. One brand may be pasteurized and processed in a slightly different way from another. This may not change the milk's nutritional benefits, but can alter the milk just enough so that homemade yogurt batches fail. The milk doesn't need to be an expensive brand. I only use house-brand milk, this recent batch the house-brand from a different store.

After I had success with this recent batch, I found other folks had similar experiences with failed batches, one brand of milk worked, another didn't.

I'm sure you're curious about what I did with the failed batch of yogurt. I ate it anyway, thickening it with soy milk powder before adding vanilla and honey. I suppose I could have used it in baking, making pancakes, or making cream soup. 

Anyway, just sharing my personal experience with changing brands of milk after a failed batch of yogurt.

Your Favorite “Irish” Foods for St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is in just a few days. My family has a couple of favorite themed foods for this holiday. One is a shamrock-shaped cookie. Some years I make gingerbread shamrocks and other years I make sugar cookies, either frosted with green icing or sprinkled with green sugar crystals or any green sprinkles leftover from Christmas baking. 

Shamrock-shaped cookies and I go way back. When I was in the 4th grade, my mother was one of the room mothers for my classroom. This meant that for special days in the school year, my mother and one other mother made treats for all of my classmates, and we had a little party in the last 30 minutes of the school day. St. Patrick's Day was on a Tuesday that year. I remember because the afternoon before, I got to help my mom make some cookies while she stood at the ironing board, pressing my father's shirts for work. (Monday was laundry day, and it always ended with a pile of shirts to be pressed.) My mother let me use her shamrock cookie cutter to cut the dough that she had rolled out. The baked cookies were set aside while we all ate dinner. After I went to bed that night, my mom decorated the cookies. The next morning, I peeked under the lid of the large, rectangular Tupperware carrier sitting on the kitchen counter and saw that my mother had frosted the cookies in white and green, making curlicues of green frosting on all of the leaves of each shamrock. I remember feeling so proud of my mother's cookies, thinking about them as I waited through the day in school. The skinny, red second hand of the classroom's wall clock clicked throughout the afternoon hours, the movement from one second to the next feeling painfully slow. At last, the two room mothers appeared in the doorway. They poured cups of punch and placed those beautiful cookies on napkins, one for each of us. We lived just up the hill from the school, so my mother walked home with me after the class party. She said something about my big smile as we stepped off the curb and into the street. I just said that I was feeling happy that day. 

The other food that I can't not serve for St. Patrick's Day is cabbage. I love cabbage. I love it as a slaw or sautéed with onions. The caramelized onions add sweetness to the pungent, cooked shreds of cabbage. This delicious dish only needs a sprinkling of salt and a dash of pepper to finish.

I've shared two of my favorite St. Patrick's Day foods and now I'm wondering, what are your favorite Irish-inspired foods for St. Patrick's Day? Share in the comments!