A Simple Easter Dinner Menu

I wanted an easy menu this year for our Easter dinner. So I specifically chose easy-to-make items. As a bonus, I'll be able to prepare over half of this menu on Saturday. My hoped-for result is an easier Easter Sunday.

Here's what we're having:

Easter Dinner Menu

Roast beef and gravy
Glazed carrots, will prep on Saturday
Asparagus-tomato salad, will make on Saturday
Chive-garlic potatoes
Little Smokies
Fresh radishes and celery sticks, will prep on Saturday
Dinner rolls, will make dough on Saturday to bake on Sunday
Honey butter, will make on Saturday
Strawberry-white chocolate mousse, will make on Saturday 
Unsweetened chocolate covered dates, will make on Saturday 

I finished the dining room spring garden decor, using items from the free pile box of faux florals and greenery that I grabbed from the curb in 2018.

Here's the chandelier entwined in the floral garland:

I swagged the boxwood leaf garland and some florals around the doorway to the dining room.

What are you planning for meals on Easter?

My Living Room Easter Decor

Hi friends,

I don't know what happened to my post from this afternoon. It was here in the evening and then it disappeared by 9 PM. 

I'm sorry about that. Here's a slightly different video. I hope it stays put this time.

My living room Easter decor uses a couple of Peter Rabbit items, a pastel colored set of string lights from my daughters' childhood bedroom, a pair of cement bird figurines, a "nest" of blown-out eggs that I painted and speckled several years ago, a bisque porcelain egg that my daughter gave to me recently, the print-out of a vintage image that I framed, and my collection of circa 1900 Easter postcards. I hope you enjoy the video.

I'll have more to talk about tomorrow. See you then. 

 

Styling the Easter Table With a Spring Garden Theme

Hello, hello, hello! I'm doing much better. Thank you for all of the kind words last week.

Over the weekend I began to get the Easter dinner table pulled together. I'm going with a spring garden theme this year. We will be 6 for Easter dinner and will be dining indoors. This is what I've come up with so far.

The tablecloth is a tan twill fabric, which makes it look less dressy, I think. The floral table square is placed on a diagonal under straw placemats. The placemats make me think of wicker baskets and straw hats.

I'm using the sage green napkins that we generally use in the kitchen at Christmastime. My mother gave me a booklet on folding napkins when I was about 20. In that booklet I found the instructions for this napkin fold. The booklet calls them pinwheels, but I think they look a bit like flowers, rosettes. I'll add the instructions at the bottom of this post for anyone interested. 

These were fairly easy to fold. If my napkin fabric had been stiffer (or I was using paper napkins), the folding and securing would have been even easier. 

This napkin fold calls for a napkin clip. Lacking napkin clips, I chose to tie raffia bows to hold the folds together. 

After trimming the raffia ends, I tucked an artificial flower into the folds under the raffia bow. To use the napkin at dinnertime, the raffia bow will simply untie and allow the napkin to open up fully. 

Napkin folds are a free and beautiful way to delight dinner guests. If you can't find a book on napkin folds at your library, there are tutorials for various folding designs online.

The centerpiece, so far, is this moss, ivy, and floral basket with a bird's nest that I made in 2013.

I have a large box of faux florals that I picked up from a free pile in 2018 or 2019. I came across 2 strings of floral garlands in the box and 2 rolls of boxwood leaf strings. I will be trying both out around the large window in the dining room and/or to add some garden-ness to the hanging chandelier above the table.

I scrubbed 4 clay pots to use in decor, as well. You can serve food in clay pots if the insides are lined with plastic wrap or waxed paper. I may use one of these on the table to hold dinner rolls and another to hold crudités.

That's where I am in styling the Easter dinner table so far.

Here are the napkin folds to make pinwheels (or rosettes, as they look to me):

Step 3 is where I used a raffia bow in place of the called-for napkin clip. I made the bow after pleating the napkin, holding the stack of folds together, and before fanning out the pleats.

I make these types of efforts because they please me. I expect the men at the table will be politely appreciative, but the ladies will find beauty in something like a napkin that looks like a flower.

I'll share more of my Easter plans as the week progresses.

Hi there!

pots of early spring flowers on the deck to brighten the mood of a gray day

Hi friends,

I'm sorry I've been absent this past week. I wish I could say I'm off enjoying a lovely holiday in the sun. But no such luck right now. I'm suffering from a serious case of fatigue and am finding it difficult to think, write, and post. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I should be back on track next week.

So, today is my 37th wedding anniversary. Right now I am getting dinner going. I'm making Swiss steak, brown rice, and garden Brussel sprout and kale greens. I baked whole wheat chocolate chip cookies earlier today for dessert.

I hope you all are having a great week. I'll write more soon. 

What Do You Do With Near Expiring Milk?

One of the challenges of keeping a household stocked with food when all members are adults and preparing most of their own meals is buying enough perishables without buying too much. 

When I was preparing 3 meals a day plus snacks for the whole family, I could keep an eye on what needed using soon and map out meals to use those foods. These days, we may have weeks where we run out of favorite produce items or milk, then for 2 or 3 weeks following, the bananas go black and milk sours before we consume those items.

Toward the end of last week, I thought we were going to have a banana situation. Then fortunately, my family picked up the pace in eating the bananas and we finished them all today. The milk, however, is a different story. I bought our current gallon a week ago Sunday and opened it the next morning. Milk tends to sour in my fridge about 10 days after opening, regardless of the expiration date on the jug. So here we are, 9 days after opening this gallon of milk, and there's still a lot left. 

So what do we do with near-expiring milk? Yesterday evening, one daughter made a double batch of chocolate pudding. Today, with about a quart to go and the clock ticking, I made a batch of granola. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that granola will be at the top of the snack list for my family this afternoon and tomorrow. I may be making pancakes for dinner tomorrow night, perhaps a double batch to freeze for another day. And if there's still some milk remaining after tomorrow's dinner, I'll freeze what's left to use in future baking. 

So what's your go-to way to use milk that's about to go bad?

Organizing a 30-Inch Wide Vanity Area

I hadn't planned on posting about this, as I was just cleaning up my space. However, I watched a lot of YouTube videos on organizing small bathrooms and vanity areas and didn't really see many ideas that would work for my tiny space and even smaller budget. I don't have room to add shelves anywhere. And I'm not interested in spending a small fortune on cupboard/closet organizers. I came up with some good solutions that didn't cost me anything. So, I thought there might be a few ideas here that could help someone else.

My plan was to use what we had. I admit, I did have a couple of good organizational tools already, such as the chrome under-sink shelf and slide out drawers (had one already under this sink and borrowed another from the other bathroom) and the over-the-cabinet door acrylic caddies. I also have a wall-mounted mirrored cabinet. But no base cabinet drawers. I don't know what you think. But I think 30 inches is really pretty small for a vanity.

As I mentioned yesterday, the first thing I did was pull everything out of the cabinet and clean off the counter. I sorted all of my junk into categories. I stored non-vanity items in better places in the house (I don't really need 14 trash bags under the sink). To my surprise, I only threw away a small bag of stuff. 

It really bugged me that there was no drawer space for holding unsightly items like toothbrushes, floss and toothpaste or hairbrushes, nail clippers, and tweezers. Drawers are such handy receptacles for all of those necessities.The over-the-door caddies are the next best thing for daily used items. 

I decided to use the caddy on the left cabinet door to house all of these basic items. Every daily essential is now handy at my fingertips. I found that I can stand at the sink with the left cabinet door open and access my dental care stuff or fingernail clippers or tweezers easily, and without bending over very much. The cabinet door caddy really is the next best thing to a drawer just below the counter. Although the caddy is sectioned, I added a couple of square plastic containers to the large section to corral and sort various items.

The other caddy (hanging on the right cabinet door) is for my sunscreen, hand sanitizer, and some specialty skincare products that I only use occasionally. The style of this caddy is one long tray without sectioning. It's also not as long or deep as the caddy on the left door.

In the hull of the cabinet I already had one of the chrome shelf and drawer units. I borrowed a second one from another bathroom cabinet to see if two of these would be good organizational tools for me. As it turns out the other chrome unit had been holding bath towels, which actually stack nicely on that cabinet floor. So a "free" shelf and drawer unit for me to use here. 

On these units I used containers that we already had, such as round plastic shortening and Rubbermaid containers, cardboard boxes cut down to the right height, and a lidded plastic bin. I organized items according to their purpose and placed those that I needed often near the front and those less frequently used at the back of the shelves. In between the shelves I have a tall round tin where I store a hair straightener, a curling iron, and my hairbrush standing on end. I keep my scrunchies on the barrel of the curling iron, one stacked above another. Behind this tall tin and under the sink's pipe is where I store the sink plunger. I only rarely need that tool, but I can get to it when I do.

The one bulky item that simply would not fit in the cabinet now that I've reorganized is a wastepaper basket. For now, this bin sits on the floor up against a wall 6 feet away from the vanity.

Above the sink is a wall-mounted, mirrored shallow cabinet. I grouped like items and housed them in repurposed freezer containers and smaller square plastic containers that came as packaging for sets of toothbrushes over the years (we went through a lot of toothbrushes in the orthodontia years). The freezer containers are ones that had developed cracks and so could no longer be used to freeze liquids. 

I have containers for hair products and accessories, nail care, and extra moisturizers on the top shelf. On the middle shelf I keep essential oils, extra tubes of hand cream, foot care products, and medicines/first aid products. The bottom shelf of this cabinet has all of my cosmetics. On the left is an acrylic make-up organizer that had previously been sitting on the countertop. It was very functional when out on the countertop, but it tended to look unsightly as products and brushes spilled out around the edges or didn't get put away when I was in a rush to get out the door. I used more of the small square plastic containers for cosmetic brushes and for eyelash and eyebrow related items. The far right container behind the tinted moisturizers contains miscellaneous travel-sized cosmetics. 

I have a lot of stuff here, I realize that. When my husband looked into my cabinet, that was his comment, too. I tend to keep products forever. When something expires or just gets old, I repurpose it. I found several purse-sized containers of hand lotion. I now use those in the shower in place of soap or mixed with a bit of shower gel. I also found numerous partially-used, purse-sized containers of hand sanitizer. I am currently using these as cleaning agents for the sink area. Ditto on an expired container of ear piercing solution. I do throw out expired medications without hesitation, though.

I've worked to make the counter look as attractive as possible.  I haven't mentioned this, but this sink area is in the master bedroom. So, I don't want it to look all junky. My CeraVe moisturizer and silver cup of faux flowers is on the right, and the cut glass tray of perfumes and colognes, the glass sundae dish for holding hand soap, and my towel is to the left.

the 1970s towel ring I plan to paint a creamy white

The whole area is still a work in progress. As mentioned, I have a towel ring that I will mount on the wall after I paint. That will get the hand towel off the countertop. The phone charging cord still hangs there to the right. I'm working on a solution for where to keep and charge my phone.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how the organization has worked out. I can find things easily and am still putting them away in their spots without trouble. I used items we already had in our house, tidied up the messy areas, and sorted and stored items according to purpose. Successful organization of a tiny space without any expense.

From Empty Candle Jar to Embellished Face Cream Jar

In February on a Saturday, I started a thing. I was in the throes of Pinterest-envy after seeing a photo of an absolutely beautiful vanity area. I studied that photo for a long while, trying to determine how I could improve my own vanity area.

This area is my own personal space. No one else uses it. I fix my hair, wash and make-up my face, and take care of general above-the-shoulder grooming in this space. Unfortunately, I allowed it to become terribly cluttered with my stuff, leaving me with great dissatisfaction in its appearance. I wanted to redo my space, but this project is cosmetic and therefore not a spending priority. I needed to do this with minimal expense.

One of the aspects of the Pinterest vanity that was very doable for my circumstance was it had a clean look to the counter space, no clutter. On the counter was a small vase of flowers, what looked like a bottle of body spray or cologne, a small soap dish for hand soap, and a lovely decorative jar, perhaps containing powder or moisturizing cream, but nothing else. My counter, in contrast, had all of my makeup, a toothbrush and toothpaste, hairbrush, hair straightener and a bunch fo scrunchies, and my phone.

I work on personal space/ personal belongings activities on Saturdays. So this first Saturday I cleared off the counter, and reorganized the cabinet under the sink and the wall cabinet. It already looked tons better. I was unsure if I'd be able to maintain this streamlined look. But here we are, a month later and yes, I have been able to keep it tidy. 

The next Saturday I went through my craft supplies and found some faux white flowers and a silver mint julep cup to use as a vase in imitation of the floral bouquet on the Pinterest vanity. I also collected my prettier perfume and cologne bottles and lined them up on a long and narrow cut glass cracker tray that had been my parents. 

The one cosmetic/grooming item that I felt I wanted to leave on the counter is my jar of CeraVe moisturizing cream. I use this all day long and didn't really have a convenient alternative place to keep it.  But I did want to stick with a more elegant look than a plastic commercial jar. Then I thought of the decorative jar in the photo and I had an inspiration. I had recently emptied a Bath & Body Works candle jar. I've seen lots of up-cycled candle jars online and have wanted to do something with this one jar. 

As you can see, the jar of moisturizing cream fits perfectly inside the empty candle jar. With the lid off of the cream jar, I could simply lift the candle jar lid off to access the moisturizer, no unscrewing necessary.

Another Saturday later I began my own up-cycle. One requirement I had for myself in this jar transformation was that I could not buy anything new to do this. I decided to go with a white glass look, with additions of matte gold and pearl beads. I used ordinary white acrylic paint on the inside of the jar (about 5 or 6 coats). Acrylic paint on the outside of glass can look flat. Paint on the inside of the jar gives the illusion of white glass. Once all of the layers of white paint had thoroughly dried, I used painters' tape to spray paint gold on the outside of the jar and on the lid.

And finally, this weekend I glued the pearl beads onto the lid. I'm happy with how it turned out. I still need to spray a clear sealer inside the jar to protect the acrylic paint from chipping. But I can do that this next Saturday.

Once I began poking through my craft supplies I realized that I have a lot of useful paints and trims to use in projects. I had the white acrylic paint, the matte gold spray paint, the pearl beads, and glue to adhere them. I "borrowed" a foot of painters' tape from my daughter and the rest was just a matter of my time, which actually became a very enjoyable weekend activity.

I continue to work on this vanity space. I have a towel ring that I held onto when we spruced up a bathroom 20 years ago. It has a very 1970s vibe in its antiqued brass finish. I plan on spray painting this a creamy white. I also plan on painting the walls surrounding this little spot and finding a new place to keep my phone. For now, I'm pleased with the progress I've made so far. I must admit, the biggest improvement came from cleaning up the counter and using under sink and wall cabinet storage for everything I use for grooming. I've already adjusted to opening cabinet doors to access my stuff. While not as convenient as just keeping everything on the counter, the pleasure I receive from seeing a more inviting space makes that trade-off worth it. When I finish it all up, I'll show it to you. Or at least when I've made more progress.

Quick, Free and Easy Easter Decor

 

The image is a free download from The Graphics Fairy. It's repro of a vintage engraving. I had the frame in my stash of stuff. I simply sized the pdf into an image that would fit the frame and printed on ordinary paper. I've displayed the framed, printed image on our piano.

If you're not familiar with The Graphics Fairy website, it is full of free and paid images to download and use in crafts and decor. There are also loads of craft ideas for using these images on the website. I am limited to what I can use, as I only have a black and white printer. But I love this one image of the bunny in the wild.

I have a couple of other ideas for making free Easter decor, using some of the images from this website. I hope to get to those in the next week.

For those of you wishing me well this past Tuesday with my dental appointment, thank you so much. This was the prep work for a crown on the other side of my mouth, This was a tooth that cracked 35 years ago and was repaired a couple of times. My dentist recommended crowning this tooth to give it more integrity in the long run. The appointment was a long, long, long one, 2 hours and 10 minutes. But I believe she did a good and careful job. I've had zero pain from this. It was stressful for me, though. I tried to keep my focus on Jesus, fixing an image of Him in my mind and praying, singing hymns in my mind and thanking Him for carrying me through this the entire time. The time passed and before I knew it, my daughter was driving me home. So, thank you for good thoughts on my behalf.

Sourdough Plum Kolache and a Recipe for Sourdough Rich Dough (Suitable for Sweetened Buns)

 

Last week I mentioned that I had pulled my sourdough starter out of the fridge to see if it had any viability in it after sitting untouched for 3 1/2 years. And it did. I used it to make these plum kolache buns.

I used almost a full half-pint jar of plum jam in the topping. I also added some crumb topping on top of the plum. The next time I make these, I will spread the dough rounds out thinner and use a full jar of jam and a lot more crumb topping.

We all thought these were quite good. I used a rich sourdough dough for these, one that works well for cinnamon rolls as well as fruity buns. This recipe was passed on to me by the lady who gave me my first sourdough starter 35 years ago. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on making sourdough kolache and sourdough cinnamon buns, but I chose this particular recipe because it didn't call for as much butter or sugar as the recipes I saw online. So, I'll share this, for those of you who like to use sourdough starter in baking.

Sourdough Rich Dough

3/4 cup active starter

1 cup milk (I used soy milk)

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup soft butter

3 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Stir sourdough starter, milk, and 2 cups of the flour together in a large non-metallic bowl. Cover and let stand in a warm place overnight.

The next morning beat the soft butter, 3 tablespoons sugar and egg together until well blended. beat into the sourdough mixture. Stir together the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then combine with the wet mixture.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and satiny, and doesn't stick to the surface.

Form into chosen roll shapes, fill (if needed), place on buttered baking sheet, and allow to rise until doubled in size. Bake at 375 degrees F until golden (somewhere around 30-35 minutes, depending on roll size and shape).

I made 12 buns with my kolache using this dough. My plan to spread the dough thinner next time and use more jam includes making 16 buns instead of 12, as these were very filling in the size I baked. For kolache, I rolled balls then flattened into circles, making the center of each circle thinner than the sides. I then filled each with the jam. After allowing to rise util doubled, I sprinkled crumb topping over each before popping into the oven to bake. The powdered sugar adds a nice finishing touch and just a hint of additional sweetness.

Menu Plan for a Week With Appointments

Brussel sprouts leaves in the late winter
garden in my growing zone can be sliced
 thin and sautéed, then steamed as a side dish.

I have a couple of days this week with afternoon appointments. So I've had to think of meals I could make ahead or with less time. 

Tuesday afternoon I have a less-than-pleasant dental appointment. It's not the next "big" appointment, but I will likely feel wrung out by the time it's over. I'll still have to make dinner when I come home. Here's my plan. I made a soup today, Monday, that I can heat and serve along with garlic toast with minimal effort on Tuesday. 

Thursday, again I'll be out of the house for several hours in the afternoon and will need something quick to make. I have a tub of extra firm tofu in the fridge that I can work with. Tofu is great for quick meals, as it only needs heating through, no lengthy cooking. I'm thinking about how to prepare it. Rice takes a while to cook, so perhaps noodles, like a lo mein. I can add fresh and frozen vegetables at near the last minute. What would you fix using tofu as the base and if limited in preparation time?

Here's the meal plan for the week.

Monday (daughter's night)
Beef and vegetable stir fry over brown rice

Tuesday (my dental appt day)
Hummus soup
Garlic toast

Wednesday (other daughter's night)
Meatloaf
Mashed potatoes

Canned green beans

Tomato and cucumber salad

Thursday (other busy afternoon)

Tofu-based meal, lo mein perhaps?

Friday
Pepperoni, olive, and green pepper pizza

Sautéed Brussel sprout greens, onion, and garlic

Spiced apple chunks

Weekend Dinners:

Vegetarian enchiladas with chunks of fresh tomatoes and avocados one night and a leftover meal the other

Other meals and snacks:

Later on the week I'll bake something for the family. Right now, we're working on a pumpkin snack cake that I baked yesterday afternoon. Hopefully that will last for snacking through most of tomorrow. They rest of the meals will be catch as catch can for everyone. I won't have time or energy to prepare stuff ahead for our household. Some weeks just have to be that way, I guess. But still I feel a little bit guilty not doing more for the bunch, simply because I have other stuff going on.

Easy-to-Make Vintage Confection

Do you remember last month when I noted that some of my groceries would be used to make a vintage recipe? I said at the time that it was for a 1940s treat. I was mistaken. This is a recipe from WW1. It's from the cookbook Win the War, by Reah Jeannette Lynch, published 1918. I found it on archive.org, page 122 in a section on saving sugar.

I finally made this treat this afternoon. They're chocolate-dipped dried fruit.

Bitter Sweets (my batch yielded 11 candies)

I used 1 ounce of Baker's 100% cacao unsweetened chocolate, and 5 1/2 pitted dates.

I cut each date in half lengthwise to maximize chocolate coverage. 

Next I microwaved the chocolate in a custard cup in short bursts (15-30 seconds), stirring periodically.

Once it was completely melted, I used a fork to dip each date half, turning to coat the underside as well. The dipped dates hardened on a sheet of waxed paper.

I loved these. The dates gave just enough sweetness to the confection, while still allowing the dark chocolate flavor to come through. I appreciated that there is no added sugar, and the dates provide fiber and minerals in a piece of candy.

If you enjoy very dark chocolate, this may be just up your alley. And if you're counting calories, one ounce of unsweetened chocolate contains 140 calories, and 5 1/2 dates contain 126 calories, total. So each piece of candy has 24 calories.

If you make this recipe, please come back and share your opinion on these vintage confections.

Grocery Shopping for February

Before this week's snowfall, I cut some branches from the
native plum trees, providing us with an indoor taste of spring.

So the month of February is about over, and I'm done with grocery shopping until next month. I feel like I shopped an average amount of days in February. Some of these trips to stores were two-in-ones, going to two or more stores on the same run. I tend to grocery shop once per week. WinCo is further away, so I limit trips there to every other week. Walmart, on the other hand, is practically right around the corner, and Grocery Outlet is directly across the street from Walmart. 

WinCo is my preferred store, so even with the extra cost in gas, I still shop there, just less often. It's a more pleasant shopping atmosphere, even when crowded. WinCo has slightly better prices on many foods, an enormous bulk section, and better quality on dairy, eggs, and meat. While Walmart may not be as pleasant to shop in, they have some items, such as chocolate chips, cocoa powder, and vegetable oil, that are priced lower than anywhere else. In addition, I sometimes need to get milk or produce during the weeks I'm shopping local and will get those closer to home, meaning Walmart or Grocery Outlet.

The tally for the month

2 visits to Walmart

$40.74 - cabbage, bananas, Roma tomatoes, avocados, bell pepper, gallon milk, egg noodles, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, vegetable oil

2 visits to Grocery Outlet

$14.76 - graham crackers, strawberries (for Valentine's Day), canned beets, turkey bacon, smoked chicken-artichoke sausages

1 visit to Target

$14.76 - eggs, 4 18-count cartons

2 visits to WinCo 

$137.99  - red and green heads of cabbage, cucumbers, Roma tomatoes, avocados, bell peppers, carrots, bananas, Fuji apples, 2-pack of whole chickens, milk, sharp cheddar cheese, organic flour, canned tuna, mayonnaise, dried fruit, butter, 3 tofu, chia seeds, baking powder, pepperoni slices, corn starch, powdered sugar, flax seed meal, bran, pink M&Ms (for Valentine's Day), baking coconut, prepared mustard, garlic granules, roasted peanuts

Total spent for February -- $208.25

The last couple of months our spending has been on what may seem to be the low side. That will change for next month, as we get more high-quality beef again. It's expensive, but so worth it to us. To afford this, we're mostly sticking to the basics, cooking and baking from scratch, and buying in-season or budget-friendly produce (exception Valentine's strawberries). Anyway, our monthly grocery spending fluctuates significantly due to our periodic beef purchases now. 

What I bought this month

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables:

4 heads cabbage (green and red)

2 cucumbers

6 avocados

a dozen+ Roma tomatoes

3 green bell peppers

20 pounds carrots

several bunches bananas

4 bags Fuji apples

1 pound strawberries (Valentine's Day purchase)

Dairy/Refrigerated:

3 gallons milk

2 small blocks cheese

6 dozen eggs

3 containers tofu

4 pounds butter

Meats:

2 whole chickens

1 package turkey bacon

1 4-count package smoked chicken sausages

1 package sliced pepperoni (enough for 2 to 3 large pizzas)

For the Pantry:

1 gallon vegetable oil

1 package egg noodles

4 canisters cocoa powder

2 jumbo bags semi-sweet baking chips

1 bag baking coconut

2 bags powdered sugar

10 pounds organic flour for bread

1 box graham crackers

1 jar mayonnaise

1 bottle mustard

5 cans beets

2 cans tuna

bulk items:

pink M&Ms (Valentine's Day purchase)

dried fruit (dates, prunes)

chia seeds

baking powder

corn starch

flax seed meal

bran

granulated garlic

roasted peanuts

How is grocery shopping going for you in 2024? Do you drive out of your way to shop at a preferred store as I do? Are you still able to stick to your budget, or have you had to increase your budget due to rising costs or a new emphasis on eating better? It can be challenging, can't it?

To Commemorate the Four Year Anniversary of the Beginning of the Pandemic . . .

It's alive!

I fished the sourdough starter out from the back of the shelf of the fridge. It's been sitting there, untouched, for three and a half years. I wasn't sure if it would even be viable at this point. But I got it out anyway.

After giving it a good stir and a feeding, I set it on the counter for the night. Low and behold, that thing is still alive!

Anyway, I'm thrilled it's still viable. This afternoon I started a batch of rich sourdough to make jam-filled kolache buns tomorrow. I'm working through our stash of homemade jams this month and next. I think kolache sounds like a good use for the plum jam.

So, during the pandemic, did you ride the sourdough train, too in 2020? 

I ran out of yeast early on and couldn't get any until mid-summer of 2020. I made sourdough pizza crust (very good -- gave the pizza a cheesier taste), sourdough burger and hot dog buns (my son and his wife thought those burger buns were the best they'd ever tasted), sourdough bread, and sourdough raisin and spice rolls (favorite of mine) that spring.

Menu Plan for the End of February/Beginning of March

Nature can't seem to decide if it's winter or spring.
The native plum is in bloom, but I woke up to snow.
Later in the day we had hail, graupel, then large heavy snowflakes.

Last week's menu went close to plan. We did swap out a couple of side dishes for items that we needed to use soon. But the mains were all as planned. So, in reality, successful menu planning requires some flexibility in its execution.

Here's our menu plan for this coming week.

Monday (one daughter)

Green vegetable frittata, using frozen garden greens and onions in the egg dish

Brown rice

Apple wedges

Tuesday

Beef braised in a tomato sauce (I have some leftover pizza sauce to use up) 

Mashed potatoes (the instant variety -- not my favorite, but it is what we have)

Carrots added to the beef braising sauce

Creamed frozen garden greens

The cut of beef is called a heel roast. I’d never heard of this cut before, so I googled how best to prepare it. Braising it is!

Wednesday (other daughter)

Cabbage patch soup

Toasted cheese sandwiches

Apple, garden-fresh kale and cranberry salad

Thursday

Taco bowls using leftover beef from Tuesday, green pepper, tomatoes, avocado, garden watercress, cucumber slices, cheese, and tortilla chips

Mixed fruit crisp (using frozen apple chunks, frozen blackberries, and frozen rhubarb dices)

Friday

Pepperoni, green pepper, mushroom, and olive pizza

Steamed garden-fresh Brussel sprout greens with onions

Carrot-raisin salad

Weekend dinners:

One night of mostly leftovers from the fridge. The other night will likely be a meatless meal, using dried beans (black-eyed peas).

Lunches:

We're experiencing a brief return to winter this week. After a couple of weeks of slightly warmer days, we've now had snow and hail in the last 24 hours. I'm thinking hot soup and egg salad, toasted cheese or peanut butter sandwiches plus apples and a batch of slaw will be welcomed by all for lunches. I'm baking 3 loaves of whole wheat bread today and will make some cookies tomorrow to add to our lunches.

Breakfasts:

I made a large batch of raisin bran muffins over the weekend that we're still working on. In addition, breakfasts will consist of eggs, toasted homemade bread with homemade jams (gotta use those up before spring and summer inspire me to make lots more), juice, homemade granola, and a breakfast casserole. Kris's mention of lots of leftover breakfast casserole from an event at church made me hungry for some myself. I have some cooked sausage in the freezer that I can use in a strata-type casserole, adding some chopped green pepper, onion, eggs, cheese to cubed bread and diced cooked sausage.

We're at an interesting place in the season. On the one hand, I'm trying to use up the frozen garden produce from last season. While at the same time our warmer early February has brought the spring return of some of our hardier garden greens. 

What's on your menu for this next week?

Thoughts and Review of February's 1950s Tuna Bake Meal

All of the recipes came from Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, publish date 1953. To refresh your memory, here's the menu from the other night:

Tuna Bake -- Cheese Swirls

Green Beans in Crumbs

Deviled Beets

my plate

I had several thoughts about each recipe. Again, my entire family commented that everything was delicious. I was unsure if we'd all like everything. But as it turns out, this was another winner of a menu.

Tuna Bake -- Cheese Swirls (all of the full recipes are in this post)

Ingredients:

• chopped green pepper
• chopped yellow onion
• cooking fat (I used vegetable oil)
• salt
• flour
• can of condensed chicken with rice soup (I used homemade chicken stock, seasonings, and leftover cooked rice)
• milk
• canned tuna (I used 2 cans)
• lemon juice
• Cheese Swirls for topping

to give you an idea of what the cheese swirls were,
this is what the casserole looked like before baking

Cheese Swirls

Ingredients:

• flour
• baking powder
• salt
• shortening
• milk
• American cheese (I used cheddar)

The things I liked about this recipe:

1) This recipe called for basic pantry items, such as yellow onions, flour, canned soup (which I was easily able make a substitution), and canned tuna. I also happened to have a green pepper in the fridge needing using, as well as almost all of the rest of the ingredients.

2) Even with making my canned soup substitution, the filling part was still a quick recipe to throw together.

3) The recipe is very budget-friendly. The topping was very do-able and inexpensive. The recipe for Cheese Swirls called for 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. That's really not very much. Canned tuna is under $1 a can in my area still. That's a good price for animal protein.

4) Not only was it tasty and filling, but it seemed "lighter" to me than traditional tuna casserole. I am not a fan of lots of pasta to wade through in tuna-noodle casserole just to get some tuna.

5) This could easily be turned into an all-in-one meal by simply adding 1 1/2 to 2 cups of fresh, frozen or canned vegetables, such as frozen peas, canned green beans, or chopped spinach. This would be a very good use for fresh spinach that was on its last legs.

6) I was able to put together almost all of the casserole in advance and have it waiting in the fridge to bake just before dinner.

7) Made according to the recipe, this likely would serve 6 adults, or a family of 8 if some were children. We had enough for all four of us both for dinner and a smaller portion for the next day's lunch. I made 12 cheese biscuit pinwheels to go on top of the filling, giving 3 to my husband, 2 to myself, and my daughters took 1 each for dinner. That left 5 pinwheels and the filling beneath each to serve us all for lunch the next day.

8) This was easy to make and didn't dirty too many dishes. I really appreciate that now that I'm washing all dishes by hand.

9) The rice in the soup (or my homemade rendition) added body to the tuna filling. Additional vegetables would have served the same purpose.

10) The biscuit topping was delicious and economical. Some casserole toppings can be on the more costly side, such as potato chips, lots of shredded cheese, crumbled cereal or crackers, or nuts. Scratch biscuits are right there with buttered bread crumbs for a frugal casserole topping. The biscuit topping also served as the starch part of the meal. So a dual purpose topping.

What I didn't like about this recipe:

1) The canned soup. I don't keep canned soup on hand. Even if I did, this would be an odd type for me to have chosen. Since I was able to find an easy work-around for the canned soup, I wish the recipe had just added an alternative to the chicken with rice soup, something such as " or 1/2 cup leftover cooked rice, 2 teaspoons of chicken bouillon granules, plus water to equal 1 1/4 cups."

Green Beans in Crumbs

Ingredients:

• canned green beans
• butter (I used part butter, part vegetable oil)
• salt
• cracker crumbs
• black pepper

The things I liked about this recipe:

1) We loved this! It was tasty and the cracker crumbs added texture and flavor. The key to making this is to either drain out or simmer out all of the water content before adding the crumbs. While the casserole was baking, I put the saucepan of green beans with butter and seasonings on the stove on Low to simmer until all I could hear was the fat crackling a bit. When all of the water had cooked out, moments before serving, I added the cracker crumbs. There was still a bit of crunch to some of the crumbs.

2) A great use for broken crackers. I used club crackers, but I remember my mother using Ritz crackers this way. It takes fewer crackers than you might guess (1/4 cup crumbs). I crushed about 7 or 8 small crackers and found I had more crumbs than I needed. I saved the remaining tablespoon of crumbs in a sealed baggie, waiting to be added to another dish.

What I didn't like about this recipe:

1) Although this can't be helped, as some things change in 6 decades, the size of can called for is one no longer sold. However, the recipe did provide the amount in cups, as well as size. So I was able to figure this out quickly.

Deviled Beets

Ingredients:

• butter
• prepared mustard
• honey
• Worcestershire sauce (I used a combo of soy sauce and brown sugar)
• paprika
• salt

The things I liked about this recipe:

1) This was a very tasty way to serve cooked beets. I'm not a huge fan of hot beets. I prefer them in a marinade and chilled. But I thought these were good, and I will make them again.

2) I cut the recipe in half, so I only used one 14.5-oz can of sliced beets. This was a good amount for our family of four.

What I didn't like about this recipe:

1) I felt it had too much butter. There was a smear of butter on each of our plates afterward. The full recipe called for 3 tablespoons butter. I think one could use 2 tablespoons butter and still have a great tasting side dish.

Key takeaways from this menu:

I missed having a light and cold side dish, like a salad or marinated vegetables. However, this was a filling, comfort food meal that was good for a chilly day. 

While we all liked the tuna bake, my husband really, really, really liked it! The combination of biscuit topping with the creamy tuna filling was a hit with him. We all enjoyed the leftovers the next day, too. Fish is not my favorite food, yet this was very good, and even I liked it the next day.

I'm inclined to make all of these recipes again. In the future, I would turn the tuna bake into a one-dish meal by adding vegetables to the filling. This would cut down on my kitchen time for a meal such as this. I think I spent about an hour to an hour and a half over the course of the day in hands-on work. 

I liked the way the biscuits were prepared. To me, rolling out the dough, then rolling up jelly roll-style and cutting felt less time-consuming than rolling out biscuit dough and cutting with a cutter, followed by re-rolling the scraps and cutting. And yet, the end presentation following the recipe was very nice. My mother-in-law would have been very impressed, if I'd served this to her. Yes, I do think this could make a nice potluck or informal gathering dish. If one wanted to simplify the cheese biscuit topping, drop scratch cheese biscuits (wet biscuit dough with shredded cheese mixed in) or canned biscuits topped with cheese could be used, saving 15 minutes or so on the preparation time.

This was a frugal meal for my family. The main protein was inexpensive (as far as meat goes), and the rest of the ingredients were basics for me to keep on hand. Not only was this a budget meal, but it also used basic cooking techniques, making this a good meal for anyone of any cooking ability to make. Canned vegetables are a big help for meal prep on busy days. There's no cooking, just heat and flavor right before serving.

I've had fun cooking recipes from this 50s-era cookbook. It's been a great way to shake up the cooking doldrums that can set in after many years of family cooking. I'll continue to look through this cookbook and do another meal in March. I hope this has been enjoyable for you to read about.