Well the temporary ability of the furnace failed overnight,

and our new install isn't until tomorrow. Today's high was 39 degrees F and low about 26 degrees F. That's the bad news. There is good news.

We kept the living room and entry hall at 64 degrees F until noon and 66 degrees in the afternoon, using a space heater and the electric fireplace (with heat output). That's really good. The fireplace and space heaters were turned on at 3 AM. It was 27 degrees F when I got up this morning and the temp in the living room hadn't changed for the worse. I'm keeping the kitchen warm enough with the large cast iron griddle across 2 gas burners on low (with a pot of hot cereal keeping warm on the griddle) plus 1 burner with the tea kettle on low. It doesn't take much to keep the kitchen warm-enough. The bedrooms are chilly, but we're doing okay. The other good news is the furnace lasted through the coldest of this cold snap, and the temps will only rise incrementally from here. The other good news is we absolutely know that we eked every last bit out of our furnace. I'd say we got "good value" out of that furnace, purchased 29 years ago.

We also have a couple of microwaveable heat pads for personal heating and for heating beds at bedtime. We only have to get through one last day and night before our new furnace will be installed. That's all good news.

The other positive to today is I cooked a hot lunch for all of us and we enjoyed not only a hot meal, but eating together. And I was motivated to begin cooking for tomorrow, as being in a warm kitchen cooking is better than any colder place today.

I'm choosing to look for the good news in all of this. Soon, this period will be behind us, and we'll have reliable heat once again.

I hope your week is going well.

Some egg talk

Egg prices are beginning to come down in my area. (keeping fingers crossed this trend holds)

About a week ago, Walmart had their 60-ct cases of Great Value eggs priced at $26 -something. Today, those same cases were $24.60 (works out to $4.92/dozen). Last week, Fred Meyer had a dozen Kroger large eggs for $7.49. Today, those same eggs are priced at $6.49. Our other grocery chain is Safeway/Albertsons. Their eggs are even more expensive at $6.99/dozen. These are historically high egg prices for ordinary white eggs. 

Chickens have to be cage-free in my state. But that's not the same as pastured chickens (much more expensive eggs). Cage-free chickens may still spend their entire lives indoors, never seeing actual sunlight. So these egg prices are for the least expensive eggs in my stores.

This morning I shopped at a small NW chain grocery, Town & Country. They're not terribly convenient, but they do carry some items I can't find in my local stores and they have a nice gift section. (I was shopping for a gift for someone today.) I've become obsessed with egg prices lately. So of course I checked the egg cooler there. T & C tends to be on the pricey side for many items. Imagine my surprise when I saw eggs priced at $3.99/dozen for cage-free brown eggs. $3.99 per dozen is a fabulous price on eggs for my area right now. It gives me hope that eggs will be even more affordable as we inch closer to spring. I bought 1 dozen eggs while there this morning.

I had used my last fresh egg over the weekend. So I was glad to find the T & C eggs today priced so favorably. The plan is to use the frozen eggs that we have on hand, with an occasional fresh egg when I only need one at a time or need a hard-boiled egg for something. I searched through the various freezers and found 32 frozen eggs. They're spread out between 6 containers of 4 to 6 eggs each. I can make these eggs stretch for perhaps 6 weeks, using 1 container per week. I'm hoping that the price of fresh eggs will be lower when I've exhausted my frozen supply.  

As I judiciously use the eggs I have, I'm using egg substitutes in baking and cooking as much as possible. I made pancakes Monday morning, substituting 1/2 teaspoon additional baking powder plus 1/4 cup of applesauce for the egg in the recipe. The pancakes turned out really well. I've baked no-egg cookies as well as this no-egg cake for my family in recent weeks. I'll give no-egg waffles a try this Friday morning. It goes without saying, having an egg for breakfast is off limits for now, unless it's a special day, such as this coming Valentine's Day.

What are egg prices like in your area this week? Have you noticed any price trends, up or down, since late-January? Have you tried any no-egg or less-egg recipes lately?

Valentine's Day Menus

I'll be cooking 2 meals for Valentine's Day this year, brunch and dinner. If family wants to snack in between meals, that's up to them. 

I'm trying to use what we have on hand as much as possible. I went shopping this morning for the remaining items, but overall didn't spend all that much additionally. Here are the menus:

Heart-shaped waffles -- I bought a waffle iron at Value Village (thrift store) last July for $5.59. 

Brunch

egg, pepper, onion, cheese, sausage casserole (using frozen eggs, a frozen onion/pepper medley leftover from Christmas brunch, cheese we already have, and 2 sausage links from the freezer, diced)

scratch waffles (maybe no-egg ones)

canned pears (from the pantry, need using)

orange juice (from frozen concentrate. I did have to buy the oj this week.)

bacon (from the freezer, leftover from Christmas brunch)

coffee, tea, cocoa, milk

Dinner

beef fillet (from the freezer)

chicken Cordon Bleu (2 ready-to-cook servings from the freezer, leftover from birthday dinner last year)

sautéed fresh green beans and garlic (I did have to buy the green beans)

baked potatoes (Again, I did have to buy the potatoes)

scratch cherry pie (our tree cherries, pitted and frozen)

We had some leftovers from Christmas Day brunch, an entire unopened package of bacon and about 1/3 of a bag of frozen peppers and onions. 

With the dinner's beef and chicken, since there are about 6 servings total, after cooking I'll slice each up, and we can all enjoy some of both. I tried to make dinner as stress-free as possible. After all, it's my Valentine's too. 

For both of the meals, I only needed to buy 1 can of orange juice concentrate, almost a pound of fresh green beans, and some potatoes. The rest we had on hand, which I think is pretty good considering I haven't been doing that much grocery shopping for over a month now.

How about for your household? Will you be cooking any special meals for Valentine's Day? Will you be dining out on or near the holiday? Is Valentine's Day irrelevant for you? 

And this is why we save . . .

This morning we woke up to a cold house and a bad electrical smell. The blower motor was stalling and eventually shut the furnace down completely. The bad smell was the motor as it was trying to restart itself.  My husband called the furnace repair company at 6 and left a message. We must've been the first to call in this morning, as just after 8 AM the repair guy knocked on our front door.

While the repair guy was working on our furnace, we did our best to stay warm, using 2 1/2 space heaters, the electric fireplace in the living room (that serves as a heat source), and the stove in the kitchen. I got the cast iron griddle going and made a batch of no-egg pancakes and a small pot of brown sugar syrup. I also kept a kettle of water heating instead of using the microwave to heat tea water. Between the griddle, the syrup heating, and the tea kettle, the kitchen wasn't too bad.

I said we have 2  1/2 space heaters. The 1/2 heater is a small desktop heater. We used that to keep a bathroom warm. The other 2 portable electric heaters kept the downstairs warm enough, while their heat rose toward the upstairs bedrooms.

This is perhaps one of the worst weeks of the year to have the furnace go out on us. The lows are in the 20s overnight and highs are in the 30s. Homes in this area are not as well insulated as homes in regions that routinely have very cold winter weather. So the house cools down very quickly.

The repair guy worked for close to two hours. He has it barely working again, with the warning that it won't last more than a couple of days. It needs a new blower motor, which is a factory-ordered part and would take 60 days to receive, not to mention its very hefty price tag. Our furnace is old and has a few other issues that will fail sooner rather than later. It sounds like the cost of all of these repairs would just about equal the cost of a new furnace.

So, the furnace sales person will be out in the morning to advise us on what would work for our house that can be installed as soon as possible.

If you're keeping track, this has been a very expensive year for my family, new roof, new car, laundry and oven repairs, my dental/medical bills, and now a new furnace. We'd been saving for a new furnace for several years. So this is something we're prepared for. We could have splurged on many luxuries along the way -- taken extravagant vacations, gone out to eat in nice restaurants, bought chic new clothing for ourselves, and/or driven the latest and greatest cars. Instead, for all of these 38 years, we've prioritized saving for rainy days. And the rainy days all came in just over a year's time. It took my husband and I all of 5 seconds to say yes to replacing the furnace. 

Having the necessary funds to cover our emergencies is about the best worldly luxury we could have.

There's no escaping rainy days. They happen to all of us. Having an umbrella and boots at the ready makes the rainstorm a little less stressful.

Snow Days -- Me Getting Stuff Done in the Kitchen

I think a snow day is a good day to

• do a little baking (blueberry muffins today)
• clean out the fridge
• refill containers and organize the pantry
• sit in a cozy spot by the window and watch snow fall

My daughters think a snow day is a good day to

• go for long walks in the snow
• play in the snow
• drink cocoa

My husband thinks a snow day is a good day to

• check tree and shrub damage from the snow
• catch up on favorite podcasts on his lunch hour

What do you think a snow day is good for?

Budget-Friendly, Mid-Century Tuna Burgers for a Winter Supper

A trip down the memory lane that passes through my mind.

My daughter made tuna burgers for us for dinner tonight. These hot sandwiches were served at Disneyland's Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship restaurant/Captain Hook's Galley from 1955 through 1982. 

image source: 
davelandweb.com

There are two recipes online for Disneyland's tuna burger. The first was printed on the paper placemat/tray liner when the restaurant was sponsored by Chicken of the Sea. 

The Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship Restaurant Recipe

This recipe calls for 6.5 oz can tuna, drained, 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1/4 cup finely chopped celery, salt/pepper to taste, 4 sesame seed hamburger buns, Thousand Island salad dressing, sweet pickle slices. 

The directions are to mix together the tuna, celery, and seasonings. Spread the bottom bun halves with the Thousand Island dressing. Add tuna salad to each bun half and top with a few sweet pickle slices. Top with the other bun half. Wrap in individual squares of foil. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 20 minutes. Serves 4. 

This version was served at the restaurant until 1969, when the Chicken of the Sea sponsorship left Disneyland.

"mermaids" from the early years at Disneyland

The Captain Hook's Galley Recipe

Captain Hook's Galley tuna burger
image source:
Disney Parks Media

When Disneyland took over the operations of this restaurant, they renamed it Captain Hook's Galley. Disney 's website has provided a recipe for the tuna burger that is like what was served from 1969 on. This is the version my daughter made for us tonight, with a couple of minor modifications. 

For one, we had 2 hamburger buns, 1 hot dog bun, and 2 soft (and flattish) drop biscuits to use for buns. In addition, my daughter used two 5-oz cans of tuna (in place of a 9-oz can) and sweet pickle relish (in place of sweet pickle slices). 

Also, our sandwiches were not double decker. Otherwise, she made the sandwiches as directed. And, we passed the mayo-chup at the table for those who wanted more dressing.

I said at the top that this took me down memory lane. I lived in Southern California for most of my childhood. When I was in middle school (6th, 7th, & 8th grades), if a student made honor roll for the first 3 quarters of the year, during the 4th quarter he/she could go with a school group to Disneyland for the day. I was fortunate to go each year. On one of those days, my mother gave me money to buy myself lunch. What do you think I ordered? I ordered the tuna burger from Captain Hook's Galley, aka the pirate ship. My daughter's tuna burgers were every bit as good as the one I remembered from my youth.

Like all kids, mine have asked me about some of my childhood memories. Several months ago, I mentioned the pirate ship restaurant that is no longer in Disneyland. I also recalled a hot tuna fish sandwich that I had for lunch one time. One daughter especially likes to recreate restaurant dishes. So she went on a quest to find this hot tuna sandwich from my childhood. The internet makes finding such things a breeze. Tonight was my daughter's night to cook dinner for us, and she asked to make the tuna burgers. How could I turn her down?! A memory and a meal wrapped up in a square of foil.

While canned tuna isn't as cheap as it was 5 years ago, it's still a decent budget "meat". Both WinCo and Walmart carry canned tuna fish (5-oz) for 88 cents per can in my area. Two cans feed the four of us adults. So under $2 for the tuna portion of a family meal. That's a pretty good value.

Do You Ever Hang Clothing to Dry?

an umbrella clothesline -- what I remember
from my own childhood

When my parents married (in the 1950s), my father made a couple of vows in addition to a lifetime of faithfulness. He vowed that my mother would never have to keep a vegetable garden and he would buy her a tumble clothes dryer as soon as they could afford it. My father grew up feeling poor. My grandmother was raising 5 children as a single mother. My father and his older sister were put in charge of the housekeeping and vegetable gardening (as well as tending the 3 younger siblings) during the summer months while my grandmother went to work. Both a large vegetable garden and a clothesline were reminders to my father of feeling poor. 

My mother did need to hang dry the laundry for the first several years of their marriage. But when I was about six years old, they moved into a house with a spot for both a washer and a dryer, and they had the means to afford both. My mother would continue to hang or lay flat some clothing items to preserve their shape and lessen wear, however.

When my kids were young, I hung the laundry to dry as a matter of necessity, even after my in-laws purchased a washer and dryer for us when we bought our house. I hung it all -- baby diapers, towels, sheets, and all of the clothing for 5 people. I once calculated the monthly savings by hanging everything to dry each week. I think it was about $18 per month savings. When you have just a tiny amount of wiggle room in the household budget, $18 is a significant amount.

Although we can afford to tumble dry all of our laundry now, we continue to hang some clothing each week. While we do this to save money, it's not the savings on our electric bill that we have in mind. It's keeping our favorite clothing for as long as possible that motivates us. (Washing also puts wear on your clothes. But  so far, I haven't found a way to keep my clothes clean and odor-free without washing.) All of that lint you pull out of the lint trap? That's part of the fabric of your clothing and other textiles! Both heat and rubbing of fabrics against each other is hard of fibers.

In a 1999 study reported by Science Daily, high heat drying can reduce cotton fabric strength (and lead to tears) by about 25%. In addition, tumble drying wet cotton fabric resulted in more wear than tumble drying partially dry cotton fabric. 

I didn't know about this study when I was hanging our laundry to dry all of those years ago. But for many years, I sort of intuitively knew this through my own experience. I just didn't know how much line-drying prolonged the life of our clothing. If it seems that pieces of your clothing hold up longer when exclusively line-dried for it's life, it's not your imagination.

Here's my math. If I can extend the length of a shirt's useful wear an additional 25%, that's like buying one fewer shirt every four years. My favorite, around-the-house shirt right now is on the rack shown in the photo. I always, always hang this one to dry. It's developing tiny holes near some top-stitching in different areas. I'll be sad to relegate this one to the rag bag, as it's so comfortable and soft. I bought this shirt in 2015, ten years ago. I've worn it once per week, almost year round, for those 10 years. If the Science Daily estimates apply to this shirt, I imagine it would have worn out about 2 years ago.

I have 3 portable indoor racks for laundry-drying. In nice weather, we move them out onto the deck. They're collapsible. So when we have guests over, I can fold them up and stand them against a wall of the laundry room. While these three are very practical, what I'd really like to have is something like this:

Isn't that a beautiful clothesline? Practical tools don't need to look boring. I have just the spot in the garden for one like it. Perhaps someday I'll get some help building a set-up like that. 

How do you feel about hanging laundry to dry? Does it call to mind feelings of economic disadvantage? Would/do you line dry specific clothing items so they would/will last longer?

Two Great Depression Ways to Extend a Few Eggs

Meals Tested Tasted And Approved, Good Housekeeping, 1931

I got the go-ahead to eat most of our normal foods today at my one-week post-op visit with the surgeon. I still can't have things like carrot sticks or nuts, but most of the rest of our foods are now a-okay. I came home and had a slice of bread, all in one piece (not cut up into small cubes). And I didn't puree our chicken noodle soup plus ate the biscuits as is. It was only a week, but I was really tiring of everything blended, pureed, liquified, or made soggy in liquids.

from page 59, Meals Tested Tasted and Approved

Anyway, one of the foods I did eat when needing things to be very soft were eggs, prepared in two ways that were popularized in the Great Depression: 1) soft scrambled eggs stretched with water, and 2) eggs with bread crumbs (as in the recipe above for Crumb Omelet).

The first egg variation, with lots of water, was a way to stretch a few scrambled eggs to look like more food for a family. Obviously, one would be filling out the egg meal with cheap starches like macaroni, biscuits, or potatoes, plus whatever vegetables or fruits the cook might have access to. The upside to stretching eggs with water (besides looking like more eggs) is that they come out very soft and easy to mash against the roof of one's mouth with their tongue. 

To extend eggs with water, I used 2 tablespoons of water for 1 large egg, beating well together, adding salt and pepper then scrambling in a hot skillet with fat. I cooked the egg until it was set, but not dried out. The water in the egg not only extends the egg, but it also creates steam which puffs up the egg, making it look like more volume. Most instructions for adding water to eggs recommend between 1 and 2 tablespoons of water per large egg.

The second egg variation extended the few eggs with bread crumbs, again making a few eggs look like many. For my purpose, I incorporated the bread crumbs this past week as a way to add soft grains to my meals. 

The recipe above calls for making this omelette-style. I made mine as scrambled eggs. As you can read in the recipe, this omelette was made with 4 large eggs, yet it served 6 people. That's 2/3 of an egg per person. Again, I would hope that the cook would be filling out the meal with lots of other filling and nutritious foods, perhaps a dandelion salad and a dish of fried potatoes.

Many home-cooks weren't fortunate enough to have a lot of eggs to work with each week in the 1930s. Stretching the eggs one did have to feed a large family was a bit of a challenge. We're rather spoiled in comparison, with the idea of two eggs as the normal serving per adult. In the cookbook pictured at the top of this post, most recipes provide 1 egg per serving, but there are a couple of other recipes that call for 5 eggs to feed 6 people.

Grocery Shopping for January 2025

I grocery shopped 3 times in January, and my daughter picked a few items for me on 1 occasion.

January 2.  We needed milk and a couple of other items, so I went to Walmart, which is about our closest grocery store. I bought 1 gallon milk ($3.67), 2 small boxes frozen turkey breakfast sausage ($1.78 ea),1 bar unsweetened chocolate ($2.84), 2 3-lb bags of apples ($3.28 ea), 2 packages turkey snack sticks ($3.72 ea), bananas (50 cents/lb), cabbage (86 cents/lb), garlic powder ($1.12), and 4 avocados (78 cents ea). I spent $33.81.

January 13. This was my big stock-up for the month and in preparation for not going anywhere for about 10 days. I went to WinCo because most of their prices are better than Walmart, and the quality of both fresh and frozen produce is higher. I would shop at WinCo every time, but they are a good 20 minute drive from my house. Gas is still very expensive in my area, so how far I have to drive to shop is a consideration.  

I bought 1 large bag frozen petite peas ($2.99), 7 small bags broccoli cuts ($1.18 ea), 2 gallons milk ($3.67 ea), block of sharp cheddar ($3.48/lb), block of mozzarella ($3.48/lb), family pack boneless skinless chicken breasts (about $2/lb), a lb sliced pepperoni (about $6/lb), 7 avocados (68 cents ea),1.5 lbs raisins ($2.58/lb), 1/2 lb cashew pieces ($4.48/lb), 1 lime (25 cents), dried cranberries (70 cents), .38 lb dry milk for cocoa mix ($4.08/lb), sesame snack ($3.16/lb), green pepper (78 cents), 2 3-lb bags apples ($3.28 ea), celery ($1.28), 5-lb bag carrots ($3.48). 2-lb bag tangerines ($2.98), 2 heads cabbage (78 cents/lb), bananas (50 cents/lb), mayo ($3.28), Roma tomatoes ($1.47/lb), bread flour ($4.98/5-lb bag), 2 lbs freshly ground peanut butter ($2.18/lb). Total spent at WinCo -- $96.65. I was buying a couple of snacky foods for our de-decking the halls dinner while at WinCo. Their bulk section is great for small amounts of snack treats.

January 24. My daughter picked up a jar of smooth natural peanut butter, a box of Cream of Wheat hot cereal, and 4 cans of green beans for us. These items came to $12.44.

January 31. My first time grocery shopping since my mouth procedure. Our fridge was beginning to look a bit bare, especially the produce drawer. Since this wasn't a big shopping trip, I just went to Walmart -- less driving.  I bought 2 packages turkey snack sticks ($3.72 ea), 1 bag frozen spinach ($1.16), 1 bag frozen peas (98 cents), 1 lb mozzarella cheese ($4.22), celery ($1.88), 5-lb bag carrots ($3.98), 3-lb bag apples ($3.28), 3-lb bag tangerines ($3.28), 1 green pepper (92 cents), Roma tomatoes ($1.28/lb), cabbage (86 cents/lb), bananas (50 cents/lb). I spent $32.39.

My total spending on food groceries for January came to $175.29.

I think my groceries are pretty basic. It feels easier to me to cook from basic ingredients and not worry about ingredients that bother my digestion than to buy a lot of convenience foods. Plus, I think cooking from basics saves us bunches of $$$.

What I bought in January:

3 gallons milk

3 pounds cheese

small amount of powdered milk (for cocoa mix)

4 packages turkey snack sticks

2 small boxes turkey breakfast sausage

family pack chicken breasts

a pound of sliced pepperoni

a couple of bunches of bananas

9 lbs apples

5 lbs tangerines

4 heads cabbage

10 lbs carrots

2 green peppers

11 avocados

several Roma tomatoes

2 bundles celery

1 lime

10 bags frozen vegetables

4 cans green beans

1.5 lbs raisins

garlic powder

1 jar mayonnaise

10 lbs bread flour

3 containers of natural peanut butter

Cream of Wheat hot cereal

cashew pieces, dried cranberries, sesame snacks for a fun dinner

Dealing With Meals for the Rest of the Family

First of all, I have to say that I'm fortunate to have 3 other cooks in the household. But still, I didn't want the burden of meals to fall on the others when they also have lives and work. And, one daughter was sick for a week, so she couldn't help much. 

This is how my family managed:

As I mentioned before, I made my own foods in advance to eat for the first few days. I also did some baking last weekend to see my family through the week -- bread, bar cookies, and granola. This saved me from feeling like I needed to get back to work before I was ready.

For the family meals, one daughter had last Friday as her family cooking night. She made us pepperoni pizza, doubling the recipe so that there would be an additional large pizza for this week. On Sunday, she was making a lunch for her boyfriend and his grandparents. Again, she doubled the recipe to save extras for this week. So, Monday and Tuesday, my husband and two daughters had the leftovers from her cooking for the boyfriend and family, reheating the pasta dish and making a fresh salad both nights. Wednesday and Thursday the three of them had the leftover pepperoni pizza with some steamed broccoli one night and Cole slaw and tangerines the second night.

All four nights of this week were super simple for dinner prep, thanks to my daughter doubling 2 meals she was cooking. My other daughter has been able to rest this week and work at regaining her strength. And my husband didn't have to cook at the end of a work day.

My thoughts -- if we ever have a situation like this again, where we know in advance that I will be incapacitated for a couple or a few days, doubling recipes a couple of nights the week in advance would provide enough heat-and-eat meals for the rest of the family to simply serve themselves. This wasn't all planned out in advance. It just sort of came together with the help of the non-sick daughter. But now that I know how well a little extra cooking and baking in advance could make a hard week so much easier, we will work things out in this same way again.

Recovering on a Liquid and Soft Diet

Thank you to all who said prayers or well wishes on my behalf. I so appreciate it.

Monday was rough, Tuesday was rough, but today I'm doing better. I'm wiped out, but my pain is now under control. I hope to feel better and better with each passing day.

Liquid and soft diets are challenging enough. Liquid and soft diets when you're lactose intolerant and feeling poorly adds a new level to the challenge. Fortunately, this is not new to me. The last surgery and the extraction before that required a liquid/soft diet for several days post-procedure. I'm actually now really getting this down.

On Sunday afternoon, I made myself a quart of pureed broccoli-cheddar soup and a pint and a half of vanilla non-dairy pudding. Vanilla pudding can be combined with pureed pumpkin and spices for a pumpkin pudding (boosting the nutritional value of the pudding) or served with a teaspoon of cocoa powder for a small cup of chocolate pudding or eaten just as vanilla pudding.

I also took containers of applesauce, crabapple sauce, and pureed pumpkin from the freezer to thaw. In addition to stirring pumpkin into vanilla pudding, it can be mixed with applesauce with a pinch of cinnamon. 

When I wanted a bit of bread with my pureed soup, I diced a slice into small dices and stirred them into a watered down version of the soup to soften the bread. Bread this soft becomes a bread-y mush, maybe not appealing under normal circumstances, but very welcome when on a no-chew diet.

And of course I've been able to eat mashed potatoes, mashed ripe bananas, and mashed ripe avocado, plus various smoothies.

By thinking ahead about my meals, I was prepared and ready to feed myself in the early days after the surgery. I knew what I'd have for each meal and snack for a couple of days. For these first three days I'm sticking to liquids and other non-chew foods. Tomorrow I'll be able to introduce foods like scrambled eggs and soft bread. Meat is still something of a challenge.

This is pureed chicken and vegetable soup.

To address that challenge, this afternoon I made a pot of chicken and vegetable soup, using a diced half-breast of chicken, some onion, celery, garlic, carrots, and seasonings in water. When the vegetables were fully cooked, I added a small handful of broken whole wheat pasta to cook in the liquid. Once the noodles were soft, I pureed the entire batch in a pitcher blender. This tastes better than it looks like it would. I'll be having pureed chicken-vegetable soup for a few meals in the next two days.

Chicken purees more easily than beef. The fibers are less stringy and tough in chicken than in beef. So I find it to be a good first meat to use in my "liquid" meals. It still will leave a small amount of texture if simply using a regular pitcher blender, but those bits are easily swallowed as is, and will digest easily. After surgery or an injury, protein is essential for repair. I'm glad to be at a point now to be able to add some meat to my days' meals.

There are some difficult aspects to subsisting on a liquid or soft foods diet, like boredom, wanting to chew something, missing favorite foods. But I'm trying to look on the bright side, that this is just part of the process to getting a healthy mouth back. Soon enough I'll be eating pizza and burgers with the rest of the family once again.

Hi friends,

I don't normally post on a weekend, but Monday will be a hard day for me. I have the last of my dental surgeries on Monday morning (say a prayer for me, please). I dropped off my consent papers yesterday. I'll be sedated, but awake enough to answer questions or respond to the doctor as needed. I hate sedation of any kind, it makes me feel out of my head, and I really, really don't like that feeling. I'm also scared of the after pain. I think I'm just worn out by pain in general. The anxiety this week has been eating me alive. It will be good to have this behind me.

I won't be posting Monday afternoon, as would be my normal routine. But I hope to get back to posting sometime in the week, at the very least to let you all know I'm doing fine. I also want to respond to your comments from this past week. I haven't forgotten, just been sidetracked.

One of my daughters got suddenly very sick this week. She'd been substitute teaching for 3 weeks, then just woke up so very sick the other morning. It's not Covid, but she was quite sick. She's improving now, thankfully. But it's been a rough few days. On top of caring for her, I've had to be extra careful myself not to catch anything, as that would have postponed my surgery by another month. Too much anxiety right now. Things will improve later in the week, I am confident of that.

Anyway, I hope your weekend has been beautiful and wish you a wonderful start to the week!

Be back very soon,

Lili

Finding a Work-Around For My "Lazy" Sourdough Starter

I've been working on my sourdough starter for the past month. It had been sitting in the fridge for a couple of years untouched. When I pulled it out of the fridge, it took several attempts to get a good rise on a loaf of bread. 

Our house is so chilly in winter that the starter just could not get itself revved up. Perhaps a little mid-winter laziness is affecting the starter.  

Finally, about a little over a week ago, I stumbled upon something that helped boost my dough's rising ability. I doubled the amount of starter I used in each batch of bread. To do so, I also had to reduce the water called for in the recipe. The bonus is by using so much starter in each loaf, I didn't have discard starter to try and use up.

My starter is still not what I'd call robust. It doesn't overflow the jar after feedings. It just bubbles.  That could be due to room temperature this time of year in our house. But I did find a way to make it work.

I had to get the starter back in good shape so I could store it in the fridge again for a couple of weeks. This coming Monday I have the last of my dental procedures. I may or may not remember to feed a starter for a couple of days. 

This is the same starter I made in 2020 when I ran out of yeast. It takes some work to get a starter going from scratch (just flour and water). I wanted to keep this one alive for future batches. So I wanted it back in the fridge where it can remain dormant and not need feeding.

It never ceases to amaze me how sourdough bread can rise without added yeast. They are simply a combination of starter, water, flour, salt, and sugar -- nothing else.

For the next couple of weeks, we'll eat yeasted bread. I can make 3 loaves at a time, and it's softer and easier for me to chew while my mouth heals.

How Do You Make Your Meatloaf?

Meatloaf is one of those great meat-based, budget entrees. It uses some of the cheaper cuts of meat and can be stretched with fillers like grains and veggies/aromatics. One pound of ground meat can be stretched to feed 5 or 6 people. While many of us use ground beef, ground game meat or farmed poultry or pork can also be used. Some recipes call for a mix of ground pork and ground beef in the same loaf. Vegetarian recipes might not be exactly "meat"loaf, but a bean-based loaf is also a possibility. My point? Meatloaf is budget-friendly and versatile.

As I was preparing a meatloaf for my family last night, I was thinking about all of the variations that folks do when making their meatloaves. My mother always used a slice or two of bread soaked in milk added to onions, herbs, salt and pepper, an egg, and ground beef. She spread the top of the meatloaf with ketchup before baking, and the loaf was baked in a bread pan.

My own meatloaf is a bit more basic. I soak a torn slice of bread in water, add diced onion and minced garlic, plus whatever herbs sound good (usually thyme, oregano, and rosemary) with the ground beef. If I feel like adding a bit of vegetable to the loaf, I add a spoonful of tomato paste or pumpkin puree to the mixture. Overall, my own meatloaf is pretty basic -- no egg, no glaze or topping. But it does taste meaty, and that's what I like. I bake mine formed into a loaf on a baking sheet with raised edges. I like how the sides get a bit crispy as well as the top when baked on a sheet. I sometimes make a gravy with the drippings and lots of aromatics. This is particularly tasty when I serve mashed potatoes on the side. Mmmm -- meatloaf and potatoes covered in gravy.

So, how about you? What do you add to your meatloaf? Do you add oats, bread crumbs, cracker crumbs, or other grains? Do you use an egg in your loaf? What flavorings do you use? And do you like to spread the top with a glaze of some sort, like ketchup? Do you bake yours in a bread pan (loaf-shaped) or do you form it on a baking sheet? Do you ever make a gravy with the drippings? And why do you choose what you do?

I like hearing how others do basic things like making meatloaf, as I sometimes get ideas and inspiration to try something different. Share in the comments how you make your meatloaf?

Where Does Goodwill Stuff Go if It Doesn't Sell in the Stores?

I've talked about this before, but I wanted to bring it up again this week. 

If you're not aware (from another country, maybe), Goodwill Thrift stores sell donated clothing and household goods. They receive so much merchandise every week that they can't possibly keep up in sales to match the volume of what is donated.

The stores color-code the price tags to indicate when donations were put out to sell and routinely cull the oldest-coded, unsold merchandise, to be sold at a steep discount elsewhere. All of this stuff goes to Goodwill Outlet stores.

As you can imagine, a lot of junk winds up in the outlet. But also, a lot of good stuff slips through without being sold in the main stores and ends up in the Outlet.

Instead of repricing each of these many, many items (which the labor to do so would drive up the price to the consumer), the Outlet sells everything except furniture by weight, with shoes, electronics, and hard goods less per pound and textiles slightly more. Clothing/textiles at our Goodwill Outlet is currently $1.79 per pound. The individual Outlet stores set their own price per pound, but the price per pound for all items ranges between $1 and $2 per pound across the country.

In case you haven't figure this out yet, buying high-value, but very lightweight items can be a steal. In 2019, I found a Calvin Klein summer dress that was lightweight. It was in excellent condition -- no stains, holes, or obvious wear. The price back then (even less per pound in 2019) was around 75 cents.

Clothing is not on racks, and most small hard items are not on shelves. Most everything is in large rolling bins. The employees roll out new bins periodically, removing the old ones to the back room. Shoppers descend on the "new" bins and begin digging through the piles. I'm not a huge fan of digging through bins, but my two daughters absolutely love to go to the Outlet. I sometimes think that they love a great bargain more than I do. 

Saturday morning they got up and out to the Outlet when they first opened. And they brought me home a "goodie."

They found this beautiful autumnal Jones New York silk scarf -- great colors and pattern to go with my fall and winter wardrobe. And yes, I wear scarves often! The price for this lovely scarf? About 25 cents! It needs a good pressing, but otherwise looks beautiful.

There are no dressing rooms and no mirrors at the Goodwill Outlet near me. I presume that is just how these outlet stores are. We deal with this, when it comes to clothing, by wearing leggings and slim-fitting tees when shopping at the Outlet, so we can pull clothing on over what we're wearing. To "see" how they look on us, we ask a family member to use our phones to take pictures from all angles. This works for us.

Anyway, that's where Goodwill merch goes when it doesn't sell in their regular stores.

Hi friends,

I'm just taking today away from my blog, as it's a holiday in the US. I'll be back tomorrow (Tuesday). Enjoy the rest of your evening!

Another Less-Egg Baking Success: This time a 1-egg pumpkin custard pie

Last week it was a reduced egg loaf of banana bread. This week I wanted to try using half the eggs in a pumpkin pie. 

This is a hybrid cornstarch pudding-baked egg custard pie. My thought was if I could combine a pumpkin pudding with some egg the pie might just work out with a single egg. I modified the recipe on the label for Libby's canned pumpkin. There's less milk, slightly more pumpkin, and less sugar, plus the tablespoon of cornstarch. 

The process to making the filling is two-step, cooking a milk and cornstarch pudding on the stove then combining with the rest of the filling ingredients.

just before baking

What I used:

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/4 cups milk or half and half (I used soy milk)
2 cups pumpkin puree (I used home-cooked and pureed pumpkin)

1 large egg
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked

In a medium saucepan, whisk together cornstarch and milk. Cook over Low-Med, stirring constantly, until thickened and has bubbled for 1 full minute (about 4-6 minutes total cook time). Remove from heat. Quickly mix in the pumpkin puree before the milk or cream mixture cools. 

In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg, then mix in sugar, spices, and salt. With an electric mixer, combine the egg/sugar/spices with the pumpkin/milk/cornstarch puree. 

Pour into an unbaked pie shell.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425 (if a metal pie plate, 400 if glass). Reduce oven to 350 (if metal, 325 if glass). Bake an additional 35 minutes or so, or until crust edges are golden and center of pie looks set.

just out of the oven

As you can see, the top of the pie has those traditional cracks in the surface that an egg custard pumpkin pie customarily has when first removing from the oven.

Cool on the counter for 1 hour, then transfer to the refrigerator and chill for 2 hours to finalize the set.

The cornstarch helps thicken and firm up the filling, so slices can have a more clean cut (like lemon meringue pie). When I've tried adding either flour or cornstarch directly to the uncooked filling, it has settled to the bottom of the pie, creating a thickened layer at the bottom. This new way with cooking the milk and cornstarch until thickened stabilized the cornstarch in the custard filling.

Here's a photo of a slice of pie after chilling 1 hour (I was impatient). The pie sliced nicely and came out of the pie plate intact. It's texture is soft and pudding to custard-like.

I think this is a success. The pie looks good and tastes delicious. The texture of the filling is great. And with eggs about 50 cents each right now, this is a money-saver to use one less egg.

Have you tried baking with fewer eggs than recipes call for? What has worked and what has not worked? Next, I will be trying to use half the eggs in a batch of brownies. I'm not sure how those will turn out. 

"Use It Up" Tip

This is how those plastic squeeze bottles of mustard work out for us. The first 98% of the mustard squirts out perfectly. With the last little bit, we slap the bottom of the upside down bottle while simultaneously squeezing. The result is a spray of mustard all over the plate as well as the sandwich, hot dog or burger. But I can't just throw the bottle out while containing a small amount of product still. So that almost empty bottle goes to the back of the fridge, and we get a new bottle out to use.

To salvage that last 1% or 2% of mustard, I pour in about 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice, put the lid on and shake it vigorously. I then take the lid back off and turn it upside down over a small dish or tiny canning jar. 

Why vinegar or lemon juice and not water? The primary flavor I taste in mustard is vinegar. (Vinegar is even the first ingredient on the label.) If I added water, I would be diluting that tangy taste and acidity. I use this salvaged mustard in homemade salad dressings, sandwich spreads, and marinades. So the vinegar or lemon juice is actually a plus in flavor and ability to break down meat fibers if used as a marinade.

Prepared mustard doesn't contain added emulsifiers, hence the need to shake the bottle before each use. Otherwise, the solids in mustard settle and leave a thin liquid at the top. In draining the salvaged mustard, this is much more obvious. The solids or thicker part sits in a mound surrounded by mustard-colored vinegar.

When I make a salad dressing or marinade with this, I try to pour off the liquid to use as the vinegar part of a mixture. I then use the thicker part in a mustard-mayo sandwich spread blend.

After draining the bottle for about an hour, I have about 2 tablespoons of useable product. I figure I've gotten near all of it out, and at that point I rinse the bottle with water to clean and recycle. And now, I've gotten rid of one more space-hogging item from our refrigerator.

Memories of My Nana: A Great Depression Era Breakfast That Didn't Short-Change on Protein

A lot of the everyday breakfasts of the Great Depression seemed terribly low in protein by today's standards. Growing up, my nana would tell stories of what my mother's childhood was like, often speaking of the foods she served and the playthings she and my grandfather made for my mother and her brothers. Everyday breakfasts were mostly starches with a little bit of protein. She and my grandfather had 3 growing children in the 30s, and my grandfather's income dwindled over the course of the decade to nearly nothing. 

They went from dining on breakfasts of thick slices of ham, a couple of eggs over easy, and slices of toast or some biscuits in the 1920s to a slice of bread or a biscuit in a bowl covered with warm milk by the mid to late-30s. Other starchy breakfasts included rice in warm milk, saltine crackers in warm milk, and oatmeal with milk. 

They were fortunate that they could get some eggs most weeks. On weekends, my grandmother cooked more elaborate breakfasts using these eggs. A family favorite (and one that actually gave them all a good amount of protein without too much extra cost) was creamed eggs on toast.

Creamed eggs on toast were hard-cooked eggs, chopped or sliced, stirred into a milk-based white sauce, and ladled over slices of toast or split biscuits. When the garden was producing, she would boost the nutrition of this dish with the addition of some fresh peas and green onions mixed in with the cooked egg and white sauce.

My grandmother was queen of the white sauce. She covered meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, potatoes, macaroni, and rice in white sauce. She even made a sweetened version of white sauce to top baked apples or baked peaches. White sauce was an easy way to add the health benefits of milk to meals suitable for growing children. During the Depression, milk was one food she could get plenty of for her family. Even in her later years, she still used milk liberally in her cooking.

I was curious about the protein content of creamed eggs on toast, so I calculated the nutrients based on my grandmother's likely ingredients. I discovered that the basic version of creamed eggs on toast contains about 12 grams of protein per serving and the green pea version contained about 13 grams of protein per serving. This is based on 1 boiled egg and 1 slice of bread per person, plus 1/6 of a recipe of white sauce that uses 3 cups of milk. I estimated she would have added about 1 cup of fresh peas to the entire family-batch (adding about 8 grams of protein). Even by today's standards, that's a fair amount of protein for a child's breakfast, and markedly more than the weekday starch-in-warm-milk breakfast.

Sometimes, it's the little things that make a difference

Although the days are slowly getting longer, it's still so dark when I get up in the morning and then again in the evening.

The remote-controlled battery candles that were part of our spring front porch makeover have added a bit of light to my dark mornings and nights. I brought them into the house for winter, which I think is probably a good idea anyway -- keeping them out of the elements and all.

But it's more than just the additional light in the house. The flicker (although fake) of the candles adds old-time-y ambience. I have one candle in one of the lanterns (from the porch) in the family room and the other candle on a candle stand (from a free pile 2 or 3 years ago) in the living room. They serve as night lights during the hours when the living and family rooms aren't fully lit, when we're scattered each in our personal spaces at both the beginning and ending of each day.

I find it very comforting to pass the living or family room and see the flicker of light. And that extra little bit of light means we are not bumping around in the dark as we move between bedrooms and kitchen.

Bringing in the candles from the porch is just a little thing, but it added so much atmosphere to our home during these short days of winter.

Hand-Me-Ups

A week ago, my daughter-in-law stopped by on her way to donate some clothing to a local thrift store. She had one item in particular that made her think of me, this Columbia Sportswear fleece jacket. I've seen her wear it a couple of times. However, she said she never felt that it fit her very well.

In late December, I thought I really should have asked for a new fleece jacket for Christmas, as my current one is quite worn. It was truly serendipitous that my daughter-in-law offered me this very thing I needed and about which I had been thinking.    

A lot of my husband's and my successful financial management and the quality of our day to day life is due to our openness in accepting other people's cast-offs, be it clothing, furniture, food, and even a car. If someone has offered us something that they no longer wanted or needed, we accepted and found a way to use the item or pass it on to someone else.

About 75% of our furniture came from other family members. The car we recently sold to a salvage company was my late in-law's former car. You may remember the trays of food that we were often given following volunteer work at our church's fund-raising luncheons. I've happily accepted hand-me-down clothing from my sister, my sister-in-law, my mother-in-law, my grandmother, and my stepmom. Accepting other folks' no-longer-wanteds has meant that we could live a higher quality of life on a smaller income.

This time, the needed clothing item came from the generation beneath me, my lovely daughter-in-law. It's a hand-me-up. It's the very thing I needed right now. Despite expressing my gratitude at the time, I'm not sure my daughter-in-law understands how much I appreciate this.

There's a bonus to cheerfully accepting other's cast-offs. These family members think of you first when giving something away the next time. And you never know what great stuff they'll be wanting to unload in the future.

How do you feel about offers of hand-me-downs or hand-me-ups as an adult? Do you feel obligated to accept or keep items long-term? Have you ever regretted accepting or turning down a hand-me-down offer? 

Mid-January State of the Pantry and Fridge

One of the things I love about mid-January is the manageability of our food storage. While these spaces are by no means lean, I can actually find what I need easily again.

Earlier this week, I took a few minutes to take inventory and tidy up the shelves and compartments of both the pantry and fridge. I deliberately skipped grocery shopping for about 10 days so our stock would dwindle enough to quickly do this work.

I'll need to grocery shop again over the weekend, but I won't be buying as much as I did November through December. That's a win for tidy food storage as well as my wallet.

Meals we've gotten out of a leaner fridge, freezer, and pantry this week:

• chicken pot pie, using a chicken breast, garden carrots, celery, potatoes and herbs, topped with pie pastry, and a side of watermelon pickles
• homemade pizza, beet salad (canned beets in dressing), lettuce and avocado tossed salad
• chicken stir fry, sesame noodles, homemade egg rolls (my daughter was ambitious that night)
• pot roast and gravy (from the freezer, last week's cooking) over cubed stale bread, roasted yams, apple wedges
• frozen fish sticks (with homemade tartar sauce), roasted garden potatoes, roasted yams, sautéed frozen garden Brussel sprout leaves and onions
• vegetable-beef soup (garden vegetables from the freezer, pantry, and fridge), cheese biscuits
• bean burritos, carrot sticks, sautéed misc. garden greens from the freezer

In addition to a tidier fridge, we've been making room in the freezer, too. I hope to get the small freezer emptied later this winter so that I can defrost it.

My digestion thanks me for the return to more basic meals after a long holiday period of goodies and rich food.

How do you feel when you open your fridge or pantry in January and it's not as full as it was during the holidays? Does this spark creativity in your cooking? Perhaps a sigh of relief? Does it prompt a bit of anxiety over having less? Or something else? Tell me what you think in the comments.

Have a great weekend, friends!

Fun Game We Played On Christmas -- Saran Prize Ball

I know that Christmas is over two weeks in the past, but I wanted to tell you about the game we played after dinner on Christmas Day. 

I put together a Saran Wrap prize ball. Prizes included individually-wrapped candies, pocket-size tissue packs, socks, travel-size toiletries, a device charger to be plugged into a car's 12 V cigarette lighter socket, dishcloths, individual packages of snacks, and low-denomination gift cards. In addition, there were notes wrapped up in the ball with or without prizes, saying "skip one turn," "take an extra turn," "everyone pass their last prize to the person on the left," "swap one prize with someone else's," etc.

To make the prize ball I wrapped the prizes/notes in between layers of Saran Wrap, forming a ball by the end.

To play the game, one person unwraps plastic wrap until they come to a prize and/or note. They then pass the ball to the next player. This continues until the wrap is completely undone.

You should also know that when we finished the game, we rewound the plastic wrap. My plan is to wash lengths of it, dry, then use in the kitchen as needed. No waste on this front.

It was a fun game. You could see what upcoming prizes were, but didn't necessarily know when they would be "found."

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Gifts that I received for Christmas -- a little electrical work

My husband is a busy man. He has worked hard to provide for us these past 38 years, and I appreciate that. So I don't like to ask him to do extra things for me on a regular basis. But, for gifts, I do ask for some of these little tasks to be done as my gift. 

 If you recall, last year on my birthday I asked my two daughters to help me spruce up our front porch as their gift to me. One year I asked my husband to install some new shelves in my closet as a Mother's Day gift. 

This year for Christmas, I asked him to do some wiring for a light that I got for free several years ago. This light fixture is for hard-wired application, but I wanted to be able to plug it in. I asked him to add a cord and switch to this light.

For my husband, this is a pretty simple task. For me, it's enormous to have it done so I can now use it. I think he enjoys doing a job as a gift for me. He knows that it means a lot to me. And it's in his wheelhouse.

I still need to figure how I will mount the fixture on the wall. But the electrical part is now done, and I'm that much closer to hanging this up in the house.

Do you ever ask for a job to be done as a gift?