Is 2-year old Christmas hard candy still edible?

Well, that depends on how you define "edible".

I opened a package of Christmas candy over the weekend. And this is what I found inside. All of the pieces stuck together in a large clump.

I pried a single piece off, to see if it was good enough to salvage. And guess what? It tasted fine. It was a little soft, but flavor was fine.

So I got out a table knife and separated the pieces.

In the end, I had a nice bowl of hard candy, plus a bunch of "bits". Those bits were saved, and have been added to cocoa and coffee this week. Kinda good, if I do say so.

So my answer is, yes, 2-year old Christmas candy is still edible. But the texture has softened. In the future, if I buy up clearance Christmas candy again, I'll store it in jars, with those small packets of desiccant, and see if the candy pieces retain their original texture.

How about you? Would you consider eating 2-year old Christmas candy?

A sweet person did something nice for me

. . . and now I'm in the position to do something nice for one of you, and someone else in my life who needs a lift. Doing this will give me joy. So accept this opportunity, happily.

I have a $10 gift card to Starbuck's to give to one of you. It's not much, but you could use it as a gift for someone else, a stocking stuffer, or to take time with a special person in your life to just sit down and savor a moment of quiet and non-work.

It's an actual card that I have. I didn't think about an e-card until after I bought the gift card. So, once again, due to higher postage costs to destinations outside the US, this is limited to the United States (but Hawaii and Alaska are included, this time).

So, if you would like a $10 gift card to Starbucks, just leave a comment below. I'll close this giveaway Monday, December 6, at 9 PM, PST, and announce the winner Tuesday morning. I'll be able to get this gift card into the mail later that day, if the recipient gets back to me, early in the day, with their mailing address. I'd like this to get to one of you as soon as possible, for your holiday enjoyment.

Have a lovely day!

Baking a perfect butter cake from scratch, using all-purpose flour and no baking powder (no kidding)

We had a birthday in late November. I can't believe this, but I have a child who is now 28 years old. It just doesn't seem possible that he could be this old. Anyways, we had an on-the-day celebration, and we also had a bigger, Saturday night celebration. If a birthday falls on a weekday, I bake a batch of cupcakes for the on-the-day celebration. And then on the weekend, when we all have more time, we have the birthday cake.

This is my all-time favorite, scratch yellow cake recipe, from my mother. I bake this cake for almost every birthday cake I make. Why? It calls for all-purpose flour, instead of cake flour. It never falls. It bakes a nice, slightly-domed top crust (no need to trim to set layers on top of each other). And it doesn't call for baking powder. You can use any solid shortening, but I think butter just tastes lightyears better. The layers can be baked days ahead, wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen. Then thaw on the counter for a couple of hours, and frost.

As my son's birthday falls right as I'm turning my energy towards Thanksgiving, I bake the cake layers in early November, wrap, freeze, then pull out the day before his celebration, to frost. The cake almost seems to improve with the freezing of the layers. I can easily slice the 2 layers in half, horizontally, using a serrated knife, for making a four-layer cake.

By the way, it may seem like a lot of extra work involved in buttering/flouring/lining a cake pan. this is how my mother always prepared the cake pans, and they never, ever stuck to the pan. So I continue to follow her instructions on this.

Here's the recipe for the butter cake.

Supplies:

two 8 X 1  1/2-inch cake pans. I use aluminum cake pans, like my mothers. I found mine at a garage sale, years ago. You can bake in larger cake pans, but the layers will be thinner, and the baking time should be shortened by a couple of minutes.
waxed paper and scissors
cake cooling rack (big enough for both layers)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (or any solid shortening)
1  1/2 cups granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vinegar ***
scant 1 cup milk ***
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Butter and flour 2 layer cake pans. To flour a pan, put 1 tablespoon of flour into the bottom of the buttered pan. Shake from side to side, and tilt the pan, all around, to flour the sides of pan. Do this over the container of flour, tapping the last bit of flour back into the flour canister.

Cut circles of waxed paper to fit in the bottom of each pan. To cut waxed paper, set the pan on a sheet of waxed paper, and use the point of a pair of scissors to "trace" the bottom of the pan's shape. Cut on that tracing. Place waxed paper circles in bottoms of prepared pans.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in salt and baking soda.

In a measuring cup, pour vinegar. Add milk to the 1-cup mark.

Add flour and milk in thirds, alternately, until all is combined. Beat for 2 additional minutes.

Pour into the 2 prepared cake pans.

Bake in the center of the preheated oven, for 28 to 35 minutes, checking just at the minimum time for doneness. To check for doneness, gently press your finger into the center of the cake. The depression should spring back. (In my oven, two 8-inch layers take 28 minutes to bake, no convection/fan.)

When done, place the pans on a cooling rack, trivet or hot pad. Allow to cool 3-5 minutes. Run a table knife around the edges of the pans.

Turn the pans over onto the cooling rack. The cakes should come right out.

Peel off the waxed paper immediately, and discard.

Cool the layers completely before frosting or wrapping in plastic wrap to freeze.

***if you do not use vinegar, you can substitute 1 tablespoon baking powder for the 1 tablespoon vinegar plus 3/4 teaspoon baking soda. Then use 1 full cup of milk, in place of 1 scant cup of milk.


For setting layers, if you want a really flat top surface for decorating, then place the top layer, upside down on the frosting covered bottom layer. When I just want a homey-looking cake, I set the top layer, right side up. It gives the finished, frosted cake a slight rise in the center, which can look nice with a simple frosting.

And now I'm hungry for cake!

November 2015 Grocery Spending Journal

For the month of November, I have $138.43 left in the grocery budget.

Nov. 1 Cash & Carry for Karo corn syrup, 1 gallon. spent $12.97

Country Farms produce stand -- the last day. I bought 30 lbs of small oranges for 49 cents/lb, 24 lb box of new- crop Red Delicious apples for $8.95 (about 37 cents per pound), 4 acorn squash (from 2.25 lbs to 2.5 lbs each), priced at 50 cents each (about 22 cents/lb), 6 yellow and green peppers (2 for 49cents) and 11 jalapeno peppers (for making salsa for 77 cents total. I spent $28.16.

Nov. 3 Fred Meyer This is my Senior Discount day for November. The Senior Discount gets me 10% off of house-brand items. I stumbled upon marked down, gallon jugs of organic skim milk, marked at 99 cents, not in the regular milk cooler, but over with the organics. With my discount, they were 89 cents each, I buy 5. I also buy sunflower seeds in the bulk bins, for $1.34/lb, whole almonds for $6.29/lb, whole pecans for $9.71/lb. In the baking aisles, I find pecan pieces in 6-oz packets for $3.59 (or $9.57/lb). I buy 6 (these will be the only pecans I buy for the year, as they're pricey). I also buy powdered sugar for $1.61 in 2-lb bags, I buy 6. In the regular milk case, half-gallons are on sale with coupon for 99 cents each, with my discount, they're 89 cents each. I buy 6 half-gallons of whole milk. Spent $50.87

Nov 6. Dollar Tree for my monthly run. I buy 2 quarts of almond milk, and spend $2.

Nov. 12. I stopped in at the local garden center to buy daffodil bulbs. They sell pumpkins in fall, but then turn  their business over to Christmas in early November. They put their remaining pumpkins out for free sometime in November, every year. I happened by there on one of those days, and picked up 4 nice large pumpkins, and several small sugar pie ones. Don't worry, I left plenty behind!

Nov. 12,13 Cash & Carry for the ground beef on this week's specials. 80/20 ground beef is $1.99 per pound, in 10-lb chubs. When I get there, they are all out. I ask, and am told they will have more in at opening. While there, I pick up 1 bag of shredded Cheddar cheese (I want 2, but not sure if it will all fit in fridge, will decide tonight if I should get a second bag -- $10.85 each), 4-lb jars of peanut butter on sale for $5.48 ($1.37/lb), I buy 4. Spent $32.77


Back on the 13th, to get the ground beef they were out of the night before. Bought 20 lbs of ground beef ($19.90/10-lb roll) and 5 more pounds of shredded Cheddar ($10.85), plus 1 bottle of sparkling apple-cranberry juice for Thanksgiving ($1.99). Spend $52.64


Nov. 16 Fred Meyer. As mentioned on my facebook page, I went to Fred Meyer to get a turkey. The deal is spend $50, buy a turkey for 69 cents per pound. Fortunately, FM is a discount store, as well as a grocery store. So I was able to spend the $50 without paying inflated prices on anything. In food, I bought one almost-20 lb turkey and 4 half-gallons of milk (99 cents each with coupon) and 4 half-gallons of orange juice (99 cents with coupon). After running everything in the calculator that I carry in my purse, I was 1 cent short of the $50, so I picked up 1 Lindt truffle, on sale for 25 cents, getting me over that hump of a minimum spend in order to make the turkey deal. Spent $19.93 on food, including the turkey.

Total spent so far -- $199.34

Nov. 18 Trader Joe's for cocoa powder, $2.49/9-oz canister, best price on cocoa powder in our area. I want 2 canisters for birthday cakes and holiday baking. I spent $4.98. Cocoa powder is much less expensive than baking chocolate or chocolate chips. And you can make some very nice desserts with it, such as Buche de Noel, or a cocoa glaze for homemade eclairs. I also like to bake pinwheel cookies, swirls of chocolate (cocoa powder) and vanilla dough in a refrigerator cookie. They look "fancy", but are very affordable to make.

Nov. 19 Fred Meyer for that other turkey. I bought very little "food", just 3 half-gallons of orange juice (99cents each with coupon). All of this orange juice -- I freeze it, after pouring out 1 glass. These 3 half-gallons were enough to satisfy the minimum, with the other purchases. Plus the turkey brings me up to $16.47 today.

Total for the month, so far -- $220.79

Nov 18-22 -- several stops at Albertson's, often with family members in tow. 10-lb bags of potatoes are on sale for the week for 99 cents/bag. So far, I've bought 90 lbs of potatoes. If I happen by Albertson's or Safeway in the next 2 days, I may pick up one more bag. 100 lbs of potatoes sounds like a huge amount, but they go quickly. And what is left in mid-winter will be cooked, mashed and frozen to serve later in winter, and into spring. So far, spent $8.91

I did stop in to Albertson's one more time for potatoes and 1 mushroom(yes, 1 mushroom, to add to my home version of cream of mushroom soup for green bean casserole). The potatoes were 99 cents for 10 lbs, and the mushroom was 33 cents. spent $1.32

Nov. 28 At Fred Meyer, picking up gift cards to use for Christmas shopping (4 X fuel rewards on gift cards this week). Also checked the egg cooler. Found 1 dozen repackaged eggs (I posted on these in June) for $1.19. I knew I'd be needing another dozen eggs, at least, in addition to the eggs I have frozen, to get me until Easter. I was very glad to find the repackaged eggs!

Now I'm done shopping for the month. For November, I spent $232.21, $93.78 over. But, we are pretty well-stocked right now. There's not a lot that I need, now. If I had to, I could get by with only buying milk, and still do fine for quite a while. That's a pretty good feeling, and totally eases the pain of going over budget for so long.



What I bought in November

Dairy
5 gallons skim milk
10 half-gallons whole milk
2 quarts almond milk
10 lbs shredded Cheddar cheese
1 dozen eggs

Produce
30 lbs of small oranges (perfect for lunches)
24 lbs Red Delicious apples
4 acorn squash
6 sweet peppers
11 hot peppers
lots of pumpkins
7 half-gallons of orange juice
100 lbs of potatoes
1 mushroom

Meat
19.91 lb turkey
19.57 lb turkey
20 lbs 80/20 ground beef

Pantry
1 gallon Karo light corn syrup
sunflower seeds
whole almonds
whole pecans
2  1/4 lbs. pecan pieces
12 lbs powdered sugar
16 lbs peanut butter
1 bottle sparkling cider
1 Lindt truffle candy
18 ounces cocoa powder

In December, I'll buy a ham or two, maybe some cream cheese, and perhaps some other holiday foods, but not sure, yet. I never did buy canned pumpkin. I bought some fresh pumpkins in October, and then got several more pumpkins for free, this month. I've been cooking and freezing the puree. I should have enough pumpkin to get through the year.

Turning shredded cheese into "slices" for topping burgers, making grilled sandwiches

Shredded cheese is almost always more economical than loaf or sliced cheese, for me. And it's very convenient for adding to pizzas, or making cheese sauces, or topping casseroles.

But not so convenient for topping burgers or sliding between bread for grilled sandwiches. However, there's a simple trick to turning the shredded into "slices".

Remove the turntable from your microwave, and place a sheet of parchment paper on it. (Dollar Tree now sells parchment paper.)

Make neat piles of shredded cheese, about 3 inches in diameter, on the parchment, using about 1/3 cup of cheese per pile.

Place the turntable/parchment/cheese into the microwave. Microwave on full power in 10 second increments, until cheese is nearly all melted, watching closely (just under 30 seconds for my microwave and 4 piles of cheese).

Chill turntable/parchment/cheese in the fridge for 30 minutes. Then peel the "slices" off of the parchment.

The parchment paper can then be rolled up and stored in a large ziploc in the freezer, and reused many times for this.

These "slices" melt nicely on burgers and in sandwiches.

Holiday Potpourri

In a package from a "boutique" Christmas shop, for about $10 per bag. Or,

homemade, using whole cinnamon sticks (salvaged from jars of homemade watermelon pickles, then simmered in water for a bit, to remove syrupy film), whole cloves, 1 orange (sliced thin and dried in dehydrator then sprinkled with ground cinnamon), and cedar sprigs from our woodlot, also dehydrated to preserve the color. 

The key to aromatic potpourri is in the scented oil. You can use essential oil, or fragrance oil (from the candle and fragrance section of craft stores like Michael's). I've used a Woodland Pine-scented fragrance oil for this potpourri. I bought the tiny bottle several years ago and only use a few drops at a time -- a small bottle lasts a long time.

I sprinkle a couple of drops of fragrance oil on the potpourri every morning. I also add some ground cinnamon, right over the dish of potpourri, every few days. (Cinnamon oil would be even better, but this is a "what I have" project.)

Homemade potpourri is different from store-bought, in that the fragrance is not overwhelming from the beginning. But with daily additions, I can control the strength of aroma, to be just barely detectable to me -- a background scent, not a focal point in the room.

I love that it's decorative, too. The oranges don't add scent, but visual contrast. Packaged in cellophane bags, this would make a nice hostess gift during the holidays. I may have to make up another batch just to have at the ready for gifting! 

The materials for my batch of potpourri costs about 75 cents to $1 (the small orange, some whole cloves and some of the fragrance oil). Knowing how inexpensive and easy it is to make at home, it does make me cringe at the idea of buying a bag for $10 at the boutique Christmas shop.

The 5-minute "floral" arrangement

Needing that special something to accent your holiday decor? Here's my 5-minute "floral" arrangement.

I took a brief break from cooking on Wednesday. Just needing to do something else for a minute or two.

I used my silver champagne cooler that never gets used for champagne, but that I hang on to anyways, because it was a wedding gift in a previous century. And I didn't polish it for this use, as I like the look of a slightly tarnished silver container for florals.

I also used a 1-quart canning jar. The photo shows a wide-mouth jar. After taking the picture I switched it out for a narrow-mouth jar (a better fit for the branches of cedar).

I put the canning jar inside the champagne cooler. A 1-quart jar is just the right height for this kind of cooler.

I went outside with my clippers and gave one of the cedars a bit of a trim. In the warmth of my kitchen, (and on the kitchen floor before I planned on mopping for guests), I trimmed all of the branches to the same length. I added water to the jar, and plopped in the branches.

I have a holiday floral pick wanting a home, so I added that, and voila . . . a lovely holiday accent for my kitchen counter.

And you know what? Writing this out actually took me more time that creating this arrangement.

Now it's back to cooking. This is my Thanksgiving Day post. I will be a tad busy in the morning, so I am posting this now, instead. I've got my stretchy-waist pants all set out for tomorrow (don't you just love that they add Spandex to everything now?) Hope you have a wonderful day with your family. I'll be back sometime Friday.

I've been richly blessed in this life. Happy Thanksgiving!

A birthday in the midst of holiday preparations

A homemade birthday banner, made when my son was 3, and reused every year, since.

Maps, which came in the mail for free, used as gift wrap.

A Christmas gift bag, with the holiday tag carefully removed,

by untying the cord handle on the inside of the bag, to slide the tag off, for a "plain" gift bag. The tag was saved, and can be put back on the bag, to use as a Christmas gift bag.

A four-layer, homemade birthday cake. Yellow butter cake, filled with blackberry jam and cocoa buttercream frosting.

A simple message

Very easy to do holiday decor. Self-explanatory for those who play Scrabble. Game tiles are from my mother's vintage 1940's Scrabble set. I also find spare tiles at vintage shops in the "antique" district near us. (Candles in the background are these jelly jar votive holders, using battery-op tea-lights.)

Festive trim for the Thanksgiving table settings

Just a little something for the water goblets.

A good friend gave me a baggie full of these pieces. I believe she said they were leftover from Thanksgiving "crackers" at her Thanksgiving. She gave them to me, as she knew I would find a use for them.

It's a short strip of ribbon and 2 tiny pinecones, twisted onto wire together, to make a small ring. I've put them on the base of all of the water goblets. There are 16 sets of these pieces, which is plenty for our table of 10 people.

I trimmed the ends of the ribbons, then tied the ribbons onto the wires attached to pinecones, and wrapped the wire around the stem of the goblet. Lacking tiny pinecones, this would also be festive with any ribbon, tied to the stem of water goblets.

Maybe you remember? Our dishes for this time of year are brown and cream transfer ware. I think the brown and cream plaid ribbon will look just right with the dishes.

Needing 2 extra water goblets for Thanksgiving

It looks like we'll have 10 at Thanksgiving dinner, this year. I decided that this year, as we're all adults, now, no one would "have" to get a tumbler, when the rest of the group is using a water goblet. Putting a tumbler at a couple of places at the table always seemed like the "kiddie" glass.

So, I stopped at Goodwill, the other day. I could have bought water goblets, full-price at Cost Plus or Target. But for something we'll only use every once in a while, I thought I'd check Goodwill first.

69 cents each, for two water goblets, that I really love! They don't match my other water goblets, but then again, I'm not a matchy-matchy sort of gal. My table setting philosophy is blend, don't match. It works for me.

Thanksgiving table decor on a budget of $0.00

Here's some of our Thanksgiving table decor this year. A table runner (kitchen table cloth, folded in thirds, lengthwise), strewn with pumpkins (free last week at the local garden center) and pressed autumn leaves.

Last Friday afternoon, I went outside and collected a handful of wet leaves that had been blown off of our trees. I opened up a sheet of newspaper, and laid the wet leaves down.

After folding the newspaper closed, I stacked an armload of catalogs on top, and left the pile sitting on the kitchen vinyl floor for a few days.

The moisture was soaked up by the newsprint, and the leaves were flattened nicely.

I could buy a packet of craft leaves from Michael's or Hobby Lobby. But, you know, I think these leaves look more realistic! :-)

A 5-minute project. Cost? Nothing. Satisfying? Absolutely.

Baking a large batch of meatballs for the freezer

Yesterday, I told you about my 20-lb purchase of ground beef, and what I did with it all. In the comments, I was asked how to keep them from sticking. There are a few tricks with meatballs, some of which really help with the sticking aspect. Here's how I make mine.

I use bread torn into small pieces, soaked in 1 beaten egg. I mash up the egg/bread, then add seasonings (for Italian, I add garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes and salt). I mix the seasoning/egg/bread with the ground meat, and knead it all together with my hands. (Not my favorite thing to do with raw meat, but it gets everything incorporated well.)

Working on a large sheet of waxed paper on the counter, I make 1-ounce meatballs. To decide how big to make each, I take the total ounces of the meat used, divide the meat into that many portions on the sheet of waxed paper, and form into balls. Keeping the balls uniform in size ensures even cooking of all meatballs. An easy way to do this is to pat out the meat mixture into a rectangle, about 1-inch thick. Then use a knife to cut the meat into equal squares (the number of squares being the number of ounces of meat you are using). Each square should be a 1-ounce portion of meat to form into a ball.

As I make the balls, I set them into pyrex baking dishes. I refrigerate all of the uncooked balls for at least 1 hour. Refrigeration does two things. It allows the flavors of the seasonings to develop. And it firms up the balls, so when baked or cooked in a skillet, there isn't too much flattening of the underside. A lot of flattening of the underside means a lot of surface contact with the baking sheet, which in turn leads to more surface which can stick.

While the balls are chilling, I grease an insulated jelly roll pan (I use butter, but any solid fat will work). A jelly roll pan is a large baking sheet with raised edges all around. Using an insulated baking sheet prevents over-caramelization on the bottoms, which lessens sticking. And greasing the baking sheet helps the balls release from the pan.

I preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

After the balls have chilled, I transfer all of them to the greased baking jelly roll pan. I bake for about 20 minutes, and check for all over browning and clear juices. If you have an instant-read meat thermometer, the internal temp of the balls should be about 160 degrees F.

After taking the baking sheet from the oven, I prop up one long end, and pile all of the meatballs along the high end, to drain excess fat.

Next, I wrap a clean baking sheet in plastic wrap. After the meatballs have cooled and drained for about 10 minutes, I transfer each ball to the plastic-lined tray/baking sheet. (Silpat would also work for freezing.) I freeze for about 30 minutes, then transfer all to a zippered bag. Freezing separately prevents the balls from glomming onto one another in the freezer, and I can use however many I want at a time, with ease.

So, that's how I make meatballs and keep them from sticking to the baking sheet.

If you regularly bake with a silpat or parchment, you could also bake meatballs on pans lined with either of those.

What to do with 20 pounds of ground beef

It's that time of year, again. When it seems like time speeds up. Between now and New Years, the calendar may say there are about 44 days, but it will feel like a week and a half to me. With family birthdays, baking cakes, wrapping presents, baking pies, decking the halls at church, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, decking the halls at home, Christmas shopping, wrapping presents again, baking cookies, open houses, a musical performance or two, (and all of the rehearsals that go with those), Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day dinner, unwrapping of presents and New Year's Eve dinner and festivities -- there will be less time, before there is more, when it comes to making weekday dinners.

Coincidentally, ground beef was on sale at Cash & Carry, last week, in 10-lb chubs, for $1.99 per pound. I bought 2 chubs (20-lbs). Ground beef is great for make-ahead meal items. I can make so many of our family favorites with it, such as meatballs, taco/burrito filling, Salisbury steak, and of course, hamburger patties. And, with a little up-front work, I can have these all in the freezer and ready to go, for an easy dinner.


Last Friday afternoon, I took a couple of hours to divide up these large chunks of ground beef, precooking/seasoning some of it, and pre-portioning other amounts.

I made a 48-ct batch of 1-oz Italian meatballs,

3 pounds of cooked and Mexican-seasoned beef for filling tacos and burritos, making skillet dinners, quick chili con carne, and bun tacos,

flattened 3 pounds into hamburger patties for 15 burgers,

and portioned the rest into 1-lb packages.

The pre-cooking and pre-patting saves money over similar offerings in convenience frozen foods. Cash & Carry sells 1-oz Italian meatballs, in a 5-lb bag, for a little over $3 per pound. My meatballs, in a 3-lb batch (and also now conveniently in a zip bag for easy access), cost about $2 per pound. Cash & Carry has pre-formed beef patties (same 80% lean/20% fat as the ground beef I bought), on sale this week for $2.49 per pound. My hand-patted patties cost $1.99 per pound.

I saved both time and money, by cooking and/or forming the beef, in one large batch.

Meatballs are a favorite for our family. I would be making them anyways, with ground beef on hand. So making a large batch will save me time for future meals. Once upon a time, I actually did buy them, pre-made at Cash & Carry. So, this is a "real" savings for us, not just hypothetical. And those hamburger patties that I formed? When I gave my son some choices for his birthday dinner, this week, he chose hamburgers. Our home-cooked burgers will cost about $2.50 for meat and homemade buns, or 50 cents per burger -- far less-expensive than anything I could get carry-out.

One more perk to doing a little extra prep work this last week --

in addition to there being less time for cooking, before there is more, last week reminded me that there will be more colds/viruses, before there are less. So having some easy to fix, meals-at-the-ready may be very useful in coming weeks.

This doesn't just happen . . .

it all takes planning.

I was trying to explain this to an acquaintance the other day. You all know that I run our household like I'd run a business. Because it is a business!

Merriam-Webster defines business as "dealings or transactions of an economic nature". Aren't we carrying out dealings of an economic nature? We have an income that comes in and expenditures which go out. And somewhere in between, we have all of the activity which has the ability to grow, preserve or deplete our finances. I am CEO, manager, labor force, and accountant for this enterprise.

As the CEO, I set the direction for the activities which will bring us the greatest financial rewards. As manager, I make the detailed plans for how to activate this direction. As the labor force, I do the grunt work of carrying out these plans. And as the accountant, I look at the numbers to ensure we are, in fact, making financial gains with our activities.

That's the big picture.

On a smaller scale, yesterday afternoon, I finally made the year's supply of salsa. I didn't just head into the kitchen and say to myself, "gee, I'd like to make some salsa. I think I'll run to the store and buy everything in my recipe". I could make our salsa in that spur-of-the-moment fashion. But my accountant tells me that the figures don't add up. I would be spending more in ingredients for the homemade version than I would spend on commercially-made salsa.

Making my own salsa is a valuable use of my time, if I obtain each ingredient or supply at our area's lowest or close to lowest price. But doing this takes planning. I need jars, right? Fortunately, I have a large supply of jars that have been given to us, or that I've purchased at second-hand stores in the off-season, or that I've scrounged from free bins at garage sales, and some jars that I bought on sale at the local discount store. At the end of the canning season, I check the discount stores for marked down lids and rings. I watch for ingredients to be at their lowest prices of the season at the wholesaler near us (Cash & Carry), for items such as canned tomatoes, garlic powder, vinegar and onions. I grow, harvest and dry or freeze my oregano and cilantro. I collect and save little packets of red pepper flakes from my kids' pizza outings. And when I have everything else I need, I buy my jalapenos at either the local produce stand or at my favorite year round ethnic market.

Once I have all of my supplies, then I schedule an afternoon to make a 12-pint batch. I spend about 3 hours, start to finish, to make 12 pints. If I just shopped dollar sales at the supermarket, I would spend as much as $24 on this amount of salsa, when the 8-oz jars are on sale for $1 each. If I shopped at Dollar Tree, I would see about the same cost for this much salsa. Buying salsa in a 64-oz jug would cost about $1.48 per pint, at a store like Wal-Mart, which is an improvement over buying salsa in the half-pint jars. But, by making salsa at home, using my best buying/acquiring strategies, I spend under $5.50 for the 12 pints, or under 45 cents per pint. That's a savings of about $12 for our supply of salsa.

My accountant says that saving $12, doing an activity that is one of the more "fun" homemaker activities, and not displacing any other work which could bring in income, is a good use of my 3 hours, on a Sunday afternoon.

My labor force is looking at the jars, all neat and in rows, and feeling satisfaction on a job well-done.

My manager is pleased that the salsa could be made affordably and under budget, with some planning.

And my CEO is thrilled that the bottom line is more money in our pockets, and less going out the door.


Who else, here, thinks of their household as if it were a business? Judging from many of the past comments, I believe I'm in the company of quite a few other CEOs!

Cheap & Cheerful suppers for a week with sickness in the house

Friday
(another busy day, mostly before noon, so dinner was again, easier)
*turkey minestrone soup (using frozen turkey in stock, garden kale and garden garlic, onions, carrots, canned tomatoes, frozen green beans, garbanzo beans and macaroni), topped with cheese
leftover French bread
*apple pie from the freezer

Saturday
*leftover turkey minestrone
sandwiches from an event I worked earlier this day
*salad with lettuce and cucumbers given to us, and tomatoes from our garden
fresh watermelon and blueberries, given to us

Sunday (catching a cold, not feeling like any sort of big production for a Sunday supper, used up some leftovers, and made an easy dinner)
scrambled eggs with onions and peppers (I cooked the onion and peppers to go into burritos for the next day's lunches, and made extra to fold into the eggs)
*oven roasted blue and white potatoes
*fresh pear slices
*salad of lettuce, cucumbers and garden tomatoes

Monday (my son had dinner at a friend's house on Sunday, and brought home some leftovers for us. The pork, cabbage and some of the potatoes were the leftovers.)
pork roast
red cabbage and apples
potatoes (I added a few more, to stretch this for the whole family)
Delicata squash
vanilla pudding for dessert

Tuesday (still feeling cruddy, thankfully I had a large container of beef chili in the freezer, and a watermelon given to us on Saturday)
beef chili
watermelon slices
French bread

Wednesday (no leftovers or frozen meals, so I had to cook from scratch, but feeing a bit better, so I was okay with this.)
roasted chicken leg quarters -- pulled the meat off bones, then tossed in herbs, garlic powder, onion powder, salt/pepper and some chicken broth -- very delicious for a quick and easy chicken dinner
*mashed purple potatoes, topped with gravy from the freezer
baked squash
*kale and onions sauteed in bacon fat (had bacon for breakfast, poured most of the fat into container for the freezer, then saved the pan for tonight's dinner for the kale)

Thursday
chicken soup
leftover apple muffins and French bread
*applesauce from freezer



Have you heard this? I don't remember where I read this, but when making large pots of soup containing noodles, with the intention of having leftovers, or holding some of the soup until later, to cook the noodles separately. Add the noodles to each bowl, just before serving. And save any leftover noodles in a separate container in the fridge. The noodles won't suck up the liquid in your soup, and get soggy.

I feel so thankful for friends who give leftovers, for the lady who coordinates teas and luncheons who offers things like watermelons and English cucumbers for us to take home, and for a freezer, which held some leftover entrees for us to eat, on those nights I was too wiped out to cook. I was able to put together dinners each night, which met nutritional needs for my one daughter who is working hard to keep her weight up. I'm just thankful, today.

Our weather has turned practically balmy this week, with daytime highs in the 50s, nearing 60 on some days. This has kept the fall garden doing well. I picked garden greens a few times this past week, to add to soups, or saute, as is. This is an "el nino" year, which means warmer than usual temperatures for us (also means a whole lot more rain, but I can live with that). Our "fall garden" could last well into winter. More kale, chard, radish, mustard greens and cabbage. Again, just feeling blessed and watched out for, right now.

So, tell me, what's been the most colorful dinner you've had this past week?