Fallen leaves

Sunday was my turn to bring cookies to coffee hour. After perusing my supplies, I realized that I needed a cookie recipe that didn't call for eggs, baking powder or very much butter. If you bake, then you know that reduces my selection of recipes to a minimum.

Then I remembered gingerbread cookies. They use about half the butter of most recipes, no baking powder (only baking soda), and no eggs whatsoever. They get their leaven from a combination of the acidic molasses and the baking soda. Bingo! I found my cookie! A frugal cookie choice when I'm low on eggs, butter and baking powder. (You can find my recipe for gingerbread cut-out cookies in this link.)

I had actually wanted to make these for a couple of years. I have these autumn leaf cutters, you see, and I just thought they'd look appropriate done in a gingerbread, like a fallen leaf.

After baking, I drizzled with a maple icing. They were delicious, and I thought very beautiful, too. Just my kind of cookie. . . fallen leaves.

What's your favorite go-to frugal cookie?

Cutting the grocery bill by buying institutional-sized packages

I've had to tweak my grocery spending just a little, to reduce our grocery bill, with our new income.  I've slightly changed my thinking on how I stock our pantry. I am now approaching this task as if I were stocking an institutional kitchen.

I already buy the bulk of my grocery basics at a wholesaler that caters to restaurants and institutional kitchens. But wanting to save BIG on groceries, then shopping like a restaurant on some items, seems to be the way to go. Restaurants don't buy teeny tiny boxes or cans. So, for a few of my items, neither will I.

I first read about shopping at a cash and carry restaurant supply in the mid-90s, in the Tightwad Gazette. I searched around our area, looking for a cash and carry wholesaler and I found 3. Costco Business, Sysco Foods and United Cash and Carry. (You may be familiar with Smart and Final. It's a well-known, national chain of cash and carry.)

United Cash and Carry was my choice, as I it's close to home and doesn't require membership. Back in the day (18 years ago), they were strictly cash and carry, no credit, no personal checks. Today, our local store takes credit, debit, cash and business checks.

Many of the packages are black and white, no enticing colorful images. No product placement of name brands at eye level, and off-brands up high or down low. Nothing, really, to lure you into buying something just on impulse. And certainly not much that a toddler in tow with me, would have whined for.

Some of the same big names that you find in mainstream grocery stores are also found at restaurant supplies. For example, the oats I buy (in a 25 pound, plain paper sack), are Bob's Red Mill. They carry Hunt's tomato products in #10 cans (those cans that hold almost a gallon). I buy Darigold Butter in 30 pound cases. For greatest savings, I often choose one of their house brands, First Street and Simply Value.

What you won't find at an institutional cash and carry is an entire aisle, dedicated to colorful boxes of cold cereal, or chips and crackers, or cookies. They do have those items, but they take up very little of the warehouse foot print.

There is no Starbucks in the store, nor sample ladies (although, I have seen vendors with samples on two occasions).

While they welcome any one with cash in hand (and they take credit), their primary customer is a small restaurant owner/chef, or, someone planning a large event for their social or work group, or, a small cafeteria cook. Very few "soccer moms" shop here.

There is no unit pricing on the shelf, so I always bring a calculator. I have a good memory for regular store product prices and standard sizes, so I can make my comparisons in my head. Someday, when I can no longer remember product prices, I'll likely bring a price book, for the items I buy there.


So, how do the prices stack up?

I'll give you what I paid in common unit pricing, at the cash and carry, and compare it to what I would have paid, if I bought in smaller quantities.

Vegetable oil: My normal is to buy 1 gallon at a time. This month, I bought a 35-pound container of vegetable oil. It was $24.17. I used my empty, 1-gallon oil jug, and refilled it with oil from this new container. This requires a steady arm, funnel and 4-cup measuring container with a sharp pour spout. I poured the oil from the 35-pound container into the 4-cup measuring cup. Then poured that into the gallon container. I also keep a small bottle of this oil on the kitchen counter, for quickly adding oil to food prep. I've once before bought a 35-lb container of vegetable oil. The oil kept just fine, but it was a hassle to manipulate the large box/jug.

A 35-pound box is equal to 4.37 gallons. At $24.17, my purchase came out to $5.53 per gallon. The price on vegetable oil in a 1-gallon container was $8.27. I saved $2.74 per gallon, or $11.96 on the 35-pound container. This size is a 6-7 month supply for us. If this sounds like we go through a lot of oil, consider that we cook and bake almost everything from scratch. I use vegetable oil in baking, cooking, frying, salad dressings, bath oil, furniture polish, and hot-oil hair treatments. And I've been considering making soap, using some of the vegetable oil in that process.

the spout drips, so until I can get all of this into 1-gallon containers,
I've pulled a plastic bag onto the bottom of the box

It's important to know that oil can go rancid. Most vegetable oils have a shelf life of between 6 and 12 months. Cool storage is imperative to get the longest life from oils (below 72 degrees F. 55 degrees F is considered ideal for oil storage). Our pantry is quite cool from mid-September through April (about 66 degrees F). But still, I'll be storing most of this in the fridge, in well-rinsed 1-gallon vinegar jugs. Refrigeration can retard spoilage of many types of oils.

Storing oil in a dark location will prolong the life of oils. Fortunately, this oil came packed in a cardboard box that is usable as its storage container.

The type of oil matters as to how long it will keep, as well. I bought soybean oil. Soybean oil is one of the slower-to-spoil oils, not the slowest, but slower than many. Canola and corn oil (two other very common vegetable oils), spoil more rapidly than soybean.

Canned tomato paste: My normal is to buy 1 #10 can at a time. A #10 can of tomato paste is 6lbs 15oz, or the equivalent of 18 & 1/2 small 6-ounce cans of tomato paste. Buying 1 of these #10 cans, at the regular price of $4.99, is like paying 27 cents per 6-oz can, which in itself is a very good price for tomato paste, in my area. 

These #10 cans are also sold in cases of 6, for $26.65, which works out to $4.44 per #10 can, for a savings of 55 cents per #10 can. This brings the cost per 6-oz use, to 24 cents. The case of 6 #10 cans is about an 8 month supply for us. I use tomato paste in pasta/pizza sauce, homemade tomato soup, added to other soups and beef stew, Tex-Mex dishes, and now in our own homemade ketchup.

On this purchase, I saved $3.29 buying the case, over buying 1 large can at a time (my usual).

Long grain brown rice: My normal is to buy one 25-pound sack at a time, at about $12.79. Not a bad per pound price at 51 cents/pound. 

We actually do eat a lot of rice in our house. It's the one grain that I can count on being able to eat, with my food issues. I grind it into flour for some of my non-wheat baking. I use it to make homemade rice milk (for my dairy intolerance) for cooking with. And we have rice with meals about 3 times per week.

So, this month, I went ahead and bought the 50-pound sack. I've only bought this size one other time, and it lasted about 9-10 months. This much grain needs to be cycled through a 24-hour freezing, in 1-gallon plastic containers, to insure no pests have hitch-hiked.

The 50-lb sack was $22.78, or 46 cents per pound. I saved $2.80 by buying the 50-lb sack, instead of the 25-lb sack.

White vinegar: My normal is to buy 1 gallon of white vinegar at a time, at $3.37/gallon. I use white vinegar for cleaning, hair rinse, cooking, pickling, salsa making, homemade ketchup and teriyaki sauce, salad dressings and as a cheap substitute for the acid part of quick bread leavening agents.

I go through 1 gallon every 2-4 months, depending on whether or not it's pickling, seasoned vinegar or salsa-making season. This month, I decided to buy the 4-gallon case, at $11.29. This works out to $2.82 per gallon, or a savings of about $2.19 for the case, over buying just 1 gallon at a time.

Yellow onions: For most of the year, my normal is to buy a 25-pound sack of onions. Late summer I usually buy a 50-lb sack, as I use quite a few in pickling and making salsa. 50 pounds will last us through Christmas. I keep most of them in the fridge. (See why I need that spare fridge in the garage?) I triage the onions when I get them home from the wholesaler, picking out the ones that need using or freezing immediately. The rest go into the drawers in the fridge. A 50-lb sack of onions in late summer sells for $8.95 at the cash and carry, or 18 cents per pound. I love onions. A favorite side dish is grilled onions with a pinch of salt and dab of butter.

upside down -- too heavy to right side up the bag just for the photo

I also bought a 25-lb sack of lentils ($12.89), a 50-lb sack of whole wheat flour ($19.18), and a 50-lb sack of granulated sugar ($19.25). But these are normal sizes for us, so no new savings here.

You may be interested to know, pinto beans are generally the least expensive dried beans for us, around $18 or so for a 50-lb sack. Green lentils and green split peas follow at around $12-13 for a 25-lb sack. So, these are the beans we consume in greatest quantity. I like to have one other type of bean, just for variety. Sometimes it's black beans, sometimes garbanzos, sometimes small white beans. I rotate between those, but they are priced around $20 for 25 pounds.

While at the wholesaler, I priced cocoa powder in the 5-lb bag (a size I used to buy). But Trader Joe's cocoa powder, at $2.49 for 9-ounce container is still a better price per pound than the cash and carry's 5-pound bag. And popcorn, in the 12.5 pound bags were about 79 cents per pound, at the cash and carry. Although we've been out of popcorn for a while, and it is a good, inexpensive snack food, I passed this month. 79 cents per pound is too high for my price point on grains (around 50 cents per pound). I knew I would find it on sale at a local grocery store this fall (common sale time for popcorn in our area). And I did. Yesterday I found it for 55 cents per pound in a 32-ounce bag at a nearby grocery store. I bought several bags.

This month, shopping with the idea of buying institutional sizes, I saved $20.24 over what I would normally spend with my usual stock-up method (based only on how I changed my shopping, meaning my savings on the first 4 items on this list). That savings right there, is half of what I need to shave, to make my grocery budget reduction of $40/month. Woo hoo!!

My husband and I won't always be able to go through these large quantities. There will come an empty nest time for us, too. At that point, I see two scenarios. One, my kids continue to come home and shop mom's pantry. Or two, I find a few friends who want to form an informal co-op with us, and we can cost-share these large sizes.

Shopping in these large sizes is not a one-size-fits-all thing. Many people don't have the storage space, or couldn't use it all before it went bad. Some people just don't like to have all that much on hand at any one time. I understand that. Maybe you just found some entertainment value reading this. or maybe you're cheering me on, in my pursuit to reduce our spending. For whatever reason, I hope you enjoyed my shopping ramblings, today!

This week (the ultimate frugal edition)

So, I've had another one of those extremely busy weeks that result from needing to be very frugal. In other times, when being frugal has been more of a choice, I could do frugal things, as my energy and desire allowed. But in this phase of our finances, I feel urged, constantly, to do everything possible to reduce our spending.

I've been employing the usual cost-saving strategies, such as hanging laundry to dry, gardening, cooking from scratch, shopping second hand. But I've also plunged right in to many other active frugal endeavors.

I've baked a lot -- from graham crackers to French bread, from zucchini muffins to hot dog buns, and a large batch of biscotti. Baking from scratch saves a bundle over buying these same items at the a bakery or grocery store.

I made donuts, not just once, but twice, over the weekend, using my French bread dough, and upping the sugar just a smidge. We estimated that we saved about $10 on home donut-making. And fresh-made donuts are crispy and delicious!

I made a large batch of pinto bean sandwich spread for lunches. I followed my garbanzo bean sandwich spread recipe, substituting pinto beans for the garbanzos. I froze several jars, to use in future weeks. Peanut butter is a standard for sandwiches in our house. But the price of peanut butter has been high the past 2 years. Bean-based sandwich spreads save us about $1 per jar, over jars of peanut butter.

I froze my pears, using lemon juice, instead of ascorbic acid to prevent browning (about 2-3 tablespoons per pint container, sprinkled over the blanched pears, before adding sugar syrup). I am hoping we'll enjoy these this winter. If we do, then a couple of favorite recipes that call for canned pears, can be made with my home-grown, frozen pears, saving us a couple of $$ on store bought canned pears.

I've been rejuvenating clothing, with patches, dye and taking in seams. I have repaired, restyled and restored 8 pairs of jeans and pants in the last few weeks. I have one more pair of jeans and one skort in my pile to alter. Rejuvenating clothing has saved us over $100.

I patched all my daughters' casual socks. I'd hoped to replace all these socks at the end of summer, but now it looks like we need to make them last a few months longer (guess what Santa will be putting in the stockings this December?). New socks would have cost $15 on sale this fall. Santa will be buying socks at an annual 50% off sock sale, the day after Thanksgiving.

I made several gifts, both birthday and Christmas. And I'll continue making gifts for the next couple of months. I made these gifts, using only materials that I had at home. I have no idea how much I have saved making gifts. And this type of frugal activity is fun!

I made a batch of ketchup. I didn't follow a recipe, but borrowed my ketchup-loving daughter's taste buds, while I combined minced onion, vinegar, tomato paste, sugar, salt, lemon juice and water. It came out to our liking -- very tomato-y. We made a better product, skipping ingredients that commercial products contain, for about 25% less than store-bought ketchup.

I made a half gallon of wild blackberry pancake syrup. Oh man, is that stuff heaven! One of the jars has been set aside as a Christmas gift. My daughters picked the blackberries for us. We have many places nearby, where wild blackberries are found in abundance.

I've been working in the gardens, making them as beautiful as possible, using my efforts in place of new plants. I am saving some money for daffodil bulbs, for a couple of patches on the property. I finished the spot where I began in spring, with a dry river bed, some hostas, a couple of rhododendrons, and some hydrangeas. Over the years, I'll divide the hostas, and fill the space, as well as move some purple and white crocus to underplant them with. I'll take some photos and post them soon.

And I finally did some grocery shopping. When September hit, I assessed my pantry and went to the restaurant supply to buy what feels like the basics for us. I thought long and hard about which items were our family's essentials. I brought my calculator to the wholesaler, and unit-priced in the aisles. And in almost every case, I went with large institutional sizes.


So, fill me in. What's been keeping you busy this last week?

August grocery money journal (and some updates)

First the updates. So, we've received a few more bills now. The water bill, was bad, really bad. I am hoping it is just from filling the pool and watering some new shrubs over the summer. We've had a very dry summer (until yesterday, when it poured -- filled both rain barrels in 10 minutes). So, we are trying to conserve on water even more, and will see how the next bill turns out.

We received our natural gas bill yesterday, and again we are about $10/month below what we spent for the same time period last year. It's got to be washing in cold water and shorter showers.

I haven't received the electricity bill, but expect it next week sometime. Judging by the meter, we're doing great. Of course, I think my family is rather annoyed at me constantly asking, "do we really need to have all these lights on?" So, I've been unscrewing even more bulbs, just to help them out. Turning the lights on when one passes an electrical switch, seems to be a hard habit to break. I follow everyone around, turning off unused lights.

And we received the Visa statement. What a pleasant surprise, so very little on it. I've been staying out of the stores, even budget-friendly stores like Dollar Tree, I am avoiding, and when I really have a need, being careful to only buy what I came for.

I am doing a great job keeping clothing spending to a minimum. I made my stretchy black pants look very respectable, with a little taking in of the waist and legs. I repaired two more pairs of jeans for my daughters. I patched a couple of pairs of socks for my daughters, for them to try out. It's what I do with my own socks, when they get holey. I'm fine with them this way, but I want to make sure the girls are, before I patch a stack of them. Next up, one more pair of jeans to make not-so-obscene, and a bra to redo the band on. I spent a fair amount of time sewing this week. Just that kind of week. I made some gifts and repaired some clothing.

Gas for the cars -- this one we did awesome! Spent $10 on one car, and $15 on the other! Of course, both cars are very low, now. We'll fill up over the weekend. Even compared to last year, same month, we did great. I'm hoping this means that we won't need so much in the budget even during the school year. I'll be driving my daughters to the bus stop in the mornings, and they'll hitch a ride home with their dad, in the evenings.

My husband has picked up a few hours of part time work, in the same building where he is now working. But these hours are just temporary, and could go away in a couple of weeks. For now, it is giving us a little more time to see how well we can make it on a smaller income.

Groceries, we've done well this month. And our freezer and fridge are still well-stocked. The pantry now needs a few essentials. But hopefully shopping in September will be minimal, as well.

I got behind on many of my regular things, such as posting grocery spending journals, for June and July. At the end of July I was about $65 over budget, in total. That is mostly due to the foods I had to buy when on the strict elimination diet, to determine allergies/intolerances. I seem to be on an even keel right now, and can have most of the foods that I serve my family, at least in small amounts or with less frequency. And my spending can return to normal. (For 6 weeks, all I could eat was meat, fruits and veggies, and a tiny but of rice and millet. The meat is what became very expensive.)

The other change for us is a reduced budget. Our grocery budget has been cut to $170/month. Out of that will come the overage from June and July, as well as August's groceries.

My plan for this month is to curtail spending as much as possible, buying eggs, milk and extraordinary deals. I'll bank the remainder of the budget for stock-up sales later in fall.

We are mostly eating from the garden. I had a fabuloso lunch the other day. I made myself a black bean, brown rice, tomato, green onion, lettuce, cilantro, oregano, chili powder, wrap sandwich. I put all but the lettuce and tortilla in a bowl, and sprinkled with vinegar, oil, and a pinch of salt. Then spread the lettuce on the open tortilla, and piled the bean mixture on top, and rolled. It was so wonderful -- easily as good as, if not better than, Mucho Burrito. And it was under 10 cents!

I think we can continue eating mostly from the garden for another 2  1/2 months. We'll still have some garden produce available, just not as much. I am putting away as much as I can. We are fortunate, here, that our garden comes back in March, with watercress, sorrel, mustard greens, kale and chard. And by beginning seeds under lights in the house, I can get transplants ready and planted under row covers in early April. If we had more sunny spots in our yard, I could grow most of a year's produce here.

So, for spending this month. . .

Aug. 1. At Fred Meyer this morning. Checked the milk and found 4 gallons of skim milk marked down, at $1.98 each. I bought all 4. This will be a 2 week supply for our house, and the sell-by date isn't even until Aug. 18!

Driving home, passed Walgreen's. Eggs on sale for 99 cents/dozen. I only bought 2 dozen as we still have a couple dozen at home.

Total spent $9.90

Aug. 10. Have kept myself out of stores. Albertson's has medium eggs, limit 2 with coupon for 49 cents/dozen. I snatch up the very last 2 dozen.

Aug. 15. At Dollar Tree, needing soy milk. Buy 1 qt for $1. This will get me through the end of the month.

Stop in at Albertsons, they have a coupon for milk, including whole milk (what I use for yogurt-making), for $1.79/gallon, limit 2. Getting whole milk at this price is a deal! I'll be making yogurt later this week.

At Rite Aid and I see vegetable seeds marked down, 75% off. I buy carrot and snow pea seeds. I'll keep these in a jar in the fridge and plant in spring. Spent 93 cents.

Next to Rite Aid is QFC. I walk over and find 1% milk marked down to $2.18. A bit at my top end of my pricing, but I buy 2 gallons. This will be cooking and drinking milk for the next week and a half.

Total spent, month-to-date -- $20.75

Aug. 21-27. Albertsons has a coupon out for chicken hot dogs at 49 cents a package (12 oz), limit 2 w/ coupon. I manage to scrounge up a total of 5 coupons. Over the course of the week we used all 5 coupons, buying 10 packages of hot dogs at 49 cents/package. I'll freeze most of them, to use throughout the fall.

Total spent, month-to-date -- $25.61  and the fridge and freezer continue to look impossibly full.

Aug. 29. Need milk, again. Stop in at QFC, hoping for mark down milk. I find a lot of whole milk, but I just don't have much freezer space right now. And the price was not phenomenal -- $2.29/ gallon. That's on the high end for marked down milk, with just a week to the sell-by date. But I bought 2 gallons. That will last us about 8-10 days. Spent $4.58.

At Dollar Tree and bought 1 quart of soy milk. Spent $1.


It's the end of the month. We spent $31.19 on food this month. I am now completely out of whole wheat flour (used the last of it in Tuesday bread-baking of 5 loaves), almost out of cooking/salad oil (about 1/2 cup left), almost out of brown rice (1 meal left of rice), completely out of onions (except shallots, scallions and chives from the garden), nearly out of salt and popcorn, and always needing eggs and milk. Going into September, I'll have to buy most of these basic items, as well as supplies for making salsa and pickles. But I will try to curtail any non-essential grocery spending, to continue to save for fall stock-up sales.

I'll be pricing the institutional-size container of vegetable oil, and comparing to a gallon of oil. I bought one of these large containers of oil a few years ago, and saved a substantial amount per gallon this way. It was just cumbersome to decant into gallon jugs for everyday use. But I'm willing to try it again.

Our garden is doing well, and should provide us with ample produce for the entire month of September. I have 1 whole turkey in the freezer, several packages of Italian sausage, and all those hot dogs, for meat for the next 2 & 1/2 months (more than enough, as our meals feature beans several times per week).

I will likely spend more next month, but should still be able to keep spending under my budgeted amount of $170.

I'm so glad that it's the end of the month -- like a huge sigh of relief that we made it. I hope your budget was easy to deal with this month. If you're going through a tough financial time, as I am, right now, keep plugging away at all those frugal things -- comparing prices, making do, cutting back, mending/repairing, etc. And keep a record of all the ways you are saving money. I've been keeping a journal where I enter all the things I did in a day, to save some money. When I am feeling frazzled from the stress, or like I'm going through spending withdrawal, I make my day's entries into that journal. It's a way to pat myself on the back, and buoy my spirits through all this. Try it! You may be surprised by just how much you do in a day, and how much money you are saving!

Until next month -- August 2013's grocery money journal is now closed!

Freezing summer fruits that normally don't freeze well

I have these wonderful pears, from one of our trees, that we harvested just 10 days ago. I am keeping most of them in the fridge, and ripening just a few at a time, in a bowl on the table. They're absolutely beautiful. When I tried freezing pears once before, the thawed pears turned to mush. From what I have read, pears are not typically selected for freezing. Neither are melons.

Then I remembered what my mom used to do with summer melons, particularly cantaloupe and honeydew. She made melon balls and froze them in a light syrup. When we ate them, she served them partially frozen. They melted in our mouths, like a spoonful of sorbet.

So, I began thinking, I could freeze pears in a syrup, and serve partially frozen, and avoid the thawed mush. I looked through cookbooks, and visited extension offices online, and found you could freeze pears in a 40% solution (3 cups sugar and 4 cups water).

Freezing works best with summer pears, picked still green and ripened at room temperature, in a dark place, like a pantry. You wash, peel, core and quarter or halve pears, as if for canning. Bring to a boil, a 40% sugar solution. Simmer the prepared pears for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the pears from the syrup, and place in freezer containers. Allow to cool. Pour cooled syrup over pears, adding 1/2 teaspoon ascorbic acid per quart of pears, to prevent discoloration. And freeze.

I have a dozen of my largest pears now ripening in the pantry, for the next few days. I'll freeze these and see how we like them served partially thawed. If we enjoy these, freezing a few pears could give us a nice change from the usual oranges, apples and other home-frozen fruit from our garden, in winter.

And what about melons?

To freeze melons, use firm melons (not overripe or mushy). Make into balls with a melon baller tool. Prepare a very light syrup in proportions of 1 cup of sugar to 1 quart of water. Cool. Place melons balls into freezer containers, leaving a bit of headroom for expansion (1/2-inch to 1-inch). Cover with the very light syrup. And freeze. Serve partially thawed (ice crystals should still be on the balls).

Fruit packed in sugar syrup should keep well, frozen, for 1 year to 1 & 1/2 years.

How to make a phenomenal salad dressing for pennies -- blackberry vinegar

One of the ways that I save on my grocery bill, is to make salad dressing from scratch, instead if buying bottles of pre-made dressing. I favor vinaigrettes over creamy dressings, just a preference. But also, depending on the quality of oil used, vinaigrettes are often far less expensive to make than a mayo/sour cream dressing.

I can take a homemade, flavored vinegar and plain salad oil, and create a fantastic salad dressing for pennies, in a few seconds. Most of the time, I mix up the dressing in the bottom of the salad bowl, just before adding the greens. It's a simple process. A bit of flavored vinegar, pinch of salt (pinch of sugar, if making a fruity dressing), salad oil and black pepper. Stir briskly, with the salad spoon, to emulsify. Pennies, just pennies!

Every summer, I make several flavors of vinegar. Chive blossom, rosemary-thyme, and at least 1 berry vinegar (raspberry and blueberry having been my previous favorites). Once infused, I just keep my vinegars on the kitchen counter. They add beauty to my work space, and sit there reminding me to use them.

I decorate the bottles with ribbon, raffia and sometimes labels, in part because it's just prettier, but also it helps me differentiate between each flavor with just a glance.

This summer, both the blueberries and raspberries had a small crop in our gardens. But wild blackberries are everywhere in abundance. So blackberry vinegar -- here's your chance to dazzle me!

Blackberry and raspberry vinegars are made with the same method, simple infusion. The proportions are 1 part raspberries or blackberries, to 2 parts white vinegar.

So, for 1 pint of bramble berry vinegar:

1 cup rinsed berries

2 cups white vinegar

In a sterilized 1 quart jar, place raspberries/blackberries and vinegar. Use either a plastic lid (ones from mayo and peanut butter jars seem to fit regular mouth canning jars, here in the US), or lay a small piece of plastic wrap over the opening of the canning jar, then add the ring to hold it in place.

Blackberry vinegar just after adding berries to plain white vinegar

I keep the infusing vinegar in the fridge for about 4 weeks. After 4 weeks, I strain out the berries (which by now look quite bloated and unappetizing), and decant the flavored vinegar into a clean narrow-necked bottle.

I like the look of a cleaned out, repurposed bottle with a cork. Packages of corks can be purchased, inexpensively, at kitchenware shops or in the cooking/kitchen section of import stores, such as Cost Plus World Market.

Using berry vinegar

Berry vinaigrette

2 tablespoons berry vinegar

pinch salt

1 tsp sugar

4 tablespoons salad oil (can be a mixture of olive and any salad oil, or simply salad oil)

1/2 to 1 teaspoon orange zest (optional, but adds a fresh zing)

You can, also, do as I often do, just mix a bit in the bottom of the salad bowl. Use 1 part vinegar to 2 parts oil. Add a pinch each of salt and sugar. Stir to emulsify.

A typical autumn salad for our family: red and green leaf lettuce, chopped fresh pears, and sliced almonds, dressed with a berry vinaigrette.

Creamy berry dressing for fruity salads

For fruit-salad dressing, I like something creamy, but with a bit of tang. Some mayo, whipped cream, and/or vanilla yogurt, and some berry vinegar. If just using mayo, I add a pinch of sugar to bring out the sweetness of the berry infused vinegar.

Marinades

Berry vinegars make delectable marinades for chicken breasts. Make a batch of the berry vinaigrette (omit orange zest), add a tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary, and a dash of black pepper. Pour over  chicken breasts, and allow to marinate in the fridge for 30-60 minutes. Then grill to doneness. Simply delicious! I understand that berry vinegar marinades are also delicious on salmon and pork. Google "salmon" or "pork" and "raspberry vinegar", and a bunch of recipes will pop up.


One last thought, it may be August, but the holidays are just around the corner. Bottles of infused vinegar make lovely gifts for the hostess, or holiday friendship gifts.

Saving electricity: microwave baking -- cornbread

I was asked to post our cornbread recipe. So here it is.

This is one of my daughter's favorite foods, so we have it often.

It's baked in the microwave in 3  1/2 minutes, using a fraction of the electricity of a standard oven. There is no pre-heating of an oven, no heating the kitchen up, and I can think to add it to a lunch or dinner menu at the last minute, and have it on the table in 10 minutes, start to finish.

This cornbread comes out moist, which is what I think my daughter really enjoys about it. And because it's a cornmeal product, it already has "color", and doesn't look pale and pasty, as other microwaved breads often do.

I have these small Corningware casseroles. (I see them frequently at thrift shops and garage sales, btw.) They are the perfect size to microwave cornbread in, about 5 inches in diameter. I use 2 at a time, to bake 8 small wedges, which is just right for our family.

To make 2 of these small casseroles, I bake a half recipe. Baking just half works for us, as that's all we need at a time, and it bakes up so quickly.

Just an FYI, to halve a large egg, simply beat it well, and pour or scoop 2 tablespoons into your batter. Cover and save the other half-egg, in the fridge for up to 3 days, to use in cooking, or freeze.  To freeze half of an egg, beat in 1/16 teaspoon salt, or 3/8 teaspoon sugar, pour into a small freezer container and label (to use in your next half-batch, requiring 1/2 an egg).

Here's the full recipe.

My recipe calls for microwaving in a microwaveable 2-qt. ring mold. As other quick breads/coffee cakes can be microwaved in an 8-inch round or square. I would think that should also work for cornbread. But if you have a few small casserole dishes, as I do, then the microwave bake will take less time. You could also bake individual cornbreads, in custard cups.

1 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

optional: cheese for topping

• In a large mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
• Beat together egg, milk and oil. Combine liquids with dry ingredients. 
• Pour into well-greased 2-qt. microwaveable casserole (or a couple of smaller casseroles).
• Microwave on MED-HI (70 % power) for 8-10 minutes.  (I microwave a half-batch, in two 5-inch casseroles, on HI for 3 & 1/2 minutes.)
• Your timing on the baking will likely differ from mine, slightly, as wattage varies among the different microwave ovens. If your microwave does not have a turntable, you will want to turn this, a quarter turn, half way through baking.
• Microwave baking takes a watchful eye. Watch the center of the item as it bakes. The center finishes baking last. When it looks set and dry in the center, as the edges do, press a finger into it. When done, it should feel firm.

• Remove from microwave. If topping with grated cheese, sprinkle on top of baked cornbread. 

• Place a dish or tray over the top, to hold in the heat while the cheese melts, about 3 minutes.

Customizing second-hand jeans for a teen girl

The problems we encounter, when shopping the second-hand market for teen-girl clothes are these:
when she finds the item that fits, it's not the style she wants, and, when she finds the style she wants, it's not the right size. Getting everything just right entails a bit of creativity, and some sewing skills.


My two daughters wear jeans every day to work. Jeans and a university provided t-shirt make up the required uniform. They each just have 1 pair of jeans. Work entails being on hands and knees scrubbing floors, toilets, tubs, and carpets, among other duties. Which means jeans are taking a beating this summer!

Sunday afternoon, I took both of them to St. Vincent de Paul's weekly "Sunday -- all clothing 99 cents". For our immediate area, 99 cents for thrift shop clothing is a spectacular price. I know some areas have much better pricing. But this is what we have available.

Each daughter has their own style preferences. One wanted skinny jeans, the other wanted flare leg jeans. The skinny jeans were actually easy to find this week. But the flare legs were either too worn or too big.

The daughter wanting flare-legged jeans is very petite. Our usual problem fitting her is finding pants with a small enough waist. We shop both the children's and juniors, hoping to find something that works. Here's how it went:

daughter -- "I found the perfect jeans!!!"

mom -- "Oh, that's wonderful! Let's see how they look!"

daughter comes out of dressing room -- "see, they fit perfectly"

mom -- "um, not exactly. But we'll take care of that."

daughter -- "they are exactly what I was looking for, except I wanted flair legs."

mom -- "I think that I can come up with something you might like"

daughter -- "I was really hoping to find some dark jeans. Can you do something about that too?"

mom -- "we can fix that"

daughter -- "these are exactly what I was looking for!!"

What she found, that she liked a lot, were too big in the waist, too long, had boot-cut legs (not as big a flare as she likes), and were paler blue than she was hoping for. But other than that, these were just perfect! LOL!

Standing in the dressing room area, I showed her that the waist could be taken in with 2 darts in the waist band in back, and 2 darts in front, and I could do a quick trick on the side seam to get a bit of the look of a flare to the hem. And of course, we could toss them in the next dark denim dye bath (later this summer). And then, the jeans would be "exactly what she was looking for".

Jeans made of a lighter weight denim can usually be taken in with darts in the waist. Fashion jeans tend to be made of the lighter weight denim, and are often light-colored denim. A good method for seeing if the denim will be light-weight enough to add darts to the waist band, is to pinch the waist band, and see if you can get a slim fold between your fingers.

Heavier weight denim, such as waist bands on Levi's, generally can't be machine stitched with darts (on most home-machines), to reduce a waist. When you pinch a Levi's type jean in the waist band, the fabric is too stiff and thick to get a slim fold. My daughter did choose a lighter weight denim (whew!), so taking in the waist should be easy enough.

To add darts, on the inside of the waist band, I pinch the back in two places, on either side of the center back seam, and stitch darts in a straight stitch. I do the same in the front, just above the pockets. I have my daughter try them on. If the darts need making larger (to take them in more), I sew each dart about 1/8th inch from the previous stitching, which with 4 darts will take the pants in another 1 inch total.

When we've got the right size in the waist. I trim the fold off the dart and then overcast the edges with a zig-zag stitch to prevent fraying.

On jeans that I have taken in this way in the past, we've never had an issue with the darts coming apart in any way. They have held up to many, many washings, and literally years of wear. The darts will be invisible, under a belt, should she want to wear a tucked-in shirt.

After taking in the waist, it was time to have her try them on for length-fitting. Because the hem was so deep, I decided it would just be easier to hand hem them. My rule of thumb on whether to machine or hand hem jeans, is about 1 inch. If the turned up portion will be more than 1 inch, I hand hem. If less than 1 inch, I use the machine. Machine hemming a really deep hem requires cutting off, and turning under some of the fabric (otherwise the stitching looks too high on the outside). A hand hem is much less visible, and quick to do.

These jeans have a straight seam up the side. This would be the seam that I would re-stitch, on the inside, just an 8-inch portion from mid-knee to mid-calf, to get a flared look to the hem.

I had my daughter try on the jeans with the better fitting waist and right length, and marked where to taper the knee area (to get the look of a flared bottom hem). I turned the jeans inside out, and redid the side seam with a tapering addition to the seam.

The taper area is marked with pins.

Stitching began right at mid-knee area, on the side seam, coming in 3/4 of an inch, then tapering back to the seam, on each leg, for about 8 inches down the seam. It's not a true flare, more like an exaggerated boot cut. But it satisfied my daughter.

By the way, you can turn flare or boot cut jeans into straight leg or skinny jeans, by stitching new side or inseams. Most jeans have 1 seam that is lapped, and 1 seam that is just a straight seam. Do the tapering along the straight seam, hemming afterwards, if the hem needs taking up. As styles can change drastically from one season to the next, I've turned many pairs of flared pants into straight leg for myself.

As these were paler than she really wanted, I mentioned the dye bath I have planned for September -- dark denim blue. My own jeans, a denim jacket, a light blue tee-shirt that looks faded, these jeans, and a denim skirt will go into that dye.


I have to say, my daughter is immensely happy with her new jeans. Total cost was 99 cents. I did the alterations in bits of time. But my guess is I spent no more than 2 hours, in total. If we had shopped retail at Old Navy or The Gap, we probably could have found some jeans to her liking for $20 to $30. I'd say for a $20-$30 savings, the extra work, to customize these jeans, was well worth it.

In the perfect world, both daughters would have found exactly what they wanted on that day. But life's not perfect, and we sometimes have to adapt, either our attitudes and wants, or what we've been provided with.

Saving electricity by maxxing out my oven on baking day

This was all baked in the same oven, at the same time, using the oven for 30 minutes, total.

I've been using my toaster oven and microwave for most of my oven needs this summer. But when I need to do a major baking, like a 5-loaf batch of sandwich bread, I use the main oven. And I bake up most of the week's breads, muffins, cakes and pies, at the same time. I have a good old-fashioned, Little House-style, baking day.

Back when women baked with wood or coal for fuel, having a baking day was the efficient use of the stove. A cast iron stove can retain heat for a long time, meaning that if one were to bake a batch of bread, they might as well take advantage of the residual heat and bake for several hours. It is work to get a wood or coal fire up to the right temperature for baking. While a joint of meat can roast at any temperature between 275 and 400 degrees, and the temperature can fluctuate throughout the baking period without significant undesired effect, a pie or loaf of bread, really does need consistent, even and moderate heat.

Baking days fell out of favor when women were fortunate enough to step into the age of electric and gas ovens. With electricity or gas, a precise temperature for baking could be effortlessly dialed up and ready to go, in a matter of minutes. It became possible to bake any or every day of the week.

While no longer necessary, baking days can still be beneficial. You can bake a week's worth of items in one day. You can use your energy with efficiency, by getting out the mixer, and ingredients all in one go. I typically begin measuring into different bowls, all in a line, for the various items that I'm baking. For some items, I mix up a large batch of yeast dough, to divide into portions for different types of breads and buns. And, if you max out your oven's capacity, you can save electricity, by preheating once, and loading up the oven for one baking period.

Here's how I make sure that my oven is maxxed out.

I look over my menu plan for the week and see what will need baking, and that can go into the oven at the same temperature, more or less. As my yeast dough is mixing in the KitchenAid, I open the oven and place inside, the various baking pans that I'll be using.

Here you can see I have a muffin tin (for zucchini muffins), a large baking sheet (for 1 loaf of Savory Rosemary Bread and 1 loaf of French bread to use for garlic bread later in the week), and a jelly roll pan (for burger/sandwich buns and hot dog buns). I have an open space on the bottom rack. That's when I go back to my menu, to see what might also fit in the oven. Aha! A cake! I am needing a cake for the freezer anyways (for those cake emergencies, of course!). So I decide to bake 2 round layers of yellow cake.

If I turn my jelly roll pan the long way, I can fit two cake rounds on the left side of the bottom rack.
I've now maxxed out my oven for one 30-minute baking period.

The suggested baking temperatures for the items range from 325 to 375 (convection). I settle on 335, so that the most delicate of the baking (the cakes) can have a temperature close to ideal. The rest of the items can be more forgiving.

As the yeast dough rises, I prepare my quick breads and cakes. I time the addition of liquids to these quick breads/cakes to the yeast bread's rise. When it looks like the yeasted bread will be ready soon for the oven. I preheat the oven, and quickly finish up the cake and muffin batter, and into the pans.

I load up the oven, and set the timers. I have 3 timers in the kitchen. I set all three, timed to different items. To keep it clear which timer is for which item, I place the recipe card or cookbook next to that timer.

I had the oven on for 30 minutes, total, costing about 7 cents in electricity. I removed items as they finished baking. The last item to remain in the oven was the sheet pan of Savory Rosemary Bread and French bread. It looked like it needed an additional 4-5 minutes. So I shut off the oven, and let the bread continue baking in the still hot, but not on, oven, for those additional minutes.

Had I used this oven to do the same baking, but on different days, preheating the oven individually, as many as 6 times, and baking each product separately, it could have cost as much as 42 cents in electricity, to bake the same foods.

I might have used my smaller wall oven, at 11 cents per hour, or 33 cents of electricity, total for the week.

Or, perhaps I would have used my toaster oven, on several days. As I can't get more than 1 layer of cake, or 6 muffins, in there at a time, I might have baked in the toaster oven for a total of eight 30-minute time periods, for a cost of 12 cents in electricity, not including several (6) preheating time periods.

In any case, I saved electricity and hard-earned money. And my motto is, "money we save, is money we don't have to earn, no matter how small the amount." Franklin's phrase is catchier, but mine gets the point home to family members, loud and clear.

Maxxing out the oven with oven meals

One of my mom's old cookbooks (from 1957) recommends using your oven efficiently in this same manner. They suggest making an oven dinner, where all the components of dinner are baked in the oven at the same time. Here's an example of one of their oven meal suggestions. Using 2 racks in a full-sized oven, twin meat loaves in a shallow pan, carrots in a covered casserole, baked beans in an open casserole, potato halves in a shallow baker, and baked apples in an open casserole. Everything in this menu is baked at 350 degrees F, for 1 hour.

If I know ahead that I will want to use the oven for a couple of items for dinner, I will also postpone any baking until dinner prep time. And I'll consider what else could fit into the oven, to get the most from it's heat, sometimes a baked dessert, and another component of the dinner which I normally cook on the stove top (like vegetables), and often times tossing in a few whole potatoes, to bake with everything else. Those baked potatoes can be the backbone for a simple supper of hash, the next night, or added to take away lunches the next day, or enjoyed with breakfast, in lieu of toast.

There's a side benefit to having a baking day, or making an oven meal -- saving time. I spent 30 minutes watching the ovens on this latest baking day, instead of of potentially 3-4 hours over the course of the week. And I had just one big clean-up, instead of needing to sweep up the scattered flour and sugar several days of the week. When making an oven meal, I put it all in the oven, set the timer, and I am free to catch up on the news, fold laundry, spiff myself up, or chat with family. No standing at the stove, stirring a pot and getting hot.

Just for fun, I thought you'd like to see that my kitchen gets messy, too. Half way through it all . . .

to the right of the stove

on the stove top itself

to the left of the stove

I didn't show you the floor. It's really hard not to scatter flour when working with yeast dough. :-)

The flavors of the week are: zucchini, apple and pear

Zucchini-spice Pancakes

The zucchinis are maturing in abundance, here!! How about at your place? Have you been bestowed with neighbors' zucchini? Are your plants producing zucchini faster than your family is willing to consume?

This week, we've had zucchini bread, zucchini muffins, zucchini in tomato sauce, sauteed zucchini (with a variety of different seasonings, to change things up), fried zucchini slices, zucchini sticks and dip, raw zucchini in salads, and zucchini-spice pancakes.

Our early apple tree was completely ready for picking this past week. This one produces red, fresh-eating apples. But that doesn't stop us from cooking them. We've had apple-rhubarb cobbler, apple-cinnamon oatmeal, apples sauteed in brown sugar, butter and cinnamon, chopped apples topping cinnamon-sunflower seed granola, as well as crisp, fresh apple slices. They are not good keeping apples, so we're eating what we can, this month. Many years, I chop and freeze some of these apples, for winter baking. This year, the apple crop is sparse, so these will all be eaten by early September.

Gingerbread Oatmeal with pears

And it's also time for the pear harvest. We have 4 pear trees, 2 of which are bearing, 1 early and 1 late. The early pears, the Morettini, set large crops for dwarf trees.

These are the yellow-green pears with a red blush that I showed a large bowl full on my blog early last September. They come off the tree looking perfect, as you'd find them at a farmer's market. But they're not good keepers, so we've been eating pears fresh, as slices, as chunks in fruit and lettuce salads (with a creamy dressing and chopped nuts), and as a topping for gingerbread oatmeal (recipe here).


It sure feels like late summer around here. What are the flavors of the week at your place?

Extending the life of my bras: replacing a broken wire

There was a time when repairing one's undergarments was a task simply assumed would be done many times in the life of that garment. We've become such a throw-away society, that when something such as the wire in a bra breaks, it is now assumed the entire garment is ready for the garbage. Often times, there is much life left in that bra.

It may sound simpler to just go out and buy a new one. But replacing a broken bra wire takes about 15 minutes, minimal sewing skills and will save you money -- that's money that you don't have to earn! Compare this to actually shopping for a new bra, which could take an hour or longer, be exasperating (trying on bras doesn't provide the same excitement factor of, say, trying on shoes) and cost $15, $20, $30 or more. Not to mention, the waste from a repair is minimized. One tiny sliver of wire sent to the landfill, instead of the entire bra.

When something breaks on one of my bras, if it's not something easily repaired right then, I just tuck that bra in the back of the drawer. The usual problem is a broken underwire. I hang on to the entire bra, for the day will come, when another bra's wire will break.

And then, I have two bras with broken wires. Just what I need. I can now scavenge a good wire from one of the bras, to replace a broken wire in the other.

Here are two such "broken" bras. The wire broke on one of them about a year ago. I hung on to it. And lo and behold, the wire broke in another bra, just a couple of weeks ago (I only have three, so I was now down to 1 good bra).

You know how it is with a broken underwire? You look lop-sided in t-shirts and other garments of somewhat clingy fabric. So, time to get to work and make 1 good bra from these 2 broken ones.

First, I choose which bra will be the sacrificial undergarment. I cut a small slit in the casing, on the inside of the bra, which holds the wire in place, about 1/4-inch from the end stitching. The wire is fairly easy to pull out.

Next, on the bra to be repaired, I cut a tiny slit in the casing of the broken wire, on the inside of the bra, nearest the armhole, about 1/4 inch from the end stitching. I remove both broken pieces. The first piece comes out easily, but the second one sometimes has to be worked out (due to the raw end on the leading edge of this broken piece).

After removing the broken wire, I slide the good wire into the casing, through the tiny slit that I made, nearest the armhole. (edited to add: The wire is not perfectly u-shaped. To determine which direction to insert the wire, I line it up with the other cup, then flip over for mirror image placement.)

I find it best to cut the slit about 1/4-inch from the stitched-end. It's close enough to the end, to make inserting the new wire a fairly easy task. But not right at the end, preventing the new wire from constantly trying to poke through new stitching. And I cut this slit on the armhole end of the casing, and not the center end. If the wire begins to poke out, after some time, it's much less uncomfortable nearest the armhole.

Once the wire is mostly within the casing, I tug at the fabric casing, and slip the wire end into the remaining part of the casing.

If the good wire is even a tiny bit longer than the wire being replaced, this can require some real tugging of fabric, or pushing on the wire end, to get the casing to slip over that last bit. For this bra, I needed to firmly push the wire end down, and into the casing, against a hard surface. (I just used the metal blade of my scissors, a concrete floor would work, as would a flat, metal, straight-edge ruler.) With just a bit of force, this was enough to stretch the fabric up and over the wire end.

Once the wire is in place, I hand-stitch the slit closed. And that's it -- one good bra from two broken ones.

The old bra (the one from which I scavenged the good wire) is still useful. I removed the broken wire, and now it can be worn around the house. When I find that I no longer need it at all, I will scavenge additional parts, such as hooks and eyes. The eyes can be added to a stretched-out bra band, on the closure, to "shorten" a too-long band. And both hooks and eyes are great to add to my sewing notions, for use as closures on clothing (above the zipper on a skirt, for example). The padding in the cups can be used for craft projects (such as padding under appliques).

15 minutes of my time, and I have a functional bra again.