Rising dairy prices and what can we do about it?

So, on the news this week it was mentioned that dairy prices will continue their upward climb. Aside from acquiring a cow or goat, what can we do to mitigate these rising prices on milk, cheese, butter and cream? Let's put our heads together and see what suggestions come forth. Here's what I intend to do:

Butter

• continue using meat fat for sauteing and making gravy. 
• I make Yorkshire pudding often to go with soup suppers, so I will now try using some leftover meat fat in place of the oil called for in the recipe. (This doesn't save butter, but spares oil to use in recipes that will save butter.) 
• I sauteed summer squash in chicken fat the other night and one daughter asked if I used butter. She thought it tasted amazing. 
• The same daughter asked me if we could use meat fat on toast. I reminded her of the Little House books, where Laura's family used salt pork fat on toast, when their butter ran out. My daughter and I agreed that bacon fat might be good on toast. 
• I made a savory cornbread on Tuesday, "buttering" the pan with chicken fat, and using chicken fat in place of a butter/oil mix I usually use in the batter. Very good!
• I think I will also try doing eggs for frittatas and omelets in saved fat.
• I'll switch to meat fat when buttering dishes for savory casseroles.
• continue to make butter/oil spread, to stretch the butter that we use for buttering toast and bread.
• What's the regular price on butter in your area these days? It was about $4.50/lb yesterday at the market. Meanwhile, margarine was on sale for 89 cents/lb. I'm reluctant to go back to margarine, as we avoid trans fats/hydrogenated oils when possible (except Crisco for pie pastry -- makes great pie crust, but maybe I'll consider lard). How do you feel about margarine vs. butter?

Milk

• continue shopping for markdowns on milk
• regularly compare powdered milk prices to liquid milk 
• Is powdered milk less per gallon for anyone right now? Every 6 months or so, I compare the price per gallon on non-instant in 55 lb sacks (cheaper than instant per gallon for me) to liquid milk. Back in the 90s a 55 lb bag of non-instant milk was cheaper than liquid milk. That could be the case again this next year.

Cheese

• Buy more when I find it on sale. The cash and carry restaurant supply has mozzarella on sale shredded in 5-lb bags for $11.98. I had intended to buy 2 bags, but after hearing this week's dairy price forecast, I switched to 3 bags. I'll be watching for bags of cheddar at the same price. Bags of shredded cheese freeze well, so there should be no problem of mold with stocking up so much.
• Use cream cheese more often in sandwiches. Over the weekend, I made a simple chive and cream cheese spread for lunch one day. Cream cheese often goes on sale around the fall/winyer holidays and again at Easter, for as little as 88cents/ 8 oz block, but usually right around $1/8 oz. This works out to $1.76/lb to $2.00/lb, less than hard cheese prices by about 50 cents per pound for me. And cream cheese keeps much longer in the fridge, unopened than the sell-by date.
• Does anyone here freeze cream cheese? I've never tried freezing it, but have heard the texture changes a bit. I'd like to hear of other's experiences with freezing this. Also, can sour cream or cottage cheese be frozen successfully? I sometimes find both of these items marked down because the container is squashed.  And how about freezing block cheese to use on sandwiches later? I freeze the shredded and it works as a melting cheese just fine, but want to know if block cheese gets crumbly when you freeze it, and perhaps it could be frozen in slices?

Cream

• Buying cream when on markdown will be my best money-saving strategy. Whipping cream can be whipped and frozen in mounds, to use later. I have a few frozen mounds of whipped cream in the freezer from last spring. If possible, I'll save these for Thanksgiving. Then hope to find whipping cream on markdown just after Thanksgiving for Christmas and New Year's. 
• Non-dairy whipped topping is also always an option, and often goes on sale just before the holidays.
• Has anyone here ever tried the homemade whipped topping recipe that uses gelatin and powdered milk? That's a possibility, too, and non-hydrogenated (healthier than some non-dairy whipped toppings?), calling for gelatin, dry milk, sugar, oil and water. If I try it this fall, I'll let you know what we my family thinks.

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This week's lunch round-up: fresh and simple hits the spot

I'd like to say that lunches this week will be mostly fresh items because I planned healthy lunches. However, the truth is, fresh items are simply easier than prepared items. And Monday was another very busy day.

Monday, I made the cucumber dill pickles (3 jars) and another quart of blackberry pancake syrup (now have 2 quarts of blackberry syrup), plus I dug potatoes (backbreaking and exhausting work), roasted a chicken, ran errands (2 markets), did bookkeeping, and 2 loads of laundry. So, I only had 2 prepared items this week, supplemented with fresh garden produce. Here's our lunch selection for the week:

• cinnamon-almond granola ( I have to admit, the almonds were just the end of a bag of almonds, and much more almond "dust" than actual almonds)
• rice-bean-tomato casserole
• fresh plums
• fresh apples
• fresh tomatoes
• fresh cucumbers

And of course, always there is peanut butter, bread, yogurt and mixed nuts.You may notice that this week there are no boiled eggs. We're now down to our last 3 dozen of fresh eggs, and 1 dozen frozen. I'll be needing these eggs for baking this month. So for a while, no more hard-boiled eggs.

It looks like I should be able to make another batch of cucumber dill pickles. That will bring us up to 6 jars of dill slices, to go with 8 jars of bread and butter zucchini pickles, and 9 jars of watermelon pickles. I'll also make green tomato sweet and dill relishes later this month. That should be it for pickle making. October will see me in the kitchen making plum chutney and tomato salsa.

Now, I'll go enjoy my cup of blackberry tea (the rinsings from the pan of blackberry syrup added to yesterday's tea bag, for a fruity and frugal cup of tea), and enter a couple of drawings from my recent shopping (on receipt, survey info in exchange for entrance in drawings for gift cards).

What's on your lunch menu this week?


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Plan A didn't pan out, now working on plan B

So, when I plant my vegetable garden each spring, my thoughts are filled with high hopes and expectations.

Then weather happens, bugs happen, critters happen and off-timing happens. I know I should remember this from year to year. But maybe it's a good thing I'm so optimistic each spring. If I were too realistic, I may just give up on the garden altogether.

Anyway, my family really enjoys green bean dill pickles. I make several jars each summer to pop open in winter. Well, this year, when the green beans were ready, the dill and garlic weren't. And now that the dill and garlic are ready, the green beans are about done. Rats!

On to plan B.

I've found I need to keep my mind flexible with regards to the garden. The cucumbers did far better this year than they've done in years. So, plan B will be cucumber dill slices. I should be able to eek out a few jars of those before the season ends.

All is not lost. We'll enjoy some sort of dill pickle this winter. And we did enjoy the green beans fresh this summer, so that's a very good thing.

Let's hope I don't need a plan C.

Not so matchy-matchy with my food prep any more

So it used to be that when I made soup from scratch I used "matching" ingredients. For instance, if I made a chicken-based soup I used chicken fat, chicken stock and chicken meat. I might walk on the wild side and use turkey stock with chicken "other" ingredients. But mostly, I pretty much stuck to the formula my mom always used, and I had continued.

Well, not so much any more. Last night I made a pretty decent soup, starting with turkey fat and oil, then using vegetable stock, adding ham meat and topping the whole pot off by adding the last of the ground beef gravy from the other night's dinner (of Yorkshire pudding and beef gravy).

The soup I made was along the lines of plaid shirt with paisley skirt, polka dot hosiery and a striped sweater. But you know what? It actually tasted good! (The soup, not the outfit!)

Are there any "rules" that you follow, just because you've always followed them? As they say -- some rules are meant to be broken!

(p.s. If you're curious, in addition to the mentioned soup ingredients, there were also lentils, onions, summer squash and red pepper flakes.)

First week of September lunch round-up

It's a short week to prepare for, due to Monday being a holiday for everyone at home. So, I didn't need to make as much as usual. Here's what I came up with:

• hard-boiled eggs (this must be sounding monotonous as I've been boiling eggs for the last several weeks)
• pasta-tomato-basil salad in Italian dressing
• vegetarian baked beans
• apple-cinnamon muffins
• fresh apples

There's also sourdough bread, peanut butter and jam, and yogurt, for those who want some of the usual fixings.

My daughters are still working a job without a decent kitchen. There's a fridge but no microwave, so I'm still making everything "safe" to eat without reheating (no meat in anything). My husband has a kitchen at work, so this doesn't concern him. At the end of September, my daughters start classes again, and will once again have a full kitchen to use for lunches. (They even have real plates and silverware there!) So I will be free to use meat or meat stock in anything I put together.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day!

August Grocery Money Journal -- spent $23.01 per week

Aug. 2 Last day of Walgreen's egg sale. I stop in and pick up 4 dozen eggs (99cents/dozen), and 2 packages turkey bacon (99 cents/6 oz. package). Spent $5.94.

Aug.14 Oats and mustard are on sale at Cash and Carry. I also need white flour. So, I buy 2 bags of oats (total of 50 lbs, should get us through most of a year --  $13.75/25 lb bag), 1 gallon of yellow mustard ($3.19) and 50 lbs of white flour ($13.19). Total spent $43.88

August 15 Need bath tissue at Albertson's, also check for markdowns. Saturday mornings appear to be a good time of week for bacon and sausage markdowns. I find 9 packages of breakfast sausage (maple and plain) for $1.99 each, and 10 cans of pop-in-fresh biscuit dough for 25 cents each. The biscuit dough is great for quick donuts or mini-pizzas in a hurray. The cans say sell-by date of Aug 20, but IME these have been "good" for a couple of months past sell-by date, so we have enough for Saturday morning donuts for a couple of months. Total spent $20.41

August 15 Also run by Dollar Tree for soy milk. spent $3 (3 quarts).

August 22. We are out of milk, so while at the bank I also pop in right next door to QFC to check for marked down milk. (Do I ever buy anything not marked down? I must sound like the crazy lady cruising the markdowns at the grocery store.). In luck, I find a bunch of gallons of whole milk for $2.29/gallon. I only buy 9 of the gallons, as I think that's all I can store in the freezer these days and use within a couple of weeks. The sell-by date is August 30. Also, find "ropes" of dinner sausage -- chipotle beef flavor for $2.69 each. After Kris's comments a little while back about quick dinner ideas, I thought these would be good in the freezer for "those" days. I buy 3 "ropes" and freeze right away, although tempted to cook u one for dinner tonight. Gotta find some discipline!! Total spent $28.68



My grand total spent for August is $101.91, or $23.01 per week. It sounds really low, but keep in mind I'm banking extra grocery money for fall stock-up sales. My grocery budget this month has been reduced to $165, so I was under by $63.09. Add that to my running surplus of $91.55, for a new carry forward surplus of $154.64. It's good to see that surplus number tick up.

Something else to note. It can seem like shopping several stores is time consuming, with multiple stores per week, and lots of driving around. But, as you can see, it's just not always like that for me. This month I only went to the grocery store (or comparable store) 5 times. Not bad at all. And each time, I ran in, grabbed what I needed, checked the markdowns and that was it. In and out in under 30 minutes each time (some stores even less).



I'm running low on yeast, and will be looking for canned tomato products (paste, whole and diced tomatoes), and white vinegar. For yeast, for the time being, I'm using my sourdough starter for about half of the bread these days. (how to make your own sourdough starter here, if you're interested) Hoping to find yeast on sale at the cash and carry wholesaler soon. We're doing okay on just about everything else, though, for this next month. I'll see what deals I find and what else we run low on.

So, what do my food stores look like in late August? I've still got 1 more turkey, 1 more ham, about 6 whole chickens, about 4 pounds ground beef, some hot dogs, some "rope" sausage, about 8 packages of breakfast sausage. I also have over 50 lbs of oats, about 40 lbs of white flour, 25 lbs of whole wheat flour, about 2 lbs of brown rice, 20 lbs of assorted dried beans, 25 lbs of sugar, 1 gallon of molasses, 12 lbs of popcorn, a case of canned diced tomatoes, about 3 gallons of vegetable oil, lots of frozen fruit from the garden, some apples from the trees, about 10 lbs of onions, 10 lbs of butter, 5 dozen eggs, 4 gallons of milk (frozen), about 4 lbs of pasta and lots of odds and ends. I'm better stocked than this same time last year, by just a smidge. I can feel it with the freezers, never having room to stuff a single item more in them.

I've been looking back over last falls stock-up items and seeing where I'd like to buy even more this fall. For example, last year, I bought 16 cans of pumpkin (16 oz cans), for $1 each. If I find a similar price, this year I'll buy about 25 cans. I can do a lot with canned pumpkin, everything from breads, muffins and oatmeal, to soups and side dishes. And it's very convenient and high in beta carotene. I'll be buying 2 cases of tomato paste this year, instead of 1, as we went through the 1 case very easily, and I would have liked to have had more on hand. It's nice to have these records to look back on and see what I paid for individual items and how much I bought.

I'm still doing a lot of my shopping at a restaurant supply. However, now, I try to only buy from there when I find items I want on sale. Yes, the restaurant supply has sales, too. So, for savings, here's an example of the difference between buying on sale at the cash and carry and regular cash and carry price. On the oats I bought this month, I saved $2.74 per sack over paying their regular price of $16.49 in February. Such a great savings that I bought 2 sacks this month.

That's it for August. Onward and upward!

Party food in lunch boxes?

Okay, so if you shop the back-to-school section of major retailers, in addition to notebook paper, crayons, pencils and binders, you'll see jumbo boxes of small packets of chips, highly-processed fruit snacks, punch boxes/pouches, packages of cookies, and individually wrapped bakery-type stuff, like small cakes and treats.

Since when did a lunch box need to be filled with party food? And what kind of messages are we sending to our kids about what they eat? If a lunch box is packed with items like chips and punch, how do we expect our kids to want to eat healthier foods at home?


I know there are a lot of parents who pack very healthy foods for their kids' lunches. I'm just appalled by the message we get from major retailers and food manufacturers about what we "should" be packing in our children's lunch boxes.

It kind of reminds me of what the front of a box of super sugary breakfast cereal usually says, "part of a nutritious breakfast' -- yeah, if you add some fruit, an egg, a piece of whole grain toast and a glass of milk, any bowl of sugar can be part of a nutritious breakfast.

I just don't think we should allow retailers and food manufacturers tell us what to eat. We have opposing priorities. Their priority is to make a profit. Our priority is superior nutrition for ourselves and our families.

Just an observation and a rant.

This week's lunch round-up: another busy week

On Monday, I did a lot of cooking and baking. My week to come is a busy one, with picking blackberries, making jam, making pickles, harvesting and drying herbs, cleaning out 1 freezer to defrost, getting all the quilts and comforters washed/dried, and more. So, I decided to do as much cooking for the week as possible on Monday.

Some of the lunch round-up items are actually leftovers from Monday's dinner, just making everything that much simpler for me. Here's what's on the lunch menu at our house this week:

• bean burger patties (there's rice and gravy to go with these, for the family members with a fridge at work)
• creamy cucumber and dill salad
• blueberry muffins
• garlic bread
• garden vegetable medley (tomatoes, summer squash, onions, garlic, herbs)

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Saving and using fat from cooking meat

Most of us, here, save at least some of our cooking fat, like bacon fat. And some of us save other meat fat. This seems to be an age-old frugal practice. I thought we could put our thoughts together and list all the ways we have used our saved fat, as well as how to store it.

• clarified bacon fat in place of lard or Crisco in pastry  To clarify fat, add fat to a small saucepan of water. Heat to boiling and simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool, chill, and pour cloudy water off of the solidified fat. Add more water to the saucepan and repeat the simmer/chilling process 2 or 3 additional times. The final clarified fat has lost its meaty flavor and can be used for baking biscuits or making pie pastry.
• making gravy immediately after frying ground beef or sausage  This gravy isn't part of the meal for which the meat was prepared but to be frozen and used later to top biscuits or Yorkshire pudding, with or without tofu chunks added (makes a protein/carb/fat portion of supper).
• making gravy, as above, but adding milk to use in place of cream-of-whatever soup for casseroles  Sausage gravy, made with some milk, is great in a green bean casserole instead of the usual cream of mushroom soup.
• making a large batch of chicken, turkey or ham gravy to divide into containers for the freezer for serving over cooked meat, potatoes, noodles or rice at another meal.
• I store some fat, as is, in containers in the freezer, labeled as to which kind of fat  When cooking, I use a blend of this meat fat and oil to sauté items which don't contain their own fat, like bean burger patties, or, for the onions at the beginning of making a pot of soup. 

Just a note, ground beef and breakfast sausage fat have little flavor of their own, so I add a substantial amount of dried herbs to either when making gravy. I like sage and thyme added to sausage gravy and thyme, oregano, black pepper and soy sauce added to ground beef gravy.

So, what do you do with leftover meat fat?

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Different strokes . . .

So often, other families make choices with their lives that we just don't understand. There's a reason we don't understand why a person chooses to do something one way, when our own, and different way makes better sense to us. We simply don't know the details and background of their lives that bring them to their choice.

What works for me might not work for you.

I make yogurt regularly. On Tuesday, I made 5 quarts of plain yogurt. I saved several dollars by making that yogurt. But making yogurt might not be the right choice for you. Let's say you only like yogurt a little. Would it really be worth spending a couple of hours to just make a little bit of yogurt? You may conclude that you're money and time is better spent buying small amounts of commercial yogurt when the price fits your budget.

Our family eats a lot of beans. We save a small fortune on our groceries by eating beans in place of meat, several days per week. Does that mean that every frugal family "needs" to eat loads and loads of beans? What if eating beans has a disastrous after-effect on your body? You may decide that you'd be better off saving in other ways, and skip the beans.

I lived rent-free in my parents' home for a couple of years in my early 20s. Was this right or wrong of my parents? Did not having to pay rent lead me to a life of financial irresponsibility? They had their reasons for allowing me to live there rent-free. While we didn't have a formal agreement, I'm certain I was allowed to live there for free as an enticement to get me to stay there, for the remaining years of my mom's life. I became her after-hours care-giver, before and after the nurse was there for her daily 8-hour shift. Cancer left my mom physically disabled, and she wanted to remain in our home and care for all of us (my brother was still in high school at that time), as best she could for those last months. My being there allowed her to continue being "mom".

As many of you know, our grown son still lives at home. He pays us a small rent each month. You may be thinking that he should be out of the house at his age. But you don't know the circumstances which have led us to keep him living here. Circumstances change, and he'll be moving on to his own place when that happens.

This has been an extremely difficult year for our family, financially. Many of you have probably wondered why I just don't get a full-time job (I do work 1 day outside the home for pay), and ease our financial stress. Well, you don't know the particulars that have drawn us to the conclusion that me still at home is the best situation for our family, right now. Again, our family's circumstances will eventually allow for me to have more time for other pursuits.

As bloggers, we tend to only show you the "pretty" side to our lives. The messy side we leave shut behind closed blog doors. This isn't to deceive you into thinking our lives are wonderful. We assume that you know that no one's life is perfect. Keeping the messier aspects of our lives behind closed doors provides privacy for those we love, our families. We should all be entitled to a little bit of privacy in dealing with our own difficulties, don't you think?

I once judged someone (in my mind) for using a Keurig-style coffee maker. "What are they thinking? That's about $1 per cup of coffee!" My own coffee costs about 10 cents per cup. Surely, my way is the better way. But what if this couple had previously been spending a small fortune keeping Starbucks' stockholders happy? Then even a $1 cup of coffee would be saving them money. I enjoy a great cup of coffee, too. If I had the money for K-cups, I know I'd enjoy them, and maybe drink less coffee in the end.

Sometimes, we just don't know why others make the choices that they do. And sometimes, they don't know why we've come to our own conclusions. Take what works and leave the rest.

This week's lunch round-up: gotta make it simple *plus* how to make PBJ French Toast

I had a lot on my plate yesterday, so making lunch fixins' for the week had to be simple. Here's what I came up with:

• peanut butter and jelly French toast (takes 10 minutes to make 4 servings, faster than baking muffins)
• lentil-vegetable soup (this was Monday night's dinner, so no extra work, just a large pot)
• hard-boiled eggs
• rice and beans (these were actually leftovers from Sunday dinner, so, again, no extra work there)
• blackberry-granola-yogurt parfaits
• fresh apples 

When time is short, what do you throw into a lunch bag for yourself or family? 

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Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast

(If you have pbj lovers in your house, you may want to give these a try. Heartier than regular French toast, a half sandwich packs a lot of protein in the peanut butter, egg and milk. Bonus, they are faster to make than muffins. 
I make several and layer between sheets of waxed paper, then cover with a plastic bag, in a pie plate to keep in the fridge. They keep refrigerated for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave. Alternatively, you can individually wrap and freeze, to keep frozen for up to 3 months.)

(4 hearty servings, or 8 pieces)

8 slices bread
smooth peanut butter (alternatively, you can use butter for this step)
chunky peanut butter
jelly or jam
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
butter and oil for skillet
(optional -- powdered (confectioner's) sugar, raspberry or blackberry jam and/or maple syrup)

Spread 1 side of each slice of bread with smooth peanut butter, to the edges (you can use butter in place of smooth peanut butter).

Spread a layer of chunky peanut butter on one slice of each sandwich. Spread jelly or jam on other slice of each sandwich. Put two sides of sandwiches together. Cut in half.

In a medium-size bowl, beat eggs, milk, vanilla extract and sugar.

Heat skillet over medium. Add a teaspoon each of butter and oil.

Dip sandwich halves quickly in egg batter. Flip in the batter, then add to skillet. Cook until browned underneath, flip and cook the other side.

To serve on plates (my daughters grab these to-go in a napkin in the mornings, so no optional ingredients for them most days), sprinkle with powdered sugar and provide additional jam for dipping (a la Monte Cristo sandwiches). Otherwise, drizzle with maple syrup.

(I'll get a photo posted as soon as I can figure it out on a borrowed computer, with only a camera and no cell phone camera. They're pretty with the powdered sugar and jam in a ramekin on the side.)

Oh, for the good old days

I've been listening to some music from the early 70s, lately. It brings me back to the 6th grade, when life was so easy.

Back then, my mom bought my clothes for me. All I had to do was choose what to wear each day. I never thought, "will this make me look fat?", "will this make me look thin?", "will this bring out the green in my eyes?", "will this be in style?". I think my only criteria in what to wear was whether or not the garment was comfy, and in my favorite color.

My room was my domain. My mom did her decorating, then I did mine. My decorating consisted of posters on my closet doors. These "posters" came out of magazines, so I didn't even have to spend money on my "decorating".

Food was provided, and just showed up, either in my lunch bag or at my place at the table. I never thought "what should I have for dinner?" My mom took care of that for me.

I never thought about retirement funds, medical bills, whether the price of milk was high or low this year, how expensive college tuition is, or how we will make ends meet with current inflation. I just existed.

I received 50 cents per week for allowance, in exchange for doing some chores. But I didn't have to buy groceries, clothing, housing or pay for utilities with my allowance. Allowance (after tithing) was strictly for my "wants", which was primarily candy, small toys or games and an occasional Saturday matinee at the movie theater. A Hershey bar cost about 10 cents and a movie ticket was 50 cents. (Check out this link for the price of a Hershey bar through the decades. Other food prices included on this page. If you're up at the top of the page, for Hershey bars, click on the Hershey prices link in upper right section, or scroll down about 3/4 the way. http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq5.html#candybar)

My "wants", now, are more along the lines of a professional haircut, new shoes, or drapes for the family room -- all things that were provided for me as a child, not things I had to pay for with my allowance.

My thoughts about life were simple when I was in the 6th grade. I wasn't striving for a better financial picture. I wasn't pondering when would be a good time to "downsize". I didn't have to reconcile our expenditures with our income.

I simply lived. Oh, for the good old days. 6th grade, I miss how simple you felt.

Christmas shopping -- yep that's what I said, Christmas

I've been amassing a pile of Christmas gifts in the closet, over the summer.

This is a great time of year to check thrift shop shelves for Christmas items. Folks are cleaning out their own closets and donating to the thrifts. A couple of weeks ago I found a few Christmas things at Value Village -- added to the stack.

Also, I regularly receive both Kohl's and Penney's $10 off coupons. Last week I spent a few hours using 4 $10 off coupons (1 $10 off/$10 to Kohl's, 1 $10 off/$25 & 1 $10 off/$10 at Penney's, and 1 $10 reward I didn't even know I had at Penney's from the suit I purchased last spring). With these coupons/rewards, I bought 5 gifts for this coming holiday season, and spent a grand total of $12 out of pocket.

Add these items to the stash of after-Christmas clearance gifts I bought in January, and my pile is growing. I'll still have a couple of large ticket gifts to buy. I'll begin hunting those down soon.

Am I just crazy, or have you begun Christmas shopping/crafting already, too?

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This week's lunch round-up: the garden is really producing!

With an abundant garden right now, I am using what's ripe to put together lunches. And as it was so terribly hot yesterday, I tried to make items do double-duty for dinner last night, as well as lunches for the week. (The kitchen was in the mid-80s by afternoon.)

For dinner, we had veggie quiche (using some of the cooked veggies also used in the egg and veggie fried rice), 2 bean salad, brown rice (what was left of the large pot of rice from making the fried rice), and fruit salad using some of the apples and blueberries.

So here's the lunch round-up for the week:

• fresh apples
• boiled eggs
• egg and veggie fried rice
• blueberry muffins
• 2 bean salad (green beans and pintos, don't have 3 beans, LOL!)

Surplus budgeting

You know that when I don't spend all the grocery budget in one month, that I carry forward the surplus into the next, and beyond. Well, we do that with all of our variable budget categories.

For instance, our natural gas budget. We use natural gas for heat, the stove top and water heating. We are currently budgeting $100 per month for natural gas. We don't need to heat the house in summer, so any of that budget not spent in a summer month gets banked for winter heating.

In past years, I've tried to build a surplus of about $600 by November 1st, to supplement our heating budget in winter. This year, I'm trying to build that surplus to $800. We have about $650 in surplus right now. If this winter proves to be milder for our area than anticipated, that surplus will carry forward to winter of 2015-2016.

We have also done this with the water bill. We budget a set amount per month, and save anything not spent for the more intensive water-usage months of summer. This year, we chose not to fill our pop-up swimming pool. So we have more in our water budget surplus than in previous years.

In addition to saving the surplus, we also "invest" the surplus. With the water surplus, we buy rain barrels, install drip irrigation and replace water hog toilets and shower heads. With the electricity budget surplus, we buy LED light bulbs and we are saving for a new garage fridge/freezer.

In budgeting areas like clothing, car repairs and family entertainment, we haven't really found ways to "invest" the surplus, but instead simply bank that amount for large expenditures like winter coats, major car repairs or family mini-vacations.

This sort of budgeting means that we're never "caught out" with big expenses. There's always a little wiggle room in the budgets to cover those unexpectedly cold winters, or replacing winter gear, or new brakes for the car.

Being prepared allows us to relax a bit about our finances.

Just a thought for today

My kids and I were talking about our fruit trees, earlier this week. Our apples trees are bursting with apples this year, but there's not much on the pear trees.

We had an observation and a conclusion. We've never had all our fruit trees produce bumper crops. But then again, we've never had complete crop failure with our trees, either. There has always been enough fruit. That made us feel well-provided for.

All we have needed, Thy hand hath provided.

Questions, questions, questions

I thought I would lump all my questions into one post and hope for some great answers.

One
One of my daughters wore through her high school backpack mid-year last year. I loaned her my travel backpack for the rest of the year. It's a Jansport, and really hasn't been used all that much. But this summer, it's beginning to show wear in the bottom of the backpack, like see-through wear. So, this daughter needs a new backpack. We replaced the other daughter's backpack early last school year, as her high school one bit the dust a loooong time ago. We went to REI and used a gift card to buy her new one. So, my question -- have any of you found an especially great brand of backpack that would last through daily use for 3 years or more?

Two
When I was sick last week, I had a hard time putting together dinners. Everyone in the family gets home so very late, that dinner needs to be on the table when they walk in the door. As illness strikes with no warning, it wasn't as if I could just prepare ahead of time and stock the freezer. I was sick all week, and we went through every prepared food in the freezer that I could find, and still needed more meals. To complicate things, our budgets are strained even further this summer, with some medical bills needing to be paid, and the medical fund needing to be replenished. So, just ordering pizzas won't work for us. My question here -- what quick and easy dinners do you put together under similar circumstances?

Three
Finally, my 3rd and last question burning in my mind this week. How old is too old for using gravy? I roasted a whole chicken a couple of weeks ago (on a Saturday). I made gravy with the drippings that night. The leftover gravy sat in the fridge all the following week (until the next Friday morning), when I finally realized that it was not a container of some peanut butter-y concoction of one of my kids, but indeed was chicken gravy. I immediately tossed it into the freezer, at about 6 days old. What do you think? Is 6 days in the fridge (40 degrees F) too long for gravy? If I heated it through real well, would it be safe to eat?


Thanks, to all of you! I just know I'm going to get some really great and useful answers!

This, that and the other thing

This

On Thursday, I did a little clean-out of the pantry. My am I ever a pack-rat. I save a lot of stuff. If someone brings a take-out container into the house, I wash and save it. If my husband brings an aluminum catering-size pan home, I save it. When we finish a can of coffee, I save the canister. So, on Thursday, I made myself cull through that stuff and toss or recycle as much as possible. I did save 2 catering pans, 1 oatmeal canister, and there's this 1 extra large canister from chili powder. My guess is it would hold about 3 quarts of liquid, it's that big. (I buy a couple of spices in super large sizes then store in the freezer.) I washed out the chili powder canister. It's a nice size, and see-through, so would be good for storing something. I just haven't figured out what yet. It just looks too good to toss. I know, I'm a pack-rat.

The pantry is a lot more organized, now, and I made room for autumn stock-ups.

That

Evidently, everyone else's appetites were off last week, too.  I didn't make nearly as much as I usually do for lunches and breakfasts to-go, but there was a lot leftover at the end of the week. This turned out to be a very good thing, for me, as I used all of this to make Friday night's dinner. We had refried bean, herbed rice and cheese tacos, and rhubarb sauce for dinner that night. Easy cooking night for me.

And that other thing

frugal spinster's blog post on Friday reminded me that this is the time of year that bread products go moldy. It's warm and humid right now, enough for those tiny mold spores to proliferate. I lost a pancake last week (I was looking forward to having the very last pancake with my breakfast on Friday, boo hoo), to mold. I realized that it's that time of year to keep all baked goods in either the fridge or freezer. So, I went into the kitchen and sliced up the last of the loaf of bread, and tossed it into the freezer. It was a good reminder, and at least I only had 1 pancake grow mold.

August is our month for fun!

While many American's calenders indicate that summer just has 1 month left, in our family we're just hitting the middle of summer. My daughters don't start up with classes until the end of September. I'm grateful for that, as it gives me more time to plan summer fun. And we won't really think about classes until mid to late September.

So, in making plans for this month, I've come up with a list of things I want to do, just for fun. Usually my lists are work lists. But after a hard year, I want some fun.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

• take breakfast to the beach (actually doing that this morning, just with daughters as they have the day off from work)
• go to the Seattle Art Museum (free on the first Thursday of every month)
• do Glazed and Amazed pottery and glass painting with 2 daughters (this has been on our list for a very long time! And now I've found a coupon in the most recent flyer -- yippee!)
• farmer's market at the beach on Wednesday, then browse the second-hand bookstore in Old Town, just up the hill
• tour the lighthouse on a Saturday afternoon and bring dinner to the beach, for the entire family (you'll notice that we go to the beach either in the early morning, or late afternoon evening. I'm just not a fan of beach at midday -- too hot, sticky and crowded!)
• visit the u-pick flower patch in the farm area near us. The micro-climate in that area is drier, sunnier and about 5 degrees warmer, so many more varieties of flowers do well in that area.
• set up croquet and horseshoes in back yard -- Sunday afternoon family time, and practice practice, practice my croquet stroke for the upcoming church picnic -- don't want to have a 9 year old beat me again!
• church family picnic

That's it for my August plans. What will you be doing this month?

July Grocery Money Journal -- spent $28.89 per week

July 5. Dollar Tree for 3 quarts of soy milk, and 1 bag of marshmallows -- for s'mores :) Spent $4

July 9. Country Farms (the produce stand). I check the mark-down bin first and find 1 1/2 lb. bag of broccoli florets (99 cents), 1  1/4 lbs of Rainer cherries (99 cents), then choose 2 watermelons (29 cents/lb), 2 cucumbers (2/$1), 3 small avocados (3/$1), 1 head of garlic (50 cents). I spend $11.58. Then I turn around and see they have added new items to the mark-down bin. I choose a bag of 3 bell peppers (99 cents) and a bag of 7 small and 1 large very ripe avocados (99 cents). I spend another $1.98.

July 9. Trader Joe's for 20 bananas (19 cents each) and 2 containers of tofu. Spent $6.78

July 9. Last stop at Cash and Carry restaurant supply. My daughters convince me that we "need" 1 gallon of molasses (otherwise we can't make more graham crackers, and then we can't make more s'mores!). Molasses was $13.39 for 1 gallon. I also buy a 12.5 lb bag of popcorn ($6.58), 2-lb bag of raisins ($4.59), 72-ct package of corn tortillas ($2.18) and 4 containers of tofu ($1.24 -- I didn't know it would be on sale here, it was about 20 cents less per container than Trader Joe's). Total spent, $31.70, for a month-to-date of $56.04.

July 13. I stopped at QFC after church and found milk and tofu on markdown. I bought all of the tofu (99cents/package, 7 packages) and 1  1/2 gallons of milk. Spent $9.70 You can freeze tofu, if you buy a package and only use part. The texture changes a little. It seems a bit grainier after freezing. For my purposes, this doesn't matter. I mostly use tofu in soups, mashed and in lasagna, in a chocolate silk dessert, and pureed in smoothies. A changed texture doesn't seem to matter.

One daughter went to Dollar Tree, so I had her pick up 1 box of lasagna noodles, for $1. Month to date spending -- $66.74

July 19.  I was out running errands and near Fred Meyer, so I thought I'd stop in to check for markdowns. I found 10 gallons of 1% milk at $1.50 each. I bought all 10! (And this was a challenge to fit into the freezers.) Natural peanut butter was also on sale, store brand, 3/$5. Unfortunately, the package has shrunk to 15 oz, instead of the former 16 oz. I still have some peanut butter at home, so I bought 4 jars. Also, down the baking aisle, I found powdered sugar for $1.59 for a 2-lb bag (bought 3 bags). This is less than I paid last fall, during the baking sale, so I went ahead and bought enough to get us through the baking season and hopefully enough for next spring's birthday cakes. Total spent -- $26.44

July 25. Safeway has whole chickens on sale for 88 cents/lb. This is more than last spring's price of 79 cents/lb, but I think it's a good price for right now. I buy 4 whole chickens. We still have a couple of chickens in the freezer, so with these 4 we should be able to get through fall with plenty of chicken. Also, they had 2-lb blocks of cheddar cheese on sale, today only, for $5, limit 1. Spent $23.89

July 25. Also go by Albertson's and buy 2 dozen eggs (medium size) for 99 cents/dozen. Spent $1.98. I thought this was a fabulous price on eggs, given how expensive eggs have become. However, on Sunday, checking Walgreen's ad, I discover Walgreen's has eggs on sale, large size 99 cents/dozen. Oh well. Total month to date spent -- $119.05

July 29 and 30. As I mentioned before, Walgreen's has eggs on sale for 99 cents/dozen, limit 4, this week. With 2 stops into Walgreen's I buy 8 dozen eggs, plus 1 package turkey bacon (6 oz -- 99 cents), and spend $8.91 in total. This is the end of spending for the month. Total month to date spent -- $127.96 which works out to $28.89 per week.

I was $37.04 under budget, which I'll add to my running surplus of $54.51, for a new running surplus total of $91.55. I'm banking this surplus for fall stock-ups, hoping to buy hams, turkeys, potatoes, autumn vegetables, butter, cheese and some canned veggies at that time. I expect we'll see higher prices this fall than last, so I want to bank about $150 for stock-up, in addition to my regular budgeted grocery amounts.

We are fortunate to have an abundance of garden produce right now. The red apples are ripening, blueberries have done well, blackberries are everywhere, plenty of lettuce and other leafy greens, plus cucumbers, zucchini, green beans and there's one almost ripe tomato, with more to come. I love looking at our dinner plates and seeing over half the plate has come from our garden or foraged berries. Our freezers are more full this July than last July, with hams, whole chickens, milk, butter, and ground beef.

Shopping very carefully and limiting extras has paid off for us. We have cut our grocery budget by $45 per month since last summer, and this despite rising food costs. I think I could cut our budget further, if I had to, but right now, I'd rather leave that extra amount in the budget, and buy more produce that I can't grow plus more meat.

The other thing that I've discovered is that I really prefer my home-baked goodies over anything store-bought. When I was in the store the other day, I was looking at a display of large chocolate chip cookies. They looked tempting, but then I imagined their shortening-ey taste, and realized that I could bake a much tastier cookie from scratch, using real butter, lots of real vanilla extract, brown sugar and some whole grains. I didn't make those cookies, yet, but got distracted with home-made blueberry muffins, also a delicious treat, adding some vanilla extract to the batter.

I had similar thoughts about packaged crackers. They look good, but then they often seem a bit greasy and taste of shortening. When we've wanted something with crunch, we've done fresh tortilla chips (from corn tortillas), crostini, or the occasional batch of crackers (usually of my daughters baking, they're the ones who really like crackers enough to bake some). Homemade can be much tastier than commercial products.

Well, that's it for July's grocery budget and spending. Last August, I spent very little on groceries, so it's possible that I will spend very little again this August. It depends on what I find at rock-bottom prices.

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This week's lunch round-up: sick or not, the show must go on

Monday is the usual day to make all the lunch stuff for the week. Not easy to do this week. So I stuck with simple to prepare items. here's what I managed to do:

• a dozen boiled eggs
• refried beans
• herbed brown rice
• rhubarb sauce
• pancakes

That was all I could put together, and still seemed to take all of my energy and the entire day.

I've been moving very slowly this week, instead of my usual bustle around the house and garden. I did spend some time pulling up the pea vines and planting fall lettuce. And yesterday, I picked blueberries and made a large batch of blueberry muffins. So the week wasn't a complete wash.

Dinners have been interesting this week. Last night it was scrambled eggs, toast, sauteed apples, sauteed zucchini, and a green salad. Tuesday night, I just made chicken soup and tortilla chips. And Monday was leftovers from the fridge and freezer. I am sure that my family will be pleased to come home to an actual dinner tonight. I'm making garden lasagna and a salad. I found all week that my energy crashed every afternoon, so I'll make the dinner this morning while I can.

I appreciate all of your kind words, thoughts and prayers. You are all so sweet. Thank you!

I do think that I need to work on my schedule. I used to say that I work hard, but I play harder. Now I think it's more like, I work hard, but I crash harder. I began feeling off late last week, and it only got worse by Sunday. I really don't like losing most of a week, especially during summer when there's so much that needs to be done. I am working on a schedule for August that will hopefully allow me to take some time to just enjoy the summer.

And here's something exciting for me -- the class schedule for the local community college came in the mail this week. I'm thinking of taking a class this fall. Yes, I'm nervous. And I have no idea which class I'll take. There's a jewelry making class in the art department that looks interesting. As well as a lot of other art classes that I would enjoy. I'll have to see what's still available when I go to register.

Anyway, thank you again for your kind words. I hope that I am back on track now.

Not well this week :(

I'll be back soon. Feeling like I was run over.
Have a good week,
Lili

This week's edibles and other goodies: some "beauty" products and lots more pickles, I'm afraid

Not everything I create is for the stomach. Sometimes I branch out.

• I "made" some lemon lotion. Lemon is one of my favorite summertime fragrances. It's so light and fresh. I add lemon essential oil to small bottles of hand lotion, like the ones you get as samples or when staying in hotels.
• I made some lip gloss with the stub of a favorite old lipstick, some lip balm and a few drops of olive oil. I have a mild allergy to petroleum jelly, so most lip glosses don't work for me. A waxy lip balm blended with a little oil does work. And the lipstick gives it just a bit of color.
• And yes, more watermelon pickles! I made 3 more pints, bringing me up to 7 pints of watermelon pickles. I'm close to finishing with watermelon pickles. We'll enjoy these in winter.
• I recooked the cherry preserves that I made 2 weeks ago. The liquid never thickened, so I recooked the preserves with a bit of pectin. They set up immediately. I am so looking forward to the cherry preserves. They are one of my favorite varieties.
• I made a small batch of mustard for this weekend's cookout. I am really loving homemade mustard. It has so much more flavor that anything I buy at the store. And it's easy to do, too!

And that's about it for the week. Not as overtly productive as other weeks, but still I was able to get a few things done. I've been financially productive in other ways most of this week.

How about you? Did you create anything this week? Share, please. I love hearing what things you've been doing -- gives me ideas for our home and family.

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Have you ever discovered something at the very last minute?

First of all, the winner of the lavender oil mini-giveaway is entry number 12, Carol from CTMOM. Carol, please email me your mailing address, at lili.mounce *at* gmail.com. I'll get the lavender essential oil to you right away, if that will work for you.

A discovery, of sorts

I have this face powder that I wear once or twice per week. I've had it for a few months, and have thought perhaps I'm allergic to it. Every time I apply it, my skin begins to feel a tad itchy. I really thought I was allergic to something it contained, and was ready to throw it out.

But before it headed into the waste can, I wanted to try everything possible. My first thought was maybe the brush needed a good cleaning. So clean it I did, using some shampoo and lots of warm water. When the brush was dry, I tried it again. The irritation was still there.

My second thought was maybe the brush was one of those super cheap ones. So I tried a nice cosmetic brush. Again, itchiness. I washed this better brush, yet still the itchies. So, it would seem that I was simply allergic to one of the ingredients. Rats! I'm a label reader and careful shopper, so I thought this stuff would be okay with my skin.

About ready to toss the powder, which I hated to do, as this stuff is not cheap, I had one last-ditch thought. Maybe I could try using a cotton ball to apply the powder. And it went on smooth, with no irritation. Plus, using a cotton ball gave me a more natural look than the brush applicator.

This discovery changed how I apply all of my powder cosmetics. Perhaps my skin is simply too sensitive to use any of these "special" cosmetic applicators.

I now also use a cotton ball for my powder blush. I can use the same cotton ball for a couple of weeks.

And I've discovered that if I use a fingertip, powder eye shadow goes on smoothly, looks conservatively applied, and doesn't get in my eyes, as it did when using the applicator that came with the shadow.

I'm thrilled to not need to throw away any expensive cosmetics, and get better application overall. I love when I "discover" something like this!

Lunch round-up: a cooling trend starts the week

The weather has turned cool, here. It was almost feeling fall-ish the other day. I had to remind myself not to get too cozy and bundled up, as the hot weather would surely return in a week or two.

But, with cooler weather comes opportunities to bake again. So, for this week's lunch round-up, it's looking like:

• kale, rice and cheese casserole
• bean burger patties
• cranberry-orange muffins (need to use up last year's cranberries!)
• carrot sticks and 1000 Island dressing/dip
• watermelon chunks, as I have half a melon left to use

I got out of rhythm with yogurt and bread making. So this week, I also had to make 5 loaves of bread, and a large batch of yogurt. I picked up 2 more wide-mouth, quart canning jars the other week, so I can now make 5 to 6 quarts of yogurt at a time. I will make more yogurt each time, but make it less often. 

For lunches this week, family members can choose from the above list, or pbj sandwiches, yogurt with jam, and raisins. These are our "staples", and always available.

The kale, rice and cheese casserole is a lot like oven-baked macaroni and cheese, only sub rice for pasta, and add some onions and kale for flavor and nutrition. The kale part isn't a mom-thing, but my daughters actually ask for more veggies. I KNOW! Go figure! But I'm happy they like veggies. It's a lot easier to accommodate a veggie-lover than a veggie-hater.

As I knew this would be a long cooking day, the bean burger patties and some of the rice and kale doubled as dinner. I try hard not to make too much work for myself.

The aroma of the muffins was so tempting, I just had to eat one right away. There are some flavors that seem to go together to me. I like almond extract in many fruit desserts and pastries, such as cranberry, blueberry, rhubarb and cherry. I also like orange zest with these same fruits. I always put apples together with allspice, cloves and cinnamon. Pears seem to go well with ginger. Are there any pairings that you're particularly fond of?

And now, I'm dog-tired. I just knew this would be a long, long day!


Mondays are always my busy day of the week. There is so much that I have to catch up on from the weekend. Tuesdays, on the other hand, are one of my lighter days of the week. I've got a nice cup of coffee poured, the house is silent, before anyone else is up yet, and today I'll sit for a bit, before getting the kitchen cleaned up. Hope you have a lovely day!

~~ Cheers

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Do you make pickles and relish? I've been making watermelon pickles this past week

I make a few varieties of pickles and relish each year. I usually make dill green bean pickles, zucchini bread and butter pickles, sweet green tomato relish, dill green tomato relish, and these, sweet and tangy watermelon rind pickles. I use green beans, zucchini and green tomatoes from our garden. And for the watermelon pickles, I use the white portion of the rind of 1 large watermelon to make 4 pints of pickles. This year, I'd also like to add two more varieties of pickles. 1) something like an end-of-season relish mix, using all the bits of the tail end of harvest, and 2) a pickled shallot, as my shallots did very well this year. (Any recipes for either of these are welcome!)

Watermelon pickles 

From what I understand, pickled watermelon rind has a long tradition with feasts and celebrations of the southern states of the US. Watermelons thrive in the sandy soils of the southern US. And what could be more thirst-quenching than a juicy slice of melon on a hot southern afternoon? At 92% water content and a good source of electrolytes, the red flesh of the watermelon must have been to hard-working Americans, what Gatorade beverages are to today's athletes. And thrifty housewives surely would have recognized the value of the rinds for pickles.

Watermelon pickles are virtually impossible to find in local supermarkets, any more. And online, they sell for $6 or more per jar. But, as they're made from what most of us would toss on the compost heap, it makes good frugal sense to make your own.

I find that pickled watermelon rind is more versatile than most of the other pickles that I've made. 

• Pickled watermelon rind is a nice accompaniment to cooked meats. 
• Chopped up, I like it as "relish" on sausages in buns.
• It adds some tang when sliced and added to sandwiches and salads. 
• Sliced thin, and used as the sole filling on a bread and butter sandwich, watermelon pickle makes a nice "tea sandwich". 
• It makes a wonderful little bite when wrapped in thin-sliced bacon and broiled. 
• I also like to use it as replacement for some of the candied fruit in Christmas fruitcakes, as per the suggestion in the Joy of Cooking (rinse and chop before adding to batter).

Seeded watermelons make better pickles

Seeded watermelons have thicker rinds than the seedless varieties. So I buy the seeded ones. Plus, they're usually less expensive per pound, so a win-win situation. However, it's the seedless watermelons that are the ones often found in supermarkets. Where to find a seeded watermelon? I find seeded watermelons at farm and highway produce stands, often about 10 cents less per pound than the seedless ones.


How I make watermelon pickles
 
Basically I follow the recipe in Joy of Cooking. I modified it slightly, as I have whole cloves and cinnamon sticks, and not oil of cloves or oil of cinnamon. I have also used the ground spices with success. However, the liquid is not as clear as using the whole spices. And I make pickles from just a quarter of a watermelon at a time, as it can take us an entire week to eat a whole watermelon. So, my instructions will only make 1 pint of pickles, and will use 1/4 of a 12-lb melon. Size up the syrup measurements, as needed for the amount of pickles you wish to make.

I cut the watermelon lengthwise into quarters. Then I slice into 1/2-inch thick slices. I trim the green off the slices, first, then the red portion off the rind. If I won't be making the pickles right away, I save the white rinds in the fridge until I have enough for a batch. A quarter of a 12-lb watermelon will provide enough rind for 1 pint of pickles.

When ready to begin the pickles, cut the white pieces into 1-inch to 1 & 1/2-inch lengths. 

Place in a pot, cover with water and parblanch the rind pieces, just until it can be pierced with a fork or point of a sharp knife, but do not overcook (it takes between 7 and 10 minutes, depending on size of pieces, thickness of rind). 

Drain and rinse in cold water to stop cooking. Place drained pieces in a medium-size bowl.

Make syrup and bring to a boil, for 1/4 of a 12-lb melon (adjust the syrup proportions for more melon rind):

1 & 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
12-15 whole cloves
1 piece of cinnamon stick (I break cinnamon sticks in half, lengthwise for these pickles, and use a half stick)

When syrup is just boiling, pour over the rind pieces, making sure all is covered with syrup. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap, and allow to stand overnight. (To insure the melon pieces remain under the solution I place a small plate on top of the plastic wrap.) My recipe (from Joy of Cooking) doesn't specify whether this should be kept in the fridge overnight or not. To err on the safe side, place the covered melon pieces in the refrigerator overnight.

Next day, remove bowl from fridge and allow to come to room temp for about 30 minutes. Remove the rind pieces, and reboil the syrup. Pour over rind again, and allow to stand overnight, in the refrigerator.

On the third day, allow to come to room temp for 30 minutes, then remove rind pieces, and reboil the syrup. 

Sterilize one 1-pint jar or two 1/2-pint jars, place rind pieces in jar(s) and pour hot syrup over, leaving headroom. 

Seal and process in a boiling water canner for 10-15 minutes (10 minutes, up to 1000 ft altitude, 15 minutes for 1001 to 6000 ft altitude -- as per National Center for Home Food Preservation). (For information on safe water bath canning, read this article by the NCHFP.) 

According to pickyourown.org and the recipe on the National Center for Home Food Preservation's website, it is "safe" to waterbath these pickles, due to the vinegar and sugar content. 

I store these pickles in the fridge for up to 9 months. Many folks store their preserves and pickles in a cupboard, but I prefer to err on the side of caution, and keep these in the refrigerator -- I'm paranoid that way.

These pickles are ready for the table after 1 week.

Any leftover watermelon pickle syrup makes a nice glaze for baked ham. Brush on in place of a brown sugar glaze, in the final baking period (about the last 15 to 20 minutes).


I wish I could show you a photo of my jars of pickles. I think they're beautiful in their own way, translucent pickles in light golden syrup. I leave 1 cinnamon stick piece in each jar, as well as the whole cloves.

Buying canning jars

I frequent second-hand shops looking for jars. Value Village has the highest price on canning jars around here, at as much as $2.99 for a quart-size jar. St. Vincent de Paul prices their jars slightly better, at 99 cents per jar. But my favorite place to buy canning jars is Goodwill. I have found canning jars for as low as 20 cents each, there. And of course, when talking with friends and neighbors, I often just put out the word that I buy used canning jars. Many times I've been offered several jars for nothing more than a jar of jam or some pickles in exchange. Many women simply don't have the time or inclination to can any more, and are happy to have their jars go to a happy home. :)


So, will you be making any pickles or relish this summer?

This week's edibles and other goodies: herbs and pickles

(FYI -- There's a lavender giveaway on yesterday's post, open until Tuesday, July 22.)

Another week of storing away a bit of summer, for enjoyment next winter.

I cut and harvested pineapple mint and peppermint to use in tea this winter. Freezing seems to hold more volatile oils in the leaves of some herbs, than drying. I froze individual leaves on a tray, then bagged for the freezer.

After washing the mint and pulling off leaves, I took the stems and a few of the leaves and made a mint syrup, to use in making non-alcoholic mint juleps (a la Disneyland-style). I made mint juleps sans the club soda, but used filtered water and poured over ice instead. It was refreshing! If you're interested, a Disney version of mint julep can be found here. Basically, it's lemonade concentrate, lime juice, sugar, creme de menthe non-alcoholic syrup and club soda. I made mine with lemon juice, lime juice, filtered water, my homemade mint syrup, and a lot of crushed ice. I didn't add any extra sugar, as the mint syrup was plenty sweet, and I prefer a tart beverage. I suspect the Disney Blog version would be too sweet for my taste, but my kids would enjoy it. Next time we make seltzer water, I think I'll try using some of that for mint juleps. A couple of weeks ago, we made seltzer water and used it to make red currant Italian sodas (using homemade red currant syrup from this year's currant crop).  

I took a second harvest of oregano and dried in the dehydrator. (Oregano is one of the herbs that is recommended for drying, as the flavor actually improves when dried.) I filled a pint-sized jar with loose-packed leaves. I'm hoping for 2 more jars this size to get me through all the pizza and spaghetti of winter, but I'll settle for 1 more, should that be the situation.

I made a half-dozen single cup coffee filters and a half-dozen tea blanks. I filled the tea blanks with loose tea, so I'll be more likely to enjoy this wonderful tea that I have. 

I made another 3 pints of watermelon rind pickles. I love using something that would just go to the compost otherwise. And the jars look beautiful, with the cinnamon sticks and whole cloves. When using cinnamon sticks in something like these pickles, where I want to leave the stick in the jar, I cut the cinnamon stick in half, lengthwise, with a heavy-bladed knife. Cinnamon sticks often are rolled up in such a way that you can split the stick right down the middle.


Did you create anything this week? Please, share!

Lavender: it's benefits, spending less on essential oils, and a mini-giveaway

I love the scent of lavender. I know it's not everyone's favorite. But we're all allowed to enjoy what we do. However, I don't want to spend a fortune on the essential oils. Spending less on essential oils, while getting all the benefits of lavender, fits my definition of value for money spent. I'll tell you where I buy oils in just a bit. But first, some info on the benefits of lavender and why it's my choice herbal for the bedroom.

Lavender has many properties which make it ideal for use in the bedroom.

• its antimicrobial
• it's a natural insect repellant (does Fido or Fluffy sleep in your bed? Fleas don't like lavender.)
• it's a natural sleep-inducer 

As an antimicrobial, it's been shown to inhibit growth of bacteria, including MRSA (the antibiotic-resistant Staph bacteria).

Lavendar has also been demonstrated to be an effective anti-fungal (good for mattresses, pillows and bedding).

It's also a known antiviral. A little spritz on common items in the house, such as throws, blankets and pillows, couldn't hurt when a family member is coughing and hacking their way through the day, in addition to using the lavender spray on bedding,

I also like to add a capful of the lavender spray in the rinse water in the laundry, when the towels are smelling a little funky.

Lavender is a natural insect repellent. In times past, it was a common practice to hang sprigs of lavender over doors and windows, as a natural fly, gnat and mosquito deterrent. And laying sprigs of lavender on doorway thresholds were known to keep crawling insects out of the home.

Storing silk or wool clothing/blankets for the summer? Spritzing your closet with lavender spray will keep moths at bay, as well.

For those with sleep issues due to anxiety, breathing in the scent of lavender is calming to the nervous system. It lifts moods and promotes relaxation. Some people report that inhaling the scent of lavender melts away tension headaches, even.

But, as Cat, from EcoCatLady pointed out, some people have skin sensitivities to lavender essential oil. Just an FYI.

Exercise caution when using essential oils

And for many people, any undiluted essential oil, directly applied to the skin can cause skin irritation or even burns. Oils for perfume or therapeutic use, such as massage, are usually embodied in a carrier oil. The carrier oil diffuses the product while maintaining the scent and healing properties.


Where I buy essential oils (and how I spend less money!)

There are several places that I've bought lavender essential oil. There are a couple of independently-owned shops in the Seattle metro area which sell essential oils. Their prices tend towards the high side. Then there's Super Supplements, a local health and supplement chain. Their prices are good and a great place if I need the oil that day. And then there's online. (Here are several online sources for quality essential oils while spending less money -- check out this article.) My favorite spot online for essential oils is Bulk Apothecary.

Bulk Apothecary's prices are great, and shipping can be low. *One caveat, there is no shipping information page on their site.* So, what I do -- as I add items to my cart, I have the shipping calculated. When I reach a certain threshold, the shipping costs jump significantly. That's when I put 1 item back, and delay purchasing that item until another time when I need more supplies, if possible. And, as always, I do a search for online coupons. Sometimes I find "free shipping" coupons, other times I find % off coupons.

If you look online for reviews on Bulk Apothecary, you will find a mixed bag of very positive and very negative shopping experiences. What I always remind myself is this. Who actually takes the time to write a review? It's usually people with extremely negative experiences. And they often plaster their reviews all over the web. This is evident in the details of their complaint. Those exact same details will pop up on review site after review site. So, I read the reviews, and prepare myself for any possible delays. And as with anything I order online, I never order something on short notice.

Here's my personal experience with Bulk Apothecary. On this last order, I had 5 small vials of essential oil. When I added a 6th vial, the shipping jumped from $6.95 to $11.25. I decided to forgo that 6th item, and stick with my original 5. (And just an FYI, when I had just 1 item in the cart, I believe shipping was about $2.50.) The $6.95 also met the threshold for Priority Mail, with tracking. The $2.50 First Class, Flat Envelope delivery is for small amounts of merchandise, and I believe it does not include tracking. I couldn't find anything on the USPS website that indicated tracking was included in First Class, Flat Envelope mail. Plus, I had an online coupon for 10% off any purchase.

I placed my order around 2 PM PDT, on a Thursday. By 9 AM PDT, Friday, I had shipping confirmation with a tracking number. So, less than 24 hours and my order was processed and shipped. By Monday afternoon, my complete order was in my mailbox. It was well-wrapped (each vial in bubble wrap) and placed in a padded envelope. Couldn't be happier.

Wherever you choose to purchase essential oils, make sure that they are pure essential oils, and not fragrance oils, aromatic oils or perfume oils, as those are often not natural, but are manufactured scents. (Craft stores often carry fragrance oils in with their soap and candle-making supplies. These are not the same as essential oils.) A manufactured scent may smell like the pure essential oil, but it doesn't have the unique properties of the essential oil (such as insect repellent, calming, or antimicrobial properties of lavender).

So now for the mini-giveaway

I have 1 small vial (.5 oz) of lavender essential oil that I will be happy to send to 1 person, randomly selected. If you're interested in entering this drawing, please leave a comment below. Rules for this giveaway:

• limited to those with a USA address
• comment must be left by 12 midnight, PDT, Tuesday, July 22
• winner will be announced in Thursday's post, July 24

And if linen spray doesn't interest you in the least, I will point out that lavender essential oil can be added to hand lotion, bath salts and bath bombs. I add a drop or two to those tiny hotel lotions, to add some lovely fragrance. And I've made lavender bath salts and bath bombs as gifts for several special occasions. And of course, a few drops of lavender oil in a basin of water infused with Epsom salt makes a nice foot soak at the end of a long day. Anyway, enter the drawing if this appeals to you.

~~Cheers

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This week's lunch round-up menu: deja vu?

So I'm repeating a few things. But if it works, why mess with it, right? Anyway, here's what's on the lunch menu for this week. I put it all together yesterday morning, and it's waiting in the fridge as I type. (Keeping a week's worth of lunch items on hand is awesome for me, too, as I end up snacking and lunching much healthier than if I have to start from scratch every day.)

• marinated lentil-barley salad with a mustard vinaigrette
• hard boiled eggs
• rosemary-oregano bread
• rhubarb-blackberry sauce
• salad bowl of greens w/creamy Italian dressing in a container on the side
• lemonade

To go with what I made yesterday is peanut butter, jelly, bread, raisins, bananas and yogurt. If something on the "menu" doesn't appeal to any one of us, we can always grab an old favorite.

I was tired and cranky when I got up this morning. It's been far too hot here, with no A/C, and just 1 dinky fan. So I opened the windows, put on some upbeat music, and danced my way to a full fridge.

~~Cheers

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My Cal. King fitted sheet dilemma, my bed-making routine, and lavender linen spray

The dilemma

For those of you who have read my posts religiously, you know that I've been scrounging for a solution to the worn fitted sheet for our Cal. King bed for several years now. It began in early 2012 with a worn spot in the bottom sheet, which I patched with Wonder Under. That kept everything together for almost 2 years. Then a new worn spot and a tear erupted. Again, I used Wonder Under and kept that tattered sheet holding together for another 5 months. At this point, the fitted sheet was simply too worn to use.

I've been shopping for a new fitted sheet, but the best price would mean ordering through Penney's for about $40. I'm considering that option. But here's my dilemma. We've been talking and talking and talking about getting rid of this Cal. King bed, and putting in a Queen bed. Cal. King's are hard to find linens for. They take up a huge chunk of the room space. And the sheets themselves fill the entire washer each week. I'm just annoyed by their huge size. It wasn't my choice, but was willed to me. I had a perfectly good Queen-size, 4-poster frame all set for this room (still in the attic), needing a mattress and box frame. But the Cal. King came to us, and we've been living with it for 12 years now. So, I've been putting off buying anything new for this bed, with the hopes we could down-size soon.

My temporary solution

In late spring, I came up with an old-time solution. I used 2 large, cotton flat sheets. I tucked the largest (King-size flat) in as much as possible, for the bottom sheet. Then I used my next largest  (Queen-size flat)  cotton sheet to use for the top sheet. It just barely fits, but works well-enough. This is simply the way all beds were made for generations, -- 2 flat sheets, one thoroughly tucked in for the bottom, and one on top, tucked at the sides and foot.

With using a flat sheet in place of a fitted, I do have to smooth and re-tuck the bottom sheet every day. But I don't find that to be bothersome, as my bed-making routine incorporates this step.

My bed-making routine

So, I wash the sheets once per week and the pillowcase twice per week. It's soooo nice to have fresh pillowcases mid-week!

Everyday, when I make up the bed, I pull the top sheet off to the foot of the bed, straighten and re-tuck the bottom sheet. Then I give a spritz of lavender linen spray over the sheet and make up the rest of the bed. The lavender linen spray is just one of those lovely things I do just for me. The whole room smells fresh, and the bed is delightful to slip into at the end of the day.

I don't stop with the spritzing of the sheets. When I change the pillowcases, on Wednesday and Saturday, I give a spritz of lavender linen spray on each side of the bare pillow, before slipping into the fresh cases. At night when I lay my head down on the pillow, I am relaxed by the lovely scent of lavender.

Homemade lavender linen spray

You could buy some pricey lavender spray. L'Occitane sells a 3.4 oz bottle of lavender pillow spray for $22.00. It is lovely, indeed, but overpriced for what you get.

I got hooked on lavender linen spray, several years ago, by a gift of expensive linen water. When I ran out, I decided to make my own. It's super simple to make, and for the price of 1 bottle of linen spray from the department store, I can make about a dozen bottles. If you check the label of any of the commercial linen sprays, the number one ingredient is WATER! You are basically paying for the bottle with a little fragrance thrown in.

Here's how I make mine:

• 2 ounces 91% isopropyl alcohol
• 4 ounces distilled water
• 15-20 drops lavender essential oil (not lavender fragrance oil which may contain synthetic ingredients)
• 6 to 8-ounce bottle with a fine mist spray (I reused my old linen spray bottle, but you can find suitable empty bottles in the cosmetic section of the drugstore) 
• optional--coloring (in a small dish, combine 1 drop red and 1 drop blue liquid food coloring with 1 tablespoon of distilled water.  Drop 1/16 teaspoon of this colored mixture into the bottle of lavender spray, at a time, until the desired color of finished product. Remember, keep the color very, very light. It's just to "suggest" the fragrance of the product, not color your linens.)

Add the first 3 ingredients to your spray bottle, and shake well. Add optional food coloring, until desired tint. Shake well before each use.

*if you're really afraid that you'll botch the coloring, here's how I came up with the tint that I like. I made a sample faux-liquid, using just water and the coloring. After, I mixed up the 1 tablespoon distilled water with red and blue coloring, I filled a glass measuring cup with 6 ounces of water. I added 1/16th teaspoon at a time of the color into the plain water. I dropped 1 drop of this colored water onto a square of white cotton, to make sure it wouldn't stain. I decided on just under 1/8th teaspoon total of the coloring/water mix for each 6 ounces of spray. Then, I used that amount (shy 1/8th teaspoon) of coloring/water for my lavender mixture.

Later this week, I'll tell you where I buy my essential oils, a little more info on lavender, and a little giveaway.

This week's edibles and other goodies

Midsummer, and it's time to create some goodies.

This week, I made 5 half-pints of sweet cherry preserves and 1 half-pint of sweet cherry syrup. I used the directions in Joy of Cooking for the preserves. The cherry syrup is simply the leftover syrup juice from the preserve.

I made 1  1/2 pints of watermelon rind pickles, again using Joy of Cooking's directions. I used whole cloves and cinnamon sticks in place of the spice oils called for.

I almost forgot, I also made a batch of laundry soap and liquid hand soap. I simply melted down 1 bar of allergen-free bar soap in a large amount of water. I don't add anything else to this, for laundry, due to allergies. We have soft water here. This likely wouldn't rinse out as well in hard water. But it is working well-enough for us. And the big bonus for me, my skin can tolerate it very well. For the liquid hand soap, I poured some of this melted soap into the empty soap bottles, and added some green liquid food coloring that I had mixed for another project. Lovely, sea green hand soap, for pennies a bottle.
That's all for this week's creative goodies.


Did you create anything this week? Share, please!

Even with a large garden, I still have to buy some produce in summer

About now, my family begins to tire of kale, Swiss chard, lettuce and snow peas. We live in a maritime climate where many produce items simply don't ripen until late August, and some can't even grow here (such as avocados and melons).

So, I have to supplement what we can harvest with some purchased produce. Supermarket prices on produce are outrageous on most items. One local store is advertising peaches for $1.99/lb this week! (I'm sure that supermarkets are counting on most shoppers to not notice prices.)

I only want to spend a small amount of our grocery money on fruits and vegetables during the summer. So I need to be very mindful of prices as I plan what to buy. I have 3 locations where I shop for produce, and fortunately they're all along the same highway -- Trader Joe's, Country Farms (the produce stand), and Cash and Carry. I shop Trader Joe's for bananas, Cash and Carry for dried fruit, like raisins (not fresh, but we consider raisins as part of our fruits and vegetables), and Country Farms for overall low prices, yes, but I'm most impressed by their mark-down bin.

Yesterday, I made my mid-July produce shopping trip. I spent $21.95 for fruits and vegetables that will last for about 2 weeks, supplementing what I can harvest from our garden. For my $21.95, I bought 20 bananas, 2 lbs raisins, 2  12-pound watermelons, 1 head garlic, 2 large cucumbers, 3 small avocados for salads (will be ripe in about 4 or 5 days), a bag of 1 1/4 lbs of broccoli florets (marked down for 99 cents), a bag of 1 1/2 lbs of Rainier cherries (marked down for 99 cents), 3 large green peppers (marked down for 99 cents), a bag of 7 small and 1 large very ripe avocados for guacamole (marked down for 99 cents).

The cherries, broccoli and very ripe avocados will be gone within 2 days. The green peppers will be chopped and frozen. One whole watermelon to be consumed in the first week. The second whole watermelon is in the garage fridge to hold until next week. The bananas are in varying stages of ripeness and will be used within a week. The 3 unripe avocados will be added to salads over the weekend. The cucumbers should last 10-12 days. The garlic will last until I harvest our garden garlic next month. And, of course, the raisins would keep much longer than they will last here.

What didn't I buy that I saw yesterday? In the mark-down bin -- 3 ears of corn for $1, heads of leaf lettuce for 99 cents each, a bag of 1 pound of cauliflower for 99 cents, aloe leaves at 99 cents each (don't know what I'd do with aloe), bags of corn husks for 99 cents (these would be great for tamales, but that sounds like too much work right now), a 5-lb box of small oranges  for $3 that looked past their prime (would probably have been good for juicing), a 5-lb box of daikon radishes for $3 (might be good pickled, but that would be a whole lotta pickled daikon, 5-lb boxes of overripe bananas for $3 (that's 60 cents/lb, I can do better at Trader Joe's at about 40 cents/lb). At Cash and Carry, they had fresh strawberries, cherries, blueberries and raspberries for more per pound than the supermarkets. I find I have to be careful buying summer produce at the Cash and Carry, as their prices can often be beat by supermarkets.

By the end of July, more will be ready in the garden for harvest, and we'll have the variety that we crave.

When I have to buy produce in summer, I do have a few guidelines that I go by:

• fruit needs to be very low-priced -- for fruit, under 40 cents/lb for most fruit. I make an exception for berries, cherries, peaches and grapes, but still look for those items at 79 cents/lb or less. For the most part, I buy watermelons, cantaloupe, bananas in mid-summer. Plus, I often find marked down fruit at the produce stand. This week it was cherries for 66 cents/lb. Even though we have some cherries on our trees, extras are always nice to have. I'll be checking road-side stands for peaches later in the summer.
• dried fruit at $2.50/lb or less for raisins, $3.00/lb or less for dried apricots and prunes, and about $4.50/lb or less, for dried cherries. One drugstore has had containers of dried fruit on sale meeting these prices, every summer for the past several years, and I'm hoping for the same this year.
• fresh vegetables at 79 cents/lb or less, and they need to be veggies that I'm not growing, or won't be able to harvest for another month or more.

If you grow some of your produce, are there items that you simply can't grow, but like to buy? A lot of supermarkets no longer offer marked down produce. I'm hoping that they offer this to local food banks and soup kitchens. Do any of your local stores have marked down produce? Do you have a price limit in your mind for how much you are willing to spend for produce?

You are sooo lucky!

I've heard that a lot this past year. "You are sooo lucky that your house is paid for and no matter what, you won't lose it!" "You are soooo lucky to have fruit trees in your yard!" "You are soooo lucky that your kids all got scholarships to college!"

I don't like to use the word "luck". Our culture has a completely different meaning for that word than I do. Our culture seems to think that "luck" has a large component of randomness. Luck just happens to some folks and not to others, or so it is implied in western culture.

The definition of luck, that I appreciate, is this. "Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity".

You can't have a house paid for if you don't put in the effort to make payments. We knew we wanted to have our house free and clear as soon as possible. We saved a little longer than many people thought we should (8 years), and put down almost half of the purchase price to get a lower mortgage. We began making extra principle payments with the very first scheduled payment, and were able to pay off our home in 14 years. It was hard work and discipline, not luck, that got that house ours, free and clear.

You can't have a yard full of fruit tress if you don't plant those trees, or at least buy or rent a house with existing fruit trees. Our very first rented house had an apricot tree and spot for a garden. I'd never planted a garden before in my life, but did so that summer. I was hooked. Our next apartment didn't have room for trees, but we grew tomato plants in pots on the deck. When we moved to Washington, we looked for a rental with space for a garden and existing fruit trees. We hit the mother lode, 2 apple trees, 1 crab apple tree, 2 plum trees, 1 pear tree and 1 cherry tree. My husband was unemployed when we moved into that rental. That fruit accounted for a good chunk of our diet that first summer. And when we bought our current house, we set out to plant it with all kinds of fruit trees, plants and bushes. It's not luck that we have enough fruit to last us over 6 months of each year.

Universities just don't hand out merit scholarships to anyone who applies. My kids worked very hard all through high school to earn those scholarships. I'm a mom, I'm supposed to say that I have the most brilliant kids around. But the truth is, as their mom, I can see their academic weaknesses. These kids have worked their tails off in school. Two of them did a summer of tutoring, to bring their math skills up. When one of my daughters was having a hard time in her History class this past year, she upped her efforts in a hurry. She didn't finish at the top of her class, but got her grade up high enough to maintain her academic scholarship for the next year. If you ask her, she'll be quick to point out that that was not luck. That was a boatload of hard work.


So I'm not lucky, but I am fortunate beyond measure. I've been provided for providentially, and someone, somewhere along the line has put in the work for me to have my fortunes. Sometimes, we put in that hard work ourselves, but sometimes someone else has laid the foundation for us, as when a parent or grandparent leaves a generous gift to their heirs. Some of us are simply more blessed in this area than others. But all of us have been given gifts by our Creator, to use to make our way in this world (that's the providence part). Some of us recognize our gifts early on in life, while others of us don't "discover" our gifts until later. But those gifts are present, nonetheless.

What about the lottery? "Oh, I wish I could be so lucky as to win the lottery." There is some randomness in the actual winning of the lottery. But even someone who wins the lottery had to buy that lottery ticket.  I am guaranteed to never win the lottery, as I won't buy lottery tickets.

Some preparedness has to be expended, if one is to be available to seize that golden opportunity.

You can study hard and you may not receive a scholarship. Or you can plant fruit trees and you still may not harvest much fruit. But if you never work hard in high school, you likely will not receive any scholarships. And if you don't plant fruit trees, then it's certain that you won't harvest any fruit. If we had skipped payments and defaulted on our mortgage, then it is certain that our house would not be ours free and clear, today.

So, with the next giveaway that I host here, I may say, "good luck" to you all. But really, you have zero chance of winning the drawing if you don't enter. You know, I think I prefer to say, "best wishes to you." That doesn't sound at all like randomness to me.