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Thursday, January 31, 2013

January Grocery Money Journal -- month-end

Trader Joe's -- one of my favorite stores.
I love that their tofu is the cheapest in town, and it's organic to boot!
(First half of January grocery money journal is here.)
Jan. 16. Eggs advertised at Bartell's Drugs for $1.49/ dozen extra large. I stopped in to pick up a few dozen, and some more Tully's decaf French Roast (hey if Dr. McDreamy from Grey's Anatomy is going to be the new owner of Tully's, I'm buying his coffee! Just kidding, I had Tully's in the house before that news.). As we've kept our grocery spending fairly low in recent months, I've been splurging on good decaf coffee. It's a frugal splurge, really. I blend the good decaf with regular coffee for a reduced caffeine brew. The French Roast is very good. Anyways, Bartell's was out of the eggs, but I got the coffee. Spent $7.99. Here's the rub, though. I got home, picked up the store flyers for the week, and Tully's coffee, the exact same that I just bought, was on ad in one of our stores for $5.99! I missed out on a sale by just a few hours of notice. I may still pick up a bag of the sale Tully's, if I make it to that store. For the eggs, I asked for a rain check.
Total spent today, $7.99, for a month-to-date total of $80.70

Jan. 19. We were about out of milk, so I got up early to check QFC for marked-down milk. I hadn't checked their flyer, but as it turned out, milk was on ad just for the weekend for $1 for 1/2 gallon. I got lucky! I bought a total of 14  1/2 gallon containers (some 2% for drinking, and a few whole milk for yogurt). Also checked their mark-down produce section and found bananas for 39c/lb. I bought a few bundles. With 5 of us here, we'll go through all of these by the end of the long weekend. Spent $15.27 at QFC.

Also, just down the street is Albertson's. I wanted to make a stop by there, as avocados were on sale for 50c each, and they had the decaf coffee that I like for $5.99 bag. I also needed whole wheat tortillas for the week (2 for $3, bought 2 packs), and I found 2 large canisters of dark roast Maxwell House coffee (28 oz.) on clearance for $4.99 each. I think we're more than set for coffee for the next few months! Spent $20.97 at Albertson's today. Total month-to-date spent -- $116.94

Jan. 22. Stopped in at the Cash and Carry after school, bought a gallon of vinegar, 5 lbs of carrots and 3 quarts of soy milk. Spent $8.42.

Also, stopped in Albertson's for shortening, and household supplies. Spent $5.99 for shortening. Total spent for the month, so far $131.35

We managed to acquire 2 dozen eggs this week for free. My son volunteers at the local food bank a few days per month. If they have items that are about to expire and can't give out, they pass these on to the volunteers. So, lucky us. Just as we were running out of eggs, 2 dozen come our way.

Jan. 29. Dozen eggs on sale at QFC for $1. I stopped in on way home and picked up 6 dozen. (Spent $6) The sell-by date is March 4, over a month away. In addition, the eggs should still be good for a few days past the sell-by date, I'd guess until about March 10, if they last that long. I'm done shopping for the month. My total for January -- $137.35. My budget was $210 for the month.

I'll have $72.65 to carry forward into next month's surplus. If I look at prior year's expenses, month by month, I can see that my expensive months are later in spring through early summer, as my freezer empties out.


In the second half of January, I made 6 stops at grocery stores, and spent $64.64. I expect next month I'll need to restock several items, such as margarine and butter, peanut butter, soy milk and others.

I'd like to cut back on my stops at the Cash and Carry and Trader Joe's, to just 1 or 2 stops per month. Neither of those stores have weekly ads. Their prices reflect what they paid for their stock, and are not used to entice shoppers to come in, then spend significantly more. So there's no real benefit to my stopping in weekly or every other week. I just need to plan better, and I could save myself some time.

Stores I shopped at this month:

Bartell Drugs (in Lynnwood), sometimes drug stores have good deals on food products. I especially like this Bartells for its exceptional customer service, and it's on my way home every day.

QFC (in Mukilteo), QFC is a regional chain, sort of known for being pricier than many other grocery stores in the area, but they have great prices on milk and eggs when on sale. And they mark down their packaged deli and dairy sections every couple of days, so I almost always find bargains there.

Albertsons (in Mukilteo), fairly good prices for when I need something that I can't find on sale, and they're the closest grocery store to our house.

Cash and Carry wholesale (in Lynnwood), big warehouse-style restaurant supply that sells to the public. I first heard of shopping at a restaurant supply from the Tightwad Gazette, about 17 years ago. We've been hooked since. Another restaurant/institutional supply store that often sells to the public is Smart and Final. Cash and Carry  and  Smart and Final have the institutional version of a store brand, sometimes Smart & Final brand, sometimes First Street brand. I can find name brands there as well, but the store brands are much cheaper and similar in quality. I use Cash and Carry for a regular supply of basics, when I can't find them on loss leader sales.

I didn't go to Trader Joe's in the second half of this month, but I do like their products. Many of the regular products I buy there also happen to be organic, and I'm not paying a premium for the organic version. Most everything there has the Trader Joe's label. They're especially good for natural-style peanut butter, dried fruit, nuts/seeds, whole grain pasta, tofu, soy milk, cocoa powder, bananas, nitrate-free hot dogs, and some vitamins and supplements. If you've been wanting to try more organic products, and have a Trader Joe's nearby, stop in and check their prices and products.


Grocery deals to look for in February:
  • Superbowl Sunday, the first weekend of the month, look for chips, dips, sandwich fixings, soda pop
  • Valentine's Day, if you just have to have strawberries before they're in season locally, this will be the first sale of the year on strawberries, but still much more per pound than later in spring, also, steaks, lobster and chocolate on sale
  • Valentine's Day Clearance- beginning Feb 15, boxed and bagged chocolates marked down
  • National Canned Food month-all month long in the US, various canned foods featured on sale
  • National Cherry Pie Month-in US, Cherry Pie Day is Feb 20, expect to find canned cherry pie filling on sale just before. If you don't want to bake a cherry pie yourself, wait until about Feb. 24 and check your grocery store bakery clearance rack 
  • Chinese New Year begins Feb. 10 (it's the year of the snake)-expect to find Chinese cuisine related items, such as soy sauce, canned bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and chow mein noodles on sale the week before
  • No. Hemisphere produce remains much like January, except tangerines no longer considered in season. You'll find cabbage family vegetables, avocados, oranges, leafy greens such as chard, kale, collards and spinach, root vegetables such as carrots, turnips, parsnips and potatoes
  • So. Hemisphere produce -- still peak summer veggies and fruits, apricots, plums, melons, summer squash, tomatoes, peppers, corn and eggplant, later in the month the early apples come in. This is a good time of year for So. Hemisphere for great deals on produce, to can and freeze.

So, how did January spending go for you? Did you also find that it was easier to be frugal this month? 
Have you ever shopped in a restaurant/institutional supply warehouse store? Is there a particular store in your town where prices are predictably lower than the other stores around?

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

A home-cook is truly an extraordinary person

Out in the commercial world of food production, there are bakers who specialize solely in the precision of baking. There are confectioners, who spend their days making candy. We have companies whose only products are jams and jellies. There are pickle manufacturers, pasta sauce producers, and yogurt factories. You can go into your grocery store deli and buy a perfectly-roasted chicken.


All these different specialties of food producers have a few things in common that aid them in turning out consistently good products. They have equipment that is specific to their industry. They spend their days perfecting their craft, be it baking, jam and jelly making, or roasting meat. And they are "at work", meaning there are no outside distractions, like bandaging the skinned knee of a child, answering the ringing door bell, or taking that all-important phone call.


The home-cook doesn't go to any special school to learn their craft. We don't receive any noteworthy training. We are self-taught, by trial and error, and by reading cookbooks.


For myself, I don't own a chicken rotisserie, a flash freezer, a marble slab for baking and confection-making, or a wood-fired, brick pizza oven. What I have is an ordinary home oven, a freezer that makes funky sounds, and an assortment of pots and pans that look more like the shelves at Value Village, than the shelves at Williams-Sonoma.


Every afternoon, I have a 2-hour window for getting dinner made, laundry folded, homework supervised (okay, not so much supervision now that the kids are older), and daughters driven to their late afternoon dance classes.


And yet, I still manage to churn out an interesting, mostly delicious and nutritious meal, night after night. This is something to take pride in.


If you're the home-cook in your household, give yourself a huge pat on the back for the work that you do. You have likely spent years developing your skills and abilities to work under less than perfect conditions. Any professional chef or pastry-maker would likely complain loudly to the management, if made to work with less than industry-standard equipment. And yet, we do this night after night in our own kitchens.

We really shouldn't be so hard on ourselves when something we've made in our home kitchen, with imperfect equipment and numerous distractions, turns out less than perfectly. In truth, we are doing an extraordinary job.

Monday, January 28, 2013

My talent: undercooking jelly, jam and now, marmalade


I like to think I'm a growing being, ever changing, developing, learning, and eager to face new challenges.

I seek new and better ways to do things. If I see a flaw in my current methods, I work to change and improve those methods. Now, I do see a flaw in how I'm allocating my time for this blog. I have been focusing too much on producing frequent posts, and shortchanging the quality of my posts.

So, for the next little while, I'll be reducing my posting schedule to 3 days per week. I am hoping this will give me the time I want, to do a job well, so that you, dear friend, can have something truly worthwhile to read when you visit.

I'll continue to stick with a schedule. You can count on a post being available Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the early morning hours.

If for some reason, you come to creative savv and don't see a post on one of those days of the week, you can know that either I'm ill, there's been some sort of emergency in our home, or I'm having a senior moment and I thought I hit the "publish" button, but I didn't. And my deepest apologies for scenario number 3. That day will come, when senior moments occur with greater frequency. I'm just hoping I've got a long way to go until then!

But for today, here's my regular post.

the sloshy marmalade

Re-cooking a runny batch of orange marmalade

I have this incredible knack for producing unset jellies, jams and now marmalades. I thought I'd conquered this with the jams and jellies. Not an unset batch this past autumn. But evidently, my marmalade is another story.

I do know why this keeps happening. I am so afraid of developing a scorched flavor in these preserves, that I tend to err on the side of undercooked.

I made my once-a-year batch of marmalade a week ago. It came out kind of syrupy, and not at all jelled. Fortunately, I've got a lot of experience in re-cooking jams and jellies. So, yesterday afternoon I set out to re-cook my marmalade. I went online to make sure I was re-cooking marmalade correctly (in case there's any difference between re-cooking jelly and re-cooking marmalade). I found these instructions from ehow.com. It's very simple, but it does take added pectin.

To "fix" a batch of thin marmalade, measure the amount to be re-cooked. For every 4 cups of marmalade, you'll need:

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice (bottled is fine)
4 teaspoons powdered pectin

I stirred the pectin and sugar together in a small bowl, to break up any lumps of pectin. Then I mixed these in with the water and lemon juice, right in my jelly pot. Next I stirred in the unset marmalade, until completely combined.

Stirring constantly, I brought this mixture to a boil. I could feel some build-up on the bottom of the pot, so continued stirring.  I boiled, while stirring, for 1 full minute.

I filled my sterilized jars, added new lids, and reprocessed.

So far it looks like this worked. I had a small amount of marmalade leftover, which I put in a dish on the counter, and it is thickening up nicely.

the re-cooked, and thicker marmalade

I'm hoping that your marmalade is more successful on the first run than mine. But just in case, I can (sadly) vouch that these instructions work for re-cooking a runny batch.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

My weekly menu plan: family dinners plus a new dessert

Microwave Sponge Pudding

This week's menu plan comes with a twist. At the bottom is a recipe for microwave sponge pudding. Specifically, this recipe comes from Diane in the UK, and was left in the comments section for anexactinglife on the post The Valentine Dog. So, anexactinglife, scroll down to the bottom of this post, and you'll find a recipe for an easier version of steamed pudding, to satisfy your husband's yearnings for foods cooked from his UK childhood.


This week's menu plan

I'm still planning family favorites for winter evenings. Hot sandwiches are always popular, and soup makes a warming entree, when you tuck your feet under the table in late January.

vegetable good buys for the week: carrots, cabbage, onions, broccoli 
need to make ahead: 1 dozen sandwich buns, pie pastry
need to buy: cabbage, jar of jalepenos 


I'm still using up turkey and ham from the freezer, as well as a lot of frozen fruit from the summer. My goal is to empty the smallest freezer by the end of January, so that I can unplug that one. I'm almost there. I have 1 whole turkey still to roast, and a few chunks of beef. I'll be looking for poultry and beef on sale in the next few weeks.

Monday
  • split pea soup (using ham stock and meat from freezer, do a double batch for Thursday), cheddar-jalepeno cornbread, microwave "steamed" pudding, chocolate this time (thanks to Diane, see below)
Tuesday (daughter helper, make salad)
  • "neat" balls in sauce over pasta, green salad ("neat" balls are vegetarian meat balls, do double batch and freeze half for Saturday; last of the lettuce under lights indoors, cabbage shreds and avocado, croutons)
Wednesday (daughter helper, make the fruit cobbler)
  • spinach, cheese, onion, ham pockets (in pie pastry), brown rice, frozen mixed fruit cobbler (make double batch of cobbler for tomorrow)
Thursday (son helper, make toasted cheese sandwiches while I pick up daughter from dance)
  • leftover split pea soup, toasted cheese sandwiches, leftover cobbler
Friday (or what I like to call Queen Lili Day, as the kids do all the cooking)
  • turkey in gravy over biscuits, cole slaw, dessert of kids' choosing (turkey in gravy from freezer)
Saturday
  • hot "neat" ball sandwiches topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese on sandwich buns, oven fries, frozen fruit plum-berry sauce--do double batch ("neat" balls, buns, marinara sauce in freezer)
Sunday
  • hot bbq turkey sandwiches on buns, carrot and celery sticks and dip, leftover plum-berry sauce (turkey from freezer, heated through in bbq sauce, buns from freezer)
                         ______________________________________________________

This is a quick, microwaveable version of a steamed pudding.

From Diane, posted in the comments section of The Valentine Dog.

"I used a 1 1/2 litre pudding basin.
Grease the basin and put fruit jelly or marmalade or choc sauce in the bottom of the basin, a couple of tablespoons. Weigh two large eggs and mix with the same weight of flour ( I use self raising, but you can use flour with no raising agents and add in a teaspoon of baking powder instead), butter/margarine and sugar. This can flavoured how you wish. If you can make a cake in that flavour then you can make a pudding in that flavour. 
Cover the basin with microwaveable film, pierce it a few times and cook on high. I have a 900W machine and it cooks for 4 minutes in that. Leave to stand for a minute and then eat with custard or cream or ice cream. My family likes raspberry jelly with vanilla sponge, lemon curd with a citrus sponge and a chocolate version of course.The pounds and ounces version is 2 eggs, 4 ounces of butter, 4 ounces of caster/fine sugar and 4 ounces of self raising flour. Mix and cook as above."

I have a measuring cup that weighs in ounce and grams. I was able to fill to the correct amount of ounces, then scoop into standard US measuring scoops. I included the metric equivalents, as they were easy to add in.


I found the recipe very easy to put together, and with very ordinary ingredients, a huge plus for a recipe in my book.

I just want to say a big thank you to Diane, for taking the time to come back to the comments and add this recipe for us and anexactinglife. And just so you, who may be reading this, know, I love trying new recipes, and figuring out how to convert. Just a very odd quirk of mine.

Microwave Sponge Pudding

When I made this, I used a 2-quart, round, microwaveable casserole dish. If you have a 1&1/2 litre pudding basin, that is what Diane recommended. Having done this once, next time I'll try a straight-sided souffle baker. I think it will come out prettier, being taller and with straight sides.


Grease pudding basin or casserole dish.

2 tablespoons (30 ml) jelly, jam, marmalade, or chocolate sauce
4 oz. (1/2 cup, or 115 g) caster sugar (I used granulated sugar)
4 oz. (1/2 cup, or 120 g) soft butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract)
4 oz. (1 cup less 1 tablespoon, or 112 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon (5 ml) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) salt

You can also substitute a scant cup of self-rising flour for the all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt.

For a chocolate sponge pudding, reduce flour by 2 tablespoons, and add about 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to the flour mixture.

Spoon into greased pudding dish, 2 tablespoons jelly, marmalade or chocolate sauce. If jelly is very firm, stir it up with a spoon first. You want to cover the bottom of the dish, this will help in releasing the pudding once it's cooked.


Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. (Add cocoa powder if making chocolate sponge). Set aside.


In a mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar, beat in eggs. Add vanilla extract. Stir in flour mixture until combined.


Cover with a sheet of plastic wrap. Pierce plastic wrap in several places.


Microwave on HI for 3 1/2 minutes to 4 minutes (I'm not sure what the wattage is on my microwave, may be 1000 W, but the vanilla pudding was just slightly over-cooked in 4 minutes even. Next time I'll try it in 3 min. 45 seconds; chocolate pudding you may want to shorten the cooking time by 15 seconds or so, as chocolate desserts scorch easily). Allow to stand, covered in microwave for 1 minute.


Remove to cooling rack, and carefully peel off plastic wrap. Allow to cool for 5 minutes. With a flexible spatula, loosen the edges of the pudding. Place a plate over the dish, and invert pudding, using the spatula to aid in loosening the pudding. Serve while still warm, with custard, cream or ice cream.

We had ours with whipped cream, as that was easy for me. It was quite delicious, and super easy. I'm looking forward to trying a chocolate version.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

So, I've been sorting through my sewing closet . . .

A fast and easy little Saturday project.

My sewing closet. . .

Gee, is it a mess in there. My sewing closet is actually the guest room closet. When we have overnight guests, I have to stash some of the stuff elsewhere, so our visitors can have a bit of room to hang garments.

This winter, I've decided to tackle this closet and get it looking halfway decent. I'll settle for halfway at this point. But the thought of just plowing through it all in one afternoon is not very appealing. I'd likely throw out bunches of usable fabric scraps and worn clothing that still has life.

So instead, I'm taking it on, one week at a time. Once per week, I am going through the lot and picking out one item that I can re-purpose. This week, it's flannel pjs.

These pjs have been scavenged for fabric once before (hence the half leg missing), when patching a flannel lap throw (aka baby blanket, still a favored item) for one of my girls. So, they are already pretty chopped up.


What do you think flannel would be exceedingly good for?
It makes cozy clothing, bedding, liners for tea pot cozies, and. . . . . .

it makes fabulous dusting cloths. Flannel grabs the dust so much better than my micro-fiber cloths. I know a lot of people swear by these micro-fiber cloths, but mine just spread the dust elsewhere. Flannel, being brushed, doesn't scratch delicate surfaces, and is so soft to the touch to use. (In winter my hands get very dry, and some dusting cloths actually seem to catch on my dry skin, yuk!)


I thought about just cutting these pajamas into squares, leaving them unhemmed. But I know in just a few washes they'll fray and make a mess of the laundry. Rolling the hem sounds too tedious for this. After some thought, I opted to make these dusting cloths double-layered, trapping any fraying ends inside, like a little pouch.

After cutting the pjs apart along seam lines, I found I have enough usable fabric to make a 14-inch square, double-layered cloth. I cut two 14-inch squares.

With right sides together, I sewed 3 complete sides, and 1 almost complete side (leaving about a 3-inch opening to turn the pouch right side out). I turned this right side out.


I fingered pressed the little opening edges under and together and stitched close. (Perhaps you can see, I did this all in a hurry and my stitching is not straight. That won't matter, as this is strictly utilitarian.)


Last, I stitched a large X diagonally across the square, to hold it all together in the wash and dry.



Voila, one very soft dusting cloth, and just a bit less junk in my sewing closet. What's next for this coming week? I'll have to see what strikes my fancy.

What do you do with too worn clothing?


A tip for cleaning electronics, which draw dust to themselves -- if you use dryer sheets or liquid fabric softeners in your laundry, they can help repel dust on electronics. A used dryer sheet can last through several dustings. A few drops of fabric softener on a cloth will also work.

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Friday, January 25, 2013

Rain checks: do you ask for them, and how do you make sure you use them?

When you make a stop at the store to buy something that's been advertised on sale, and the shelves have been emptied of that item, do you ask for a rain check?

You should, and here's why I think so.

  • you came to the store to buy that item at the advertised price. Why should you be penalized because the store didn't have enough stock of that item?
  • asking for rain checks is a way the customer can let the store management know that they need to order additional stock of that item the next time a sale runs on it. Some rain check forms are carbon copy forms (okay not really carbon, but I don't know the name of the more recent method of making duplicates). The management goes through the duplicates of all these forms and takes note of any particular item that is requested heavily by rain check. Other stores sort through the rain check forms when they come back into the store to be redeemed. Either way, the store management uses the requests for rain checks as a tool in determining future stock needs of particular items.
  • asking for rain checks is also a way for store management to assess which items are highly desired and would be good front-pagers for subsequent ads. When you ask for a rain check, you are letting the store know your shopping preferences, and aids them in planning future sale events.

Once you receive your rain check, do you read the fine print right away?


Again, this is something that you should do, just as you probably read your cash register receipt before leaving the store (you do check your receipts for errors, don't you? I have to confess, most of the time I do, but occasionally I'm dog-tired and forget, but I try to remember.) Here's why you should check your rain check form.

  • cashiers are only human, and they make mistakes, too. They might list the wrong size, price, quantity or brand on the form. You could get that corrected immediately and ensure you pay the price you had expected to pay.
  • every store has a different use-by policy. Some stores give you 90 days, other stores just 30 days. It's good to know how long you have to use that rain check, so you don't miss out on the great sale price.

Where do you keep your rain checks to make sure that you use them?

  • I keep mine in the side pocket of my purse. I have just one everyday purse. It has a zippered side pocket and a snap side pocket. The snap pocket is for appointment cards. And the zippered is for rain checks and gift cards. I always know where my rain checks are. And, as I take my purse with me every time I drive anywhere, I always have that rain check to use, should I be in that store.
  • Some folks like to keep their rain checks on a bulletin board, where they will be reminded to use it.
  • Some people like to keep their rain checks on their calendars, so they will be reminded to use the rain check within a given time period or on a particular date.

Did you know that if a store only has some of the quantity of an item you had intended to buy, you can still get a rain check for the rest? Last August, Safeway had sugar advertised on sale. They had about half of what I had intended on buying. I bought what they had, and requested a rain check for the other bags of sugar that I wanted.

There's a hidden benefit to rain checks. Let's say you think it's a really great price on product X. But you don't have the storage space for X, or you won't be able to use X before it expires, as you still have enough at home to get through the next few days. So, if the store is all out of product X when you are shopping, you get the rain check. This delays the actual purchase and need to use or store product X. 

Some folks take this a step further. They purposely delay their shopping with the ad until the last day of the advertised prices, in hopes of the store's supply being gone, just so they can get the rain check. They use this scenario to create their own sale during a week that's more convenient for them (by using the rain check during a week that they really need product X and can now buy it "on sale" when they want). Pretty clever, eh?


Last week, I noticed a local drug store chain had eggs on sale for $1.49/dozen. This is a pretty good price for eggs these days in our area (remember, we can have some really great deals on eggs here, so if I say "pretty good" that means that I know the possibility for a better price could exist. I got eggs for 99c/dozen in August.) 

Anyways, I stopped in, and was disappointed to find the shelves bare. I asked an employee to check for additional stock for me in the back. He did, and found none. 

So I asked the cashier for a rain check. When she asked me how many I wanted, as there was no limit, I said 6 dozen. If I'm not sure how many of an item I want, I'll say the max that I may want, as I can always buy fewer when I actually redeem my rain check. 

As it turned out, we acquired 2 dozen eggs for free this week (our freegetarian lifestyle kicking in). I'll stop in for my rain check eggs when we run out of the free ones.


Incidentally, do you know where the term "rain check" originates? According to Wikipedia, it comes from the world of baseball. If a game was rained out, then a new ticket for a make-up game would be issued to the ticket holder.

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Gracious living on any budget

My dearest friend,
I've had a lot on my mind recently. One of the things I've put thought to, is how, exactly, I wish my life to "play out". One of my answers is to live a more gracious life. Here are some thoughts on living graciously on less.


What does it mean to live graciously?

If you look up the word "gracious" in the dictionary, you'll find the definition peppered with words and phrases like "kindness", "merciful", "compassionate", "unaffected politeness", "generosity of spirit", "elegance", "showing regard for others in manner, speech and behavior".

When I begin to think about the source of graciousness in a person, I think it begins with gratitude. If you have great thanks in your heart, then generosity pours forth. You are conscious of how your behavior makes others feel, and you find an inner source of genuine compassion.

A person who is living graciously on less is simply one with deep gratitude for the myriad of blessings in their life, in spite of their economic status. This person takes thoughtful moments to appreciate what they have been given in this life, instead of seething with envy over what their neighbor currently has.

A truly gracious person is not boastful, because they know that would make others feel badly about their own circumstances. A truly gracious person wishes to make others feel good about themselves. And a truly gracious person finds the good in all people, regardless of their income, appearance, or the work that they do.

A gracious person can turn the other cheek when someone is rude to them and smile and return with kindness. A gracious person accepts a wilted handful of yard weeds from a small child with heartfelt thanks. We've all seen a gracious loser before. He's the one who offers his hand with a smile and congratulates the one who bested him.

My high school best friend was one of the most gracious young ladies I knew at that time. After all, she put up with the likes of me even when I was being most unlovely. She could see past my many flaws and find the good in me. Her family lived graciously, despite their relative lack of income compared to many of the other students in our high school. I was always treated as an honored guest in their home. And I'm certain that all who visited them felt the same warm hospitality that I received.

So, what about magazines and television shows which depict gracious living as something only for the financially elite? Well, I think a wealthy person can be gracious or can be an inhospitable snob. It can go either way. The so-called "gracious living" that is seen in the media does not even suit the definition of the word gracious. Having servants, living in an expansive mansion, and dining on the most elaborate of feasts is not what true gracious living is about.

We've all known the little old lady who lived graciously on a small pension. She was the one who was kind and generous in spirit to all. The little old lady that you knew most likely lived in a rather small apartment or house and had well-worn furnishings. Yet, every day she put her hair up neatly, dressed herself smartly, served you tea and toast on her very best dishes and, overall, made you feel as though you were the most important guest she could be entertaining. That's gracious living on less.

Gracious living demonstrates kindness to the ones around you. When you get out your very best, whether it's dishes, towels or foodstuffs, you are showing those who've joined you that you are honored by their presence. Foremost, you wish to insure their comfort and satisfaction.

Living in a grand house does not guarantee one the designation of gracious living any more than living in a small house would guarantee a life of misery. Rich or poor, it's a person's attitude in this life which determines graciousness or misery. I choose an attitude of gratefulness and hope that I will, in turn, live a gracious life.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Valentine Dog

 Have you been thoughtful and loving this past year? Will the Valentine Dog visit your home?

One year, when I was a girl, my mom "invented" the Valentine Dog. There's the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, so shouldn't there also be a character who brings trinkets for Valentine's Day? In our house, the Valentine Dog brought something small to those who'd been loving and thoughtful throughout the year. Perhaps this was a ploy to get my brother, sister and I to stop our bickering and begin cooperating. I'm not sure.

Or, maybe, my mom just wanted to add some fun to a holiday that seemed commercially motivated with store-bought candy hearts, boxes of pre-printed cards, flowers from the florist (you'll notice that Valentine's Day is a winter holiday when flowers from your own garden are not possible, and one "must" buy flowers from a shop), and small vials of pricey perfume.

The gifts that I remember. . .

One year, my mom stayed up late into the night, sewing smocked nighties, one for myself and one for my sister. We could hear the sewing machine downstairs, whirring along as we laid there trying to fall asleep. Quietly we whispered to each other, trying to guess what it would be.

Many years I received a little something, like cologne spray (anyone remember Love's Baby Soft, or Love's Lemon Scent?), or a pot or stick of lip gloss (Bonne Bell Lip Smacker anyone?).

I still have one of the items that my mom (the Valentine Dog) gave to me. I was away at college, and she sent me a piece of her jewelry that she was given as a teenage girl. I was very touched by that gift. Her parents had taken a trip to Mexico City, and they bought this "amethyst" and silver bracelet from a vendor on the street. They knew the stones were not real amethysts, but they bought the bracelet anyways. When my sister and I were in college, my mom had two of the stones made into pendants for us. I treasure that. It's a piece of my mom's teenage years, as well as my own.


the pattern and fabric for pj bottoms for my two daughters

Our house continues with the Valentine Dog. Some years, I bake treats, wrap them prettily and place at each person's spot at the kitchen table. Other years, the Valentine Dog brings red and silver foil-wrapped candies (bought on clearance after Christmas), and maybe a very small and somewhat useful gift.

These pj bottoms won't have
an easily identifiable front or
back. I'll sew these fabric
flowers (scavenged from
baby clothing) to the
center-front of the waistband.
This year, I have it on good authority that the Valentine Dog will be bringing a small pouch of candy, and a gift.

I picked up the fabric (using a 50% off sale) for two of the gifts this past week. I'll be sewing pj bottoms for my girls. I've used this pattern for myself a couple of times and will scale it down in size for them.

If you sew a lot, then you know that pj bottoms are a relatively easy project. If you don't sew much at all, this is a good beginner's project -- no zippers, buttonholes, sleeves, plackets or any of the other details that used to give me an enormous headache when I was in middle school Home Ec.



I'm still working on ideas for the men in the family. Suggestions for what I (I mean the Valentine Dog) can do for them?

Be thoughtful and loving to your family, and the Valentine Dog may just bring you a treat!

If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to creative savv. I'd love to share more about my creative and fun-filled life with you!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Practically free candy -- candied orange peel

How very frugal I feel in the month of January. The pantry and freezer are still quite full, enough that I need to spend very little at the store. We've just had our fill of goodies and party foods, so we really have no desire to eat out. And the things that I do buy at the grocery store, such as oranges, have so many ways to get the most bang for our buck.

Here's the candy that I made last week that was so yummy, and soooooo cheap! Candy made out the part of the fruit, that most people toss into the garbage or the compost.

Candied orange peel, so yummy, so frugal.

I follow the Joy of Cooking's recipe for Candied Citrus Peel, although I don't roll mine in powdered sugar as a final step, but spread the pieces of candied peel out on waxed paper, and allow to dry out for about 1 day.


Some of this glazed orange peel we eat as is.


The best looking pieces I dip in melted dark chocolate (stir in a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon shortening to aid in the dipping). Boxed up in a candy box, these make a nice small gift.

And the remainder, I chop to use in baking, as a substitute for dried or glaced fruit. Once chopped, I store it in the freezer, until needed.


Chopped candied orange peel can be used in recipes calling for fruit cake fruit mix (the brightly colored glaced citron pieces and cherries). I make a bread at Easter that uses fruit cake mix, only I use a combination of chopped candied orange peel, chopped dried apricots, and chopped prunes from our plum tree. The bonus here is there are no weird colors. I never could get used to the green cherries my mother would add to fruitcake.

There is one aspect of oranges that I don't care for, peeling them with my fingers. Peeling oranges seems to split the skin under my fingernails from the nails themselves -- ouch! So I use a spoon to peel oranges. Here's how I peel an orange with a spoon.


I score the orange, with a knife, just through the peel, into quarters. I take a tablespoon, flip it over, so the bowl side is up, slip it under the peel, and slide it around, loosening the peel from the orange. It's very quick and saves my fingernails.

I now have an orange for eating, and orange peel all ready to slice for making candied orange peel.


Now, if only there was a way to do something yummy with banana peels.


Monday, January 21, 2013

Cheap entertainment -- our little game

My family is easily amused. Since New Years, our family has been playing a little game of sorts.

Just before New Year's Eve, my daughters and I went to the library, and checked out a huge pile of dvds. The limit is 10 per person. We imposed our own limit of 6 (okay, an extra one snuck in there somehow), bringing home 19 dvds, almost all comedies (we love a good laugh).

Our "game" began on New Year's Eve. With so many movies to choose from, and the five of us doing the choosing, you can imagine the trouble that ensued. Have you ever tried to make decisions by committee? After about 5 minutes of "what do you want to watch?", followed by "what do YOU want to watch?", "no, you tell me what YOU want to watch", we decided (by committee, of course) that a secret ballot option would probably be better for this situation.

Paper and pencil in hand, and all the dvds laid out for us all to see, we each wrote down our top 5 picks. Grace and I were the election officials and tallied up the votes. With no clear winner, it became evident that we needed a run-off between the top 8 dvds.

With our makeshift ballots (the back of a piece of junk mail) in hand, once again, the five of us each chose our 3 faves. Grace and I did our election work, supervising each other to insure no hanky-panky in the voting booth. No hanging chads here -- it was clear that there were 3 favorites in the collection.

After about 10 minutes of these shenanigans, I found myself running out of both paper and patience. And so, the head election official (me) made an arbitrary decision that the final run-off would be by show of hands. In the end, there was one distinctly clear winner. And for the life of me I can't remember what we chose, but I'm sure we were all entertained.

The next night, we held the same game, eliminating the watched dvd from the selection. We continued with movie nights until school started up again the next Monday, then picked back up with movie nights every weekend.

We are now down to the last few dvds that we checked out. I'm sure we'll soon be receiving a phone call from the library telling us we have items overdue (fortunately our library does not charge a fine for late turn-ins). We may even have to turn some of these dvds in to the library without watching them. Heavens! We can't let that happen!

We all agree that the voting process, complete with lobbying and bribery (just like in Congress), is just as entertaining, if not more so, than actually watching these movies. Who would've thunk?

And that's been our cheap entertainment for the month. I told you that we were easily amused.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

My weekly menu plan: simple comfort foods for winter dinners

avocado-citrus salad with a raspberry vinaigrette
oranges and avocados are good produce buys this month

It's been very cold here this past week, but not a single snowflake! We're in the mood for several of our family's favorite comfort foods. I'm keeping those in mind while I plan for this next week.

We had some unexpected leftovers from my son and his friends last Sunday evening, that changed our menu last week just slightly. The group comes over to our house on Sunday evenings, for dinner and games. They cook together, and often leave a share of the ingredients.

Last Sunday, they made tacos and left guacamole, salsa, sour cream, taco shells, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and flour tortillas. Woohoo! We're having tacos for dinner!

Having been gifted with all this yummy food, I needed to rework a part of last week's menu. Tuesday seemed to be the best day to fit in tacos. Tuesday's plan had been French dips, saving some of the beef for Friday's soup. So we pushed the French dip and vegetable-beef soup to this coming week. And last Friday's soup became lentil-vegetable.

Otherwise, the week went smoothly. In fact, Thursday was one of those days that I dread, really, really dread. And having a plan for dinner actually helped me to relax through all the driving around, appointments, classes and work.

The thumbs up:
  • I knew in advance that Thursday would be a jam-packed day of me driving around town, working, daughters to dance, school and orthodontist (at far ends of town), and dinner would have to be practically ready to eat when I walked in the door in the evening. Having it all thought out and planned to use leftover ingredients from less-busy, full-cooking days, made the dinner prep aspect of my day a breeze.
  • Having kids help each a separate night, really simplifies my work. While I was running around town, my son peeled and chopped the carrots for oven-roasted veggies for me. It might not seem like a lot, but it meant that when I came home, I could pop the tray into the oven while I stirred up the ham and spinach in mushroom sauce for the toast. Busy-day cooking, simplified.
  • For leftovers that I have planned a use for later in the week, I've begun putting those items in the garage fridge, with a sharpie note saying when I plan on using it. Out of sight, out of mind. It's frustrating to think I have everything all ready for a dinner later in the week, only to discover that something's been eaten.
The thumbs down:
  • I may be buying foods that I wouldn't have thought to buy, like the 2.5 lbs of mushrooms. They were delicious! But if I was just planning the day before or the day of, I likely would not have bought those. But again, they were delicious! And I think it's okay to have a splurge on an everyday night.

The leftovers I'll have for this next week -- turkey breast (roasted tonight, Sunday), buns (in freezer), cranberry sauce and gravy

I will need shortening for pies, avocados, carrots, and tortillas for planned dinners

Monday
  • leftover turkey and gravy on bread, cranberry sauce, cole slaw w/celery, pumpkin pie (make 2 pies plus 3 crusts for freezer -- it's a holiday, so I'll have time for pie pastry -- save one pie for Thursday; pick apart turkey breast, make stock and freeze today)
Tuesday (daughter helper -- peel and chop carrots)
  • homemade pepperoni pizza, roasted carrots, avocado-citrus salad, blackberry cobbler (roast extra carrots for marinating for salad tomorrow; make extra pizza for tomorrow's lunches; double batch the blackberry cobbler for Wed)
Wednesday (daughter helper -- wash and cut potatoes for oven fries)
  • French dip sandwiches on buns, tossed green salad with carrots and celery, oven-fried potatoes, leftover blackberry cobbler (chop two extra stalks of celery for Th, do double-batch of oven-fried potatoes for tomorrow)
Thursday (son helper -- serve dinner while I'm getting daughter from dance)
  • turkey hash, using chopped leftover turkey, chopped leftover roasted potatoes, chopped celery, leftover turkey gravy, a cup of thawed frozen spinach, along with cranberry sauce, leftover pumpkin pie 
Friday (kids cook)
  • vegetable-beef soup (carrots, onions, celery, spinach, canned tomatoes, pasta, leftover beef from Wed), cornbread, rhubarb sauce with orange zest
Saturday (easy dinner)
  • rice and refried beans, carrot sticks, oranges
Sunday
  • make your own vegetarian burritos, w/ leftover rice and beans, cheese, salsa, guacamole, plain yogurt, and oatmeal-prune bars

Thursday is the busy day this week, so I've planned the easiest to throw together dinner for that day. I'll be using all leftovers, or ingredients prepared in advance for the hash. All I'll be doing is tossing it around in a skillet for 10 minutes, to heat through.

My kids will be making a soup, mostly from scratch, plus cornbread and rhubarb sauce on Friday, giving me additional time to finish up projects for the day.

Sunday dinner is a rushed meal this week, so it will be a make-your-own affair.

I'm still using up our freezer stash of ingredients, including frozen blackberries, rhubarb, plums, prunes and apples from the summer, frozen turkey and beef, and buying very little for the planned meals. In season produce here continues to be carrots, celery, onions, cabbage, potatoes (all long-storage items), and avocados and citrus (are harvested late fall and early winter)


Avocado-citrus salad

(for 4-5 servings)

1 medium avocado, sliced
2 navel oranges, peeled and segmented (canned mandarins would also work)
leaf lettuce
raspberry vinaigrette or orange dressing

Arrange lettuce, avocados and orange segments on individual plates. Drizzle with a sweet and tangy dressing. Here are two options.

Raspberry vinaigrette

2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
pinch salt
1 tsp sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 to 1 teaspoon orange zest

Dijon-orange dressing

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
1  1/2 tablespoons orange juice
1  1/2 tablespoons vinegar (white, cider or wine)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
pinch salt
pinch black pepper
1/2 teaspoon orange zest (optional)


How have you incorporated the foods you're trying to use up, in dinners lately?

Saturday, January 19, 2013

A few of the crafty things the gals at creative savv were up to over the holidays

Over the holiday break, the girls in our house got a bit crafty. Here are three of the things we made.


This is a bracelet that I made for myself. My son had given me a gift card to Jo-Ann's Fabric and Crafts for my birthday last year. I finally used part of it to make something for myself.

The beads come on a string and are a selection that mix and match, but in no particular order. I strung them on stretchy cord, as I've done for other bracelets. (Easy how-to's for beading bracelets, here) I spent about 30 minutes deciding on the pattern I liked best, laying the beads out in a line to get a feel for how they would look. The actual stringing took about 10 minutes.

I receive coupons in the mail from Jo-Ann's several times per year. Well worth signing up to receive them. I used a 50% off coupon for my beads, dropping the price of my bracelet from the retail price of $5.99, to $3 and tax. Similar bracelets sell in the mall for about $12-15.

the bracelet that Julia beaded for me for Christmas

My daughter, Julia, also had the idea to bead me a bracelet. She was with me the day I selected the beads for the one that I made. While in the store, she and I oohed and ahhed over some Swavorski crystal embedded beads.

Unbeknownst to me, Julia got her brother, Chris, to drive her back down to Jo-Ann's, and she bought a couple of packets of these crystal-embedded beads, and some stretchy cord of her own. She beaded this bracelet for me as a Christmas gift. How sweet is that?!

the hat Grace knit for me for Christmas

My other daughter, Grace, (also a crafty one), was with me in Friday Harbor (up in the San Juan Islands) this fall. There was a yarn shop that looked very intriguing. So we popped in for a minute, while the rest of the gang was checking out a toy shop, filled with unusual toys.

my fleece hat
Grace knits very well (the knitting-well gene skipped a generation, my knitting is not so fine). So this is the sort of shop she enjoys. We looked at several examples of hats that the shop owner had knit. I mentioned that I could really use a knit hat. I have a fleece hat that I'd sewn for myself, but it doesn't fit snugly, as a knit hat would.

All this conversation about knit hats gave Grace the idea to do one up for me. She made it as a slouch hat, but I told her that I think it's perfect with the lower edge rolled up two layers, to cover my ears in such cold weather. She did a beautiful job. I can't do designs and patterns like she can.

My daughters also sewed items for each other as Christmas gifts. They are quite the crafty little young ladies. Gee, I wonder where they get their interest in crafting?  ; )

Friday, January 18, 2013

Sunshine Muffins: using the whole orange, peel and all




Doesn't it seem a shame to peel an orange and just throw those peels away?

I'm something of a fanatic about using every last little bit. (No kidding?!) I can only make so much candied orange peel, and save so much orange zest. Sometimes I just want to prepare an easy recipe, that will use the orange peel as well the the pulp. And this is the one I use.

This is another one of my friend Jayne's recipes. She's the source of my rhubarb pie recipe (Jayne's Rhubarb Custard Pie) and zucchini bread and butter pickle recipe. The official name of the muffin recipe is Orange Muffins, but when my kids were very young, they dubbed these Sunshine Muffins. So, Sunshine Muffins it has been.

I hope you try these and let me know what you think.

Sunshine Muffins

Ingredients:

1 whole, unpeeled orange, ends trimmed off (yucky stuff gets in the blossom and stem end -- pesticides while on the tree, and fungicides once harvested), cut up (I use seedless navels. If your oranges have seeds, remove them.)
1/2 cup (120 mL) orange juice
1 egg
1/2 cup (120 g) soft butter
1  3/4 cup (210 g) flour -- (I use 1 cup white, 3/4 cup whole wheat)
3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 mL) baking powder
1 teaspoon (5 mL) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (2.5 mL)
1/2 cup (about 75 g) chopped dates (or any chopped dried fruit. I've been using chopped candied orange peel.)

Wash orange either with a drop of dish soap or in a vinegar wash. Cut orange into 7 to 8 pieces. Remove any seeds. Combine orange and juice in a blender. Puree.

Add egg and butter to blender, and puree. Pour into a large mixing bowl.

In another bowl, measure dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Pour over the top of the orange mixture. (Add optional dried fruit at this point.) Stir just until combined.

Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 400 degrees F (204 C), for 20 minutes, or until tops spring back when pressed.  Cool in an for 5 minutes, then remove.

Yields 12 to 16 muffins.


What ways have you come up with, to "use it all up"?



If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like my Rhubarb Crumb Muffins. Tender muffins, with a crumb topping.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

5 things that I am very thankful for

  1. A gorgeous sunrise for my drive home from dropping my daughters off at school.
  2. An excellent cup of coffee, made at home, on my ancient, hand-me-down, one-cup-at-a-time Black and Decker coffee maker. No k-cups here, just good coffee. (thanks again, to my brother-in-law and wife, for gifting us with their cast-offs)
  3. Our very sturdy kitchen table, that has seen 26 years of hard family-use, and will be refinished this summer. We put it together from a kit, all those years ago. Here's to 26 more years!
  4. A laugh and hug from a timid little 1 year-old girl, at MOPS on Tuesday. This little one made what I do, all worthwhile.
  5. My frosty, and invigorating 8-minute walk, (almost) every morning. It gets my day started on a high note.
Studies show that people who find things to be thankful for in their lives, on a daily basis, are happier overall. So, I try to find 5 things per day for which I am very grateful.

What are your 5 things?

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

January grocery money journal -- mid-month

Jan. 5. Did well this month, didn't need to go to the grocery store until Jan.5. And even so, we could have done without, but tonight is our tree un-decorating party. We usually do this on Epiphany, but are going ahead one day early, due to scheduling conflicts tomorrow. So, for the tree un-decorating dinner, it will again be snack-y things, like mixed nuts, orange slices, carrot sticks, olives, pickles, pretzels, and crackers and crab salad. The crackers, pretzels and crab salad are what we picked up at the grocery store (Albertson's), along with 2 packages whole wheat tortillas, for vegetarian burritos for lunches this week. Total spent $10.24

Jan. 7. Stopped by Trader Joe's on way to daughters' school. Picked up mostly lunch supplies -- 2 jars peanut butter, 7 bananas, 2 containers tofu, 1/2 gal. soy milk and 2 doz. eggs. Spent $16.46 today. I'm hoping the eggs and peanut butter will last 2 weeks. Will need to stop at wholesaler for other items en route to school tomorrow. Total to date spent for month $26.70.

Jan. 8. Needed just a few things at the cash and carry wholesaler. Bought 10 lbs of onions (yes, I know, I only bought the small bag this time! No daughters with me to help lift the 50 pounder into the trunk), 10 lbs potatoes, 5 lbs carrots, gallon vegetable oil, 1 head of cabbage, box of plain tea. These are the foods needed to get through this week's dinner menus, as posted on  A Return to Menu Planning for January. Total spent -- $17.85. For the month to-date spent, $44.55

Jan.14. Monday morning stop at the restaurant supply/wholesaler on the way home from daughters' school (this is so convenient for me. It'll be a shame when they graduate from high school, and I'm no longer in this area of town every day. I'll just have to go back to what I used to do, head down there once a month for a big stock-up). Bought 2.5 pounds of sliced mushrooms (I'll sautee and freeze for soups and sauces), 4-pack of celery, 3 pounds frozen spinach, quart of soy milk, 5 pounds mozzarella cheese. Most of these items are for dinners for the week (My weekly menu plan).Total spent $28.16 Month-to-date spending $72.71

Our freezers are still well-stocked with basics like meat, fruits, pasta sauce and shredded cheese. I imagine I'll need to spend more on groceries later in the month, to fill gaps as we use up our supplies. But hoping to come in significantly under budget this month.

Stores I shopped at this month:
Albertson's (Mukilteo)
Trader Joe's (196 and H.99, Lynnwood)
United Cash and Carry wholesaler (H.99, Lynnwood)

Best deal(s) -- the mushrooms, 2.5 pounds for $5.83, or $2.33/lb. Mushrooms at a regular grocery store would cost us about $3/lb , and the tofu, 14 oz. organic firm tofu for $1.49, about half of the price charged by local regular grocery store

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Zesting oranges the easy way

For a fresh zing to add to baked goodies, I add a pinch of orange zest, that I keep safely tucked away in the freezer. I save enough zest over the course of the winter, that I often still have some left, when the cranberries come in the next October. And cranberry-orange bread is very yummy!

Here's my easy way to zest oranges.

You'll need a vegetable peeler, freezer and food processor. No food processor? At the bottom of the post is how I chop the strips of peel by hand.

Before peeling an orange to eat fresh, I wash the outside of the orange with a drop of liquid dish detergent, and rinse well. Then I use a vegetable peeler to remove just the zest of the orange, in wide strips.


I keep these strips of orange zest in a container in the freezer, until I have enough to run them all through the food processor, still frozen.

We go through about a dozen oranges, over the course of a week. But there have been times when it took a month to accumulate enough strips to do a batch in the food processor. If I happen to be using a lemon or grapefruit, I peel and add those to the orange strips.


In my food processor, with the blade attachment, I process about 1  1/2 to 2 cups of the orange peel strips at a time. My food processor has a 7 cup capacity, so that's about 1/4 of the fp's capacity at a time.


I pulse, to break the peels into smaller pieces, cleaning the ends of the blade from time to time. If a bit of peel gets stuck between the blade tip and the bowl, it will slow the machine's function just enough to fail to break the peels down into small bits. So, when it looks like my peels are not getting chopped, I check the blade tips, and just scrape out any hunks that are stuck.


Once processed, I scoop this all back into the freezer containers, and keep frozen until I wish to use some in baking. It breaks apart easily enough to scoop out a spoonful or two at a time.

The next time you make cranberry bread, scones or muffins, try adding a couple of teaspoons of this orange zest to the batter. The cranberry and orange flavor combination is wonderful! I also like a bit of orange zest in plum desserts, cherry pie and rhubarb sauce.

                             _________________________________________________

When I need zest and don't have enough strips to run through the fp, or just don't want to dirty it, and so have to wash it ; ) here's how I get the most zest from an orange, in a hurry.

Using a vegetable peeler, I remove strips of orange peel, just as above.


Then on a cutting board, with a sharp knife, I shred these strip into fine julienne (it goes much faster than you'd think).

It turn the julienne strips sideways, and chop away. That easy! And the zest doesn't get trapped in a grater or zester.

Monday, January 14, 2013

A woman who can sew

When I was a very little girl, my mom helped organize an annual event, that raised money to support a non-profit dental center. I remember my mom planning the table decorations for this event. She had quite a talent for that sort of thing. I also remember her sewing a gown every year, to wear to this ball.

While my mother sewed, my sister and I played together, under the table. My mother would give my sister and I some scraps of fabric from her gown, and the two of us would sew dresses for our Barbie dolls.

I was just 5 years old, so you can imagine my lack of sewing skills. Yet, I was so very proud of my handiwork. My doll dresses followed one basic "pattern", a rectangle, with a hole about 3 inches in diameter, cut in the very middle of the scrap of fabric. I used this as the neck-hole for my doll dress. Upon slipping the "dress" over Midge's head, I proceeded to fashion the rest of it. I hand-stitched side-seams, leaving just enough room for arm holes for Midge. A piece of ribbon for a sash, and my doll was dressed for her own ball.

My parents were like most young couples at the time. My dad worked, my mom stayed home. Consequently, they didn't have a lot of money for extravagances in those early years. My mother sewed quite well. She made most of her own, mine and my sister's clothing. Sewing a ball gown was just another garment to sew, for her. The gown that I remember most was a taffeta gold plaid, with a large sash. It was floor length, and to a little girl, she looked like a princess.

There was a time when sewing was something every young girl learned to do. It was thought that this would be a valuable skill to learn, to be used throughout her lifetime. Today, just a fraction of girls learn to sew. It seems that shopping is the "skill" they learn best. Where will this "skill" get them? When times are good, they may dress very well. But how will they dress themselves when times are lean? Compare this to my mother's generation. Good or lean times, a woman who could sew, could contrive a fashionable wardrobe for herself.

I realize that times change. Our technology continues to propel us further and further away from traditional domesticity.  Learning to sew does not have to reside in our past heritage. The ability to do for oneself, is empowering. How empowering it is, to know that you can transform something with a needle and thread, and next to nothing in your wallet. One may not "need" to sew their own wardrobe, but how wonderful it is to know that you can.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

My weekly menu plan -- it's definitely January here


Menu planning -- dull, huh? "Not so," says the one who couldn't drag herself to do this for literally years!!! The week was most definitely made easier by having my meals all figured out in advance. Busy days call for a plan of action.

We are in the midst of a freeze, here in the Pacific Northwest of the US. That means the outside garden is on a break, and my "garden" produce is coming from my indoor light garden. It's just a small patch of baby salad greens. But a wonderful treat once a week! I used the light garden lettuce this past week for the base of the avocado-citrus salad on Monday. It was delightfully fresh and made me think of spring.

How did the menu plan go? Well, for the most part, pretty well.

The thumbs up --
  • having the menu plan on creative savv meant that my kids could look up what we were having for dinner, without asking me
  • I could go online and quickly see what I needed to do for the next night's meal
  • it meant we were even more on top of using everything up, including working through the freezer stash. I went through the freezers, pulled out all the dinner leftovers for Saturday's dinner, and breakfast leftovers for this morning's breakfast. And I now know what we have, and what we're needing. (It was a bonus to discover I have several containers of pasta sauce still!)
  • it saved me the trouble of thinking what to have each night, and wondering if we had all the ingredients in stock
  • my kids' help Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday gave me a bit of extra time to take care of other matters
The thumbs down --
  • My one big glitch came on Thursday. I made an oversight. When planning that day's dinner, I totally forgot that I would be starting back to work this week, and Thursday is my day out of the house. My plan had me preparing 3 items for dinner, from scratch. I managed to get one item finished and another set up and ready for the oven, before I left for work. I gathered all my ingredients for the third and had them in one place.  Cooking that dish was made slightly easier by that bit of work in the morning. So, while it did work out, I was dead tired by the end of the day. I'll have to remember this for Thursdays.

This next week will be even busier, as I have a couple of afternoon appointments, along with work, volunteer work, dance classes, and driving the daughters to and from school every day. So most of my menu will be simpler items, though still scratch-cooked.

I'm still working from the freezer. I have 3 freezers here. I'm trying to empty one of them, so that it can be unplugged.

Shopping is minimal. We had a freeze this week, so kale and broccoli are gone for the time being from my menus. Frozen leafy greens will need to be purchased. I'm using fresh produce which is seasonal for winter -- cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, celery and mushrooms.

what I have ready and in the freezer: buns, cooked ham and turkey, pureed pumpkin and sweet potatoes

what I need to buy: soymilk or Lactaid, mushrooms, celery, frozen spinach

Monday
  • turkey-noodle casserole, with homemade mushroom/celery cream sauce, served with carrot-pineapple salad and pumpkin snack cake (pineapple in freezer, double snack cake recipe for Tuesday, make extra cream sauce for ham/spinach on Thursday, cook extra noodles, and toss w/ EVOO for Wednesday's pasta with marinara, save some shredded carrots for tossed salad on Tuesday)
Tuesday (daughter make plum-apple sauce)
  • French dip sandwiches on buns, tossed salad w/ shredded carrots, cabbage, and light garden lettuce, plum-apple sauce, leftover pumpkin snack cake (buns from freezer, snack cake leftover from Monday, save leftover beef for soup on Friday, make extra plum-apple sauce for Wednesday)
Wednesday (daughter chop celery, shallots and garlic)
  • pasta with marinara, marinated lentil salad with celery and dijon dressing, leftover plum-apple sauce (marinara in freezer, make extra salad for Saturday's dinner)
Thursday (son help chop carrots and onions)
  • ham and spinach in leftover cream sauce over toast, with roasted carrots and onions (take turkey breast out of freezer for Sunday) 
Friday (kids cook)
  • vegetable-beef soup, biscuits, brownies (for vegetables in the soup, use carrots, onion, celery, potatoes, canned tomatoes in freezer, spinach in freezer)
Saturday
  • oven roasted potatoes, leftover lentil salad, fruit salad, leftover brownies
Sunday
  • roast turkey breast, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, spinach

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