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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Gifts on a small budget: throwaway containers become gift containers



Thinking ahead to Christmas . . .

These containers still have life in them before being tossed into recycling. The coffee cans will be overwrapped in Christmas paper and filled with flavored popcorn for hubby -- 1 cheese and 1 nutty-caramel popcorn.

And the sparkling cider bottles will be filled with dry, fizzy bath salts -- 1 each, for my two daughters' Christmas stockings. I'll tie on a measuring scoop, and make my own label, and voila -- large, stocking-filling gifts for very little cost. (Dry, fizzy bath salts are just a mixture of epsom salts, baking soda, citric acid, color and essential oils/fragrance. They're even easier than making bath bombs, as you don't have to worry about them not solidifying.)




Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Making pumpkin-spice doughnuts at home

pudgy mini donuts 


Does any flavor define autumn better than pumpkin? Okay, perhaps apple. A mug of hot apple cider, with a freshly made pumpkin donut just makes me smile!

if using home-cooked pumpkin, strain for 30 minutes,
to reduce and thicken
the strained liquid can be added to soups or stews

Here's my own personal recipe for pumpkin donuts.
You can make them as puffs (balls), o-shaped, or twists. My favorite, with these donuts, are the pudgy little o-shaped ones.

Makes 32 mini-donuts, or puffs, or 16 twists.

You'll need:

1 & 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup warm milk
1 tablespoon butter (or margarine)
6 tablespoons (3/8 cup) canned pumpkin (if using home-cooked pumpkin, strain off liquid in a mesh strainer for 30 minutes)
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 & 1/4 cups flour, white or a blend of white and whole wheat (adding more as needed)

To get started:

Soften yeast, in a medium bowl with warm water.
Stir in sugar and salt.

In another bowl or microwaveable container, heat milk until warm, and add butter (or margarine).
When butter is melted, stir in pumpkin puree. Allow to cool to room temp.

Combine milk, butter and pumpkin mixture with softened yeast, sugar and salt.

Stir in spices. Begin mixing in flour, 1 cup at a time. Add extra flour as needed for a dough that doesn't stick to your hands. Knead for 7 to 8 minutes. Place in a bowl, cover with a cloth, and allow to rise at room temp for 45 minutes to 1 hour (until doubled).

To shape and fry the donuts:

Punch dough down. Divide dough into 2 portions.


For each portion, if making puffs (or balls), or mini-donuts, roll on the counter to make a rope about 1 & 1/2 inches thick. Cut into 16 pieces. If making twists, with each portion, divide into 8 pieces.


For puffs *or* mini-donuts, form each piece into a ball, by pinching the edges to the back of the ball, and set to rise on a floured surface, seam side down, about an inch or two apart, and cover with a cloth for 30-40 minutes. Repeat with other half of dough.

In the last 10 minutes of rising, begin heating your oil, to 375-385 degrees. (A cube of bread should brown in 1 minute in the right temp oil.) When oil is hot --

Puffs
for puffs, drop the balls of dough, a couple at a time, into oil. Only fry a couple at a time. Too many will cool your oil too quickly, and donuts will be heavy and dense. Turn as needed, cooking until browned.


Mini-donuts
For mini-donuts, use your two thumbs to pull a hole into the center of each ball, stretching and pulling as needed. Only form a few at a time. Drop these mini-donuts into the hot oil, again just a couple at a time. Turn over when underside is browned, and fry until both sides are well-browned.

Twists
For twists, on a large floured surface (the extra space will allow you to roll and twist more easily) roll each piece into a snake about 12 inches long.

Place the snake in the center of your floured surface. Now, place your right hand on the right end of the snake and left hand on the left end of the snake.

Roll your right hand away from you, about 8-9 inches, simultaneously rolling your left hand towards you, about 8-9 inches.


Your snake should look like it has diagonal twists all up and down the length. I cheated and added extra rolls by lifting my hands from time to time. But who cares about that.


Now lift the snake up by the ends and hold them together. Your dough should begin to twist itself. Give it a little help with the twisting.


Pinch the ends together, and set on a floured surface to rise. If your first one doesn't look fab, keep at it. It gets easier with practice. Repeat with other half of dough. Once all are formed, cover and allow to rise for 30-40 minutes.
(Thanks to frugal spinster, a professional baker and cake decorator, for the twisting instructions!)

Begin heating oil in last 10 minutes of rise time. When oil is hot, drop a couple of twists at a time into oil. Turn over when underside has browned. Remove from oil when twists are well-browned.


For all shapes of donuts:

Drain on paper, or paper toweling, placed on a cooling rack. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar, or glaze with a thin icing. These are lightly sweet, and delicious without anything extra. When I make these to go with soup or chili, I serve them plain.


This dough also bakes very nicely, for occasions when I don't want all the artery-clogging, deep-frying.

Increase the butter in the recipe to 3 tablespoons, for a more tender dough. For baking, after the first rise in the bowl, punch dough down, and shape for dinner rolls (crescents, Parker House, pan rolls), place on a buttered baking sheet, cover, and allow to rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. Bake at 350 degrees, for about 18-25 minutes (until browned).

Pumpkin donuts -- one of our autumn traditions that can't be skipped!


Monday, October 28, 2013

When you roast a turkey, do you have a hard time using all the leftovers?


I roasted my last turkey from autumn 2012, just a few weeks ago. We ate the traditional turkey dinner on night one, then moved to more creative recipes that use turkey, but mask the flavor with seasonings.


Turkey is by far the least expensive meat in our area, if bought on sale in the fall. The problem is, we're not terribly keen on turkey flavor, at least not dozens of meals worth of turkey per year.

Up until a few years ago, my problem was using all the leftover meat.  I would enthusiastically buy up several turkeys. I would, then, happily roast them, one every couple of months. But, the leftovers would linger in the freezer, until I managed, rather reluctantly, to prepare those turkey leftovers for family suppers. Being a reluctant cook is no fun, in my book.

I needed to come up with a better method for dealing with turkey leftovers. This is what works for me, and may work for you, as well.

I season and flavor the leftover meat before freezing, for ready-to-go meals from my freezer, using these turkey leftovers.

Preparing the cooked turkey for the freezer: getting a variety of flavors from one bird

I've discovered that I am more inclined to use the turkey leftovers, if I season the meat before freezing. The meat takes on the flavors of the spices and seasonings, while it freezes, often completely camouflaging the turkey-ness completely.

To give you an idea of how well this works for my family, with teriyaki turkey, my husband never fails to ask if it's beef. And with the Mexi-turkey, used in burritos last week, my son asked if it was chicken or beef, used in dinner. He has a good sense of smell and taste, so to "fool" him, I took as a victory.

Turkey in gravy

The day after roasting, I slice and freeze much of the breast meat, in the leftover gravy. I can usually get 2 turkey-in-gravy freezer meals for 5 people, with the remaining gravy. This is the obvious way to have  heat and eat turkey meals in the freezer.


A day or two later, I pull the remaining meat off the bones, chop, and divide into family meal portions. I season each meal portion right in the freezer container, as I work.


Teriyaki turkey

Some of the meat, I cover with homemade teriyaki sauce and freeze. The turkey will marinate in the teriyaki sauce during freezing and thawing. My usual teriyaki sauce is simply vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, garlic and water to taste. This last batch, I used chive blossom vinegar, for a mild onion flavor.

Cooking this up, I saute some onions and vegetables in a little oil, then add the turkey using a slotted spoon, reserving the teriyaki sauce. I stir a spoonful of corn starch into the reserved teriyaki sauce, and cook until thick, in the skillet with the veggies and meat.

Ready-to-use turkey in onion, sage and celery gravy, for pot pie *or* turkey and dumplings

I use stock that I make from the carcass to cook a thin gravy, season with a lot of chopped onions, celery and crumbled sage. To this gravy, I add some of the chopped turkey meat, in portions large enough to use in turkey pot pie or turkey and dumplings, for the 5 of us.

To make a pot pie or turkey and dumplings, I add chopped carrots, green veggies and diced potatoes, to the container of turkey in gravy. I either heat in the stockpot (for turkey and dumplings), or cook briefly in a saucepan, before pouring into a pie plate (for turkey pot pie). Then, I top with biscuit dough or pie pastry, and finish up the cooking.

Mexi-turkey

To flavor cooked turkey for Mexican-inspired meals, I toss the chopped meat with salsa, chili powder, cumin, a bit of vinegar, tomato paste and some stock, before freezing in 2 to 3 cup containers.

To prepare for burritos or tacos, I heat, adding some chopped green or red pepper, and salt to taste.

BBQ turkey

This is simply chopped turkey in a container with some thin, homemade BBQ sauce. To reheat, I add chopped peppers, and serve on buns or over noodles.


The end result -- by seasoning the turkey before freezing, I actually have to pace myself with using the leftovers, so that they will last a month or more. Now that's a switch!


Why would I buy so many turkeys? You must be wondering.

Each November, I purchase an extra couple of whole turkeys, using the Thanksgiving sales to get a rock-bottom price per pound. Last year, I spent about 30 cents per pound for whole, frozen turkeys. That's a phenomenal price per pound for meat, in our area.


I keep the extra turkeys in one of the freezers, to roast in months to come. It should be noted that frozen foods of any kind keep longest and best in stand-alone freezers. Freezers that are attached to refrigerators have more frequent temperature fluctuations. This affects the flavor and texture of the food, but not necessarily the safety.

In a stand-alone freezer, expect a whole turkey to retain its desirable texture and flavor for up to one year (according to Jennie-O). For frozen storage of a whole turkey in your kitchen freezer (combination fridge/freezer, set to 0 degrees F), quality will begin to degrade around 8 or 9 months. However, it may still be totally safe to consume. Cooked turkey, kept frozen, has a freezer life of 4 to 6 months.

With that knowledge, I make sure that we roast our last turkey of the year in late September or early October. After roasting these extra turkeys, we'll have one or two Thanksgiving-like meals, and I'll package up the leftovers for the freezer. According to foodsafety.gov, cooked turkey will keep refrigerated for 3 to 4 days. So, I try to get my cooked turkey packaged up for the freezer in that time-frame.


I'm always looking for new ways to use leftover turkey. Do you have any favorite recipes?




Wednesday, October 23, 2013

I got a good deal on 175 spring-flowering bulbs -- woo hoo!



Winter is hard on anyone with Seasonal Affective Disorder. And symptoms began early for many folks in the greater Seattle area, this year. We're in the midst of Fog-tober. It's been quite dark and dreary for about 10 days now.

One of the ways that I combat the winter blues is to plan ahead for cheer in early spring, by planting spring-flowering bulbs. My long-term plan is to blanket both the front and back yards with bulbs. I just completed a small area in the backyard, and have already picked out my spot to work on, in the front yard. (I've been pulling ivy in this area, in prep for landscaping next spring, summer and fall.)

This is the area of the back yard, that I began work on this past spring.


This is about what it looked like at the beginning. It lies along the side edge of the property, just along the gravel path to the wood lot. As it's an area in view from the house, and alongside a pleasant walk, I wanted to spruce it up, but keep it cohesive with more native plantings.


I was at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago, and I found King Alfred daffodils and Darwin hybrid tulips for a decent price. The daffodils were about $15 for 45 (about 33 cents per bulb), and the tulips were about $4 for 10 bulbs (about 40 cents per bulb). Home Depot didn't have the mix I was looking for in crocus bulbs (I only wanted purple and white bulbs, no yellows, for this area). But, at a nearby garden center, I found bulbs marked down for end of season. I paid about $20 for 120 crocus bulbs (about 17 cents per bulb).

This last week, I've been spending some of my time in the garden, cleaning up the ornamental beds and planting these bulbs, 175 in total.

The yellow daffodils are planted under the river rock "stream". And the crocus bulbs are planted in the bare earth between the river rock and the stepping stones. The crocus will be overplanted with hostas, as I divide my existing hostas over the years. (In my yard, crocus are done blooming by the time the hostas begin poking through the soil.) In addition, I have begun moving grape hyacinth to the sliver of soil right along the walkway, where I have a couple of hydrangeas for summer blooms.

my tulip spot

For the tulips, I have a spot in view of the master bedroom, where I plant about 10 or 20 tulips each year. I use only Darwin hybrids, as they tend to naturalize very well in my yard. This year I found these red and cream tulips. I think they're quite cheery!

Making plans for late winter and early spring color helps get me over the hump with my SAD. I know that in just a few short months, my yard will be beckoning me to come take a look at it's cheer.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Teaching friends and a crafting exchange

a fun afternoon -- making English toffee with friends 

A couple of friends and I get together about once per month or 6 weeks, as both a social get-together, and as a teaching moment, sharing, with one another, something fun that we know how to do. We are just an informal, small group of women, who enjoy cooking and crafts.

To give you an idea of what we do: in July, we met at one friend's house where she showed us other two how she makes her delightful green pepper jelly. In September, they came to my house and we made rosemary vinegar together. This past Saturday, we met at the third friend's house and she showed us how she makes her fantastic English Toffee. Yummy, yummy stuff!

In November, I am hoping we can gather at my house, again, this time to craft/prepare gifts for the holidays. The plan is for each of us to come up with one craft/recipe that we've made as gifts before, and arrange for the supplies for all three of us to produce that gift item. By the end of the afternoon/evening, we should each have produced 3 different gifts, suitable for gifting in the holiday season.

For my own gift-craft, I'm thinking of bath fizzies, packaged in home-sewn sheer fabric bags. And as just a quick and fun item, to add on, I have some rubber stamps and ink pads, for us to make to/from gift tags.

With this crafting exchange, we'll share our knowledge, have some fun creating and chatting, and get a few more small gifts taken care of for the holidays.


If you'd like to put together your own crafting exchange, the plan for one is quite simple. Find 2 friends who would enjoy such an afternoon. Have each person:  come up with a home-made gift idea, make one sample (to show each other how it will turn out), and put together the supplies for each person in the group. Our group also brings snack-y foods for some time to just sit and chat a while.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Orange-spice tea for a penny per teacup


I still have a nice supply of good tea, from my husband's generous gift last Christmas. However, I've been fancying a cup of orange and spice flavored black tea, reminiscent of Constant Comment, if you're familiar with that tea. Here in the Seattle area, there's also the well-known Market Spice tea, I believe named for the Pike Place Market. Anyway, it's a nice orange, spice and black tea blend, perfect for a chilly autumn afternoon.

In the Northern Hemisphere, we are about to enter the fresh orange season. Oranges may be available year round, but in late fall and early winter I often find them at rock bottom prices. If you remember, I use my orange peels extensively. I infuse vinegar with the peels. I make candied orange peel in sugar syrup. And I zest the oranges (using a veg peeler and my food processor), to save in the freezer for baking and tea.

Our limited grocery budget now means that my afternoon tea has to either come from my current supply, or be cheap, cheap, cheap! Here's my version of orange-spice tea, using dollar store black tea, orange zest, ground cloves and cinnamon and a bit of sugar.


In a small teapot (about 10 oz.), I infuse about 1/2 teaspoon of frozen orange zest in a full pot (10 oz) of water. I do this by microwaving the water and orange zest for about 1 minute 20 seconds. The orange zest is slower to infuse than tea, so I give it this first infusion.

Next, I add 1 cheapo black tea bag and a tiny pinch of ground cloves, plus 1 slightly larger, but still tiny, pinch of ground cinnamon. I microwave this infusion for about 40 seconds, and allow to steep for a minute or two.

I add a bit of sweetening (sugar, stevia or honey), and reheat my infusion, as needed. I have 2 lovely teacups of orange-spice black tea, for the cost of a cheap bag of black tea, a penny's worth of sugar and spices, and the zest of an orange that I might otherwise consider as garbage.


You can bet that this year, of all years, I'll be making the most of every last orange peel that comes my way. I still have a small amount of zest and candied orange peel in the freezer from last year, but that supply is going fast. I used some of the orange zest in a batch of cookies this past weekend, along with chopped dried cherries, pecan pieces, nutmeg and chocolate chips. Oooh yum! I'm glad that it's cookie baking season again!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Early autumn menus on $170/month for a family of 5

So far, so good, with keeping the grocery budget around $170 per month. Time will tell when the garden is put to bed for the winter, as to whether or not we can continue spending this amount on groceries.

Early autumn for us is late September through mid October. I've listed our dinner menus for this time period.

Upon returning from our vacation, I jumped right into my busy season. So, you will find repetition in some of the meals (I made double and triple batches of many main dishes, for easy cooking on busy nights).

As with August meals, we continued in September with many vegetarian dinners. In early October I roasted our last turkey, purchased last November for about 30 cents per pound. The leftover turkey was frozen in ready to use family-size portions, to be used throughout October and into early November.

The autumn garden is producing kale, broccoli, Swiss chard, mustard greens, sugar snap peas, beets, potatoes, pumpkins and carrots. Our cranberries, late pears and apples are now harvested. The crabapples will be harvested this coming weekend. Homegrown produce is now supplemented with some canned tomatoes and produce stand deals. I have been stopping by the produce stand about once a week, finding bell peppers, hot peppers, cantaloupe and corn on the cob, for very good prices.

Here's what we've been eating:

Monday

lentil curry (make double to freeze) with brown rice
sliced pears from our trees

Tuesday

black bean, tomato, bell pepper salad
corn on the cob (fantastic deal at the produce stand 7/$1)
French bread

Wednesday

veggie chili (make super large batch for later in week)
corn on the cob
garden salad
French bread (leftover)

Thursday (babysitting day -- easy dinner)

leftover lentil curry with brown rice
sauteed garden kale and onions

Friday

roast turkey (last one from the freezer), gravy
roasted garden potatoes and onions
mashed garden pumpkin
bread and butter

Saturday

leftover turkey in gravy on homemade buns (make double batch of buns)
grilled onions
cantaloupe
garden zucchini pickles

Sunday

turkey in homemade BBQ sauce on buns
cantaloupe
garden tomato and basil salad

Monday

turkey teriyaki with garden kale and broccoli
brown rice

Tuesday

Italian lentil-vegetable-sausage soup (make large batch)
sourdough biscuits
cookies and pears

Wednesday

leftover lentil soup
mashed winter squash
pizza (make an extra pizza for freezer)

Thursday (babysitting day -- easy dinner)

baked beans
Yorkshire pudding wedges
sauteed garden kale and onions
sliced pears (from our trees), smothered with almond custard and topped with cherry preserves (I finally got my appetite back on this day -- can you tell?)

Friday

night out with daughters for the girls, leftover soup and garlic bread for the guys

Saturday

homemade pasta (fettuccini), with sauteed garden tomatoes (the last), garden zucchini, onions, and some of big batch pasta sauce (made several containers for the freezer), topped with cheese
cantaloupe (twice this month I found a deal on cantaloupe -- 50 cents each)

Sunday

turkey pot pie (leftover turkey in gravy, onions, sage, parsley, chard, carrots, potatoes, green beans, topped with pastry crust)
mashed garden pumpkin
cranberry sauce (with homegrown cranberries, picked this day)

Monday

clean-out-the-freezer casserole (rice, tomatoes, cooked lentils, turkey stock, chives, chopped onions, tomato paste, pizza sauce, combined, then topped with bread crumbs mixed with herbs and grated cheese)
cantaloupe

Tuesday

split pea soup
sourdough biscuits
cantaloupe
cookies

Wednesday

teriyaki turkey (from freezer) with garden broccoli and kale
brown rice
apple salad (apples, chopped dried fruit, nuts in a fruity dressing)

Thursday (babysitting day -- easy dinner)

homemade pizza from the freezer
tomato-basil soup (made with canned tomato paste, fresh basil, onions, lemon juice, salt, water)
cantaloupe

Friday

leftover turkey in gravy from the freezer, with leftover cranberry sauce
stovetop stuffing (made with bread bits and pieces in freezer, turkey stock, onions, butter and sage)
sauteed garden Swiss chard and garlic
pumpkin pie

Saturday

homemade pasta (it was so good the other Saturday that we want it again, and the kids help a lot with it) with sauce and turkey Italian sausage from freezer
garden veggie medley (whatever is left in the garden) with onions and garlic
leftover pumpkin pie

Sunday (quick and easy dinner)

scrambled eggs
pancakes
sliced pears


Breakfasts have consisted of protein shakes (for the daughter trying to gain weight), toast, pancakes, muffins, cinnamon buns, oatmeal, granola, and yogurt. To-go lunches have had a combination of a sandwich (peanut butter and jam or vegetarian bean spread), a container of soup, a piece of fruit, a container of rhubarb sauce, applesauce or pear sauce, a muffin, bag of popped corn, and/or cookies. Weekend lunches have often been leftover soup, fried rice, or toasted cheese sandwiches. I am working on planning my own weekday lunches. Without a plan, I tend towards a series of snacks, and no real lunch. But I'm working on that.

With cooler weather, we are eating more soups and chili, and fewer salads. I like keeping a large container of homemade tomato soup in the fridge. It makes a delicious and warming quick bite to eat for anyone who is hungry, and also can be packed into microwaveable containers for to-go lunches.

You can see, we eat a lot of basic, humble meals. I really haven't the time or energy to do gourmet-ish meals. And that suits us just fine.

Humble cooking -- that's what's for dinner.







Monday, October 14, 2013

Making room in a tight budget for a little bit of fun

I double-checked my schedule, and getting sick repeatedly was definitely not in my plans. While I haven't been feeling very well, I have been pushing on in things. The worst of feeling bad, for me, was that I just didn't have brain energy to write anything.

There have been some moments of fun this past week, however. A girlfriend came over, one morning, with a big sack of apples from her neighbor's tree. The neighbor didn't want the apples, I think because they were basically flavorless. My friend and I turned those bland apples into some very delicious applesauce, adding lemon juice, cinnamon and a bit of sugar.

Another fun moment came about when my daughter announced that as a theater student at the university, she was obligated to usher some performances on campus. Universities put on a wide variety of productions, many of which are absolutely free to anyone willing to come. Some of the free offerings are recitals put on by faculty or students. This past Friday, there was a piano concert performed by a well-known faculty member.

The one hitch, we discovered with these obligations, is transportation for my daughter. These ushering requirements are fulfilled after hours that commuter buses operate. So, it meant that I'd have to drive downtown to pick her up, after the concert. It's not a huge deal, but the roundtrip drive takes about 1  & 1/2 hours, in the dark (when I can't see to read the signs in unfamiliar neighborhoods).

So, what to do, what to do? We decided to just make the best of the situation. If I'm going to have to drive down to get my daughter, I might as well go down early and enjoy the concert myself.

That's what I did. I met up with both of my daughters in the late afternoon. We had a bite to eat, then went and enjoyed a lovely piano concert.

About that bite to eat  --  we had origainally planned for it to just be a very small bite, then we'd eat something more substantial once home. But when we went over to the student union building, to check out the quick service places, we discovered that all perishable foods were 50% off after 5 PM. Well, lucky us! It was probably 5:02 when we walked in. If my drive to the campus had gone any faster, we'd have paid the full price! For $11, I had a large chipotle chicken salad, one daughter had a fruit salad, and the other daughter had a very large ham club sandwich. Not a bad deal at all!


In our budget, I leave a small amount of money for fun outings. Right now, that amount is $10 per month. (In the past, that amount has been as low as $4.) With our budget feeling so squeezed these days, it really helps morale to keep just a small amount for something out of our ordinary frugal pattern. We can look back and say to ourselves, "wasn't that fun the evening we went to the piano concert and had dinner in the SUB?" or, "getting ice cream cones at the $1 cone place really made that day feel special".

I know, $10 per month adds up to $120 per year, which does sound like a lot to us right now. If our budget begins to feel any tighter, then I could see us reducing that amount again. For now, we're willing to make concessions in other areas of the budget, to afford a very inexpensive outing or two per month.

What do you think? Do you think leaving a small amount like $10 per month, for fun, is reasonable, given our reduced income? What would you do? Do you budget for fun outings for your family?

I'm back

For the last 10 days I've felt really crummy. I've had 3 colds and 1 sinus infection, so far this fall. I know that it's all due to putting in really long work days, and shortchanging myself on sleep. Right now, there's just a lot ot take care of. But I think I'm nearing the end of the super long work days. Just a lot to do, and fewer hands to do the work this year. Combine that with a computer that is having some age issues. I may be able to borrow a computer, so that I can keep up with online stuff.

Anyways, I'll take some time later today, to begin writing up some of the highlights of the past couple of weeks. Have a great day!

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Beautiful Everyday Living: cozy October evenings by the fireside


In an effort to put aside a bit more money for our winter heat bill, we're not turning on the furnace just yet, even though the daytime high temps are hovering around the 55 degree F mark, and overnights are in the upper 40s to 50 F. Yes, it is a bit chilly in the far corners of the house. But we're keeping the core of the house (the kitchen, the family room and the dining room) warm enough with a fire in the heatilator fireplace. (We're using the fan in the corner of the photo, to blow the hot air off the bricks and into some of the other living areas of the house, in case you're wondering.)

My husband starts a fire when he gets up (around 5 AM). I keep it going all day, gathering wood in the afternoons and bringing it into the garage, for easy access throughout the evening.

In the late afternoon, as the sun is waning and the chill begins to set in outside, I stoke up the fire, turn on the ambient lighting in the room, and make the family room the coziest place in the house for the returning family.

Most evenings, we eat dinner, in the glow of the firelight. More wood is added to the fire, for a cozy October evening with the family. This fireside living has turned a home-finance need into a desirable family gathering. I got lemons -- but I made lemonade!


Have I shown you this?

My garden club made these a couple of years ago. This is one of my favorite autumn decor pieces. I pull it out of the closet every October and place it in a new spot for the season. This year, it has become part of the ambient lighting in the family room.

It's simply an empty wine bottle, with a string of mini white Christmas lights stuffed inside. I, then, decorated the outside of the bottle with some faux grapes, grapevine and a bit of raffia. A gilded ribbon is tied onto the neck of the bottle as a crowning touch.


I have my lighted bottle on the side table (AKA a small filing cabinet covered in an autumn throw) next to the sofa. Two of our electrical outlets, in this room, are connected to a wall switch. I have the bottle plugged into one of these outlets, using an extension cord, so that I can easily switch this light on and off each evening.

A simple touch that adds so much to our cozy evening enjoyment.

Do you have any favorite autumn decorations for your home?

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