Soft apples now Apple Walnut Cake; Salvage fishy cooking oil

Waste Not: Apple-Walnut Bundt Cake.  This cake recipe was the perfect match for my too-soft-to-eat apples. Not having any apple juice on hand, I used a combo of sherry vinegar and water instead. Also subbed out chopped dates for the raisins in the recipe. The pic is somewhat dark; I was in the process of drizzling the glaze atop the cake here.

Because I believe cake is not cake without icing (and glaze doesn't count!), I enjoyed my cake with a vanilla sauce. Hubby likes it with or without. Really, really enjoying reading Nella Lasts' Peace: The Post-War Diaries of Housewife, 49. I love reading diaries dating around the Great Depression...those folks have so much to teach me about being FRUGAL and conscientious about every purchase. I've learned how Nella "saved" her cooking oil that'd been tainted by burned fish: pour the boiling oil into water. The oil congeals and the burned bits fall to the bottom. Repeat if needed. If times are ever so dire that supplies are hard to come by, I'll have another trick up my sleeve!

So, that about does it for my Independence Challenge for today. Love, LOVE that the "Eat The Food" part of this challenge is making me think about using up things that have been around too long. I added a couple of barbecue sauce packets to the homemade bean soup we ate for supper. My folks can't seem to refuse those little condiment packets which they never use, as a result my fridge is cluttered with little packets. Time to use them!!

On My Mind: Great Grandma sews, inspired by Joel

Inspired by the DIY Baby Sun Ray Toy over on Made by Joel, Great Grandma (my mom) sewed a baby "book." Needless to say, the book's a big hit with Grandbaby!! 

Great Grandma's creation, inspired by Joel. Gotta love those crafty folks who can turn scraps into something fun. Grandbaby says THANKS, GREAT GRANDMA!

   Thanks, Rhonda at Down-to-Earth, for this On My Mind concept. What's on your mind today?

Happy America Recycles Day!

Happy America Recycles Day...really, check out their site!! Yup, baring my recycle "bins" for all the world to see! ;) The bag hanging on the cabinet door knob contains greeting card fronts that I save for a local veterans' association, postage stamps saved for someone who sells them per pound to raise funds for her community's archives, plus the Campbell's Soup Labels for Education and Box Tops For Education we save to benefit a rural school. P.S. The peppers are being stored in the relatively cool garage, waiting to be cut up.

Finally satisfied my craving for onion rings! Lovin' this Crispy Onion Rings recipe I found in Sara Foster's Southern Kitchen. Basically it was just a beer batter, but I think the key was her advice to mix up the batter then let it sit for three hours before using. The onion rings turned out great, but now I'm left with a couple of quarts of used canola oil. Maybe it would be better if we eat onion rings only when eating out at a restaurant. ???

Hey, I found some "sustainably caught" salmon. It cost a "fortune" compared with most canned salmon, but the added cost eases my conscience re: any overfishing being done by this brand. My salmon patties were a riff on a crab cake recipe of Bobby Flay's.

   Not as healthy as yesterday's meal, eh? ;)

On My Mind: No such thing as waste!

Thanks, Deb Goes Green, for this video..."There's no such thing as waste, only stuff in the wrong place!"

Cannot tell you how VERY HAPPY it made me to find a local place, GreenWorks Recycling, that reclaims/recycles so many of the items that would otherwise make their way into a landfill: used batteries of ALL types and sizes, plus loads of electronics and appliances. They'll even shred your hard drive while you watch if you donate a CPU. GreenWorks recently took our broken dishwasher off our hands, oh, yeah!! Clearly thrilled to be a part of the process, this man was such a peach to show me all around--even called off the dogs first! *wink* (Hope you're lucky enough to find this kind of jewel in your neck of the woods.)

   Well, that's what's on my mind today. What's on yours? Hope you'll share your link here or on down-to-earth!

On My Mind, conceived by Rhonda at down-to-earth

On My Mind: Partly greening baby

Guess cloth diapering is like riding a bike...it comes back to you. Some 28 years ago, we used only cloth on our DD, but after all those years, here's my second attempt at getting one on the grandbaby. Now, I'm back up to pro status! 

  As an at home mom those many moons years ago, with only Hubby's income to meet all our needs, cloth diapers were our ONLY option financially. When Grandbaby comes to visit, DD brings us plenty of disposable diapers to use, but I can't stand to see the dirties pile up in the trash, headed to the landfill. So, once Grandbaby gets past her usual couple of morning poopy "blowouts," I switch to using cloth.
   Using cloth diapers for the majority of the time when Grandbaby is here saves DD from buying quite as many disposables, so she's all for it! Even when they're at home, DD's not up for using cloth herself, and I can't blame her, 'cause I still get grossed out by washing out the poopy diapers. Ugh!
   When Grandbaby begins eating solids and her stools aren't as loose as they are now, you can bet I'll be watching her face for signs that it's time to hold her over the toidy. By keeping a watchful eye out when we were home, I seldom had to clean out a poopy diaper once DD was about 4-5 months old! (They even have books out on the subject now.)

Would you believe they had NO infant-sized diaper covers available locally? Finally decided to order some online but the ones I'd bought were too tight on baby's legs. Then I came across and bought this adjustable Thirsties Duo Diaper Cover online...lovin' it!! Now that I know it works, I'll order more, 'cause it doesn't take long to get one dirty if Grandbaby decides to surprise me with an additional blowout.

   Well, that's what's on my mind today. What's on yours? Hope you'll share your link here or on down-to-earth!

On My Mind, conceived by Rhonda at down-to-earth  

Mending my Amish bread recipe and my belt; Pioneer village

Amish Friendship Bread. This is my second baking; first recipe didn't have enough sugar in it to suit Hubby. This recipe is still not as moist as the one I used years ago...and lost along the way. I'll keep tweaking the recipe 'til it's the yummiest ever! Any advice??

Some stitching on one of my belts came out; for $10 bucks, it was good as new. Took it to a joint in town called Raine's Shoe Hospital. ALWAYS leave that place with a smile on my face, because the owner/operator always has a smile on his face. Somewhat of a cobbler philosopher, he says things like, "My daddy always told me that life's only hard if you take it hard."

Why NOT use every last bit?
It's paid for and what's fun about spending money on toothpaste!!

Met DD and the grandgirls at a local park on Saturday to check out a free event at its pioneer village. This re-creationist found her milk strainer at Goodwill. She said no one there knew what it was. Well, I didn't know what it was either. Does milk fresh from a cow have to be strained???

Couldn't get the grandgirls to try out this yoke, but this little fella was game!

   As camping days ARE cheat days, I'm hoping to be sitting around a fire roasting marshmallows sometime soon. Raining, raining for now. Wish me luck! Whassup in your neck of the woods?

Sharing the blooms, the vows and the blowout!

The little wisteria sprig we brought back from my aunt's yard in Pensacola last year has grown like crazy and has been blooming in our western Kentucky back yard since the first of July! 

I don't like to think of myself as a close-minded blockhead, but at 50, I do sometimes have trouble making changes stick. When it comes to being green, I fail as often as I succeed. When I fail at living green, most likely I'm failing at being frugal too. When I fail at being frugal, I'm failing to save money. *SIGH*

   Yeah, there's a reason for my whiny confession! I'm goaling to incorporate some green changes that I hope will make me THINK GREEN more often. Whether you join me or not, you're now my accountability partners, don'cha know!

   High time to ACT instead of just read about changing my life. A YES! Magazine article, 10 Ways to Change Your Life: Not Just Your Lightbulbs, has finally pushed me over the fence on two green changes. Witness here my solemn vows:

1. Instead of serving all-veggie meals willy-nilly, I vow to join ranks with the Meatless Monday folks (like Jessica Simpson).
2. Instead of simultaneously surfing/blogging while watching TV/movies, I vow to take a mini-"Eco-sabbath" for AT LEAST ONE uninterrupted 4-hour block of unplugged time per week...and work my way toward a 24-hour once weekly unplugathon. (Exceptions: fridge, freezer and air conditioner/heat pump.)

   Okay, baby steps, I know, but even baby steps can move you in the right direction, eh? Anybody else vowing any new baby steps lately? Feel free to share a link to your posts!

Had a blow-out in one of my dishwashing gloves--the right hand, as always. I'll save the still-good left hand glove and turn it inside out the next time a right hand glove gets a nick & needs replacing. Thanks to Amy Daczyzn's Tightwad Gazette for that little repurposing tip.

Let freedom ring while repurposing beauty products; Baking flops still better than store bought goods

Happy Red, White and Blue!! Ringing in Independence Day with Crumb-topped blueberry Muffins. Just HAD to try a new recipe, even tho' I have one I like. Found these tasty but not as tender as I like, but DD pronounced them AMAZING. (NOTE: Just discovered an online reference about this recipe I'd found in Kentucky Monthly Magazine, and 1/3 cup of vegetable oil was left out of the recipe they'd published.)

Strawberry Cobbler made from frozen berries that I thought Mom had already sweetened. NOPE, not sweetened! I did wonder about this, but not being hungry, I couldn't make myself try one of the thawed strawberries. So this baking stumble could have been prevented. My cobbler topping is as sweet and tender as ever tho', and a little ice cream or drizzled honey will sweeten these strawberries right up! (The hot cobbler is pictured on the floorboards of our car, en route to where Hubby was yesterday...I don't have one of those lovely carriers that they make nowadays for toting hot dishes, so I make do.)

I just CANNOT make myself toss out products, even if I don't like them for their original uses.

• Bought this defoliator on final clearance for $5 bucks, but when I used it to remove my leg hairs, this handy dandy sander removed a bit of my skin too! Now I use this device for smoothing my rough heels. Works beautifully!
• I forgot my lotion on our trip to San Diego, so I ended up bringing home this lotion that's scented too strongly for me. I use it instead to "wash" my hands after I get hairspray or makeup on them during my morning routine. Keeps my hands from getting dried out during repeated washings! 
• This facial mask is one that DD left behind unused. As my skin is too sensitive for face masks, I use this as a body scrub instead. Works wonderfully well!

   I also use unwanted hair conditioner as shaving cream, and I know others do this too. My brain just isn't working this morn, but I know there are a gajillion ways to repurpose beauty products. Care to share any of your favorites?

Gather ye cookies and cauliflower while ye may

Though I'm not a Magic Cookie Bar fan, I am a huge fan of the basic recipe! These Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars are the latest incarnation to come out of my oven. My dad is a HUGE peanut butter fan, and he LOVES these. These bars have about 6 ounces of mini chocolate chips and 6 ounces of peanut butter chips on the graham cracker crust/sweetened condensed milk base, plus 1 cup of whole peanuts.

The Ball Blue Book said to blanch cauliflower 2-4 minutes before freezing.

Hubby doesn't cover up the cauliflower as they grow, so they're not as white as those found in the supermarket. (They taste the same.) Here they're cooling after being blanched.

Froze the blanched cauliflower in a single layer on my jelly roll pan for a couple of hours. Here they're ready for the freezer.

My little baby sprouts! They're really growing...wow!

I am in a carbohydrate craving mode right now and cannot wait for Cheat Day! Looking at goodies is all I can do 'til then; so, if you have any great pics to share, I could use some eye candy right about now!

Hiding an ingredient I don't like in recipes that I do

 

When Hubby's out of pocket and I only have to feed myself for a few meals, I often buy a package of fake crab meat, that surimi fish product otherwise known as krab. I love the stuff with some homemade seafood cocktail sauce...makes for a quick, no-cook protein for my solo meals. Well, lately I bought a different brand of krab, and well, yuck! Both the taste and the texture!
   Wasting the krab was NOT AN OPTION however much I disliked it, so my plan of not having to cook for a couple of meals went out the window.

Krab Bisque transformed the yucky krab into something I liked for one lunch.

Krab and Gruyère Flatbread made the offending krab surprisingly tasty.

When Hubby could finally join me for a meal, we polished that krab off.
Krab and Cauliflower Bisque was the krab's last hurrah. Hubby never knew I was passing off an ingredient I didn't like, because we both liked this soup.

Just had to show off the reusable filter I discovered.
New coffee pots now come with this filter, but I bought one before they did.
Soon as I bought Hubby this pot, I'd looked online for a filter
like this, but they didn't sell them for the 4-cup pot then.

Isn't that the prettiest li'l thing you ever saw?
No more wasting money on filters,
and less paper waste.
(Note: we did compost the used paper coffee filters.)

   Have you bought any yucky food lately? What did you do with it? Or found any new products that will save money in the long run? If so, I'd love to hear about it!  (Feel free to leave a link, if you've already blogged about these things.)

I'll be out of pocket myself a few days,

but hope to find the time soon to show you why!!

Each Memorial Day, I am humbled by the remembrance of those who have died in service to our country. May our world leaders always strive for diplomatic solutions that we may--brothers and sisters ALL--live in peace and harmony forever after.

Not buying it: cream of celery soup;Still buying it: sweetened condensed milk

What is a can of "cream of celery soup" if not celery gravy?

Have I told you about my love affair with author Michael Pollan? He had me at "Eat Food. Mostly Plants." So, my heart sank when I came across this line in one of Pollan's writings: "If you're the kind of cook who starts with a can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup all bets are off.” Y'mean all those mystery ingredients in the canned stuff might be bad for me?
   From then on, I've been making my own "cream of" soups. Don't think it hasn't been a struggle. What could be easier than opening a can of condensed soup to get supper on the table asap?

Chicken Asparagus Casserole
May not look like much now that it's gotten cool, but we liked it.
One chicken breast and one leg made enough casserole for two meals.

Why I now make "cream of" soups from scratch every time I have the 10 or so minutes to spare:

1. If I believe in Pollan's essential message that home cooking like our great grandma's served up is the basis for good health, why buy canned soup?
2. If I am sincere in my desire to reduce my packaging waste, why buy canned soup?
3. If I truly believe that small economies add up to a better standard of living for my family, why buy canned soup?

   In a pinch, I might still buy a can but homemade tastes better. I just sautéed some minced celery in butter and olive oil; seasoned it with pepper, celery seed and onion salt; added flour, stirring to cook the flour a bit; and then slowly stirred in enough milk to make the equivalent of one can of condensed soup.
Still buying it: Sweetened Condensed Milk

Sweetened Condensed Milk experiment I was so hopeful about!

Oh, my, was this ever an experiment gone wrong!
   I made some cherry ice cream the other day and not having any sweetened condensed milk, I dug out my Aunt M's mock recipe I'd been meaning to try. Not "tasting as you go along"...BIG mistake!
   What a waste of precious, hand-picked cherries...my cherry ice cream tastes like powdered milk. UGH!
   Anyone have a sweetened condensed milk recipe that doesn't include powdered milk? Am I the only weird one that doesn't like to taste as I cook? (I only taste at the finish line and adjust seasonings then.)
   And if you've got one, feel free to share your experiment gone wrong!

Looked promising but did NOT pass the taste test!

Not buying it: Chili oil for Asian cooking

Repurposed bourbon bottle now houses Chili Oil.
I'm not a bourbon drinker, but I'm told
Jefferson's Reserve is a fine sippin' whisky,
if you're into that sorta thing.

Love this Chili Oil recipe I found in Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province, a library book I will definitely be checking out again. Wish I had a copy of my own, but I am really trying to become more of a minimalist. Y'know, save a tree and all!

Not buying commercial chili oil = less packaging waste.

Chili Oil (la jiao oil)
1 cup of Dried Chili Flakes with seeds
2 and 1/4 cups of Peanut Oil
Place dried chilies in a glass preserving/canning jar. Heat the oil in a pan over high heat until it reaches 350ºF. Remove from heat; let the oil cool down to 225-250ºF then pour the oil into the jar containing the chilies, stirring a couple of times. Let cool in a shady place for at least 24 hours. I transferred the chili oil from the canning jar to a bottle with a stopper (once Hubby and assorted company drank all the bourbon, that is!). I refrigerate the oil until needed.

   Hubby and I made Dunlop's recipe for General Tso's Chicken one night, and it was absolutely fabulous! If interested, you'll find that recipe in NPR's piece on Dunlop's book (click NPR link then scroll down).
   If interested in an Italianized version of chili oil, check out Giada's recipe on the Food Network site. Please let me know if you try that one as I haven't...just found it.
   Haven't uploaded the pics yet to prove it, but I have eaten WAY too much sugar on my 4-Hour Body cheat day. So much so that I'm more than ready to go back to eating healthy! Who'd have thought that possible? ;)
   Have you been in healthy or cheating mode today? Feel free to fess up either way. Love hearing from you, if you've the time to comment. Great weekend...the SUN came back to see us, well, for part of the day at least!!

Couldn't find a second home for old trophies--waah!

Called and called but could not find a new home for DD's old trophies. As she does not want them and cannot be persuaded to take them to her own home, that means these durned things will have to be trashed.
   But WAIT, certain parts won't go to the landfill:

• Hubby will take the engraved plates off...surely DD will have space and the teeniest bit of sentimentality for those.
• He'll remove the nuts/bolts & if unusable, toss them in his metals' recycle pile.
• Also, the marble pieces will get tossed into some hole in the ground that needs filling, y'know, like rocks.

   DD actually had one other big trophy that I used one time at the end of our road to hold up a garage sale sign. It was stolen! (*chuckle* She forgave me.)
   Maybe I should've put the others out to see if they'd be stolen too?! ;)
   Hope you had a great Wednesday. I did. I'll show-n-tell when I have more time. Hasta mañana!

Finally got-around-to-its: Kale chips and re-growing produce

Hey, I finally got around to trying a couple of suggestions I'd seen on other blogs. Aren't you proud of me?

Seasoning of choice this time--YUM!

   A riff on those by Meg over at Cooking.In.College, my kale chips were wonderful! Her suggestions to avoid crowding on the pan and to dry the kale as much as possible no doubt contributed to crispier chips.
   Too lazy to measure, I just poured some olive oil over the kale in the pan and spread it around with my hands before sprinkling the kale liberally with McCormick's Salad Supreme. Baked on a heavy sheet pan in a 350F degree oven, it took 7 minutes in my oven for these bad boys to crisp up.
   Some bites tasted like popcorn! Most tasted like...well, crispy, seasoned kale. Fine by me!

My baby Romaine lettuces--aren't they cute?

   Finally got around to trying Practical Parsimony's idea to get free produce from the normally discarded celery bottoms. Well, I had some Romaine lettuce on hand, so I plunked the cut off bottoms into some water...and wahlah, little baby lettuce leaves are growing!!
   The little outer leaves are just existing, previously cut leaves continuing to grow but the inner leaves seem brand new. I never knew it could be such fun to be a countertop gardener!
   Even if I only get one salad out of these, it'll be a FREE salad, eh?!
   Sure feels good to scratch two things off my to-do list, particularly since both were successes. Any projects waiting for you to "get-around-to-it" over at your place?

Contemplating waste--well, that and Coconut Chess Pie

  

Caught the documentary Wasteland (movie trailer below) on PBS' Independent Lens last night. Watching folks walking around on literally mountains of trash sure makes me more mindful of every little thing going into the wastebin here at home. Good reminder that throwing it away doesn't mean it's GOING away.

Previously-homemade frozen piecrust

    All the more reason to cook foods from scratch as opposed to buying pre-packaged goods. And this Coconut Chess Pie couldn't be any easier! Just the thing to brighten these gray skies on yet another rainy, rainy day here in Kentucky.
   To my way of thinking, reducing one's trash relies on reducing one's consumption. And though I may never reach the heights achieved over at Zero Waste Home, every day I am working to glean at least ONE unneeded thing from my closets or cupboards.
   I'm working on changing my mindset from 'I need more' to 'I need LESS.' Wish me luck!

Coconut Chess Pie

Chess pies are just soo easy--gotta love 'em!

1 stick (1/2 cup) melted butter
1 1/2 cup sugar (or less!)
3 eggs
1 cup flaked coconut
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
unbaked 9" pie shell (if frozen, no need to thaw)
Whisk together filling ingredients. Pour into unbaked pie shell; bake in a preheated 350F degree oven for 45 minutes or until set.

Make over: Candle holder from a soda can

Okay, I know I already made a post today but just came across some creative repurposing I had to share!
   Meanqueen over at Life After Money makes the cutest little tea light candle holders out of aluminum cans. We don't drink many sodas, but we do save them until we get enough to recycle. So if I wanted LOTS of little tea lights to brighten up an outdoor party, this can repurposing would be the no cost way to go!

Why buy croutons?

Don't know why commercially produced croûtons come wrapped in so much packaging! I'll show them! Croûtons can't be that hard to make, so I'll just make my own...and do.
   The ones here are made with cubed homemade No-Knead Multi-grain Bread, but cutting up store-bought bread works fine too. Whole grain commercial breads might work best but stale white bread works well too.
   Take a couple of slices of bread, cube into little squares, then fry in a hot skillet with 1 to 2 Tablespoons of olive oil (add butter too, if looking for deeper flavored croûtons to use on top of soups).
   I just grab whatever seasoning strikes my fancy that day...love the smell of cooking oregano, so I often use that along with some other salt/spice mixture. I sometimes use Mrs. Dash, if not wanting added salt. Some Greek seasoning if I've got some feta cheese to go in the salad. Stir and toss the bread cubes in the oil until the edges get a little crispy. Then serve!
   Even though making croûtons is very easy, it's one of those things that I'd probably forget to do if I weren't consciously trying to reduce the packaging waste in this household. Yet another area where being green saves me some green!
   Hope something green is goin' on in your world today?!

Time to get a little SAUCY

First learned of BBQ tofu over at Cooking.In.College & planned to make it but before I could, I saw another BBQ tofu post on Short Girl, Long Name. Thought I'd combine both Meg's & Jessica's recipes, but the morning the kitchen became tofu central, Hubby was on the computer. Since I log FAR more computer time than he does, I didn't disturb him & instead headed for a cookbook I'd gotten from the library: Get Saucy: Make Dinner a New Way Every Day with Simple Sauces, Marinades, Glazes, Dressings, Pestos, Pasta Sauces, Salsas, and More by Grace Parisi (looong title--great book!).
   I had nerve enough to make a slight departure from the Hickory Smoked BBQ Sauce recipe found in this James Beard Award nominated book and the resulting Hickory Smoked Asian BBQ Sauce tasted GREAT!
   Since I forgot to take a pic of the finished products the day I served 'em up, above you see some of the leftovers heating up for my lunch: Potstickers with Sweet Thai Chili Sauce and BBQ Tofu. I liked the BBQ Tofu well enough, but Hubby doesn't care for tofu & would only take ONE bite! *chuckle*
   Potstickers are super easy, so I make them often. This batch contained sliced onions, thinly sliced cabbage and diced yellow carrots that I cooked down & added a little BBQ sauce to before spooning onto the round wrappers, wetting the circular edges and then crimping. Added diced ham to the ones intended for Hubby. I steamed the potstickers & then finished them off in a skillet to brown in a tad of butter. (In the picture of the unfinished product, I forgot what I was doing & crimped the first too much. Second one I crimped as intended for a potsticker.)
Hickory Smoked Asian BBQ Sauce
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 small onion, minced
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 Tbs. chili powder
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tbs. cider vinegar
2 Tbs. prepared yellow mustard
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. liquid hickory smoke flavoring
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
Melt butter in medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic until translucent, add remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes. Refrigerate, covered tightly, for up to 1 month. NOTE: Omit the hoisin sauce and sesame oil if you just want Hickory Smoked BBQ Sauce.
   Homemade barbecue sauce is so easy, I never buy the commercial stuff anymore...reduces packaging waste. 
   Well, that's what I had for lunch today, what about you? Anything interesting on your plate?