Wish I hads and had nots

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

Carl Sagan

Wish I had not been wishing there were more hours in the day. Woke up this morn at 2am and couldn't get back to sleep. Ugh! Blame it on the decongestant I'm now on. Guess the bright side is my loss of appetite. I cooked a soup at lunch (a riff on La Cuoca Ciccia's Chard Chick Pea Stew recipe), so I ate a protein bar for supper. As you can see from his plate of Venison Stir Fry, Hubby had something better in mind.

Wish I had bought this motion-sensing nite lite years ago for night trips to the mud/laundry room. Now I don't have to turn on the multi-bulb ceiling fluorescent light when all I need to do is put one little thing in the washer. Btw, LOVING my new camera (Sony Cyber-shot; sure beats the TWO that I tried and then returned. Wish I had bought this one first!

Wish I had tried growing mung bean sprouts long before now. Soo easy--some of these are destined for our salads at lunch today. Not sure if the leaves should be discarded. Anyone know? Guess I'll find out soon enough!

Hope your wish I hads and wish I had nots grow fewer and fewer every day...and I wish the same for me!

Durned hot day calls for cukes, cookies and closed curtains

Yeah, I got lazy and didn't take the time to roll my cookies into a perfectly uniform round shape before cutting. Hubby won't care...neither will he care that these don't have a lovely pecan half atop each. He loves the hicans, the hybrid mix of hickory and pecan, that he painstakingly picked out of the shells in 2010. The nuts stay fresh stored in the freezer until I need them. Just used a standard sugar cookie recipe from Joy of Cooking then added the little extras.

  Sugar Cookies sprinkled with hicans and raw sugar. Not gorgeous but they'll tempt Hubby alright!

Decided to marinate a couple of cukes, sliced onions, fresh mozzarella and diced tomatoes in a quick zesty Italian dressing. Too lazy to hunt down a recipe, I used a cheater mix, but since this is my last packaged dressing mix, I'm gonna have to start from scratch next time. After taking the pic, I remembered the half can of garbanzos in the fridge left from the other night's Squash Tomato Garbanzo Medley and added them as well.

Okay, this picture is dark...well, that's the point! I walked near this door and could feel the heat coming through. Definitely a day to close the curtains, at least until the sun goes around to the other side of the house. Triple digit temps expected today, and the humidity, OH, the HUMIDITY!! The air conditioner doesn't kick on as often if I block out the day's heat.

   You doing anything different to beat the heat today? For our friends down under, guess it's getting colder. I never would have thought of that if it weren't for blog hopping. I love it that reading blogs gives me a broader view of our great world! Don't you?

Little money wasters; also, Sierra Club turns circuit sheet into wallet, keyboard letters into magnets

Oops! Took the cookies out 10 minutes ago but just discovered I left the oven on!

Bought as set-ups for a party but everyone went for the margaritas instead.
Tired of looking at these in pantry, they'll go with us to a family get together this weekend.
No more buying cokes for parties!
Sweet tea, lemonade, water, good sipping bourbon/liquors, and a signature drink will do.

What the...! These pumpkin seeds taste like cardboard.
Don't want to toss them. Any ideas?

Not paying attention wastes my money!
Accidentally picked up the "medium" instead of soft toothbrushes.
Ah, well, one brush for car's glove compartment;
the one I brushed with once for scrubbing; will donate the rest to charity.

   Stumbled upon the cutest little repurposing project in this month's Sierra Club magazine. If interested in ideas for repurposing computer parts, check this out: Repurpose - July/August 2011 - Sierra Magazine - Sierra Club. Best Buy and likely some other stores do take old computers, but love these projects anyway.
   Anyone else wasted any money lately?? 

On my mind: Never thought I could learn so much from a dinner party!

One Tonne Life, Sweden's remarkable reality show experiment in lowering the carbon footprint of living wrapped things up recently. Much to learn from the site and its webisodes, particularly the dinner party episode embedded here.
   Often what I learn reinforces what I already know, but as they say, "knowing and not doing is not knowing." So, for me, the value of hearing energy saving tips again is they increase my motivation to start or maintain the takes-more-time tasks...hanging laundry for instance.
   Besides saving our planet, saving energy more often than not means saving money. Gotta love that!!
   Thought I'd share some of the One Tonne Life tips/data that have helped me to intensify my focus on frugality. Let me know if you've anything to add...some days I need all the motivation I can get to not take the easy way out! Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some laundry to hang!

One Tonne Life Energy Wasters:

• Cooking with the lid off the pan results in a loss of 80% of the energy.
• Layers of frost and ice make a freezer work harder, which uses more energy.
• Pre-washing dishes is unnecessary in newer models of dishwashers.
• We throw away about one third of the food we buy, which means we should take less or clean our plates!
• There's a significant jump in the environmental impact of beef, as compared to chicken.

One Tonne Life Energy Savers:

• Defrost frozen foods in the fridge, so the fridge has to work less.
• If you must pre-rinse dishes before putting in the dishwasher, at least do not use running water. Instead, stopper the sink and use as little water as possible (preferably captured water).
• Cooking for many people at a time is a climate-smart move.
• Cooking enough extra for the next day's lunch or another meal reduces energy consumption.
• Open fridge and freezer as little as possible.
• Spend 5 minutes less in the shower daily to save 14,000 liters of water per year.
• Fill the washing machine to capacity to save every two out of three washes, by saving energy, water and detergent.
• The clothes dryer generally uses four times the energy of a washing machine. Air dry whenever possible.

   Thanks, Rhonda at down-to-earth, for sharing this On My Mind concept. What's on your mind today? Share your link here or on down-to-earth. 

Mom's favorite Angel Food Cake

While my mom is a whiz kid when it comes to sewing, quilting, thrifting, crafting, reupholstering, and even producing artwork, she is not the cook in our family, Dad is. I love telling this on her: Mom once burned boiled eggs! (While reading a book, she cooked the water out of the pan.)

To save energy when boiling eggs on an electric stove-top burner,
bring pan to a boil, then turn off heat and set timer for 10 minutes.
(Yeah, a smaller pan would've saved even more when boiling just two!)

   Both my folks are very generous in sharing their talents with us "kids," and there is no way I could ever give back as much as they have given and continue to give to me. So, it is my great pleasure to sometimes share what I cook around here, and Mom especially loves it when I surprise her with an angel food cake.
   With a stand mixer, angel food cakes from scratch are pretty simple. Not quite as easy when standing with a hand mixer for 10 minutes of whipping the egg whites, but I've done it. Even used a hand whisk once to see if I could...boy, did my bicep "feel the burn," but the cake tasted good!
   For Mom's favorite angel food cake, I use this Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook recipe, except I do sift together the powdered sugar and flour instead of just stirring them together.
   Sun came to see us today & even stayed awhile! Rumor has it we're in for sunny days all weekend. Yea! Hope the Memorial Day weekend sun shines on you as you remember those you love, as well as those you've loved and lost.

Something oddly satisfying about the folding-in stage.

Saving some green almost cost us the greens

Our first kale of the season...picked by Hubby, eagerly de-stemmed and washed by me, then sautéed by Hubby. And if I hadn't taken a pic of their green, vitamin-packed loveliness, we might have had no kale for dinner!
   Hubby was cooking the greens in a dim light but the camera flash told the tale: the kale was starting to burn! Yikes! Fortunately, all was not lost and very little needed to be picked out. The remainder was not tainted...much...but boy, was that close.
   Yes, in this instance, not turning on the light to save some green almost cost us the greens. Any close calls in your kitchen lately?

Insulation dreams do come true!

   Bet there aren't too many women like me whose hearts beat a little faster when the talk turns to insulation!
   Finally talked Hubby into adding more insulation to the attic...or he finally got around to it one. Whatever the reason, Hubby spent the better part of a day buying & hauling home two loads of insulation, carrying the gajillion rolls up into the attic, stuffing insulation into crevices to plug any possible leaks (e.g., around a bathroom fan vent) and then trimming and laying down roll after roll until the entire attic over our living space was covered, including the mudroom at the back of our attached garage. Pretty much like laying sod, I'd guess.
   And presto magico, I'm feeling warmer already. Seriously!
   When we had to go into town the next day, I noted how much snow was melted off of folks' roofs, so just imagine how tickled I was to return home to find our roof was still completely covered in snow. That translates to more heat staying IN our house and less $$ going out the roof. Wahoo!
    Using less electricity to heat or cool our home will save us money in the long run, but just as important is the part where our using less electricity means less emissions will be going into the atmosphere from the local coal-powered utility plant. Gotta love that!
   Anything get your heart beating faster when it comes to energy savings? Anyone else dreaming of living off the grid?

January's "spend less" focus: Eat from pantry; use less electricity

   Fearless frugalista that I am, I accepted an "eat from the cupboard" challenge over at Greenhab (exceptions: can buy fresh dairy/produce). And before my bravery could flag, when Being Frugal threw down a challenge to pick one month to use less electricity, I chose January.
   Hopefully challenging myself to a particular focus on electricity and shopping my own pantry this month will increase my chances of success with my resolution to spend less, save more in 2011. And it's not taking on too much with these types of challenges...even if every day doesn't breed success, the days that do will add up.
   How'm I doin' so far?

• There's a load of laundry out hanging on the line. 
• Lunch was veggie soup cooked entirely on the shelf of our woodburner. (No woodburner? A crockpot would turn the trick.)
• Pictured above are some onions slowly simmering in butter and olive oil (in the same pan the soup was cooked in). No prob if it takes all afternoon for the onions to caramelize, since this is a step-ahead for a future meal.
• And I air-dried my hair. Yeah, it looks air-dried, but I'm not going anywhere today. 

   I've been stewing over how to reduce my blow drier and cooktop usage ever since reading a post on EcoMama: Be PowerWise. Did I mention this before? Her post contains a link to an energy calculator that gives a ballpark estimate of how much energy (read $$) common household appliances/electronics use. Even if my appliances are more energy efficient than the ones used for the calculations, the estimates create a powerful picture of my dollars going down the drain (also picturing a bigger carbon footprint).
   Although I value quick cooking and having good hair days, I do NOT value spending money on one-time-use products like electricity!
   If you vowed to spend less, save more, how 'you doin' so far?

Make over: cloth bag to clothespin bag

Thanks to a conversation about reusable bags over on Practical Parsimony, I got the idea to use a freebie reusable bag I had on hand to revamp my 28+ year old clothespin bag. I'd made the original bag out of some scrap of fabric hand sewn to a clothes hanger, and after all these years, the thing was literally falling apart.

After snipping the handles off a reusable cloth bag, I just scissor-cut some slits in the top of the bag. After untwisting the wire coat hanger, I threaded the (original) hanger through the slits and then re-twisted the hanger shut.

Sewed the bottom of the bag a little shorter, so I wouldn't have to reach to the elbow for the clothespins. And wahlah, my new clothespin bag!

Save electricity: Unplug & duck walk

Took this pic to highlight a couple of means to save electricity in the bathroom. First off, unplug the phantom loads. In this case, the blow dryer gets unplugged every morn after use. Also in this pic of what's under my vanity, hanging on the left is a little brush & dustpan combo. Though tempted to put a hand-held vacuum in the bathroom just to clean up the hair that accumulates so quickly, I opted for the low-tech instead. Besides, this dustbin-duo will outlast its electric alternative. AND I get a little exercise each time I squat down & duck-walk across the floor, sweeping as I go. Still considering where to hide a little compost bin for tissue paper that doesn't need to go in the toilet. Thanks to Eco Mama for reminding me that every room likely generates potentially compostable waste.