A little hankie panky goin' on around here

 

Save a tree--use a hankie!

   Okay, it's a given that the easiest way to save money is not to spend it in the first place.
   Of course, we have to buy SOME things, don't we? But where's the fun in spending money on one-time-use products like facial tissues? I'd much rather spend my greenbacks on TRAVEL or CLOTHES, for instance, wouldn't you??
   So, yeah, I use hankies or even Hubby-sized handkerchiefs instead of buying tissues. They're softer even than most paper products, which is much appreciated when there's a whole lot of blowin' goin' on!
   No, I don't always iron them, but thought you'd better be able to see my newest ones if ironed. This is one of four monogrammed hankies (may be cocktail napkins) that I bought at a yard sale for a song.
   Incidentally, the cabinet door's open here in the mudroom to show where I keep my scissors. Maybe you always knew to keep a pair in the laundry room, but I probably got the idea from Martha Stewart. Scissors in the laundry room come in so handy for cutting stray threads off of clothing...or hankies.
   Nothing risqué about HANKIE PANKY. Hankies are good for noses, good for budgets AND good for good for the environment. Win, $Win$, WIN!
   Now what would YOU rather spend your money on than facial tissues? 

Stretching a little meat into a meal: Pizza, pizza

   Pizza is sooo great for stretching a little bit of meat into a meal. This pizza has only 2 leftover cooked sausage patties and about 1/4 cup of ham cubes on it, but it was oh, so yummy!
   When we first married, I bought frozen loaves of bread dough and would plunk a frozen loaf into a 13x9 pan before heading off to work in the morning. Well greased with shortening and then covered with a towel to keep it from drying out, the loaf of frozen dough would thaw enough by the time I got home around 4-5 in the afternoon for me to spread out for a pizza. Sometimes it would be warm enough in the house for the dough to raise, raise, raise before I'd get home, but I'd just punch it down, wait 10 minutes & then press it into the pan for pizza.
   In recent years, I'd taken to buying those inexpensive little pizza dough mixes found in the baking aisle. Super cheap & just about as quick as starting with thawed bread dough.
   Still make homemade pizzas--only difference is that I make my own crusts now (unrisen dough pictured here). For the recipe, go to Google books by clicking the link here which will take you to The Berghoff Café Cookbook. Once there, go to page 119 for the Homemade Pizza Crust recipe. Three sets of instructions are given for folks working by hand, with a food processor or with a stand mixer.
   Best part about it: this recipe makes TWO crusts, so I made two pizzas yesterday. One waits in the freezer for some lazy-don't-feel-like-cookin' day. For that pizza, I prebaked the crust a bit before loading it up with the sauce, onions, peppers, etc.
   Okay, time for my pizza confession! I like dousing my slice of pizza with Frank's RedHot Cayenne Pepper Sauce before eating it. YUM! What's your pizza obsession??

Prepare for the worst, hope for best

"Nobody knows what will happen," Pa said. 

"Prepare for the worst and then you've some grounds to hope for the best, that's all you can do."

   First thought I'd share last night's sunset, framed by our casement windows. As part of the re-do of our fixer upper home, Hubby took out the old windows back to the brick in order to install new windows, as opposed to replacement windows. Only regret? That they are not TRIPLE paned, only double paned. Otherwise, love, LOVE these windows, so very easy to clean.
   Okay, mostly I read non-fiction, and for the record, my all-time favorite novel to re-read is Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice.
   But right now I'm re-reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. Yeah, I know it's juvenile fiction, but the can-do spirit of those books never fails to spur me to greater action. And while in the middle of reading her novel, The Long Winter, where the little Ingalls family nearly froze and nearly starved through seven long months of blizzards, I was spurred to clean out our pantry, as I wondered how we'd manage through such a winter.
   Since learning that the BPA (bisphenol-A) plastic lining in most canned goods actually LEACHES INTO THE FOOD stored in them over time, I have stopped buying up cans for long term storage. But while looking for alternatives in glass containers, we've been eating our way through the foods already stockpiled.
   And while waiting for our FDA to catch up to the science on this issue (not to mention the many other countries that have already banned BPA), I'll be buying only enough canned goods that I can use up quickly. Getting harder to save by stockpiling these days. *SIGH*
   No need to get discouraged though. This BPA business is just one more reason for me to learn how to can & put up more fresh, organically grown produce from our own garden. Surely I can learn to can and preserve something other than freezer jam & frozen chopped peppers. Surely!
   Hopefully by next winter I'll be able to show off a pantry filled to the brim with beautiful jars filled with our garden's bounty.
   I'm sure I'll be visiting many of your blogs for ideas, so wish me luck!

This moment: Old times thar be forgotten

Love the standing silverware in these two photos (of photos) of Old Natchez, Mississippi, taken during our adventures there at the end of September of 2010. Anxiously awaiting trips and new adventures in 2011 and wondering how antiquated the pictures we are taking today will look to the folks of the future.

Thanks to Soulemama for this Friday photo sharing concept. If you're so inclined, leave a link to your moment for others to visit.

On my mind: Smoky cheese & walnut crackers

What's on my mind? Well, these crackers that are fresh out of the oven and cooling on a rack. Haven't even tried them yet, but Hubby did and he approves. Still working my way through Ina Garten's latest book, How Easy Is That? and this is my latest trial. Only, not being a fan of blue cheese, I substituted some smoked cheese and parmesan, as that's what I had on hand. Oh, and I just made half a batch, the plastic wrapped log will go into the fridge for another day. For the recipe, visit Ina at the Food Network. Happy snacking!

Thanks, down-to-earth, for sharing this On My Mind concept. What's on your mind today? Hope you find a minute to leave your link here or on down-to-earth.

Sweet dreams are made of this: Double sheets and heirloom pillowcases

   None of the sheets I can find these days seem to feel as good as I remembered the sheets were at my mamaw's house. Mamaw has long since left this world, but she left me with some great memories. And now some lovely embroidered pillowcases.
   Mamaw made and embroidered this pillowcase so very long ago. In the picture at left, you can see where my mom recently repaired a large tear in this one, and she replaced the worn out case ends with this new but old fashioned paisley material. Then she gifted the cases to me. Awww!
   Ever since a trip to Chicago for my 40th birthday (a decade ago!) and a stay at the downtown Westin there (link explains their bedding), I've been double-sheeting our bed in the wintertime. (The quilt and shams cover the pillowcases, so I can mix and match willy-nilly.) The extra sheet seems to be just as warm as an extra blanket would be without the added bulk. Gotta love that!
   Pictured above is our 1,000 thread-count 100% cotton flat sheet, a 600 thread-count 100% cotton sheet, an organic cotton blanket and the quilt. Our programmable thermostat drops the temp down to 65 degrees each night, and these covers keep us plenty warm.
   Hope you're staying warm as well. Sweet dreams!

Git 'er done cleaning: Chip away at it daily

   Okay, this is not a "which of these things doesn't belong here" kinda post. (Though it could be!). And it's not about showing off my souvenir print of canning jars bought at an art museum down in Mississippi to motivate me to can/preserve more.

   Nah, it's about cleaning. My least favorite thing to do.
   Never been about all day once a week cleaning marathons. I'm more of a clean only 1/4 of the shower stall per day (cuts down on excuses). Clean the bathroom sink every change of towels, but before taking used towels to the laundry, use one to shine up the ole faucet. Or occasionally when taking yesterday's dishcloth to the dirty clothes hamper, use it to clean the top of a door or a window sill. That's IT for my cleaning advice!
   Which is why I'm liking that cleaning site that Blessings uses. That Fly Lady cleaning site now sends me a daily e-mail which is helping me to get things done in an unexpected way. Not exactly following along & doing what Fly Lady suggests for each day, but her concept of 5, 10 and 15 minute cleanings really helps to encourage my lazy self that something is doable. Fits in perfectly with my "chip away at it daily" cleaning style.
   Now when I look at some cleaning task, I ask myself if it could conceivably be done in 5 minutes. For instance, I emptied, cleaned and refilled my spice cabinet in less than 10 minutes...something I'd been putting off took under 10 MINUTES to accomplish! Sheesh!
   And yeah, I know the spice cabinet still looks messy. Don't know what I'd do without all of them though, plus the spillover spices on the next shelf, in another cabinet, in the fridge and in the pantry. Yeah, I'm a spice junkie!
   But now I'm a spice junkie with a clean shelf!

Busy one day, lazy the next

   Have hardly lifted a finger today, but that's all right...I was busy enough yesterday.
   Still working at using up the 2010 harvest, which includes frozen strawberries (from someone else's garden). This cobbler, adapted from the book shown, is incredible when made with fresh strawberries but still worth smiling about when made with thawed frozen berries. (Pic below is the uncooked cobbler...shown here to illustrate that the dough is just glopped by the spoonful onto the berries.)
Strawberry Cobbler
5-6 cups of thawed strawberries, sweetened as desired, drained if desired
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk
Stir together dry ingredients; cut in butter; make a well in center and add buttermilk, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon the mixture onto the fruit in a 9x13 baking dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes, until nicely browned.
   This makes a moist, tender cobbler. Not a fan of thawed strawberries, but this recipe almost lets me forget they've been frozen. Unless the cobbler will be eaten the day it's made, pour some of the juice off the thawed berries to prevent the cake part from getting soggy.)
   Also, yesterday I baked another loaf of the easiest sandwich bread ever: No Knead Multi-Grain Bread. Though twice I have managed to cause the dough to lose its nice rise, the bread still turns out great...soft and tender to the bite. (Didn't grease my plastic cover well enough AGAIN and the risen dough fell some though I slowly removed the plastic.)
   Do NOT feel like cooking today, so we had leftover chili for lunch. We'll have spinach salad with shaved Parmesan and toasted pine-nuts for supper, topped with a balsamic vinaigrette I just made from an Emeril recipe found on the web. (I dialed back the garlic to one clove, crushed. He likes WAY more garlic than I do.)
   Busy or lazy, hope you're finding something to smile about today!
    

On my mind: What surprises will 2011 bring?

Sometimes you have to travel a great distance to see weird and wonderful things, sometimes you stumble across the bizarre close to home. As I anticipate our travel adventures for 2011, can't help but reminisce over some of the outings that made me smile in 2010. Of all the sights I was fortunate enough to take in last year, this tarted up mammoth ranks among the most memorable, and I only had to drive to a neighboring town to see it. Can't wait to see what surprises 2011 will bring!


Thanks, SouleMama and down---to---earth, for starting this Friday photo sharing. If you stopped by, please leave your link so I can return the favor.

Make over: Serving tray to computer desk

   Bet I'm not the only one sitting on her couch tapping away at a laptop that's sitting on a converted serving tray. The cushion lap desk (notebook stand) I'd bought previously worked fine for short sessions but occasionally I wanted to watch a Netflix on the computer without eventually feeling like I had a hot potato in my lap.
   This tray, which I think I got at Target, cost somewhere between $10-15 bucks. When I couldn't find anything suitable in the computer department, I found this serving tray in housewares. I figured it would fill the bill...with a minor alteration. Brought it home and had Hubby cut the front side of the tray off. (The front section came up too high and blocked access to the keyboard unless I arched my wrists.)
   Not a very classy solution, it gets put up at the end of the day, out of sight. Cheap as this sucker is, the side braces have worked their way out and had to be re-glued. And the finish is gummed up on the side pictured here...other side's finish is smoother. Still, works for me! Keeps the heat of the laptop off of my legs and provides a steady surface to boot.
   So, AM I the only one using a serving tray for a lap desk?

You say potato, I say potato soup

Poster source: TreeHugger 

   Proud of myself...yesterday I peeled and cut up over a dozen little, about-ready-to-shrivel-up potatoes. Last potatoes from our 2010 garden. That means I managed NOT to waste any of our potato crop. Yea!
   I cooked the potatoes on the shelf of our woodburner yesterday, warmed 'em up today on the shelf & then transferred the pan to the cooktop of our stove before smashing the potatoes and adding the seasonings to make soup. Only used the cooktop about 15-20 minutes, so I managed to save some electricity.
   Using Julia Child's Aigo Bouido (Garlic Soup) as a jumping off point, I seasoned my potatoes in their cooking liquid (chicken broth) with a couple of cloves of garlic smashed with coarse salt, a big pinch of white pepper, 1/4 tsp. each dried sage and thyme, 1 tbs. dried parsley, 1 tsp. curry powder, salt to taste and 3 tbs. or so of olive oil. I did add a thickener: about a tablespoon of flour mixed in water (scraped up this flour from the last time I made a pie crust and had been storing it in fridge).
   Though Julia's recipe makes 2 1/4 quarts of soup, I had a quart and a half or so of potatoes and cooking liquid. For that reason, I backed the garlic down to what I thought I'd like...far LESS than her recipe, which called for one to two HEADS of garlic. (Garlic breath for days, eh!)
   If you'd like a look at Julia's recipe in its entirety, go to www.Amazon.com & find Julia's Way to Cook book. Then search inside the book for her recipe for Aigo Bouido on page 30; then Provençal Garlic and Potato Soup on page 31.
   Forgot to get a pic of the soup in the pan, so after I ate a bowl & Hubby two, the little bowl pictured here is all that's left. Another successful meatless meal!
   Any other Julia Child fans out there? Any meatless meals going down at your house these days?

Barefoot Contessa's Chipolte & Rosemary Roasted Nuts...well, sort of...

   I know, I know, who am I to mess with any recipe of the ultimate food goddess, the Barefoot Contessa? However, having accepted the "eat from your own pantry" in January challenge, I had to make do instead of going out and buying the missing ingredients for the Contessa's Chipolte & Rosemary Roasted Nuts.
   Fortunately, the basic premise of her recipe (linked above) is highly adaptable, meaning even my version using pimentón and dried rosemary turned out highly edible. The end result is that we'll be snacking on something healthier than chips around here for awhile.
   While I'm on the subject of nuts, I have to tell you about my little antique food chopper that I thought I'd ruined yesterday. Lucky for me, Hubby and I make a great team--I break things and he fixes them! How was I to know the spring would SPROING if I dared to chop nuts without the li'l wooden disk in the bottom? Hubby had already fixed this for me once before when I'd attempted to chop something hard as rocks, I guess, and he had to weld the little chopper blades back together. Moral to this story is to be gentler on your nut chopper than I am!
   And if you have a minute to satisfy my curiosity, what kind of healthy snack foods are hanging around your house?
Update: These nuts were VERY much enjoyed by the both of us, and they got even better after a few days. I will definitely use the Contessa's recipe as the basis for future variations! 

Homemade dishwashing detergent: Cheaper and greener

   Because we cook and eat mostly at home, our dishwasher fills up at least once a day. As I write this, the salad spinner, a colander and the crock from the slow cooker are taking up considerable room in there.
   There's an ongoing debate over which is more efficient, the dishwasher or hand-washing, but I turn off the dry cycle and like the fact that the dishwasher removes germs better and rinses more efficiently than I can.
   (Incidentally, the little metal spout off the now empty salt box is pictured here because it will go into Hubby's scrap metal bin and eventually be recycled.)
   Recently discovered the magazine All You at our public library that contained a recipe that I will be using every FIFTH load, as I've read elsewhere that homemade products sometimes result in filming. Still, saving money even only every fifth load counts, eh?
Dishwasher Detergent
1 cup borax
1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup kosher salt
  Anyone else using homemade stuff? Getting good results?

Made by Joel: Box Dollhouse for Duck Duck Green

Couldn't resist a 2nd post to share an incredibly creative site. This guy Joel is amazing. Love that he makes something out of practically nothing. Thanks to Not Working for the head's up about Made by Joel. There's some great repurposing going on over there!


Made by Joel: Box Dollhouse for Duck Duck Green: "Here's another dollhouse! Duck Duck Green asked me to create a craft for their packaging. The box looked so much like a house already, I cou..."

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?

On my mind: Fat, salt & sugar call my name

Y'know how some foods just call your name? All. Day. Long. These no-bake cookies I made yesterday are annoyingly LOUD. Former surgeon general Dr. Kessler, in his book "The End of Overeating," uncovered the nasty truth of how the combination of fat, salt and sugar stimulates our brains, causing us to eat more. His concept explains why some restaurant foods leave me with food cravings for days afterward. Well, this time I've cooked up the toxic trio myself. I love, LOVE homemade desserts but even my favorite cakes and pies don't leave me craving them all hours of the day. Since I'm always trying to eat healthier, it's time now to chuck any recipes for foods that leave me with food cravings and annoyingly stay ON MY MIND.

Thanks, SouleMama and down---to---earth, for starting this Friday photo sharing. If you stopped by, please leave your link so I can return the favor.

Cheap salsa gets an upgrade

   Americans spend more $ dinero on salsa than we do on ketchup these days. Which means, if your household is anything like ours when it comes to scarfing down the chips and salsa, there are some savings to be had here. Okay, maybe not mega-savings, more in the category of every-little-bit-counts savings.
   First of all, please forgive the camera flash that makes the end result at right look less red...it's actually only slightly less deeply colored than the original salsa. I must learn to take better pictures!
   Starting with the cheapest salsa I can find, I add a 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes and then some pepper jelly to taste. (One batch of pepper jelly freezer jam I made never set up so it finds its way into salsas and soups...gotta use it up somehow!) If I didn't have any pepper jelly on hand, I'd probably stir or smush-in whatever flavor jam happened to be opened in the fridge, as I'm a fan of slightly sweet heat. I usually buy medium heat salsa & end up with something just barely hotter than mild, but if hot salsa happens to be all I can find on sale, that works for me too.
   If avocados are in season, I'll cut one up and add it to a little of the salsa, making sure to end up with only what can be eaten in one or two days before the avocado turns. And of course, when our garden's in full force, we make fresh salsas, but in wintertime, this'll do.
   Next harvest, I'm hoping to spend some time dicing tomatoes for the freezer, so I won't have to buy the canned tomatoes all winter, but with a generic 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes going for around 63 cents, unadorned canned tomatoes are still cheaper per ounce than salsa. Incidentally, for anyone concerned with their salt intake, adding no-salt tomatoes helps lower a salsa's salt content.
   Okay, that's one of my little easy-peasy ways to stretch our grocery dollars. Anything being stretched in your kitchen these days?

Winter's white calls for cherries red

   Woke up to a winter wonderland today. That and fresh cherry jam made only yesterday.
   This "eat from your own pantry" challenge has me looking into the freezer to see what needs to be used. Our neighbors have the most beautiful cherry trees, and it kills my soul to see the trees laden with fruit that no one seems interested in picking. Last year, as the year before, Hubby asked and received permission to pick, so he came home with LOADS of beautiful Bing cherries that we pitted and froze 5 cups to a bag. Just enough to make many a pie, I thought. But with Cane Syrup Cake already on the counter needing to be eaten, yesterday I decided we had enough dessert and made jam with the cherries instead. (Just used the recipe in the box of powdered pectin I had on hand.)
   And on another note, after learning of it through Blessings' website, I've joined and will be cleaning along with the FlyLady. For me, it's a misery loves company kinda thing...might be more fun cleaning house knowing that lots of other folks are doing the same thing. Okay, maybe fun's not the word, but hopefully cleaning along with FlyLady will be more motivating than going it alone. Here's hoping!!

Lazy alternative to price book

   First learned about the idea of keeping a price book from the ultimate frugal mentor Amy Dacyczyn, author of the Tightwad Gazette books. Loved the idea of keeping track of the best buys on groceries, so I'd know for a fact when the sales are unbeatable and it's time to stock up.
   I even made my own price book and recorded prices/stores in it. Trouble is, I never got into the habit of updating the record, so my makeshift price book languishes in my "wish I had done that" file.
   Here you see my lazy man's way of keeping track of the prices of groceries. I know, I know, this looks terribly tacky, so I wouldn't show my groceries to just anybody! (Hopefully here I'll find a few like-minded folks who may not agree with my methods but will surely sympathize with my intentions.)
   Having to look at the price every time I look at the package means I'm more likely to remember what I last paid for something when I run out. So next time I shop and pass the organic flour, for instance, I'll be putting some in the cart if the price is $3.69 or less.
   Any price book keepers among you? If not, how do you figure out if a grocery item has the best price for stocking up?

Make do: The big cover-up

   I love antiques... They have so much more of a back story than new furniture, plus none of the off-gassing that we're hearing about these days.
   This old rocker was inherited from my Great Aunt M, who lived to be 96 and died over a decade ago. I can still picture my tiny little auntie sitting in it, with her pink nightgown draped across the back as she got her things ready for bed.
   As you can see, the rocker seat's frayed. I'd always meant to get it recovered...just never got around to it. When I was working, there never seemed to be enough time to go choose a material, even though I had the name of a good upholsterer.
   As the years have passed, recovering this old rocker still doesn't rank high on my list of priorities. Besides, this quilt cover-up suits me so well, I just may never get around to it.
   Somehow our home seems more homey with this less-than-perfect, creaky old rocker around. Know what I mean?
   Any big cover-ups over at your place?