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Thursday, February 28, 2013

February grocery money journal (and how I got started with my shopping at several stores each week)

As you read my Grocery Money Journal, you will likely notice that I shop at several different stores. I take advantage of the different and exceptional deals (loss-leaders and specialties) at each store, and stock up to fill my pantry and freezer.

nothing to do with this post --
the forsythia I forced indoors 2 weeks ago tomorrow
How I got started shopping several different stores and what I think of this shopping technique now

In 1988, we were a family of 3, myself, my husband and our 1 year old son. We were spending about $70 per week on groceries, and this seemed to be a reasonable amount for us.

Growing up, my mom shopped once per week, buying all the food she needed for that one week, and all at one store. She did clip coupons, and watch for sales. But that's as far as she went with trying to be prudent with her grocery spending.

When I married, I shopped the same way. I even shopped at what was known as the "budget" grocery store in our town. Every week, my husband, little boy and I went to the grocery store and bought enough food to get us through a week.

One day, while standing in line at the grocery store check out, I picked up a magazine and began reading. There was an article about a family who shopped at several stores per week, buying stock-up quantities of sale items. Each week, when they received the store ads, they gathered around the kitchen table and studied the ads for all the stores within a 15-20 minute drive of their home. They made lists for the different stores, for the items that were priced especially low for those products. Then they split up, husband and 1 child went to half of the stores, and wife and 2 other children went to the other stores.

the flowering currant forced indoors --
a bright spot in late February
If you were to look into their bags when they got home, you'd think there's no way they can make meals for their family on what's in there! Then you take a look in their pantry, fridge and freezer, and you instantly understand how they make meals. They stock up on great deals, in quantities to last a few months. This family bought more of the snack foods than I would buy, such as soda pop, chips, packaged cookies and cold cereal. But I could see that this technique would work for me, as well.

We changed the way we shopped for groceries, overnight, and cut our grocery spending from $70 per week to $30 per week. Overnight! We went from spending 30% of our take-home income on groceries, to spending 13% of our take-home income. Our take-home at the time was a mere $1000 per month. An extra $173 per month was very valuable.

The grocery store ads for our town came in the Sunday paper. Monday mornings, I would spread the papers out on the table and study the good deals, and spend about 1 hour, making my lists. I selected only the very best buys for each store, for the week, focusing on produce, dairy, grains, and meats. I had 3 stores that were conveniently located for me to shop. In the afternoon, I packed my little boy up and the two of us hit those stores.

One thing I discovered, shopping 3 stores, with list in hand, and only picking up multiples of specific items, was that this sort of shopping did not take up as much time as I had thought it would. Going to 3 stores, within a 15-20 minute drive from my apartment, took about 2 hours per week. My previous way of shopping, at just one store, would typically take longer than an hour and a half, as we seemed to linger over our choices.

The first few weeks left me with a slightly less-balanced pantry and freezer selection, but I was still able to provide nutritious meals for our family. I bought a lot of dried beans and grains in that first week to round out the selection of bargain meat that I found. And I think we may have eaten carrots, cabbage, squash and onions for several meals. But this was just the first week. By the second week, I had a larger variety in stock. 

I spent just $30 for that very first week, and every week to come for many years (until a combination of inflation and a growing family deemed an increase to *gasp* $41 per week, and today we now spend about $48 per week for the 5 of us).

Within a month, the vast majority of foods that we consumed regularly had been featured on sale, and I was able to stock up in quantities to last us several months. Those items that I couldn't find on sale, I picked up at the area "budget" grocery store as I needed.

So, that's how I began with this whole shopping around thing.

Why do I continue with this shopping? 

I still save a bundle of money, and I have found that I can tailor the items I buy to the different stores, according to each stores specialties. 

The Cash and Carry restaurant supply is fantastic for bulk-buying baking ingredients, as I do bake a lot, and large bags of dried beans and brown rice for our vegetarian meals. QFC is the more upscale grocery store near us, and has some of the best meat in the area, that is, for a chain grocery. Trader Joe's is my go-to place for organics, like tofu and soymilk, as well as very fresh dried fruit (sounds funny, I know, but the kind of dried fruit that isn't hard little pebbles, but chewy and flavorful), and naturals like peanut butter. Country Farms is my favorite produce stand. The produce is fresh and well-priced. I don't mind if I have to wash off more dirt than supermarket produce. It just reminds me that what I'm about to eat was grown in or on the ground. I stop by Dollar Tree every couple of weeks and find some real bargains on crackers and other treat items. And I throw in Safeway and Albertsons for rounding out the shopping.

I have found that by shopping several stores, I buy better food overall. And that is perhaps as big a motivator as saving money for our family, these days.

Now for my February grocery money journal

I didn't post a mid-month grocery journal for February, as its a short month, we took a week out for a vacation, and I'm now just posting 3 days per week (and I have other things I'd like to share with you) so I just left this all as one full month's journal.

Feb. 1. I knew we were in for it. This would be the month that I restock quite a bit. And the month is off to a roaring good start. I stopped by Cash and Carry wholesaler in the afternoon, and bought 8 lbs peanut butter (really great price $1.73 lb, it's been so expensive for a year now, couldn't resist this price), gallon sized can of tomatoes, gallon sized can of tomato paste, 3 quarts soymilk, 5 lbs. carrots, 5 lbs. frozen mixed vegetables, 1 head red cabbage, 1 package tofu, and 50 lbs of flour.

I have told myself that I would try and plan ahead better this month, and only stop into both the Cash and Carry and Trader Joe's once each, for the month. This will save me time in the end. I'm just not very good at planning so far in advance. A week or two I'm okay with, but a whole month was a bit hard for me. We shall see how this works out. Total spent today -- $49.06

Feb. 4. At Dollar Tree, found seeds for 4/$1. I count vegetable seeds and growing supplies into the grocery budget. Also bought crackers, cocoa packets and some chips for upcoming trip. spent $11.57

Also, stopped in TOP Foods, for cheese, cider mix for son's Valentine's gift and pills I need to eat dairy (also I take out of grocery). Spent $11.42   total for month so far -- $72.05

Feb. 6. We needed 1 gallon of milk to get the guys through the days that the girls and I will be gone. Also found mushrooms (for tonight's stew) and bananas (tomorrow's lunches) on clearance. Total spent $4.63. Total month to date -- $76.68

Feb. 7. Pre-trip stock up at Trader Joe's. Bought raisins, sunflower seeds, almonds, bananas and soy milk. Spent $17.23. Total month to date -- $93.91

Feb. 8-14. I'll take $45 out of the grocery budget to offset some of the dining costs while away. I came to this number by dividing the monthly budget by days in the month, then multiplying by the number of days away. The rest of the money spent on dining while on vacation will come from the vacation budget.

Total spent for the month -- $138.91

Feb. 15. Post-trip restock. Stopped at Cash and Carry. Bought 10 lbs potatoes, 25 lbs. onions, 5 lbs. carrots, 1 head red cabbage, 1 #10 can ketchup, 1 small can salmon, 2 small cans pineapple juice concentrate, about 4 lbs of bananas. total spent -- $28.77

Also stopped in at QFC for chicken on sale for 88c lb. Bought 3 whole chickens. Found whole and skim milk on mark down for $1.09/half gallon. Bought all 8 half gallons that they had left. Total spent here -- $21.87

Total spent month to date -- $189.55

Feb. 20. I've been slightly under the weather for a couple of days -- no appetite, and no desire to set foot in a grocery store. Now that helps the grocery budget, doesn't it?!!! The silver lining -- get a stomach bug, and save on grocery impulse buys!!

Feb. 26. Needed some things from the dollar store, also picked up a container of oregano (I'm out of my garden oregano from last summer's garden) and 3 bags of foil-wrapped chocolate pieces (Valentine's clearance, 25 cents/bag), to use in s'mores and chopped up for cookies. Total spent $1.75. 

Total spent for February on groceries $191.30, under budget by $18.70. This will roll over into the grocery surplus for next month.

Supplies in the pantry, freezer and garden

My freezer still has blackberries, plums, rhubarb, blueberries and strawberries from last summer. Also, there are 2 whole chickens, 1 whole turkey and a small beef roast. My pantry is looking leaner, but not too lean. The vegetable garden is coming back. I have watercress, sorrel, broccoli, kale, turnip and mustard greens from the fall garden making their comeback for about a month before bolting. I'll need to do a good deal of restocking this next month.

Deals to look for at the grocery store in March
  • with St. Patrick's Day, cabbage will be a loss leader item at most grocery stores the week leading up to St. Patrick's Day. Cabbage keeps for a couple of months in the refrigerator. I buy a few heads of cabbage and use in stir-fries, soup, braised cabbage, bubble and squeak, and cole slaw both as a salad and to add to sandwiches. Also, corned beef is often a loss-leader. It can be cooked, sliced thin and frozen in packets for sandwiches later on.
  • seasonal produce No. Hemisphere -- winter into spring produce: broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, celery, carrots continue from previous winter months, but towards the middle-end of the month, expect to find artichokes, asparagus, leeks, spinach, strawberries, green onions and radish all at good prices.
  • seasonal produce So. Hemisphere -- end of summer produce: apples, pears, grapes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, winter and summer squash, beans and onions.  

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

My thotful spot


Where is your thotful spot, that place where you go to find your own thoughts? Winnie the Pooh's thotful spot was in the 100 Aker Wood. Mine is at the beach.

When I've had a stressful few days, I book time with myself to spend an hour at the beach. We have 4 Puget Sound beaches within 5 to 15 minutes, by car, from my home. In summer, I walk down the hill to the long stretch of Sound beach closest to our home. My kids like the activity of the busy downtown Edmonds beach, with ferries, scuba divers and harbor seals to watch. I prefer the mostly quiet, but beautifully designed Mukilteo beach, a 12-15 minute drive from my home.

Yesterday morning, I needed some time with my thoughts. I brought my camera along, so that I could show you a bit of where I live.


For a little geography, the Puget Sound is the large body of water that connects the Seattle area to the Pacific Ocean. Going west, there's us, the Puget Sound (filled with islands), the Olympic Peninsula, and then the Pacific Ocean.

Yesterday, I went to my favorite beach, Mukilteo beach. There's quite a lot to see at this beach. There's the lighthouse. It's open for tours many month of the year. Lighthouse keeping is an interesting subject. I like to think of the families, who lived here, quite isolated from much of the population. They were a self-sufficient lot, going months between deliveries of goods, and a bit of the big city news.



The ferry terminal is just to the north of the public beach. In the Seattle area, the ferries are just an extension of the highway system, criss-crossing the Sound to islands and the Olympic Peninsula. This past summer, my kids and I took a ferry over to the Peninsula to the Scandinavian town of Poulsbo. In November, the whole family took a different ferry to San Juan Island, to roam the waterfront town of Friday Harbor. Yesterday, I just sat and watched the ferries come and go from Whidbey Island, the island just across the Sound from us.

I always enjoy my encounters with the wildlife here. The gulls hung around for handouts from my snack.



A blue heron languished by the edge of the water. And I had a friendly chat with a harbor seal.



He was quite close to the shoreline, and apparently very interested in my presence. I was the only human on the beach, and he seemed to want someone to play with. He barked at me for several minutes before diving back down. Only to pop back up a few feet away.



There's a very long stretch of this beach, perfect for "thotful" walking.


I looked for sea glass, beautiful rocks, and the perfect shell as I tread over the coarse sand.

In a rocky area,


I searched for crabs, one occasionally washing out of his hiding place with the incoming waves.



There are several man-made features here.



And a wedding circle, very busy on summer afternoons. Yesterday, it was just me, on a bench, enjoying the view.



Spending time at the beach doesn't solve any of my problems or worries. But I always come away relaxed and ready to handle whatever crisis may come next.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Weekend breakfast pastry: Toffee Schnecken

Toffee Schnecken -- gooey, chocolate-y and warm from the oven

Do you have a sweet tooth? I sure do!

Friday morning I begin to think about Saturday breakfast treats. (Okay, I'm stretching it a bit to say Friday morning. This week I was thinking about Saturday's treat on Thursday evening. Yep! I've got a sweet tooth!)

Many weekends it's whole wheat cinnamon buns. A fresh-from-the-oven cinnamon bun with coffee, now that's my idea of a Saturday breakfast that is tempting enough to get the troops out of bed in a hurry!

This week, I was in the mood for something a little different. I perused several cooking sites, then I remembered my mom's recipe for Toffee Schnecken. I hadn't made this in a while, so it seemed the perfect treat-y item. (Treat-y -- is that even a word? We'll just say it is!)

Scnecken (or schnecke), by the way, is German for snail, often used to refer to sticky buns made in the rolled up and sliced fashion. Toffee Schnecken is a rolled and sliced sticky bun pastry, filled with toffee bits, chocolate pieces and nuts. It's baked in muffin tins, so the bun grows up, instead of expanding sideways, and looks a bit like a snail, but in a good way!

As luck would have it, I still had a package of toffee bits in the pantry. I bought these on sale, and never got around to using them. I like my Toffee Schnecken with chocolate pieces added. But they're entirely optional. My mom's recipe did not call for the addition of chocolate. So, it's up to you -- chocolate, yes, or chocolate, no.

Toffee Schnecken

2 packages active dry yeast, or 5  1/2 teaspoons (27.5 mL)
1/2 cup (120 mL) lukewarm water
1 cup (240 mL) lukewarm milk
1/2 cup (120 g) butter or margarine (I used margarine)
1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
2  1/2 teaspoons (12.5 mL) salt
1 large egg, beaten
4  3/4 (570 g) to 5  1/4 cups (630 g) flour (I used about 3  3/4 cups white flour and 1 cup whole wheat -- so that it's healthy-like, ya know?)
1/3 cup (80 g) butter, softened (nothing but the real thing here in the filling, the flavor matters most here, but you could use margarine)
1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
1  1/4 cups (185 g) toffee candy bits (sold in the baking section, often next to the chocolate chips, otherwise, you could take a few Heath Toffee bars, and smash them up)
1/2 cup (84 g) chocolate chips (optional, but oh, so yummy!)
1/2 cup (75 g) chopped pecans, walnuts or almonds (optional, when I'm out of nuts, I don't sweat it, they're quite good without the nuts, even)
corn syrup

The dough:



  • In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water. Add milk, 1/2 cup butter or margarine, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, egg and 2 cups of flour. Beat well.
  • Mix in enough flour to form a stiff dough. Turn out onto a floured surface, add more flour as needed, and knead until smooth and satiny (about 7-8 minutes).
  • Cover with plastic and a towel. Allow to rest on the counter for 20 minutes.
  • Butter well,  2  12-count muffin tins. Spoon 1 teaspoon (5 mL) of corn syrup into each muffin tin section (this forms a gooey underside to each pastry).
  • Punch down the dough, divide into 2 portions, and make your filling.
  • On a floured surface, roll each portion of dough out to 12 X 9 inch rectangles.
  • Spread half of the filling onto one rectangle. Roll up, jelly roll style, beginning at the wide end of the rectangle. Slice the roll into 12 pieces, and place into prepared muffin tins.
  • Repeat with the other portion of the dough.
The filling:
  • Cream the butter and 1/4 cup sugar together. 
  • Stir in the toffee bits, chocolate chips and nuts.

Cover the filled muffin tins with plastic, and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours. These can be prepared the day before baking, up to this point, for a fresh schnecken in the morning, if desired. They don't require additional rising time -- just set on the counter for 10 minutes and bake.

Just before baking, remove from the refrigerator, uncover and allow to stand at room temperature, while the oven preheats to 350 degrees F (176 C).



Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. 




Quickly turn the pastries out of the pan, immediately after baking, onto a rack to cool briefly before serving. If any stick to the pan, slide a table knife around the edges. As the syrupy bottom of the schnecken cools, it will harden. The last couple of pastries may need to be popped back into a warm oven, to remove them from the pan. Makes 24 pastries. 

I freeze half of the pastries, for grab-and-go breakfasts during the work week. I just do a double wrap in plastic, and I am good to go.


Grabbing a cup of coffee and pastry at Starbucks can become an expensive habit, over $4 just for one person. I make pastries at home, as a way to treat my family to something special, in an affordable way. This recipe (made without nuts -- I was out of nuts), cost me about $4 for the batch of 24 pastries, or 17 cents per pastry. A home-brewed cup of coffee and 2 Toffee Schnecken will run about 50 cents. Not bad at all for a Saturday morning treat!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

An easy sewing project: pj bottoms

two pairs of pajama bottoms, all tied up in ribbon for gifting
I hope your week is going well. In our house, we call Thursday, "Friday Eve". So, happy Friday Eve!

I had some serious sourdough bread cravings earlier this week. I got my sourdough starter fired up again, after a lot of neglect this winter. I left the sourdough sponge on the counter overnight, hoping to achieve a really good tang. It still turned out rather mild. I'll keep working on that tang that I crave.

one of two loaves of sourdough bread -- it goes fast around these parts


For now, though, I thought I'd share my adventures in sewing pj bottoms for my two daughters. For anyone interested in learning to sew, I wanted to show the process, so that you could determine for yourself if this was a project you would want to undertake.

Remember, I was making these as my Valentine's gift for my two girls. (from the post The Valentine Dog)

I have a short attention span for these sort of projects. I don't like to unnecessarily frustrate myself with a long stretch of sewing or other needlework. So, I limited myself to about 45 minutes to 1 hour at a stretch on these. It took 4 days of work to complete both pairs. If I was one who could tolerate doing it all in one stretch, I could have made these two pairs in about 3 hours (but I would not have been a happy camper at the end of it all -- hence breaking my work up into chunks).

I worked on the 2 pairs simultaneously. I pinned and cut out both pairs together. I sewed seams one pair right after the other. I hemmed and put in elastic waists, one pair followed by the second. This seemed to be the most efficient use of my time. My only wish is that I'd done a third pair, one for me!!!


Day 1: I sized down the pattern that I had for my own pajamas, from a Women's size 6-8 to a Junior's size 3-5. It was all guess work, as these were to be a gift, so done in secret. I used white tissue wrapping paper to transfer my pattern to. It's not as transparent as pattern paper, but it worked fine.

First, I laid out the old pattern on the table, traced the cutting lines for my size onto the white tissue paper. Then, I re-drew the cutting lines about an inch in on the straight side seams, and took up the hem by several inches. That was it for Day 1. It took about 45 minutes (a lot of time spent wondering if I was on the mark, size-wise).

Day 2: I pinned the new, white tissue pattern pieces to the fabric, and cut out. Again, for both pairs, this took about 45 minutes.


Day 3: I pinned my seams to be sewn,


then, sewed the two front halves together, two back halves together, the inner leg seam, and the side seam.


I trimmed and reinforced all seams with a zig zag edge, very close to the straight stitching.


This took me longer than previous days' work, about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Day 4: I made the casing for the elastic waist, hemmed the legs, ran the elastic through the casing (using a safety pin to help thread the elastic), and sewed the little flower trim to the center front. I was done in about 45 minutes.


And both pairs were complete.


Pj bottoms are a fairly simple project for a beginner. If you take your time and break the work up into several sessions, a beginner could definitely do these. (Although, I would not recommend sizing down a pattern for a beginner. I'm just cheap frugal and didn't want to buy a new pattern.)
  • For winter wear, I used flannel. Summer pj bottoms could be made from a woven cotton. I'd like a seersucker pair myself for wearing around the house on lazy summer days.
  • Pj shorts would be even quicker to whip up, with shorter seams.
  • If you have several kids to make pj bottoms for, (and you'd like them all to be of the same fabric -- some families do this at Christmas), you can use flannel sheets for the fabric, and save some money on the project.
You can see how they turned out. I was surprisingly close to accurate in my guesses on their size. I had left a tiny bit of stitching undone on the waistband casing, so that I could adjust the waist if necessary. After they tried them on, I closed up that small gap, and now I can hardly get my daughters out of their pjs on the weekends.

I'm beginning a small sewing project, using the scraps from this pillow that I made for the family room. More on that project another day.


Thank you for visiting today. It's been good to have you here.
I hope that you found inspiration, ideas, or just moral support, for your next project. 
May your day be full of cheer!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Saving money on groceries: Meet "neat" balls

Good morning! I hope you had a wonderful weekend (with a holiday bonus, for those in the USA). I've been catching up on various tasks that were awaiting me when we returned from our trip to the sunshine.

Our weather has been a mixed bag, here. But that's typical of Seattle spring (okay, so it's still winter, but I can dream, can't I?). Sunshine on Friday, rain on Saturday, with hail in the evening, then just clouds on Sunday and Monday.

Late Saturday afternoon, very dark clouds rolled in. Looking out into the woods behind our house, I felt like I was living in a fairy tale. Not a fairy-tale life (too much grit in my own life for that), but something out of Little Red Riding Hood. I half-expected to see the Big Bad Wolf in the shadows of our uber-tall evergreens!

But all this gray was whisked from my mind, Sunday night, when a very sweet young woman friend of my son's, gifted me with these! She just knew I would be needing a spot of color in the house! Lovely, thoughtful girl.


On another floral note, the branch cuttings from the red-flowering currant that I took on Friday are very close to showing color. I'll post a pic when the blossoms open.

But, I'm way off topic for the moment. What I wanted to share with you, today, is one of the ways we save money on our grocery bill. We eat several vegetarian dinners per week, specifically, we eat beans. I buy them dry, in large sacks, spending somewhere around 75 cents to $1 per pound, dried. When reconstituted with water, this per pound price drops to about 40 cents, or so, per pound. Not bad for good quality protein!

So, beans are cheap thrifty (trying to banish that "cheap" word from my vocabulary). They're also a good protein source. They're high in fiber and low in fat. And beans are great for a cholesterol-reducing diet. Beans are an all-around healthy food that are light on your wallet, too!

I like to mix things up a bit with my bean preparation. After all, beans could get monotonous, if we only ate them in a few ways.

Here's one variation on the theme of beans -- "Neat" balls.

Meet "neat" balls.

"neat" balls on homemade wheat roll, topped with marinara and cheese

"Neat" balls are a vegetarian alternative to meatballs. They are bean and grain based, held together with egg.

A batch of about 35 "neat"balls (8 or more servings), costs about 65-85 cents, a fraction of the meat alternative.

In these photos, I've used black beans, as that's what I currently have in the pantry. But I've also used pinto beans, garbanzo beans and small white beans. I mash mine with a potato masher, but they can be run through a food processor, for a more uniform look (great for disguising the bean-iness from the finicky eaters in your household). You can make them with canned beans or cook your beans from dried.

Here's what I use and how I make them:

about 4-5 cups drained, cooked beans
2 large slices bread (I use whole wheat sandwich bread, but any bread product will do fine)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt or 1 teaspoon beef soup base
4-6 small (or 2-3 large) cloves garlic
1/2 to 3/4 cup minced onion
dash red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup rehydrated bulger wheat (optional, but it gives a nice chew to the balls)

  • Beat the egg in a large bowl. Tear the bread into pieces, and allow to soak in the egg. Mash or puree the beans into the egg/bread. Stir in remaining ingredients. Allow to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge, to firm up the mixture.
  • Butter a large baking sheet. Form the bean mixture into walnut-sized balls and place on the baking sheet. 
  • Bake at 350 degrees F (176 C), for 20-25 minutes, or until firm when pressed lightly.

before baking

These can be used right away, or frozen, as is (no sauce), to be used later.

Some variations on the "neat" balls themselves
  • for Italian neat balls, add oregano, basil, parsley
  • for teriyaki neat balls, add ginger and chives

after baking -- lightly browned and firm to touch, and ready to sauce up

"Neat" balls will fall apart if left to simmer in a sauce for a length of time. So, ladle the sauce over just before serving.

Saucing up "neat" balls

  • We eat these Italian-style with a marinara sauce poured over, and served atop pasta, or,
  • in marinara sauce, on buns, then topped with mozzarella cheese, and toasted under the broiler until bubbly, for "neat" ball sandwiches.
  • "Neat" balls, served in a mushroom gravy is a delicious comfort food when served with noodles.
  • If made teriyaki-style, I serve on a bed of rice and pour a thickened teriyaki glaze, with green pepper and pineapple, over all.

The texture of "neat" balls is not much like meat. As well, they tend to be drier. So whichever way I serve "neat" balls, I allow for a lot of extra sauce.

Mixing things up a bit with the beans.


Saturday, February 16, 2013

Forcing blooms indoors with cuttings from spring-flowering shrubs

I came home to beautiful winter-spring. That's what this time of year feels like to me. The morning was foggy as I drove my two daughters to school yesterday morning. But it was light out for a change. The fog burned off by 9 AM, and we had a glorious, sunny, but chilly, day -- so I call it winter-spring.


I walked the yard in the morning, looking for a hint of color. I found some primroses about to bloom.

butter-yellow primroses, all set to begin adding color to the spring garden

Crocus have broken through the soil,

in the garden, these creamy yellow snow crocus aren't ready for bloom

both in the garden and up on the deck.

but in a pot on the deck, Blue Pearl snow crocus are beginning their show

Rhubarb is just now popping up.

I can hardly wait for rhubarb pie!

Of the flowering shrubs, the flowering currant and forsythia are the first to bloom here. I can see the currant branches are aching to put on a show for me.

several of the red-flowering currant bushes have buds 

So, I ran and got my clippers and took several red-flowering currant branch cuttings and a couple of the forsythia as well. I think the forsythia still needs a few more days outside for good bud formation.

red-flowering currant branches standing in a sink of warm water

In less than a couple of weeks, I hope to have a nice show of color indoors!

I chose a wide-mouth canning jar for my branches.
I think they'll look lovely once in bloom.



How to force blooms on branches indoors
  • February and March are the months to force forsythia and flowering currant. In our area mid to late February is the ideal time. The shrubs need about 8 weeks of below 40 degrees F temperatures, for bud formation. If your winter was late in beginning this year, wait a few weeks longer
  • a woody plant such as forsythia is one of the best candidates for indoor forcing, but you can also force pussy willow, flowering currant and any of the early spring-flowering fruit trees. 
  • leaf buds are the smaller buds on a branch, while flower buds are the larger ones. Look for branches with plenty of larger buds 
  • take cuttings on a day when the temperature is above freezing. You can even do this while there is still snow on the ground, if the air temp is above freezing
  • using pruners, clip off several branches about 2 to 3 feet in length
  • bring indoors to a sink of warm water
  • under water, cut off about 1 inch more, to allow uptake of water into the branch
  • allow branches to stand in the water for 4 to 6 hours, 
  • we have a rainy climate here, so the branches were wet with rain when I cut them. Standing the branches in water is sufficient. But if your climate is dry in winter, then you may wish to submerge the branches for this time period, to hydrate them thoroughly. 
  • re-trim the ends under water once more
  • stand in a vase with clean water. You can add flower preservative, if you have some. But I've taken cuttings and had them last beautifully for a couple of weeks, without any of the preservative.
  • some people cover the branches with a plastic bag. In my experience, this just invites fungus to set in and ruin the blossoms as they form. But perhaps in drier climates this isn't an issue.
  • keep out of direct sunlight, in a coolish room, about 60 to 65 degrees F. Too warm and the blossoms mature too quickly, then degrade rapidly
  • keep out of direct air flow from heat registers. If air is particularly dry in your house, spray with a plant mister once or twice per day.
  • if the buds were large to begin with, then you should expect to see some color within 4 to 8 days. If the buds were small at cutting time, then it will take longer to see color
  • change the water and trim ends once per week
Enjoy your taste of spring!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Using my everyday dishes as Valentine's decor

It's the day of love! Everything is rosy and life's problems just need to take a breather for just one day, don't you think?

You know I do practically everything on a budget, right? Well, here's my version of decorating for Valentine's Day (or part of it, at least).

I've been collecting dishes since I was 20. This is our everyday spring and summer set, that I began acquiring 30 years ago. We have a fall and winter set, in brown tones, as well.


Every year, on Valentine's Day, I swap out the dark winter dishes for these pink, burgundy and white floral, spring and summer dishes. I let Valentine's Day mark the first day of spring for me. (I'm ready, by now, to move out of winter.)

Our everyday dishes are on display 24/7. When we redid our kitchen, several years ago, I knew I wanted something simple, vintage-looking and beautiful to store everyday dishes in. I didn't want to keep them all locked up in a cupboard, but wanted them to be a part of my overall decor.


I scoured books with photos of vintage kitchens. What I found, that I liked, is something called a Welsh dresser, basically an open hutch atop a cabinet.

This hutch-display is built in, constructed of cabinet pieces from Home Depot, and painted to complement my kitchen colors of yellow, white and blue-green. We call this our dish dresser. It's built into the eating nook of our kitchen, just steps away from the work area.

Putting away dishes is a breeze. I stack all the dinner plates from the dishwasher and carry them over to their stack on the dresser, about 10 steps away. I keep the dishes most frequently used on the side of the dresser that is closest to the dishwasher.


In our old kitchen configuration, I had an upper cabinet, just above the dishwasher, for all of our dishes. The kids couldn't reach the top shelf to get something down, or put away the dishes. And I kept banging my head on the corner of the cupboard door, while bending over and standing up with the dishes to be put away. An open shelf of some sort, at a lower height, seemed like such an obvious solution.


So here we are, Valentine's Day. My everyday dishes are in just the color palette to suit the holiday. And because I keep these dishes tucked away for winter, they are new and fresh today. Using my everyday things as Valentine's decor.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Cooking up a storm before a vacation

It's winter vacation time!!! I began planning this last summer in August, and have been counting down the days since!

Having fun! Wish you were here! And all that jazz!

Okay, so my daughters and I are out chasing the sun this week. But before we left, I had a lot of work to take care of. Oh yes, the usual, laundry, checking on schedules, going by the bank, packing suitcases. But what really kept me busy was all the pre-vacation cooking to be done. Yep, I said pre-vacation cooking.


I had all the usual cooking to take care of. Then because this was just a girls' trip (guys staying home), I had meals to prepare for my husband and son, so they wouldn't starve. And of course, I had some things to make, for us to take with us, to keep our eating out limited to meals that we really wanted from a restaurant. I don't enjoy eating out in mediocre restaurants. If I'm going to eat out, I want it to taste great.


And then, I wanted to prepare some things to have in the house for when we returned. A dinner in the freezer to heat that night, and some lunch things for to-go lunches the next day. You know how it is after a trip. You come in the door and just want to drop your bag and lie down. The last thing you want to do (but everyone expects you to do) is jump back into the kitchen and make dinner.


So, as much as I could, I doubled up everything I made for a week, plus had a couple of cooking sessions on three of the days last week.


In total, for the trip, to be eaten here, there, and after, I made 7 loaves of bread, a double batch of granola, a batch of cookies (and after half of those disappeared, a batch of brownies), a mac and cheese casserole to heat, a rice and beans casserole, a pasta and Italian sausage casserole, a large pot of turkey-noodle soup, some cranberry-orange muffins, a quiche, some beef stew, 2 pizzas, a container of refried beans (with the rest of the fixings for burritos), and a large container of egg salad. Believe it or not, the majority of this will be left behind for the guys to eat up. They're the big eaters in our house, not surprisingly. I am hoping this will hold them for a few days. I've also left them a huge container of carrot sticks, some frozen spinach and frozen mixed veggies. Maybe they'll think to try some of those?

To take with us on the trip, we've packed cocoa mix, koolaid drink mix (some places the tap water tastes terrible), crackers, string cheese, microwave popcorn, some candy from Christmas, cookies, a couple of sandwiches, bananas, nuts, a bag of carrot sticks, and raisins.


I like to bring a bunch of snacky things with us. We can stretch the time between formal meals with a good snack. Our motel has a breakfast provided, which we always enjoy fully. I can always find something healthy to eat. Most of the places we stay have at least fresh fruit, juice, oatmeal, whole wheat toast, hard boiled eggs, and yogurt.

We'll have a fridge and microwave in our room. The three of us will walk down to a market and buy some sandwich stuff to last a few days. We actually fare pretty well with our dining-out budget when we travel. I'll give you more details when we return.

I hope you're having a splendid week! I'll be back in just a couple of days.

Do you take food with you when you travel, too? Making sandwiches in the hotel room, to take to a park or the beach, can save quite a bit on the travel budget.


Saturday, February 9, 2013

Easy-to-make heart-shaped pancakes for Valentine's Day Breakfast

Good morning! Are you counting the days to Valentine's Day? It's fast approaching!

What's on the menu for Valentine's Day breakfast at your house? 

If you want easy, you could pour strawberry milk over corn flakes. You could toast up a cherry Pop-tart. You could make toast, spread with strawberry jam and make cut-outs with a heart-shaped cookie cutter. Or . . . . . . .


Are you looking for an easy, fun, kid-friendly, and budget-wise breakfast for this Valentine's Day? Here's what I make for Valentine's breakfast most years. Pancake hearts!!

All you need is pancake batter, a griddle or skillet, large spoon (I use the serving spoon that came with our cutlery) and metal spatula.

Make your pancake batter a bit on the thin side, so that it pours well from the spoon. I like to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the batter. The vanilla cake is nice with the fruit syrup.


Fill your large spoon with batter. Think of the heart as two halves. On the first halve, begin dropping the batter from the tip of the spoon, as you would a regular pancake, making the rounded portion of the heart half. Don't use all the batter in your spoon, save about 1/4. Now, with the tip of the spoon, draw the batter down to the pointed part of the heart.


Quickly refill your spoon, and begin the other half of the heart, fairly close to the first half, so the two halves will join to make one heart. Finish up the point, joining the two points. That's the heart! Use the last bit of batter in the spoon to fix any edges that didn't fill out properly.


These don't need to be perfect, because a lot will be hidden by the whipped cream.


When the pancakes' bubbles have mostly popped, flip them over.


Make your syrup while the pancakes are cooking. For syrup, melt some red jelly or jam in the microwave, mixed with a tablespoon or two of water. (Here I've used a couple of packets of strawberry jam blended with crabapple jelly.)


Place one or two pancakes on a plate. Pipe whipped cream (I use spray whip cream) around the edges, following the heart shape.


Spoon syrup inside the whip cream border. Voila! Valentine's Day pancakes.


These pancakes can be made the afternoon before, and reheated in the morning. When Valentine's Day falls on a school day, I make them the afternoon of the 13th, then reheat in the morning.



Or . . . . . . .


Just not sure about making heart-shaped pancakes? Not a problem. Here's one other way to make Valentine's pancakes.


You'll need round pancakes, a heart-shaped cookie cutter, a pink jelly/jam syrup, as above, powdered sugar, sifter and dried cranberries.


Make your regular round pancakes. After cooking, use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut a heart out of the center of each pancake. This works best on a wood cutting board.


On each plate, place 2 or 3 round pancakes with the heart cut out.


Fill the empty heart with red jelly or jam. It's okay if the jelly/jam bleeds underneath the pancakes. It won't be visible.


Take the heart cut-outs, place on another plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.


Place the cut-outs on the plate along with the round pancakes.


Sprinkle with some dried cranberries.

Okay, so a little bit of fuss for Valentine's Day. But it's fun to do, and these treats for the family are my gift to them.

Just to let you know, I'm chasing the sun for a few days. My posts will continue Tuesday and Thursday, and I'll try to check in from time to time. Internet access will be hit or miss. I'll catch some rays for you, and send them your way! ~Lili

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