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Friday, February 28, 2014

February Grocery Money Journal

There are just a couple of items that I am keeping a watch for good sales, this month, mayo and oats. We're trying to use up the contents of the freezers and pantry, so I won't go out of my way to buy produce or meat. But if I find a good deal, well . . .

Feb. 3 In-store coupons and sales at Albertson's. Mayonnaise (30 oz. for $2.49, I buy 4), Planter's peanut butter (16.35 oz, I buy 6), chicken hot dogs (78 cents/12 oz, w/ coupon, limit 6), butter (1 lb/$1.99, w/coupon, limit 2). We go through about 5-6 jars of mayo in a year. I may come across a better price, but likely with limits, so I buy 4 jars. That should get us through mid-summer, at least. While hot dogs are not great food, we do like our Saturday night cook-outs around the fire, beginning in spring, so these chicken dogs should get us started. Total spent $27.56

Feb. 6 Stopped by QFC looking for milk. Found 3 gallons of skim milk for $2.09 each, and 4 pints of whipping cream for 59 cents each. I've frozen the whipping cream already, some as cubes to add to soups/sauces, some in pints for making ice cream later, and some whipped and in mounds, to top dessert for Easter dinner. Spent $8.63

Feb. 6 Dollar Tree for soy milk, buy 4 quarts. Spent $4, total for month -- $40.19

Feb. 11 Dollar Tree for spinach seeds, 6 packets @ 25 cents ea, for $1.50 spent

Feb. 11 Albertson's to use coupon on whole milk -- 2 gallons at $2.29 each. Spent $4.58, for a month to date of $46.27

Feb. 12 Trader Joe's for 13 bananas, and 8 oz of cocoa powder. Spent $4.96

Feb. 12 Cash and Carry restaurant supply for 25 lbs of oats ($16.49), case of 12 qts of soy milk ($11.88), 40 oz bag of fresh spinach ($4.38), 40 oz fresh mushrooms ($5.48). Spent 40.41. for a month to date of $91.64

Feb. 20, stop by QFC on way home from work, hoping to find marked down milk. Instead I find red-taped bananas (49 cents/lb) and a marked down 24 oz. bag of broccoli florets for 99 cents (that's 66 cents/lb). Spent $1.71

Feb. 22 Albertson's for eggs on sale for $1.25/dozen, limit 4 w/ coupon. I buy 4. Spent $5

Feb. 23 I go online to see the Walgreen's ad on Sundays. Milk is $1.99/gallon for the week, limit 2. On the way to church I stop in and buy 2, and on the way home I buy another 2. Total spent $7.96

Feb. 25 I have a bunch of errands to run in neighboring town, all along the main highway. There are 2 Walgreen's along my route, one near home and the other, across the street from the post office (one of my errands). So this is how the errands go -- 1) stop at Walgreen's, buy 2 gallons milk, spent $3.98; 2) stop at Trader Joe's for bananas (buy 22 at 19 cents each, spent $4.18); 3) post office to drop something in the mail; 4) across the street to other Walgreen's, buy 2 gallons milk, $3.98; 5) Cash and Carry restaurant supply for 2 lbs of raisins, $4.59; 6) Gas at lowest price station in area; 7) go to first Walgreen's for 2 more gallons of milk, $3.98 total spent on these errands -- $20.71

Month to date spending -- $127.02

Feb. 27 There's a Walgreen's on the way to my Thursday job. I put an ice chest into the trunk of the car, with an ice pack, and stopped in at Walgreen's on the way to work, and then again on the way home from work, buying a total of 4 gallons of milk for $1.99 each (2 whole milk for yogurt, and 2 2% milk for drinking). Spent $7.96.

Once home, I was able to put 6 gallons into the freezer. Once frozen, I can turn them on their sides, and put them in the stand alone freezer, freeing up a bit of space in the larger freezer for another couple of gallons of milk.

If milk prices really do jump up 60 cents per gallon, as reported on the news this month, I should at least put off buying milk for another 2 months, with my frozen milk.

Total spent for the month of February -- 134.98

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Unseasonably warm winter or confused daffodil?


I think a bit of both.

Yesterday began as a kitchen day. It had been a while since I did a fair amount of baking (and we were almost out of bread). I baked 4 loaves of whole wheat sandwich bread, a dozen cinnamon-raisin buns, a batch of cinnamon granola, a small batch of cupcakes (my sweet tooth kicking in), and I made a quart of Greek yogurt. I finished up just in time for a gorgeous day to come to my yard.

I was able to have lunch on the deck, haul one of the laundry racks outside to dry a load of clothes in the almost-spring air, and wandered into the garden to check on the bulbs that I planted this past fall. That's when I spied this daffodil all poised to bring spring to me! Alas, the sneak peek at spring was short-lived. Rain and cooler temps are expected to return later today.

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Now for the boring part of this post (boring for you, maybe, but exceedingly helpful for me).
I spent a good share of Tuesday afternoon rereading last year's January, February and March grocery journals. January and February were low-spend grocery months, but March was quite high. We could afford that last year. But our budget has changed since then.

Not wanting to repeat some of the excessive spending from last March, I took some time to look over the journals. I was able to pinpoint some particulars to avoid for this March, hoping to be more mindful of our budget. To that end, I am mentally preparing for potential sales and mark downs. Deciding in advance, should specific foods come up for sale this next month, how much am I willing to spend on each, and how much in quantity am I willing to stockpile. This is an important step for me. If I establish my boundaries in advance, I am much more likely to keep my spending in check.

I mention all of this, as keeping records has helped our household live within our means, regardless of income. Writing it down (or typing it up) keeps us accountable. Just knowing that it will be recorded somewhere keeps a check on a good deal of my spending. It's like a budget report card. The written record is the evidence of good or poor spending choices.

In addition, this record gives me something to look back to, evaluate and learn from. When I'm feeling down about our finances, I can look to success in meeting our budget, and remind myself that we're doing well given our circumstances. And, I can reflect on our spending and find areas for improvement, or pitfalls to avoid.

I feel confident that we'll be able to reduce our grocery costs for this March, as compared to last year. A bit of preparation makes all the difference for me.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Sometimes, I think we're just a tad too squeamish

There are times when upon later reflection, I've realized that I was unreasonably squeamish about something, usually food.

The company where my son works brings in take-out for lunch everyday, as a perk for its employees. One day last week, they had take-out Chinese for lunch. There was a large carton of white rice and a smaller one of brown rice leftover. The office was just going to throw this rice away at the end of the day, when my son spoke up and said he'd take it home.

My initial thought was, "ewww! Leftovers from people I don't even know!" I considered dumping it into the compost. Then I came to my senses. We gladly eat at church potlucks, with 100 or more people in attendance. I don't know all the people who've enjoyed those potlucks. We've eaten at restaurant buffets, and not only do I not know the other patrons, but I have no idea how long anything has sat on the buffet. This was rice, almost untouched with the exception of a spoon. My son not only works with these people, but considers them work-friends. So why was it that one kind of communal food was okay with me, but not another?

A good friend was relating her weekend evening with granddaughters. They had dinner at my friend's home, but left half glasses of their milk. My friend refrigerated the milk, to use in the next days. At first I had that same reaction as before, "ewww! Used milk!" But these were her dear granddaughters. How many times have we shared a lick of an ice cream cone with our child? Or tasted the baby food right from the infant's spoon? Or shared a brownie, piece of cake or cookie with our spouse? My reaction then seemed completely incongruent with other behaviors of mine.

You all know that I buy mostly marked down milk. There's usually 4-7 days left until the sell-by date. I see many other folks reach around the marked down milk, for a fresher container at regular price. This is totally reasonable, if you think that the container won't be used before it expires, and need a longer use-by window to consume the entire container. But what if you know that your family will indeed use all the milk before the sell-by date? My family goes through 1 gallon of milk every 3  1/2 days. I can easily use at least 1 marked down gallon of milk before the sell-by date comes around.

What about those bananas marked down because they are looking ripe? I mentioned to a friend who's been trying to reduce her grocery bill, that when I shop regular grocery stores for bananas, I always buy the red-taped ones, to save some money. She had that same reaction about my banana choice. "Ewww! Old bananas, yuck!" I pointed out that most of our store's red-taped bananas are just barely ripe, and just about ready for consumption. While I wouldn't want to eat a black banana, as is, I am more than happy to eat a perfectly ripe one. I suggested to my friend that she could buy a couple of the ripe bananas, then another couple of less-ripe ones (at regular price) for later in the week. She thought this was a reasonable compromise. When you think about it, if you're shopping for produce just once per week, by the end of the week, all of the produce left in your kitchen is "old". If reducing the grocery bill is important to your budget, then buying a few marked-down items to use early in the week, could be a help.

So, back to the rice that my son brought home last week. I did decide to use it that next day. I made a garlic and peanut sauce to pour over the white rice for dinner that night. And the day after, I mixed the brown rice with oatmeal for breakfast. Both dishes were very delicious. And I feel good about not wasting the food.

A little squeamishness has saved many a life, avoiding potentially harmful bacteria. But sometimes, I do think we're a bit too squeamish. Mostly, we just need to use common sense and think things through.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Waste nothing: How I use the whole lemon

You already know how I use the whole orange (whole orange muffins, citrus-spice infused vinegar cleaners, candied orange peel). I also try to use the entire lemon when I buy fresh lemons.

When buying whole lemons in the supermarket, most of us view the juice and zest as the valuable portions, regarding the shells as something for the compost heap. But the shells can be useful, too, for adding a citrusy accent when cooking poultry.

To use whole lemons,

first, I zest the lemon (I zest lemons the same way that I zest oranges), saving some as bits, and some as threads, in the freezer.


Next, I halve the lemon and juice it. If I don't need the lemon juice right away (if I only needed the zest of the lemon for the recipe that I'm working on). I freeze this juice in small containers, labeling the quantity of juice.


Finally, I freeze the juiced  and zested shells in a large plastic bag, to use as part of the flavoring and aromatics in poultry.



To use:

ZEST -- the zest "bits" are great for adding to cakes and muffins, while the "threads" make a beautiful finishing touch on baked goods, or servings of chicken or fish.

JUICE -- The juice, if frozen in various small quantities, can be pulled out of the freezer, in the exact amounts that I need for recipes.


SHELLS -- I take several lemon shells out of the freezer, and use them:

  • cut into 1/8ths and added to marinade for Mediterranean chicken (add garlic, oregano, salt pepper and lemon shells w/ some juice), OR,
  • my favorite method for infusing flavor into whole turkeys -- I slip the shell halves into whole chickens and turkeys, along with garlic, onion quarters, and a bundle of sage, thyme and rosemary, as an aromatic "stuffing", both adding flavor to the poultry, and to the pan juices for sauce or gravy.



Friday, February 21, 2014

Resuscitating my sourdough starter


Another frugal thrill for me this week . . .

Over last weekend, I discovered my sourdough starter shoved to the back of the fridge. It was early November the last time I baked with this starter. That's a long time to leave a sourdough starter uncared for.

Anyway, I lifted the lid and the grey hooch that sits on top of the doughy mass was a bit on the green side. And it smelled more like cheese and less like hooch. This definitely did not look good.

This starter had taken me about 10 days to make, and I wasn't ready to start over from the beginning, without at least trying to resuscitate it. So, I thought I'd risk a cup of flour on it, just to see if I could bring it back to life.


Sure enough, after a day of feedings, the starter was all bubbly. I continued to feed the starter for a few days, just to get it going strong. By Wednesday afternoon, it was ready for mixing a dough.

I make my sourdough bread the old-timer way, with just starter, flour and a small amount of sugar and salt. It takes a good 24 hours from mixing the dough to baking, but it is so worth it.  Traditional sourdough bread has to be the most frugal of all bread to bake at home, as there's not even any yeast added.

Taking a few days to fire up my starter left me with a LOT of starter. So, yesterday I baked 2 loaves, and tomorrow I'll bake another 2. That should just about catch me up. I wish I could have just given some of the starter to you, but that might get a little messy in the mail.  -- And also could have aroused some odd suspicions with our postal service! :-o


If you are interested in learning more about making your own sourdough starter, you can find more information in a series of posts beginning here.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Does this give you a frugal thrill?

I wasn't going to post today, as I'm fighting the same cold my two daughters have had. But I had one of those oddball moments of frugal fun. Not even a moment, really. I'd say I was tickled for all of the dinner hour.

Do you get a frugal thrill when you find a bunch of leftovers and combine them into a tasty stew, or rinse a bunch of near-empty jars to add to the pot?

Last night, I did a little clean-out of the fridge and found a whole bunch of condiment jars, that in an ordinary household would have been deemed empty and disposed of. Not so, in our house. I save those jars to rinse and add to cooking. I used both sweet and dill pickle juice in a batch of baked beans. I rinsed out the jar of blackberry pancake syrup to add to the stewed mixed rhubarb and blackberries. And I rinsed the salsa jar to add to mashed potatoes and greens. Total number of jars used and cleaned out -- 4.

My fridge door looks presentable again, and dinner was seasoned nicely, with what may have been considered garbage in any other household. Yep, that gave me a frugal thrill.

How about you? Do you find particular fun in using the odd bits that others would consider material to be washed down the drain?

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Getting my garden started indoors


I know, this gadget falls under the heading of toy/tool. Indoor grow lights will take many years to pay for themselves. But I do like my homegrown salads. And I can get a jump start on the garden, harvesting lettuce in early April, instead of June, by starting my seeds indoors.

Last week, I started a flat of lettuce, spinach and kale to transplant in March. I started them about a week earlier than in previous years, and am keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have a harvest that much sooner.

Starting most varieties of seeds indoors needs a soil temperature around 70 degrees, and light for the seedlings for about 14 hours per day. Although these are fluorescent tubes, they do give off a small amount of heat. And by positioning the lights close to the soil, there seems to be enough heat for my seeds to germinate. Once I had a couple of seeds sprouted, I set the timer on the light fixture for 14 hours/day.


The container with a blue lid is my indoor sprinkler. It's just a screw top plastic jar with a lid, into which I drilled a few small holes. It works well for wetting the surface of the soil for good germination of seeds.

I pick my toy/tools carefully, as I don't like a lot of junk hanging around the house. As for just how long this grow light will take to pay for itself, I did some figuring. I used to buy all my tomato seedlings each spring, spending between $15 and $18 per season. The grow light set-up was about $150 (less about $20 with an e-coupon). I now start all of my tomato plants from seeds, saving about $15 per season. I also use the grow lights to get one extra planting of leafy greens started and in the ground, saving about $10-15 on buying leafy greens at the produce stand each spring. On top of these savings,  I start smaller amounts of other veggies under the lights, too. My guess is this grow light will pay for itself in about 6-8 years. So, while not a great pay-back timeline, at least it's not a hobby that keeps costing me money.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Keeping one step ahead of my kids


This past Thursday evening was yet another free opportunity for me to see a live performance at the university. This time it was a student recital. I haven't enjoyed this many theater and music productions since my own university years. Theater daughter was working the backstage for the performance.

So, I met up with both daughters, we had a bite to eat, and went to the recital. Although the performances are free, my daughters have become accustomed to us spending a small sum of cash on treats in the Student Union Building. One daughter loves the cup of chocolate chunk cookie poppers (bite-sized cookies), and the other daughter enjoys the salads and fruit cups.

Even on 50% off nights, this adds up. What's a budget mama to do?


Thursday afternoon, I baked a batch of my own chocolate chip cookie poppers, and made a good-sized salad to take down to campus with me. And I even brought a treat for myself. I made a thermos of herb tea just for me (the girls don't always care for my selections in tea -- all the more for me).


We still bought 1 bagel sandwich to split between the three of us. But this was a far cry from buying several items off the menu. There's a large common area in the SUB where we sat, talked about the day, and enjoyed our treats before the performance.




Friday, February 14, 2014

Weekend brunch: waffle bar



On Saturday's, I make something special for breakfast, and make it substantial enough to call it brunch -- so I don't have to make lunch just a few hours later ;-) .

This past weekend, we had a waffle bar. I made whole wheat waffles, and set out several toppings to choose from: canned pineapple chunks, frozen strawberries (from last summer's garden), vanilla yogurt, maple syrup and whipped cream.

Other toppings that we've enjoyed include chopped nuts, dried fruit, cottage cheese, ham dices, banana slices, applesauce, fresh orange segments, shredded coconut, jam and jelly, blackberry syrup (homemade with wild-picked blackberries), frozen raspberries and blueberries (also from last summer's garden).

It's one of those whatever-I-have -on-hand sort of meals. I try to include a source of protein (besides the waffles themselves), some fruit and some fun stuff.

Waffle bars are always a hit with our family. I think that's due to having the opportunity to customize your own waffle.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

So just what did I buy with my extra grocery money?


I know, we're all a bit curious how each other spends their money. So here's how I spent my "extra" money.

If you'll remember from last Saturday's post, I said that it looked like I'd have about $10 to $15 left in our grocery budget, at the end of each month for a few months.

All of your input really helped me to come to some conclusions.


  • on a small grocery budget, nutrition counts
  • I can make a lot of treat foods, like pop-tarts, but I can't make fresh produce or meat
  • in winter there are always some holes in our diet, mainly fresh salads
So, while running some errands yesterday, I stopped in Trader Joe's and the Cash and Carry restaurant supply (down the road from each other). I had other items to pick-up, so used this time to check prices and make selections.

This is what I chose:

  • 2.5 lbs of bagged fresh spinach leaves. The best-by date is Feb 20. I'll use this in both salads, as well as lightly sauteed with garlic in olive oil, for the next week, and any remaining spinach can then be lightly steamed and frozen. Spinach is high in folate, Vits. K, C and A, some Omega-3s, Vits. B1, B2, B6, and several minerals, including iron. Spinach also is high in oxalic acid and phytic acid, both inhibitors of iron absorption. To get maximum iron from spinach, it's best if bought fresh, then lightly steamed, and served with a source of Vit. C. ---- My garden spinach won't be big enough to harvest until sometime in late May, so this is something of a treat for us.
  • 2.5 lbs of packaged whole mushrooms.  Mushrooms contain protein, fiber, the B vitamins, and many minerals, including selenium and copper. Mushrooms may also contain Vit. B12 (a vitamin otherwise exclusive to animal sources). The amount of B12 varies substantially. It's carried through a beneficial bacteria which piggybacks on the mushrooms.  ----  Mushrooms, when cooked, have a meaty texture which our family really enjoys, a nice change from so many of our vegetarian dishes. Fresh mushrooms can be sauteed in butter, then frozen. So if we tire of them, none will be wasted. I have a small amount of ground beef in the freezer. I'll add some chopped mushrooms to the ground beef, in a marinara sauce to serve over pasta tomorrow night.
  • 13 bananas. Trader Joe's prices their bananas per piece -- 19 cents each. If I carefully select only the largest bananas, I can buy them for 39 cents per pound or less.   ----  This is our fresh fruit for the next week. They'll be good in fruit salads mixed with canned pineapple, or in smoothies, or just as is for fresh fruit.
  • 72 count package of corn tortillas.  ($2.18, for 72. This works out to 36 cents a dozen. I see 12-ct. packages of corn tortillas at the regular grocery store for about $1.)   While I make our flour tortillas, corn tortillas are a bit trickier. The best I've been able to do with making my own corn tortillas is to make them half wheat flour, half corn flour. Corn tortillas can be frozen. When I buy a large package, I freeze some of them in ziplocs of 6 corn tortillas each.  ---- In choosing the corn tortillas, I was looking for something of a treat for our family. Corn tortillas are a change from most of our bread products. They can be toasted in the toaster oven, with cheese or butter/cinnamon & sugar on top. Or, they can be cut into triangles for making homemade tortilla chips.
For all of this, I spent $14.51. That was our "extra" spending for this month. I wonder what I'll choose next month?





Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The thing that I am content to live without -- for now: a personal cell phone

When your income is modest, but your goals are large, you find yourself analyzing every expenditure. This is a good thing. Being purposeful with spending that hard-earned income insures that your money is being used according to your values and goals. Intentional spending is empowering. By choosing where our money has gone, our own family has been able to achieve quite a lot on a middle class income.

There are a few things that our family has decided we can be content to live without. Over the next few weeks, I'll give you a glimpse into a few of them.



By looking around the train station, airport, bus stop, grocery store, or mall, you'd think it was a complete impossibility (in our modern life), to live without a cell phone.

I've never had a cell phone. And I'm really okay with that. You'd think I'd feel a few pangs of cell phone-envy whenever I glimpsed a happy texting, chatting, surfing person on their phones. I've never sent or received a text. I often joke with my kids to just send me a text to our landline, when they get to their destination.

All three of my kids have pre-paid phones. And as a worrying mom, I wouldn't have it any other way. But neither my husband nor I have personal phones. We feel okay, not being "connected" 24/7.


I've weighed the pros and cons of having my own phone, and here's what I always come back to:

PROS: if I had my own cell phone


  • I could be reached in case of an emergency anytime, anywhere.
  • I would have a phone for personal travel, both locally and for trips.



CONS: if I had my own cell phone


  • I'm a single-track person. I don't multi-task all that well. When I'm shopping, driving, meeting up with a friend, cooking, or cleaning, I do best if I stick to my task at hand. I really don't want to drop what I'm doing to take a non-emergency call. And I don't do well talking on the phone and continuing with my work. Frankly, I am a bit annoyed when someone else tries to multi-task while talking to me on their cell phone. I have a couple of people who regularly call me while they're driving and running errands. I feel that I don't really have their complete attention for that phone call.
  • When I am out taking care of my business, I prefer to do my work in quiet. Now that my kids are grown, grocery shopping is something of a joy, to be out and quietly making my selections.
  • If I had a cell phone, my kids might rely on me to solve everyday problems, more often. Although I am constantly involved in my kids' lives, I think having me not being totally accessible at all hours of the day, has encouraged them to find solutions to their own situations. This has been a very good thing. Not that I want my kids to struggle or suffer, but this paid off big for two of them, one day, when they got lost in downtown Seattle. They were on foot and went the wrong direction. I wasn't available to help them. So they found their way on their own.
  • The expense. A basic phone with pre-paid plan would be a minimum of $10 per month. This amounts to $120 per year. That money can be used elsewhere, for the time being.


Beyond these pros and cons, this is my biggest point. I am home almost all day, every day. We have voicemail, for those instances when I am not at home. Anyone can call me, at any time of the day, and leave a message. I simply don't NEED a cell phone for the majority of my hours. 

I don't travel to desolate places, or in the wee hours of the night. When I am out taking care of business, I am within a short walk of a nearby phone, and I am visible to passers-by, should I have car trouble or get lost.

Not having a personal cell phone actually keeps us current with car maintenance, which in the end keeps our cars serving us longer. And through the years, I have developed a good sense of direction, as I've had to rely on my own intelligence to find my way.

I don't have a career that keeps me out of reach of a traditional phone, or in need of making business contacts, all day long.

A cell phone for me, would duplicate the services of our land-line, which despite a growing trend of ditching the land-line, we still find it to be more useful than each having our own cell phones (try plugging your computer into the cheapest pre-paid Tracfone, for dial-up).


I do have to admit, there is the occasional time, when I am running errands or returning from my once-per-week job, around the same time that I know my daughters will need a pick-up from the park and ride. I don't know the exact time they will reach the park and ride, so our arrangement is for them call me at the 10 minute point before the destination. Then I can run over to get them. Well, if I am away from the house, I need to go back home to touch base with them, so I know when to pick them up. The worst case, so far, has meant that they needed to wait for 20 minutes, until I could get them. I don't view that as a horrible crime as a parent. Waiting builds patience and appreciation for others' time and schedules.

For the problem of wanting a cell phone while traveling -- my kids have been generous in lending one to their father or me, when one of us is traveling. I email friends and family in advance, regarding the phone number of one of my kids' phones, in case of an emergency.


Will I ever buy a phone for myself? Well, yes, I'm sure that time will come someday, as family finances become looser, or if I land a job that requires a personal phone. But for now, I'm content to live without one.



Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Waste Nothing: Freezing whipping cream

So, for me, saving the whipping cream usually comes about as a markdown find on cartons of whipping cream. Although, on holidays, there's often a few dollops of whipped cream left from the big meal, or part of a carton sitting in the fridge. This can be saved. I have three ways that I freeze whipping cream, for use later on.

  • I freeze whipping cream, unwhipped, in ice cube trays (as I do half & half), to add to soups and sauces. Once frozen, I keep in a large plastic bag in the freezer.

  • I also freeze whipping cream right in the carton, a pint at a time. I use this to make ice cream later on. Frozen, then thawed, whipping cream will work best in frozen desserts, if the whipping cream is cooked in a custard base. This minimizes any textural changes from freezing the cream.

  • And I freeze already whipped cream, in dollops, to top desserts in the next 6 to 8 weeks.


To freeze whipped cream, here are my mom's instructions:


Line baking sheets with foil.

In a large bowl, for every pint of whipping cream,
add 1/4 to 1/3 cups of confectioner's powdered sugar.

Whip with mixer just until stiff. Add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, and adjust sweetening as desired. (If you began with 1/4 cup of confectioner's sugar, you may find you'd like just a bit more sweetening.) Whip in the vanilla and any extra sugar.

Scoop large dollops of whipped cream onto the foil. Whipped cream will lose just a bit of its volume in the freezing process, so make the dollops just slightly larger than you think you'd like.


Freeze tray of whipped cream for about 2 hours. Working quickly, peel the dollops from the foil and place in a large ziploc bag.

These dollops of frozen whipped cream
will be saved for Easter dinner.

One pint of whipping cream will make about 18 medium-sized dollops.


To use frozen dollops of cream, place a dollop on a single serving of pie, cake or other dessert. Allow to stand for 10 minutes, to soften. Then serve.



I'll be using one of the pints that I bought on markdown last week, to make ice cream for my daughters' birthday in March. Looking at my recipe for custard-based ice cream (and having bought pints of whipping cream for 59 cents each), I should be able to keep the cost to under $1 for a quart of homemade ice cream. Not bad!

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Monday, February 10, 2014

Waste Nothing: Salvaging cinnamon sticks from making spiced cider



I made 3 batches of spiced apple cider this autumn. After the mulling spices were done with each batch, I picked out the cinnamon sticks and kept them in a container in the freezer.

To salvage these seemingly spent cinnamon sticks, I do a couple of things. First, I simmer them in about 2 cups of water, for 20 minutes, to remove the stickiness from the cider. Then I dry them on a baking sheet in the toaster oven, at a low temp, for about 30 minutes.

Now they're ready to grind into cinnamon powder to add to applesauce, oatmeal, cookies and breads.

You can use a microplane to grind cinnamon. But I like my knuckles with the skin intact, so I prefer my coffee mill. I break the cinnamon sticks into pieces,


then grind to a powder.


If there is any residual graininess, I roll my mortar and pestle around for a minute to reduce it to a fine powder.



Surprisingly, even after being used for spiced cider and then simmered in water, these cinnamon sticks are still quite aromatic. I've used this freshly ground cinnamon in oatmeal already.

I did a taste comparison between this cinnamon and that I have in a canister. My best estimate is salvaged cinnamon sticks yield about 1/2 to 2/3 the flavoring power of ground cinnamon from the canister. Not too bad!

FYI -- My 3 cinnamon sticks yielded a little over 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon.


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Saturday, February 8, 2014

What would you do with an extra $10 to $15 in your grocery budget?

When looking at my grocery spending, I can see that for the coming months at least, I won't be spending all $170 that's budgeted. I should have as much as an extra $10 to $15 each month to spend on groceries. It's not a large amount of money, but it gives me something to play with. Some possibilities that I've thought of:

  • fresh seasonal produce, such as lettuce and spinach for green salads, currently out of season for my garden
  • honey -- I can buy a large jug of honey at the wholesaler for a fraction of grocery store prices. Honey would be nice, but not a necessity.
  • more meat, specifically beef -- I miss having beef
  • fish -- I don't care much for fish, especially canned fish. If I bought higher quality fresh fish, I may like it more.
  • aged cheese -- cheese aged for a year or more is the lower in lactose than most grocery store cheese, and better for my system. But cheese is not a necessity for me, just something nice to have.
  • fresh fruit -- one of my daughters would love to have more fresh fruit in winter. We do have ample frozen and dried fruit, but she really loves fresh fruit.
  • junky stuff -- the other daughter would be in heaven if I would buy Pop-Tarts, her absolute favorite breakfast (if you can even call it that!).
I suspect that I'll try to balance nutrient-dense additional foods with particular preferences for each member of my family. But I'm open to ideas and suggestions.

What would you do with an extra $10 to $15 per month to spend on food?

Friday, February 7, 2014

Could there be a theme developing here?



Black Cherry Cupcakes, 

using chopped, brandied black cherries and the cherry liquid, that I preserved last summer, to tint and flavor the butter cream frosting.




Wooden Craft Hearts,

which I painted with pink acrylic paints.
I'll string the hearts onto satin ribbon, to make a garland for some Valentine kitchen decor. (wood craft hearts -- Jo-Ann Fabrics 29 cents each, use a coupon and save 10 to 15%)




Roses in Bloom Kitchen Towel

No roses growing in my garden right now. Roses printed on a kitchen towel will cheer me for Valentine's Day and the weeks to come.

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Thursday, February 6, 2014

Free entertainment for our family this winter


I continue to get opportunities to see plays and concerts at my daughters' university, completely free of charge.

Last fall, I had the opportunity to attend a piano concert and a play. Then last Wednesday, my theater daughter had to usher at another play, so again, I got to enjoy the theater. That particular performance was a preview showing. My daughter ushered, and was given a free ticket to invite a guest. A friend from her class didn't need her free ticket (each student in that class received one free ticket), so my daughter scored a second free one. Both my other daughter and I could sit and watch the performance. The preview showings don't offer refreshments during intermission, but for a free seat, I can give up that cup of punch.

Cheap seats at a professional live theater, in downtown Seattle, run around $30 per seat. While what I get to enjoy are student actors, and not professional, there is something fun about watching the students as they increase in acting ability over the course of the year.

In addition to live entertainment on campus, the art gallery rotates exhibits on a regular basis. I've only had a couple of opportunities to take in these exhibits, but have thoroughly enjoyed them when I could. One Saturday, a couple of weeks ago, my art student daughter needed a ride to campus. There was an exhibit going on at the time, and I got to spend an hour enjoying that exhibit, again, free of charge.

For the whole family, we've been watching movies borrowed from the local library each Saturday and Sunday evening. Not only did I not see these movies in the theater when they were first relieased, but it's likely that I wouldn't have, as many of them are older, or more obscure, but still worth the time to watch. The real bonus in watching these movies at home, we discovered, is if a movie is not up to our standards, we change to another dvd, on the spot. We had one such movie, a week ago. The language was so foul, we all agreed to change it right away.

And for my personal entertainment, my most recent fixation is online sudoku puzzles. I play them both online and on paper. When I've had to take my fun on the go, I find a puzzle or two online, and jot it down on a piece of graph paper, to work with a pencil while in waiting rooms, or while sitting in the car at the park-and-ride picking up my girls. Oh yes, I know they make those handy booklets of sudoku puzzles, but as I can get them for free, online, I can't bring myself to spend the money to buy them.

Each season brings its own free entertainment. For now, we're enjoying indoor activities. But it won't be long until a long walk to the beach, or backyard campfires, are heavily featured in our bargain entertainment schedule.

What free or cheap fun things have you been up to this winter?

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Is there anything that smells better than bread fresh out of the oven?


Oh, the aroma is intoxicating.


Sometimes, I have great restraint and can wait until the bread is fully cooled.


Other times, I just can't help myself. Needs no butter, jam or jelly. I'm in heaven.


Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Making soft butter


Butter is expensive. But our family really prefers butter over margarine, for several reasons. Butter is also rock-hard fresh out of the fridge. You know what I mean? Like when butter is so hard that it tears up a slice of bread. 

So, to address both problems (expense and spreadability), I make my own soft butter. 


Our cost for vegetable oil is quite low, about 69 cents per pound, when bought in an institutional-size container (for a post on buying in institutional-size quantities, see here). While real butter is around $1.90 per pound (on sale, and usually limited to one or two pounds, and only with a coupon). By blending vegetable oil into the butter (using about 1/3 cup of oil, for every 1 cup of butter), the cost of my soft butter is about $1.59/lb.


I have two methods for making soft butter. The ratios are the same, just a different technique mostly determined by the amount I want to make at one time.

The first is a simple process, using a spoon and dish or crock.
To make soft butter, I soften 2 sticks (1 cup) of butter on the counter for several hours. I mash it up with the back of a spoon, in a small crock, until soft and spreadable. Then I add 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, a tablespoon at a time, mixing in well.


When the oil is all mixed in, it looks quite soft  and sloppy (and will have some lumps of butter here and there. I'm not a perfectionist about this).


I cover and refrigerate. Within a couple of hours in the fridge, it will be firm, but spreadable.

The second method I use when I am making a pound or more of soft butter at a time. I use my hand mixer. I do this just prior to using my mixer to bake a cake or make a batch of cookie dough, and then use that buttery bowl afterwards for the baking batter/dough.

I put 1 or 2 pounds of butter into a large mixing bowl, and allow to soften on the counter for an hour or two. I then use my mixer to cream the butter, and add in the oil, in proportions of 3 parts butter to 1 part oil. I blend until all is incorporated, then scoop into containers for the fridge. My buttery bowl and mixer are then used to mix some cake batter/cookie dough -- no extra washing. (Obviously, this is a much more efficient method for making soft butter, than one crock at a time.)

Soft butter only takes a few minutes to make, but it really slows our consumption of an expensive ingredient.


Monday, February 3, 2014

I sometimes go to extremes, with not wanting to waste anything

Using the core of a fresh pineapple

We were given a whole, fresh pineapple as a thank you, for some work my daughters and I helped with a week ago. Fresh pineapple is pretty rare for us, so we made the absolute most of the one we received.


The core of the pineapple is less flavorful, and more fibrous than the outer flesh of the fruit. Often the core is just disposed of.

I added the core pieces to a pitcher of filtered water and left in the fridge for a couple of days. This pleasantly flavored our drinking water for a couple of days.


Before I discarded the core pieces, I thought that maybe there's still some flavor left in them. So, I ran them through the juicer. I've got to be honest here. The resulting juice was significantly less flavorful than commercial pineapple juice. But not wanting to waste any nutrients, I mixed it in with the rest of some orange juice. Pleasant enough. Then, and only then, did I compost the remains of those pineapple cores.

I also cut the crown off and have it sitting in a saucer of water. I have a hunch that you need more of the pineapple corwn than I allowed. But if it does grow in to a house plant, that will be fun.

You know, I considered trying to use the skins of the pineapple. Some people juice the skins and all. But our pineapple was looking a little less than fresh, so I composted those skins. Still, the compost will make a free soil amendment in a few months, so I guess I didn't let any of it go to waste.


This is one of those weird little tips, and I'm not even sure if its true. But I was once told by the produce guy at the market, that to prevent fermentation of sugars at the base of a pineapple, and to ripen the fruit evenly,  stand  the whole pineapple, upside down, on the counter for 2 to 3 days. Does this work for us? Well, since I started doing this, none of our pineapples have had a fermented bottom half. But still, I don't know, for certain, if this really works.


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