Holidays, Saving Money, Sewing

Thriving In My Thrifty Week-Dec. 13, 2022

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This week, I made a bathrobe for Malcolm. I used Simplicity S9214. There was enough extra for sleeves, the belt and facings for his little brother’s size, so I went back and purchased enough of the same fabric to make the body of the robe again, and am working on one for baby brother. Then, I will have no wasted fabric, or leftovers I don’t know what to do with.

I used a very plush, soft fabric, for the first time, in a garment. I had some struggles with it, but overcame them. Thankfully, bathrobes do not have a lot of intricate sewing–mostly straight lines.

We needed to run an errand one evening, so we drove around a little extra to see Christmas lights. This business was so decorated, and had Christmas music blaring over a loud-speaker, so we got out to look. There were all kinds of characters–everything from life-sized reindeer pulling a life-sized sleigh on the roof, to the Nativity scene with visitors ranging from Mickey Mouse to the shepherds and a 2-story marching toy soldier on the grass nearby. It was quite a bright display, and where I would likely never go quite that far in my decorating, Malcolm was so impressed that I could hardly get him back into the car.

We also saw many houses decorated nicely and we enjoyed our drive very much.

I cooked some brownies with some help. I wanted them festive, as part of them were for the gluten-free college-age kids. Instead of buying an entire package of Christmas M and M’s, I just picked the red and green ones out of a large container I was given. (I did pick the orange and yellow ones off while my helper wasn’t looking.). After baking, they were set to cool. My helper extraordinaire jumped up on his chair and grabbed the pepper shaker, and before I could stop him, he liberally peppered them! I sent the un-peppered part and kept the rest at home. I hope. I haven’t gotten any comments about my spicy brownie recipe, so they are either very polite, or I found it all and cut around it:)

Through the week, we ate quite simply, and mostly from food storage. I thawed 2 kinds of soup that had been made previously and we ate them as well as opening a jar of home-canned soup. I thawed some squash and that’s gone, as well. My aunt gave me some chili, and we enjoyed that, too. I experimented with some Asian lettuce wraps, using the last of the garden cabbage, and they were good. Rob made some fajita-like filling, using beef, home-grown onions and frozen garden peppers. He ate his in tortillas that needed to be used and I ate mine on some rice.

We used quite a few home-canned items. I can always tell how much we are drawing on that resource by how fast the “empty-jar” basket fills and how often I have to empty it and bring in more filled jars from the outside shop. I love being able to use my “fast food” at this time of year. I hope to get some more sewing done, as I haven’t been finding time for that lately.

I filled one yard-debris bin with clippings from the yard. I hope to get some dry days and fill it again this week.

My sister took me to lunch and to see a Christmas concert at a nearby university. I was surprised to find that the concert was free. It was lovely.

We are keeping Christmas gifts very simple this year, so we have more time for experiences. We hope to finish the last of the gift buying this week and check that off our list. Next week will be filled with kid-time, as we will work with our nephew and niece quite a few extra hours. I’m laying my plans for fun activities and games, and think everyone will have fun.

Holidays, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week-Dec. 5, 2022

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This week, I was in a large Christmas play at our church. I sang in the choir. This is the adult choir and the children’s choir. There was also a drama team, an orchestra, set people, people who took care of the children, an ensemble, and so many more who participated. Although everyone has been practicing for weeks, separately, this week we all came together. We practiced several hours every night, except one, all week long. Then, we did a final dress rehearsal on Friday night, with about 20-30 in the audience, and then 3 performances over the rest of the weekend. The play was almost 2 hours long, and came out great every time, despite the fact that several succumbed to sickness over the week. By the last evening, the 3 shepherds abiding in the fields had shrunk to 2, and at one point 1, ….the 50 member choir was down to a little over 40….and the littlest wise man almost didn’t make it….but those kids were so cute, no one noticed!

The Christmas story was told in many different ways, along with the drama story line. It is the first time I have ever been in something with that many other people, and the first Christmas play I have personally participated in since I was a child. Over the years, I’ve directed, transported kids, sewed costumes, and more for children, but never sang or had a part myself.

This is something I’ve wanted to be in for several years, and I’m so excited I got my chance. I learned so much through the experience, and am in total awe of the 2 directors who oversaw it all.

The play was free for all to attend, and we had many, many people who took advantage of that offer.

I’m very tired today. Looking back, I really didn’t do much else than that last week, except prepare for my Sunday school class, cook meals ahead so they could be warmed up in the evenings, and work part of the week. My household has been fighting sickness this past week, but I’m so happy to say I made it through without getting super sick like some:)

We were able to make it through with frozen and canned foods and pantry staples and didn’t go shopping for much. There was no time, and we have plenty of food. I made a soup, white rice and brown rice, used some of the tater tots I made a couple of weeks ago. We used peaches, fruit cocktail, pears, home-canned soup, and Rob made a cherry crisp from our canned pie filling. I made pork verde for the college group and us, made into enchiladas. Rob cooked hamburger, and we finished up a Costco chicken he quickly stopped in for on Monday while picking up some things for our very sick neighbors. Covid is still a thing, in our neighborhood, at least:( Now that Costco has moved very close to my house, it’s easier to just grab a couple of things.

Malcolm spent some time outside, although the weather turned nasty for the latter part of the week. I only found time to take him on one walk, and we didn’t make it to the YMCA this week.

I did get a few Christmas decorations up around the house, and took down the Thanksgiving ones. Rob put up some yard lights and a blow-up snowman. I had to chuckle–it’s all facing our house. That way, Malcolm can see it all from the big picture window:). People on the street….not so much!

We are keeping Christmas quite simple this year, and we have a plan for the gifts we want to get, which we are now have time to follow. That, and some desperately needed cleaning, is high on my list for this next week!

Baby, Holidays, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week-Nov. 27, 2022

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Most of the past 2 weeks have been busy with Thanksgiving preparations–shopping, decorating, cooking, and then enjoying the day itself.

I gathered groceries from several sources over the past few weeks, gleaning sales and good prices where I could. Our menu was a little different this year, but only a little. We are traditionalists at heart, I guess! Besides the traditional turkey, we had shrimp skewers, beef teriyaki skewers, quinoa pilaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, grilled jalapeños, yams with marshmallows, gf stuffing, apple crisp, gf chocolate and pumpkin pies, Krispie treat turkeys (Malcolm’s contribution), salads, and other treats. We skipped the ham this time. Some relatives brought sides and desserts. Some generously gave me $ to buy extra goodies with. Everyone ate and ate, and there was plenty for people to take home, with the hopes that no one would need to cook for a day or two, at least.

I got the recipe for the shrimp skewers from a cookbook I downloaded onto my iPad from the library. They were threaded onto stalks of rosemary. Although much of my garden is gone, the rosemary is in good shape, so I had all I wanted to experiment with. There was a marinade I poured on and Rob grilled them.

He also grilled stuffed jalapeños. He used cheese and cream cheese and 3 different flavorings: crab, bacon, and cranberry/cheese. They were good, but mine was pretty spicy, so I stopped after one:) A few of the peppers were left from our garden, and the rest were purchased.

The teriyaki beef kabobs were a hit, as well. Rob also did the turkey on the BBQ, a day or two ahead, and we re-warmed it on Thursday. It helps me so much that he likes to cook outside and does so much on the grill. On Wednesday, I cooked everything I could do ahead and on Thursday morning, I just needed to finish things up (like warm, glaze and add marshmallows to the pre-cooked yams, warm and add topping to the green bean casserole, etc.) and mash the potatoes.

We have been extremely busy around here, besides the Thanksgiving preparations. Through it all, we have tried to stay as frugal as possible, while having as much fun as possible!

We have been utilizing the YMCA frequently. Jake, Michaela, and Malcolm all like to go into the pool as often as possible.

Our oldest daughter and her husband invited us to come to the beach last Saturday. They spent Friday night, but we joined them for the day Saturday.

The most surprising thing we saw was a bearded dragon lizard that a family had down on the beach, enjoying the weather. They graciously let Malcolm pet it all he wanted, then went on their way.

It was a perfect day at the beach! Our son-in-law showed us a place to drive right down onto the beach that we had not ever been to before and we all enjoyed some time on the sand. Then we went to Mo’s for lunch.

Last Sunday afternoon, we had both babies and did some serious leaf throwing while we were on a walk.

We all had fun!

After the whirlwind that was my past 2 weeks, I did absolutely nothing Friday. Nothing. I laid in bed, ate leftovers, played Candy Crush, took a nap, and read books. Saturday, we hit a few Black Friday sales, mostly on-line, and I did enjoy a trip to JoAnn’s to finish up my remaining gift card. I’m glad I did rest up, because tomorrow is Monday! It all starts up again, first thing in the morning.

I am in the Christmas choir at church and our drama/singing is next weekend, so I need to go to practice every day except one, then do the performance 3 times over the weekend. I have not done anything like this for a very long time, and I’m excited to participate.

Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week——November 15, 2022

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We were delighted to take the boys to the Gilbert House Children’s Museum this week.

The giant bubble was an especial hit. They could stand inside. There were so many other “bubbly” activities in that area! Rob said it was his favorite place to play in:)

I was able to get a pass from our local library so we got in for free. About 6 months ago, I noticed there were some passes available, but they were always being used by others until last week, at which point I happily snatched it from the shelf and checked it out. You can keep it for 1 week only and there is a huge, huge fine if you don’t return it. We returned it. On time.

I will check it out again if I get the opportunity.

One day I asked Rob to pick a cabbage. Even though it’s been very cold and frosty, they are holding up just fine. He surprised me with some really good broccoli and a cucumber, which made a good picture, but the cucumber wasn’t very good. He ate what he could of it. The cabbage was huge so I cut it up and shared chunks with family members and had plenty left for me.

We have been down to the YMCA several times this week. We have taken kids with us most times. They all seem to love the pool the most. I prefer the exercise bike. It’s so nice to use that membership to its fullest potential and that there’s something for each one of us that we enjoy doing for exercise.

It was a fairly quiet week, and I need weeks like that now and then.

food preservation

Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes!

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Recently, Rob found a good deal on potatoes. They were a little over 20c/lb. He bought several 10-lb bags, as I asked him to do, because potatoes have been over 50c/lb around here. I’ve seen them for about $4.50/10 lb bag and higher the last 2 weeks. This has been a steady price for several weeks now, and this is fall–a time where potatoes are usually less expensive due to the new crop.

We ate mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, diced and fried potatoes. I canned several quarts and many pints of potato chunks. I made potato salad twice. They were huge bowls and I shared with the college group and served it for my sister’s birthday.

I set 20 lbs aside in the garage, in a cool, dark, dry place, and put one bag under the sink, which we’ve mostly eaten up by now. I checked them this morning. Much to my dismay, they weren’t looking great. It’s no bargain to pay less for something if you let half of it rot…a person might as well pay the full price for fewer good bags, but obviously, in this case, we didn’t know they were going to go bad quickly. Normally, they last a long time when stored in my garage.

I didn’t want to can any more potatoes, so I got creative.

I made a pot of potato soup. It’s very simple. I just diced potatoes and one onion and cooked them with salt and pepper in some water until the potatoes were soft. I mixed some cornstarch with milk and added that and cooked until slightly thickened. Then, I stirred in some cheese and it was done.

I baked 4 potatoes that looked good.

I peeled and parboiled over 1/2 of my big pot full of potatoes. I left them whole, and cooked for about 10 minutes. Then, I grated one tray full. I then froze that flat in my chest freezer and will transfer them to a baggie when hardened up. They are hash browns. The internet gave several choices of how to keep them from browning, and this is the method I chose.

I took the rest of the parboiled potatoes and grated them into my largest Pyrex mixing bowl. I had about 2/3 of the bowl full of shreds. I put in 2 Tablespoons cornstarch, 3 Tablespoons Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 flour, 1/2 tsp Xanthum gum, 1-1/2 teaspoon salt, a dash of Cayenne pepper, and a dash of regular black pepper, and mixed it all up. I formed into little “tots” and fried in hot oil until brown on both sides.

This was a mixture of several recipes I found on the internet. Many of them had cheese, but I didn’t want to add that at this time, as my purpose was to use up potatoes!

We ate a bunch, and I am freezing 3 containers for later. I will either bake in the oven until hot and crisp or use my air fryer to warm up. If this is something we end up using and liking, I may experiment with cheese, or more cayenne, not cooking before I freeze, and many other ideas I have rolling around in my head. But, for the first time, I followed what most recipes advised, and we’ll see how we like them! The ones we ate fresh were SO good!!!

There is still a partial bag of potatoes that will need using up very soon, so I have plenty more to experiment on….if I hurry:)

kids, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week-Nov. 8-2022

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After more than 2 years of being closed and rebuilding, our local YMCA has re-opened. We have had a membership for several years and were using an alternate facility while they were closed. We are delighted to be back at a closer location. We will go more often, I know. They were more than generous to keep us on the same scholarship we were on before, so it’s very affordable.

Rob took Malcolm into the pool for his very first experience. They both had so much fun that we went again yesterday, with our nephew, Jake. Our new plan is that I help get the baby ready, put him in with Rob, run upstairs and ride an exercise bike, and then dash downstairs again to get Mac out, dressed, etc. About 30 minutes is the amount he can handle in there, so it works out great! Thank goodness Jake can do all that for himself. He had so much fun, too, and made 100 baskets in the swimming pool basketball net. Wow! I’m delighted to have another activity Jake likes to do. It’s been harder to find things to do now that the weather has become more stormy and the park doesn’t work as well.

We made a trip to the library. There was a toddler story time, which I attended with Malcolm, and Rob took Jake upstairs to the kid section. Again, a fun, free activity. We even got a very short walk in around the block between rain showers.

We made a small Costco run and Rob and Malcolm enjoyed the hot dogs. We bought one of the $5 chickens, which we have been eating on all week. I finally boiled the bones and made soup yesterday.

We’ve cooked a lot this week. People seem to be extremely hungry. We’ve made soup, home baked fish sticks, tater tots (from a frozen bag), noodles, beef-vegetable soup, muffins, gf French bread and rolls (from one batch), brown rice, white rice, French fries from potatoes, apple crisp, and more. We’ve eaten chicken multiple times, finished the roast beef with potatoes and carrots from last week, and I’ve gone through about 3 pounds of carrots! Needless to say, I needed to go to the store.

I have been concentrating on gathering things for Thanksgiving. I’ve got most of what I need, at rock bottom prices. I’ve clipped many digital coupons, including the $10/ off $50 from Safeway. I picked up a few things from both Walmart and Winco that were good prices there. I was very surprised at the amount of people in the Winco store. I also visited Natural Grocers for some specialty items they have, such as gf stuffing.

I was able to redeem quite a few Ibotta rebates. One of my favorites was ketchup, with a $2.50 rebate. Another was instant oatmeal, where I bought the boxes for $1.99 and got $1.25 back on each box. I got 5. I haven’t been doing Ibotta very much lately, as there haven’t been rebates offered on things I use much, but this time there were quite a few items available, so I took the time to get them.

Rob was able to use a $10/off $50 from Winco to buy a case of jar lids. That coupon doesn’t come around very often, but one came in the mail, and thankfully, they had jar lids and he remembered to use the coupon! Go Rob!!

Rob smoked one of the huge trout he caught last spring. We were doing the lesson of Jesus feeding the 5,000 during our Sunday school class and he wanted to show them one way of preserving fish, although this was not the exact kind of preservation method used in the Bible, and it certainly wasn’t trout there in Israel. He offered tastes, thinking they would decline. Instead, those kids ate the entire fish! We were surprised, for sure! I’m just hoping there is another one of those left in the freezer, because it was SO good! He’s been using them on holidays and special occasions, so I”m not sure how many are still in there.

I brought 5 small buns and told Rob to get busy while I told the story–I needed him to break them up into between 5,000 and 20,000 pieces. Not being God, he wasn’t able to comply, but the kids got a good laugh out of it and ate all the buns, too. They also ate the goldfish crackers we played a game with, apple slices from the skit, and the oyster crackers from another review game. Like I said, everyone seems extra hungry this week!!!

Cooking for a crowd, House Projects, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week(s)-Nov. 1, 2022

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We took the boys to the church’s harvest party last night. They were so cute in their costumes. Auntie Lovana got those together from thrift stores and ordered a few accessories. They cost about $6. She was happy they were so cute for so little cost, and that they will be able to wear the clothes again. They were very unique in a sea of Spidermans, Elsas, and so forth.

I took the opportunity over the past 2 weeks to do some really deep cleaning, sorting and organizing.

Since Patsy has decided to move out, but didn’t want to clean her own room out :(, I did it. I boxed up anything I thought she might want later and stored it in the shop, packed a bunch of it that she picked up Sunday, threw massive amounts away, cleaned up 6-10 U-Haul boxes of stuff one of her sisters had put in there and apparently stirred and threw around, and then I cleaned it and painted it blue. Our house is very small. I am so excited about having another room in use!

Now it is set up for the boys, with some sewing things still in part of the closet. I worked so many hours in there, and it wasn’t my favorite activity, but now it looks great. I used a X-stitch I had made when the kids were small, along with a few pictures I had to decorate. Some had been stored, so it was nice to get them out and use them, especially the X-stitch, as it took many, many hours to complete back in the day.

Now all the toys are in that room, instead of my living room and garage. The bed is still in there, for when it is needed.

Our 1/4 beef was ready at the place where it was cut and wrapped. When we drove out to pick it up, there was a pen of goats and sheep, which Malcolm enjoyed very much.

We used to cook once a month for the young adult group at church. Recently, they have been meeting again, and we cooked for all of them once. I made chili and cornbread. Then, although others signed up to cook for the main group, it became apparent that some gluten-free food was needed for about 6 members, some of which are so sensitive that they will simply sit and watch others eat, rather than chance getting sick. That’s not a very fun way to spend an evening. Because I’m the same way, we’ve been cooking gluten-free food for 6 and Rob’s been taking it over there each week.

If I ever have a week where I don’t want to or can’t, there is another who can bring allergy-friendly food. But for now, I’m amazed at the way the Lord is providing for this ministry and for us personally. I should not be surprised, but I always am when I see Him stretch our resources to fit the needs that come our way, or how He lays it on someone’s heart to give us something we need, at just the right time.

For example, the other day, Rob walked into a store, and found a manager’s special of chicken drumsticks for 60c/lb. That’s what they are getting tonight. One of my sisters sent boxes of apples from her tree that had a bumper crop–apple crisp on the way! I do love to cook, so it’s win-win.

Rob was running low on coffee and found GOOD K-cups for $1/box. Really! He bought several. And, so it goes.

We’ve been blessed with gifts and bargains, both, plus a huge crop from our garden. My canning cupboards are stuffed beyond what they can hold and have spilled over into boxes. My freezers are full. We are very grateful for everything we’ve been given. As Thanksgiving comes closer, I really want to focus on the goodness of God and how he continues to care for us and meet every need we have.

Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–Oct. 17, 2022

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On Saturday, we took Malcolm up the Columbia River Gorge. First we stopped at Lewis and Clark park and let him run around and crunch leaves for quite some time.

We went further to the Bonneville Dam Fish Hatchery. This is the sturgeon viewing center. A gentleman told him to flap his arms and say “sturgie, sturgie, sturgie,” and the fish would come over. He did, and they did. He scrambled down from that little ledge as fast as he could. That fish was MUCH bigger than he expected. After that, though, he watched for a long, long time. It was fun.

There were small fish in there, too, and he liked the itty, bitty, baby fish, as well.

He fed the large trout in that pool. We only had 3 quarters on us, so could only get 3 small handfuls of food, but he seemed to enjoy it while it lasted.

He even saw Bigfoot!

The picnic was fun. We took bubbles and spent quite a bit of time running around trees and blowing bubbles.

There’s a lot of wind in that area, so they flew quite a ways. When we realized they were blowing right onto another family’s picnic, we stopped. Oops!

We toured Bonneville Dam as well. As you can see, he was getting pretty tired by this time, but he liked the firetruck outside as much as anything there.

And, why, may you ask, did we take a toddler on such a long car trip? It was because his auntie had a hair appointment in NE Portland and we agreed to be her transportation. That is quite a distance from where we live, so we decided to just stay up in the area, and have a good time with Mac. We dropped her off at 9:30 a.m. She was finally finished at 6 p.m. Her hair is now beautifully braided with extensions, as she likes to wear it. And to think she will get to do it all over again in 6-8 weeks. What a patient young lady!

Although we do not usually take her for these hair adventures, it turned out to be a really fun day and Malcolm did great! He’s still talking about those fish! For such a little child, he tolerated the long car ride very well.

Even with all those activities, we had a lot of time to kill, and spent a bunch of it in a traffic jam around Multnomah Falls. We had decided to take the scenic highway and clearly there were more people who wanted to visit the falls than there were parking spaces, so we all sat there for a long, long time. We didn’t actually decide to stop there, as it was so busy, but enjoyed a quick peek out the window. We’ve seen it many times and will have more chances some other time. We drove up to Crown Point, and looked down on the Columbia River. It was extremely windy up there.

I did a little more canning. These jars have layers of carrots, celery, onion, potatoes and hamburger. Then I pressure canned them using the longest processing time, which was for the hamburger. They will be quick dinners and used up some of those potatoes Rob got inexpensively.

I spent several short sessions picking all the tomatoes, green and red. I’ve pulled up almost all the vines and removed the cages from the garden. I also pulled most of the pepper plants. Several other veggies are gone now, too. Because my garden is so large, I cannot seem to find the time to do it all in one day, so I’ve been chipping away at it when I can. I also worked on a couple of raised beds and one flowerbed a time or two. They say the fall rains will begin this weekend, and our beautiful weather is going to be over, so I’ve been trying to get as much done as I can.

The week was full of lots of visitors, which translated into lots of cooking. On Monday, our son Anthony came over with Allison. Patsy, who has decided to move out and is living with friends, decided to come over for the afternoon. She did this twice this week. My mom and I spent a relaxing day on Friday.

I also cooked for the college-age group at church on Tuesday.

I cooked chili mac, a huge pot of chili for the kids, cornbread, brownies, turkey soup, turkey gravy over mashed potatoes, potato soup, enchilada casserole for myself and a friend with a death in the family, and more. I decided not to go shopping, but instead to use my pantry and freezers, and had plenty. I really utilized the turkey bits I had frozen a couple of weeks ago when I roasted one from last Thanksgiving time. The main substitution I had to make was to use powdered milk a couple of times instead of regular, as I ran low on that, but it all worked out. I had Rob pick up a gallon today, so that’s good now.

I wanted to clean out the fridge a little, and it’s finally looking a little more empty. It was just too crammed. I worry I will end up wasting food if I can’t find something, so periodically I refuse to shop until it clears out a bit.

I made a large batch of cupcakes and sent some over to a young family friend who had a birthday today. The rest I froze for future busy weeks.

We also enjoyed a bonfire hot dog roast with our Sunday School class on Friday night. Although we’ve only been working with these kids for a few months, this is a tradition they have done for quite a few years before Covid happened, so the children’s pastor wants to get it going again. A family puts it on at their farm. Other than Rob giving a short devotion and helping out a little here and there, we got to just enjoy ourselves and the kids. It was a beautiful evening and the kids all loved it.

Garden, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–Oct. 9, 2022

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This week, we finished drying the onions. We got over 100 pounds of them from the garden. Not only have we been eating them since they were big enough to get even a small bulb from, we’ve shared many with family and friends and still have several mesh bags dried for winter.

My sister shared apples from her trees. They are super good and crunchy.

I canned some cinnamon red hot apple wedges, apple slices and also a few jars of apples studded with raisins and dried cranberries, a new recipe from my canning book. I only made 5 pints, but I think I will do a few more because it tastes so good.

Almost every tomato is now picked, even the green ones. I’ve pulled many of the bushes and only left a few that still have a few sad and sorry looking tomatoes on them. There are a few on the porch in a box to eat fresh and I’m hoping the few green ones will ripen over time so we can enjoy them at least for a couple more weeks.

I got my salsa verde canned with green tomatoes.

I tripled the batch because we didn’t have enough last year and got 20 jars, a mixture of sizes ranging from a pint and smaller.

I made one last batch of pasta sauce with the entire box of tiny little red tomatoes I picked on Friday. Surprise! I thought I was done with tomato products, but……now I am. I got 3 quarts and 5 pints.

I’ve picked both broccoli and cabbage from my fall planting. There are a few cucumbers and zucchini left, but not many. Those bushes are looking pretty sad from powdery mildew, a problem we get around here.

I canned some diced potatoes from bags Rob got for a good price. I also have lots of potatoes left to eat fresh, so I made a potato salad one night when we were having company.

I cooked a turkey that I got last year around Thanksgiving. I made broth and canned 7 quarts. I have enough bits and broth to make a batch of soup, as well. I froze some packages of turkey for future use and we ate some.

I had lots of help with my cooking. Here, we are making biscuits. They came out good.

This was a week where I was very busy with the garden, canning, and seeing friends and family. We had company one night. A good friend dropped by for lunch one day. She lives out of town and was passing through, and we enjoyed every minute we had before she needed to be on her way.

The wedding last week was fun, but it feels good to put that project to rest and focus on my home life once again.

Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week-October 3, 2022

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I grew a watermelon that tastes good! As Elmo would say, “Happy, Happy, Happy! Do the Happy Dance!”

We got one earlier, but it wasn’t that great. This is the Blacktail Mountain variety from Territorial, and is a personal-sized melon, bred to develop in a short season, with cooler nights. It worked! There are 3 super small ones still out there, and I hope they will be good, too. I saved seeds, since it’s open pollinated. Maybe I’ll grow it again next year since it WORKED!!! I’ve had very little success growing them in our climate in the past.

We are still eating tomatoes, zucchini and had a meal of green beans last week. We are still getting cucumbers and we pulled all the onions. They are drying so we can have them all winter.

Most of our week was consumed by my niece’s wedding. (See previous post for details).

Although formal weddings are never inexpensive, we did do things to help keep the cost of the reception down.

Rob smoked 4 kinds of meat on his Green Mountain Grill. He used various marinades on them and they turned out great! He got roast beef at the Chef’s Supply store a few weeks ago and froze it, as it was a good price then. The Ham was from Costco. Turkey breast was hard to find, but he finally got 2 at Walmart, of all places. He took it off the bone, tied it with twine and cooked it. When we were finding a hard time sourcing enough of other meats for a good price, my sister spotted some pork loin at Costco and the entire, huge piece was only $22. So, Rob went and got that and cooked it, as well, to make sure there would be enough. It turned out to be his personal favorite.

The meat slicer was borrowed so we would not to have the expense of purchasing one. We sliced for over 3 hours one afternoon, and the ham was already sliced. It was funny. At one point, the meat was shooting out wildly, with us cringing back, since we aren’t comfortable with the sharp, sharp-bladed tool–By the end, it was all over the kitchen, and in our hair, even. (The sliced meat, itself, was stacked and wrapped in plastic wrap and bags, and put back into the fridge immediately, so no worries there.). It took over an hour to disassemble it and clean it properly, and we were hoping it was done right. Thankfully, Rob met the owner at the wedding, and they talked. The man is going to double check our assembly work, to make sure it’s right. Whew!!!

We used some dill from our garden in the dips, along with many dahlias and zinnias in floral arrangements. Some peppers were picked to add to the decor, then chopped and frozen afterwards.

The biggest way we saved money on this reception was the amount of do-it-yourself projects we did and all the cooking we accomplished. It turned out lovely.

Since Rob was giving a prayer during the ceremony, the couple bought him this tie they wanted him to wear. We had to buy him a new shirt, as he didn’t have one. He usually wears t-shirts. I was able to use a sweater I bought on clearance a couple of years ago, but had never worn. I had purchased it off-season (hence the clearance price) and put it in a drawer to save until the weather was righ, …..but forgot about it for a while. I put it with a skirt that I’ve had a long time, but matched perfectly.

Since all fridges of all family members within reasonable distance were crammed with wedding food, I didn’t let anyone shop for groceries last week. In fact, on Saturday, I resorted to peanut butter sandwiches for both me and Mac for lunch. Neither of our favorites, and if you know me at all, you know I usually eat about 1-2 per year, but that was our option:). I wasn’t allowing cooking or leftovers there toward the end, either, hence the sandwich. Rob and Mac ate a jar of pears between them for another meal….You see how it was.

Today, I took a bunch of the leftover carrots and celery and used them in a vegetable-beef soup. Lovana and I had salad for dinner. Rob had a meat sandwich. So, we are starting to work through the leftovers we brought home already.

I picked the few remaining tomatoes, green and red, from one row today, then pulled the bushes up. Cleaning out the garden is one of the next big goals to accomplish around here. I will make a double batch of Salsa Verde to can in the next day or so with the green tomatoes. Rob chopped up all the red peppers (Carmen) and froze them on Saturday, so those bushes can be pulled, too. I don’t have enough time or stamina to do this entire job as once, so I’m breaking it up and plan to do a little each day,

Making My Home A Haven