Worry, worry, worry!

I heard from my Daughter Jude over the weekend and she was telling me that the microscopic fibers from our synthetic clothing are collecting in the ocean water.  They're not biodegradable like cotton, wool and silk, etc.  So I looked it up and sure enough it's true, and the place they're testing the water is around Australia, where you would think there would be fewer washing machines than maybe here in the USA?  They don't know what the consequences will be but not good, it seems.  For a couple of days I went around looking at labels.  I had the idea that most of what I owned would turn out to be natural fibers, and hence ok.  The new (second-hand) sheets were indeed linen with cotton embroidery thread and crochet thread.  My nifty knit nighty was all cotton.  Ditto the towels in the bathroom.  But then I began to find other things.  Almost all my underwear was synthetic.  Bill's favorite shirt was acrylic though we both imagined it was wool.  Interestingly, it was made in Australia!  My favorite sweater, pink, with my initial in tiny pink studs, was also acrylic as well as nylon and spandex.  I wore it anyway today.  The sin is in washing it, after all.  I will have some time to think about it because the washing machine died over the weekend anyway.  Sigh, another man-made thing to worry about.  However, I have just achieved some favorable results from my experiments with beeswax cloth.  I read about it on-line and made up a beeswax and mineral oil mixture and dipped squares of cotton (thankfully) in and pulled them out in great sodden lumps to cool and solidify.  Not hopeful looking.  But then I had the idea to iron them with pairs of undipped squares sandwiched between.  Bingo, flexible but water resistant and nearly airtight wraps.  I made some big enough to wrap a sandwich in and some smaller to lay over bowls and secure with rubber bands.  If I get some food on them, they wipe clean with a damp cloth.  I like them very much.  They store flat in the drawer.  A way to reduce the use of plastic wrap and aluminum foil.  
And ultimately biodegradable.

Another item we acquired in order to be more green and clean was a carpet sweeper.  I have for some time deplored our vacuum cleaner because it sprays dust into the air.  Bill found me an old (1986) but new in the box product called the Hokey from Hukaba, made in Japan.  It has a sturdy metal handle and natural bristle brushes.  It cost about $25.  I was very surprised that it picked up far more small dust and fibers than the vacuum seems to.  No bags but you do have to brush out the cup with a paint brush because of static electricity, but that's not hard.  So far I am very pleased with this too.

 
It's been nearly three weeks since we went to the grocery and the cooking is picking up.  I cooked some stew beef in the small crockpot to make Strogonoff.  And a whole bag of pinto beans in the large crockpot.  That made 8 pints of chili beans.  I had used the last bag in the freezer to make Fajitas on Saturday.  That is one of our favorite meals.  Chunks of chicken and onion and green pepper are sauteed in a hot skillet, sprinkled with a little Pico de Gallo and served with rice and chili beans with shredded cheddar cheese and salsa and sour cream as condiments.  We dispensed with tortilla wrappers.  We had canned mandarin oranges for dessert.  On Sunday we had the Strogonoff with left-over rice steamed with some water and butter.  As a side, I sauteed tiny frozen baby green beans in butter and garlic in an iron skillet.  I let some just blacken.  They were delicious.
Today I made chili with the newly cooked chili beans and we had it two-way, with pasta and shredded cheddar cheese, and with it we had toasted tortillas with salsa and sour cream.  These are just cut in wedges and baked in a 425degree oven for about ten minutes. (but watch them like a hawk)  Just a little coarse salt sprinkled over and these are low fat and low sodium chips for about $.50 for the two of us.  For dessert we had some of those delicious Margaret Holms O'sage Peaches.  Tomorrow we'll have leftover scolloped ham and potatoes with cheese on top and some salad and some bread and butter.  More peaches wait in a glass jar in the fridge.  On Wednesday we'll have soup made from the leftover Strogonoff and sandwiches made on rye buns with sliced chicken on a mixture of cream cheese and finely minced onion, garlic and green pepper (not very much green pepper) and seasoned with sea salt and maybe some dill.  This is a delicious sandwich!  For dessert we'll eat the last of the peaches.  On Thursday we'll have the chili again, with the chips, et cetera only with dark chocolate for dessert.  And on Friday we'll have chicken stir fry with cabbage and carrots and broccoli, soy sauce and over rice.  And chocolate for dessert.  These are all well-loved meals.  I am already getting the long grocery list ready.  The budget is $226 but I already spent some for $1 a pound chicken.  We have 24 chicken breasts in the freezer now.
I want to buy some salmon steaks as we are tired of canned salmon.  I hear the price of beef is skyrocketing so maybe some pork chops would be better.  We'll see . . . .
Happy menus to you!

Cozy during the Christmas preparations

A well laid fire is no trouble to light and doesn't need to be fussed with to keep it lit.

Just shut the door but be sure the drafts are open.

Mine even has a thermometer to let us know if it is getting too hot!  Very handy it is too.

I do love to start up the stove.  It's not just that the house is 70 degrees again, the very heat of the stove calls to us when we are getting tired in the afternoon or watching tv in the evening or just reading.  Then we snuggle up at the stone hearth and take comfort in the palpable warmth.  No furnace provides that.  But we've not had many really cold days.  And a wood fire warms the house too much if it's not cold outside.  The cold is coming though!
This year I wanted to have some real mincemeat for the holidays.  So I got out some of the stew beef we bought from the Butcher's Block and cooked it in my small crock pot.  Then I added apples, raisins, brown sugar and spices.

It cooked in the crock pot some more and finally filled 2 quart jars to make 2 pies for Christmas parties and for Christmas day feast.  Beside it are 5 jars of rose hip jam made from dried rose hips from Blooming Foods.

I made fruit cake the same day.  Owing to having so many projects going at the same time, I forgot to put the oranges in the mincemeat.  It tastes great anyway, though.
Today I got out the feather tree and the ornaments.  And there was a little note in the box to myself.  It said:

                                                   For Christmas 2011
Walnuts
Orange slices, 2 bags please.
Cordial Cherries, 2 boxes
Plain or iced gingerbread
Salted peanuts or cashews
Sugar Cookie "trees"  (stacked)
Fruit cake, double fruit Please,
Peppermints


I wished I had read it before I went to the store, but I can stop in again.  It's too late for the double fruit in the fruitcake but I do agree it would have been better.  I did get the peanuts but only one box of Cordial Cherries and one bag of Orange slices.  And I got pecans instead of walnuts.  Apparently I felt very strongly about the Christmas refreshments last year.  But you know what, I loved getting a note from myself!


Here are the menus for this week:
Hoppin' John, Green salad, Cream biscuits, Fruit cocktail
Thin Steaks, mashed potatoes, tossed salad, Fruit cocktail
Chicken fingers with bar-be-que sauce, roasted garlic potatoes, Asian vegetables, fruitcake
Hoppin' John soup, Chef's salad, fresh hot bread from the oven
Hamburgers, baked sweet potatoes, left-over salad, Butterscotch pudding
Hearty meat canned soup, toasted cheese sandwiches, pudding
Frozen Pizza, salad, pudding


The cream biscuits were a big success.  My daughter Rose came over to experiment with it.  The recipe came from my 'new' 1924 cook book It's just 2 cups self-rising flour and 1 1/3 cup whipping cream.  Mix gently.   Roll out about 1" thick, cut with small cutter, bake at 425 about12 to 15 minutes.  Some recipes call for a tablespoon of sugar.  Yummy either way!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A few weeks ago we drove over to Gosport, Indiana, to visit Nate's Candy Jar, which specializes in home-made candy.  Bill is quite smitten with their caramels, softer and larger than the little squares we buy at the grocery.  When we walked in, it smelled like Heaven.  Alyssa was just wrapping these fancy candied apples for Halloween!  Fresh cupcakes are under the dome.  The bottle of hand lotion is one of the things I took home that day.  She sells Watkins too, whose products I have always liked.  I have their lovely vanilla from her too.

Look how many old fashioned candies they have!

They have all kinds of candy!  And every bit tempting and luscious!  Worth the 22 mile trip, I assure you.

Today I have finished the pies for tomorrow, pumpkin, of course, then sweet potato and cheesecake with pineapple sauce. There are cookies too, Alexander Tortes (from my Russian cookbook) with an apple filling. The cranberry chutney is done.  The chicken breasts are marinating in orange juice, soy and garlic. Tomorrow morning I will start by frying the onion rings for the green bean casserole, cutting up bread for the dressing and setting some white yeast dough for hot rolls.  While the chicken and dressing and rolls are baking, we'll make the whipped potatoes and gravey.  My daughter is bringing things too, fruit salad and olives and celery and I don't know what else!  We will have a feast.
And about time, I've been getting ready and we've been eating frozen pizza, soup, and leftover salmon patties all week!

So here are the menus:
Thanks giving:  Baked marinated chicken breasts, sage dressing, green bean casserole with extra mushrooms and home-made fried onion rings, whipped potatoes with  gravy, hot rolls, relish tray, cranberry chutney, fruit salad and for dessert, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, and pineapple sauced cheesecake.
Friday:Leftovers of the very best sort.
Saturday: Home-made vegetable soup and toasted cheese sandwiches
Sunday Italian spaghetti, tossed salad
Monday, Hoppin John with sausage, rice and black-eyed peas, tossed salad
Tuesday:  Baked Pasta with cheese, tossed salad
Wednesday:  Hoppin' John, tossed salad


I have made the sweet potato pie by a Southern recipe calling for butter, vanilla, white sugar, eggs, milk and nutmeg.  I had not made a distinction between pumpkin and sweet potato before but this recipe is delicious!  How do I know?  Well, I licked the bowl, of course!  The pumpkin pie was made with frozen Halloween pumpkin, the very one Eliyah decorated with a black marker.  There is an easy way to do this.  I did a pumpkin and a pie squash at the same time.  Split each one and scrape out the seeds.  Save to toast in the oven if you like.  Put the halves in baking pans with sides (to catch the juice) and bake at 350 for about an hour, or until soft.  Remove from the oven and let cool.  Then just scoop out the soft flesh with a spoon and put it into plastic sandwich bags, 2 cups to each, lay flat on a cookie sheet and freeze.  2 cups will make a regular sized pie.  If you like it smoother, mix up the filling in your blender!  There is almost no waste in doing this.

Ready for freezing.  The squash is a darker color than the pumpkin.   Notice my thick stemmed geraniums, just starting to bloom again  now that they have come inside!

Just the empty skins left.

Here's hoping you have many things to be thankful for this year,  I know I do.  And many happy returns!

September is the harvest season

These vegetables cost me $5 at a roadside stand: 4 giant tomatoes (each one weighs about 12 ounces), 3 red peppers, 3 zucchini, and 5 baby pumpkins!  I love this season.  We stopped at the orchard below Bedford and bought a peck of apples too.  I had a new recipe for "Paper Bag Apple Pie".  But it called for boiled cider.  So Eliyah and I stopped at the store and bought some apple juice and I boiled it down to a thick syrup in a crock pot.  We made the pie the next day and Eliyah and his mother took some home. It was very good but rather a lot of trouble.  The topping was streusel rather than strips of pie crust.  The paper bag we baked it in became very browned and smelled of burning paper!          

In this lovely weather, I like to hang out the laundry.  The whites I hang in the sun on my umbrella line which I installed in the back yard myself 10 years ago, using a bag of cement that can be mixed right in the hole to set the pipe in.  In the winter the whole top portion can be brought in, folded and stored in the garage.  A good thing to do because now-a-days a sooty coating appears on the rope that comes off on your whites and has to be scrubbed off very vigorously because it doesn't come out of the clothes at all. I don't remember that from all the clothes lines in my childhood!  The darks I put on a folding rack on the front porch.  They don't need any sunlight to fade them.  I like the smell of outdoors and the faint stiffness in the fabric. Too, sunlight is the best disinfectant of all and completely non-toxic.

Here are the menus for the week:

Sunday:  Boneless pork chops, dressing, sliced tomatoes, corn, the last of the pie

Monday:  Pasta with red sauce, tossed salad, dark chocolate

Tuesday:  Hot dogs, cottage fried potatoes, steamed broccoli, dark chocolate

Wednesday:  French bread pizza, ice cream

Thursday:  Hamburgers, garlicky broiled potato wedges, sliced tomatoes, last of the ice cream

Friday, Chili, cheese sandwiches, tomato slices, if there are any more, canned peaches

Saturday:  Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, Home canned green beans, canned peaches

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Summertime

      I am really enjoying summer this year, even through the heat, even though I keep putting off the yard work and it's getting pretty shaggy now.  And now that Eliyah comes three days a week, I am sure I'm going to play some every week.  Last week he beat me roundly at checkers!  I am enjoying the garden produce and the flowers too.  Here are some Zinnias in the yard of a friend who has a green thumb.  She has lots of tomatoes too and I took some home and canned Salsa for her and for us.

In my Friend's yard are many flowers.

Some people don't realize how pretty Hydrangeas are in alkaline soil.

 

There were six jars of salsa but we have already eaten one!

     Here is a new cookbook I bought last week when I was Not-buying antiques with a friend.  It's a Russian cookbook from 1969, a Time-Life series. (it cost me a grand $2) It has a number of recipes in it so I was surprised to find that it's not actually the cookbook, but a story-line that goes with a spiral bound cookbook.  Bill has ordered me the other part but in the mean-time, I have begun to use the recipes in the book  This one is Kulebiaka, salmon in pastry.  I try to have fish about once a week but Bill is not very fond of seafood, unless you mean shrimp.  I liked the look of this recipe and the fact that the filler was rice rather than my usual oatmeal when I make salmon patties.  Herbs made the taste memorable and really, I was surprised that canned salmon could taste so good, and ordinarily I like it anyway!

Here is the book

Here is the pie, well, one-half the pie

    

A better view

Here's the picture in the book.  It was not difficult to make.  Recipe follows.

     Here are my menus for the week:
Thursday-  Hot dogs, roasted garlic potatoes, sliced tomatoes, watermelon
Friday-Sandwiches only as we had eaten lunch out and were not very hungry. Later we had popcorn.
Saturday- Kulebiaka, fresh corn on the cob, tomato salad with blue cheese and watermelon
Today- Spinach dip and toast squares, pasta with red sauce, salad, almond cookies
Monday-Anniversary dinner at Scholar's Inn, It's been 11 years since Bill came to stay with his little suitcase!  In October we'll celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.
Tuesday-left-over Kulebiaka, steamed mixed vegetables, Cherry tomatoes with blue cheese, watermelon
Wednesday-Chef's salad with cheese, egg and meat, baked potatoes, watermelon, if there's any left!
Thursday-Hamburgers with lettuce and tomato, garlic roasted potatoes, cookies, if there are any left!

Kulebiaka, or my version of it.

1 can salmon, 14 ounces
1  1/2 cups cooked rice
2 eggs, beaten
1 small onion, minced finely
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 scant teaspoon salt
some ground pepper
4 large pats butter
1 recipe best piecrust

Piecrust: 2 cups plain flour, 1 stick butter, 1/3 cup cold water, 4 tablespoons cooking oil
Work the butter into the flour, first with a knife, then with your fingers.  Measure the cold water, add the oil to the water and pour into the flour and butter mixture.  Gently mix until barely sticking together.  Divide in half and roll out each half into a long thin oval, one somewhat wider than the other, make it about 10 or 12  inches long and about 6 or 7 inches wide.  Mix the salmon, with its juice but picking out the backbones, the rice, eggs, onion and flavorings well.  Spoon onto the wider piece of pie crust, piling it up high. Dot with butter.   Lay the second piece of crust over the first and the fish pile and press the edges down, then fold the bottom, wider portion over the top edge and crimp.  Cut a steam hole in the middle. Transfer carefully with two spatulas to baking sheet.   Bake at 400 for about 50 minutes, watch the browning at the end.  Makes about 7 or 8 generous servings.

For the tomato salad, I just chop up tomatoes, sprinkle with bits of blue cheese and drizzle with a little salad dressing.  Cherry tomatoes can be cut in half.

     I am always on the look-out for a good recipe.  I don't mind paying for a cook book that has several recipes that become family favorites and end up being used frequently through-out the year.  Of course, the internet has an endless supply of recipes and I do use it and keep a loose leaf notebook full of print-outs, but to do a search you need to have a recipe in mind.  A cook book with a regional theme, or an opinionated author may have something I haven't even thought of.  And yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Holding the line, spending $50 a week for 2 people, or $200 a month

When I went to the store this month, I went over by $33!  And I was not best pleased.  When I got home I looked at the receipts and added and subtracted.  In fact, non-food items totaled about $30.  So I still spent $203 on the month's food.  But I have never done that before, separated the food from the non-food.  So it feels like cheating.  Some things that increased sharply in price were soft drinks, bathroom necessities, and dairy products.  It is also true that I bought all our meat at a local butcher shop.  Their meat was much better quality and I deemed it not excessively more expensive, but it was slightly more.  I spent $24 on 2 # bacon, 3 # ground sirloin, 1 # sweet Italian sausage and 1 # beef stew meat.  I still have chicken breasts in the freezer from two months ago.  That amounts to about 25 meals.  Some canned salmon and soup will round it out for a month.
  It is also true that last month was our midnight foray and while I kept the budget then, I elected not to buy some items that were more expensive at that store.  So you could say we were at an all time low as far as our pantry went.

Empty

 There are still some potatoes but only one sprouting onion.  On the bottom shelf are empty canning jars, which are starting to mount up since we have eaten more than half of our home canned goods.

Full

Empty

Full

Some very successful mini cupcakes on a vintage serving tray.  The icing is flavored with my vanilla bean in vodka home-made flavoring.  Very strong!

Here are my stuffed chicken breasts, using left-over dressing, butter, sage and dehydrated onion on top.  Bake for about 1 hour at 350 degrees.

And here is the finished meal, with whipped potatoes and edible pod peas, a little gravy, tea for me and soft drink for Hubby

When I got home from the store yesterday I processed all the meat.  Divided the 3 pounds of ground sirloin  ($3.00 a pound) into meal sized patties and put them up in sandwich bags.  The last 10 ounces I made into little meat loaves.  These are intended to be sliced longways providing properly sized slices for both our plates.  After they are baked the two we don't eat immediately are frozen and can be heated in the microwave for a quick supper.

These are small individual loaf pans.

Today I went with a friend to Spring Mill Park to look at Nature in the early spring.  We go several times a year.  They have a wonderful Inn with a buffet that features fabulous desserts.  I am afraid I had more than one dessert!  Here we are visiting  the Hamer  Cemetery afterward  which I had never visited before.

A veteran of the War of 1812!

A weeping willow expresses sorrow.

A child's grave

Hubby is restoring a box for an early Dremel tool.  Note the tiny clamps.

Almost done!  I am sure the sugar canister has been used to hold something down.

    
Menus for the week:
Tomato soup made with tomato paste and canned milk, a little water to thin, some dill, dehydrated onion, salt and sugar.  Roast beef sandwiches with Swiss cheese and home-made Aioli on dark rye. Tossed salad
.
Quarter pounders on whole wheat rolls, roasted potato wedges, tossed salad.

Fried Chicken strips, baked potatoes, home-canned green beans.

Beef stew, biscuits with slivers of cheese, salad.

Shepard's pie made with the left-over beef stew, flavored with a tablespoon of tomato paste and some extra frozen vegetables and surrounded with whipped potatoes, salad.

Pasta Carbonara, that is, with bacon, dried tomatoes etc, salad.

Pork fried rice, salad, bread and butter.

For desserts, I want to make a Pineapple-upside-down Cake with the fresh pineapple I bought, 4 for $5.  The rest of the pineapple will be cut up in chunks and frozen in sandwich bags for desserts of "fresh" fruit.  We like it very much, half frozen and with a dusting of sugar.  It can also be made into fruit salad as the freezing doesn't alter the texture as it does with strawberries.  I have the sponge for bagels resting on the counter in the kitchen.  I'll finish them tomorrow.  I am already thinking about the Easter dinner, which falls in this month so will be made with things I have already bought.  Here is the proposed menu:

Tingmo (steamed bread dumplings) with 2 dipping sauces
African peanut and pumpkin soup
Pork sesame noodles with shredded cabbage
Home frozen corn on the cob
Salad, my daughter-in-law is bringing
Baklava
 Mini cupcakes overbalanced with Peeps on top, a traditional Easter dessert here.

 I admit it is um, eclectic!