Frugal Accomplishments - November 17th through 23rd

- While I didn't start it this week, our apple cider vinegar is about ready to use.  It has developed two really fantastic mothers, one on top and one on bottom.

 

- I cooked a cinderella pumpkin that has been hanging around for a month.  I saved the seeds to grow for next year, and I put it in the cold oven to dry because I didn't have counterspace, but I forgot about it and preheated the oven with them in there.  They fused to the wax paper.  Oops.

- Mr. B made a pumpkin cheesecake for us using the pumpkin puree I cooked.  It was delicious and didn't last more than two days in our house.

 

 

 - I froze 16 cups of pumpkin in 1/3 cup servings using muffin pans.  One block makes 6 doughnuts with the scaled down one egg version of this recipe from King Arthur Flour.  I made a pumpkin spice latte and one batch of doughnuts with the 1/2 cup that didn't fit in the muffin pans

- Mr. B's work gives their employees turkeys as a holiday bonus. Since we're not cooking this year and our freezer was too full for a whole bird, I cooked it a week and a half before Thanksgiving.  On an interesting note, it was a Butterball turkey, and it is American Certified Humane.  That's not the best certification, but something is better than nothing.

- We ate one leg/thigh of the turkey, then froze the other leg/thigh and all of the breast meat for later meals.

  

- I made two rounds of turkey stock from the carcass.  The first was combined with the dark meat package above to make a large amount of turkey soup. 

- The second round of stock was used for butternut squash soup.  This is soup I made with some of that stock for freezing.

 

- The last of the turkey stock was used to pressure can butternut squash.  We've never done this before, but in theory, I can reheat the jar on the stovetop, throw in some sage, onion, cayenne pepper, and salt, immersion blend it, and I'll have the same soup as above.

- I made vegetable stock with scraps I had kept in a gallon bag in the freezer.

- Mr. B made persimmon leather from some persimmons he found growing wild last week.

One Chicken, Five Dinners

A few days ago I got the bright idea to start up Sunday roasts again.  Though Mr. B works on Sundays, I'm free during naptime about three hours before dinner time, so it seems like a good time to cook solidly healthy food.  Whenever I moan and complain about the price of local, humanely raised chickens (about $20 per chicken), I think about all the meals that one bird's life gives us.  All food included, we can feed three people (two adults and one toddler) for five days for less than the cost of going to McDonald's twice.  I think that's pretty darn good.

Today, I made Ina Garten's perfect roast chicken.  We're not huge fennel fans, so instead, I threw in chopped parsnips.  As I was prepping the carrots, onions, parsnips, and garlic, I threw the peels into a ziploc that we keep in our freezer.

I made the chicken in my cast iron dutch oven.  I've never done that before (I always use a roasting pan), but it turned out really well.

 

Night One:  I pulled the chicken out onto a platter to cool while we ate the legs for dinner.  After the chicken was cool, I stripped every bit of meat off and portioned it out into pyrex bowls.  The breast meat is kept in two large pieces.  The thigh meat and various bits will be chopped up when we use it.

 

The carcass went back into the dutch oven with the veggie scraps from the freezer, a little apple cider vinegar, and enough water to cover it.  It'll simmer on the stove for the next few days.  Add water as necessary to keep the levels up.

 

Night Two:  Half of the breast meat will be panini for tomorrow night.  I use homemade bread, a little mustard, an apple sliced thinly, colby cheese, chicken slices, and whatever greens we can find in the yard.  I fry it up in a little butter in a #8 cast iron skillet.

Night Three:  The thigh meat will be made into chicken shepherd's pie.  Yes, it's a recipe from my old Weight Watchers days, but it's tasty nonetheless.  You can use the chicken broth that's been simmering on your stove and add back a little water to the pot.

Night Four:   The other half of the breast meat will be made into burrito bowls.  Even though it's already been cooked, you can season it with cumin, cilantro, and oregano, and it'll be just like it was cooked from fresh.  If you add a little broth in during reheating, it keeps it from drying out.

Night Five:  Chicken noodle soup of course!  Ours is really simplistic - strained broth, noodles, carrots, celery, and the last of the chicken - light, dark, or otherwise.

That will bring us round to Friday, which is already our traditional homemade pizza-and-a-movie night.  Next week, we'll make a beef roast, and see how many great recipes we can make out of that.

What do you do to make the most of your food budget?

A "Reel" Good Find

For weeks now, my dad's been telling us we should go to this massive outdoor flea market that he and his girlfriend like to go to in West Virginia. We kept agreeing that we'd go sometime, but we only finally got to go yesterday. It was absolutely huge, with a decidedly country feel to it. There were old tools, kitchenware, kids' toys, and military surplus among other things. My big draw was the cast iron. I'm in need of at least a chicken fryer lid and a dutch oven that go with my Wagner Ware collection. While I didn't find those, I did find a cast iron bundt pan, which is very difficult to find a good price. Mine cost $30, so I picked it up on the spot.

 

 

As we continued to walk around, the old tools started to catch Mr. B's eye. He found vices and hand drills, and other things that would be nice to have, but decided not to get them because we're trying to move. A couple of small gardening tools he couldn't put down - he bought a dandelion digger and a folding pruning saw. We assumed that we had each gotten something both practical and desired and that the day was a success.

In the last row, though, we found something that made us both giddy. It was an old reel mower that was in great condition. We've talked about getting a new one for a few years, but they're expensive and you can't try them out. This one was priced at $25 and as far as they cared, you could mow the grass near their stall all day if you wanted. It was surprisingly easy to push, and makes this great sound somewhere between the pull cord sound of an electric mower and an old sewing machine.

$22 later, and it was coming home with us.  As soon as we got home, Mr. B had to try it out. He got two rows into the yard and asked if I wanted to try. I found it so much fun that I finished the yard off for him.

 

I feel great pride in our new purchases. I don't usually shop much, but these directly contribute to our household productivity. They  make our home feel more like the 1930s lifestyle that we like to try to emulate. I'm excited for the day that we can find a house with a wood stove to cook with my cast iron on and come a little closer to living our dreams.

Putting Food Up

Preserving, for me, has become part hobby and part mission.  I enjoy canning food for my family for the winter months, but I also feel like it's how I earn my keep.  Mr. B and I try hard to improve skills that allow us to be self-sustainable.  If anything were ever to happen like a job loss or something worse, I feel like we know how to grow or hunt our food, preserve it, and cook it.  We're learning to identify plants in the wild that are edible or medicinal.

In years past, I've made some attempt at canning and preserving foods.  I think my first year was probably just canning applesauce and maybe peaches.  Last year, I stepped it up and preserved:

6 quarts beef broth
5 pints and 1 quart of chicken broth
6 quarts of green beans
16 quarts and 15 pints of peaches
16 half pints of strawberry jam
14 half pints of peach preserves
12.75 quarts of tomato sauce
6 half pints of tomato paste
41.5 half pints of apple butter
3 bags of peach pie filling (frozen)

This year, even though I've been pregnant and now have a newborn, I've been a preserving machine.  In the last couple of months, we've put up:

1 ½ pints honeysuckle syrup

2 pints elderflower syrup

7.5 half pints “hard” strawberry jam

9 half pints “soft” strawberry jam

5 12 oz jars “soft” strawberry jam

4 12 oz jars strawberry jam/syrup

3 lbs frozen blueberries

12 oz maraschino cherries

8 oz cherry pit liqueur (including pits)

4 cups frozen cherries

1 ½ gallons of frozen raspberries

½ gallon raspberry liqueur

1 ½ cups dried apricots

3.8 gal of sumac concentrate  

46 heads of garlic

2 quarts of sage leaves

1 cup of thyme leaves

1 cup of winter savory leaves

1 quart of oregano

9 pint jars of peaches

7 24 oz jars of peaches

35 quart jars of peaches

12 pint jars of spaghetti sauce

5 quart jars of spaghetti sauce

26 quart jars of tomato sauce

5 pint jars of tomato sauce

15 quarts of applesauce

5 pints Pumpkin and Sausage Soup

Some of that which we put up has already been consumed, like the honeysuckle syrup and most of the elderflower syrup.  We have a lot left to do before winter comes, too, so this list will change rather dramatically in the next few months.  Now that apples have come in, I'll be canning (hopefully) a total of 24 quarts of applesauce.  I'll be making and canning a ton of broth and cooked beans when it gets cooler and around the holidays.  I’ve just started experimenting with meats and soups, so hopefully I’ll be able to can more of that as well.  The only problem I'm running into at the moment is storage space, but that's a great problem to have.

First Foray into Mozzarella Cheese

We've been meaning to try to make mozzarella cheese for a long time now, but we've always been a little nervous to try.  Our milk is really expensive at $7/gallon *cringe* and we didn't want to waste any on an unknown quantity like cheesemaking.  But I found some liquid rennet at the local organic grocery store and bought it a few weeks ago.  Last night, after stumbling on a quick how-to, we took the plunge.  

It was super easy!  All we had to do was heat the milk, add citric acid (which I keep on hand for canning anyway), heat the milk some more, add the rennet, then heat and let it separate.

  

When the curds stuck together and there was clear separation, it was ready.

 

 We strained the curds out, added some salt to the whey, and heated the leftover whey back up to almost boiling.

We cut the curds into four pieces.  We ladled hot whey into a Pyrex dish, then Mr. B kneaded the curds in the whey bath. 

 

When they were hot throughout and stretched nicely, he lightly salted it and formed them into balls.  We put them in a lidded Pyrex bowl in the fridge.  

Tonight, we used that mozzarella with homegrown basil, local tomatoes, and homemade pizza crust to make two amazingly delicious deep dish margarita pizzas in #8 and #10 cast iron pans.  Yum!!

Frugal Accomplishments - September 8th through 14th

This week flew by.  I know we did things this week, but I'm not sure if I could tell you what it was.  This'll be a relatively short list.

-Organized the pantry and the freezer so that we can tell what food we have and use it more effectively.

-Hosted a game night for five friends and made homemade pizza to feed the group.

-Picked up a half bushel of very nice seconds peaches for $7.50.  We canned them and got 9 quarts and 9 pints (not including two more pints that shattered while processing-we need new jars.)

-Bought more apples for applesauce.  Since we had a nice family day and picked more than 20 lbs of apples, the price dropped by $0.10 per pound.  I'll have to can the apples either during the day or on Wednesday, because I ran out of jars and we have a showing today.  I'm buying more quart jars this afternoon.

-Made it through a whole day of antiquing and walking a street festival without spending any money.

-Mr. B and Miss F made a batch of beer from a kit Mr. B got for Christmas while I slept in (until 8) on Friday morning.  This will give us about 50 bottles of beer in 6 weeks or so.

-Took all of the air conditioners out.  Since there's no gap in the window now, we'll be saving more energy.  Our biggest heating/cooling expense is our baseboard heat, so I'm hoping to put off turning them on until December.

B is for Beer!

Mr. B's work schedule is changed so that he's home on Fridays and Saturdays, and works Sunday through Thursday.  So today begins our weekend.  He was very sweet and let me sleep three hours longer than usual this morning while he took care of the girls.  When I woke up, something smelled different - good, but different.

Turns out he got up at 5:30 (roughly his normal wake up time) with Miss C and decided to finally bite the bullet and brew some beer.  He's had the ingredients since my dad bought it for him at Christmas, but he hasn't had the time.  Each five gallon batch makes about 50 bottles of beer.  While the physical brewing is hot and time intensive, I love the bottling process near the end.  When the primary fermentation is done, I'll post on the progress of the batch.

 Miss F looking mischievous as Daddy checks the temperature of the brew.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

When we were in the hospital with Miss C, Mr. B's mom drove his car back to our house and left his lights on with the keys locked in the car.  The battery was dead by the time we got home, so he jumped his car from mine.  As it turns out, my alternator was on its way out, and jumping the car fried it.  We didn't learn this until all of the battery-dependent systems (including lights and windshield wipers) died...while driving on a highway...in the pouring rain...with two kids in the car.

We researched how to replace an alternator ourselves, but we really couldn't do it without a good possibility of ruining something else in the process because of how my engine compartment is set up.  So I found a reputable car repair shop, and it cost us over $500 to replace the alternator.  It had to be replaced, but it was rather a painful expense.  It always seems to go that we make a little headway with our finances, but get knocked back on our rear ends.

Thankfully, Mr. B had just volunteered to change his schedule so that he made time-and-a-half on one of his work days, and I'm starting to tutor again.  I'm trying to tell myself we'll be back to where we were in three months or so, but it's difficult not to be discouraged.

BUT, some things have gone our way. Right after picking my car up at the shop, we ran to meet a member of a natural living group from Facebook that I had been talking to. My water kefir grains have been prolific, so I've been giving them away to strangers and friends alike. I met this woman at a local farm with a CSA program. She was so grateful for the grains that she gave us some much needed eggs from her CSA share. I hadn't mentioned that we needed them, but we really did need them.

I realized the farm was really close to my grandfather's house, so we called him on our way out. He had us come over to pick apples from the tree in his yard. The apples were just spoiling on the lawn and attracting deer and bees. He has an old picker that he made himself. It's three metal bars wire tied to a garden stake with an old onion bag on a circular wire.

 

He can't find an onion bag to fit it anymore, so he's been taping it back together over the years.  I mentioned that our local farm store had a picker for sale, but he just said his father's picker was homemade as well.  I think he liked to carry on that tradition.  We got over 25 pounds of apples for just an hour worth of work on Mr. B's part and an hour's worth of visiting on mine. A lot of the apples have large bad spots, but they're free, and they'll be great applesauce.

Homesteading and Homemade Food

Aside from attending the renaissance festival, my weekends have been taken up making pumpkin puree, roasting pumpkin seeds, baking bread, making pasta, and canning.

The pumpkin seeds are so delicious.  A quick boil in salt water and baking in a baking sheet with some olive oil makes them crispy, salty, a little oily and just plain delicious.  They don't last long in our house.

This year, we had four San Marzano roma tomato plants.  My mom had one.  Her one plant produced more than our four combined - times five!  She was sick of dealing with the plant at the end of September, so she let us have whatever we wanted if we ripped it out for her.  We got almost 45 pounds from that one plant!

 

We laid all of the tomatoes out on the table in front of a window.  The red ones we picked out and threw into a freezer bag.  The rest, we let sit.

  

So when it came to sauce day, I knew we'd be set.  We'd have enough tomatoes to fulfill our needs all winter.  What I didn't realize was that I didn't have the equipment to deal with all of this at once!

Within ten minutes of putting the tomatoes into all of these pans, the black pan started to smell terrible.  Because of how the bottom of the pan was formed, the tomatoes instantly burned to the bottom.  So we pulled the tomatoes that were still good off and filled more pans.

 

The whole process was a bit stressful.  I kept having to shift sauce around from pan to pan in order to keep it from burning but to keep reducing.  I kept cooking and straining tomatoes for six hours.  I bet if I had a large stock pot, this would be a much easier endeavor.

 

In the end, though, it all worked out pretty well.  I would totally do this again next year if I'm properly prepared.

After the tomato sauce ordeal, I apparently had canning amnesia, because I bought two half-bushels of apples.

I'm thankful that apples last a long time, because it took me a couple of week to get around to processing them.

 

About half way through processing, I mentioned to my dad that it was really difficult to push the apple pulp through the sides of my strainer with a spatula.  I wanted to get a food mill one day.  The next day, he stops by with my grandmother's Foley food mill.  She used to use it for making ketchup.  My grandfather gave it to me to use since he wouldn't be using it.  It really makes work easier!

Since June, we've put up 16 quarts and 15 pints of peaches, 6 quarts of green beans, 16 half-pints of strawberry jam, 14 half-pints of peach preserves, 12.75 quarts of tomato sauce, 6 half-pints of tomato paste, and 41.5 half-pints of apple butter.  Every time I can something new, I only see the bit that I just did.  I feel a little good about it, but it still doesn't feel like enough.  Well, that changed today.  I went downstairs to put more apple butter in the pantry, and there wasn't enough room.  Over 1/3 of our pantry is home canned, and that is amazing.  Our strawberry jams are rapidly disappearing, though, because they are *B*'s favorite.  We will definitely be canning a bigger batch next year.

This past Saturday, we bought three fresh chickens from a local farmer.  These chickens are sustainably and humanely raised.  It’s the same farm where we get our pork.  The chickens look more bird-like than any other chicken I've ever bought.

 

I chose fresh chickens so that I could part them out myself and be able to use as much of the chicken as possible while giving us an easy source of meat on busy nights.  Part of using the whole chicken was rendering the fat.  I’ve never done it before, but we tend to eat skinless meat, so it seemed like a good idea.  I followed the tutorial on Penniless Parenting and it was fantastic!  The result was almost ½ a cup of shmaltz and some tasty fried chicken skin.

 

I've also been doing a couple of little projects.  I made homemade pasta on a whim using the 3 cups whole wheat flour to 1 cup water ratio to put into some chicken broth for an impromptu chicken noodle soup when *B* was sick.  I didn't consider myself a chicken noodle soup person in years gone by, but I am definitely a homemade chicken noodle soup person.  I realized it's just the canned stuff I can't stand.

 

I've made two batches of crackers now using the recipe from the Prudent Homemaker.  They're really good, but I'm having a hard time rolling them thin enough to be cracker-like.  For now, they're tasty pita-like bites.  I added 1 tsp of garlic the last time, and it made it brilliant.

Since it's getting cold and Christmas is coming, I picked up some yarn at our local store for a scarf for Miss F and presents for family.  I was amazed that the scarf took me just over 24 hours to make.  In a day, she got herself a new scarf to go with her red, pink, and white winter hat.

A New Farmer's Market

*B*, Miss F, and I started going to a new farmer's market.  It's much further away than the one in our town, but for some reason our market closed early in the middle of September.  It's probably for the best, because the new one we found is MUCH bigger and has many more items. 

We buy coffee there from a local roaster who employs people with developmental delays and sends some of their profits to charities overseas.  There are at least three times the number of farms, many more meat and egg producers.  They know us and Miss F even plays with one producer's daughter while we're there.  There are three pastry/bread/yummy food vendors.  I know two of three vendors.  I grew up with the son of one of the vendors.  His mom makes delicious jam.  The other vendor happens to be a couple I used to know.  I babysat their children when they were young, and it's now amazing to see them move onto a new stage in their lives now that they're empty-nesters.  They make the most brilliant food - bacon, cheddar, and scallion scones, ham and gruyere croissants, pumpkin tiramisu, and plenty of pastries.

Since we've found this farmer's market, we've been stockpiling winter squash and pumpkins.  We love all things pumpkin, and we love soup made from butternut squash.  This year though, we also picked up a hubbard squash and a cheese pumpkin.  We're going to see how they taste.  If good, we'll load up on them to feed us through the winter, since the market only goes until the end of November.  My mother's husband had this work shelf sitting around that he made a number of years ago.  They gave it to us, and it makes an excellent squash storage shelf.  It's wonderful to see it so full!