Frugal Frolics: Money Saving Recap

It has been busy around here, I don't know about you guys!

1.  I have been working hard trying to clean up the freezers so that I can empty out my upright freezer and figure out why it is icing up so bad.  I manage to get the ice out of the bottom and then more just starts to flow in.  The freezer is supposed to have an auto defrost function on it, so I need to figure out if there is a blockage or something that is causing it.  So, step one is defrosting it completely so I need to be able to empty it into my other freezers.  

So, step one is doing projects I’ve been putting off that we’re sitting in my freezers.  I made vegetable stock a few weeks ago and had frozen it to deal with later, and had chicken carcasses I had been saving to process into stock too.  

So, it was time to pull out the pressure canner.  I made chicken stock, put it in the fridge overnight, removed the fat after it had solidified, heated it back up and got it canning (seen above after getting out of the canner).  While the canner was naturally depressurizing, I got the vegetable stock defrosted and heated up so as soon as the chicken stock was done, I could get it out of the canner and get the vegetable stock in.  It worked well, but that was a long day of canning in between everything else I’ve been working on.  I canned the chicken stock in pints for a more convenient size to work with later and the vegetable stock I canned in quarts because those are slated for brine at Thanksgiving so canning in quarts was fine.

2.  Next up is a project I’m hoping to finish this weekend and that is canning a bunch of the berries I have frozen in the freezer.  I got two big bags of blueberries processed earlier this week (the big jars behind are the vegetable stock that I was keeping on the counter until I could open up a spot in the pantry for them, in case you were wondering) and then it is on to mixed berries and strawberries.  I’ve found over the years I really like having canned berries in the pantry for ease of use, so that is what I’m working on currently.  I’m still going to keep some small bags of fruit frozen for use in muffins and things, but I’m going to can the majority of them.

I am really scaling down canning projects to make what I know we will eat.  Things are getting too expensive to do otherwise.  Some things I have to buy (which I have scaled that variety back as well) but things like chicken stock are so cheap to can myself, that I’m definitely going to do that for the foreseeable future.

3.  I fixed my son’s closet door to close properly.  He got overly enthusiastic and ran into his closet (all 180+ pounds of him) and managed to knock the cheapy hollow core door all askew in its frame so the door wasn’t stopping when closed.  I hammered it all into place as best I could (cheap doors move so much and just suck) and got it to close right.  Hopefully the fix works for a while because I don’t want to have to buy new interior doors anytime soon.

4.  I got the cast iron Dutch oven rack in the mail.  I got it put together and got the Dutch ovens on it.  

Opinions and experience since some people asked for my feedback.  The shelf works.  It is heavy duty (so it is heavy to move around).  An absolute pain in the keester to put together as it flares in and out to hold different sized pots.  I got some bruises, some scrapes and back in touch with my ability to cuss like a sailor as I was working on it.  It does not fit into small spaces as well as I hoped as it twists slightly as an artsy type of flare in design.  Once it was up and in the kitchen, it just did not work in the space.  It just took up too much space and I wasn’t really gaining anything from taking down the kitchen cart to add that in.  If you have a decently big kitchen and like the look of the shelf, I would say it is worth the money (I would suggest having help to get it together though).  For a small kitchen where space is precious, was it worth saving up 10 months for?  No, no it wasn’t, unfortunately.

Luckily, my mother-in-law had come to visit and had really liked the shelf (and her kitchen is more modern and bigger than mine so the shelf would look better there), so I offered it to her.  She even offered to pay me what I had bought it for.  So the only thing I was out was my physical labor putting it together.  I’m calling it a wash on the frugal front.  Not a win, but not a fail.  It was, however, a disappointment.

5.  I ended up getting creative and found this spot to stack my Dutch ovens on my counter.  I hated to lose the counter space, but it made Alvah happy to have more floor space opened up, so I’ll deal with it.  I put pieces of cardboard in between the Dutch ovens to stack them so that the one on top doesn't scratch up the one above it.  

6.  To try and make the rack work, I had hoped I could rearrange my hallway closet and put it in there.  It didn’t work in the end, but I eliminated the need for one of the grey shelves I had on the floor and got the school supply boxes out of my hallway and tucked into the closet instead, which freed up a bit more floor space for Speed Racer (the son unit) and eliminated more visual clutter.  So that, in the end, was a win to me.

7.  My daughter really wanted to dress up like the 10th Doctor (Dr. Who) for the Trunk-or-Treat to pass out Halloween candy to kids.  Costumes that we could find were really expensive for cosplayers (like 200.00 expensive) and I found nothing else, so my husband took Armina last weekend to the used stores to see what they could find.  They found enough clothing to make the costume work for less than 30.00.  And the trench coat is lined and can be used for day to day life later on.

8.  My husband really wanted Mongolian BBQ.  I had some chicken I could use so I decided to make some at home.  But I  was missing some of the veggies that normally went in it.  Instead of buying things special I just made do with the veggies I had fresh and in the freezer and just padded things out a bit more with spaghetti noodles.  It turned out really well and the husband was very happy with the results.

9.  I got work samples done and in for both kids and a bit early even.  I’m always relieved to get that job done as it is time consuming.

10.  I turned two pork roasts that had been sitting in the freezer for too long into different meals for later.  I partially defrosted them, removed the meat from the bones and managed to get enough meat to make German marinated pork, Korean fried pork (just pork in ginger to make into fried pork later) and some sweet and sour pork ready for dinners later.  Feel good getting cuts of pork I really don’t use too often (but were super cheap when I bought them) in the freezer and ready to rock for dinners later on.

11.  I finally uncovered the last ham hock that I KNEW was in the freezer somewhere and could never find.  It had been in the freezer a few years so I knew it needed to be used up.  I cooked it, removed what meat I could get off of it and made a ham and cheese quiche for dinner one night.  It was delicious!  

And there you go folks.  Some of the frugal stuff I’ve been doing around here.  Hope all is going well with you.

Enjoy!

Food Preparation Day Recap

Last weekend I had a pretty big food prep day so I thought I’d share what I made with you all to hopefully maybe give you some ideas or inspiration.

Let’s start with chocolate syrup.  Our supply ran out and we have found that Hershey syrup does not keep anymore.  We’ve had it mold twice and that was enough for us (used to keep indefinitely in the fridge…no longer).  We used up the other stuff we found on Amazon but the price on that stuff went through the roof, so I made my own this time around.

I used this recipe.  I ended up having to add more sugar and water than was called for to stop it from tasting grainy and getting the cocoa powder to incorporate completely.  But, it is tasty.  Richer and less sweet than Hershey syrup (not a bad thing to me), but good.  Hopefully it keeps well.

I then made a pot of Japanese style curry one night and froze the left overs in individual portions this day.  I love Japanese curry, the family doesn’t mind it but they don’t adore it like me.  So, I froze the left overs for easy and yummy lunches for me.  Note:  I just follow the directions on the curry roux box for portions of onions, carrots and such, but I do like to double up the curry roux to make a really nice, thick curry :).

I also made a big pot of cabbage roll soup and froze the left overs that day as well.  My husband loves Erbswurst pea soup when he isn’t feeling well…I love cabbage roll soup. I ran out of it in the freezer so I was thrilled to add it back for easy meals later :).

I made two types of no cook ice cream as ice cream is ridiculously expensive anymore.   I made chocolate and vanilla.  My daughter is delighted with the chocolate ice cream as it is her absolute favorite (a nice, rich, chocolate ice cream).

Side note:  I wanted to thank the kind soul who sent me this ice cream maker off of my wish list a few years ago (they didn’t include their name when they sent it).  It has a compressor in it so you can freeze the ice cream on the spot and not waste freezer space with a bowl that has to freeze beforehand.  Unfortunately (true to form) Amazon doesn't ship this to Alaska anymore, so I didn't do an associate link to the ice cream maker (just a regular link to share for anyone who might be interested).  I had wanted one and found one that actually shipped to Alaska but it was so expensive that I just figured it would sit on my wish list forever.  I got two uses out of my new bowl style ice cream maker before the bowl started leaking white stuff around the seal, so I was very grateful to get it! 

I then made up a batch of breakfast sausage and the next day made up a batch of pancakes (I make sourdough pancakes so they ferment overnight) to make pancake wraps to go with the husband’s breakfast options.  This time I only got three wraps because the sausage was local sausage I wanted to try and it came with less links than the store bought sausage (good stuff though), as each wrap takes two sausages to put together.  My husband raided a few links for breakfast that morning which helped to reduce the amount of wraps possible too lol. 

I cut up what was left of a loaf of bread and made French toast that morning as well and my husband ate some for breakfast with the sausage.  The other 3 pieces went in the freezer for breakfast for someone later on.

I had been putting off breakfast bowls because I’ve been very tired (Alvah not sleeping the last month) and didn’t want to cut up and cook potatoes, but when I was cleaning out my little veggie scrap bags out of the freezer to make some stock I found a bag of hash brown diced potatoes that I had made and had gotten buried.  So, I pulled out some ground sausage, a dozen eggs and some cheese and made the husband some more breakfast bowls.  Glad to get those back in the freezer because my husband loves them so much.

Then I pulled out the thing of bacon I had defrosted and made some Erbswurst.  My husband loves it when he has a cold (tons of protein in it), so I was glad to restock it as he was nearly out.

Next up I took some fresh Granny Smith apples that no one but me would eat, cut them up and used them to make a double batch of apple cinnamon crumble muffins as they were starting to go soft and needed to be used.  I made a double batch because that was exactly how much cut up apple I had.  I skipped the glaze for the sake of less mess.  These are yummy and come out super soft!  I kept out six to eat and put the rest in the freezer for easy breakfast fare some weekends.

Lastly I took some strawberries I had bought fresh at a good price but were not holding up well, at all, and macerated them in sugar so they would keep better for desserts or to eat on yogurt or something.  They are now in a quart jar in my fridge and I’m going to use the rest of them to make strawberry panna cotta with tomorrow.  Great way to hold fruit over (macerating with sugar) just a bit longer if you need a hack for that.

And there you go folks.  One full day of meal prep.  But, it stopped food from going bad and put a bunch more options in our fridge and freezer.  I call that a win!

Food Preservation Frolics and Follies

This year was an interesting one for food preservation.  So, let’s get to a few things I did so far.

First off, I did not plant a garden this year due to having to work on the house and deck this summer, so that was a failed goal to be sure.  I really did miss the fresh produce, especially lettuce, over the summer and I lamented the loss of my tomato plants and the potential for even green tomatoes to make into green tomato chutney (a new favorite around here), but it was what it was.

I did, however, want to preserve my rhubarb this year and I found a recipe for rhubarb chutney that sounded good and could hopefully take the place of the green tomato chutney that I had been planning on using this year in recipes.

Guys that recipe was an EPIC fail for me.  I followed the recipe exactly and really don’t know where it went wrong, but boy did it!  The rhubarb (might have been due to our crappy weather changing it’s texture or something, not sure) when it cooked, it turned out WEIRD!  The strings in the rhubarb became the same texture and consistency as fish bones.  It was disgusting and was hard not to gag on as it was like having a hair stuck or something in your mouth every time you tried to taste it! 

I tried to think how to save it.  First thought was to blend it smooth.  So, out came the immersion blender.  It chopped the pieces of stringy nastiness down but not even close to edible.  I then put the mixture through my food mill.  Twice.  Better, but pieces slipped through.  So, finally, I broke down and forced the mixture through a fine mesh sieve.  After tons of work I ended up with some pints of rhubarb chutney sauce instead of actual chutney.  I ended up freezing it versus canning it because I changed the consistency so much and plain had no idea what would be a good safe time to can it for.  I’m going to use it in the Hawaiian chicken marinade and hopefully it turns out okay, but yeah, that was not a fun experience.

Next up was a recipe that did turn out really well for me.  I took the raspberries I had left over from when my husband’s friend gave him some of his bumper crop last year and decided to make raspberry curd with them for cakes and things this winter after seeing Becky on Acre Homestead on YouTube do it.  The raspberries were REALLY tart so I hadn’t used them in much, so I did end up using a bit more sugar then the recipe called for.  But the eggs in the curd really helped to dull the flavor a little bit and it turned out really tasty.  I’m really looking forward to using it in desserts this winter :).  I froze the curd since curd freezes well (pumpkin pie, lemon pie and such for instance) and am hoping it defrosts well.

I took all of the little bits of vegetables, frozen and fresh, I had that needed to be used up but were a bit past their prime and I made a big pot of vegetable stock.  I wanted to make it for the turkey brine this Thanksgiving as vegetable stock is expensive now a days!  I managed to get 12 out of 16 cups out of what I made so now I just need to buy one box instead of 4!  Definite win!

Not really a preservation project, per say, but I did make our yearly aged eggnog and put it in the fridge yesterday to start aging for the holidays.  I used the alcohol I had on hand only again this year and just made the ratios work.  So far it is really yummy so I am hoping it turns out really good for the holidays!  Next year we will have to buy rum and bourbon again, but not this year, so that definitely saved me some money as well this year!

I harvested what chives I could when they were still growing well and froze them to use on baked potatoes this winter.  I didn’t get a ton (aforementioned crappy weather), but I hopefully got enough to last us a bit.

I did make erbswurst as well during a food prep day I did last weekend as well (more on that day later).  My husband loves this pea sausage and makes soup from it tons when sick.  We were nearly out of the last batch I made so I bought a pound of split peas and made him some more.  I used my old coffee grinder to grind up the peas into a coarse flour and it worked great.  So, Erbswurst done for a year or two!

I still have a few preservation projects to do (I got frozen berries yet to process for one...long story, but I'll get into it later), so hopefully I’ll have more to report on the food preservation front soon, so stay tuned for that!

Enjoy!

Frugal Frolics: Money Saving Recap

I want to start by saying how much my heart goes out to those effected by Helene.  I pray you are all safe and that you did not suffer any awful damage from the hurricane.  I know how terrible it is to recover from a natural disaster and I have so much empathy for those impacted by this one.

In my news, I had some “fun” on the home front.  The pressure tank for our well, located in my pantry/utility room, blew its pressure switch and sprayed an inch, or more, of water all over my pantry.  Thank God my husband was able to jam the switch back in its hole long enough for us to drain the tank or that would have been REALLY bad.  And might I say as a side note that wet dry shop vacs are the best invention ever.  Man, if not for one of those suckers, I don't know what I would have done!

Bright side of the train wreck...the pantry is very clean now.  I don't think the floor has ever been cleaner.

As is, it was not a fun week as I pulled everything out of the pantry, threw away pretty much every piece of cardboard that was in there (so waterlogged) and drying everything as it came out.  

Then it was the running of the fans to dry out the pantry as much as I could, running the carpet cleaner in the hallway (water leaked into the carpet from under the stairs, saturated the carpet and everything started to smell because it wasn’t drying fast enough) and then moving the fans to the hallway to dry out the carpet.  I nearly have everything rearranged (had to accommodate the new lack of cardboard boxes that used to house stuff) and back in the pantry, but man it is a slow process.  So, yeah, the pantry tour is a bit delayed.  I will get to it, though...it is just going differently than I had planned.

Bright side, we have been having problems with our well pressure for a while and my husband was worried it was the pump, but it was the nipple that fed the pressure switch that was just clogged shut that caused it.  We replaced the switch just to be safe as well and everything is working well again.  So, a 65.00 fix and lots of cleaning versus a well pump we’ll into the thousands of dollars?  I’ll take it.

Now onto some other stuff going on around here.

1.  I have been working hard on my kitchen this week, rearranging things, again, to make the kitchen more functional.  I am planning to eliminate the two kitchen carts in my kitchen to open the dining area a bit and get rid of visual clutter.  

A lot of this came down to my decision to get rid of some of my Tupperware.  I really do like the stuff, but it just takes so much room to store and at some point you just have to accept that your space is small, you have to maximize it or live in constant clutter, and clutter gives Alvah anxiety it turns out.  Every time I eliminate a bit more clutter, the happier he gets.  I already decluttered the living room a bunch and he’s been really happy with that too.  So, getting rid of Tupperware so I can store more in the hallway closet is totally worth it.

I have been working on food preservation this year, after a break of a few years, as well.  I’ll cover that in the next post (well part one of a few posts I'm sure), and I’m still working on things, but slow and steady wins the race.

2.  I’ve actually been doing this for a while, but thought I’d share this “frugal hack”.  We have stopped eating out as a family every week due to costs and schedule, but we do get Alvah French fries from Red Robin after swimming once a week as a treat (he is over 6’ now and starving all the time).  Every time we pick up his fries I ask for seasoning salt and I put up any extra they give us in my spice cabinet.  When I get a big enough pile I sit down, tear them open and put the salt into my big Red Robin salt container I bought years ago.  Doing this I haven’t had to try another copycat recipe for the stuff or had to buy a fresh bottle in years.  A benefit to getting take out if there ever was one.

3.  I finally broke down and made an appointment with the eye doctor to get new glasses.  The anti-scratch coating was breaking down on my current pair (still is as I’m waiting for the new ones to come in) and it is impacting my ability to see clearly now.  This time when I went I took the daughter too as she’s never had a full on eye exam (just the basic ones in the past and even that she hadn’t had in a few years) and since it is covered by insurance I figured it was time.  So glad I did that as it turns out the bad eyes on both sides of the family (my husband has great eyesight but he’s the exception not the rule) caught up with her and she needs glasses.  At least we had our tiny savings as I was able to take the cost out of that instead of having to put it on credit card.

4.  I mended a few pairs of underwear, a bra and a shirt.

5.  I saved 10.00 a month the last 10 months to buy a cast iron Dutch oven rack (associate link) to hold my Dutch ovens (I use them nearly every day, it seems) so I could eliminate one of the kitchen carts that is being used to just basically hold said Dutch ovens.  It is a lot smaller than the cart so I am hoping it will work well (Amazon shipped it slow speed so I am two more weeks out to getting it, which annoys me as it was supposed to be here by their original estimate last Monday). I’ll let you know how it goes.

6.  I took advantage of having to run into the store to get milk and picked up a pumpkin for Halloween while I was there.  I scrubbed it with rubbing alcohol and oiled the pumpkin after it dried to hopefully keep the pumpkin from rotting before Halloween.  Worse comes to worse and we’ll carve it early.  I’m not sweating the small stuff at this point.

7.  I fixed a ceiling light.  Alvah jumps on his bedroom floor a lot and the light in my bedroom ceiling managed to vibrate out of its bracket over time and fell from the ceiling and was hanging by the wires when I found it.  I had to take it the rest of the way down, rewire it and rehang it.  My husband was stuck in a traffic jam on the way home, so I handled it (he is a Journeyman electrician so I tend to leave that type of thing to him).  I worked as an apprentice electrician years ago, so it was interesting doing that work again on my own home.  I now know to check said light from time to time as the way it is constructed the problem could occur again.  

8.  Alvah managed to break the new support system my husband had installed in the loveseat.  This time when we fixed it we did a two pronged attack on the problem.  My husband put a piece of unistrut across the length of the loveseat and then I went and made sure the spring steel system of “springs” the loveseat had were snapped into their brackets properly and then I took lengths of rip stop nylon belt/strap material I had bought years ago for some projects and I basically wove an entire new seat with it, being sure to weave it in and out of the existing steel frame and the spring steel “springs”.  So far, so good.  The loveseat has been holding up well to daily abuse and I’m hopeful that this time we fixed it for a while.  Here’s hoping!

9.  I finished up Alvah’s TEFRA renewal paperwork and got it sent in for the year.

10.  We hung up Halloween decorations later than normal due to us being busy, but we got them up last week.  Last week we made Halloween themed sugar cookies.  This week we’ll make some more treats.  I really didn’t want to feel rushed this year so I am glad we are getting things done slowly but surely.  

I'm also working on food preservation projects this week to get my upright freezer emptied and defrosted properly as it is still building up ice flows in the bottom of the freezer.  I am hoping it's not slowly dying on me (I mean it is 15 years old, so it might be something bad coming my way there), but I want to see if I can take care of this problem as right now I can't use the bottom bin in my freezer or everything gets frozen in the freezer with ice, which leads to a bunch of frustration and wasted space.

And yeah, I think I will leave it there for now.  I’ve got other stuff to cover, so here’s hoping I can get some other posts done!