Why your freezer could be a secret goldmine *or* April Grocery Money Journal

(This is long. I apologize for that.)
April 5. Went to Fred Meyer for light bulbs, found milk both on sale and on clearance. The on sale milk was whole - $2.50/gal. and the clearance was skim - $1.99/gal (only 1). I bought 3 gallons whole milk and the 1 skim. Spent $9.49, and have enough milk for at least 3 weeks.

April 20. Milk on sale for $2.49/gal at Walgreen's. Bought 2 gallons. Spent $4.98, for a month-to-date total of $14.47.

April 21. About out of decaf coffee. I was given a $5 Starbucks gift card last month, so I could go have a "nice cup of coffee" sometime. I chose, instead, to take that gift card and buy ground decaf Sumatra. I'll make several "nice cups of coffee" for the price of just one. Total spent -- nothing!

April 25. I keep wondering if I'll need to stop at a store to actually buy anything. I have managed to find substitutions for just about everything. And my freezers are looking much more manageable. Ideally, I'll get my large freezer down to just meat, and one shelf of assorted other items. And my kitchen freezer will close properly, without fail.

April 26. Used my $10 birthday coupon to World Market to buy vanilla beans. I got 6 good-sized vanilla beans for making extract this next week -- for free! Just need the vodka. Still, total spent for the month to date -- $14.47.

April 28. Stopped by QFC, found two 1/2 gals. of milk priced at 99 cents ea. Also, cream cheese was on sale for $1 for 8 oz. brick, and found several bunches of red band bananas at 39 cents/lb. (markdowns, sold as baking bananas, but most still too yellow for baking, we'll be eating these fresh).
Total spent at QFC -- $8.07, and total for month-to-date -- $22.54




So, you're probably wondering where the rest of April's Grocery Money Journal is. The truth is, this was it. Yep! $22.54, for a family of five, was all we spent for the entire month of April. That's roughly 15 cents per person, per day, for the month! Now let me explain why.


Middle of the night in early April -- I couldn't sleep. I got up to walk around, thought a snack might help me get back to sleep, so went to the kitchen. Once I was there, I decided that I really wasn't hungry after all. But I did noticed a strange sizzling sound coming from either the freezer or the dishwasher next to it. 

I leaned against the freezer door handle, so that I could listen to both appliances. It seemed like the door moved just a tad, but I couldn't be sure. I opened the freezer door to find water dripping from the ceiling of the freezer onto the food. Ugh! Just what I need. 

I checked the thermometer read-out and the freezer was at 16 degrees F (it's supposed to be 0 F). I waited a few minutes, then checked the read-out again. Still 16 F. I decided to unload the freezer into one of the garage freezers, just in case the whole thing was about to give up the ghost.

I went online, and discovered that it could just have been a door not shut all the way, or the fan could have been blocked (the freezer was really packed full), or, and I was dreading this as a possibility, it could be something major, requiring about $200 in labor and a $500 part. Double Ugh!

The advice I got online was to check to make sure the door was totally shut and nothing was blocking a fan. Done! And wait 1 hour. Then check the temperature read-out again. 

So, middle of the night, online for an hour, reading horror stories of others' misfortunes with their appliances, and really exhausted. After an hour I checked the temp, and whew! The freezer was back to 0 F. Crisis averted.

Back to bed, but with an internal warning light going off in my mind!
--What if this had been the freezer with all the meat, and no one caught the problem until too late? $200 down the drain. 
--What if this had been the garage freezer where I keep all the veggies, fruits and baked goods, and it had thawed, dripped, gotten smelly, before I found it? What a mess that would have been! 

So, I considered this a wake-up call (and yes, it did keep me awake for several hours). It was time to use up a lot of the freezer stash, especially the odd bits here and there, and any fruits and vegetables from last season.

What I didn't realize, until now, is that my freezer was a secret goldmine, waiting to be exploited

For the entire month of April, my cooking style took a new direction. Every day I checked the freezers and pulled out at least one item to use in that night's dinner. I made a vow to myself to only buy especially fantastic deals at the stores, plus milk, and get creative with what I had here.

As luck would have it, there were relatively few deals in the month of April. Fantastic deals usually precede major holidays, not follow them, in our area. I had already bought some tremendous deals in March, just before Easter.

What does a creative cook find to eat for her family, without going to the grocery store? Plenty! We ate very well. I found all sorts of "treasure", from cornbread and pie pastry scraps, to frozen fruit and vegetables, to Italian hot links and some gravy. The more bits I found in the freezer, the more my creativity muscles got a workout.

Interesting items (and how I used them) I found in the freezer included: 

• scraps of pie dough (made homemade pop-tarts) 
• some corn bread (made sage and corn bread stuffing)
• half a carton of ice cream (no explanation necessary for how that was used up!)
• a small amount of Parmesan cheese (topped a lasagna)
• an assortment of single slices of cake and pie
• some Italian hot links (added to lentil soup, and sliced thin to use as pepperoni on a pizza)
• juice from a can of black olives (I added some of this to a large batch of pasta/pizza sauce, and some to a pot of Mexican bean soup -- I was low on salt and figured this would be a good stand-in)
• some chopped, mixed herbs (parsley, oregano, basil, thyme, all in one container -- I added to the large pot of pasta and pizza sauce)
• a single hamburger bun (I made myself a single serving of pizza on the bun split in half for lunch one day)
• a 1-cup container of strawberries, cherries and blueberries (made a smoothie)
• a snack-sized baggie with nuts, plus another small bag with dried apricots (combined the two to add flavor and texture to a batch of otherwise plain muffins)
• several single-servings of leftover meals (these became weekend lunches when only a couple of us were home)
• frozen red currant and crab apple juice (made 2 batches of jelly)

All of these items could have easily fallen through the freezer cracks -- they could have remained there so long that I tossed them out. Instead, I was able to rescue them, and we ate every last item we unearthed.

Cleaning out the pantry and fridge, as well

And it wasn't just the freezer. I also found myself cleaning out the fridge and pantry. I had a stash of condiment packets in the fridge, including a garlic dipping sauce packet from a pizza place (I added this to the filling for the lasagna), and a quarter jar of green salsa (I added this to the pot of Mexican bean soup). I finally made the large pot of pizza and pasta sauce, using the #10 can of tomato paste. I froze enough sauce for about 5 nights of either pizza or pasta. Plus I had enough tomato paste leftover to make a couple of batches of homemade tomato soup.

The biggest challenge was we ran low on salt. I had to cut back on salt in cooking. But I found in soups, that extra garlic, onions and fresh chives really bumped up the flavor. I was adding handfuls of chives to lots of dishes. Two-thirds the way through the month I found a small canister of salt. But still, I was using it sparingly.

Also, I had practically no mayo in the house. Not a huge problem, but it would have been nice for egg salad sandwiches.

I must admit, though, that there were times when I just wanted to buy something new in groceries for the kitchen, just for the newness. But I remembered my resolve to get that freezer cleaned out.

What kind of meals was I able to create, using only what I had on hand?

Meals just from the fridge, freezer, pantry and the garden (and the milk that I bought).

Breakfasts

Maple and brown sugar oatmeal (homemade, not packets)

Homemade yogurt* and granola

Scrambled eggs and toast

Pancakes topped with berries from the freezer

Lunches

Bread and butter, hard boiled eggs, oranges

Homemade yogurt*, plum sauce*, pumpkin muffins*

PBJ sandwiches, raisins, pumpkin muffins*

Sunflower seed butter sandwiches, raisins, rhubarb gelatin, cranberry-orange muffins*

Pizza sandwiches, rhubarb sauce, pumpkin muffins* (we tend to use muffins like cookies in our lunches -- lower in sugar and fat)

Leftover lentil and vegetable soup, bread and cream cheese, bananas

Dinners

BBQ chicken sandwiches* on homemade sourdough bread (BBQ sauce homemade from ketchup, oil, onions, garlic, soy sauce, chili powder), served with sauteed cabbage (from pre-St. Patrick's Day sale) mixed with kale (from garden), and Blackberry cobbler*

Bean burger patties with BBQ sauce, sourdough bread, sweet potato fries and regular potato fries, tossed salad of lettuce, avocado, olives, carrots and pickled green beans, Blackberry cobbler*

Leftover bean burger patties topped with cheese*, lettuce, sour cream & salsa, cornbread stuffing*, cole slaw, plum pie*

Chicken noodle soup* with carrots, onions, Swiss chard, barley and noodles, sourdough bread, orange wedges, chocolate cupcakes

Kale and onion quiche*, sweet potato fries, plum and blackberry sauce*

Pot roast*, mashed potatoes, sauteed kale, chard and cabbage, pumpkin souffle*, dinner rolls

Garden lasagna*, garlic toast, cole slaw with kale and chives, cherry pie

Mexican bean soup* with sour cream, homemade tortillas with cheese*

"Pepperoni" pizza* (Italian hot link sliced thin for pepperoni), leftover pasta salad*, lemon meringue pie

Chicken and cheese quesadillas* (on homemade tortillas), tomato soup (made from frozen, canned tomato paste)*, rhubarb sauce

Chicken, tofu* and vegetable stir-fry* (with carrots, Swiss chard, cabbage, onions), brown rice, stewed plums and blackberries*

Curried lentils* (using frozen, canned tomatoes, frozen plums, raisins, onions, lentils, veg stock, and assorted greens from the garden), rice, roasted carrots

Spaghetti with meat sauce*, cole slaw, garlic toast *(hamburger buns from freezer, split and garlic added), orange wedges

Rice and beans, topped with cheddar and salsa, sauteed kale and garlic

*denotes foods from the freezer used in this dish

Not just daily meals, but some special dinners as well, and still made from what we had on hand

During this month, in addition to regular meals, we also had two birthdays, for which I put together pretty good birthday dinners, here at home, without making a run to the store.

For my birthday, I made chicken Cordon Bleu, sauteed frozen asparagus (in olive oil and garlic), mashed potatoes (my daughters made these without even asking me what to do -- I am so glad they can cook!), and birthday cake.

For my husband's birthday we had cheeseburgers (homemade buns), creamy rhubarb jello (made with cream cheese bought on sale before Christmas), pasta salad (with frozen, drained, diced canned tomatoes, slice olives, kale florets and herbs from the garden) and lemon meringue pie (made with bottled lemon juice, no lemon zest).

So, what did I, personally, learn from this?

I think that it's a good idea to do a major clean-out of the freezer a couple of times per year. You never know what has migrated to the back. There could be something delicious lurking in amongst the frozen veggies and meat. And clean out the fridge and pantry, while I'm at it.

Small tidbits of foods can inspire a lot of creativity in meal preparation. I don't need to follow recipes strictly.

April is a good month for me, to do a major clean out of the freezer, as the garden is coming back and I have an abundance of kale, mustard greens, Swiss chard from a fall planting. Although, it would always be wise to take advantage of pre-Easter sales, even if I was doing a major freezer clean-out.

I had over $200 in food sitting in the freezers. It's probably more like $400, as I still have a lot of meat in there. But I've planned for that meat to last through June. If I lived somewhere that power outages were common and long-lasting, keeping that much food in the freezer might not be the wisest thing. Instead, I would can a lot more.

And this answers one of those questions I often have, "just how long could we go, with just the food we have in stock right now?" It's a question that I think we've all asked our kitchens at least once. We want to insure our survival, under any circumstance.

The take-away for you

You likely don't have a garden that begins producing in March each year. And your freezer, pantry and fridge may not have the abundance of "treasures" that mine did. I did begin the month well-stocked from March's shopping. (March grocery journal is here, if you want to see how stocked our kitchen was.) But there is probably something in your kitchen that needs using up. And this food represents money spent or energy expended to procure it.

• those condiment packets from take-out, such as salad dressing, ketchup, BBQ sauce, Parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes -- all could be added to an ordinary dish like soup, baked beans, casserole or braised meat, to make something extraordinary
• seasonings, both the foil pouches and the canisters of herbs and spices -- again, these can take a humdrum meal of ground beef with rice and make it special and different
• small amounts of dairy products, that smidgen of sour cream, tablespoon of yogurt, half bar of cream cheese -- these can be added to jello salads for a creamy texture
• scraps of bread products, from a lone pancake or square of cornbread, to a stale bagel -- turn these into bread crumbs for a batch of savory stuffing, or for meatloaf, or to bread a chicken cutlet, or to make bread crumb cookies
• the berries (and other fruits) you bought or picked last summer and froze -- this should be a no-brainer, but the berry harvest is just around the corner, once again. Don't let these gems that you froze last summer go to waste. Make jam, top pancakes, add to oatmeal, make a coffee cake, crisp or cobbler, eat semi-thawed with your breakfast
• the assortment of leftovers, probably in single-size amounts -- have a smorgasbord dinner. Get all the containers out, heat them and let everyone choose what they want.
• scraps of pie pastry, left over from rolling out and trimming the dough -- thaw, roll out, cut into squares, top with jam, fold over, pinch, prick and bake -- homemade pop tarts, even yummier than store-bought!
• small amounts of frozen vegetables -- make a large pot of vegetable soup, add to quiche, if green and leafy, add to scrambled eggs, make a frittata, add to a casserole, add to pasta sauce
• frozen squash, pumpkin or sweet potatoes -- make muffins, make granola (Pumpkin Praline granola is delicious!), make a cream, sage and pumpkin pasta sauce, make a pumpkin pie smoothie/shake, make a batch of pumpkin butter for your morning toast

For you, I hope that my experience has given you some ideas on how to tap the goldmine of your freezer. And for me, I'll be glad to return to regular stock-up shopping, now that my freezers are manageable once again!

Best bites of spring: Rhubarb Crumb Muffins

One of my daughters is going through training to become a Stephen Minister with our church. This weekend is another marathon training retreat. All the trainees have generously agreed to provide snacks and treats for the group throughout the training sessions.

This morning it's my daughter's turn. As she is a full-time student and doesn't even get home from school until 3:30, and the retreat began at 5 PM Friday afternoon, she really didn't have any time to prepare a snack for her time.

So, being the awesome mom that I am, I made this batch of some favorite spring muffins of ours -- Rhubarb Crumb Muffins.

These muffins are always a hit in our house. I usually bake a double batch to go with Mother's Day brunch. And any leftovers get popped into the freezer for quick breakfasts on the run.

Here's the recipe:

Rhubarb Crumb Muffins (12 to 15 muffins)

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 large stalk rhubarb, finely diced (about 1 cup of fine dices)
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
1/3 cup oil
1 cup milk
crumb topping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (or 375 F convection)

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add rhubarb dices and orange zest and toss well.
• In a medium bowl, beat egg. Blend in extract, oil and milk.
• Combine wet and dry ingredients, just until combined (don't over mix).
• Spoon into prepared muffin tin.
• Top each with a spoonful of crumb topping (recipe below).

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until light golden and the muffins spring back when pressed.

Crumb Topping

In a small bowl, combine 1/3 cup flour, pinch salt, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons soft butter. Cut together with a fork and knife. Blend in 1 to 1  1/2 teaspoons of water (just enough to form crumbs).

As a note, you can substitute half whole wheat flour for half of the white. I often do this and they still get gobbled up!

Enjoy your bite of spring!

What's your frugal specialty?

We all have our areas of great talent. Some of us are very clever with crafts. Others can sniff out a good deal at the stores. Still others seem to be able to repair or mend just about anything. And some can take a can of paint and transform a beat-up piece of furniture into a true heirloom.

Are you a fab garage saler/thrift shopper? Can you turn old sheets into comfy pjs? Do you know where to put your investments? Are you on top of every bill and receipt?

Many of us are clever cooks, creating memorable meals. Some of us are coupon queens, stacking coupons on sales with rebates, and walking away with free products regularly. And some of us do beautiful needlework, making lovely gifts, making over clothing, and adorning our homes.

So what is your frugal specialty?

You could probably guess that mine is keeping our grocery bill low. It's what I do best in the frugal realm. But it's not the only way to watch our pennies. There are so many more ways, just as valuable, but don't always get the recognition that they deserve.

Although groceries are my area of specialty, I have found it incredibly helpful to read and learn from everyone else. Sometimes I just never would have thought to try something, on my own. But upon hearing a new trick or idea from someone else, it sounds completely do-able. Or maybe I've wanted to try something, but really needed the confirmation from someone else's experience.

So, now I'm asking you, what do you do best to contribute to your careful use of resources? Can you offer up one solid tip that has boosted your abilities in your specialty, even higher? Crafty people speak up! Handy repair people, tell us about your biggest success! Shoppers who sniff out the best deals, tell us about your best score! Clever cooks, what have you cooked/baked that you once thought "had" to be bought? I am positive that I've missed many areas, so fill me in.

This week (the indoor edition) . . .

much is going on in our household. After a couple of beautiful spring days, the weather turned cold and rainy for much of last week. When the rain quit and sun came out on Sunday afternoon, I took a walk through the neighborhood and discovered many new "ponds". It had been a wet week, all right!

With so much rain, my attentions were turned indoors.

Last week was my birthday. Here's the cake my daughters frosted and decorated for me. The cake was a yellow scratch cake. The layers were glazed with the syrup from a jar of runny marmalade, and the frosting was citrus flavored. I have one last slice, tucked in the freezer, for some deserving soul, on some  special occasion.

This week is my husband's birthday. With two birthdays so close together, we're really not in the mood for more cake. So, for Doug's birthday, I often make his favorite pie, lemon meringue.

Just so you know, if you're out of corn starch, you can still make a lemon meringue pie. I went to make this and discovered I only had half the required corn starch. I searched online and found a recipe that called for flour instead of cornstarch. I wanted the firmer texture that cornstarch gives, so I used the half amount of cornstarch that I had in the pantry (used 3  1/2 tablespoons for a 9-inch pie), *plus* half the online recipe's amount of flour (used 4 tablespoons for a 9-inch). It came out beautifully. The texture was creamy and smooth, and very lemony (I increased the lemon juice a bit).

I baked and cooked quite a lot this past week, from hamburger buns (for Doug's birthday dinner)

to pumpkin muffins (using up the cooked pumpkin in the freezer).

From dueling pots on the stove, one of pasta/pizza sauce, the other of Mexican bean soup,

to a fabulous garden lasagna. Sorry I have no pictures of the lasagna, as it got gobbled up pretty quickly. I was using up odd bits from the fridge and freezer, some tofu (mashed and flavored with garlic, lemon juice, and salt), mixed with a packet of pizzeria garlic dipping sauce, topped with several small packets of Parmesan cheese. I blended some chopped kale and carrots into the tofu "cheese" filling. Oh, was this ever delicious!

I also began cooking the frozen fruit juice from last summer's harvest, into jelly. This week I made the red currant jelly. Later I'll make the crabapple jelly. I use a particular method for cooking my jelly, both the juice extraction and the actual turning the juice into jelly. I find that when I take care to be precise, I have greater success. This tried and true method is right here.

And here's the rhubarb-cream cheese gelatin that I made Sunday afternoon, for Monday's dinner. It seems to firm up more, if I make it the day before serving. Here's the recipe.

I made a pasta salad, adding sliced olives, chopped canned tomatoes, and the florets from kale about to go to seed. They taste like broccoli, so much so, that my kale-loathing husband declared with glee, last week, "there's broccoli in the quiche!". I then informed him that it was kale florets. Much gagging and sputtering followed, with the knowledge that it was kale (kidding, he's a good sport!). Anyway, just before the kale goes to seed, I pluck off the florets and use as I would broccoli. This is the kale that I planted last fall.


Outside of the kitchen,

my daughters finally made their university choice for next year. It was between the large state university and a small private university. Either one would be a good choice. We looked at a variety of criteria, from having the right programs and courses available, to ratio of faculty to student, and finally how affordable both options were.

Something to be noted, in many areas, as state governments have had their budgets slashed, they've raised tuition, and have reduced the number of merit-based scholarships. A public university education is not as affordable as it once was.

Meanwhile, with private universities, sure their tuition may be high, but they often have more merit-based scholarship money to offer to deserving students. If your student has done well all through high school, don't rule out private universities, based on cost alone, as many students are being offered generous scholarships at these institutions.

For our daughters, they each received merit-based scholarships that will cover half of the tuition, at the small private university. This brought the overall cost down considerably, and made the private school competitive (cost-wise) with the public school. My daughters emailed their admissions counselor, on several occasions, requesting information on various financial concerns, such as scholarship renewal requirements for the scholarships they received. The admissions counselor has been a wealth of information for my daughters, and has guided them, step by step, through the entire process. Universities prefer to interact solely with the students, from the very beginning of the application process through graduation. They are adults, now, after all.

The small school was definitely a better fit for my daughters. And so, that was their choice. We filled out the paperwork for Seattle Pacific University this past week and sent it in. Woohoo! One more thing done, sealed and delivered!

I'll go into more detail on how we've prepared to finance this next step in our lives, in a future post. But I'll just say now, it looks like it will all work out, we'll avoid student loans, and our daughters will receive excellent educations (that is, if they put in the work! The school can't do it all.)

I've also been doing a bit of spring cleaning and reorganizing. The family room was in need of some attention. I straightened, rearranged and cleared the room of winter clutter. I repotted a sickly looking plant into fresh soil, hoping that will help. (I am terrible with indoor plants.) And I brought a faux ivy down from a shelf in the kitchen to the brick ledge above the fireplace. I took out some of my collection of seashells for the mantle, to put next to the photos of my kids at the beach.

How about you? What's been keeping you busy this past week?

My other way to make an "instant plant" (this one doesn't need water -- ever)

Last week I posted how I made "instant" plants from boxwood cuttings. Well, this week, I have my oh-so-fabulous, faux ivy in a planter, made from scraps.

I have a very bad track record with houseplants. You might wonder, "how on earth does Lili keep her garden alive?" after a peek at my houseplants. So, faux is often the way to go. But those silk plants in catalogs are not cheap!

Here's my extreme budget version, using what I have on hand.

I seem to produce a lot of crafts that use faux ivy. And I always have a few lengths leftover.

Here is a planter with 3 pots inside, from 3 once-live ivy plants I had in the house.

The pots still have their solidified dirt in them. Of course, you could use a chunk of styrofoam, too. (I'm just a tad on the lazy side, at times!)

Anyway, I take one long strand of ivy and cascade it across the top of the 3 pots, to add height and even bulk across the planter, tucking the ends in between the pots and the planter.

Then I simply add the short pieces of ivy to the pots, bending one end on most pieces, so they will cascade naturally out the side of the planter, and leaving a few pieces straight and upright to add height. I mass more pieces on one side more than the other, as plants in nature never seem to grow evenly, either.

My planter sits on the brick ledge above the fireplace in the family room, at about 5 feet high. Most of us can't see inside the planter, unless we are standing right up against the brick and looking down and in. And even so, one would have to be studying the insides to discern this was indeed faux, and a cheap faux at that. So, for me, it works.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary . . .

how does your garden grow?

I've had that nursery rhyme in my head, running on a loop, the past couple of days. I thought you might like to see what's coming up in my gardens.

One of two self-fertile cherry trees. This one blooms first, sometimes too early for the bees.

The tulips that I planted last autumn. I had forgotten what I'd chosen, so this was a delightful surprise!

One of five apple trees. This is the first to bloom and will give us fresh-eating, red apples in late August.

A very unpretty garden area. I worked on this most of yesterday morning. It was back-breaking work for this old biddy. (I plan on milking my old lady status as long as I can, that is until someone mentions putting me in a "home". Then I'll become capable and able-bodied once again!) I cultivated the weeds out, brought in 5 bags of top soil, raked it well, plopped down some stepping stones, then planted pole beans, 2 kinds of bush beans, some pumpkins, and have the row cover on to warm the soil for tomatoes seedlings. This is a temporary garden area. Eventually I'd like to add a small garden house to this part of the yard (my term for a shed with a window and covered front porch).

Next month's salads -- leaf lettuce on the left, spinach seedlings on the right.

The shallots that I planted in October. The bulbs will be ready to dig in July.

The blueberries are about to bloom.

I am trying out a new kind of pea for our garden. These are self-supporting. The packets say they don't require any trellis. We shall see. I've planted both snap and shell self-supporting peas up against the low stone wall that I built a few years ago from found rocks.

The rhubarb is so ready to pick. I just haven't had time to make anything with it since Easter and rhubarb pies.

Lemon balm can be cut for tea any day now. It's the first of my tea herbs every spring.

This is the small pond in our yard. There's a large, natural pond at the back of the property.

We have a pair of ducks who like to come up to the small pond to sun themselves in the afternoon.

The strawberry beds and raspberry beds. My husband is working on paving the walkway between the berry beds.

This is a boxwood hedge that is near the street edge of our property. I grew that hedge from cuttings off of 1 bush. On the other side of the hedge are two pear trees, on either side of a crabapple tree.

The pear tree on the left is just now in bloom. This is the tree that gave us those beautiful pears last September.

The hostas are just now coming up. These are the earliest of the different varieties.

The Italian prune tree is just now leafing out, and has a few blossoms forming. Last year was a bumper year of plums, so this year may be leaner. Fruit trees sometimes get into alternate-year bearing habits. There is a way to break that cycle. Thin the blossoms in a bumper year, before fruit forms.

The red and black currants are in bloom now. Their blossoms are not at all showy.

The red currants do rather well in the shade of a cherry tree. 

The bleeding heart is in bloom now. When I bought this plant, it was touted as a May bloomer in our area. But here it is in bloom in April. Go figure!

I dump all the coffee grounds at the base of the blueberry bushes. The grounds acidify the soil and add a mulch to hold in moisture. Blueberries don't like to stand in water, but they do like a steady level of moisture.

My parsley that I started from seeds was way overgrown for the light garden. I finally got it planted out into the herb circle.

And, of course, I found several of these! I popped the tops off, to keep seeds from spreading, until I can get out there with a shovel and dig them out.

So, what's coming up in your garden?

Making changes

Today is my birthday! In addition to celebrating my birthdays, I make what I call birthday evaluations. I  look back at the previous year or years, and find areas that I would like to see improvements in my life going forward. As aging does make itself most evident in our health, these changes are often about improving my health, so I can enjoy the rest of my time in this life. And there's one area that I began working on a few weeks ago.

I was cleaning out a drawer and found this, a pedometer. It's one of those cheap plastic ones that they hand out for free, at health insurance fairs put on by employers.

I vaguely recalled Dr. Oz saying something about how a person should put on about 10,000 steps per day, to lose weight. So, having been unable to lose more than 2 pounds since the first of the year, I was curious just how many steps I put on per day. Surely, being the active person that I am, I was way beyond that magic 10,000.

Oh, how very humbling. That first day, I put on about 2,000 steps. How could this be? Me, always busy, always doing. But I didn't find the pedometer until about 10 AM. Perhaps I had missed counting a lot of steps.

The next day, I put the pedometer on bright and early, anticipating that big number at the end of the day. Embarrassingly enough, my so-called active lifestyle only put about 3,500 steps onto the counter that day.

Day 3, try again. Today, surely I would see a lot of steps at the end of the day. This was the day of the week that I babysit 6 very active little boys for 3 hours. You would think all the chasing around would really boost that number. Not exactly. Better, but still just a little over 5000 steps. I am getting no where, in a hurry. It's no wonder I've only lost 2 pounds since January.

So, it became clear that if I wanted to put 10,000 steps on per day, I had to make changes. I began by challenging myself to increase the steps in 1,000 increments per day. Mid last week, I was up to 15,000 steps per day. This requires brisk walking for 1 hour straight at some point every day, plus maintaining a high level of activity. I can't do this every day. I would say I'm averaging 10,000 per day. I have some days where I'm just spending too many hours in the car, driving daughters around, or at my desk pushing papers around, to have time to do some serious walking. It's frustrating, because I can have very good intentions. But can't fulfill them due to schedule constraints.

Anyway, this is my big change for this coming year of my life. I hope to become a more active person and shake off some of this fatigue that I've had for the past several years.

I was curious (and you may be, too), just how many calories are burned in all these steps. (Certainly a great many, one would think!) 3,000 steps burns, on average, 100 measly calories. Oh rats! That 300 calorie slice of birthday cake will take 9,000 steps or 1 and 1/4 hours of walking, just to burn it off.

How about you? Do you ever make birthday evaluations of the past year with hopes for the improving your life for the next? Or are you the live each day as it comes sort of person? I happen to be an over-thinker, I over-think just about everything. I envy the person who can just take things as they come.


Happy birthday to me! And many more (just keep stepping, just keep stepping)!

How to make an indoor "plant", instantly, for nothing

I had this problem spot in the powder room next to the kitchen. There's a lovely, weathered steel, wall-hung shelf with three weathered steel cups/planters. The cups had remained empty for quite a while, and this just looked unfinished. 

One of my thoughts was to cover 3 styrofoam balls with moss and rest in the cups. I have moss, just no styrofoam balls, and I was wanting to do this with no additional cost.

I knew I wanted something just green, so as not to compete with any of the other floral-themed items in the room. And it had to be low-"growing", but not alive, as there is no natural light in this powder room.

I have seen some lovely mini, faux-boxwood topiaries in home decor shops. And that's where my inspiration was born.

Boxwood cuttings (and those from other evergreen shrubs) can last in water for a very long time, several weeks to months, with just a change of water once per week. A floral preservative can help keep the water clear, as well.

So, I went out to the front garden and took several clippings off the hedge. I set out 3 jelly jars. I trimmed the stem ends of the boxwood until they looked about right. Then filled the jars with water, plucked the bottom leaves off the stems, and placed them in the water-filled jars. The jars can not be seen when placed in the weathered steel planters.

Voila! A long-term, temporary solution for my wall-hung planter, using what I had here at home.

Translate this idea for other cheap and cheerful decorating

• weddings, graduation parties, Mother's Day teas, baby showers -- this idea translates well to table decor, several jelly jars placed in terra cotta pots, filled with evergreen cuttings, make free table decorations
• needing a quick "plant" as green space-filler, for the mantle above the fireplace, the coffee table, a book shelf -- use several filled jelly jars, clustered together inside a copper, brass or ceramic planter
• have a dark corner where you'd really like to place a plant, but a living plant won't survive the lack of sunlight? The entry hall in your home is the gateway to your family life. A "plant" of boxwood (or other evergreen) cuttings would be welcoming to all who cross your threshold. Our entry hall is on the north side of the house and plants definitely do not thrive there. I'll be adding some evergreen cuttings in a pot to the table in the entry.

Keep this in mind, if you're needing a quick plant, say, for party/holiday table decor, instant decorating update, or background filler for a family photo.


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Seasonal lighting changes

firelight and candlelight are always my favorite kinds of light

My favorite type of lighting, for all seasons, is candles. But candles are not always the practical choice, are they?

A simple thing, such as changing your light bulbs for the spring and summer season, can save you $50 in those 6 months, on your household electricity.

In the most used rooms (the kitchen and family room) I change the light bulbs twice per year, once in early autumn, and the other in early spring. We have different lighting needs with the different seasons. In the cold, dark days of winter, I need very bright, full spectrum lighting. I use the GE Reveal bulbs for many of our light fixtures in winter. They do seem to chase away the winter blues.

In the brighter, sunnier days of spring and summer, my light needs ease up. The sun is higher. The days seem brighter, and my work space of the kitchen and family room don't need to be quite so bright. Those full-spectrum lights are expensive to purchase and to use. I could just leave them in, but I would spend more on the electric bill, when that's not necessary.

5-light hanging fixture with 25 watt bulbs each

For several years, I have changed the 60 watt bulbs, over the kitchen table, to 25 watt bulbs, each spring. And then back again to the brighter lights in fall. Based on using those lights about 6 hours per day, I have always estimated our savings to be about $3.65 per month.

This year I decided to take the plunge and buy some CFL indoor floodlights for the kitchen ceiling can lights, as well.

I wasn't sure just how well I'd like the CFL as indoor flood lights, so I just bought 1. There were two to choose from, one the standard, which I bought, and another which is supposed to give a more pleasing indoor light, for $2 more. I thought I'd try out the one that was cheaper first. I placed it in one of the cans and thought it was quite good.

the area above the sink
the 2 exterior lights are CFL indoor flood lights
the center light is a standard flood light

The next time I was at the store, I picked up 5 more. We have 6 can lights in the ceiling of the kitchen, another 2 in the adjacent hall, and 4 more in the family room ceiling. I replaced all the 65 watt can lights in the kitchen with the CFLs (17 watt, I believe). I used them for several days, then ultimately decided that having all 6 as CFLs gave too much of a green cast to my 2 main work areas. Fortunately, using CFL bulbs is not an all or nothing proposition. Some fixtures can have the standard incandescent bulbs, while the rest can have the CFL bulbs.

Our kitchen can lights are divided into 2 strips, one along the stove/counter area and the other along the sink/fridge/counter area.

the area above the stove
the 2 outside lights are CFL indoor flood lights
and the center light is a standard flood light

I took the center CFL out of each strip of can lights, and replaced with the standard indoor flood bulb. The quality of the lighting is now quite good, with 4 of the 6 can lights containing CFL indoor flood lights. I use these lights about 8 hours per day (our kitchen is long and narrow and doesn't get that much natural light). Based on this use, I should save about $4.60 per month.

The remaining 2 CFL indoor flood lights I placed in the next most used area, the family room. We have 4 can lights in that room, so I replaced 2 of the standard flood lights with the leftover CFL ones. I would guess we use the lights in that room about 3 hours per day, and expect to see a savings of about $1 per month on those 2 bulbs.

In total then, changing these bulbs seasonally, I expect we'll save just over $9 per month. I spent just over $40 for all the bulbs. The CFL indoor floods are rated to last 9  1/2 years. They will pay for themselves before I change the lights on those fixtures for fall/winter.

You wouldn't think that changing the light bulbs for 6 months of the year, would amount to much. Over the course of the life of the bulbs, I should save close to $500. And this only takes about 2 minutes per bulb to do.

We use the cheaper, bulb and spiral-shaped CFLs in other fixtures throughout the house. In the entry hall we have 2 pendant lights and 1 bowl light with 3 bulbs. As these lights are suspended from a vaulted ceiling, they are difficult for me to access to change the bulbs. I chose CFLs for these fixtures mostly because I didn't want to have to change the bulbs very often. But it's nice that we're saving money on those as well.

In covered light fixtures in the kitchen and laundry room ceilings, I've mixed CFLs with incandescent, using one of each in each of these covered fixtures.

However, in the bedrooms, bathrooms and dining room, I still prefer the incandescent bulbs, and for the time being will continue to use those.

So, you see, using CFLs doesn't have to be an either/or situation. I have found areas of the house where they work well, sometimes on their own, and sometimes mixed with standard incandescents.

How about you? Do you use CFLs in your house? Have you tried the LEDs yet?

This week . . .

The cherry blossoms on the dining room table faded and were replaced with some branches of red-flowering currant.

My son bought his first car. He saved, researched, shopped and found just the right make, model and mileage. He paid cash, and bought a 3 year old Prius, for his daily commute to and from work. And, he shopped around for a good deal on insurance, and maybe found his dad and I a new company (it's time for us to shop around for insurance, too).

I began hardening off the tomato seedlings that I started from seeds. They'll be ready to plant under a row cover in another 2 weeks.

My husband began taking out some overgrown shrubs, that we were going to hire out the work for, saving us about $200, (after cost of renting a chain saw). And I can already see that this year's strawberries and raspberries will get a better dose of sun.

I got the laundry rack out again. I looked it over. The metal supports need de-rusting. Last summer that sounded like too much work. This year, I think I can do it in the next few weeks. But I've been using the rack to dry several loads of wash, anyway (just avoiding the rust areas).

My sourdough starter did not die of neglect over winter, but sprang back to life over the weekend,

and I baked two loaves of San Francisco sourdough.

I had music playing in the background, from a small kitchen radio. It's just a little thing, but it was soothing. I hadn't had music on regularly since the holiday season.

I made myself a hazelnut latte one afternoon, when I was really needing a pick-me-up. I have a bottle of hazelnut syrup in the cupboard that needs using up. This seemed like a good day for it.

(File this one under odd things I do so that I will appear to be "more normal" to outsiders.) I ran out of liquid hand soap for the kitchen sink. Our family has just been using liquid dish soap for the last week. So, I poured some of the dish soap into the hand soap dispenser, but it looked too neon pink. I diluted it with water, still too pink. So, with about 20 minutes to spare before my son's friends would begin to trickle in (they use our kitchen to cook their dinner every Sunday evening), I did a little fix-up job on the dish soap. The label on the soap dispenser says "lavender and chamomile", so that was my inspiration.

I got out the blue food coloring and stirred a bit in. Perfect color. Then I added some lotion. Great feel on the hands. Next I dropped in a few drops of lavender soap fragrance. Beautiful fragrance.

And finally, as I had added water at one point in the beginning, my creation was a bit too thin, so I worked in some thick hand cream. This is such a nice hand soap to use now. It cleans my hands without stripping the oils. I may just continue to "make" this hand soap in the future.

The tulips on the deck are just now beginning to bloom. Aren't spring flowers wonderful?!

How about you? What's new at your place?