Blessings where you don't expect them

Lately, I've noticed a lot of blessings in circumstances that I normally would find annoying, at best. Yesterday was one such case. I bought another 25 lb sack of carrots. I was tired at the produce stand, and didn't inspect the bag very well.

When I got it home, I was disappointed to find a lot of broken or cracked carrots. Well, with those carrots that won't keep very long, I peel and chop them right away and pack for the freezer.

While my daughter peeled, I chopped, and I chopped and I chopped. And I was thinking, "what a blessing this is, to be forced into doing this prep work right now. These frozen, chopped carrots will make dinner prep on busy days, so much easier."

Three good-sized bags of chopped carrots sitting in the freezer. I'd say that's a blessing where I didn't expect to find it.

Making a too-big belt fit a petite waistline

My daughters are on the petite side. One in particular has a difficult time finding belts that fit, without shopping the kiddie department. I shopped and shopped for a leather belt that would fit, as a gift for her for Christmas. What I finally settled on was still too big for her, but I knew I could add holes so it would fit better.

This week, I finally got around to taking her measurements and adding a couple of extra holes.

To add holes to a leather belt, I used:

a cardboard box
a ruler
a pencil
an electric drill with multiple drill bits


I measured the distance between existing holes, and marked with a pencil, where to add new holes, keeping the spacing uniform.

I placed the belt on a cardboard box (so I wouldn't drill holes into the kitchen floor), and with the electric drill and one of the smaller drill bits, I drilled a pilot hole.

I changed out the drill bits about 4 times, increasing the size of the holes incrementally, until "my holes" were about the size of the existing holes.

Voila! About a 5 minute job, and now the belt fits. Sometimes, the manufactured holes in a belt have some of the stain from the surface of the belt, on the inside of the holes. This can be approximated with a sharpie pen, in either brown or black.

In addition to fitting leather belts for my daughter, it has occurred to me that this method will work for second-hand belts for my husband. My husband also has a small waist. (I wish my daughter's tiny waist came from my side of the family, but sadly not.) Finding a leather belt that fits him means paying full-price at the mall. The belts that we find at Value Village, St. Vincent de Paul's and Goodwill are never quite small enough. But I often find one that is just 1 or 2 inches too big. In the future, these belts will work for him, as I can add extra holes with the electric drill.

One other use for adding holes. My belts (from pre-baby days) are not too big, but a tad too small. I can add an extra hole to one of my favorite belts, so that it fits again. Oh, so, so sad, that I have to make belts smaller for some in my family, but bigger for me!

Freezing pizza dough

I'm posting this, not because I think it's earth-shatteringly novel. But because up until 5 years ago, I thought making homemade pizza meant starting from scratch each and every time. Figuring out that I could freeze pizza dough got me over the hurdle of "I have to make dinner, again, all from scratch". Just the thought of time-consuming dinner preparations can be overwhelming, at times for me. That's one reason why I usually get a start on dinner prep in the morning, or around lunchtime.

When I make pizza dough, I do a quadruple batch, enough for 4 large pizzas. I mix the ingredients, knead thoroughly, and allow to rest for 10 minutes. I divide the dough into 4 portions. One portion I press out into a large round, on a greased baking sheet for that night's dinner.

The other 3 portions are for freezing. I form each into a ball. I pour about a tablespoon of vegetable oil into the mixing bowl, then turn each ball of dough in the oil, to coat, before placing in individual freezer bags. The oil keeps the dough from sticking to the inside of the freezer bag while its thawing. This frozen dough keeps for at least 6 months (the longest I've ever had a ball of dough in the freezer before using).

To use the frozen pizza dough, I remove a bag of dough from the freezer in the morning, unzip the seal, and allow to thaw on the counter. (I'll also pull a container of pizza/pasta sauce out of the freezer to thaw at this time, too.) By the end of the day, the dough is perfectly thawed. All I need to do is grease a baking sheet and press out into a large circle. I raise this pizza round, slightly, in a barely warmed oven, for about 20 minutes, before adding toppings and baking.

The dough recipe for pizza crust is the same dough I use for French bread, foccacia, stromboli and calzone. It works as a frozen dough for all of these breads. (I posted that recipe here.)

Foccacia makes easy "bread sticks" to go with soup. I press the thawed dough into a rectangle on a greased baking sheet, then add my toppings (which can be as simple a seasonal herbs and kosher salt, or as elaborate as pasta sauce, herbs, oliver slices and vegetables -- basically pizza without the cheese). After the foccacia is baked, I cut it into "sticks", 1-inch by 6-inch strips.

For those of you who already freeze your pizza crust dough, have you ever encountered a problem with keeping it frozen longer than 6 months? Or it failing to rise? Or any other ill-fate? Thanks for your feedback!


And why does freezing pizza dough come up now, you wonder? My two daughters are on spring break this week. Monday, we all rose at the cracking hour of 9 AM -  university finals seems to have taken it's toll on all 3 of us :-)  (In my defense, even though I didn't have to take the final examinations, I did have to get up at 5:45 AM each day to get my girls to the bus stop for their early morning exams. So a bit of a sleep-in on the first day that we had free, was very welcome.)

The weather forecast was for a gorgeous Monday, with rains returning on Tuesday for the remainder of the week. So we set out to explore the vintage area north of us for the afternoon. But before leaving, I needed to plan out that night's dinner. I pulled pizza dough and sauce out of the freezer to thaw, and off we went.

We had a splendid time popping in and out of vintage shops, enjoying the riverside park watching the fishermen, and sharing some pie. It had been almost a year since our last jaunt to that area, and there was so much new stuff to look at. I spent some of my birthday money from last year. And one of my daughters bought her sister a belated birthday gift. Fun times doing the girlie stuff we enjoy!

So, there's the logical explanation of why I'd post about freezing pizza dough today!

Curried pea and peanut slaw

I've been using all of your suggestions for cabbage this past week. I've sauteed cabbage in bacon fat, made cabbage rolls, and a particular highlight was this curried pea and peanut slaw.

I didn't have a recipe to go on, but simply made it how I'd enjoy it. So, here's an approximation of what I used.

Dressing:

Combine in the bottom of a large bowl --

3 tablespoons mayonnaise
about 2  1/2 teaspoons vinegar (until the dressing looked thinned enough)
2 to 3 teaspoons plum chutney (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon curry powder

The remaining ingredients:

1 & 1/2 cups of frozen peas, thawed and drained, but not cooked
1/2 cup of roasted peanuts
2 large handfuls of shredded green cabbage (I think about 3 to 4 cups)
1 - 2 tablespoons of minced chives, or chopped green onions

Toss ingredients with dressing, and serve. It was simple to make and very delicious. I'll be making this again, and again.

If I were to add anything to this salad, it would likely be some green onions or sliced celery. Both would go well with the dressing, I think.

The suggestion for this salad was posted anonymously in the comments last week. I wish I could thank you, whoever added this idea!

Snowballing the savings: electricity

Since September 2013, we have shaved a total of $254.76 from our electricity bills, averaging about $30 per month less in electricity use/spending for the exact same time periods from the prior year.

Of that $254.76, $123.00 has been taken up with a reduced budget for the last 8 months, leaving us with a net savings of $131.76.

We could have just spent that $131.76 on who knows what. But instead, we've chosen to help this savings snowball into greater savings.

Half of this money has been set aside for a new garage fridge/freezer. And the other half is being used to purchase energy-saving LED light bulbs.

By spending our surplus in the electricity budget on these energy-saving items, our energy consumption will continue to drop over the coming months, freeing up even more money for energy-saving improvements in our home.

I call this "investment" spending. Many standard methods of investing (stocks, bonds, real estate, collectibles) are off-limits to those living with financial constraints. However, there are some methods of investing that are possible, even when an income is restricted.

Buying energy-saving light bulbs is an investment in lower energy consumption/spending. What you save on your electricity bill is your "gain". Many of us don't think of that savings as a "gain" in investment terms. And we wind up spending that savings on who knows what, and never fully feel the gain that we've realized. How you choose to spend the gain is up to you. For us, we're choosing to reinvest our gains on electricity savings.


On LED light bulbs

I've been appalled by the lack of LED light bulbs in our local stores. I was in Target the other day and found just a couple to choose from. The local Fred Meyer (a discount chain in the NW) didn't have many more than Target. I haven't checked Wal-Mart or Lowes yet, but will when I'm in those areas.

However, Home Depot has a very good selection of LED bulbs. (And Home Depot is very close to our home.) They're carrying several brands now. You know what that means. More manufacturers, greater selection. Greater selection, more competition. More competition, better quality and lower prices!! Win!

Home Depot has recently reduced the price on their Cree 40 watt equivalent soft white bulbs, running around $7 a bulb now (previously about $10/bulb). I've already purchased a few of these bulbs, and will continue picking up one or two when I'm there. Just my experience, but I think these 40 watt equivalent LED bulbs are brighter than a similar 40 watt equivalent CFL. So for us, I can put a 40 watt equiv LED bulb where I might have put a 60 watt equiv CFL.

And I'll add this about LED light bulbs. Some people don't care for the quality of light in indoor LED Christmas strings of lights. And I agree, they bother my eyes, as well. The light bulbs seem to be different. We're using them in 3 rooms, plus a walk-in storage area, and we've been very pleased with the quality of light. I began small, with just 2 bulbs. I wanted to try them out, and make sure they would work for us. This has been a very good way to introduce LED bulbs into our home.

So I found a use for paper towels

The other week, I mentioned that I use leftover fast food paper napkins to help drain fried foods. Well, the other day, I remembered one other good use (for either paper napkins or towels). To place at the bottom of a grocery store plastic clamshell, full of berries.

If strawberries are left in the plastic clamshell for more than a few days, the moisture from the bottom layer of berries has no place to escape to, and I find I'm inclined to discover moldy berries after just a handful of days.

However, if I place a paper napkin under the berries, inside the clamshell, my berries keep fresh and in good condition for up to a week (if they don't get eaten). And I get a few uses out of these paper napkins. Because they don't become truly soggy with this use, I just fold them loosely and put in the cupboard above the counter. I use them a few times over the course of the season, and they end their useful life, either to drain fried foods, or to wipe out a greasy pan.


The trick is to get the paper towel/napkin under the berries, without unloading the entire clamshell. Here's how I do it.

right-side up

After I pull out a few berries for that first meal or snack, I reseal the clamshell shut.

upside down

I carefully turn the clamshell over and rest on the counter.

Then I carefully open the upturned container and lay a couple of unfolded paper napkins over the berries, inside.

I reseal the container, and once again turn the clamshell over, very carefully. That's it. The paper napkins are now on the bottom of the container, under the berries.

For other fresh produce, I prefer to use my salad spinner for storage, or wrap items in a non-linty tea towel. I'm reluctant to use a tea towel for storing berries, due to potential staining. But I've been thinking to try some unbleached muslin fabric squares at the bottom of berry containers. I'll let you know how that works when I try it.

In my mind, using paper towels/napkins isn't an all or nothing proposition. I am satisfied to use them very, very sparingly, while still finding alternatives wherever I can. I just think that's a sensible approach.

Favorite Uses for Cabbage

Many of us bought a head or two of cabbage this past week. Now, the challenge is to find interesting ways to use it up.

Cole slaw is always a good stand-by. I also like to add it to stir fries and fried rice. But two of my favorite ways to use cabbage are for a particular soup and in a salad.

The soup is one I used to order in a diner near us over 20 years ago. This restaurant called it Cabbage Patch Soup. I've done my best to replicate it over the years. However, I've never settled on a set recipe.

Basically, it's a tomato-based soup, with onions, garlic, carrots, celery, canned tomatoes, ground beef, or crumbled, cooked Italian sausage, or TVP granules, or as in our case the other day, lentils, plus lots of shredded cabbage. If I have some homemade pasta sauce, I'll add that, as well as added oregano and salt, as desired.  The key to Cabbage Patch Soup is to add the shredded, raw cabbage just 5 minutes before serving. Here's an approximate recipe, in case you want to give it a try.

Cabbage Patch Soup

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 of a large onion, chopped
8 oz. any meat (Italian sausage, Kielbasa, smoked sausage, ground beef) OR a combination of 1/2 cup dry lentils (or 1  1/2 cups cooked beans) and 1/2 cup barley OR 1 cup of dry TVP (textured vegetable protein) granules 
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
14 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drain and save liquid
1 to 2 carrots, sliced
1 to 2 stalks celery, diced
2 tablespoons tomato paste OR 1 cup of marinara sauce
herbs, 1/2 teaspoon total of oregano, savory, or basil
1 teaspoon chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
optional, splash of vinegar
2 to 3 extra-large handfuls of shredded cabbage

• In a large pot, heat vegetable oil. Saute onions, chopped, sliced or ground meat, and garlic until meat is cooked and onions are translucent. Drain excess fat, if needed.
• Add stock plus the liquid from the can of tomatoes (set drained tomatoes aside). Add sliced carrots, celery, dry lentils and barley (if using). Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer 30 to 40 minutes (until lentils and veggies are tender).
• For more intense tomato flavor, add tomato paste or marinara/pizza sauce. Adjust seasonings to taste by adding salt, pepper, chili powder, plus oregano, savory, or basil. (I also like to add tang with a spoonful of vinegar added to the soup.)
• 5-8 minutes before serving, add TVP granules (if using) and shredded green cabbage. Bring back to simmer and cook 5 additional minutes.

Garnish with grated Parmesan or sour cream, if desired. 


Using cabbage in tossed salads

My other favorite way to use up the cabbage is added to other raw, green veggies and tossed with a vinaigrette dressing.

The other night I had some lettuce, cucumber, and celery that needed using up. I tossed in some shredded cabbage and leftover homemade raspberry vinaigrette. Used in a salad this way, the flavor of cabbage is downplayed considerably. But it still adds a nice crunch.

So tell me, what are your favorite ways to use cabbage? I bought 4 heads this past week. Perhaps you can guess, I'm very eager to hear how you like to use cabbage.

In my ultra-happy place!

Yesterday, my two youngest turned 19!! Wowza! Where did those years go?!

That event made my day an extra happy one. (I sometimes can't believe just how fortunate I am. I have 3 kids that I really enjoy spending time with.)

On my kids' birthdays, I have my own celebration throughout the day as I make preparations. Music blasting in the kitchen while making cupcakes, lots of singing and dancing. (Do you know how hard it is to get the cake batter into those small muffin papers, while dancing and singing?!! I wasn't exactly neat!)

And everywhere I went, I couldn't help but broadcast that the day was my girls' birthday. Most of the places I go, the clerks and employees all know my kids, and often ask how university is going, or how my oldest is enjoying his job. So, I couldn't help but share the current status of two of my kids.

I've been told that my happiness is infectious. I guess that I spread a little bit of Lili Happy everywhere I went yesterday.

I'll be back to frugal-living blogging again tomorrow. For now, you can picture me dancing in my kitchen. (My toes just can't stop tapping!)

Are you sure that the mustard jar is really empty?

This is the final installment of my leftover bonanza from last weekend. Over the course of the weekend, I emptied over 20 containers, dishes, and jars. That's a lot of leftovers!

Mustard keeps for a very long time. It has so much vinegar in it, it's very well preserved. I buy yellow mustard in 1 gallon jars. (I bought this jar in 2009). To minimize any contamination, I transfer contents from the big jar to smaller jars, as needed. (We're not serving right out of the gallon jar.)

When it looks like the jar is empty, I pour in about a tablespoon of vinegar. I shake the jar up, then lay on its side in the fridge, turning every couple of days. this softens up any mustard stuck to the sides of the jar. It can then be scraped out at almost the consistency of the original mustard. You'd think the mustard jar could now be pronounced empty. Not just yet. There's usually enough mustard still in there to flavor some more vinegar.

On Saturday, I added about 1/2 cup of vinegar to the jar. I shook and I shook and I shook that jar, until almost everything stuck to the sides and lid had come off in the vinegar. With this mustard-infused vinegar, a half-jelly jar of sweet pickle juice, vegetable oil, and shallots, I made a mustard vinaigrette for a marinated lentil salad.

To go with the marinated lentil salad, I cooked some pasta.

My "secret" pasta sauce ingredient

To top the pasta, I mixed one of those pizza joint, garlic dipping sauce condiments and the leftover pasta sauce from the top shelf of the fridge. My family thought the garlic dipping sauce really punched up my homemade sauce.

Rounding out the meal was a batch of stewed plums, made with frozen plum halves, the set-aside blackberry juice from breakfast, the rinsings from a jar of blackberry jam (the runny jam that served as syrup at breakfast), and the rinsings from a jar of orange marmalade. In one dish, I managed to empty 3 containers from the fridge and 1 from the freezer. Not bad.

Sunday's lunch: or what do you do with two-week old, leftover frosting?

When we decorate cakes, we scrape all the remaining frosting, all colors, into one bowl. It looks a lot like mud at this point, and not the appetizing kind of mud, as in Mississippi Mud Pie, but the greenish kind of mud you'd never think could be appetizing.

This frosting is leftover from a cake my daughter decorated a couple of weeks ago. The last icing tube hadn't even been squeezed out. I did my best to salvage what I could from the tube, and mixed it in with the rest of the frosting. It did look like mud. Now what flavor could go with the color of mud? Chocolate, of course!

I added more milk, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder, and ended up with about 1/2 cup of chocolate frosting.

In the fridge, I also had two "empty" peanut butter jars.

I was able to scrape out about 1/2 tablespoon of peanut butter from these two jars. Add that to peanut butter from a fresh jar, and we had the makings of lunch.

For lunch on Sunday, I made . . . drum roll please . . . peanut butter and chocolate frosting sandwiches -- aka Reese's sandwiches.

They were very yummy, but a tad on the dessert-y side.

At the end of the weekend, this is what the fridge looked like. While not completely cleaned out, it's quite an improvement.

Anyway, I have a family to feed. An empty refrigerator was not my goal. My plan was simply to use up odds and ends before they would spoil. I think sometimes we lose sight of what our aim is. If you have a household to prepare meals for, then spartan-looking fridges work against that purpose, not towards it.

This was a fun challenge for me. I was amazed by how much of our meals I could make from leftovers and near-empty jars. And I think the creativity that went into our meals made them more lively.

This weekend, not so many leftovers to use up. But I am working at the church tea tomorrow. Who knows what leftovers I'll be bringing home from that event?!

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Our salvaged lunch (and some other interesting finds in the fridge)

It's surprising how much stuff can accumulate in the fridge in just a couple of days. You would never believe that most of these leftovers "happened" this week. Throughout the weekend, I was amazed that I could still find things that needed eating up. 

(I must admit, there was one science experiment lurking at the back of the fridge. And actually, it really was an experiment from last summer. Some things just don't pan out. I'll reveal it later, and hopefully deter you from trying this out yourself.)

Here's the continuation of my weekend leftover challenge.

Lunch looked like it would be interesting on Saturday. Leftover turkey and dumplings, 4 lonely-looking oven roasted potato wedges, about a cup and a half of cooked pinto beans, corn tortillas, an almost empty ketchup jar, and some pumpkin pie. How do you divide this between 5 people?

I considered making a master casserole, combining the majority of the leftovers, or maybe some soup, blended with the leftover turkey stock sitting on the fridge's top shelf. Hmm. It could work, or. . . I could have a mutiny on my hands. And so I thought, "perhaps today would be a good day to have a this-and-that lunch".

We divvied up the turkey and dumplings. Anyone who wanted any could have some. Easy peasy there.

The 4 potato wedges were quickly spoken for. (Really quickly spoken for!)

Needing to find more for our lunch, I grabbed a few more containers.

This . . .

. . .became this. (Now I realize that it tasted better than it looks here.)

So I took the cooked pinto beans, almost-empty ketchup jar, along with some onion, oil, chili powder, cumin and salsa, and I made a small batch of bean dip.

I know what you're thinking, "Ketchup? In bean dip?" It's tomatoes, onion, vinegar, salt, right? All good. Turns out ketchup works well enough in a bean dip.

Topping the bean dip was sour cream (and yes, that price tag does say 59 cents! The container was squashed, but seal still good -- yippee!), and more salsa.

To go with the bean dip, I made chips with most of the remaining corn tortillas. Most of us had chips and bean dip, topped with sour cream and salsa. Kind of a snacky part of lunch.

I think I'd been snacking, as I was frying with this plate of chips!

I have to tell you, when I make homemade tortilla chips, I have no self-control. I kept frying and frying, yet the plate of chips didn't seem to grow. I was eating all of the chips, as I fried them.

But usually, I allow 2-3 corn tortillas (cut into 6 wedges each), as a serving.

Many of us were feeling full (we'd all just had a waffle breakfast a few hours earlier) just as I was bringing out the remainder of a pumpkin pie. It looked like about 2  1/2 slices were left. So it was divided between my two daughters, who had missed out on pie 2 nights in a row this week. And, um, I managed to put down a tiny sliver of the pie myself, you know, just so there'd be no leftovers, of course. ;-)

Before I move on to the culinary delights of dinner, I spent some time in the afternoon cleaning out more containers for meals later on.

Not very appetizing, are they?

I had some turkey stock, turkey gravy and drippings from my most recent roast turkey (earlier in the week, not last Thanksgiving, I promise!).

But those 3 containers turned into some delicious gravy!

Putting those 3 together, I made a batch of gravy to go over turkey slices for the freezer. I had enough gravy to top 2 meal's worth of turkey.

Any guesses what this could be? It turned into a rather tasty ingredient in Sunday's lunch!

And no, that was not the science experiment. This is:

Last summer, I was reading online about making my own mint oil, using mint leaves from my garden and vegetable oil. The directions said to leave the mint leaves steeping in the oil for a couple of weeks. My leaves became very moldy. It was truly disgusting. You can't believe everything you read online.

So, this is the oil after removing the mint leaves. I composted the leaves, and now need to dispose of the oil.  This is one of those, "it's just too disgusting to deal with" things. And that's my excuse for why it has resided at the back of the fridge since July.

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Understanding current prices on seasonal food items

So, for a lot of folks, this is just way too homework-y to bother with. But others may appreciate my methods a bit more. That's fine, either way. I'm never insulted if you don't want to bother with many of the things that I do.

I watch seasonal prices and store ads very closely. When I think that sale prices are higher than I was expecting, on any particular food, I do some research. (We really are very fortunate to have the internet and search engines.)

This week, it's green cabbage that I'm looking into. I received the store flyers on Tuesday, for sales running Wednesday through next Tuesday (March 18). I was expecting cabbage to go on sale for about 39 to 42 cents per pound at a couple of stores, for St. Patrick's Day this year. Instead, it's running on ad for 48 to 59 cents per pound. What's up with the higher prices, I wondered.

So, I did a little bit of online searching. One of my favorite sites is thepacker.com. Basically, it's market news on produce for the US. They give detailed info on what a particular market is doing this year. Evidently, according to thepacker.com, the Florida cabbage supplies are tighter this year. This is good for the grower, as he'll get a higher price for his cabbage. Bad for the consumer, who will pay more per pound. Cold temperatures are too blame, in Florida, for a slow planting season, and lowered supplies. When supplies are tight, the prices are higher. According to thepacker.com, expect prices to be higher than normal on your St. Patrick's Day cabbage. The other two major winter growing regions in the US are Texas and California. Texas is also seeing a reduced cabbage crop, due to weather, by about 30%. I didn't read anything on California's contribution to the cabbage market, but given how much coverage has been given to the California water crisis, I would expect produce coming out of California to be higher than previous years, as well.

What does this mean to me? Well, the prices that I'm seeing on green cabbage, at my local stores (especially the 48 and 49 cents per pound), may indeed be about as low as I'm going to see for early spring (the month of March and into April, for my area). So, I will still buy 4 or 5 heads of cabbage, for our family, as 49 cents per pound is still a great price for fresh produce (just not as great as the 39 cents/lb I paid last year). And cabbage will again be featured heavily in my menus for early spring. (It's a great vegetable, high in vitamin C and vitamin K, as well as many phytonutrients, which may help protect against cancer and lower bad cholesterol.)

Understanding the current prices on foods helps me plan my purchases. In some instances, I get enough of a lead on a tight market to stock up a bit, in advance of a price hike. A couple of years ago the US had a bad peanut crop. There was enough advance warning on what this would do to prices that our family was able to stock up considerably on peanut butter, enough to get through almost a year at the old price.

Other times, just knowing that I'm getting about as good a price as can be expected simply makes me feel a bit better about having to spend more.


(For those of you hoping to find another installment on my leftover meal challenge, that'll be posted tomorrow. I know, you're all on the edge of your seats- the suspense!)

 

A leftover challenge (and a very liquidy breakfast)

First of all, before I go into what I did over the weekend, you need to understand something. I have a very warped sense of fun, very warped. I enjoy setting these peculiar challenges for myself. The fun part is in how creative I can be in fulfilling the challenge.

So, Saturday morning, I opened the refrigerator door to see this -- a leftover bonanza!

Yeah, it is kind of hard to find anything in there, isn't it?! How would anyone know what was edible and what wasn't, with all the opaque containers and plastic bags over everything.

My challenge, then, was to use all of the odds and ends over the weekend, without creating new leftovers.

I didn't have a master plan, but just took each meal as it came, and tried to use as much of this stuff as I could.

After a peek into my stuffed fridge, I quickly shut the door to go veg with a cup of coffee for 30 minutes. I knew that eventually I would have to prepare breakfast. I enlisted suggestions from one of my daughters. She kindly offered to help make breakfast. (It's nice having daughters who like to cook.) We settled on waffles. (Waffles are a popular choice around here.)

These wouldn't be just any waffles (but you knew that already). From the fridge, I pulled out all the almost-empty jars of yogurt, 5 in total. Empty, with the exception of the weird yogurt liquids which accumulate at the bottom of the jar.

half-way through scraping jars

I also got out the strainer and a bowl. I scraped out each jar and strained the whole batch. Of my many culinary talents, I would have to say that using a rubber spatula has got to be at the top of the list. Pronounce a container to be empty, and I can still get another serving out of there. (I've been honing this skill for 27 years now.)

I managed to scrape all of this yogurt from 5 "empty" jars

Anyway, I was able to salvage a little over a cup of yogurt, enough to flavor with vanilla and sugar to top the waffles. The strainer, by the way, was to separate the unappetizing liquids from the more palatable yogurt. I saved this liquidy stuff to use in the waffle batter.

About 1/3 of a cup of whey from straining the yogurt

After scraping the jars, I then rinsed all of them with a bit of water. I poured these rinsings into a measuring cup. I had about 1/3 cup of rinsings, to add to the yogurt whey. This made up about half of the liquids I would need for the waffle batter.

The jars after scraping and rinsing them out.
The "stuff" in the measuring cup is the rinsings.

Along with the vanilla yogurt, we also had some runny (liquidy) blackberry jam, and a bowl of blackberries from the freezer.

Okay, remember my rule, to not create new leftovers? What do you think happens when you thaw frozen fruit? You get more liquids. Adhering to my rule, I set the liquid aside, to use in making dinner. No new leftovers, so far.


In the next installment: what I found that I could use in meals for the rest of Saturday.

Riveting. I know. I lead an exciting life.

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How are you today?

No real post from me, except I wanted to know how you are today, and how is the weather where you live?

We've had a good share of rain here, with street flooding, mudslides and train track wash-outs. Much of our area is hilly, so if you live at the top or the bottom of a hill, your home is at risk during periods of heavy rainfall.

What about your area? Are you in part of the world where the spring thaw has hit, ans hit hard, putting rivers and streams at risk for flooding? Is the sun shining brightly and bringing cheer to this hard-to-get-going Monday (first work day of Daylight Savings Time). Or does it still feel like winter where you are? How are you today?

Have a great day!

Leftover makeover: leftover soup becomes a family-size casserole

I make a lot of soup for dinner in winter. Which means, we have leftover soup on a regular basis. Sometimes there's enough for another family meal of soup. But when there's not quite enough for all 5 of us, I transform leftover soup into a meal that stands on its own.

My favorite leftover soup makeover wouldn't win any culinary prizes, but it's easy, filling and tasty -- It's Soup Casserole. Here are two versions, to give you an idea of how I make mine.


Broth-based Soup Casserole

When using a "thin" leftover soup, such  chicken or turkey noodle, I beef up the extra ingredients with some veggies, pasta, leftover baked potato or rice, onion and garlic. For 4 or 5 servings:

about 2 cups any kind of liquidy soup (this one is made with lemon-herb turkey noodle soup)
about 3 cups leftover cooked rice, pasta, beans or combination of (if I'm short in this category, I cook up another portion of pasta, or add a chopped, leftover baked potato)
1 cup of any vegetables
1/4 cup minced onion (optional)
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
additional salt and seasonings to compliment the soup's ingredients (I just used more of the lemon zest, rosemary and sage that I had in the soup)
1/2 cup to 1 cup of topping (grated cheese, buttered bread crumbs) -- this is what "makes" the casserole.

Butter a large casserole dish. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Gently mix the ingredients in the buttered casserole dish.

Add topping. Heat for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly or topping is browned and crispy.


. . . and here's my version using a heartier, thicker soup.

Turkey Tortilla Soup Casserole

When I have a very flavorful and hearty soup, I can often leave out the extra veggies, onions and garlic.

The other night I made another soup casserole, using leftover turkey-tortilla soup (minus the tortillas). There were enough canned tomatoes, carrots pieces, beans, potatoes, onions and garlic in the leftover soup, that I didn't need to add anything other than a pinch of salt, some cumin and some chili powder, along with a fresh batch of rice.

I used:

about 2-3 cups leftover tortilla soup (containing turkey, pinto beans, canned tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, onion, garlic and seasonings)
about 3 cups of cooked brown rice
vegetable oil
extra salt, cumin, chili powder

I oiled the casserole dish, spread the cooked rice in the dish, and drizzled with vegetable oil.

Next, I topped this with with leftover soup, and tossed gently with the seasonings.

Just before baking, I sprinkled lightly with just a bit of extra chili powder. Baked, uncovered, in a 350 degree F oven for about 30 minutes, until completely heated through, and rice was crispy around the edges.

It was tasty, easy and filling. This made enough for 5 hearty servings plus leftovers for one lucky person's lunch.

Soup Casserole makes the most of our homemade soup leftovers. The hard work has already been done in the preparation of the soup. By simply combining with a few basic ingredients, I can stretch a small amount of leftover soup into family supper.

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Is it spring yet?

The first part of yesterday was gorgeous and spring-like. The sunshine and mild weather lured me out into the garden. This was my first day of real garden work for the season. I tackled some pruning, weeding, raking and transplanting before the skies clouded over and the rain came back.

While I was outside, I snapped these photos.

the crocus out by our front door

the area I worked in last summer, clearing the weeds, laying the river rock, placing the stepping stones, planting rhodies and azaleas, then this past fall planting both daffodil and crocus bulbs. the daffodils are in among the river rock, while the crocus are in the bare earth between river rock and stepping stones

the crocus I planted in the fall are just coming up now. I wonder if they will always be a few weeks behind their cousins by the front door, or if their later growth is due to being planted just this fall?


I've chosen 2 new sites for work this spring and summer. One is the extension of the spring low garden, and will be planted with primroses, red-flowering currant bushes, grape hyacinth, petite daffodils, anemone, rock cress, sword fern and hosta. I'll be dividing plants in my garden for transplanting to this area.

The other area is an extension of the cranberry patch. This area has been so weedy and ugly. We'll be clearing it and taking some cranberry plants from the patch to fill it. This will kill two birds, make an unpleasant area look better, and increase our cranberry harvest.

I can't decide which phrase suits this better -- "Always a work in progress!"  Or, "A labor of love!"