November Days & Frugal Accomplishments

Hello, friends.  I hope you've been doing well.  Last week, pasta sauce was made, using our tromboncino squash, tomatoes, onions, basil and rosemary.  A salad was made, which used one of our peppers.  Whole wheat was ground; regular wheat for the pups, and Red Fife for us.  I made these pumpkin peanut butter dog treats, using a whole egg, rather than just the yolk, and baked sweet potatoes at the same time, making good use of the oven.  The pups were happy.  Somehow, the grinder got partially unplugged midway through grinding.  The outlet is inaccessible, which meant J had to pull the 6' cabinet away from the wall to get to it.  I had to remove all the pantry items that were sitting on it, so it was a good opportunity to clean and put away things.  I rented a movie on amazon prime that I'd been wanting to see, using a $1.50 credit, for using a later ship date.  When I washed windows recently, I hadn't gotten the inside of the bathroom and bedroom windows, and got to that last week.  The window washing water in the bucket was used to flush the toilet.  I then repaired a weather strip that was coming loose on a window. 

On a day in the 70's, I pulled more of the morning glories on the garden fence between rain showers, and added them to the burn pile.  All that's left is a small area on one side of the garden, other than what's too tall for me to reach, up on posts and in trees.  I worked on eco-printing the gift fabrics, which was a learning curve.  Many different plants were gathered and used, and good notes were taken after the process, as far as which ones gave good results, and which didn't.  Lettuce, a pear, cherry tomatoes, a tromboncino and figs were harvested.  The light came on in my car for low tire pressure, and my husband topped them up with the air hose from his shop.  A batch of alfalfa sprouts was made.  A breakfast of avocado toast was topped with a homegrown egg, lettuce and sprouts.  Salad was made one night, which used our lettuce and figs.  On another night, one used our lettuce, sweet pepper, sprouts and chickweed.  A pumpkin pie was made.  The fall garden is coming along nicely.  There are some little broccoli heads too.  

On an evening walk, I saw a large flock of turkeys under the big tree in the field.  I saw them before the dogs did, and quickly headed us back towards home.  I'm happy to know they're out there.  To our knowledge, there are no local hunters who hunt them, which makes me happy.  As J is away from home for a few days, I'm working on eating things he can't eat or doesn't like to.  The first thing I pulled from the freezer was maitake mushroom, which I made mushroom gravy with, and had over jasmine rice.  I have several more bags of maitake, and decided it would be easy enough to have this meal for lunches these next few months, as a way to use them up.  Another lunch I've started making for myself this fall is The Prudent Homemaker's taco soup.  J likes soups that are thick, which is fine sometimes, as in pumpkin soup.  But, I love broth based ones too, and have realized there's no reason I can't make this one for lunch.  I'm late getting on board with cooking for lunch, but neither of these is any more work than making hummus, and the soup is much quicker.  A bonus is both of these will provide several lunches, with just one day of cooking. I'm happy to keep learning new things with every year that goes by.

On the way to the chicken coop, I came across a few frolicking anoles on the wood needed to finish up the coop project.  After dropping J off at the airport, I went shopping at the co-op I belong to, the first time I've been in that town since Covid began.  Sale items purchased were walnuts $5.99/#, organic oranges $1.79/#, and organic Honeycrisp apples $1.99/#.  I also went by an interesting shop a friend told me about, called Reconsidered Goods.  They have many supplies for crafts of all sorts, and many other things.  It was fun to wander there.  I got 2 rolls of wired ribbon, a zippered bag, handmade pottery dinner plate, long length of silk with lace edges (likely a dresser cloth) and antique underskirt petticoat for a little over $12.  I'm planning on dyeing the silk, and haven't decided about the petticoat, which sadly doesn't fit.  Paperwork was gone through for J's business, and I was able to shred a good pile of papers, which are being added to the compost bin.  

The recently purchased sweaters and vests were washed with homemade soap gel, and hung on the line.  I love that sweet Guinness is in the pic, looking towards the pond.  I got all our winter clothes boxes from the attic, and handed them down to J, as well as the flannel sheets.  I switched out all the clothes in my drawers, but still need to switch around my closet, so the cold weather clothes will be easier to reach.  At the co-op, I also picked up pints of eggnog and buttermilk from a local creamery.  A bit of eggnog was enjoyed while watching episodes of The Crown.  On Sunday, I used the remaining half of the dry pancake mix, but this time, instead of pumpkin, I used leftover sweet potato, which was good.  With the buttermilk that wasn't used for the pancakes, I started a new batch, something I've been wanting to try.  It couldn't be easier.  Mix milk and buttermilk in a 4:1 ratio (ie: 1c milk to 1/4c buttermilk) in a nonmetallic bowl, let sit on the counter for 12-24 hrs, and voila.  I see pancakes, biscuits and more goodies adding some comfort during the coming cold months.  Wishing you a bounty of things that bring you comfort this week.