Thankful & Frugal Accomplishments

Hello, friends.  Whenever I've previously checked for organic butter at Aldi, they'd had none.  I'm glad I thought to check again, as this time they had it, for $4.25/#, which is the cheapest I've seen in a while.  Food Lion had some for $4.99.  At Aldi, I also got a $1.29 pineapple, and avocados for .79.  I used $1 coupon for cat food.  I picked up photos at Walgreens, got pistachios on sale at $5.99/#, and used a $5 reward.  I found a penny in the parking lot.  The remaining fresh tromboncino squash were used in pasta sauce.  Unfortunately, I had to compost all but a piece of one of the remaining eggplants.  Our tomatoes, basil and rosemary also were used in the sauce.  Last week, my online soap shop had its 11th anniversary and 700th sale, which was hard to believe, as well as encouraging.

I repaired a boot and a slipper with the hot glue gun.  During the first several years of doing massage, I mostly used my table, then things shifted, and for a number of years, I've been using my chair the majority of the time, so the table mostly sat in it's carrying case.  It had started getting a sticky residue on the vinyl, and nothing I tried seemed to help.  I was beginning to think I'd have to recover it, or buy a new one, which I really didn't want to do at this age.  I googled it, and was delighted to find someone with the same table had had the same problem, and written a tutorial.  It was messy and took quite a while, but the table is 90% better.  I'm happy with that, and very happy to not have to spend several hundred dollars to replace it.  A pottery friend I spoke with at last week's show asked for soaps to carry in her shop.  I delivered them to her, and bartered for one gift while I was there.

I made swag goal several days.  I answered a question about what I was preparing for Thanksgiving, and won 100 SB (the equivalent of $1).  Thanksgiving was a fairly low key day at home, with M and J's son joining us.   Bouquets were gathered for the house, and natural items for the table.  The mismatched thrifted brown plates were used.  I made pumpkin pie, autumn succotash, cranberry relish, and a vegetarian version of my grandmother's dressing.  J prepared pork loin with carrots and potatoes.  Fresh whipped cream was made to enjoy with the pie.  My dietary recommendations were forgotten for the day.  The night before, I began the peanuts for succotash on the stove, and once they were boiling, moved them to the wood stove overnight.  Back in the summer, I made some lotion.  At the time, it seemed too heavy.  Now that cold weather is here, with the drier air, I'm enjoying using it.  Warm up water was used for humidity on the wood stove.  A bin of shredded paper and cardboard was added to the compost bin.
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The day after Thanksgiving, I was in the mood for lighter fare, and made Jill's juice for lunch.  I have yet to find a juice I like better than this one.  I finished organizing the upright freezer, using bins I purchased at Dollar General.  There was so much stuffed into the freezer that I could not get it all back in.  Quite a bit was composted, mostly older and freezer burnt packages of okra, squash and lambs quarter.  The chickens got a few treats, including a few figs that had been in there a while, and an English muffin that had seen better days.  I caught up on laundry, and hung it all on the line.  The forecasters were wrong, and it got rained on early morning, so finished drying in the dryer.  I sewed several presents.  For the remaining detail, I plan to dye some fabric with onion skins.

Recently bought presents were wrapped, and I'm again caught up for the moment.  I learned about a site that can tell you whose ancestral land you live on, here, and learned we live on Catawba land.  I've found several arrowheads over the years, and there is an undisturbed Indian mound on private land that adjoins ours.  I'd never heard which people were originally here, and am very happy to now know.  Two batches of thieves vinegar have been mixed up, and are steeping.  If you don't know the story of thieves blend, it's pretty interesting.  The mixture already has the most wonderful scent.  I will be off on an adventure next week, but will be back with details when I return.  Be well, dear friends.

Summer Bounty

A lot of my focus of late has been on food and drink. What with harvesting, preserving and preparing food, and a little bit of weeding and watering thrown in (J has been doing most of that), it's taken a good portion of my time. Oh, but let me tell you about the rewards! While J was in PA last week for his job, I spied these. Every year for his birthday, he requests a German Chocolate cake, so I decided to make these to greet him when he got home. Thumbs up there.

We were having a family gathering on Sunday, with a forecast of 98. I've got lots of Kentucky Colonel mint, & decided this mint ice cream would be just the thing. We got requests to take the leftovers home. I did not add any of the optional chocolate, but did add a splash of peppermint extract, about 1 tsp in a 3 gal. batch. With this same mint, I've been making cold mint tea. I put a large bunch of mint in just-boiled water & let it steep for 10-15 mins, then throw in several sprigs of stevia for sweetening, for 5 or so more minutes. Easy-peasy, no-cal and free!

Last night, we had Backer's asparagus recipe here. I won't say it's my favorite asparagus recipe ever, but a good last of the harvest recipe when you've got both asparagus & basil in at the same time. Last week, I started a batch of apple cider vinegar, made by chopping up all the apples that have fallen, discarding any of the blemished bits, juicing them, adding some mother from last year's batch, and covering the crock with a kitchen towel, allowing it to breathe. As many of the apples were green, last year I added a little sugar and a handful of golden raisins to up the sugar content. I'm waiting to see, but will likely need to do the same this year. Yesterday, I began my first batch of pineapple vinegar. Who knew? I've been waiting for this pineapple to ripen, so I could try what I think of as Jill's juice. It was worth the wait! I've juiced quite a bit over the years, and this is my favorite so far. And so good for you. Well, that's probably enough to throw at you in one post. The thunder is rumbling. I think it's time to head outside and do a rain dance.