You all remember the Vegan YumYum's knit cupcakes right? Since they were all over the place, and so cool with the marzipan knitting.
Anyway, the other day I got some books from a lady on Craigslist who has a lot of crafty books for sale. I bought all her bead books of course, but I also got some Wilton books including the 1977 Wilton Yearbook (and looking at some of the price differences in pans they still make.. wow!!)
In there, they had a couple cute crafty themed cake designs.
( picture here )
I think the crochet one would be a lot cuter without the rocking chair, but I'm also thinking maybe a piped pineapple doily? And of course.. cupcakes. Because that's what we all like now. Cupcakes.
The embroidered one is done with gum paste, which I'm less then thrilled with. Gum paste IS edible, but nobody recommends eating it, and gum paste decorations can be kept for years to reuse, which also kind of freaks me out a bit.. why would you want to reuse something you can't really wash? But I'll betcha you could bake cookie embroidery hoops and use a rolled icing or marzipan for the cloth instead. Again, I'm thinking cupcakes with cute little crewel lazy daisy flowers on them.
EDIT: Well.. read the comments for another great suggestion.. but Jehanna and I are talking about it and came up with..
( a chat conversation )
And I think marshmallows would work for scrolls too.

What makes lasagna tricky? I got a recipe in my email for "Fool Proof Lasagna" and I just don't understand why it would have to be made fool proof. Boil noodles. Cook meat/sauce mixture, mix cheeses. Layer, bake. Well.. maybe a touch more complicated then that, but not much. The only problem I ever have is I tend to make my meat/sauce and cheese layers pretty thick so I don't have as much noodles as most people. I don't make it often because it's a lot of standing.. but with tomatoes being so cheap.. I might make some this week.

Ahh well..
I designed a pan in my dreams. I'll have to draw it up and figure out how feasible it is to make a pan.

<beadgeek>
Generally, in the last 35 years at least, most loom beading is done with a double weft, and isn't really weaving. You're sandwiching the warp threads between the double weft. That's the instructions with the little "Indian Bead Loom" (I have a "Genuine Indian Bead Loom" that belonged to my non-Native grandmother she got 32 years ago). So I assumed that was the standard, because it's been the standard for.. well.. my lifetime at least.
HOWEVER.. rigid heddles were used in the past by some NA weavers. They used a double warp, and a very finely carved rigid heddle that allowed matched sets of up/down warp in a box shaped loom, not a tape loom, it was basically the heddle suspended in between 2 ends with round dowels to wrap the warp/completed beadwork around.

I'm not sure if anyone makes heddle that fine anymore, but I'm going to talk to my brother about what I need to build a similar loom. I'm wondering if modification on an inkle style/string heddle loom could work for a similar effect. It's going to have to be built to spec though, which means if my brother can't build it, I'm going to have to figure out someway to build it myself with Mike's help. Maybe I could cast the heddle to get the spacing I need?
</beadgeek>

Oh yeah, and sorry R. I just couldn't picture a way to do bead weaving with a rigid heddle that would still look neat and work as well as the double weft method. I still think the double weft method would be quickest, and I think this may be too thready, but I want to try it and see.

Also, we made cupcakes!
We used this recipe but modified somewhat.
First, no almond extract. We used a full tablespoon of good organic vanilla instead. We also added a tablespoon of instant espresso to the batter. The batter? SOO fluffy. I've never made a cake with batter that fluffy.
Like I said, we made cupcakes, and the recipe makes 36 cupcakes. Plan accordingly. Reading the comments, I knew it made a lot of batter, so I used my 12 cup cupcake pans. Shorten the time to 35 minutes.
We frosted with an espresso butter cream frosting that I made WAY too much of.
Espresso Butter Cream Frosting-
1 cup of butter
1 T of vanilla, or less if you don't like vanilla as much as I do.
2 T. of instant espresso powder
2 T of cold milk
2 T of coffee
2 lbs of powdered sugar

Cream the first 5 ingredients with an egg beater, then work in the powdered sugar a bit at a time until it's all incorporated and beat it until it's light and fluffy. Give one egg beater to your husband and one to your kid, unless you have two kids, then give both to your husband, because you can't expect the kids to share one. *laughs* I'm joking of course, but Mike does like to lick the beaters.
My mom always asked "Who's gonna be the slickapot?" so we use that term too for whoever gets to scrape the edges of the mixing bowl for frosting/battery goodness. E slicked the pot happily and got all covered with coffee frosting.
Dad's coming by after work to pick up some of the cupcakes, because we really don't need 36 cupcakes.

I modified the pirate chest a bit, so if you downloaded it yesterday, you may want to re-download it. Better instructions, and I changed the hinge. Plus the new version also has a blank one to color in.
Mike made chicken last night, because I had these grandiose plans for chicken and mashed cauliflower with gravy and had Mike pick up a whole chicken instead of breast. Then my back decided I've had it too easy this week and has been a mess of spasms and discomfort. So I made the cauliflower, and Mike roasted the chicken, we skipped gravy. Mike's gotten good at basic cooking, but gravy, he swears, is still beyond him.
So now we have a "What do we have for canned veggies in the house?" chicken soup going. E and I talked soup. See, for whatever reason, my mom, who was an AMAZING cook, couldn't make soup. Not from scratch anyway. So if we were to have a big pot of stew or soup from the time I was about 12 on, I made it. E and I have fun making soups together. Sometimes they turn out just a bit odd though, because I let her smell the spices and season them with very little intervention. Heck.. my first chicken soup? Was green. I went herb nuts. Because the broth was sort of yellow-y, the soup itself became almost a cartoon poison looking green. But gosh it was good.
Fun things.. I quizzed her while I was getting it started..
"Why do I put vinegar in the water while simmering the carcass?"
"For calcium! Vinegar leeches calcium from the bones!"
"Why did I use so much garlic?"
"Garlic is an anti-bacterial with antibiotic properties and can help ward off colds!"
"uh.. and because your daddy really likes garlic.."
Then I started adding pepper. I ground a bit in, she looked at me like I was mad, took the grinder, and showed me how it was done. I give. I surrender. This family needs pepper on everything, and I'm tired of grinding it all the time. I'm buying a coffee grinder just for pepper.
So if anyone wants chicken noodle soup.. come on over!

We used this recipe from the Hillbilly Housewife
3 cups grape juice (Prepared from frozen concentrate is fine)
1 package powdered pectin
4 cups sugar

In a large saucepan combine the prepared grape juice and the powdered pectin. Stir it up to eliminate all of the lumps. Bring the mixture to a full boil over medium heat, stirring some as necessary. Add the sugar and return the mixture to a boil. Boil for a full minute and remove from heat. Ladle the jelly into clean sterilized jars and seal with bands and lids. Process in a boiling water bath for about 10 minutes to seal. Remove the jars and allow to cool before storing on the pantry shelf. Makes about 5 cups.

Some notes- It actually made a bit less then 5 cups for me, maybe my measuring cups are a bit small, but it fit perfectly into 2 pint containers. We did NOT can them, because it's a small amount of jelly, and with two teens and Mike it will get eaten plenty fast enough to just put it in clean jars in the fridge.
It was our first time making jelly, and I was a bit nervous. I hate having spectacular failures with anyone around, even E, and there was a point that E got nervous thinking it wouldn't gel. I had faith because of the amount of pectin, even if it *looks* soupy when you're pouring it into jars, it will gel up just fine.
We used canned juice, then drank great big glasses of leftover grape juice, but I love grape juice, so total cost is right about 5.00 for 32 oz of jelly, which is reasonable, and E says it tastes a LOT better then store bought, she loves grape jelly and usually chooses it.It would be less expensive with frozen juice.
It was also really quick. I think 20 minutes start to finish, and most of that is because I use a superfine sugar, and it wanted to clump so I had to be really careful stirring it in.
We shall see what Mike and W think. I'm pretty sure they'll like it.

I haven't tried making my own cheese yet. But I plan to, the kids and I talked about it, and they both agreed it would be fun and interesting. They are both always interested in how their favorite foods are made.

But last month, Bob and Mark were talking about nobody actually made their own cheese. I think the current DIY revolution has missed them.

Bassist Alex James makes cheese. I'm not sure who he is, but apparently it makes cheesemaking a bit more interesting.

Since I'm just beginning with the kids, we are going to start with soft cheeses because they are the easiest.

How do you explain DIY to people who just don't get it? That part of it is just to prove to yourself you can, part of it is because you want what you want, and not what's sold in stores, and part of it is just an overwhelming curiosity about how things are made. Chances are good, we won't become the sort of people who keep a goat in the backyard for milk and make all our own cheese, but knowing a bit more about it sharpens your appreciation. Part of it is embracing values formed from necessity in the past that have been discarded in an instant world, taking the time, doing it yourself, gives you such a sense of accomplishment.

And I'm thrilled my teenagers are interested in making cheese with me.

Bob said "Don't call and tell us you make your own cheese, nobody does that except Amish people, and they don't listen to our show." Hopefully, by next Christmas, we will be up to hard cheeses, so I can send him a round with a note that says "I'm not Amish, I do listen, and I make my own cheese. I hope you like it."

This weekend though, E and I are making The Hillbilly Housewife's Grape Jelly. It's made with grape juice and looks fairly quick, and it's a small batch, so I won't need to process the jars, it will get eaten pretty quickly so I can just keep it in the fridge. I'm also going to make up a batch of "cup of soups" for W, I'm using dried veggie soup mix (which is basically just a bunch of dehydrated finely cut veggies), a cube of bouillon, instant rice, and dehydrated mushrooms. He likes my homemade instant mixes better then the pre-packaged ones, so I'm going to use him as a guinea pig for figuring out a just right cup of soup. I could use tiny jewelry ziplocks to package, but yeah.. not exactly environmentally friendly, so I'm going to look for tiny side dish/condiment containers to put each serving in.

GAH! I had all sorts of intentions of going to the gym today, since I haven't since last Wednesday because of being sick. Then I woke up with a big bad headache and my nose is back to being sniffly. So.. not horribly sick, but sick enough I'm not going to infect all the other people at the gym with my cold.
E and I discussed cloth pads again. She's really kind of frustrated I haven't done more on getting/making her some. So this weekend I'm setting up my sewing machine, and I'm going to make her up a few.
lupabitch posted on cooking today, and I realized how much I've been cooking for the last few years. You see, I had stopped except on special occasions for a long time after a really bad relationship with someone who expected Little Suzie Homemaker and then *deleted a whole section about my first marriage rather then friend locking this entry*
So.. I stopped cooking, but in the last couple of years, I've been doing a lot more, experimenting a lot more, and having a much more fun with it. The difference? Mike. I mean, I love cooking for my kids, but Mike's the big difference. He always says thank you. He always tells me what he likes and doesn't like about my meals, and he usually has seconds (which is why he needed to lose 100 lbs last year even though my homemade meals are a lot healthier then meals from most restaurants). He makes cooking a joy by appreciating it. I'm more of a "Fuel for my body" type most of the time. I'll eat deli cuts and cheese on crackers(rye crisp!) with fruit or veggies on the side for most meals just because it's quick and easy. I remember when we first moved here, and one of the first meals I made here. E was so unused to my cooking, she ran to tell her daddy "Mommy's in the kitchen! COOKING!" and Mike hissed at her "Be quiet! You'll ruin it!" Now she asks "What are you making for dinner?" She's gotten used to it. There are still a lot of things I've never made him. Like chicken pot pie. I haven't made one of those since 1994. When I got so frustrated with the ex I wound up throwing the pie crust dough across the room.
I like cooking for Mike because even now, he never expects it. If I'm not feeling well, or just don't feel like cooking, he'll cook or order in. He always says thank you. And he NEVER hangs out in the kitchen watching every move I make. Actually, the only thing he watches like that is me knitting or crocheting, but he does it from a distance, and it's not because he's trying to learn it, it's because it's almost hypnotic for him to watch the regular movements of either technique. Cooking for him feels like a way to say "I love you.", not like a duty. I don't do a lot fancy cooking, he doesn't like it as well as he likes simple homestyle classics. But he appreciates the simple food so much..
Tonight *points to icon* I think I'm making shrimp. I haven't in a long while, and it's a family favorite.

E wants meat. She's willing to try stuff WITH meat, but so far, meatless versions of stuff I usually make with meat that she likes are not working. This time though, I sort of expected it. So I did buy a couple steaks.

So we are having a beef/tofu/snow pea/broccoli/mushroom peppery stir-fry for dinner tonight. With water chestnuts because.. well.. I always use them. I even get an extra can if I'm doing a canned stir fry thing. When I was little, my grandpa and mom used to steal them from each other and from me, it got to be a game, who could get the most water chestnuts off each others plates.
Yum yum!

The chicken turned out nicely with the yogurt/egg combo for the coating. REALLY moist. Next time I'll try it at a slightly higher temperature to make it a bit crispier.
I'm afraid I can't really post a recipe, because.. well.. I'm really bad at measuring when I'm cooking main courses.
But I'll try.

1 small thing of non-fat plain yogurt
2 eggs (or actually, a good sized splash of low cholesterol egg goop)
Mix well
---
About, umm.. 3 cups I think it wound up being? Of cornflakes. Smashed well. The 12 year old loves smashing for me. She vacated when it came to the slimy part.
Seasoning. I used a mix of a non-salt herb mix, garlic, cayenne, seasoning salt, and of course, lots and lots of black pepper
Mix well

4 chicken breasts cut into smaller chunks. Not quite nugget sized, I cut each breast into 4 pieces.

Preheat oven to 350°F (375°?)
Coat chicken pieces in slime, then in cornflake mixture, put in the pan
Bake for 30 minutes, or 45. Depending on if you completely lose track of time doing other things. Which I did.

Turned out well. For some reason, some pieces got a lot more cayenne then others. So mine weren't too hot, but Mike felt the burn.

The coffee jelly turned out well, and E thought it was big fun making it. She had some with whipped cream, and thought eating coffee was great.While it was setting, I said I wanted to get some agar agar, and according to thier website, The Natural Pantry has it, so should New Sagaya right? She asked "What's agar-agar?" and I said "It's like a vegan gelatin." Whoops. Naturally, she asked.. "So why isn't gelatin vegan?" and I sighed, and said "You really don't want to know." and she said "Yes I do." so I explained gelatin. Well, she wasn't grossed out, just facinated. She's never gone through a vegetarian stage like her brother or like I did. She actually was just impressed you could use that much of cow/calf. She's also having fun thinking of other things we can use Knox in.
She told me that her brother would probably love green tea jello. She's right of course. So I can see green tea jellies in the future. Probably with apple or pear slices.
Mike and I were on our way home from the store tonight, and I asked him "Are you going to try the coffee jellies like you said?"
"Yes, but not right now."
"I didn't mean right now. Do you think I have a pocket full of jelly?"
"You could. I wouldn't doubt it."
"I would not fill my pocket full of jelly."
"Are you sure?"
"Not without a good reason."
"So it was 'I wouldn't have a pocket full of jelly' and now it's without a good reason? So you think there could be a good reason for it?"
"Well.. I don't know what a good reason could be. But there could be one."
"Ahh.. yes. Bill Gates just died, and his will states that the only person who gets the money is the person with jelly in thier pocket."
"Yes, and now, don't you feel foolish for telling me there wasn't a good reason to have jelly in my pocket!"
When we got home, I asked E, "Is there ever a good reason to have jelly in your pocket?" and she said "No." Flatly. And gave me that *look*.

This post on Craftster makes me think I need to make marshmallows soon. Because those chocolate drizzled and sprinkled ones are so pretty! Jehanna's made them in the past, and said it was fun, and pointed out she could make a huge Peep if she wanted. I don't want to make peeps, I want to make pretty marshmallows!

This week I..
Recovered from the Crud
Turned my WW laminated earrings into two seperate necklaces instead for E and I
Crocheted a pouch for my nano, because somehow my woven one disappeared
Beaded a couple leaves
Will take pictures soon.

Well.. an odd comment on an old entry made me realize I've been almost completely shampoo free for 2 years now. My hair is about 6 inches longer then it was then, and I've had a few inches trimmed off in those years. I can go longer between trims now without getting fairytale ends. When my hair has been braided, the braiders comment on how healthy it is. It's waist length now. And I love shampoo-free!

Today all the people who made it through all of the weight loss thing were treated to dinner/lunch at Nino's. If you come to Anchorage, go there. Yum yum. Mike, who lived in Italy for 3 years definately wants to go back. Mark the Hitman and his family, and Vince were there. We ordered dinner family style, and everyone got a little bit of everything. Oh gosh it was good. Very relaxed and slow dinner. It's casual, but with really good food. I like that combination. Vince and Mark were talking about their first meals after the whole thing was over, and both of them went out. Mike talked about his roast chicken and gravy. Friday night, when the gravy got done, Mike was right there with bread. He's missed bread and gravy so much! He had it confirmed he won, and total weight loss was 398 lbs for the whole group.
After that, we went and did some more holiday shopping, then came home and I started dinner. Actually, finished it. Last night I started a soup with the leftover chicken, but I needed veggies for it, so before I went to bed, I put it in the fridge so I could skim off the fat, then while we were out I stopped and got veggies, got home, skimmed the fat off the soup, and dumped in the veggies and some wild rice.
Working on W's blanket still.

You know the little hamster wheel cars? I told Mike the other day at the grocery store he needed one. With heating and some sort of system that would allow the car to go faster then he can run/walk so he can get too and from work and get his workout at the same time.

I don't think he was amused. He told me to shut up.

I missed hamster time today because I left my shoes at home, and got there just in time to get in my weights. So I lifted weights, but then I realized I left my notes in the locker room. With the weights I've been working at and the settings the seats et cetra are at. So I guessed to get done quicker.

End result? I remembered most of them. Forgot one, and went way over what I'm supposed to do. So as soon as my body figures that out (like after I go to sleep and wake up) my arms are going to hurt really badly. Ahh well.. tomorrow is a no-weight day. I'm doing the weights Mon-Wed-Fri and just cardio the rest of the days.

Nobody could agree on what we should have for dinner, so Mike got what he wanted. Since I didn't care, and Mike's the grownup. More mushrooms, more onions. Actually, it was mushrooms, onions, lots of garlic cloves, some herbs, a bit of sea salt, and some gorgeous grape tomatoes sauteed in olive oil oil until they were cooked down nicely and then I tossed in some shrimp, cooked that too. Served over rotini with fresh grated parmesan. It was yummy. Normally I wouldn't do two mushroom/onion dishes in a row, but Mike really likes them, and it's one of William's old favorites, in fact he usually requests it for his birthday. E had frozen chicken patties and carrots with pasta, since she thinks shrimp is "well.. pretty much awful."

A lot of scientists think sulphur helps promote healthy hair growth, it's known a sulfur deficiency can lead to weak nails and hair. So the theory is, that rubbing an onion on your head can help hair grow. So you'll have long lovely onion scented locks. Uh.. actually, egg yolks have a lot of sulphur in them too if you aren't a vegan, and without the onion smell, or worse.. finding out you accidently cut your scalp by brushing too hard just as the onion hits it. Ouch.
I'm going to try the egg thing once a week. Goodness knows I use enough other stuff from the kitchen in my showers. I'll let you know how it progresses. According to the Long Hair boards, long hair should be measured from the front of the hairline (where your bangs grow from) over the top of your head, down the length. My hair right now, using that measurement is 32 1/4 inches long.

The gym I use is right by my hospital, which I've mentioned before is positively unique in having a cafeteria with *good* affordable food. No 13 dollar salads made with wilted lettuce, and the entrees are very much like home cooking. Seriously odd, but Mike, who has worked at luxury hotels and resorts for years is willing to have dinner there. They also have fry bread. Not as good as mine, but hey, I didn't stand and fry it.
Today, after working out, I walked over for lunch, and to wait for Mike to come pick me up after his workout at the gym he uses. They had meatloaf or chicken, the chicken had a jalepeno sauce, which I really wasn't in the mood for after working out, so I had meatloaf, with a rice and bean side dish, and cauliflower.

The cauliflower looked okay, and I put a bit of cheese on it, then went over to eat.

Turned out, it was cooked *mushy* but as I was eating it, mixed with the cheese, I though "huh.. I never tried intentionally overcooking cauliflower and mashing it. Could be good." so when Mike came to pick me up, I told him what I was planning to do, and we picked up a head of cauliflower while we were getting groceries.

You gotta understand, this strict eating right thing he's been on means a lot of his favorite foods are off the list.

I came home, and googled mashed cauliflower recipes, because, hey, dieters do lots of stuff with it. I figured it was a safe bet. I decided against adding milk, but I did add butter buds and a bit of sea salt and some chicken boullion, roasted the boneless/skinless chicken breasts to go with it.

Mike can NOT leave it alone. He's eaten nearly all the cauliflower. Turns out he's seriously missed mashed potatoes, so a guilt free substitute has him really happy.
I'm thinking, mashed cauliflower, with mushroom/onion gravy, and a lean steak might be on the menu later this week. Yep yep.

The trick is steaming, don't use much water, and cover the pan so it steams to done, because you don't want to boil all the nutrients away in water you drain off.

Someone asked on poor_skills What's the best frugal secret/poor skill you've ever learned?
The start of my answer..
Plan your shopping. It sounds silly and obvious, but plan it. Look at the ads, plan menus in advance, but be flexible. If you have a big freezer/fridge and find a REALLY great deal on something you'll eat (it's only a good deal if you'll eat it) buy lots. I know what things cost me normally to buy them at the best regular price, like ramen is cheapest at the big warehouse store, and only becomes a "deal" at the grocery store when it's 8 for a dollar or better. 5 for a dollar isn't a deal at all, it costs 4.5¢ more per pack.
Buy bulk in the health food section, esp spices! A lot of times, people will have spice sets someone gave them that they don't use, or will keep empty bottles for you. Spices are way cheaper bulk.
TVP, as much as your family will let you get away with. My family likes meat, but I've found I can go up to 50% tvp in most things. TVP costs as much as hamburger per lb, but the volume is like 4 times that of hamburger, so it's healthy, low fat, and a great way to stretch a budget.
Okay.. actually, I can go on about this subject forever. *shuts up.. goes to own journal to write*

Okay, now that I'm in my own journal. Anything you can mix yourself, do. Seriously. I mean, we do splurge on stuff like pancake mixes sometimes when they are really inexpensive for fast, easy to do stuff, but usually, we mix a lot of stuff ourself.
My seasonings, I buy some in huge containers at warehouse stores. I like Johnny's, and use a lot of it, but since I'm handicapped, I mix my "Standard seasoning mix" in a salt shaker for speed, and so Mike can get the flavor I do without me trying to explain how much of each. It's Johnny's mixed with garlic powder, onion powder, good quality pepper and cayenne, and dry mustard. I have another mix for chicken that I use that wonderful lemon powder they make now. Mike loves velveeta shells and cheese, but he prefer my homemade mac and cheese, which costs more initially, but makes a lot more, so it works out to be less expensive per serving.
We make all our own cocoa mixes, chili seasoning, and as I've said before, I mix instant hot cereal for my son. He really loved those packets of oatmeal, and dad kept splurging on them for him, but per serving, those are kind of pricey. He prefers the 7 or 10 grain cereal I buy bulk at the supermarket, and I mix in wheat germ, instant non-fat dry milk, butter buds (imitation) for a buttery flavor, brown sugar and raisins, plus I mix some with other dried fruits for fun and variation.
Baking bread isn't really cost effective unless you actually do buy and use bulk ingredients, going to the bakery thrift store costs less, plus our local supermarket has a day old bakery rack with really cheap ciabatta, since Mike likes (when he's not dieting) to dip ciabatta in his soup, the fact it might be a bit dry/tough doesn't matter. Keeps it from crumbling.
When Wm was younger, and I was a bit more able to move around, I did actually bake/make all our flour goods, and being able to buy in bulk did save money, but time does = money, so it depends on which you have more of. These days, I have more money then spoons, at least when it comes to the slight savings baking would give me over buying day old and sales.
Drink lots of water. If you don't live in an area with decent drinking water, invest in a water purifying system like Brita or something. Water is cheap, even counting in the cost of filters for the purfier. I'm lucky, I live in an area with amazing tap water quality. I drink a lot of herbal teas, or water with a splash of lemon for flavor. My son refills his water bottles and keeps them in the fridge. My kids don't get stuff like kool-aid. They get fruit juice in limited amounts (it's high in sugar, even though I never buy the kind with corn syrup) and water. Lots of water.
We make it on a single income. That income is higher then some people's, but it is just a single income, we do it by being careful about our splurges. Neither of us drink alcohol, alcohol is very very expensive.
We don't fuss the pennies, we used to, but we do make a point of bang for the buck. A brand new video game for 40 dollars won't entertain as long as a decent pad of paper and colored pencils for 5. So we get the paper and pencils. We don't eat at the yuppie places Mike's colleagues do. If we go out, we go to local businesses and we choose carefully. It's a treat, not an everyday event. Mike packs leftovers for lunch frequently, even though lunch is provided for him at work, a lot of times it's stuff that's high in calories and low in nutrition.
We plan out some spending based on sales. When school supplies go on clearance, we buy glue, notebooks, et cetra for the year, including all the extras the kids will go through journalling, since both kids write a lot.
We go to the library. Yep. Instead of the movies a lot of the time, I take the kids to the library. They love it. During the summer, we make a day of it, pack bento lunches, and eat lunch by the water fountain, play in the big lawn our big central library has, and check out books, movies and music there. Sometimes I check out audio books to rip and put in my ipod to listen to later.
I'm lucky. Really lucky, I have 2 teens, but neither of them are concerned with brand names. They do wear chucks, but I won't spend more then 15 dollars on a pair of chucks, and up to 25 on a decent pair of sneakers. I'm really aggressive, and keep track of when they are likely to go on sale. I buy them snow jackets in January, when they are clearing them out at Old Navy. Until then, last years will work. I always buy a bit loose, in case they do have sudden growth spurts.

My other big secret for making it on a budget? Make friends. Sounds silly, but at Thanksgiving, we wound up with 2 free turkeys (you know, spend so much, you get a free turkey?), we gave both to a friend who has a lot of people in his house, but not a lot of free cash. What he does have from his job is access to great scraps of carpet, which was nice when we had our cats, we could build their scratching posts for nothing. Just recarpeting over the same block again and again. My dad knows lots of people who give him odd things, and what he can't use, he gives us. Which is why we have a 30 inch tv. I've never bought a tv in my life. We trade for things when we can. I make the blankets everyone uses in our family with fleece I buy on sale, and leftover lengths of size 10 crochet thread to blanket stitch around the edges. They are nice, usually about 8.00 for a piece of fleece that will cover Mike's 6'2" frame, and they wash up easily, and a few of them keep us toasty warm. (I like a lot of blankets)

Soo.. what are your favorite tricks?

Poll #1073522
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Boba Fett Vs. Master Chief

Deadpool Vs. Freakazoid

This weeks is the second one. It led to much discussion and no votes from my family, and my daughter asking me "Who's Freakazoid?"
I finished my tessellated skull bag.

Let's see, what else.. my local Wal-Mart has a bunch of crochet pattern leaflets clearance priced, among them, a learn to crochet one. Also knitting. But knitting is for people with more patience then I. And people smart enough to learn how to knit with their dominant hands, instead of teaching themselves righthanded when they are left handed and completely unable to switch the hand learning.
We went there after getting comics because a couple weeks ago I got E a clearance priced hoodie, and she liked it enough to justify going to get a couple more, plus Mike needed sweatpants for the gym. We also picked up some Whose Line, so the family spent the evening in absolute hysterics.
E made a pizza last night! She used a bottled pizza sauce (the sort that's so convenient for Moms in squeeze bottles so kids can nuke themselves english muffin pizzas), turkey pepperoni, cheese, and homemade pizza crust she did completely herself. It was her first bread. It turned out light and lovely.
Pizza crust recipe-
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2/3 cup lukewarm water (plus an additional 2 tbsp)


1. Mix 1 cup of flour with all other ingredients.
2. Gradually add 2nd cup of flour until it forms a ball. Use your hands to form and knead the dough.
3. Let the dough rest 10-15 minutes in a bowl covered with a plate to keep it warm.
4. Spread out onto greased pizza pan and top with your favorite toppings.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes.

A few weeks ago, I picked up one of those Pizza Kits and she and her brother made it last week. She wanted another one, and I said "It's not really cost effective since we HAVE pizza sauce in the fridge" and she explained she enjoyed making the crust, so I asked if she wanted to try a real from scratch recipe.The only ingredient we didn't have was yeast. We all ate a piece. She did a lovely job, and the only thing she asked me for my help on was pulling it out of the oven. I did have to explain to her every single ingredient while we were walking through the store though. She wanted to understand the science of it, and she asked me for my bread recipe, specifically, one of the modifications I make to it, which is to knead in a LOT of cheddar, and serve it lightly toasted with peanut butter.
Mike,until his diet, was singularly unwilling to try turkey pepperoni, but now he's decided it makes a good occasional snack treat. A serving is something like 16 slices that come in at 70 calories, still a lot of fat, but 70 calories and no carbs. After several weeks of a LOT of salad, he's taken to bringing leftovers to work to mix into his salad. Chicken breasts cooked up for tacos, that sort of thing.
Oh, and he did use his Viagra cup yesterday, at a meeting. I guess it got a lot of comment and attention.

We skipped E's craft class because of a bead show downtown. Before we left, we checked the mail, and my books from Microcosm were there. More on those in a bit.

The bead show was missing some of my favorite sellers, but I did manage to find entirely too much to spend money on. Fish Lips and Bird Teeth had a couple wonderful poly clay pins, no magpies though! She said she would have some at the next show, after finding out that jays, while corbies, weren't my favorite. I like magpies. I got a pin from her that says "I'm not bossy, I'm just always right", Mike and the kids thought it was hilarious, and entirely too perfect for me. Alaska Bead Company had a trunk show going with sparkly after market coated riviolis. Too shiny, too pretty, and too much. I spent a lot of money on 6 pretty crystals. One of them is triangle shaped and just incredible shine. Since I'm getting some gold beads from Pamy, I think the triangle crystal will be my "Not a Christmas Party" necklace this year. I also got a pretty blown glass angel to hang from my window, she's holding a rose.
After that, E and I went for lunch at the Brewhouse, yeah, I know, tight budget I totally blew yesterday, but it was fun. She had halibut fish and chips, and I had a garlic-y pasta/chicken dish I love. I did not have creme brulee. See? I was watching the budget.
We walked for a bit, and going by town square, we ran across Eyes Wide Open, an exhibition done by American Friends Service Committee. It was amazing. In the center of town square was a neat square marked off with American flags, filled with neat rows of combat boots representing a small part of the soldiers that have died in Iraq. Surrounding that, on the small hills around the center were pairs of regular shoes all marked with names and ages of Iraqis that have died in the war. They were everywhere, baby shoes, kids shoes, slippers for elderly women, all with names and ages. I started crying when I saw a pair of shoes that represented a 12 year old, with my 12 year old daughter next to me. There were a lot of people looking at the names in the section with the soldiers boots, but for me, it was the rest that was heartbreaking. The servicemen and women who died signed up for it, and even if they didn't really know what they were getting into, they knew there was a possibility they would be asked to fight for their country. A 6 month old, an 80 year old, a 12 year old, they don't ask for it. They weren't waging war. They were trying to live. I picked up literature about the exhibit for my son. I didn't realize until I'd gotten home I should have picked up extra copies for Mel. I'm sorry!
After that, we walked over to Nordstrom's for coffee. You know, when I was 16, it was 25¢ a cup, it's gone up to 2.50. E and I each had a cup of coffee, and split a piece of chocolate cake (it's really rich and dark chocolate, even sharing, we didn't finish it, E did NOT want to admit the cake had her beat). After you've seen an exhibition like that, and when your shopping bag is filled with catalogs from a place like Microcosm, you feel strongly like saying very rude things to people spending hundreds on dresses and shoes, you know that? I settled for leaving a couple catalogs in the ladies restroom lounge.
Then we walked to the hotel, and just when we were a block away, Mike called to say he was off work, so we waited for him by the door, and he picked us up. Then we went to get Wm.
About the books-
The cookbook, Hot Damn and Hell Yeah/The Dirty South had a recipe in it for a mushroom gravy, that modified a bit, made a marvelous "safe to eat even when on a diet" gravy for Mike. So last night, he had leftover chicken instead of halibut with the rest of us with gravy on it. Since he hasn't had gravy in a month, he loved it.
( gravy recipe )
Before bed last night, I read some of Stolen Sharpie Revolution, which is as amazing as it sounds. I know at least one person on my flist has a zine, and I've considered starting one a few times. This book is absolutely chocked full of information. The real question is, who would be interested in a zine I was doing? It would be a lot like this blog, a mix of crafts, politics, ideas, and journalling, in print form.
Making Stuff and Doing Things is full of a lot of ideas I won't use, but it also has some great ones I will use. One of them is to make buttons using safety pins, bottle caps and can tabs. Which I had some of. So I tried it out.
( Bottle cap buttons )

We got the Neo Classical Suite, which is one of my favorites. It's a lot prettier then the Presidential, but doesn't have a hot tub and sauna. The only thing I don't like about it is that it's on the 16th floor, and you have to take two elevators. The regular elevators are newer then the private one going to the 16th floor, and something made the private elevator smell *awful*. See.. little known facts about me. I HATE elevators. This comes from having a long talk with an elevator mechanic who refused to get in them unless he was working on them. You know, when the guy who fixes them and is the expert doesn't think they are safe...
So I white knuckle elevator rides like some people white knuckle take offs and landings, and old creaky elevators really bug me. There are more reasons.
( Harry Potter, no spoilers, just long about the party )
( Saturday downtown )
For dinner, we had pork chops, and since I've been asked for the recipe a couple times, here it is.
A 12 oz can or bottle of cherry soda, cherry cola is fine, but black cherry soda is better. I got a good one that is made with real sugar.
seasoning salt
pepper
A red onion
olive oil
Heat up some olive oil in a skillet big enough for all the chops, I use my favorite skillet and it's huge. Cut up the onion and saute it in the oil. Season the chops with seasoning salt and pepper. I'd say fresh ground is best, but I'm biased, it's all we use.
Brown the chops on both sides in the pan on medium high heat.
Pour in the soda. Cover it, and turn down the heat to low to let it simmer. Let it simmer for an hour. Well, you don't have to, but I like my meat, esp pork, really well done. Let it simmer until cooked through anyway.
Turn off the heat. Serve with the side that was on the bottom of the pan up, because the color is just soo pretty topped with the carmelised onions. This was the first time we used a sugar sweetened soda instead of a corn syrup sweetened soda, the difference was noticeable. It tastes good either way, but the sugar sweetened soda carmelized gorgeously.

I'm not a big fan of pork to be honest, and Mike likes it. I was shake and bake for port for years, but he likes this way of cooking it, and E? Loves it cooked this way and usually asks for seconds, she's picky. Me? I like it better then shake and bake, but still cover it in applesauce. Pork will never be one of my favorites. I imagine if you use a diet soda, the pork will wind up a bit sweeter, you really don't taste the soda with mine, but since diet soda doesn't have sugar to carmelise, I think it will stay really sweet.
While we were at the store, I picked up a loaf of rosemary bread, which Mike dunked in the drippings left in the pan.
I hope your weekend was as good.

( I may have posted instructions before but.. )
Mike's birthday was lovely. E made a no bake cheesecake for him using pre-made graham cracker shells, cream cheese, my good Mexican vanilla (which I'm nearly out of.. *sob*), powdered sugar and coolwhip. It's marvelous. Smooth and just sweet enough. She likes to "slick the pot" and this time she slicked it using chocolate graham crackers.

xtalcy told me what the stamp E picked out means. It's Chinese, and the top two characters mean confidence, and the bottom means love. So since all three won't fit on one domino, when I used it, I split it up that way.
( line 'em up, knock them down )
I made chicken teriyaki for dinner last night. This time I stirred in some broccoli. It was soo good. I had some leftover from lunch from New Sagaya, and the color difference, plus the flavor difference was INCREDIBLE. I stirred my lunch leftovers into my sauce. Because my teriyaki sauce has so much more flavor!!!

I also got some more farina, and some 7 grain cereal for Wm. He ate ALL the farina I mixed up for him! It's so much less expensive though to buy from the bulk/health food section of the supermarket and to mix it up myself then to buy Cream of Wheat in packets with brown sugar and raisins. I picked up some dried cherries to mix with the 7 grain, even at $10 a lb, it's still cheaper then those dinky packets to mix in, and they don't offer cherries anyway.

Anyway, if you want to mix it yourself, what I usually do is 2 cups of cereal, 1/2 cup of powdered instant milk, 1 Tbsp of Butter Buds or similar butter seasoning, then the extras, brown sugar, raisins, vanilla powder, whatever. Eldest child just puts some in a bowl with water, covers it, pops it in the microwave, stirs, and lets it set for a minute or two. The farina and 7 grains cereal is 1.19 a lb at my local supermarket. Would obviously work with instant oatmeal too. I got a quarter lb of the cherries. Yum yum!

( I don't have any bento boxes )

Wm was impressed with the presentation. *grins* I had Mike bring it to him this morning since he was dropping off some stuff for dad anyway. I guess he offered to share the 'nilla wafer with Dad.

Almost done with my bracelet. Turns out I bought about double the beads I needed for it, so I offered to make Emily a red and gold witch bracelet when I'm done.



Paper vs. Plastic
Kill a Tree!
biodegradable sometimes. Assuming it's not piled in a landfill.



Okay, they are reaching now. Really. I feel like calling them and suggesting "Diana Prince vs. Carol Danvers?" Do any of you have suggestions? Maybe I can accidentally drop a list of suggestions.

I accidently broke Emily's favorite cup this morning. Which wound up being a crying thing. Poor kid. I felt so badly. We decided we would glue it back together for her to use for pencils (she *REALLY* loves this cup), and I pulled out some old snowmen mugs I bought a while back and gave her a choice of them for a new cocoa cup. It was a penguin cup. I don't suppose anyone has an adorable penguin mug they'd be willing to send her for hot chocolate?

Speaking of which.. (see how forgetful I am?)
The mix we make is
1 cup instant dry milk (bought bulk, much cheaper)
1/4 cup cheap non-dairy cream powder (gives it that creaminess)
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa powder

All these amounts can be adjusted for taste, and sometimes I make it without sweetener so my uncle can just add in the amount of splenda he wants and Dad can sugar to taste.
To that, add whatever you think will work. A bit of cherry kool-aid powder makes it taste like chocolate covered cherries, and turns it a pretty pink-beige color, smashed whoppers add a nice malt flavor, starlight mints, butterscotch candies and stuff like that are all good stir ins. I've even used pudding in the past in it. I've mixed in marshmallows to the mix, but currently we are floating peeps on top of hot chocolate. Because it's peeps time of year.
Vanilla powder also tastes nice in it, but I've always preferred a cup of hot vanilla to hot chocolate given my choice. You can increase the amounts to make more mix, but we mix small batches so we can play with flavorings. Since flavoring oils can cost a fortune, and the idea is to make it not cost so much, we use candy and kool-aid and other stuff for flavoring. Smashed toffee hard candies are another favorite of mine. A few spoonfuls in a cup,and boiling water. Yum yum.

The other thing I'm mixing a batch of for Dad's house is farina. Dad and Wm both love cream of wheat, but the stuff costs a lot in the "individual serving" packages. So I bought some bulk farina and brown sugar last night, and for Wm I'm going to mix in raisins, and more instant milk of course, and some butter buds for a bit of buttery flavor. At 1.19 per lb for bulk farina, it's WAY cheaper then buying Cream of Wheat.

Hmph.. the poll isn't showing right for me. Of course I still think it's a very silly vs.

You know, if I thought I could maintain it, I'd love to run a Can't Stand To Cook website. I know, I've said that before.

Earlier this week (Thursday) I had a *bad* night. I hurt my back pretty badly, and I knew I didn't want pizza, deli or fast food for dinner. I wound up making something like a cheater's chicken and dumplings.
Chicken breasts (which I did cut up, could have skipped it, but I felt like I could. Plus.. NEW KNIFE!)
Can of Cream of chicken soup, anything would have done that was brothy, but I had that on hand
Veggies from the salad bar. These are the handicapped cooks best friend on really bad days you know. Already sliced and cut up, but still fresh. I filled a thing with mushrooms, onions, carrots and celery. Wound up being way too many veggies. More later.
Can of buttermilk biscuits.

Season and brown the chicken breasts in an oven safe container.I used my favorite big stainless steel skillet.Pour in the broth and water, veggies, put the biscuits on top. Cover lightly with foil, pop in the oven at 350, cook for a half hour, take the foil off the pan, cook 10 more minutes so the biscuits get browned. Mike served up. Total standing time? About 10 minutes, would have been less if I hadn't taken the time to cut up the chicken.

So I got too many veggies and even in my great big skillet, they wouldn't all fit with the chicken, so today I made myself ramen for lunch, Mike said he would have some too, so I used two packets of ramen, the rest of the veggies, a half t of garlic, and a can of chicken. Wound up making quite a bit, and it tastes yummy and didn't take any time at all to cook.
Back when I was on a very strict budget and living below the poverty line, one of the things I learned was that I had to plan out menus a couple weeks in advance, and stick to them. One of the things my son and I had frequently for lunch was a similar soup.
A packet of ramen (chicken flavor is the only kind I like)
3 cups of water
2 minced cloves of garlic
2 carrots that I used a vegetable peeler to shred
about 2 inches chopped off a bunch of green onions. I use scissors to cut my green onions up into soups and stuff
2 eggs lightly beaten

Bring the water to a boil, put in the ramen,broth mix from the ramen, carrots, garlic, and green onions, plus anything else you might have that sounds good. Sometimes I used two packets of ramen and kept the extra broth packet for gravies/soups/rice (I still do that actually)
Simmer it until the noodles are done. No time really at all, but you know that. Take off the heat, and pour in the eggs in a slow drizzle moving around the soup. The eggs cook and look so pretty. Lunch for 2 for a couple dollars. We ate this a lot during the spring/wet months.

William's current favorite way to eat ramen is microwaved, then while it's still steaming hot, he likes to put in a handful of snow peas and pre-cooked cocktail shrimp then cover it with a plate for 5 minutes to steam the snow peas. Cocktail shrimp, enough for one serving of ramen, costs about 50¢, less if it's on sale.

I still mean to put together that page of ramen recipes if anyone has some to offer.