Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Household Hacks: Getting Wax Out of Fabric



I like the look of a tablecloth, but rarely take the time to actually put them to use. A few weeks ago however, I pulled one out in an effort to step up the class of our in-home anniversary dinner and provide a more romantic feel. I decided this was going to be one time I didn't mess up a tablecloth, and tried extra hard to be neat. It sure is difficult to pay attention to a piece of material on the table though (especially when you have such a hunk of a man sitting beside you!), and after the first scoop of lasagna ended up leaving some behind (I cringed), and then a forkful of my food didn't quite all make it into my mouth, I quickly abandoned the idea and relaxed for the remainder of the meal. But at the end of the evening when it came time to blow out the candles, I saw that one of them had just started dripping wax. Onto the tablecloth. Now that, I knew, wasn't the least bit washable. I figured I'd better at least check and see if there was any way possible to take the wax out after I scraped the majority off, because it was an automatic ruin if I stuck it in the washer as is. Google to the rescue! I tried the first suggestion I found. 

Here's what it said to do: Heat your iron to the warmest setting your fabric type can handle. Place a brown paper sack over the wax spot and iron over top of the sack. The grease from the wax will transfer onto the paper! Keep moving the sack until you don't see any grease when ironing. After that you can just plop it into the washing machine, launder as normal, and you're good to go!


So that's what I did. I examined the tablecloth after pulling it out of the dryer. I knew the wax was in the corner with the tag, so I figured it'd be a fairly easy find. After some searching I located a slightly darker spot and assumed that was where the candle had been. It was satisfactory. Not too noticeable in my opinion. This morning going through my before and after pictures I realized that darker spot didn't match up with where the wax had dripped, so I spent a few more minutes in detective mode and I still can't find the greasy wax spots. What I thought was leftover wax before I realized today was actually a lasagna stain. In my excitement to see if I could successfully remove candle wax residue, I forgot to use stain remover on the bits of food. Oops. 

I'd say this method works. Just don't forget about the other stains before sticking your material in the washer.



Whats for dinner tonight: I don't know yet. Going to be out of town with the husband later this afternoon.

Monday, November 28, 2016

'Tis the Season



While some are strongly against anything Christmas until Thanksgiving is over, others have been listening to carols while looking at their decorated tree for weeks now. I'm not the person to get ready for Christmas as soon as November hits, but I love the season so much I decided I needed to start decorating before Thanksgiving if I was going to get anything done in time to enjoy it. So I started decorating last week. I unloaded my stuff from last year and came up with a new way to use it, and also added some greenery in the form of a homemade wreath - something I had never done before! We have wild grape vines all over the place so it made a nice form to work with. I need to tweak it a bit if I get the chance as it's a bit droopy. I think I fastened the branches in only two or three spots with wire, otherwise it's just all intertwined with the vines. A quick homemade project, but I was able to get it all done while Adam was napping.


I had been wanting to make a popcorn garland since last year so I popped the corn last week in hopes of finding time to put one together. It needed to get stale so it didn't break when I tried threading it, so um, I guess six days was long enough, huh? I finally got time to sit down and work on it this afternoon. It will be going in the kitchen.


As a mom you can't say no to every possible mess when you have a toddler or child in your care. It could be losing opportunity for a good learning moment or great quality mom-child time. My soon-to-be 15 month old loves to be involved in whatever is going on at the moment. I decided against help with dishes this morning, but thought making popcorn garlands would be the perfect place for him to step in. The worst that would happen is I'd have to sweep the floor, which I'd have to do anyway. He loved being next to me munching away! It was almost lunch time anyway, so we had stale popcorn and leftover pumpkin pie for lunch. Adam did end up spilling half the bowl, but as I said, it was an easy clean up. 



And another task of the season ... collecting paper sacks! If I would get plastic grocery bags every time I went to the store, my bag drawer would be overflowing. It seems a waste when there aren't many practical ways to reuse them, other than as liners for the small trash cans around my house. So when I remember, which often happens to be a rainy day, I ask for paper. It makes for cheap but artsy wrapping material! In the two years we've been married I haven't bought any gift paper. If you'd like to add a little pinterest to your Christmas, you should start asking for paper, too. 



What's for dinner tonight: Upside Down Pizza Casserole



Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Earning Extra $ When Shopping Online This Week

This year seems to be so messed up with these Black Friday sales. Seems everyone's deals are starting on a different day! I do online shopping though, so maybe that makes a difference. Thankfully I had my list of wanted items written already and did enough research watching for sale announcements that I didn't miss the big item on the list! I guess looking on the bright side I don't have to race to my two websites early Friday morning.

I have been in the market for a carseat for Adam for awhile and decided if I didn't find one before now this would be a must for Black Friday sales. It's something I must have before baby #2 arrives! I decided if I had to pay for a brand spanking new seat I was going to get a good one, so after some reading and asking around decided Diono was my brand. There were a few things that were pretty important to me if I was paying that much for one:

- It had to be able to last the entire rest of Adam's carseat days and on to the next kid
- It had to come apart easily for simplified cleaning
- It needed to be narrow in case I ever need to fit three carseats in a row

Hearing from other moms and reading reviews, I found a couple that met all of these. I got a notification on Monday that the manufacturer had officially authorized the discounted sale of their seats, so I figured I'd better jump on and get mine before they were gone. Kohl's had already started their sale week and happened to have the lowest price for the cheapest one of the two I had narrowed my choices down on, and since I already like Kohl's and know they have great extra savings, I was happy to get it from them.  I'm glad to have found something I'm excited about and at what I believe to be the best deal out there this week. 30% off plus money back in two ways! 
Store Credit earned:     + 45.00 (You get $15 store credit for every $50 spent this week)
And cash back             +  13.16 (8% rebate back from Ebates.com)

Savings of $67 plus an additional $58.16 coming back my way. Yay!


How to Get Extra Rebates (From a variety of retailers) 

If you're an online shopper, you should check into Ebates. They give you a percentage of your purchase back in rebates! And not gift cards like most rebates; they actually mail you a check! Often it's not a huge amount (2-6%), but it does make a big difference and it's no extra effort on your part. I VERY RARELY make purchases from popular stores online but have received over $30 from Ebates. They do rebates for in-store shopping too, but I've never checked into it as I live in a small town with extremely limited options. In case you were wondering, I've been on Ebates for almost a year and still no junk mail, so it's safe! :) They offer rebates for tons of stores and the percentage you earn back varies by week and store. Their overall rebate percentage is up nice and high this week all the way until Cyber Monday, so you have time to benefit if you're planning a shopping spree. When you sign up, you'll get a $10 Walmart gift card sent to you. Here's the link to get started:


Note: This is a referral link.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Free Dinnerware

If you've gotten married in the past few years, chances are you've sat in a little room at Bed Bath and Beyond while a representative showed you dinnerware and other "must-haves" for a kitchen as you put together a gift registry. We did. And not only did we think all the choices they offered were ugly, but they were terribly expensive! We politely told them we weren't interested and continued on, unsure of where we'd be finding something satisfactory to our taste. Aaron liked Corelle and would've loved to have it in our home, hearing so many rave over the fact that it can be dropped so many times without breaking. That's what we had growing up, and he and I both have witnessed a number of plates and bowls shatter into a million pieces in our day. I looked into it and discovered even those prices were rather high for our almost-newlywed budget. So, I took the search to Craigslist. We had been planning on a blue and white country kitchen and of course were hoping to find dishes to match, and there happened to be a set for just that local to me. I sent Aaron the link to see if he liked it, and decided for the price it would work just fine. It was better than what we'd been finding and it was service for 24! Another thing we had wanted was a decent number of whatever we ended up with because we knew between company, both our large families, and hoping for a brood of kids ourselves one day, we'd need a few sets. The price tag? $50 for all of it (but worth closer to $200). I called the lady up and went to get them the next day.



Fast forward a few months. I was browsing a thrift store and what do I find but a box of Currier and Ives! I can't remember the exact price, but I believe it was around $5 for all of it, and in the collection were a few bowls that I needed more of. For just those pieces alone it was worth the money, so I walked out excited to have a few more soup bowls and also some replacements of the various plates and things that I already had. Then that summer my sister-in-law was at an estate sale nearby and found a whole bunch of these dishes and called me in case I was interested. Well, I was hoping to find a few more soup bowls (which are pretty rare, by the way) so I went over. The lady had run an antique store so she had quite a variety of china and other cool things. I found some of what I was after, but it was for sale in a rather large miscellaneous lot, for $20, and I became the owner of those, too.



By now I had spent $75 on all these dishes. But I knew I had more than just replacements that would sit in my basement until we broke a few and needed them. Some of them that I had found at the estate sale were rare collectible items so I could probably make some extra cash off them. I married an eBay guy, so how could I not try my own hand at it at some point in our married life?! Eventually I divided them up into smaller lots, listed them for a fairly decent price so I didn't have them around forever, and let them sit until I had buyers. Well a couple weeks ago I sold the last two lots and have officially come out ahead. Unfortunately I didn't keep good record of the first few items I sold, but the lot of collectibles alone covered all but $5 of my total expenses! My goal was to get my money back on the thrift store and estate sale purchases, and cover the cost of all the ones I have for personal use as well. Now I've done that and made a little bit more on the side! I'm quite happy to have free dinnerware and a few of the hard to find pieces in my cabinet as well. Now to find a few more soup-sized bowls to truly complete my set!


And that is the story of the china you've been seeing in my food photography.


Monday, November 14, 2016

Cooking for a Crowd

Once a month I'm in charge of providing a meal for 40 people. It's something I've been doing for about a year and a half now, and I'd like to share with you how I make it work on a budget.

Back in the beginning it was rather stressful when my weekend came up. I didn't have a big variety of recipes in my kitchen yet so I was always at a loss for what to make and lacked in creativity. As a married woman I had grown accustomed to cooking for two. It sure didn't take long to get out of the habit of big-family cooking that I had done so much of back home with 12 siblings! Not only that, but each time I decided on my meal plan for crowd-cooking I had to have prep in mind because I couldn't rope a sibling or two into helping peel potatoes or anything. Thankfully I have a very helpful husband and he always jumped in to save the day. But boy was it rough! We both rejoice at how far we've come in this area since then.

In those early days I did a lot of internet research trying to find ideas on how to cook for larger numbers, but I never seemed to come up with much. Especially in the department of recipes. It seemed like everyone was always suggesting things like pulled pork barbecue, sloppy joes, build-your-own pizzas, tacos, or for the extreme budgeter, hotdogs. All typical american meals. And if you try to add up the expenses for any of those it really does add up. Tell me why they suggest a meal that features almost just meat? Or something with lots of cheese? Have you ever priced all that? I know some of those suggestions are rather delicious, and some are certainly on my list of favorites, but it just wouldn't work for me feeding so many on a regular basis. If you highlight meat in a meal such as in pulled pork or sloppy joe, you should plan on 1/4lb. per person. Multiply that by 40 mouths to feed, and figure on regular store prices of somewhere close to $3 per pound for a pork roast or $4/lb for ground beef, and you've spent up to $40 on meat alone! Then you have to figure in your other ingredients, condiments, buns, and side dishes on top of that. If you're lucky or plan ahead, you might be able to catch a sale and cut the numbers down greatly, but it still leaves you with a pretty hefty receipt. All this to say I did make meatloaf once or twice and was able to do it quite cheaply. But it was the day I decided on the "easy deli sandwiches" that so many had been suggesting that I knew I needed to rethink how I planned crowd meals. It was a lesson that cost me at least $50 even while choosing sale options, and there wasn't very much food leftover that day at all.

Before I go on I must stress this point. Growing up I remember my dad always reminding us not to worry about cost when it comes to hosting or giving to other people. He encouraged us to do what it takes to make sure it's done right and nice. He was always more than willing to cut expenses in other areas in order to deliver a quality meal (and in plenty sufficient quantity!) to whatever event we were cooking for. My husband echoes the same advice, and I wholeheartedly agree. I can't say enough how important it is to be sure your guests are happy and don't feel like you've shorted them a well-rounded, nutritious, and delicious meal. You must do your part in making it as nice as possible. This does not mean you need to make it gourmet or spend an entire day slaving away over the stove. All it means is that in the end your goal is to deliver a meal or dish that makes your guests satisfied that you have put some thought and effort into whatever you're serving.

This is something that you can take to the budget book though. Just be cautious and plan well. You can still be frugal (not stingy; there is a difference) and make it work! Shop sales, and certainly feel free to cut cost whenever possible, as long as you're not sacrificing quality in the end product.


So, yesterday was my Sunday to feed everyone at church. The problem was, due to our extremely busy schedule since the beginning of the month, I forgot all about it until Saturday afternoon, even though I had it written on our calendar. That didn't give me much time to pull things together, so the meal was a bit more simple than I normally do.

The menu? Sausage and potato soup. It was what I had ingredients for and it could be put together pretty fast. My brother-in-law was out of town for a week, so we took over milking their cow while they were away, and as pay we got to bring home the milk! I had several gallons in my fridge still so this is what brought the decision for a milk-based soup. I needed a way to use it up anyhow, so it was a pretty easy decision. Often I hear people saying soup is a cheap way to feed people, but it really depends on what you're making. I don't find it to be all that much different in price than a casserole or something else. A good hearty, meaty, soup can break the bank just as well as a barbecue sandwich. Yeah, sure you can cut way down on meat in chili, but unless you're trying to go almost-vegetarian, anyone's favorite chili doesn't involve hide-and-seek-hamburger. And where vegetable soups might taste good, they are generally not very filling, which doesn't make for a good match when you're in charge of feeding a group of people and plan that for your main dish.

The ingredients that went into my potato soup were as follows: Smoked sausage (conveniently there was a truckload sale going on, and I was able to get a family pack [2.63 lbs] for $4.99...same price as 14 oz normally!), Carrots ($2 worth; I had them already), potatoes (homegrown), onions (homegrown), milk, and any spices and cornstarch. Having a garden sure cuts on cost, even though potatoes an onions are considered inexpensive. In all I spent less than $8 on the pot of soup, but if I would've had to buy the milk ($6) and veggies ($? haven't bought potatoes or onions in years), it would've more than doubled my cost. But even if you'd roughly guess the pot at just under $20, you've done well considering the fact that you are serving 40 people. But ... don't forget the sides! A simple pot of soup isn't quite enough to call it a decent meal. I made two double batches of hearty rustic bread to go along with the soup, and served it with some fresh, yellow grass-fed butter. Normally I try to aim for two side dishes with a meal when I'm cooking for others, but for some reason this week it didn't cross my mind. There was enough food though that I brought home enough leftover soup for two suppers and one of the loaves of bread didn't even get touched, so we brought that home, too.

I think I officially broke the record on least amount of expense going into my crowd meals. With the bread at less than $2.40 for both loaves, and the soup being under $8, my grand total was somewhere around $10.40 even with the butter. Looking back, I would add a few more potatoes to the soup. There were plenty of carrots, and every ladle-full was loaded with meat (extra points for that on my part!), but I could've used some more bulk with the potatoes. I did most of my prep Saturday night by cutting the vegetables and sausage and cooking until just tender, but didn't actually make it into soup until Sunday morning in my sister-in-laws kitchen. It's always more of a challenge cooking away from home. All in all though, it was very tasty. Sis-in-law made a dessert to go with the meal and she had plenty of leftovers too, so everybody must've gotten their fill.



Note: Generally I'm promoting nutrition, made-from-scratch, and healthy homegrown ingredients when I cook. I just want to clarify that I even though I used smoked sausage in this soup, I do not consider it a healthy food choice. 

Friday, November 4, 2016

When Couponing Pays You - How I Got Free Trash Bags AND Cash Back

Have you ever heard someone say it pays to coupon? That it saves you money? Well, using coupons in general doesn't necessarily, but being smart with them certainly does! I mean, spending $5 to save $1 doesn't save you a dollar, it costs you $4. But when the item was on your grocery list anyway, then you are saving money.

I don't normally clip coupons. I don't get my hands on many but when I do I find they are usually for items I don't use. But I have my own methods of saving and cutting cost. I feel like my "purchase" last night won them all. I'm so excited about it! 

I know I've mentioned the Ibotta rebate app before. That's what I use as my alternative to coupons. You can earn cash back on all sorts of staple items - food, grocery, household... you name it. Often they have food rebates that aren't brand specific, too. Currently one of their rebate options is $1 back on any size box of Hefty brand kitchen trash bags or large garbage bags. On top of that, they have a few bonuses running, including $1 back on any grocery item, and $5 back when you redeem one rebate! That's an option of getting $7 back, which is what I did. 



I live in a tiny town mostly made up of privately-owned stores, but we do have a Family Dollar, so that's where I went to find my goods. I needed trash bags anyway, and they had Hefty brand for $5, so I knew I'd at least get the box for free and a dollar back besides. Turns out I got a better deal than I went in for ... trash bags are considered grocery, so I got to use all three rebates, including the "$1 back on any grocery purchase", and after checking out I discovered they were on sale, so that put an extra .25 in my wallet. 

Here are the figures:

Trash bags $5.00 $4.75 on sale
                                 .29 tax
                             $5.04 total spent

                             +$1 redeeming Hefty rebate
                             +$1 redeeming Any Grocery Purchase rebate
                             +$5 redeeming Shopping Spree Bonus (when you redeem 1 rebate)
                             =$7 worth of rebates redeemed

                     So,    $7.00 in rebates
                            -   5.04 spent
                              $1.96 money earned in addition to getting the trash bags free!


Technically I saved even more than that because I had a few dollars on a gift card for Family Dollar that I needed to use up anyway, so I actually only spent $2.94, which is an additional savings of $2.10. But I realize most of the time nobody shops using free gift cards, so this was an extra bonus.

Some of these rebates still have a few days on them, so if you download the app you can get some freebies, too! I got to cash out some Ibotta earnings today and am heading over to Amazon to use my $20 gift card as soon as I get this post published. 


Want to give it a try? Check it out here: https://ibotta.com/r/meomgbc




Thursday, November 3, 2016

Fall Beets and Borscht {recipe included}


I tried something new this week! 

I made borscht, the delicious soup that makes us all think of Russia and its surrounding countries.

Though it was three months ago that I canned my beets, I left a few in the ground that were way too tiny to even make a pickled beet from. Those itty bitty beets grew to be nice big ones and I got a mini fall harvest the other day. Mini harvest, like... four or five nice sized beets, which is too little to process, but perfect for a couple of meals fresh! 

Back in my husband's days living under his family's roof, they had a Russian family live in with them for awhile. This was their recipe, which I acquired in a collection of "Recipes from the Farm" as a wedding gift from hubby's sister. 

It is a bit time consuming to make and you have to start it early in the day, but let me tell you ... the flavor is so worth it. It tasted so much better than I was expecting. I admit I was nervous because it was new to me and well, I didn't have a single picture to go by, so I had no idea if I was doing it right. Maybe I wasn't, but I am happy with the results nonetheless. 

I can't just tell you about it. It's time I post a recipe for you all, so I will give you my version of Borscht. The original recipe made a much larger batch, so I cut it in half and did a "give or take" on the exact amounts, because I didn't use a measuring cup, so don't be afraid to eyeball it. I bet Russian housewives do the same thing. I also was very cautious on the spices the recipe called for and added a few of my own on top of that, including the garlic, which I found was a staple addition to most other borscht recipes I've seen.






Homemade Rustic Bread


Bread is something we go through a decent amount of each week. If you read my recent post "Weekly Cleaning Schedule", you may recall I had Tuesday as bread making day. Two loaves a week, and often it disappeared before the week was over. Well, we still go through that much. At least.

My husband jokes that it's a good thing the Bible says "Man shall not live on bread alone", otherwise he'd do it. It's a staple! Pair it with a hunk of cheese and a glass of milk and he is one happy camper. I mean, growing up his family made four loaves a day, but if they happened to taste it while it was still warm, it was gone so fast they had to make another batch that afternoon. 

When we go on a mini road trip, we like to have some sort of treat along. Often I'll make a snack, or something a bit more hearty if I know we'll be missing meal time while on the road. Last time though, we decided to stop by the Farmer's Market in my old home town and pick up a hunk of cheese from the yummy can't-say-enough-good-about-it cheese shop I used to work at. We decided on a favorite of both of ours, a dutch baby swiss from Europe, called Leerdammer. Seeing as it was lunch time and the market also happened to have an open-air artisan bread shop, we picked up a nice rustic brown loaf to complete a meal. That stuff was so good we decided I needed to step my bread baking up a notch. I had been wanting to attempt a nice hearty loaf for quite some time now (and have tried in years past but failed miserably), but of the dozens of recipes I've looked into, they've all seemed so time consuming and involved. Or at least, it was a big recipe for someone who doesn't like reading directions. But I knew it was time to try my hand at it for real. So I searched for recipes once again and this time came up with a couple that looked like the perfect place to start.


Multiple batches later....

I have made more loaves of bread in two weeks' time than I thought I would when I started, but am sure I haven't spent a minute more than I would've on my regular sandwich bread recipe! You see, the other stuff I made required multiple risings, kneading time, and a few extra ingredients. Compared to what I've been making recently? Flour, water, salt, yeast... no knead, one rise, bake. 

Okay, I have two recipes that I've been alternating between since beginning this experiment. They're both very similar except one is a quick loaf (which I generally only make when I realize there isn't enough for Aaron's lunch for the next day.), and the other I mix up in the evening and let it sit overnight (12-18 hours). We really like the slight sourdough flavor and chewy texture of the soaked recipe. Plus it's super forgiving. I can bake it when I get up in the morning, or run errands and wait until mid-day and it doesn't affect it any! It literally takes 5 minutes of my time, including clean up. I don't have to worry about over-risen bread or watching the clock for the next step. I am loving the flexibility it gives me! 

Oh, and me being the one who can't make something without (either accidentally or on purpose) altering at least one step, all the recipes I found had you bake in a covered cast-iron dutch oven, something I don't have, but I've been using my cast-iron skillet and it seems to work just fine. I steam the bread while it's baking so I get a nice chewy crust. It's so good, you guys. And so easy. 

I'm not afraid of rustic bread baking any more.