When the Spirits Come

our altar

Today is Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. I enjoy celebrating this as it reminds me of growing up in the Southwest. I’ve always loved Mexican folk art as well, and really love the ideas behind this holiday.

Jack and I made Pan de Muerto last night, which you leave out with other goodies for the spirits who come to visit, on this day when the veil between our world and theirs is lifted. It’s filled with orange and anise, a little sweet and a little bitter, just like life.

On top you can make a skull and bones as well, and that was Jack’s job this year. He made a pretty awesome skull, although the little bones sort of slid down the sides as it baked. It’s still delicious!

We also left out pumpkin tea, Mexican chocolate spice cookies, Jack made a special bowl of his leftover Halloween candy (he even unwrapped them so the “good spirits” specifically could get at the sweetness), he also put out coins and I added a squash, some candles, the sugar skulls Jack made in art class, and this cool little Our Lady of Guadalupe light I got ages ago in Phoenix.

This year I was especially glad we did this. Chris and I both lost old friends who were very young and died suddenly. Just this week a good friend of our family passed away as well. In some odd way it comforts me to place these ofrendas out for them. It makes me feel like the distance is less, like those spirits still walk among us.

Even if those spirits are really just memories, I’ll take it.

In a Jam & I Painted a Chicken

Spooning in the jam.

Today I get to mention my friend Jillian twice. For starters, she also recently made the toaster pastries I’ll be talking about, and her combos not only look delicious but they are allergy safe.

At the April Food Swap I got to meet Alana Chernila and snagged myself a copy of her book The Homemade Pantry. Pretty much anyone who ever cooks food for themselves should own this book. The very next day I made the toaster pastries that are pictured on the cover, and knew it wouldn’t be long before I made them again.

Several half-used jars of homemade jam were piling up in my fridge. I wanted a way to use them all up before they went bad, plus I was overdue for some bulk snack making. I promptly made up a double batch of Alana’s crust and stuck it in the fridge overnight.

Ready to bake!

When I woke up I got to rolling. I really love her crust. It’s so easy to use because it’s never crumbly and it isn’t prone to ripping apart from itself. If you fear homemade crust, get the book and use this recipe.

In the end I made 18 toaster pastries. The flavors are blueberry cherry balsamic, raspberry balsamic, and strawberry/raspberry/rhubarb. I left 6 out and packaged the rest to be put into the freezer.

The finished product.

Later in the day Jack decided he wanted to paint. I’ve wanted to paint for some time as well so we headed out to get a few supplies. When we got home we set everything up and then just painted whatever felt right at the time. His is a chaotic scene of animals and fictitious creatures, and mine is a chicken.

creative genius

We are now officially participating in Jillian’s Artful Summer! I will continue to post about our journey with art during this season.

Chili For When It’s Chilly

Chili served up "Frito Pie" style and loaded up with micro cilantro from KFF. Paired with some tasty local brew.

It occurred to me that I’ve been posting a lot about stuff we’ve done but not much about the things we are noshing on. So to remedy this I’ve decided to share with you a super-simple slow cooker chili that I like to make.

Now, when my garden’s a-hoppin’ in the summer I like to add all sorts of fresh stuff to this chili, but in the winter it gets slimmed down to the basics. That being said, you may have different produce options in the winter if you live in a warmer climate, so feel free to add whatever else you like.

All of this can be thrown into a slow cooker in the morning in about 10 minutes. About 30 minutes before you are going to eat it I would recommend making some corn muffins or cornbread as well to serve on the side.

Snow mouse

Simple Slow Cooker Winter Chili

Ingredients:

-2 lbs. ground beef

-1  can of beans (I like black or pinto beans for this.)

-1 can of organic corn or 2 cups frozen

-1 large can or aseptic box of diced tomatoes

-1 large can or aseptic box of crushed tomatoes

-1 large onion, diced

-3 or 4 garlic cloves, minced

-Mexican seasonings, to taste (I use a mix of chili powder, cumin, paprika, oregano, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and sea salt.)

Method:

-Throw everything (except seasoning) in a crockpot and set to low for several hours.

-If you are home while it’s cooking, stir it from time to time.

-An hour before serving add the seasoning and taste the chili. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

I like to serve this up with plain Greek yogurt and a little shredded cheese. It’s also great with cilantro on top, and I’m lucky enough that the farm I work for grows micro cilantro. It’s excellent!

 

 

~happy home~ The $50/Week Grocery Challenge

Made this super tasty baked oatmeal with sweet potatoes tonight with ingredients I happened to have on hand.

I’m sure you’re already aware that one area of a budget that can always be tweaked is a food budget. Most bill amounts are pretty standard from month-to-month but food budgeting can change depending on what is going on in your life at the moment.

For instance, in December, with various meals, edible gifts, and parties I calculated that I spent close to what we used to in rent. Scary, right?! I knew after the first of the year I had to get this under control.

Two problems I kept running into were: lumping “eating out” with regular food purchases, and making excuses for why I needed to spend more. In fact, just about every month I can think of several excuses as to why I should spend more….housewarming gifts of wine, appetizers for parties, food swaps, etc.

I realized mid-month that we were on track to blow my estimated budget of $400 for the whole month. Finally I put my foot down and decided that to make up for it I would see if I could only spend $100 for the last 2 weeks combined.

*Gulp*

Ok so here’s how it goes in our house: there are only 3 people and all of my vegetables (plus some eggs) can be acquired through my CSA share which I get in return for work for the farm. That is a huge amount of any food budget! This begs the question, “Why would you be going over in the first place you moron?!?!?” At least this is how I pose it to myself.

So, with those two things out of the way I have the following left to buy: fruit, baking items, dry staples (rice, beans, pasta, etc.), milk/cheese, snack items.

There are a few ways I’ve cut costs on those items and I’ll go into them in more detail in future posts. Basically what it comes down to is planning. Different stores (especially with coupons and sales) allow me to spend less, but I have to plan trips to those stores in my daily routine.

We have basically 7 days left until we get paid again and I’m happy to report we still have $24 left and plenty of food in our home. And in the realm of planning, I already have much of that $24 allocated for the items I’m sure we’ll need before the next payday.

Stay tuned to see if I can keep it up in March! I’m honestly a little nervous but I think I’ll be able to do it.

Recipe above comes from here.

Chocolate Peppermint Pretzels & More!

The finished products.

I needed to make some simple gifts for neighbors and the Kilpatrick Family (because they are seriously like a surrogate family to me, and they are amazing people), and I really wanted to do something where Jack could help.

I figured these chocolate dipped peppermint pretzels would be the perfect solution.

Peeled candy canes, ready to be turned into minty dust.

I used two different colored candy canes (traditional and ones that include green), peeled them, and then separately gave them a good crushing in my food processor. When each was done I poured them into their own shallow bowl.

Powdered minty magic.

I got 2 bags of the honey wheat pretzel sticks. They are a good, medium length. I melted (separately) white and semi-sweet chocolate chips in a double boiler. When they were all melty, I put the bowls at our workstation and we got to dipping.

After we dipped each one we rolled it around in the peppermint crunchies, then we set them down on a huge silicone mat. You could also use wax paper or parchment paper if you don’t have a silicone mat.

Almost done....

At the end we took red and green colored sugar and sprinkled it on them, then waited for them to dry.

Scrumptious

I realized when we were finishing up the pretzels that I still had lots of melted chocolate left. Since wasting food makes me feel nutso, I knew I had to figure something out.

Chocolate peppermint coins

I got out my mini muffin tin, spritzed a little cooking oil in the bottom of each space and then started pouring the melted chocolate in. I quickly sprinkled the leftover peppermint and sprinkles on, then stuck the whole pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

If you don’t have a mini muffin tin you could use a regular one, but the disks would just be thinner and wider. They may also be a little harder to get out so silicone muffin cups might make things easier if you have those.

When I pulled the pan out I let it sit on the counter for a few minutes before carefully popping them out. I put them in little baggies and I’ll be giving them as gifts.

For the pretzels I got some inexpensive containers to package them in. I found a set of green plastic containers and a glass jar with a hinged lid. The glass jar was less than $3 at local dollar store!

When I filled them I put some candy cane striped ribbon around the top and then little “To, From” labels on the top.

The whole project didn’t take more than a couple of hours and it was really affordable. This would also be a great project if you have kids of multiple ages, because even though they might not be able to all the steps, even just putting on the sprinkles would be fun.

So if you are scrambling for any last-minute gift ideas definitely give these a  try!

St. Nick…you ninja!

Image Source

Our first real Christmas here (we first arrived just a few weeks short of Christmas, so that one doesn’t really count in my mind) we only had a few friends in the area. I whipped up a few spice rubs for our friends and neighbors, got a couple gifts for Chris and Jack, and that was about it.

Now we are fortunate to have lots of awesome friends, and since I love making stuff (duh), I want to make all sorts of nifty things for them this holiday season. Here’s the only problem….I swear it’s sneaking up on me faster than ever this year!

I really should start planning this stuff in the summer. I know that sounds bonkers, but some things take longer than others to make and can sit around for a few months before Christmas. I’m referring mostly to knitted/crocheted/sewed things. Also, I should stretch my canning endeavors to include extras for gifts. I didn’t really think of that this year. Ooops.

Then there are the things I have to make right before gifting, such as edibles. Now, I obviously can’t make these whenever I have a free moment, since I have to make them right before I give them….but I should’ve been thinking about these recipes back in October!

Again, I know this is making me sound like some crazy Martha Stewart nutcase, but not all my friends like the same edibles, and with food restrictions and allergies, I can’t just make one big batch of something and dole it out to everyone. I actually need to sit down with a list of people and make notes next to it.

In the end, I know it will all get done, and it will be fun to deliver everything. But seriously, next year, in the heat of the summer (when Chris starts singing Christmas songs because he’s weird like that) I’m going to get out a pen and paper (and login to Pinterest) and get crackin’ on planning.

My Recipe Binder

The cover of my recipe binder.

Part of pinching pennies is eating at home. So in my quest to be more frugal, I made up a fresh, organized recipe binder for myself. Having interesting meals planned out will prevent me from saying, “Hey let’s go out for dinner,” or “Let’s order pizza.” As fun as that is, it’s not the wisest use of our money right now.

I should tell you I already had a few recipe binders. One was super small so it ended up being a catch-all for folded up recipes. It was a freaking mess. The next one was a larger binder that had pocket folders in it. It held the recipes better, but since they were piled up on top of each other in the pockets, I couldn’t flip through them easily.

I took a basic 3-ring-binder (get a bigger one than you’d expect, trust) and made a cute cover for myself with some food-related pictures I’d taken. Before I filled out the tabs on the dividers I sorted the recipes to see what I was working with.

My "Breakfast" section. My apologies for the blurriness.

Since we eat seasonally I figured I should separate the veg-dominant recipes by seasonal group. So one tab is “Spring/Summer” and the other is “Fall/Winter.” Then I realized I had a bunch of breakfast recipes, so I grouped them together. We don’t eat tons of meat so rather than having a tab for each type of meat, all the meat centered recipes have their own tab. The others are “Ethnic,” “Soups, Salads, Dips,” “Desserts,” and “Easy Peasy.” The easy ones consist mostly of pasta dishes, sandwiches, and other things that come together in less than 30 minutes.

I would really suggest making your own tabs like this instead of going with classic recipe binder categories. You’ll probably be pretty surprised at your balance of recipes. For instance, I think in the future I may make subcategories for my “Dessert” tab because it’s much more full than I ever thought it would be. I could easily break it down into “cookies,” “cakes,” “quickbreads,” and more.

Most of my recipes are from magazines so I got a 100 pack of clear slip covers for super cheap at Target to put them all in. This way I can flip through easily and if I have it out while cooking, I don’t have to worry about the recipe getting stuff spilled on it.

Now I just need to make sure to look through it on a weekly basis and pick new dishes. I have been meal planning and although there are a billion templates you can use online, I just jot notes to myself in my planner, and continually change it during the week.

Coming up I think I will make some classic sausage and peppers because I need to yank out all my bell pepper plants. I also need to figure out more stuff to do with my swiss chard.

So there you have it. Do you have a recipe binder or have you been meaning to make one? Do you regularly plan out meals to stay sane and save money?

~lull~

Mama squid carrot with her baby. (This has nothing to do with this post, it's just funny.)

Oddly enough I’ve had trouble writing any new posts. Don’t get me wrong…I’ve been making and doing a crazy amount of stuff lately. But at night I settle in and watch a documentary or knit (and often do work) and just can’t seem to find the motivation.

I’ve been great about exercising lately and also canning and both are physical, sweaty activities that exhaust me, in a good way. I know that’s definitely played a big part in my evening slackerness.

I don’t think a lull is terrible though. Sometimes it’s nice to catch up on my favorite blogs or just zone out a bit. Soon I will be in a posting frenzy and tell you all about:

-U-pick outings

-a surprise trip to a Naval destroyer

-jalapeno jelly, blueberry cherry balsamic black pepper jam, bruschetta in a jar and hot pepper peach jam

-bacon (from the pig I watch die) curing in the fridge

-farm work

-knitted cardigan

-and more!

….now back to Netflix.

~eats this week~

The Summertime Picnic Quilt in action at the pool.

Some weeks just work well when it comes to dinner. I’d love to say that every week I make an awesome meal plan on Sunday for the week ahead but that rarely happens.

I wish it could happen, but Chris and I often just bat around different ideas and sometimes, on crazy days, it comes down to take out food. I wish it wasn’t like that, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

However we’ve been putting together some pretty tasty stuff this week.

Dairy facts sign at Willow Marsh. How cute is it that we have a dairy princess?

I got lots of eggs at Willow Marsh the other day so I came right home and made dough for challah bread. I also made 22 whole wheat hamburger buns. Go big or go home, right? Actually I just prefer to make large batches of things when I can to alleviate excess kitchen time in the future.

My sweet southern belle....what a ham!

Chris is now working the mid shift for this next week so while he was switching his body clock over he made bacon jam (that’ll have a post of its own!) and tomato basil chicken sausage (with tomatoes and basil from the garden). He made the sausage into patties that we had tonight on my buns with homemade slaw. I think we are going to turn the rest of it into meatballs to have with pasta.

Chris also ground up pork last night which we cooked up with garlic, onion, and jalepenos after dinner tonight. I put it into a crock pot with crushed tomatoes, chopped green peppers, and black beans. Tomorrow morning Jack and I are going to make tortillas and let the chili cook all day.

I’m not really sure what the weekend will bring but it certainly has been nice having all this delicious food this week!

A Good Reminder

Image From Cooking Light

Recently I made some beer mustard. I had to halve the batch because I didn’t have enough mustard seeds.

I had 2 of those small containers that they sell at the grocery store and it barely measured a 1/2 cup. I still had to put the same amount of effort into making the mustard but I didn’t get nearly enough, and it was a bummer.

Today I went and got bulk mustard seeds. I filled a sandwich bag 2/3 of the way full and only had to pay two bucks and change. Plus they were organic. Each tiny container at the store cost over two dollars.

So now I just need to narrow down my options for which mustards I want to make next.

Friendly reminder….buy bulk whenever you can. Overpaying for a silly container just isn’t worth it. The worst part is I already knew this, but was just being lazy and picked up the seeds on my weekly trip to the store.

It’s always good to get a kick in the pants every so often.