LABOR DAY

Hello dear friends!  Hope everyone is having a safe and relaxing Labor Day weekend!  We've been experiencing the most delightful weather here, and have spotted a bit of scarlet tinge to the top of the trees.  The garden is winding done (thank Heavens!) and about the only thing remaining is this rather grand stand of cosmos.

  It wouldn't be a holiday without us having a project going and this one is no different than any other. We're remodeling our kitchen.  It all started with a big ugly chip in the sink.  We couldn't find another sink the same size, so we had to replace the countertop, which meant we had to tear out the stone backsplash, which snowballed into removing the wallpaper. Then we contracted a case of the "might-as-wells" and decided we might as well replace the flooring, while we had everything removed from the kitchen.  By the end the only things left standing were the faucet and the cupboards.    There's a long-standing joke in our village that to reach Port Austin, you must drive to the end of the Earth then drive ten more miles and you'll arrive here, and today we learned just how true it is;  we needed a simple two-dollar piece of plumbing  to finish installing the sink, but had to make a one-hundred and thirty-six trip to the big city to get it.

FORAGING

It wasn't a  very good year for the wild grapes, but we uncovered  enough to make a batch of wild grape jelly.  We grow two kind of of domesticated grapes: Gewurztraminer, a sweet variety .

that Ran uses for wine-making  and are very good for eating out of hand, and seedless Concords that I use  for  grape juice.   Grape juice,  more peaches and potatoes, and perhaps pumpkins are all I have left to do this year, then I can put my canners away for a while. 

Can you believe these shelves were nearly bare this Spring? And this is only one of my two pantries.

SHOPPING

The other day I had the "pleasure" of standing in line behind a woman that must have watched one too many episodes of Extreme Couponers.  It took three-quarters of an hour for her to check out as she had a coupon or a matching-price-from-a-competitor for almost every item in her cart, which was filled to overflowing.  In the end, she was quite pleased with herself as she watched the total drop from over $1200 to around $700.  She turned towards me as she left, grinned and exclaimed "not bad!". Guess she thought I'd be impressed.  To be honest, I think if my grocery bill ever totaled $700, I'd probably faint dead away, or expect that I'd have enough food to last half the year.  I so wanted to pull her aside and explain to her that she could have saved even  more money if instead of Lunchables, she had bought a box of store-brand crackers and a chunk of cheese and packaged them in a reusable plastic container from the dollar store.  Instead of those packages of juice boxes, she could have bought frozen juice concentrate and reconstituted it herself with her own tap water and put that into a thermos that she could have bought at a garage sale.  Instead of lunchmeat at $8/lb, she could have bought two roasting chickens and made more sandwiches and the bones could have been made into soup  that again could have went off to school in a thermos.  Instead of those little cups of fruit, why not just fruit? You know?  From the produce section? I think I could have whittled her grocery bill down to approximately $200 without using a single coupon.  Sigh!  Sometimes it's hard to bite your tongue when you're a master of thrift. Ha!

BAKING FROM THE PANTRY

Well, school days are here again and it's always nice to have a little something sweet in the old lunch pail.   Here's a recipe that's as old as the hills, for a simple moist brownie that's a real kid and husband pleaser.

Brownies

1 C. butter
2 C. sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla
1/2 C. cocoa
2 C. flour
dash of salt
1/2 C. chopped nuts  (optional)

Beat together the butter and sugar.  Beat in the eggs and vanilla.  Stir in the cocoa, salt and flour  until just combined.  Fold in the nuts.  Put into a greased 13 X 9 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes until just done.  Hint:  Brownies should always be just a tad bit underbaked if you want fudgey ones.

Once cooled, frost.

Frosting:

1/4 butter, softened
1/4 C. milk
1/4 C. cocoa
3 C. Confectioners sugar

Beat together all ingredients until smooth.

I overbaked mine  (got distracted reading) so they weren't as moist as they usually are, but who needs a picture of brownies anyway?

A STITCH IN TIME SAVES NINE

Since the kitchen is in shambles, I have had time to do some other chores besides canning, cooking and washing dishes.  Time to get caught up on mending.  Ran tore a rent in his favorite jacket so I darned that.  Darning is an old-fashioned skill, seldom used today in our throw-away society, but I like to give it a turn from time to time, just to keep the art alive.

To darn a sweater, you run long lines of yarn (hopefully matching) the length of the hole, catching the loops of the unraveled yarn.  Then it's simply a matter of weaving the yarn over and under that yarn you just sewed lengthwise, crosswise like weaving a basket.  For cloth, put a piece of material behind the hole if it's a large one, and then weave it the same as for knits. catching some of the backing fabric as you weave and tucking in the little frayed edges as you weave the thread. Here's the end results:

The Shroud of Turin it aint!  But I think darning gives the old jacket a nice homey look.  Just as a scar gives a face some character.  Darning and patching are nice ways to extend the lives of clothes, perhaps you wouldn't want to do it to your Sunday-goes-to-meeting outfit, but for work, play and bed clothes, it does the job.  Or perhaps just a simple patch would suffice?


THRIFTY THINGS WE DID THIS WEEK

Harvested grapes, peaches, blackberries and peppers.

Foraged wild grapes.

Made them into jelly.

Stopped at the grocery outlet and bought 2 pounds of Hersheys cocoa for $1/lb.  Also bought a pound of loose tea for 45 cents/lb.  Gotta love those scratch and dent grocers!

Bought a gallon of paint for the kitchen at a garage sale for $1.

Bought a years supply of canning lids at the bulk food store. They're around  7 cents a lid as opposed to the 12 or 13 cents a lid if you buy those packages of 12.

A neighbor gave us enough soup for 2 days as a thank you for all the produce we've been giving her this year.

Canned  mostarda di frutta made from our own apples, peaches and pears.

Darned Ran's jacket and a pair of shorts.

Ran made up a batch of grape wine.

Bought a dozen canning jars at a garage sale for $3.  I ran out! There were some very interesting ones.  Only a canner can understand the excitement of discovering a new style of canning jars. Ha!

I finally found a  black top that is both modest and pretty at the thrift store and a basic brown cardigan.  Two things that have been on my shopping list for over a year.  One was Banana Republic and the other was Lands End brand.  Total of $6 for both.

Knitting a pair of tweed wrist warmers from my tweed stash and a free pattern found on line.

Well, that's another week at the old Zempel boarding house!  I hope all of you are safe and enjoying your holiday weekend!

Hugs
Jane