Winter is a Joyous Season

 Hello dear friends!  I hope this post finds you all fit as a fiddle and right as rain!  I'm sitting by the fire today and just enjoying having some leisurely time before Spring returns and all the busyness that it entails comes once again.  We had a bit of snow recently and it was so welcome as the whiteness brightened the house after so many days of grayness.  I've lived in eight decades so far, yet the thrill of snowfall has never left me.  Well, to be truthful, I don't remember much of the 1950s or how I felt about them, except for some home movies of my father pulling me on a sled. But I wasn't crying, so I must have enjoyed it. Ha! I never understood why people hate winter so much, but then I grew up much further north than where I live now and winter was part of our lives for a good seven months of the year, so I guess it was just part of my DNA. Winter is the time of year when I can work on creative endeavors and spend time pipe dreaming.  Do you ever pipe dream?  My big lifetime fantasy has always been to live in a 200-year-old log cabin off-grid in the middle of a forest.  Unfortunately, I have never been able to live anywhere I could make such a dream come true as my husband's career always led us to areas where such things didn't exist and if they did, we never had the funds to make it happen, but I always managed to make home as close to that as possible. And it's probably just as well.  I was poking around on Zillow the other day, just to see what sort of land I could afford and all the plots of land in middle of forests had shots from trail cams of the wildlife in the area.  I don't think I want to live where bobcats are just outside my door!  And seeing how much damage a few deer can do to a garden, I can only imagine how much more an elk or moose would do!  I guess village life is the right fit for me, even if I detest the small-town politicking that goes on.  But I still continue to imagine myself into that cabin, even if it is just a pipe dream.  Jesus says that the Father has prepared a place in Heaven for us that is many mansions, but I hope He allows me just one little humble cabin in the woods.  Minus the bobcats!

Anway, if you stuck with me through that rambling nonsense, I did manage to do some productive things this month.  Someone once asked me where I store my canning equipment and I replied I don't.  It is ever-present.  This past week I got around to canning all my remaining winter squashes.

Had been putting that chore off as long as I could.  Squashes certainly are hard on the hands.  BTW, I've mentioned this before, but these Butterscotch squashes (seeds are available from Pinetree Gardens) will make a squash lover out of anyone.  They are remarkable sweet, better than any pumpkin.  Every time I roast one up, I'm astounded by their flavor!

I also baked some date nut bread.  For some reason, in my mind dates and winter are intertwined.  Probably because the only time we ate any was at Christmas when my mother baked the best date pinwheel cookies ever. Anway, these little quick breads are a nice change from our usual oatmeal for breakfast, especially if you spread them with a dab of cream cheese. Rather than bake one big loaf, I bake two small loaves and freeze one. When I bake pies, I try to bake a few small tarts from the scraps of pie crust and filling and freeze them also.  Then when we have a nice assortment of such things squirreled away, we bring them out and have ourselves a proper Victorian tea. It is one of the ways we bring a bit of gentility to our humble little life.

Speaking of gentility, I have never understood the idea that some things are "too good" for us mere common folks.  The other day my friend brought over a can of beer to drink while she chatted with us, (she's a hoot!) and I asked her if she would like a glass.  "Oh no" she said, "that's too good for me."  What a glass is too good for you?  Well, Ran got out one of his pilsners for her anyhow, and she was tickled to be treated so royally. Ha!  The glass cost an entire quarter from the thrift store!  Another neighbor stopped by as we were sitting down to lunch, we asked her to join us, as she asked, "do you live like this always?".  We were confused about what she was talking about, then she explained, "you know, with tablecloths and napkins and china and silverware." Just because you are poor doesn't mean you have to live poorly. Real plates cost probably less than a package of paper plates when you buy them from a thrift store.  And they are reusable too! Ditto for cloth napkins.  And you even make them from fabric scraps from the old scrapbag.  How many things do you have sitting in cupboards and closets that you are saving for special occasions?  Get them out and use them!  Life goes by so quickly; every day is a special occasion!  Live life richly, you are worth it!

Speaking of scrapbags, this month I'm treating myself to some fun little projects after December's "slogfest" of finishing up big and boring projects.

A small, quilted piece that's pattern came from a thrift store.  Just to prove to you all, that I can make something other than a four-patch quilt. Ha! Here's a closer look:

The pattern came as a kit from a quilt shop and had a price tag of $25!  I paid a dollar for it at the thrift store, and I still had to rob Peter to pay Paul, to finish it.  I would have been really disappointed if I had paid that much for the kit.  Anyway, it brings a bit of brightness to the winter decor without screaming Christmas.  The house always looks a bit empty after the holidays.

Here's a closer look at my crazy quilt slippers.

I might have the world record for postponing a project.  When I looked at the envelope for the pattern it was postmarked 1990!  I always get around to my projects even if it takes me over thirty years!  It was a fun project once I got around to sewing them.  Wonder why I put them off so long? And it used up lots of those itty-bitty scraps of the Civil War repro fabrics I couldn't bear to toss and lots of scraps of vintage lace.  That little woolwork project came from a pattern I tore out of magazine from the 90s also.  I changed the colors to make it look it more prim.  The original pattern was done in pinks and purples. Blech!  

And rather than buy Ran a Valentine, I made him this sampler:

I had all the floss on hand, and I just used a scrap of linen that came from the thrift store (of course). It reads, "Come sit down...Just me & You".  One of the ways we live richly is just to sit down together with a cup of coffee in a pretty teacup and talk.  You'd be surprised at how much two people that have just been sitting and talking for half a century have to discuss. Well, this blog and the comments you make is my way of sitting down, just me and you, and talking. I enjoy our little "banter" and perhaps someday we will all meet in my little cabin in the woods and we can sit down and have a real conversation.  Until then, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.  I always respond.  Hope you have a lovely and "rich" week!

Hugs

Jane

Thrifty Thursday

Hello dear friends!   I thought I better hurry up and get a Thrifty Thursday post out before I run out of Thursdays for the month! 

First a picture of the sun shining through the kitchen window, because it has been so long since the sun has shone, I want to remind myself, that it does.  It has certainly been a mild, albeit drab winter so far. 

I've been doing a lot of canning this week.  There's been some really great buys on meat.  I bought hamburger for $2.99 a pound and bacon for $2.50 a pound!  Are prices going back down or is this the calm before the storm?  Are the prices on meat going down because the farmers are culling their herds because they cannot afford to feed them?   Or because there's less demand as fewer people can afford to buy it? Or is it because things aren't as dire as many have predicted?  I have stopped trying to reason why things are the way they are, and just take advantage of the windfall. Whenever you find a bargain, be ready to take advantage of it!  Another thing I bought this week was shortening.  We use a lot of shortening for baking bread and because if I'm going to bake something, it is usually a pie, not to mention we love our pot pies and I bake a lot of biscuits and scones instead of buying store-bought bread (which is getting scary expensive). Anyhow, for the past couple of months the six-pound cannisters were priced at $24!  And that was if I could find them.  That was quite an increase from the $13 I was used to paying.  That's just crazy! Shortening was almost expensive as butter (which is another astounding price).  Then the other day, I was in my Mennonite store and they had it priced at sixteen dollars.  So, I grabbed a couple of cans up, straight away. So, most of my grocery budget went to meat, which I canned, and shortening this month. 

Oh!  A funny thing about shortening.  I been seeing a lot of YouTube videos about making cake-release for greasing your pans.  Basically, it is shortening and flour.  Oh, you mean like greasing and flouring your pans?  What a novel idea! Then it occurred to me that most of the people born after 1980 have never actually greased and floured their pans, since those cooking sprays have been around that long.  I remember when they came out, I thought they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. Ha!  You see, when I was a little girl and I asked to help with the baking, the chore that was eagerly offered to me was to grease and flour the pans.  The job that no one wanted.  That and chop the nuts in one of those spring-loaded contraptions, that never got the nuts all chopped in the same size. So much chopping and jar shaking!  It is a wonder I ever learned to like baking with those two things as my introduction to baking.  

Just as vital as carefully shopping is to use all your resources.  During the winter when our woodstove is burning all day long, we keep a tea kettle atop it and always have instant hot water for tea or cocoa.

I've also become quite adept at cooking atop the stove and even bake things like biscuits and scones. Just place the pans on top, when the bottom is baked, carefully turn them over and bake the tops.  This week I've baked beans, made a stew and some soups.  No electricity or gas needed.  At the moment there's a fruit compote bubbling away. We had some apples and oranges that were becoming wizened in the root cellar, so rather than throw them out, use them up.  I also had some cranberries left over from baking Andrea's orange-cranberry bread (which was delicious, BTW) and some dried fruits also. Here's the recipe, but it's very flexible and you can use whatever fruits you have on hand.

Warm Winter Fruit Compote

1/4 C. butter or margarine

1/2 C. confectioners' sugar

1 tsp. cornstarch

1/2 C. orange juice

2 tsp. grated orange rind

1 C. pineapple chunks, drained

1 C. mandarin oranges, drained

1 C. peach slices, drained

1 C. apples, peeled and chopped

In a large saucepan, combine butter, sugar, orange juice, cornstarch and rind.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened.  Stir in the fruit. Simmer until warm. Serve warm with a dollop of cream atop.  

Or you can use it for a topping for your oatmeal.  Use whatever fruits you have at hand and think would make a tasty combination.  Since I was using my home-canned fruits which I can in syrup, I omit the sugar. If you think it would be too sweet, use less sugar.  If you like really sweet things add an additional 1/4 cup of sugar.  

Oh!  While speaking of oranges, kind of, here's a thrifty tip from my friend Matty.  She slices and dries her old oranges and uses them in her tea. Drying fruit is another way to use your fireplace.  Just slice them thinly, string them up and hang on the fireplace fender.

I get teased a lot about my constant rearranging of my furniture.  I even make rooms into entirely different rooms.  Sometimes our dining room becomes our sitting room, and the living room becomes our dining room to suit our needs.   You might not think of this as a money-saving thing, but the reason I do it because it keeps me from becoming bored with my surroundings.  It's a lot cheaper to stay home and rearrange the furniture than it is to go out and spend money.  I rarely have the urge to go on expensive vacations just because I need a change of view. Ha!  This week I rearranged my kitchen cupboard:

Another good thing is by putting all my collections in one place, in this example it's my redware collection, I can see that I have enough.  No need to collect any more. That is, unless I find an amazing piece, say from the 1700s, for an unbelievable price.  I have purchased all   these pieces from garage sales and thrift stores.  When I do find a better piece, I gladly donate a lesser piece to the thrift store, so that someone else can have the thrill of finding something they wanted. And it keeps my collections from becoming too much.  We simply do not have the space in our tiny home for large collections.

Another thing I do to keep from climbing the walls during the winter is to have lots of projects going. This week I made a small quilted piece and knitted this tam;

We've been watching the Road to Avonlea series in the evenings, and I always admired those floppy big tams the children wear, so I knitted this one up from two skeins of thrifted wool and mohair yarn.  Total cost, one dollar.  

How to Knit a Victorian-Style Tam

With size 7 16-inch circular needles cast on 80 stitches.  Work K1, P1 ribbing for 10 rounds. 

Next round increase stitches by: * knitting three stitches, then knitting into the front and back of the next stitch, repeat from *until the end. 100 stitches.

Knit 32 rounds plain.

Crown: K 18, K 2 together. repeat to end. 

Knit next round.

K 17, K2 together. repeat to the end.

Knit next round.

Continue in this pattern, decreasing 1 stitch between the K2 togethers, until you have 10 stitches remaining, changing to double-point needles when the stitches can no longer be worked on circular needles. 

K 2 together, repeat to end.

Break off yarn and thread the remaining five needles through the needle.  Pull tight and tie off.

Block your tam over a dinner plate to give it that classic tam shape.

Thrift stores are an amazing source for crafting items.  When Ran and I make our big day out, we always stop at a few. Here's my thrift haul for this month:

Sorry about the lighting.  As I wrote earlier, it has been dark, dark, dark here lately.  I spent a total of just a little over $15 and here's what I got:

A woolen scarf made on Wales.

Over 1 yard of a pretty plum corduroy fabric, that it will be enough for a simple skirt.

2 skirts for summer.  Always be thinking ahead.

A Kim Diehl quilting book (sells for $24 in the quilt shop)

A gray t-shirt for Ran

2 stacks of vintage Workbasket magazines for ten-cents each.

Several cross stitch leaflets, including a nice one that is just alphabets for making up my own samplers.

A package of elastic. 10 cents.

An antique tracing wheel

2 earthenware plates

A purple wool blazer for using the wool for crafts

A little vintage device that guarantees making buttonholes "as easy as sewing on a button" (the instructions are twenty pages long, I think not)

2 pairs of silver earrings for 75cents each.  Must have more than 75-cents of silver in them.

A little woolwork pillow for Spring

And this pretty vintage wool tartan blanket made in Scotland:

Blackie loves it.

So that has been the past couple of weeks in thrift.  Always look for sales and ways to reuse and use less. Rejoice in the little things.  And find ways to creatively make your dreams come true.  It's not the things you have or don't have it's the ways you use and enjoy what you do have!

Hugs

Jane

The Keeper of the Home

 Hello dear friends!  The other day I had the opportunity to spend some time with a more worldly gentleman.  Since most of the people I associate with are humble, salt-of-the-earth types, it was interesting to see how the rest of the world see us. Indeed, to the world we keepers of the home seem like dull, uninteresting people.  So, I wanted to write what the lowly homemaker's life is like.

The keeper of the home:

Arises early and firstly thanks the Lord for seeing them through the night, then humbly asks for His guidance throughout the day, that His will shall be done, the Holy Spirit will speak through her and that she will be a good example of Christian love.

Dresses herself in a humble modest attire that enables her to do the tasks before her.

Keeps her home in a neat and tidy manner, so that her family can find serenity and refuge in it.

Prepare meals that are nourishing and wholesome.  And asks for God's blessing over the food and is thankful for it.

Works diligently and cheerful at the work before her but is never too busy to stop and comfort a child or ease the worries of her husband.

Is never too busy to put a pot of tea or coffee on and listen to a troubled friend or a lonely elderly neighbor.

Is kind and sincere to strangers. 

When she goes out, acts in a way that is a reflection of the Father's love for her.  Notices the troubled and tries to help.  Whether it's playing peek-a-boo with the crying toddler in the grocery store so that the harried mother can have a small break or noticing a troubled person and sending up a prayer for them.

Studies the Bible daily and spends time in prayer.

Works quietly at creative endeavors, because it is in the quiet times, she hears the voice of God.

If she works at charity, she does it for the glory of God and not for her own glorification.

And at the end of the day, repents of her sins and is thankful for her blessings.

So, you see dear friends, you may not have the most exciting life to those that seek the things of this world, but you are a very important chink in the foundation of God's kingdom. As the saying goes from one of my favorite movies, It's a Wonderful Life, "you never know how you have touched other's lives" just by some simple gesture.  So be proud to be a keeper of the home!

Hugs

Jane

Looking Forward and Glancing Past

 Hello dear friends!  Happy New Year!  I hope that all of you that had that horrible weather the past week are thawing out.  It was cold and windy here, but hey, that's winter.  For those of you that found the weather unusual, I hope that you can use this little episode as a lesson in preparedness. Was there anything you need to buy or do to survive cold weather?  Do you need to find a way to cope with anxiety or disappointment?  I read this funny saying the other day:

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.  Except bears.  Bears will kill you.

We celebrated a lovely Christmas here.  It started when I was struggling to put some green and red chair pads on the dining room chairs.  Then the thought popped into my mind.  Does anyone even care if I don't switch out the chair pads for Christmas?  So, into the donation box, they went. Then I got out my Christmas garland.  I always struggle to hang it, so much climbing up and down ladders and searching in the attic for the decorations, so right then and there, I decided that I would never again hang another strand of garland, into the donation box it went.  Soon I was down to just some greenery tucked in here and there and a few samplers and family keepsakes.  Just enough to look festive, but not enough to be a chore.  Then it came time to bake the Christmas cookies.  I always bake too many and heavens knows we do not need to have so many sweets about the place.  So, this year I baked just three varieties that are everyone's favorites and as soon as they were cool, packaged them up and sent them off to the children, grandchildren   and neighbors.  We only kept a small tin for ourselves.  Ran and I had decided earlier that we wouldn't buy each other Christmas gifts, there's just nothing that we really want that would warrant spending money upon and just to spend money for the sake of spending money is foreign to us. So, I had very little gift wrapping to do. In other words, I ridded myself of all the things that I find tiresome about Christmas (as I am the one that does most of these things) and only kept what we love.  

I spent one lovely Sunday listening to Handel's Messiah from start to finish.  Usually, I just skip to a few choruses.  While I listened, I worked on my woolwork project, which was one of my goals to finish before the end of the year.

It's from one of those Maggie Bonanomi books.  I have so many craft books, I'm trying to work all the projects from each book that I want to do, so I can then donate the books to the thrift store.  If you ever wonder what my home looks like, this pretty much sums it up, a combination of primitives and folk art.  Anway, whilst the pillow says "simplify" it was far from a simple project, as after I had worked all the buttonhole stitches around each of those "tongues", I thought they were too floppy, so I then had to sew backing onto each and every one.  Ended up being a very heavy mat, but I'm glad I made it, and even happier to have finished it.  It's a pretty good size and fits perfectly across the back of our antique buggy bench.  

Anway, back to the Messiah and Christmas.  I grew up in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church and they sing many parts of it in the Advent liturgy, so it was like revisiting an old friend. The church has modernized, but oh, the music was so beautiful back when I was a child.  I found this version on YouTube. You can use the closed caption and read the verses, and it even gives the corresponding Biblical text.  What a brilliant, inspired work!  If you are curious about Christianity, it's a wonderful place to start as it sums it up, beginning with the prophets of the Old Testament through Christ's walk on earth, His death and resurrection, through His second coming.  

We spent a lot of time reminiscing about loved ones that have passed, listening to old fashioned Christmas hymns and carols, none of the obnoxious Blue Christmas, Run Run Rudolph, or Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. And watching the classic Christmas movies, ending up with It's a Wonderful Life, which is our Christmas Eve tradition.

Christmas day, we read from the Gospel of St. Luke instead of what was scheduled on our Bible rotation (We, as a family, are reading through the Bible together each day.  It's very casual, we read until we get tongue-tied, and stop and discuss things and then go off and ponder them.). I can't remember what our meal was, just your ordinary meal.  Since we didn't have any sweets in the house, I made a bread pudding from stale panettone and some eggnog that had been purchased on sale at Aldis earlier in the month.  I baked it on the woodstove.  That afternoon Jamie and I worked a winter-themed jigsaw puzzle that he had given me for Christmas, and we called and chatted with kids and grandkids.  In other words, it was the perfect Christmas!

To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"Happiness consists in a little fire, a little food and an immense quiet."

Today is not only the last day of the year, but also my birthday.  To celebrate Ran baked me a cake.  He used my plain white cake recipe and add chopped maraschino cherries and nuts to the batter.  It has become a tradition.  So, it is a good time for me to reflect on the past year and plan for the future.  I spent an enjoyable afternoon, going through all my crafting supplies and planning projects.  I set one goal to tackle all my mending and sewing projects in January. But for the most part, I just plan to keep putting one foot in front of the other.  

Today also marks the forty-ninth anniversary of the day the doctors moved me from the intensive care unit to the room set aside for people that have no hope.  The minister was called, and I was given my final communion.  The family was gathered to say their final good-byes.  I know that many of you have a lot of anxiety about what the future holds.  Indeed, each day the news becomes more fearful and hopeless.  But dear friends, do not become hopeless!  As long as there is a breath inside you, there is hope.  Just as those doctors were wrong, no one is ever without hope.  Just take each day as it comes, and if you can't do that, take each hour as it comes.  I learned a lot of lessons about fidelity, love, and perseverance from that day forty-nine years ago.  At that time, I thought that it was a cruel joke of a fifteenth birthday present. But what I learned most is that there is always hope!  Have blessed New Year, dear friends!

Hugs

Jane

 

Thrifty Thursday

 Hello dear friends!  Hope you all are doing well!  Since the blog posts most of my readers are interested in are the strictly thrifty ones, I decided that from now on I would write a post once a month of what I am doing each month to save money.  We are a family of three adults, and we live on basically $1200 a month. (From a pension, we don't take Social Security, in spite of paying into it for over 40 years, so save your hate You-Know-Who) We have another fund that is set aside for emergencies, but that is rarely touched and is for real dire situations, like a windstorm blows off the roof, or an unexpected medical emergency. All other expenses come out of the regular $1200 a month fund, including property taxes, doctor office visits, car insurance (that's 1/10 of our monthly income), car repairs, etc. We don't have a mortgage, as we made sure to have that taken care of long before we retired.  Our house was a very cheap fixer-upper and we put a good-sized down payment on it when we bought it and had been on the market for around five years before we bought it.  So that is the first handy thrifty hint; many can now work from home since the whole lockdown thing, so perhaps you can find a home in cheaper area?  A lot of homes have gone way up in value, maybe you could sell your home and make enough from the profit to pay for a home entirely, in a less expensive area?  Not having a mortgage is not only a real money saver, it also is a nice piece of security.  

In spite of the food inflation, we still spend less than $200 a month on groceries.  We buy staples, such as flour, sugar and oatmeal, cornmeal and beans in bulk from an Amish store.  We avail ourselves of another Amish salvage grocery store, which is where we buy our coffee and whatever else we find an amazing deal upon. We use every scrap of our food.  Very little goes to waste.  For instance, when I fry bacon, I will drain the fat and use it to sauté onions, grease bread pans and even for the fat in some breads.  When I can turkey and chicken, I will boil them unseasoned, let the broth set overnight, skim off the fat, then I will take the broth and season it to use to can the meat.  I use the fat in baking and have in the past made soap from it.  (I still make soap, but now I use coconut oil, which is expensive, but still cheaper than the quality bars of soap in the supermarket,).  We only buy (and eat) what is on sale, except for a few staples, and even those we try to find a bargain on.  This month we bought 20 pounds of bone-in ham at 89 cents/ lb. (Meijer stores) and Aldi's had butter for $2.68/ lb., limit 4 per visit.  I bought four pounds and Jamie bought another four pounds, which we froze. Since I don't bake much anymore, that will suffice for a year, if we ration it.  We don't use butter on our bread, but use jam or jelly, which I make from berries in our own yard, it is strictly used in baking. While I was in Meijer's I noticed that they had canned goods for 33 cents a can.  I can my own vegetables that we grow in our garden, but if I didn't, you can be sure I would have used that sale to stock my pantry shelves! AND no, groceries are not cheaper in my area, these are all national grocery chains, and their prices are pretty much universal. What I DO, is take the time to read the weekly sales ads. It seems that every month there is some sort of special sale, this month it is ham, last month it was turkey.  I will figure out how much I need for a year and buy accordingly.  Are we going to eat twenty pounds of ham this month?  No.  I canned about twelve pounds of one ham, and when I was through, I had some nice ham broth with some chunks of meat in it. Wasn't going to waste that, so I used that broth to can an additional nine pints of soup beans.  Ended up with nine pints of ham and nine pints of beans, both will be the basis for some nice meals, such as scalloped potatoes, pea soup, bean soup, sandwich spread meat pies and hash.  And since each meal will be enough for two meals, that thirty-six meals for less than ten dollars.  And of course, the ham bone went in the freezer for soup.  More meals. And of course, most of the other ham will go into the freezer, for more meals, too.

We eat simply and we live simply.  We don't own a lot of things that people think are necessities.  We don't own any sort of fancy phones. We use MagicJack and have a Cricket phone for emergencies.  We don't have cable TV, we either watch something on YouTube or watch something on DVDs, which we buy at garage sales and thrift stores.  We don't travel.  We only go "out" to the thrift stores and grocery about twice a month. But when we do go out, we make it count and it's an all-day affair. We don't use credit cards and pay cash for everything.  We buy used cars and haven't had a loan in decades.  As soon as we buy one car, we start saving for the next, putting aside money each month, just as you would a car payment. I definitely don't get my nails done or even haircuts. We keep ourselves healthy by eating nice organic vegetables we grow in our garden, not eating too many sweets and fried and processed foods, drinking lots of purified water and by exercising every day.  I walk at least three miles every day even in the coldest of winter.  If the weather is really bad, I will jog on a rebounder for half an hour.  (Which I purchased at a garage sale.)

We have natural gas for our heating, but mainly use wood to heat our home. Our thermostat is set at 60 degrees and rarely switches on, except for the coldest days. Our wood is purchased locally from a man that cuts it to length, but we must split it to fit into our rather small woodstove.  The last truckload of firewood cost us $1200 but will last for three years. We augment the wood, with branches and limbs that we gather from the neighborhood.  We gathered enough this year to heat our home for the month of November. Speaking of gathering wood, rather than spending $40 on a Christmas wreath, we gathered enough pine boughs and white birch branches to decorate our window boxes and door while on our walks. They held a Christmas tree sale at the village green and left all the trimmings. And the wind blew quite a few branches into our yards.

The basket was a dollar from a garage sale.

I try to spend only $1 for each item of clothing, which I buy at a church thrift store and garage sales.  Obviously, there are some things I cannot find for so little, but you'd be surprised what you can find, if you are willing to look.  Some stores are better than others.  I like the Ralph Lauren and April Cornell brands and a vintage brand called Susan Bristol (the best woolen skirts).  I might not find something every time I shop, but that's okay, the fun is in the hunt.  Another local thrift store always seems to have tights, new in the package, for fifty cents.  As a matter of fact, I just bought a pair there, this week and they were on sale for 50% off!  What do people do?  Buy tights and then decide not to wear them?  Jamie had a brand of sneakers he loved.  When K-Mart went out of business, he bought five pairs for $5 each at their final clearance and put them away.  When a pair wears out, he simply goes into his closet and pulls out another pair.  We are not hard on our clothes.  I wear aprons and wash my sweaters by hand.  And I'm a stickler for natural fibers, which I think last longer.

My hobbies are sewing and knitting.  Whenever I find nice yarn or fabric at the thrift store, I buy it.  I love the Civil War fabrics that the quilt designers were coming out with a few years back, and it seems like we have some nice quilters in the area that donate generously to one of our local thrift stores, so I make lots of little scrap quilts.  Our local Ben Franklin's has an open house a couple times a year, and they also give you a discount for spending so much money.  When the sale comes around, I will use the discount to buy some of my yarn and also, they have nice things for Christmas presents.  I get 50% off. I use it to stock up on yarn, when I need larger quantities, for sweaters and shawls and such. I recently finished this shawl:

This is a sontag type shawl and the pattern is in the Fall 2021 Piecework magazine. Here's the back:

I don't know why that last picture turned out so weird.  I was trying to crop out the curtain all bunched up. Anyway, I spend less than $10 a month on my hobbies. There's a lot of lovely designers on the internet that offer free patterns.  Bless them!  Every once in a while, I try to buy something from them as a "thank you". In other words, hobbies don't have to be expensive.  And if you like to sew, get creative!  There's pretty tablecloths and sheets that can be used for fabric, instead of paying the high prices at fabric stores.  I've made the nicest skirts and petticoats from vintage linen tablecloths purchased for a few dollars at estate sales!  Right now, I'm looking for a red flannel sheet to make a petticoat.  Did I mention I dress strangely?  Probably not too many people wear petticoats these days.  When at home, I like to wear denim prairie skirts.  They are so comfortable. 

Speaking of knitting, here's some of the Advent mittens that I knitted a few years bag from this free pattern:

Well, this post is getting long!  I hope it was helpful to someone.  I know a lot of you already know these things, but as I am always getting new readers, sometimes things need to be repeated.  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment and ask me.  

Hugs

Jane

 

A Cozy Day

 Hello dear friends!  Happy first day of December!   I had every intention of writing another post in November, but life got in the way.  Last weekend we drove downstate to watch our grandchildren, Felix and Violet, in a community play.  I'm so thankful that they are growing up in a community that still treasures things like community playhouses and children participating.  They did a wonderful job!  And the next day our son, Erik, participated in a local craft fair.  Were there ever a lot of people there! And he made a lot of sales.  We are so proud of him; he's become quite the woodsmith. On the drive down everyone was so friendly wherever we stopped. I think it was the snow, it put everyone in a sort of "merry gentlemen" sort of mood.  On the return trip we meandered our way back home and stopped at some antique and thrift stores.  And at Tim Horton's for the last pumpkin donut of the year. It was a nice trip.

But today we are having one of those cozy days, I wish you all could experience.  It started with a spectacular sunrise; they have been particularly dazzling this winter.  There was just a skiff of snow on the ground, just to give the place atmosphere.   And oh!  How I wish you could smell our home right now!  Between the fire in the stove and the meatloaf in the oven, it is pure heaven!  Hamburger was on sale for $2.99/lb. this week, pretty unheard-of price of late, so we jumped at the chance to make one of our favorite meals.  The recipe is my variation of the meatloaf recipe from the Jimtown Cookbook:

Meatloaf

2 pounds of lean ground beef

1/2 lb. bacon

1 1/2 C. oatmeal

2 eggs

1 med. onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 C. sour cream

1/4 C. milk

1 tsp. thyme

2 Tbsp. dried parsley

2 Tbsp. dry mustard

salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp. maple syrup (I use my imitation maple syrup)

1 Tbsp. of a good mustard (not that cheap yellow mustard) I'm a mustard snob

Dice a couple of rashers of bacon (reserve the remaining bacon for the meatloaf top) and fry in frying pan.  Take the bacon from the grease and sauté the onions and garlic, drain. Combine with all the remaining ingredients except the syrup, mustard, and remaining bacon.  Put into a baking pan that fits the amount of mixture you have.  Top with the remaining bacon.  Stir together the maple syrup and mustard and pour over top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the center of the meatloaf reaches 165 degrees and is cooked through.  You all know when meatloaf is ready!  Drain the grease and serve. 

 Oh my! Tastes like the best Christmas sausage and even better the next day! We always serve ours with baked potatoes, since we are using the oven. No sense in wasting the heat!  And I always bake an extra potato to make my refrigerator potato rolls for sandwiches the next day.  I even use the grease from that was drained off the meatloaf for the fat in the roll recipe.  Waste not, want not!

Needlework

As this blog is in a way, my personal journal, please bear with me whilst I capture a few of the projects I worked on this month.  I started the Bright Be Thy Christmastide sampler last year but didn't finish it in time for Christmas, so I tucked it away with the decorations.  Nothing bores me more than working on holiday projects after the holidays have passed.  And the Holly Bears the Crown Sampler was just a little something that a whipped up whilst waiting to make the journey to the craft store to buy more yarn for a shawl I am knitting.  I'm trying to knit down my yarn stash, but I ran out of this yarn with a few more rows to go, so much for not adding to the stash!  Anway, I just used materials that I had at hand for the little sampler.  Most of my flosses and cross stitch fabric comes from the thrift stores and I dye them to come up with my own unique colors.  Some of those cross-stitch linens are outrageously expensive, and when it comes to these little samplers, whatever difference does it make, if it's not the exact same materials given on the charts? 

As I wrote, I dye my own linens as I like a primitve look to my works.  Here's how to make a dye for fabrics:

Onion dye

Gather as many onion skins as you are able whenever you are using an onion in cooking.  When you have around two cupfuls, put in a saucepan with enough water to cover.  Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer around ten minutes on a low heat.  Remove from the heat and allow the "tea" to steep overnight.  Strain.  Store in a jar in the refrigerator.  You can either reheat the "tea" and dip your fabric into it, allowing it to steep until it dyes to the color you desire, rinse and dry.  Or you can brush the dye onto the fabric and then dry it, without rinsing it.  Remember the fabric will look darker when wet then it will be when dry.  

BTW, one of the things I'm always on the lookout for during summer garage sale-ing and at thrift stores are interesting little frames to use in my needlework.

As I mentioned earlier, we stopped at some thrift stores on our return trip downstate and I was fortunate to find a stack of vintage The Workbasket magazines from the early 1950s for $1!  What a treasure.  While most of the patterns are pretty dated, it's a pretty sad statement about the condition of the world that today's children would not be thrilled to receive a bean bag or homemade doll dress in the Christmas stocking, but that has what the world has become, sadly.  Anway, what I do love about the magazines is that they have good old-fashioned, no-nonsense recipes.  I'm always on the lookout for recipes that use basic pantry supplies.  This year we had a windfall of apples, which I couldn't bear to waste.  We are not big fans of apple juice or sauce, but I canned a lot of applesauce, nonetheless.  I figured I can always use it for half, the fat while baking as I wrote about in a few posts back, or we can just learn to like it. Ha!  I also use some for  applesauce cake. It wasn't until recently that Jamie confessed, he doesn't like any types of spice cake. So, I guess I'll have to come up with other ways to use my canned applesauce.  So, I was thrilled to find this recipe:

Baking from the Pantry

Applesauce Icebox Cookies

3/4 C. shortening

1 C. sugar

1 egg, beaten

2 to 2 1/2 C. flour, or enough to make a stiff dough

dash of salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 C. applesauce

1/2 C. chopped nuts (optional)

Cream together shortening and sugar.  Add egg.  Stir in the dry ingredients, alternately with the applesauce, using enough flour to make a stiff dough.  Stir in the nuts.  Form the dough into a roll in waxed paper and refrigerate overnight. Slice thin (I slice mine about 1/3" thick) and bake on greased cookie sheets at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes or until edges begin to turn light brown.  The recipe says this makes 7 dozen cookies, but they must have been sliced paper thin.  I got about 3 dozen.

  The dough was softer than most icebox cookie doughs I have made, but they did turn out nicely. And surprise, surprise! Jamie loved them, even though to me, they tasted exactly like a spice cake only in cookie form. To fancy them up for the holidays, you could add a dab of icing to top.  Maybe caramel or maple flavored?  Or maybe add some chopped dates. Or just make them plain as they are. There's something about icebox cookies that have such a homey and nostalgic texture and flavor.  Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea in front of the fire on a cozy December day. The sort of day, I am wishing for all of you, dear friends!

Hugs

Jane

Thanksgiving Is When the Turkey Defrosts!

 Hello dear friends!  I hope this post finds you all well!  Well, after a very long Indian summer, we are really starting to experience the onset of winter.  Already had snow and this morning was a balmy 22 degrees (Fahrenheit).

I keep reading and seeing YouTube videos about the high cost of Thanksgiving this year.  What?  Thanksgiving dinner is one of the cheapest meals you can make for a crowd any time of the year.  A long time ago my husband was met with a rather harried worker that he managed, that wanted to talk to him in private.  What could it be?  Some harassment charge?  Was she quitting?  Had she made a major mistake on one of the formulas?   Nope.  What she wanted to know was how we managed to feed four teenage sons and still save money with two in college.  You'd never guess his response.  "Turkey is not just for Thanksgiving"!  Back then you could buy a turkey for around 37 cents a pound.  I think I made one almost every month.  Even this year, with inflation and everything else going on, I bought a nice store brand one for 55 cents a pound and even Walmart had the high-end Butterball and Honeysuckle Whites for 99 cents a pound.  The 55-cent turkey came from Meijer, a national chain of stores throughout the Midwest and there's Walmarts everywhere, so I don't want to hear it from those that whine that prices are sooooo much lower where I live.  And even our smaller grocery store had them for 50 cents a pound with a fifty-dollar purchase.  You have to be a little proactive and seek out bargains.  People are always skeptical when I say how little we spend on groceries, so here's a breakdown of this month's expenditures:

A 15# turkey for $7.86 (Meijers)

4 12 oz. pkgs fresh cranberries at $1.50 (Walmart)

A bunch of celery for 99 cents (Aldi)

A `14 oz pkg of golden raisins for $3.69 (Meijers)

A dozen free-range eggs that I bought at a church bake sale for $2

A half-gallon carton of Lactaid milk for under $3 at Aldi (for Blackie the cat)

That's our total grocery expenditure for this month.  I think it totals to something under thirty dollars.  I can hear the skeptics saying, "But that doesn't make meals for a month!"   It doesn't, but I don't need to buy enough to make 30 meals because I always stock up when prices are at their lowest.  For instance, at our local Amish scratch-and-dent store, we purchased Starbucks coffee beans in a five-pound vacuum sealed bags for $15.  That's $3 a pound!  We bought enough for year; I doubt we'll find it at a better price.  Last Thanksgiving, Meijers had butter for $1.79 a pound, so we bought 12 pounds (enough for a year) and froze it.  We live very simply and really only need to buy staples, which we buy in bulk at one of two stores, a Mennonite bulk food store or an Amish store.  We grow all our own vegetables, herbs and fruits (I really didn't need to buy that celery because I had some canned and dried from the garden, but it was just too tempting) and Ran is an avid fisherman that supplies us with most of the meat that eat, enough to have at least one meal a week of fish throughout the year. And truly that is all the meat we need, but whenever there's an amazing sale, I will buy meat and can it. Like those roast I wrote about in the last post. I'm considering buying another larger turkey and canning it at these prices.  I can the meat because we only have a small freezer that is filled with fish. Which is why we celebrate Thanksgiving when the turkey defrosts! No room in the freezer!

When our children grew up and moved away from home, I used to get depressed during the holidays since we were alone during the holidays. But gradually I learned to love celebrating the holidays whenever we choose to celebrate them.  After all, holidays are just another date on the calendar.  I don't need the government to declare s special day to be thankful.  Every day our little family of three bows our head and gives thanks. Christmas and Easter are focused on the meaning of the day, a day of quiet contemplation.  It is very serene and in concert with how we live our lives all the remaining days of the year.

BTW, I calculated how many meals we will get out of that $7.86 turkey.  Day1: Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, squash and brussel sprouts.  Day 2: leftovers.  Day 3: soup  (made from the carcass) with lots of homemade noodles and some of the turkey diced up with barbecue sauce on homemade rolls.  The remainder turkey was put into 5 quart-sized freezer containers for meals at a later date.  These meals will include turkey burritos, casserole and pot pie.  Each of these meals will make enough for two days.  So, what is that? Thirteen good meals for under $8?  And that doesn't include lots of snacks.  BTW, we only eat two meals a day, breakfast (usually oatmeal) and lunch.  Three meals are too much, and we don't like to eat late in the day.  If someone is hungry later in the day, they can always eat leftovers and we keep cheese and homemade crackers on hand. 

Later in the day on our Thanksgiving I made cranberry gingerbread from the leftover cranberry sauce.  Warm gingerbread with a cup of Russian tea by the fire is one of the coziest things in the world. Especially if you are wearing a pair of handknit socks.

These are a pattern that I just made up.  I've been trying to knit down my yarn stash.  Lately, been enjoying the creativity of making up my own designs.  Once you know the basics of knitting socks, mittens, hats and even sweaters, you really don't need all those knitting patterns and books.  Since most of my yarns come for thrift stores, garage and estate sales, most patterns that require specific yarns are impractical for my use. Some knitters may pooh-pooh using vintage yarns, but I've found most to be pure delights to work with, just look for skeins that say 100% wool. And being the oddball that I am, I really love making and using something no one else has.

So anyway, I suppose that I prattled on here long enough.  For all my American readers I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  And to everyone else, I wish you a very merry week!

Hugs

Jane