The Dish: February Groceries Part 3

After factoring out the Costco diapers and furniture that left me with $21.37 to spend on groceries for the rest of the month. Could I do it? Probably not, but I would certainly try. The day before the big blizzard I went to The Country Store to pick up some necessities which set me back $21.73...ouch! I bought two dozen free-range eggs, 2 lbs. buckwheat flour, natural hot dogs (these were really interesting), pine nuts, 3 lbs. garbanzo beans, brown sugar and 4 lbs of sweet potatoes for .49/lb.! I went a bit crazy buying a bunch of things that we didn't really need.

On Saturday I bought 3 lbs. of crab legs from a local fishmonger for our traditional Valentines Day crab fest: $18.93 I have always wanted to say I went to a fishmonger. I don't know if I will go back there again because the owner was really rude to her employees showing a complete disregard of them or the customers, and that is very uncool in my book. Maybe she was having a bad day though, and as I learned from the Veggie Tales movie that I saw recently, "Everyone deserves a second chance."

Already I was over the budget by $19.29 and there were still two weeks left in the shortest/longest month of the year.

My last trip to the grocery store set me back only $69.29 and that was only food. Oh yes, and we needed dessert for one of our dinner parties, ice cream floats with 7 different kinds of "root" beers to choose from, and that total came to $16.27. Our grand total spending on groceries for the month: $304.85 which is $84.85 over budget. I think I need to do a little tinkering.

A Little Dose of Ravenna: The Aunt Jemima

When I don't feel like spending time battling with my willful hair I just cover it up with a scarf or bandanna. Andrew, however, is not a fan of the look and started calling my hair covering, "The Aunt Jemima." Undeterred, I almost daily wear my "Aunt Jemima" head-dress and apparently Ravenna took notice:

Check my baby girl out! She totally did this one herself with a bandanna I had forgotten to untie. How awesome is this?! Notice the mittens? Her fashion sense is really taking off!

Love: S.S. and Green Tongues

Today I got a lovely package in the mail from my secret sister, Stacy! I have never met Stacy but we both belong to the Natural LDS Living Forum where we do secret sister's quarterly. My package included homemade apple butter, chocolate toffee peanuts, Burt's bees soap and chap stick, cozy socks, and a scented soy candle. Love it!

I really needed this after I opened my electric bill that was over $100! This really breaks my heart because I have been trying so hard to keep our usage down. I wonder if PA has the highest electricity prices in the nation? Nope, that is Hawaii. While I don't feel as bad knowing that, we moved from the state with the LOWEST utility prices so the shock is having a hard time wearing off.

More love: green tongue twins! Like father, like daughter. Ravenna received a FunDip valentine at the party that we went to this morning and she decided to share with her daddy. Can you guess what flavor it was?

A Little Dose of Ravenna: Snow

These pictures were taken after the first big snow storm and before the blizzard that dumped another two feet on top of the 20 something inches we got the first time.

Ravenna is not sure how she feels about the snow,
especially when it is so deep.

One thing she does love about the snow is dressing up in snow gear.
She also loves her Grandma Whitlock.

Broth vs. Stock

Look at that broth!
This is from the bones of a whole chicken and a turkey breast.

Do you know the difference? The terms are used pretty much interchangeably, but there is a difference. Stock is made by boiling meat, vegetables and/or herbs and broth is made by boiling only the bones, usually slowly at low temperatures. Nutritionally, broth is the way to go because by boiling only the bones you can access the marrow, which according to the Weston A. Price Foundation:

...contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons--stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.

I learned how to make my own bone broths from my friend, MommyBee who has a great tutorial on how to do this. The only thing that I might add from my own research is that if you want to cook chicken bones for more than 2 hours you need to do it at a super low temperature, as in a slow cooker. It is also important to skim off the fat to get rid of impurities and toxins.

Making a stock is pretty similar to making a broth, but you don't simmer it for as long; usually less than two hours. It is really easy to make a vegetable stock, and just as you save the bones from meat, you can save your vegetable scraps/peels and even less-than-fresh produce for a great stock. The best veggies to use for your stock are:

...onions, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, celery, mushrooms, peas, corn (empty corn cobs can also add lots of flavor to veg. stock), parsley, green beans, beets, bell peppers, scallions, green onions, shallots, fresh basil or other herbs, etc., etc.

I will usually just save my scraps in a plastic bag in the freezer and when I get a bag full, I cover them with water, throw in some whole spices (like a bay leaf), cover and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. Then strain and you have a lovely stock to use in any recipe calling for it or broth. Easy! Be careful to use any scraps from the cabbage family, such as broccoli, very sparingly because they have an intense flavor. Apparently you can also can stock/broth if you have a pressure cooker.

P.J. Pant Pajamarama

As part of my resolution to sew something for me I am making pajama pants from Amy Butler's In Stitches. Things are going well so far, but I have met with some annoying things in the book that I don't like, mostly having to do with her terminology and when she says to do something and doesn't explain why. I guess I don't NEED to know, but I want to, because I am learning. Here is one for my seamstress friends: Why is it necessary to press a seam allowance a certain direction?

The book itself is gorgeous and I do really appreciate the handy drawings. So far in this adventure I have learned a number of things that I would like to share with you, so be attentive:

1. When going to JoAnn Fabrics with a 50% off coupon, be sure to double check that a fabric isn't already on "sale" before getting it cut. JoAnn's is pretty tricky about listing which fabrics are only a measly 10-20% off. I think they do this on purpose.
   
2. Don't make that same mistake twice in one trip because you brought your spouse along with another coupon and both of you were equally clueless.
   
3. Cellophane tape isn't a special fabric tape; it is regular, clear tape of the gift-wrapping sort. Thanks, Amy Butler for being so clear on that one. Real beginners like myself, have absolutely NO clue, apparently neither did the experienced seamstress helping me at JoAnn's.
4. The basement floor is not conducive to laying out, cutting and pining fabric. Also, not conducive to happy sewing is having to repeatedly walk up and down two flights of stairs to sew (in the basement) and press/pin/cut in my bedroom. I need to figure out a solution to this one.
5. I am much happier sewing when I am listening to music (particularly to The Swell Season). One of my college art teachers told me to always paint while listening to music in order to turn off the logical side of my brain. I didn't think the same thing applied to sewing, but apparently in my case it does.

Tomorrow I move on to the dreaded BUTTON HOLES! Doesn't that just make you shiver in anticipation? For me, it is mainly anticipation of failure, but as this is a necessary step in learning how to use my machine, I will forge on!

Oh, and when this project is over and done with, I am moving onto super simple and easy draft dodgers for my front door and a felt birthday crown for Ravenna, which will look something like this but probably cuter (one can always hope).

FAIL, FAIL, FAIL

COSTCO! I shake my fist at your wide aisles and free samples! You blind me with your $1.50 Kosher hot dog and soda; you break my resolve with your decently priced "green" and organic items. Gah!

Needless to say I blew it at Costco to the tune of $176.06. Before you think I am bonkers, let's deconstruct the experience, shall we? First we saw a folding chair on sale and since one of ours broke last week, into the cart it went: $12.99. Oh, and we REALLY needed storage shelves and I wasn't able to find any used ones for a decent price: two metal storage shelves $53.98. Then the actual stuff on my list: organic tortilla chips, 4.59; milk, 3.59; butter, 6.99; bread, 3.99; totaling to $19.16 which would have put us right at our budget, but NOOOOOO I had COUPONS! Into the cart went Glide Floss, 9.99; and Oxiclean 13.49. Then add two more impulse buys: ECOS Laundry detergent, $12.59 and poptarts for work, $8.79. I almost forgot the diapers, $39.59. We only buy diapers every four to five months, so this isn't really factored into the budget. Add all that together and 6% tax on the non-food items and we have $176.06.

Even if we remove the diapers, shelves and the chair, we went way over budget on everything else. Sigh. We will use all of these things, no problem, so it is not like I bought things just because they were on sale and they will never see the light of day. I won't have to buy floss or oxiclean for a year and our basement and garage looks much nicer thanks to the shelves. Wow, I feel like such a loser though. I was totally taken in by the Costco siren AGAIN.