Secondhand Treasures - Company is Coming

Number One Husband and I recently went to a small thrift store that benefits seniors. It's a great little store with lots of treasures. While their prices have increased, it's nothing like Goodwill. I found these brand-new Sorel Caribou boots for $20 bucks. Retail on these boots is $225 dollars. I may not need to wear them for a while, but I am excited to have such a nice pair of winter boots. They will work great with my snowshoes. 

I have a pair of Sorel Manitou boots that I just love. My friend gave them to me when she moved to a warmer climate. I love them also. They are super warm. The Caribou boots are similar to the Manitou boots in some ways, but different at the same time. 

Number One Husband picked up a Made-in-America waffle iron. I promptly made Herman sourdough waffles. They were delicious. And I picked up a few books and DVDs. From free to $1 is all I had to pay. I think that they get a lot of media type stuff, and they don't have a lot of room, so they price it to move or give it away when they have too much.

Third time is a charm. On the last one, I got the batter ratio correct.
I ate my waffle plain. The sweetness of the whole grains and the
Herman sourdough starter was enough for me.

In other news, my girlfriend, the amazing BB, will be here in two days. We are doing a Fall leaf tour of the area. Hiking, hot springs and food is on our agenda. It's perfect timing. The peak is on the 20th. Another girlfriend may join us for a couple of our adventures. Number One Husband has graciously bowed out of all of our adventures. He and I have trip coming up soon.

Number One Husband is making a cheesecake, and I already made tamales and froze them for the occasion. Both of which are two of her favorite foods. (ours too) I will put together some travel foods also. I made a mild breakfast sausage for breakfast bagels. Spicy is not her thing. I need to get to work on the bagels and blueberry muffins. There are no restaurants on the trails. We are going to need some food with substance to power us up the cold mountains on our hikes.

It has definitely turned cooler, and snow appeared on the peaks a couple of nights ago.  Our yearly goal is to not turn the heat on until the first of November, but we had to turn it on to take the chill out of the air a month and a half early this year. It was 57 degrees inside the house this morning. 

The craziest thing has happened to me. I have lost my prescription sunglasses and glasses and my 1/2 cup measuring cup. Now I can understand that my glasses probably fell out of the car, but my measuring cup? What the hay? Did I toss it out in the trash? Is it inside a container somewhere that I haven't yet checked? I have spent hours looking for both to no avail.

I'd better get moving. 

Shalom,

Mrs. Smith

Big Jane the Rabbit...

Big Jane, our resident rabbit, comes home every morning around 8 am and leaves again around 6 pm.  This particular evening, she was being hunted by a large Osprey. Three of them have been watching her and surrounding her using our fence posts. 

Jane is smart. She stays close to the porch just in case they attack. About dusk every evening, the Osprey's leave for the night. I'm not sure where they roost for the night, but they come back every day. They will be migrating south soon. Three less birds of prey for Big Jane to worry about.  

Can you see the Osprey on the fence post?

Big Jane will also morph into a snow-white bunny for the winter months. Right now, she blends in perfectly with her surroundings. Number One Husband and I play a game most days trying to see who can find Big Jane first and then give clues to the other one to see if they can locate her. 

She doesn't seem to fear us whatsoever. We talk to her as we walk by. She just continues to eat or pretends like we can't see her. When she was little, she lived in the chicken coop and ate with the chickens. It was sweet. 

We enjoy the beautiful wildlife and creations that God has blessed us with. He is so creative. He has thought of every detail with great love and care. Thank You Father and Creator of all...

Blessings,

Mrs. Smith

Winter Preps - Stocking Up the Freezer

We are now well into September and it's time to prepare for winter. All the forecasts are pointing towards a harsh winter. Number One Husband has ordered the propane, put up the lawn chairs and anything else that could cause drifts. There is more for him to do like change the oil in the gen and replace batteries in the cars. 

I have been washing blankets, organizing closets and making lists to make sure we have everything in place in case we have a rough winter. Winter and summer clothing still needs to be switched out, but we are still in the in-between days. We have graduated from wearing short sleeves and sandals to fleeces and socks and shoes. It's cool in the mornings and warm in the afternoons. 

This weekend we will drop into the low 30's. The house is already cold in the mornings when we wake up. The temp most mornings is 58* inside. I've already added a blanket to our bed and an extra wool cover on Number One Husband's side. 

I took down the hummingbird feeder, cleaned it and stored it away.

Food, water and shelter are important to the human body. We take winter seriously around here. It's not just our home that needs to be readied but our vehicles need attention also. I need to put together our emergency winter car kits. Here are my previous posts about winter preps. Winter 

We had to make an extra trip into town due to pharmacy losing my refill in a computer glitch. Apparently, I was not the only one. This took five days and a couple hours on hold and a new prescription from my doctor and in the meantime, all of the pharmacists quit. 

It wasn't all bad. We were able to top off our gas tanks and gas cans and find a great deal on split chicken breasts and boneless skinless chicken breasts. So good in fact that we made a second trip to top off our freezer after I processed the first batch and discover that I could fit even more chicken in the freezer. We could not pass it up. We didn't get home until midnight. I finished processing the rest of the meat the next morning.  

First load.

Managers Special: Split chicken breasts

Both cuts of chicken breast added together made the cost .50 cents a pound.

2nd load of chicken, plus we topped off our tanks. Gas was $3.19 a gallon. Ridiculous! We also took
advantage of the other sales on cheese and frozen vegetables.

.99 cents a pound is a great bargain, right? When we used our member's card
we got every pack of split breasts for .99 cents a pack. The boneless
skinless breasts were on sale for $2.27 a pound. 

I re-packaged 23 packages of chicken
 for a total of 101 lbs. of chicken.

Number One Husband, aka Gill Master, grilled us some chicken,
potatoes and Vidalia onions. 

I made homemade baked beans and sauteed spinach to
round out our meal.

The cheese that we picked up was $2 off every package. Yea! Another score... We literally cannot squeeze one more thing into our freezer. Our chest freezer is small, but after carefully packing our booty into the small space I was able to fit everything in without one inch to spare.  

Something that absolutely blew my mind at the store was the fact that Blue Bell ice cream is now $10 a carton. It was on sale for $7.99, but that was just getting us ready for the $10 price tag. $10.29 to be exact. 

Our freezer is now full. Over the next two months we will work on topping off the pantry with a few extra canned goods in case we are unable to get to the grocery store for fresh produce. We prefer fresh, then frozen and lastly canned. 

Bonus Pics

We had a downpour of rain and sleet this afternoon. When it was over, the brightest double rainbow formed. It was strange because even though they were side by side the colors were reversed. I love how the rainbow illuminated the mountains. 

Here is the other side of the rainbow.

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs. Smith

Sweet Sourdough Bread

Years ago, I used to make a bread using a starter given to me by my wonderful mother-in-law. It is a fermented bread like sour dough only it is fed with sugar and instant potato flakes. This bread is also more forgiving that sour dough. 

 

I recently ran across my recipe to make my own starter. It was a success. As the starter ages, it will develop a stronger fermented flavor just like the one I used to use. Unlike sour dough bread, this bread is sweet. 

I just fed the starter. It reacts quickly and bubbles away.

Now it's ready to make bread.

1 cup of starter is all it takes.

And the dough goes wild.

Once formed into loaves, it bolts again.

Even in the oven, this dough continues to grow.

It's amazing what one cup of starter can do.

To make the starter:

1 Pk instant yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

3 Tablespoons instant mashed potatoes

3 Tablespoons white sugar

1 Cup warm water

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients in a glass bowel or jar. Add warm water. Mix until dissolved. Cover loosely with a cloth and rubber band or an unsealed lid. (It will explode if sealed) Let sit on the counter for 5 days. Stir mixture every day. 

On day five, feed the starter: (Feed the starter every 5 days)

3 Tbs instant mashed potatoes

3 Tbs white sugar

1 Cup warm water

Let sit loosely covered on counter for 6 to 8 hours. I do this step in the morning. After that time, stir the starter and remove once cup of the starter to make bread with and store the rest of the starter in the refrigerator. In the evening, I make the dough and let it rise overnight.

To make the dough:

1 C active sourdough starter

1 1/2 C lukewarm water

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/2 C white sugar

1 1/2 Tsp sea salt or kosher salt

6 C all-purpose flour or bread flour

In a large glass bowl, add warm water, starter and oil. Mix well. Add sugar and salt. Mix well. Add flour 1 cup at a time mixing well after each cup. This can be done in a stand mixer. Once all of the flour is incorporated, pour dough out onto a floured surface and knead until a smooth dough ball forms. The dough will be slightly sticky. Place the dough into a lightly oiled glass bowl. Lightly oil the top. Cover and let rise 4 to 8 hours. I let my dough rise overnight. 

Punch dough down and knead for 3 minutes, Divide dough into 2 parts. Form dough into loaves and place in oiled bread pans. Oil the tops and cover. Let rise until doubled in size. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350* for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Remove from pans and let cool on a rack completely before slicing.

 

Notes:

Do not use metal utensils or bowels.  Just like in all fermenting processes all bowls and utensils must be meticulously clean. 

I use a quart size wide mouth canning jar to make and store the starter in. Canning jars are easily sterilized and are an easy option to store and mix the ingredients in. 

Let the dough work overnight while you sleep. No late-night baking stealing from my precious sleep.

It's not just for bread! Starter can be used in pancakes, muffins, rolls, cinnamon rolls or discarded after the feeding process. 

Plan ahead! It's worth it...

Enjoy,

Mrs. Smith

 

Festive Ground Turkey - Product Review

I have been watching Southern Frugal Mama on YouTube make frugal recipes for her family using this inexpensive ground turkey called Festive for a while now. It costs $1.98 a pound and comes in three flavors. Now that ground chuck is over $5 a pound at Sam's Club, I thought I would give it a try and share my findings.

This is the plain ground turkey.

The Italian cooks up a lot different. It has lots of liquid and a 
slightly different color. It smells nice.

Taco flavor was the third choice, but I decided to use my
own spices and I am glad that I did.

That's a lot of excess liquid in the Italian flavor.

I drained the Italian and made taco meat from the plain.

I put together a "Taco Party" that was inspired from a
restaurant called Jose's.  

I used freshly made corn tortillas.

I made a pot of spaghetti sauce with most of the Italian meat. I forgot to 
take pictures of the spaghetti. 

I made Italian sausage pizza from the rest. 

As I suspected, it was a better choice to use my own seasonings rather than using the pre-made stuff. I did not like how the Italian flavor cooked up with all the excess liquid. With that being said, I was not unhappy with the flavor. In fact, it had a nice flavor. 

The plain turkey was definitely the winner in this product review. I will buy it again and since I have my own spices, I will create my own seasoned meat just like I do with ground chuck. If I did not already have my own spices, I would be happy to use the already seasoned varieties. 

So, if you are looking to save a lot on meat this is definitely the way to go...

Shalom,

Mrs. Smith

Outside My Window...

 God's Big Screen had a great show playing one evening...

Do you see the man in the clouds? 

I have been on a digital sabbatical of sorts for the last few weeks. I have limited myself to 1 hour a day on my computer, however, I have enjoyed the sabbatical so much that I have only been on it for 10 to 15 minutes a day to take care of any business that needed to be delt with and check the news. 

I started taking pictures for upcoming blog posts yesterday. I have a new bread recipe to share that uses a starter that is not sour dough. I also decided to be a guinea pig of sorts by trying out less expensive alternatives to hamburger meat.  

Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs. Smith