TOTALLY DOING AGAIN!

 Hello my friends!  I hope you had a great Christmas and new year!   Ours was definitely non traditional and less than stellar with DH having the flu, but we're still very grateful for all our blessings.  

I'm finally back to doing stuff and it feels good.  I've dabbled in the garden, but haven't done anything like I normally do.  

Today was the first time I felt home steady!  I worked in the garden cleaning up beds the really should have been cleaned up in the fall.  Don't Judge!  

I also started some seeds for my plant sale in April.  I'll have the date and time soon, but just know it will be a Saturday April.  I started Sage, Cilantro, Parsley, German Thyme, and Spinach.  I also potted Strawberry plants!  It felt great!

All those things were wonderful, but the big deal; the great find, was what I did to a whole Turkey purchased around Thanksgiving.  I got the turkey for .47 lb.  I like roasted turkey when it's first out of the oven, but after that it's so so.  I also like using turkey in chicken recipes, but we mainly use ground turkey when it comes to our main use of the bird.  The cheapest 85/15 ground turkey I've found is at Aldi for about $2 lb.  So my process today was to grind what turkey meat I could with y meat grinder, then cook the rest, debone, and use the bones for broth.  I got 4 pounds of ground turkey.  I've yet to see how much cooked meat I'll have, but I should end up with 8 quarts of bone broth.  The cost for my Turkey was $6.58.  The 4 lbs of ground turkey alone made this a great return on my money.  That's $1.65 per pound verses the $2 lb I normally spend.  The rest of this bird could be considered free!  Adding the other cooked meat and broth and you're talking serious money.  I have another turkey to do this too as well.  So this is going to be something foremost in my mind next Thanksgiving.  That is significant savings!  

Now I know not everyone has a meat grinder.  Mine is an attachment to my kitchen Aid mixer.  It's more than paid for itself, but it isn't a huge expense.  If you don't have or want a meat grinder, no worries!  Just cooking a whole turkey and using the meat and bone broth is also a significant savings.  So I highly recommend this to all!

Oh!  Update on the microwave.  I just got a call from our handyman/friend, and he will be here tomorrow to install a set of cabinets and a range hood!  Yay!

Okay.  I can't let you go without another cat pic!

I can't live without it ! Can I?

 Merry Christmas and Happy New year everyone!  DH and I are finally emerging from the joy that was Flu "A".  I had "something" during the course of caring for DH, but I've been told it probably wasn't the flu.  More than likely what I had was an immune response to the flu being around me at the level it was.  When DH had been sick about 5 days, I began to have a cough.  It wasn't too bad until a week after his onset of symptoms.  Mostly I've dealt with the cough, some sneezing, and a very low fever for one day.  Now he and I both are dealing with the cough, but other than that; are on the mend.  Our Christmas was a small affair.  DH was sick on his birthday, but doing some better by Christmas.  Illness kept us from being able to visit my mom for Christmas as well as being able to see our daughter and her family over the holidays.  We've rescheduled both.  Just as the Grinch learned; Christmas still came.  Jesus was still born in a stable!  Doesn't matter if we celebrate on the 25th or in January.  It's something we celebrate 365 days a year!

  

So as we we're starting to emerge from the flu fun; we anticipated a gift we bought ourselves:  a new over the range microwave.  We purchased it about 3 weeks ago.  It was supposed to be installed yesterday.  We opted to pay to have it installed because I couldn't find a way to remove the old one.  In case you're wondering if we needed a new microwave, well....

So...yeah.  What you can't see it the door is also cracked completely in two places.  The inner working still worked, but I felt like I was getting brain cancer every time I used it.  We had this on our list, but since we cash flow everything, it wasn't a priority, until it became one by getting this bad.  Anyway, there's a reason I couldn't figure out how to remove the old one.  When the man came to install the microwave yesterday; he discovered the person that installed the microwave initially had indeed sealed this thing in.  He could find no access point to remove the microwave.  He left the microwave with us.  We were given a refund on the installation, and called our awesome, fabulous, wonderful handyman, Jerry to see if he could help.  Well we texted him.  As I was waiting for his response, he showed up in our driveway!  He came in to look at the problem to see if he could figure it out.  He did, and was able to remove the old microwave.  Once removed, he didn't have time to put in the new one.  It would have to be added to his schedule.  This guy is so incredibly busy and it's all from word of mouth.  His customers are the ones who have advertised for him.  So I'm willing to wait.  While we wait, we began looking at options other than an over the range microwave.  We began to think it might be better to not have to deal with this in another few years when a new one dies.  Instead we're looking at replacing the microwave with cabinets and a range hood.  Then we would get just a small countertop microwave.  Or would we? 

Wow this has been a long post!  Thanks for hanging in if you did!  

So to the crux of my story.  I've gone 20 hours so far without a microwave.  It's been an eye opener!  I use it to tell time, defrost something quick, heat my coffee, heat up leftovers, timer for baking, and even warm milk for the kitten.  I'm having to reprogram myself to function without it, and it's like trying to function with one hand tied behind my back.  There's a part of me that says I can relearn the skills that would enable me to function without a microwave.  There's another part of me that says "forget that!  get a new one!".  Getting a counter top microwave will take up precious space on my already limited counter space counter.  With a clock, timer, and coffee warmer ( I wanted one anyway): I feel I could function without a microwave.  I would have to change some cooking routines, but I do like the idea of fewer appliances.  

So what do you think?  Should I try to live without it?  Am I nuts?  Wait don't answer that one!  😁

Let me know what you think!  

UPDATE!  Nope!  If only for heating the rice heating pad!

Sickness in the House!

 Merry Christmas all!  

Ours is rather unorthodox this year.  Many of our traditions are being temporarily set aside due to illness.  Yes we found out, rather personally, that the worst flu this year is Flu A, and it's running ramapant through the U.S.  

DH returned home from a tour a week ago yesterday.  He was home two days and said that Thursday "I have this cough".  Fast forward to today and my poor man has been miserably sick ever since.  Woke up Friday morning with a temp of 99.2.  Same the next day, and then it hit.  Three days of 101+ temps.  Add to that no sleep due to excessive coughing, and aches everywhere.  

Fortunately we have a wonderful, great, fabulous doctor.  How great?  I texted his office after hours on Friday hoping he might see it over the weekend.  He called me soon after.  Gave instructions for DH's care and said "Keep me posted".  He had told us to get one of the flu covid test at the store and test him.  Well DH has Flu A.  This is the flu that is putting more folks in the hospital and even in the ground.  So we have a Nebulizer and and O2 concentrator that we bought during the Covid craziness for our oldest son.  Haven't had to use the O2 concentrator, but I made sure I had it ready.  Hubby's O2 kept dancing around the 90 mark.  Yesterday Morning our Doctor called in a chest Xray to a local imaging center, and off we went.  It was normal thankfully.  No pneumonia.  

So I have droned on about this for a reason, really.  

DH and I don't have insurance.  He's retired now, but too early for Medicare.  As a result we cash flow or save up for Medical things.  In this case, we had no Dr visit.  We weren't required to come in for him to tell us something we already knew.  When we got to the imaging center I told the nice lady behind the desk that we weren't filing insurance, and would be paying in full that day.  Our bill was $100.  That's it.  She told me that had I filed insurance; the bill would have been more like $500.  Insurance would have paid $300, leaving us owing $200.  In our case, had this been last year with the insurance we had then.  Our bill would have been $500, and we would have owed $500 because we had to meet our deductible first.  All of this expense doesn't even count the premium we paid with each pay check for the privilege of paying more for Doctor visits.  Now why would this be the case; over charging patients with insurance?  Because when you have insurance and pay your bill by their rules, you're paying for three other patients that didn't pay their bill. 

INSURANCE IS A SCAM!  There I said it.  It is.  Many of the problems in our healthcare system can be laid at the feet of the insurance industry.  Doctors decisions are based on what insurance will and won't cover.  "Pathways" which are a series of doctors orders that are printed up ahead of time for a doctors signature.  Those "Pathways" aren't created by doctors, but by insurance companies.  I had a cardiac pathway when I had my Heart attack 7 years ago.  It was that pathway that told them I should be on a statin to lower my total cholesterol lower than the 146 it was at that time.  Did ya know that total cholesterol less than 150 increases "All cause Mortality"?  That means in increases my chance of dying sooner over all.  Yet the pathway told them to put me on a statin they wanted it lower.  

Our primary physician doesn't file insurance, though we could have used the receipt from paying his bill and file it ourselves.   That is when we had insurance.  Did you know you can do that? You can go in to a medical establishment and tell them you're self pay.  Pay your bill.  Get a receipt, and file it with your insurance company for a reimbursement.  It can go towards your deductible and after that is met, go for reimbursement.  People just assume it's either self pay or insurance, but you can use them together.  Not as great as not paying a premium, but better than playing the game by only their rules.

Because our doctor doesn't file insurance, his decisions are based solely on what's best for each patient.  It's been the best decision we've made.  

We hadn't used the insurance we paid premiums for in about 5 years.  We just held it in case of a hospital stay and paid cash for everything.  I was great, and much cheaper.  Now we don't have insurance, pay no premium, and cash flow everything.  

Okay.  Now that I'm done venting about that!  Cute Kitten pictures for the holidays"

FINALLY!

 Today is the day I finally got into the kitchen to handle some kitchen business!

About a month ago we had 14 roosters processed.  The plan had been to do it ourselves, but my dh had an unexpectedly long tour and it needed to be done.  So we paid to have them processed.  Can't say I was sad to do it, but it wasn't a cost effective way to raise meat chickens.  However, once we figured in the cost of a lessoned learned; we broke even.  For the past month I've had these boys taking up space in the freezer.  Last week I used up my last quart of home canned chicken bone broth.  It was time.  This will be an on going process, but one that is totally worth it.  Even with the expense of paying to have them processed; the cost of my hoe canned bone broth is cheaper than buying it from the store.  I took our two rooster and placed them in my good size crock pot.  They barely fit.  They had to cook a bit before I could lay the lid flat.  I went ahead and added some celery, onion, salt, carrots, and vinegar.  I covered the whole bit up to the top of the crock pot; covering the birds.  I let them cook over night.  Next day I removed the meat, strain off the broth, and put the bones, veggies, and everything but the meat back into the crock pot.  I added more water to the top of the crock pot, a little more salt and a little more vinegar and let this slow cook for 2 days.  I just strained it off and am now canning 6 quarts of bone broth.  No artificial anything.  This is the stuff colds and flu remedy's are made of!  I had put the first broth into the fridge to keep until the second run was ready.  The first broth had gelled so nice.  This is the collagen we need and people pay big bucks for in a powder.  Save your money!  I will keep doing this until I've gone through all the birds, then I will move on to the two turkeys I found on sale for .57lb.  The deboned meat will go into the freezer or be canned if I'm so industrious.  Chicken or turkey, I can use it in any poultry recipe.  You don't have to grow your own poultry to do this.  Whenever you cook a whole chicken, make use of those bones as well.  This same process can be done with any bone in meat.  Beef broth, ham broth, chicken broth; are all things I can store( freezer or pantry)and not have to purchase from the store.  It requires limited hands on work.  It's, I believe, one of the easiest things to make to save at the store.  Bone broth can allow less meat to be used in a recipe because the broth will add taste and nutrients to meals. 

My second kitchen task; well second and third I guess.  Is to dehydrate!  I bought 5 bunches of celery before Thanksgiving while they were on sale for like .98 each.  I dehydrated all 5.  Do you know that once dehydrated all 5 bunches fit in 1 quart jar?! 

 Crazy!  If you don't have a dehydrator, chopping and freezing is an option too.   Now my dehydrator is full of garlic harvested this year from my garden.  

The dehydrator is full, but it barely looks like I made a dent in the harvested garlic.  This will also be a process until I get through all the garlic.  Once dried I plan to pulse it into garlic powder in my blender.  Voila!  Organic garlic powder for the cost of energy used to dehydrate it.  This comes back every year.  

Homemade pizza is on the menu for tonight, and probably some bread for general use.  My work in the kitchen, home, and garden saves us money, and allows us to eat better to boot.  

10 years ago, before I left my job to come home permanently, a co-worker asked if I thought I'd be bored.  I told her I would have plenty to do.  My job as a homemaker is not one of soap operas and bon bons.  It's a  job.  As it should be.  Make no mistake.  We all work for someone.  We can work for an employer or work for ourselves.  I choose to work for myself, my husband, and my family.  

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I'm not ready!

 Sneaky little thing, the Holiday season.  Normally I'm ready to go.  I can face it's arrival with a smile because I've already started my Christmas shopping.  I laugh at delivery dates because I know I've had ample time to have my gifts arrive.  I feel sorry for those poor souls running around last minute to get their gifts for loved ones.  That is until this year.   This year, I'm a poor soul running around.  I haven't even started.  Well, okay, I do have one grandsons gift.  I bought it in the beginning of the year.  I also have two very small gits; one for DH and one for our youngest son.  The bulk of my Christmas shopping is still to be done.  It starts tomorrow.  However, I will need all my wits to get everything before the Christmas Holiday.

Dh and I set a budget each year; for ourselves and for what we get for family.  We don't use credit cards.  Not even with the intention of paying it off next month. Once we paid those bad boys off, we said never again.  "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" said 18th century writer Samuel Johnson.  Truer words were never spoken.  Especially when it comes to credit cards.  Well, and me.  It's so easy to get out of budget during the Christmas season.  Gifts, paper, ribbon, food, tape, stamps, cards, employee parties, etc., all can throw you off budget.  Balances can become more than can be paid off in a month.  Then what follows is tax season.  Not a good combination.  Before you know it, that balance thought to be paid off in January is still there come next December.  

This year, for us, is going to require some leg work; old fashioned Christmas shopping at brick and mortar stores.  I can get somethings online tomorrow, but the rest won't have time to make it.  I won't have more Christmas money budgeted until the middle of the month.  So the other half of the shopping plan will be after that.  The benefit of that is the closer to Christmas the lower prices tend to go as stores try to move inventory.  It's a gamble, but I look forward to the challenge.

Homemade gifts are also part of that budget/plan.  Everyone from the mail man to my siblings will receive a homemade gift from me.  Usually in the form of a baked good or candy(my butter toffee).  If I have enough time while DH is away, I might be able to make our traditional Pj's for Christmas eve.  One year I decided not to give Pj's on Christmas eve.  I thought the kids were tired of it and already knew what the gift was anyway.  I was wrong.  They missed not having the Pj's on Christmas eve.  So I've gone back to it.  If I don't have time, I'll need to buy them, but if I can make them from fabric on hand, I can save that bit.  I may end up buying the t shirt tops, and making the pants.  

So we'll see what I can get done.  Sewing will be my major project while DH is away.  The most important part that I hope is taken away from this post is please, please, please

A)  Have a budget, even if it's tiny, to work with for the Christmas season.  Homemade gifts are awesome!  I have recipes on my pages for "how to's", playdough, and other treats.  Google is a great resource too!

B)  DON'T USE A CREDIT CARD!  Even if you have and follow a budget, don't do it.  Don't put yourself there.  If you can't afford gifts for your entire family, let them know and focus just on you, your spouse, and your own kids.  

***The pictures are pictures of present and past fur babies in our home.  The top is current.  That's stitch.  Next is Wolly.  We lost him 12 years ago.  I miss him every day, and last is Nermal.  We had her for 22 years until 7 years ago.  Now we have 2 dogs and 4 cats in our little house because apparently we're nuts!  Happy Thanksgiving!  Love to all!

Discombobulated!

 It's been a while.  Sorry, again.  No this time it is literally time that has gotten away with me.  You see DH has left his full time nursing job to partially retire.  I say partially because he's actually taken another position as a professional wrestler!  I still shake my head at that one.  So my routine is kind of up in the air at the moment as I refigure our schedule.  I had the routine down pat.  Monday through Friday it was up to make his breakfast and lunch while he would get in a morning workout.  Then off to work he'd go( hi ho, hi ho).  While he was gone to work I'd had some project I'd work on: garden, baking, house, sewing, errands.  Then I'd have wrapped the project up and be settling down for the day by the time he got home.  All I'd need to do is fix dinner and my day was done.  Weekends were a slow start as we'd enjoy coffee together in the morning.  Maybe we'd work on something at the house together if needed, but often times we'd go out, mostly to antique stores, or just for a drive.  

                                    

Now that schedule is up ended and we're both trying to navigate this new routine.  It hasn't really become a routine yet, and not sure if it will while he's touring.  Yes.  He tours.  So I have one routine when he's home and one routine when he's gone.  I get a lot done while he's gone.  Not because he doesn't help when he's home, but because I want to just spend time with him when he's home.  Plus when he's home I have to stop what I'm working on for meals and such.  Contrary to what one may think, I do skip meals if I'm engrossed in something.  I may stop and grab a piece of fruit or cheese if I'm getting hungry, but not stop what I'm doing.  With hubby home; I have to actually stop and figure out a lunch.  It's a worth while trade off.  I miss him when he's gone, and that's another reason I get so much accomplished.  When he's gone I work to make the time pass.  

So needless to say Being out of my routine has thrown other things out of a routine; Blogging, baking.  Even calling my mother!  I know!  See, you're in good company.  I usually call her once a week at least.  I did finally get a chance to call her yesterday.  I said "did you forget me"?  To which she replied " almost, but not quite".  In my defense, DH and I went up to her house last week for a breakfast with her and my other siblings.  

So I'd love to be able to share some frugal tidbit I've been working on, but I'm too scatter brained to think of something.  Right now we're cleaning things up to put up Christmas decor.  I've got my tree up, just not decorated.  That will come Thanksgiving night.  Then the rest of my Christmas decor will follow.  

One thing I can do is share some links to previous posts about preparing for the holidays.  So here ya go!  

Christmas in hard times.

Crafty stuff 

Working within a budget

Thanksgiving Essentials You Can Make Not Buy!

 Here comes the holiday season!  It's just around the corner!  I've already started to see the commercials for Christmas, and Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet.  To be fair, Christmas decor made it's way to the stores right after 4th of July, so who are we kidding.  Retailers aren't kidding when it comes to competing for your hard earned dollars.  That includes grocery stores.  I don't fault them for this.  It's their job.  Their job is to get as many of your dollars as they can.  Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to keep as many of your dollars as you can.  This isn't Mission impossible!  It can be done.  You just need to be a little more savvy, and you win.  Part of that savviness is in making more of the things grocers tell you have to be bought.

Many of these recipes I've listed before in one way or another, but I wanted to place them here for convenience.  Both for you and me.  Before you grab a premade, possibly chemically laced bottle, can, or package of something for the holidays; look here to what you can cross off your list.  It's a bigger list than you think!  Full disclosure, I don't know why the next two recipes are highlighted white, but I couldn't fix it so.....

Sweetened Condensed milk

2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla

On med/low heat whisk the milk and sugar together. Keep stirring occasionally while the milk mixture reduces by about half ( you're shooting for 14 oz. I weigh mine to get it exact). Once reduced, remove from heat and add the vanilla.  Mix well. Makes 12-14 oz and you can use this recipe anywhere sweetened condensed milk is called for.

Evaporated milk

This is incredibly easy.  Simply pour 3 cups of milk into a pot.  On a med low heat simmer until reduced by half.  Use where ever evaporated milk is called for

Cream soup mix

1 1/2 cups dry milk
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 ts salt

mix all together then cut in

1 stick of  butter.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge.  To use for plain white sauce just use 1/3 cup mix to 1 cup of water.  If you want cream of chicken, use chicken broth, cream of mushroom: open a can of mushrooms and drain, add water to the mushroom liquid to equal 1 cup fluid. Then follow the rest of the recipe.  You can also add 1 cup of cheese and 1 tsp. yellow mustard to make cheese sauce. If you don't have dry milk, you can simply make a white sauce using 2 TBS melted butter, 2 TBS flour, 1/4 tsp salt and 1 cup liquid of choice: milk, chicken brother, mushroom, etc.  This recipe will take the place of your cream of chicken, cream mushroom etc.  I used this recipe last night to make queso cheese sauce for our fajitas.  It was very good, and popular.

Homemade Poultry Seasoning

2 tsp ground sage
2 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Marjoram
3/4 tsp ground rosemary
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground black pepper.

Just add everything to a jar and shake well.  Just keep it in your spice cabinet for use whenever you need poultry seasoning.

Homemade pumpkin pie spice

4 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Chicken Broth

Cook a whole chicken for dinner.  SAVE THE JUICE FROM IT"S COOKING!  After it's use for that meals, remove the rest of the meat.  Save that meat in the fridge of freezer for other meals.  Take the bones from the chicken, and the cooking liquid from cooking the chicken and place in a crock pot or stock pot.  If you have the giblets, add those too.  Add some celery (2 large stalks), some carrots( one large), half a large onion, couple of tsp salt, and 2 tbs vinegar.  Covered it all with water, put the lid on and set it to low.  Let this simmer at least a day.  If in a stock pot, let it simmer during the day and check on it periodically.  Add water if it cooks down too low.  You want to keep everything covered.  At bed time, turn off, then resume cooking on low the next day.  You want to cook both crock or stock pot, until you can take a bone out and crush it with your fingers.  That means the vinegar has done it's job and removed all of the minerals from the bones, and the broth is now infused with those good for you minerals.  The broth is now ready.  Strain the broth to remove the bones, and vegetables.  The bones are so soft after cooking broth that I will mash up everything, veggies and all and give it to my dogs.  They love it.  Place the broth in the refrigerator to cool.  Remove once cool and skim the now solid fat off the top.  Your broth is now defatted.  This should a make at least a few quarts of really good bone broth.  Bone broth cost big bucks at the store.  You got it cheap cheap!  

Stuffing

Save the heals of loaves of bread, left over hot dog bung, hamburger buns, corn bread, and biscuits.  Keep this stale bread in your freezer.  If you don't have left over corn bread or biscuits, simply make them and freeze to use for stuffing for Thanksgiving dinner.  No one should have to buy( and pay crazy money) for stale bread.  Saltine crackers are also a great stuffing addition.  Use your favorite recipe, just don't buy the dried stuffing.  

Pie crust

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup lard or butter.  Please don't use shortening, and make sure the lard you buy isn't hydrogenated.  I use butter most of the time.

6-7 TBS cold water

Mix flour and salt together.  Cut in the butter until it's crumbly.  There shouldn't be a piece bigger than a pea.  Make a well in the center.  Add the cold water a TBS at a time, tossing it into the mixture.  It you need t add a little more water, add just enough to get a nice dough that doesn't crumble, but isn't sticky.  Divide in to two pieces.  Roll out each onto a floured surface.  Makes two crusts.  You can flour parchment or wax paper and roll the crust out on the paper, then roll and freeze or refrigerate until needed.  

Baking powder

2 TBS Baking Powder

2 TBS Corn Starch

4 TBS Cream of Tarter

Mix all together in a jar.  Use as you would any store bought baking powder, only this will work way better.  Much cheaper.

Brown Sugar

Mix in 1 TBS of Molasses into 1 cup of granulated sugar.  You can blend this to mix, or use your hands to mix well.  Use just as you would any store bought brown sugar.  Way cheaper this way.

Powdered Sugar

I've actually done this.  I know it sound crazy, but to make powdered sugar you need to put a cup of sugar into a blender and blend on high.  You'll need to stop it periodically to loosen things up, but it works.  

Okay.  That's all I can think of at the moment.  If I think of anything else, I'll add it here.  Please comment if you know of something I've missed, have a question, or just want to say hello!