I cannot believe that we are already approaching October and it is officially fall! Last weekend, we had our first morning approaching freezing, it was 34˚F. This month has gone by so quickly. We are getting ready to start official school work for the year, and to ramp up in our other activities. Next week would have ended our family birthday season, but now that we have added Autumn and she and Alexander are expecting their new little one's arrival at the end of October or beginning of November, we are going to have one more birthday before the year is finished.

Jerome had a little scare with the bananas, but it seems to be settling down, and we think it might have had to do with either the plants or climate near his grandmother's house (he and Elijah and Rich went down there to help her out a bit last week), or the chemicals he was using while sanding, sealing and painting a fence. He seems to be doing well now. Since they were gone for part of last week, I rearranged our meal plan to include things that either Rich didn't care for or that Jerome couldn't have, since it was just us girls and Dominic at home. We had a blast. The girls really wanted to watch a chick flick and do facials and hair and nails, but ballet and life schedules and some exhaustion shut that down, so we are going to try again soon. Rich said he would take the boys somewhere so we could do it.

The blackberry sweetrolls we made for Mariam were fantastic. I should have made the cream cheese a little less sweet, but nobody complained about that. They were super simple to make, too. I just used my cinnamon roll dough with vanilla and loganberry liqueur in place of the almond extract, spread it with a cup of seedless blackberry jam, baked as normal and made the cream cheese frosting with vanilla and a little loganberry liqueur. They were so good!

We had so many leftovers this week, that we still have some that were either put in the fridge or freezer, so we are pulling them out in different ways this week. Harvest was also delayed by our weird spring and summer, like I said before, so we have a ton of fresh produce that needs to be eaten before it becomes either chicken feed or compost. If we manage it well this week, it will be fine, though. We have the feasts of Saint Michael and Jerome this week, so some fun family traditions, as well as Jerome's name day to celebrate.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Fried Eggs and Sausage, Bananas, Coffee and Tea
  Dinner: Provided by our wonderful church family - Beef and Squash Stew, Salad, and other lovely things
• Monday
  Breakfast: Nacho Breakfast, Peaches, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Pasta (Gluten-free for Jerome) Cooked in Choucroute Garnie Sauce, Sautéed Summer Squash with Garlic and Fresh Dill, Peaches
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Peaches and Cream, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Hamburger Stew, Salad, Fruit Plate
  
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Scrambled Chickpeas with Onions, Cucuzza Squash and Garlic, Plums, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Vegetarian Ranchero Bean Tacos, Cabbage Salad with Cumin Citrus Dressing
• Thursday - Feast of Saints Michael and All Angels
  Breakfast: Shakshouka, Grapefruit Halves, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Pasta Carbonara (Gluten-free pasta for Jerome), Dragon Bread filled with Pears and Dried Cranberries
• Friday - Feast of Saint Jerome
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast (Gluten-free for Jerome) with Honey, Bananas, Tea and Honey
  Dinner: Pasta (Gluten-free for Jerome) with Caponata, Lion Face Salad, Fruit Plate
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Potluck after Liturgy
  Dinner: Papas con Chorizo with Sliced Avocados, Salsa and Sour Cream, Fruit Plate

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. -- Revelation 12:7-9

Labels: Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homeschooling, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Michaelmas, Name Day, Prayer Requests, Tales from the Kitchen

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 2:30 PM 0 comments

Check Gas Buddy (we don't have their card, we just check prices on their website)! I don't know if it is useful outside of the United States (I checked, it covers the US, its territories, and Canada), but we check it every time we are going to get gas. We can see which station has the least expensive gas in our area, and map out our gas run to fall in line with the other errands or trips we need to make.

The other thing we do is use points to reduce the cost of our gas per gallon. Both Safeway and Fred Meyer do this in our area, and even when their prices are the same or slightly higher than another place, the points often take off enough money to make it much cheaper. So, check your points and use them.

One last thing is that we use our cruise control as much as we can, and don't brake hard to come to stops if we can help, we coast as much as we can when driving, and use cash if it gets us a discount on gasoline. We do have a gas card at a local gas station chain, and it gives us a four cent discount, but sometimes that is still a higher price than elsewhere, so we still check Gas Buddy. I budgeted $400 a month for gas, and when we had two, and then three, young adult drivers, we had a month or two that were closer to $600 (nobody tells you that your kids will get terrible gas mileage at first), but we were able to get that back down, and even with the higher prices, have been able to keep the $400 budget. We utilize the tools I mention here, and it works for us.

Previous Posts:
Make it at Home
Grocery Shopping
Waste Not, Want Not
Soup
The Celery Stalks at Midnight
Use What You Have
Combining Trips
Storing Bulk Purchases
Turn It Off
Grow Your Own
Buying in Bulk
Gleaning
Entertainment on the Down Low
Finding Fun Locally
Holiday Shopping
Reconsidering Convenience
More Bang for Your Grocery Buck
Preserving the Harvest
Revisiting Kitchen Strategies
Extreme Frugality
Bargain Getaways
Cultivating or Curating Abundance
Making Your Own Snacks and Treats
How Weird Is Too Weird? Things We Don't Think of Eating

Labels: Family, Frugality, Homemaking

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 2:23 PM 0 comments

Aside from the baptismal gown, I am also working on Yathrib more. I have sleeves emerging. My goal is to have at least one sleeve completed by the end of this month, if not both. Then, I can work on the body and edging in October. Then write the pattern at the end of October and beginning of November. I have the notes and spreadsheets for the sizes and stitch counts and general instructions, but people seem to want more than numbers and a chart.

Rich was away with two of the boys from Monday through Wednesday, and so besides taking the opportunity to make and eat foods that Rich doesn't care for, we could also make meals that Jerome couldn't eat. I also exercised my favorite pasttime of scaring myself with murder mystery shows and books. I found a series on streaming television that looked interesting, and I was enjoying most of it, then found that it was based on a series of books. So, I looked up the books. The first one was clever enough, and though there were some parts that I didn't like - the way he wrote about women and sex was definitely not how a woman would think or write about them, so I kind of rolled my eyes at that, seeing as how the main characters are women, but some of the brutality and graphic perverse sexuality he felt necessary to include really turned me off and made me wonder what kind of a man he was - I did like his surprise ending, especially as the way the story was going, it seemed pretty easy to figure out and this took a turn that was not quite what the reader might think. However, the second one was even more gross in the deviant sexuality, and for no good reason (seriously, he shows the murderer acting out, by himself, over something particularly repugnant and disgusting and then it is never part of the story again, nor is it relevant to the murders or the story), and then utilizes the same type of surprise ending as he did in the first. The first time is clever, the second time, he's using a template. So, I do not think I am going to read any of the next 20 books in the series, because I am wondering what kind of sicko the author is and I don't need to read something formulaic that is also wicked. I'm not going to link to these books, but the first one was 1st to Die and the second one was 2nd Chance. Also, I am wondering just how many serial killers San Francisco is home to, that in a year, this team of super capable women was solving two of them.

To cleanse my mind, I read more from The Diary of a Country Priest, and now Rich wants to read it, too. We own the book, but he gets even less time to sit with a book than I do, so he usually "reads" by listening, and I can't seem to find a copy in audio form.

Linking to Unraveled Wednesday.

If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.

Labels: Books, Design, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Knitting, WIP, Yarn Along

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 10:38 PM 0 comments

What a wonderful week we have had! I was able to talk to my remaining maternal aunt, two of my cousins, and my father. They got to talk to our kids, and Rich was able to talk to my father. My family is funny and smart and our real sorrow is that because of distance between us, our kids have not grown up spending a lot of time with them. However, two of my cousins and I are talking about having a meeting somewhere. Rich and I are talking about making our next savings goal to put away enough money to get the family to Croatia, so we can rent a house and have my family come join us there, where we can spend some time somewhere beautiful, and eat wonderful food. It's still a dream, but one we can work toward even now.

My kids didn't get to experience the laughter and sense of fun my family has the way I did, and I really treasure every time they get to meet with them, in person or over the phone/internet. I am so grateful for how video chat has made these visits possible.

Aside from the visiting with family, we had another highlight and a couple lowlights of the week: Bananas are going better than we thought they would, especially because Jerome had a weird flare up this weekend that we thought might have had something to do with his latex bands in his braces, and latex and banana allergies/sensitivities are often related. So far, so good, though. The service people from A & E cancelled on us a second time. Which means that it has been more than two months since we called on this and they still haven't fixed the machine, which is actually against our warranty contract, which we are taking up with Lowe's. We are also dealing with some external distress from someone who is trying to cause trouble for me and for us. Please pray for this person, that her plans are thwarted and that she finds peace. Honestly, we're not all that worried about her plans, because they are based on rank falsehood and it is so obvious, it would be laughable, but she is unsettled and that makes me sad.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Egg and Veggie Burritos (Gluten-free for Jerome), Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Slow Cooker Choucroute Garnie, Dark Rye Bread (Gluten-free Bread for Jerome), Mustard, Cornichons and Pickled Onions, Fruit Plate
• Monday - Feast of Saint Theodore
  Breakfast: Sausage, Egg and Potato Breakfast Casserole, Bananas, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Chile Verde, Rice, Black Beans and Corn, Corn Tortillas, Fruit Plate
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Shakshouka, Bananas, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Chicken and Gravy over Stuffing, Chopped Salad, Apple Pie with Cheddar Crust
• Wednesday - Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
  Breakfast: Apple Coconut Breakfast Bowls with Peanut Butter Drizzle, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: West African Stew, Rice, Peri-peri Sauce, Fruit Plate
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Brown Sugar and Raisins, Grapefruit Halves, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Leftovers
• Friday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast (Gluten-free for Jerome) with Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea and Honey
  Dinner: Vegetarian Ranchero Beans, Rice, Fruit Plate
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Blackberry Jam Sweetrolls with Cream Cheese Frosting (Gluten-free Blackberry Scones for Jerome), Farmer Breakfast Casserole, Coffee and Hot Chocolate for a Crowd with Vanilla Ice Cream
  Dinner: Pizza Party (Gluten-free Pizza for Jerome)

Labels: Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homeschooling, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Prayer Requests, Tales from the Kitchen

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:31 AM 0 comments

My progress this week has been in little steps. I'm more than half finished with the border on the baptismal gown, and I picked up the first sleeve on Yathrib. It doesn't look like a lot of change, but without these small advances nothing is made. We have been going through a rough time with a family member who is not well, either in mind or body, and for some reason it is much worse right now, so if you can keep us, but especially her in your prayers, it would be a mercy. If you have been watching the doings on my Instagram account, we are fairly certain that she is the person reporting it, which is the least of the trouble she is interested in causing. She needs prayer, and so do we.

I just finished the book Once Upon a Wardrobe, and I strongly recommend that everyone who loves truth, fantasy, imagination, life, children, and the Narnia series read it. If you have never read the books, know nothing about C.S. Lewis, if you are a non-Christian, no matter who you are, you will find something beautiful and true in this little book of fiction. It isn't great literature, it isn't a magnificent work, but it is a good story, that is full of truth and beauty in a world that is full of lies and ugliness. I will concede that the first couple chapters were a bit of a slog for me, but after that, it was just a journey through beauty.

Because of the hassle of the troubles we have been dealing with, The Diary of a Country Priest has been sadly neglected, but I am hoping to return to M. Le Père tonight or tomorrow.

Linking to Unraveled Wednesday.

If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.

Labels: Books, Design, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Grandbaby, Homemaking, Knitting, Prayer Requests, WIP, Yarn Along

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 9:36 AM 0 comments

Well, the ducks' stay of execution held because we ran out of butchering time last week. But not for long. We will have a freezer full of duck soon enough. Fall is harvest time not only for produce, but for meat, as well. The harvest of produce is finally coming in to our area, after a strange and late spring and summer. So, we have lots of tomatoes, peppers and summer squash this week. We still have plums, too. It's a little too early for apples still, just because of the late summer weather, and the new potatoes aren't in, so we are still seeing storage potatoes most of the time. I am so grateful that oats are back on the menu, though this week we start trying out bananas for Jerome, and a reaction he had this weekend, possibly to his latex rubber bands for his braces, makes us a little more wary.

Rich and I had a fantastic time at the dance on Friday, and got to attend with another couple we know. They drove home that night, but we stayed the night at a hotel, and made a stop at Trader Joe's before heading home to grab the kids so we could go to the gyro and kebab fest. We were planning on staying for vespers after the festival, but we were all so exhausted, that we went home just after it ended. We were home about half an hour before the vespers service even began, and all of us were ready to rest. We are sorry to have missed it, but at least we have the services tonight.

As we slowly head back into our normal school year, we are adding more activity. This week, my Bible study begins again, after a short summer break. I am so grateful for these women, who study and learn and pray with and for me. Speaking of prayers, please pray for our appliances. We have a (delayed) appliance call that is supposed to happen this week (it was supposed to happen a month ago, but they rescheduled) for our fridge, and since then, the power button on our washing machine has also decided to go wonky. So, now we have to deal with both. And, the thermostat on our convection oven has also decided to do something weird. There is never a time for the oven to have trouble, nor the washing machine, but in a big family, it is a real problem. The fridge issue is fairly minor, and we just want it fixed to make our lives easier, but if either the oven or washing machine are out of service, we are in trouble.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Toasted Croissants with Fried Eggs and Cheese, (Gluten-free Wrap for Jerome), Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Kofta Mkaouara (Moroccan Kofta with Egg Tagine), Rice, Sliced Tomatoes, Fruit Plate
• Monday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Brown Sugar and Raisins, Bananas, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Beef, Pepper and Summer Squash Stir Fry, Jasmine Rice, Plums
• Tuesday - Feast of Saint Cyprian of Carthage
  Breakfast: Fried Eggs, Bacon, Bananas, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: French Farmer's Soup with Fresh Herbs, Croutons, Salad and Fruit Plate or Dessert brought by Bible Study members
• Wednesday - Feasts of Saint John Chrysostom and the Elevation of the Most Holy Cross
  Breakfast: Vegetable Hash Burritos (Gluten-free for Jerome), Grapefruit Halves, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Chickpea Salad Wraps, Sautéed Peppers and Garlic with Fresh Herbs, Fruit Plate
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Cheese, Toast (Gluten-free for Jerome), Grapefruit Halves, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Cornbread with Sausage Gravy (Gluten-free), Summer Squash Casserole (Gluten-free), Sliced Tomatoes
• Friday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast (Gluten-free for Jerome) with Honey, Grapefruit Halves, Tea and Honey
  Dinner: Chinese Eggplant in Garlic Sauce, Jasmine Rice, Fruit Plate
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Potluck after Liturgy
  Dinner: Chicken and Andouille Gumbo, Rice, Chopped Scallions, Pepper Sauce

Labels: Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homeschooling, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Romance and Relationship, Tales from the Kitchen

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 1:40 PM 0 comments

Meatloaf is one of the few truly "American" foods that I like and make. Obviously, I make American food, but this is one that seems more American than the rest. In my opinion, it's pretty near impossible to ruin meatloaf, but according to Rich, there are bad meatloaves out there. In any case, this is how I make it. It is not a strict recipe, I change things around based on what we have, but this is the general guideline I use. Since the price of veal has gone up so much, it is rare that I use it now, and when I cannot, I use two parts beef to one part pork. Sometimes I use Italian sausage in place of the pork. If someone who is eating with us cannot eat pork, I leave it out and use all beef or half beef and veal. Use what you like. Since Jerome still cannot have wheat, or anything including gluten or gliadin, we used crushed gluten free crackers in place of the Panko. Occasionally, I have used grated potato in place of the Panko. It is best to sauté the onion and garlic before you mix them in, but in a pinch, I will mix them in raw. We like the crusty edges of meatloaf, so I make freeform loaves, but if you like them in a loaf pan, use those.

1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground veal
1 pound ground pork
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups Panko or dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup prepared horseradish
1 bunch parsley, finely minced
1 large onion, peeled and finely diced
8 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375˚F. Set aside a jelly roll pan or another baking sheet with rims.

Mix beef, veal, pork, eggs, Panko, ketchup, worcestershire sauce, horseradish and parsley in a large bowl.

Sauté onions over medium high heat until softened. Add minced garlic and cook one minute more.

Add sautéed onions and garlic to meat mixture, along with dried thyme, salt and pepper.

Divide meat mixure in half, and shape into two ovals on a baking sheet. Bake for 40 - 50 minutes, until cooked through and browned. Allow to rest about 10 - 15 minutes before slicing to serve.

Labels: Homemaking, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 1:49 PM 0 comments

I finally got a really good start on the baptismal gown. It wasn't behaving as I liked, so I ripped it out and restarted it. I think there is an error in the pattern on the hem, but I cannot find any notes from other knitters or errata. The first eyelet in the repeat does not line up properly on subsequent rounds, and I think if the K3 were switched with the K4, it would, but I also don't want to undo six rounds. So, I am trying to decide if I should continue to the end of this section to rip it out and re-do it, or if I should rip now. Because we know that, in the end, I am going to rip it out and do it again.

I read the latest Crime with the Classics book, Death With Dostoevsky. Reed College, which became Bede College, is now Reed College again. I do not know what she was thinking. I did figure out who was behind the murder and why pretty early on, too.

Today, a quotation from The Diary of a Country Priest came up which reminded me that I have had that book on my shelf for years, and still haven't read it all. So, I picked it up, and I am really enjoying it. We need more priests like him. Also, I had been reading a bit in Once Upon a Wardrobe and did some more of that, with a few of the kids. We are just about finished with it. It is a really good story. Not a great work, but a good story, that is perfect for anyone who loves Narnia or C.S. Lewis. It was touching, though it took a few chapters to really get into the groove with it.

Linking to Unraveled Wednesday.

If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.

Labels: Books, Design, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Grandbaby, Homemaking, Knitting, WIP, Yarn Along

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 9:09 AM 0 comments

Rich and I had an opportunity to go on a movie date and then to have dinner at a new Italian restaurant in town yesterday. We have a hangar dance to go to this week, and in a couple weeks a fancy pants banquet event, so we are getting to enjoy some time out with each other more frequently than normal. Today is the anniversary of our engagement. Or coming to terms, as we call it. We spent a month in negotiations, considering whether or not we should go forward with our plan to wait another three and a half years to get married, or just go for it and do it that year. We went from three and a half years to plan to four and a half months, and it was the best decision we ever made. It's true that we started out with less than we would have had if we had waited, but we also grew up together and grew together into the one flesh marriage we have.

Since Rich has Labor Day off, we get to do some more things around our house that have been on hold too long. It also means that our roosters' and ducks' stay of execution is over, and they are heading to the freezer. There is so much that didn't get done in our garden, but Rich is going to try to get a few fall crops ready for us before the freezes kill everything.

This is not our first week of school, but it is our first week of school related activities. We have registration for our homeschool co-op, ballet and gymnastics begin again, and so our schedules are now a little more regulated. It helps us to ease into the school year this way, and gets our morning schedule a little earlier at a slower pace. We do get to go to a gyro and kebab festival and vespers at a church in our area this week, which is a fun treat for the whole family.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Cheesy Egg English Muffin Sandwiches (Gluten-free for Jerome), Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Saleeq, Stewed Okra and Tomatoes, Turkish Stuffed Apricots
• Monday
  Breakfast: Ful, Bread (Gluten-free for Jerome), Sah’awiq, Chopped Tomatoes, Sliced Oranges, Mint Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Grilled Feta Burgers, Garlic Scape French Fries, Pickles and Veggie Sticks
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Harvest Pancakes, Grapefruit Halves, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Meatloaf*, Lyonnaise Potatoes, Salad, Fruit Plate
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Oatmeal (Grain-free for Jerome) with Raisins and Brown Sugar, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Lebanese Lentil Salad, Eggplant and Pepper Salad, Sliced Plums
• Thursday - Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Theotokos
  Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Cheese, Toast (Gluten-free for Jerome), Fruit, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Dan Dan Noodles with Cabbage, Sliced Oranges
• Friday - Feast of the Righteous Parents of the Theotokos, Anna and Joachim
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast (Gluten-free for Jerome) with Honey, Fruit, Tea and Honey
  Dinner: Creamy Avocado Pasta with Cashews (Gluten-free for Jerome), Salad, Fruit Plate
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Kids Make Breakfast
  Dinner: Snack Tray

Labels: Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homeschooling, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Romance and Relationship, Tales from the Kitchen

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 3:04 AM 0 comments

Are there things you don't think of as food that could feed your family and be tasty? I'm not talking about offal (which we do eat, and I encourage you to take a chance on it), or bugs (which it sounds like our government and food industry is). I mean things that you already bring into your home, but discard.

We discovered that cornsilk (trimmed of the dry ends) is quite tasty, and can be used like sprouts on sandwiches and in salads. We turn the corn cobs from eating corn into a broth that will be welcome in the fall and winter, when a hearty corn chowder will both warm and fill us. We just put them in the stock pot with some other vegetables and herbs (from my handy stock bag in the freezer), cover with cool water, a little salt and a few peppercorns, and bring it to a low boil, then simmer for about an hour. Strain and store in the freezer. I understand that you can make a corn cob jelly if you don't add the other vegetables and herbs, and instead simply boil and simmer the cobs in the water, strain and use as the juice for jelly, which looks and tastes remarkably like honey. However, we really prefer the real thing on honey, and prefer to save our sugar usage for other jams, jellies and preserves.

But, did you know that you can eat the greens from your carrots? They can be used like parsley, turned into a soup, added to other rice or bean dishes. We used to toss them to our chickens. If you leave them on the carrots, they will continue to sap the nutrients from the root, and will shrivel it sooner. On the same sort of principle, we always remove the greens from beets. They are exactly the same species as the Swiss chard you get at the store or farmers' market. They just weren't bred to be quite as large and sturdy as the varieties raised for chard. In my opinion, chard is superior to spinach in basically every application. So, we save those greens and use them as chard, or in place of spinach. I think I have mentioned before how we also use the stems, either by chopping them and cooking them a little earlier and longer than the greens, or saving them to use like we use celery in salads, stews, bean dishes, sautées, and so on.

Little things like this will stretch your budget and help you use up everything you bring into your home. If you already have been trying to make the best use of your food, you probably already have a stock bag, so whatever cannot be used as part of a meal can still be put there, but if you garden, you can put those scraps that won't be useful for stock into your compost, rather than down your garbage disposal (where basically nothing is supposed to go, anyway, as far as I can tell) or into your trash. This will help you grow more food yourself (or just beautify your yard with flowers and shrubs, even), and for less money, with a lower impact, in fact making an improvement, to your soil. We are a family of nine at home and we use the smallest trash bin our trash company offers. For a while there, we were only using every other week delivery. That is how little trash we made (we've been doing a ton of remodeling and decluttering, so we had to go back to the weekly pick up, but we are aiming at going every other week again by the New Year). So, using up everything we can, putting the remainder in our stock bag (giving us free nutrition), feeding our chickens, ducks, turkeys, pigs, with it (they turn that into eggs and meat!), or putting it into the compost (improving our soil fertility and increasing the yield of our garden) not only makes the most of what we spend and bring in, but it also reduces our trash and associated costs. We are saving money there, as a result of saving money in our food budget.

Here is a bonus tip: Since we buy in bulk as much as we can, we also don't usually have a lot of packaging to dispose of, but as we live in the country, the cardboard cartons go down on the grass and weeds in the garden plot to kill them, and break down into the soil for later years, and paper sacks and smaller cardboard bits get used as firestarters in our fireplace and for our firepit. It's about time for me to put out the fire bins for the kids, where we put empty toilet paper rolls, and junk mail, or mail with account information on it, and tissues and all the rest, that we just toss into the fireplace instead of our garbage. They cut our garbage bill and our power bill, since we can heat most of our main floor with our fireplace.

Previous Posts:
Make it at Home
Grocery Shopping
Waste Not, Want Not
Soup
The Celery Stalks at Midnight
Use What You Have
Combining Trips
Storing Bulk Purchases
Turn It Off
Grow Your Own
Buying in Bulk
Gleaning
Entertainment on the Down Low
Finding Fun Locally
Holiday Shopping
Reconsidering Convenience
More Bang for Your Grocery Buck
Preserving the Harvest
Revisiting Kitchen Strategies
Extreme Frugality
Bargain Getaways
Cultivating or Curating Abundance
Making Your Own Snacks and Treats

Labels: Family, Frugality, Homemaking, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 3:48 PM 0 comments

My knitting has been moving around a lot this past week. I am working on a cabled baptismal gown for Amelia, a pair of socks for Jerome, Yathrib (my cable edged jacket design for the Malabrigo Freelance Pattern Project), and an adult sized sample of Mozarab. I did a lot of tinking this week, too, mostly to correct dumb mistakes. So, there is not a ton of progress to share. We have a bit of a drive this week for a couple fun events, so I am hoping to get some more progress made while in the car.

Now that my sabbatical month is over, I am working more on my own designs, and will work on the socks and baptismal gown largely on the weekends. The rights to self-publish Mozarab return to me in October, so I would like to be ready to do that, with my own photography. Imbat is supposed to be published at the end of October, also, and I would like to get one of the last two designs in my Tradewinds Color Collection published in the second week of November. Initially, I was not planning on participating in the GAL again this year, but it is the tenth anniversary, so I think it might be fun and worthwhile to do it one more time. The SAL is so much smaller, which makes it easier to participate and get to know the participants. I'm thinking of asking my fellow admins for that if we might hold a more informal finish along of past SAL projects, perhaps in January or February.

My capacity for serious reading has taken a nosedive, to mix metaphors here, and so I read three more of the Crime with the Classics series, Bloodstains with Bronte, Cyanide with Christie and Death with Dostoevsky, and spent precious little time with Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages. The kids and I picked up Chronicles of Avonlea again and have been enjoying our visits to Prince Edward Island

My objections to the Crime with the Classics series are still there, but I have been enjoying the stories. So, I recommend them, but with a caveat. However, this fourth book had a change in it that strikes me as lazy and thoughtless. The main character, Emily, is a professor at Reed College in Portland, OR. The first three books take place almost entirely in a thinly veiled Rockaway Beach, called Stony Beach in the book (even the drive time from the other nearby towns is exactly the same). A few years of establishing that her college is Reed College and three other books which make frequent reference to this, are dashed entirely in the fourth, when the author made the decision to change the college from Reed College to an entirely fictional Bede College. She says that her reasoning was, in part, that she was an alumna of the school, but in the 1970s, and the buildings have shifted and changed, so she didn't want to get the details wrong, but a visit to the school or even online research on their website and mapping apps would have solved that. Her other reason was that she says she didn't want to sully her memories of the place with details of murder. Well, why didn't she think of that three books and several years before?! So, now the reader has this jarring change, with a thin excuse for it, that just makes her sound lazy and a little foolish. The fifth book seems to take place entirely in England, and she officially retires after the fourth, so I don't know that it will come up again. So, why am I continuing to read these? I'm not entirely sure. Like I said, the writing is good, and she writes to an audience she expects to have some literary background, so she doesn't dumb it down or talk down to the reader. I love happy, little murders, and this one is that, which includes faith, knitting, and places with which I am familiar. The moral issues I have with them are still there, and it is getting annoying to keep reading how Emily is a nouveau riche heiress. That doesn't need to be explicitly stated. Or at least, not after the first book when she inherits. There are also some clumsy references to modern "social issues" that don't seem to flow entirely fluidly with the books. They seem forced and are much more like a sermon than she portrays in the scenes involving church. Maybe I am asking too much from modern, light fiction. Nobody claims this as great literature, just a lot of fun.

Linking to Unraveled Wednesday.

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Labels: Around the World Stitch Along, Books, Design, Giftalong, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Grandbaby, Homemaking, Knitting, WIP, Yarn Along

// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 9:06 AM 0 comments