Don't Fear The Sticker

We've all seen them in the grocery store. Bright neon orange stickers on clearance items. Some people perceive that orange as a warning to stay far away, that food is obviously rotten and will poison your whole family!

Of course that's the farthest from the truth. Hunting for the orange sticker can save you substantial sums of money, added up over time! Stores will mark down items that are nearing their "Best By" date...which is something totally different than a date where the food magically becomes poisonous garbage. Granted, some of this food you should eat as soon as possible, such as marked down dairy products, or freeze it (which you can do with milk and cheese without loss of quality). Meat products can be immediately frozen if you don't plan to eat them immediately, and they maintain their quality for quite a while.

 Even eggs, which you might shy away from, are hardly "bad" on their "Best By" date. While it's true that the eggs in your grocery store may be weeks old already, eggs can go a very long time as long as they're refrigerated. True, eggs can be stored at room temperature, but this will hasten the aging of the egg, and it's a good bet that any grocery store egg is already elderly, so it might be a good idea to refrigerate them.

An interesting aside: Old eggs peel easier than fresh. So if you're thinking of making deviled or hard-boiled eggs, the older eggs are a better choice! (the egg actually shrinks inside the shell with time, separating from the membrane, so the shells come away easier).

As long as the packaging isn't obviously swollen with gasses produced by decomposition, or the product doesn't appear moldy or grey or green, (in which case it shouldn't even be on display!), nearly-outdated food is perfectly fine, and can save you valuable grocery-buying dollars every day!

Best Bread Recipe On Earth

This has been making the rounds on Facebook, it sounded so good and easy, I had to give it a try, and what do you know, it produces the most wonderful quality crusty wonderful bread and it's ridiculously simple! This version is slightly tweaked from the Facebook recipe, but you may do with it as you will.

CRUSTY DUTCH OVEN BREAD

• 3 cups flour (I use one cup whole wheat, two cups all-purpose unbleached)
• 1/2 tsp quick yeast
• 1-1/2 tsp sea salt (you can adjust up or down, as you like, but the salt does help the dough rise)
• 1-1/2 cups water

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients. Add water and stir until blended.
2. Cover bowl with plastic and put in a warm spot to rise for 12-18 hours. This I do the night before I plan to bake it  and put it near the wood stove or on top of the hot water heater, depending on the season.
3. When dough has risen, punch it back down and form it into a ball and cover with plastic to let it rise for another 30 minutes. 
4. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put a COVERED cast-iron pot in the oven to heat up with the oven for 30 minutes (I've not tried an enameled cast iron pot, just a regular one)
5. After 30 minutes, carefully place the risen dough into the cast iron pot, cover, and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the pot lid and continue baking for another 15 minutes
6. Remove bread from pot, let cool for 10-15 seconds, if you can wait that long, then plunge your bread knife into that blissfully crunchy crust and slather generously with butter.

Being home-made, this bread doesn't stay fresh that long, maybe 3 days tops, but if it goes stale, imagine what wonderful bread pudding or croutons it would make. I can only imagine, because it doesn't hang around more than three days here!

Expo Fact-o

So sorry for the months' delay between posts. It's a simple case of "I Forgot My Password", but I wrote it down this time, and ready to continue expounding on getting the most out of life for the least amount of money!!

Expos!

I cannot emphasize enough the benefits of regularly attending expos held in your local area! Oh, yes, there's the "Support Your Local Business Community" angle, but more to the point of this blog, attend for.... the free stuff!

Home Expos, Healthy Living Expos, Business Expos, Recreational Sport Expos, You-Name-It Expos, chances are there will be free swag at each and every one of them. And even if you do have to pay an admission price to get in, chances are the bounty you shall receive will more than make up for the outlay of cash. 

My personal favorites to attend are the Business Expos put on by local Chambers of Commerce. Be it a city Chamber, or a county or regional Chamber, there's bound to be one nearby. And I'm pretty sure these are free admission; after all, the point is to promote their businesses!

You can do pretty well at even smaller exhibitions, in reaping free office supplies (pens, pencils, post-it notes, note pads, etc), kitchenware (travel mugs, water bottles, cups, can cozies, measuring spoons), personal hygiene products (hand sanitizer, facial tissue, lip balm, tooth brushes, eyeglass cleaner), clothing (well, t-shirts and maybe hats if you'e lucky), and certainly more tote and shopping bags than you can shake a stick at! Certainly just as good as if not nicer than the reusable shopping bags one would pay actual money for!

I'm almost reluctant to admit I haven't had to buy a tooth brush in 3 years, owing to the generosity of multiple local business expo exhibitors!

And the food, oh my goodness, the food! Local restaurants are eager to share their wares with expo attendees, you can enjoy all manner of foods, from pizza to grilled scallops to sushi to BBQ to soups and chili to... you get the idea! Cookies, cake, candy, coffee, bottled water, it's easy to fill up those free tote bags without hardly any effort! 

Of course there's the added bonus of entering all the free drawings many of the vendors offer. With luck you could win a gift basket, a gift card, a membership in a health club, a weekend at a resort, any number of prizes. But truthfully you're most likely to win a bunch of spam in your email inbox, but that's easily remedied by hitting the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of those emails if you find them annoying. 

And who knows, you may actually make some worthwhile contacts with local businesses that might prove valuable to the both of you down the road!

Expos! Attend one today!

Time To Tap The Sap!

A few years ago if someone told me I could make my own maple syrup at home, I'd had called them crazy! Everybody knows making maple syrup is a huge operation! You need acres of Sugar Maples, you need tractors or teams of Belgian horses, a huge cooking operation, bottling facilities; everyone knows that!

Luckily a friend of mine happens to run a small commercial "sugar bush" operation near here, with a couple hundred trees and a small outbuilding for a "sugar shack", and with her guidance, I learned that I, and you, could make wonderful maple syrup at home. I mean, after all, the Native Americans were making maple sugar long before the first Belgian horse stepped hoof on the continent!

First thing you'll need, obviously, are maple trees. Preferably more than one. But they don't need to be Sugar Maples. Any Maple tree can produce sap that can be cooked down into sweet syrup. It's just that the Sugar Maple has the highest sugar content, so less cooking time. I've made wonderful syrup from my Silver Maples right here in the back yard. 

The trees should be at the least 10" in diameter. If you tap a younger tree, it'll become stressed and weakened over time and could eventually die. Larger, older trees, with diameters of 2 feet or more, can support multiple taps. 

Some people have trouble telling what kind of tree it is in late winter, but if you're familiar enough with your yard or property to know where the maples are, you're all set. Don't be like me and try to tap what turned out to be an Elm tree! Even worse, it was a DEAD Elm tree! But in late winter, they do look alike! :) I'd wondered why I never got any sap from that one.

You do need to invest in some basic equipment. Bare bones would be a drill with a 1/4" bit, and Spiles, or taps. A cordless electric drill would be ideal, but lacking that, I personally use my father's old bit and brace from way back when. It works, and that's good enough for me!

You'll need something in which to collect the sap. I'd been using commercially-available plastic bags and bag holders, which you can obtain at farm stores (Tractor Supply Co. carries them starting mid-winter, or check local feed stores), mail order syrup supply companies, and sometimes at auctions. The metal parts run around $8 apiece, but they'll last forever, and pay for themselves in just a year if you consider a pint of maple syrup sells for around $8.00. But if you're not sure you want to invest, I also use plastic gallon milk jugs with a hole cut in the side near the top with the lids on to keep debris out. The main drawback is that it only holds less than a gallon, and when the trees really get going, they can overflow! Since I now have more taps than bags, I use the milk jugs on the trees closest to the back door where I can keep an eye on them!

You'd also need a large 5 gallon bucket to store the gathered sap in, or something similar. CLEAN and food-grade, by all means!

I gather the sap at least once a day, usually in the evening when the sap is done flowing. Sap actually flows UP in the morning, and then drops down to the roots in the evening when it gets cooler. When the days and nights are both warm, the sap goes up into the branches, and stays there 'til autumn. That's when syruping is over for the season.

Once gathered, the sap needs to be boiled down to a syrup. I believe the ratio is 50 gallons of sap to make on gallon of syrup. Ballpark. If I've got a lot of sap, like some wonderful years, I employ a large galvanized pan and my back-yard firepit for the main part of the cooking: Some people use an old stove in the garage, or an electric hot plate. Some have used a turkey fryer. If you've got the time and don't mind a lot of moisture in the house, you can use the kitchen stove. If I can, I prefer to use the firepit until it gets down quite a bit, then I'll move it inside to evaporate further on the wood stove overnight. And finally I will move it to the kitchen stove for a drastic boil down to lovely syrup. Granted after a week or so of this, my wallpaper is buckling and there's water running down the insides of the windows, but that's a small price to pay.

There are fancy meters and equipment you could buy to measure the sugar content of your syrup. If you'd had some experience in candy-making, you can tell by looking when it's down to a proper syrup consistency. When countless tiny bubbles appear, that's when I take it off the heat and pour it into quart canning jars for the time being. And there it sits 'til the Holidays, when I'll re-heat it and put it into cute bottles for Christmas gifts. If it lasts that long and doesn't end up in my coffee or in some oatmeal before then!

If you've got some maples in the yard, why not give it a try? Educational, fun, and boy, will you burst with pride with your end product! And impress anyone who'll listen when you tell them you did it yourself!

This photo shows the variations in syrup colors over a season. The early syrup is lighter and golden. As the temperatures warm, the syrup darkens as the sap has more minerals in it. The sediment at the bottom of the jars are those minerals, or "sand" as it's called. Unless you have a sophisticated filtering system, you'll have to live with it. I'm just careful when I pour it out so as to not disturb the sediment, and throw it away. The two jars on the right were just-filled, so the minerals hadn't settled to the bottom yet. But they will.

There are countless detailed web sites on the particulars of syrup production for the home owner or small scale hobbyist, I recommend checking them out for the particulars. But it's just so neat that anybody with a maple tree can pretty much make syrup!

One Lumps or Two?

A long time ago, in a previous life, I was dining at a rather pricey restaurant downtown with friends (that WAS a long time ago!). It was a sort of a "bistro" style eatery, with fair trade coffee and locally-sourced greens in the salads. Yeah, one of those. But the thing I remember the most about that meal was the little ceramic cups presented with the coffee, containing hand-crafted sugar cubes!

They weren't cubes per se, more ovoid lumps, with rough shapes and edges, and a cheerful rustic feel that bordered on the pretentious. 

For no reason whatsoever, I was remembering that evening the other day, and those rustic sugar lumps, and I knew they were embarassingly simple, so why not give it a try? So I did!

With about a cup of granulated sugar in a small mixing bowl (no real measurements here really, that would fly in the face of the rustic-ness of the project), I added enough cold water to get the sugar to the consistency of wet sand. Not so much that it melted the sugar, just to get it wet and so it stuck together.

I didn't have the patience or motivation to try to form actual egg-shapes, I  was content with half-spheres created with a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon. It was simple enough to scoop up 1/2 teaspoon of the wet sugar, press it into the spoon, then gently tap it out onto a ceramic plate (you could use parchment paper, a Silpat(tm), or any non-porous surface), and let dry an hour or more. 

Once dry and hardened, I brushed off the crumbs, filled the sugar bowl, and enjoyed a perfectly smug cup of tea using my pretentious little sugar lumps. 

Get A Little Culture

Everybody loves yogurt! If you don't, you should! The health benefits are legion, it's tasty, and yes, it's simple to make at home!

I got sick and tired of watching my favorite unflavored/plain yogurt price climb, and with a tiny bit of research, discovered hey, I can make it myself!! A quick search for those home yogurt machines knocked me back to reality...dang, those aren't cheap!!!  It's cheaper to just buy the stuff I guess. Darn.

Then one day a light went on. Girlfriend...you have a WOOD STOVE! And the rest is history!!

I found that a container of yogurt culture situated about a foot to the side of a burning wood stove can make for a very efficient yogurt maker, without electricity, and without an expensive kitchen gadget. But first, let's talk about actually making yogurt!

It's easy...ridiculously so! It doesn't have to be fancy, it doesn't have to be raw organic grass-fed yak milk, you don't need expensive yogurt cultures from the hippie health food store. I use pretty much whatever milk I have extra of. Recently I bought two gallons of skim milk on sale, and half of one of those gallons I poured into a large glass measuring cup (it's an 8 cup measure...BIG!). The other half I put in the freezer (skim milk freezes great, without separating and turning lumpy like higher fat milks will when frozen). The other gallon I'm just drinking I guess.

So with roughly 6 cups of milk, I microwaved on HIGH for 15 minutes, or until the milk temperature reached 180 degrees f. Then let it cool down to between 90 degrees and 110 degrees.

Meanwhile, for a starter, I use existing yogurt (it has to have been made with live cultures! Very important). You can save out a few tablespoons from previous yogurt batches to start the next one, once you get going.

(*Note: Some months ago I lucked into two quarts of near-expired Dannon Plain Yogurt...I filled a silicone muffin pan with the yogurt, and froze it. Then popped the frozen yogurt muffins out into a zip bag and keep it in the freezer to use as starter for future batches of yogurt.)

When the milk has cooled, mix in the yogurt starter. It has to be cooled or the heat can kill the good bacteria. Stir it in good, then pour into containers with some kind of lid. I just use plastic cottage cheese containers. The lid is to keep dust and whatnots out. Then set it near your heat source, with a thermometer so you can monitor the air temperature. If you have a wood stove or fireplace, you're set to go!

It takes between 4 and 8 hours for the yogurt to set up into the "curds" and "whey". Some people drain off the whey, but that's so full of good things, I just stir it back together. The longer you let it sit, the tangy-er the yogurt. Refrigerate and chill before eating.

I also discovered that if you drain the yogurt with cheese cloth and let it sit in a strainer with a weight on top (in the cheese cloth) in the refrigerator, after a couple of days you'll end up with an interesting soft yogurt "cheese". I've used it as a base for chip dips, and "cheese spreads" by adding flavorings, herbs, seasonings, chopped chives, etc. And it keeps quite a while!

I've not had any luck using an oven set on "warm" as it's usually too warm. If you have a gas oven, maybe the pilot light will be warm enough, but I'd check that out before actually trying a batch. You want the temperature to be in that 100 degree range, not getting over 110 degrees. A kerosene or space heater MAY work but I'd worry about the temperature and the fire danger. If you  have an old-timey steam radiator system, that might work.

But don't despair if these won't work. If you have the financial means, go ahead and invest in an actual yogurt maker appliance, they work great!! I was lucky enough to find one at a yard sale for $10, and that's what I use in the warmer months when the wood stove isn't in use. Thrift stores and auctions are additional places to find them cheap.

The nice thing about your low-cost quarts of home-made yogurt is that YOU can control the flavors and ingredients. The commercial stuff  can be a travesty, full of gelatin and cellulose and high-fructose corn syrup at worst. One of my favorite combinations is yogurt, a dash of vanilla extract, and a tablespoon of strawberry jam. Better than anything commercial, in my opinion! Add in some frozen blueberries and raw sunflower seeds, you've got an awesome snack!

Like with any home cooking, use common sense. Your home-made yogurt should smell like yogurt. If it smells off, or starts growing alien life forms, THROW IT AWAY! It should keep for a couple of weeks in the closed container in the fridge.

Never hurts to gain a little culture in your life!

Warm Fuzzies at ALDI

Our area just recently added an ALDI grocery store, which, I'm learning, is a pretty big deal. Don't want this to be an ad for ALDI, but let's just say I plan to shop there a lot!

One of their things is that you have to put down a 25 cent deposit on the shopping carts. They have devices on the handles that "lock" them together, and to unlock one for your use, you have to insert a quarter. Then to get your quarter back, you have to return the cart to the store instead of leaving it in the parking lot. So I keep a special ALDI Quarter in the car just for this purpose.

Was walking into the store recently (they had gallons of milk for $1.89, who could resist THAT??), and had my quarter at the ready... and the first cart locked in to the others...had a quarter in the slot. The previous person had left their quarter, I'm assuming as a "pay it forward" kindness gesture! Of course I used that cart for my shopping, and beat back the little devil on my shoulder urging me to take the free quarter. No, the warm fuzzies I felt by that stranger's two-bit generosity won me over, and after my shopping I returned the cart and locked it...and left the quarter in the slot for the next person.

It's hard to think of a discount grocery store bringing out the best in people, but this little quarter protocol seems to do just that. Pay it forward!