Homemade vs. Pre-Made: Bread Stuffing for Roast Turkey

When it comes to Thanksgiving dinner, my favorite thing my mom makes is her stuffing. Same goes for all three of my brothers. We've always piled it on our plates at Thanksgiving. And once we all started bringing spouses and significant others to Thanksgiving dinner as we grew up, they all dug into the stuffing and loved it, too. It's just that good!

Contrast that with the first time I tried stuffing that's made from a boxed mix (the Mix-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Rhymes with RoveTop.). Ugh. My mom totally spoiled me. I couldn't eat more than a bite of the pre-made stuffing. It was dry and flavorless -- it sort of tasted like it was made of the box it came in. 

Like so many things, the from-scratch version of stuffing is actually really easy to make. My mom's amazing recipe is actually really basic, no fancy ingredients whatsoever. I've never made the boxed kind of stuffing, but I can't imagine that making it from scratch takes that much longer. Seriously. 

Not only does this homemade version of stuffing taste a bajillion times better than the pre-made variety, but it's also much healthier in comparison. The boxed kind is laden with preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated oils. Ick. Another reason to make your own stuffing: it's actually a frugal dish to make (it's a great way to use up stale bread). You likely have every ingredient already in your pantry or fridge. 

My mom's recipe for stuffing comes from an old cookbook from around the 1940s.  The cookbook actually belonged to my grandmother. There's no cover on it anymore, so I can't even mention the title. My mom doesn't really follow that recipe closely anymore -- she just mixes it up, eyeballing the amounts and tasting it as she goes. Like with her potato salad, I decided to document the process and write it all down. The recipe I'm sharing with you today is sufficient for a 10-lb. turkey, but my mom always makes extra, too. 

So, please, for Thanksgiving this week, step away from the packaged stuff and make your stuffing from scratch. You'll never go back to the box. 

Mom's Bread Stuffing for Roast Turkey

(sufficient for 10-lb. turkey)

One 1 ½ lb. loaf of white bread

2 ribs of celery, diced

2 medium carrots, peeled and grated

1/4 cup onions, chopped

1/4 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning

2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, minced

1 teaspoon fresh sage, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup chicken broth

Remove the crust from the bread and cut into a 1-inch dice. White bread does taste best in this recipe, though my mom has used wheat in the past. This stuffing is a great way to use up stale bread. Mom has used up stale hamburger/hot dog buns and other breads (like French bread) in the past with this recipe.

Dice up the celery, chop your onions, and grate the carrots (I just use my box grater). Want to feel all cool and culinary? These three ingredients together are called mirepoix. Now you can regale your Thanksgiving guests with this bit of knowledge. ("Oh this stuffing? I made it from scratch. So simple. First you start with a mirepoix...") 

The orignal recipe my mom referenced didn't call for parsley or sage, but they do add a really great flavor to the recipe. Feel free to omit if you don't have them, but I highly recommend both herbs. 

In a large skillet or pot (I used my Dutch oven) on medium-high heat, melt the butter then saute the celery and onion until soft and yellow. 

Add carrots and herbs to the celery and onion. Stir and cook for a few minutes.

Add the bread and the poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir and add broth. Let the mixture cool a little before stuffing it into a turkey.

Sooo, I actually I don't have any pictures of using the stuffing in a turkey. Let me explain...

The reason is that when I made this batch of stuffing pictured it was to take to a Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws. I didn't have the turkey available. So, yeah, this stuffing can be enjoyed even if it's not actually ever stuffed in the turkey. Just serve it warm (put it in the oven or on the warm setting on a slow cooker) and it's ready to go.

That said, while this stuffing is good when it's not actually stuffed into a turkey, it's even better when it is. When you cook the turkey with this stuffing inside it, the juices from the turkey give the stuffing such a great flavor. Cooking the turkey with stuffing inside does slow the cooking time, but I think it's worth it.

When you stuff the turkey, make sure to do it lightly. Do NOT pack the stuffing into the turkey tightly. If you have extra stuffing, you can bake it in the oven alongside the turkey in a dish. You don't want to understuff the turkey, either -- all the the juices from the turkey can make too little stuffing soggy. From what I've read, a good guideline is 1/2 to 3/4 cup of stuffing per pound of turkey.

There are a few food safety concerns regarding stuffing a turkey. You have to make sure that everything is properly cooked and heated through before you serve the stuffing. All the juices should run clear when the turkey is done (including on the inside where the stuffing is). Stuffing, like the turkey, needs to reach a minimum temperature of 165°F. If the turkey is done before your stuffing has reached this temperature, put the stuffing in a dish and let it cook in the oven longer. 

Another food safety tip: stuff the turkey right before you're going to roast it. Don't let the stuffing sit in the bird for any extended period of time -- that creates a perfect environment for bacterial growth. (For more tips about stuffing turkey safely, you can read here.) 

Once your stuffing has reached the proper temperature, remove from the turkey and put it into a serving dish (alongside a couple of the other sides I've put on this blog: homemade cranberry sauce and the only yam side dish I like). I hope you'll love it as much as my family does!

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Hope your celebration is wonderful!

A Summertime Staple: The Best Classic Potato Salad

I wasn't always a fan of my mom's potato salad.  In fact, I wouldn't touch the stuff when I was a kid. Thing is, I don't know if I even tried it back then. I probably did what my own kids do whenever they see something new on their plates: assume it's gross before even trying it. Another reason I might have avoided it was that I didn't really like eggs when I was a kid, especially the hard-boiled ones.

Fast-forward to my later teenage years when I overcame my prejudice and tried it. When I did, I finally understood why everyone else was heaping it onto their plates at family picnics and barbecues. Mom's potato salad is simple but delicious, balanced in its flavors, and even kind of colorful. I may be just the teensiest bit biased, but I think my mom makes THE BEST classic potato salad. And I won't even go into how it's superior over the store-bought stuff in the deli section of the grocery store or in tall tubs at Costco. I mean, that just goes without saying.

The recipe was my grandma's first (it's actually her birthday today). Even though my grandma passed away many years ago, whenever my mom makes this recipe, it's like part of her is back at the gathering. Last year, when my mom planned a picnic with a few of her brothers, they all requested that she make their mom's potato salad.

I've asked for the recipe a couple times, but my mom doesn't have it written down. She makes it from memory, eyeballing the ingredient amounts and consistency of the salad, tasting it all as she goes. This past weekend she made it again for a Father's Day picnic, so I took notes.  I figured I should write it down, you know, for posterity's sake -- and yours.

Grandma Erickson's Potato Salad, aka The Best Classic Potato Salad 
5 lbs. potatoes (my mom uses Yukon Gold, but you can use any variety), boiled, peeled, and cut into bite-sized cubes
2-3 ribs celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup chives (or green onions), finely chopped
8 large eggs, hard-boiled, finely chopped
1/2 cup sweet pickles, finely chopped, with some of the pickle juice reserved (we used these pickles we canned, but the store-bought sweet pickles work fine, too)
1/2 cup peppers, finely chopped  (we used these pickled peppers, but you can use pickled peppers, pimientos, or fresh red bell pepper)
1 tsp. yellow mustard
1 cup mayonnaise (Mom swears by Best Foods/Hellman's mayo)
2 tsp. salt, plus more to taste
1 tsp. ground pepper

Boil potatoes until soft. My grandma always boiled them with the skins on -- makes them easier to peel. Peel potatoes then chop into bite-size cubes

Boil the eggs. Be sure that the eggs are thoroughly cooked. Word to the wise: before you peel all of them, check one of them first. You wouldn't want to boil a dozen of your chickens' lovely eggs, peel them all, realize that they weren't cooked through all the way, and have your mom tell you that they can't be used. Not that I would know from experience or anything. (ahem.)

Perfectly cooked eggs have a tender white and the yolk is pale yellow, fluffy but firm. Undercooked hardboiled eggs (like the one on the left in the picture above) have a damp yolk that is more dark-gold than pale yellow. Be careful not to overcook them, though, or the yolk will have a harmless-but-ugly grayish-green ring around it  (Helpful tutorial for hard-boiling eggs can be found here.)

Cut the eggs up well, so that they're almost crumbly. My mom likes to use a paring knife to cut the egg up in her hand. I helped her out and did the same, holding it as I cut it the way I would an onion.

IMPORTANT: let the potatoes and eggs cool completely before you make the potato salad. If you don't, it will turn into this hot, mushy mess instead of a cool, refreshing salad. Who wants that?

Put the chopped potatoes in large bowl. Drizzle with reserved pickle juice (and the juice from the pickled peppers, if you're using them), about 1/2 cup (if you're using the juice from pickled peppers, too, do 1/4 cup pickle juice and 1/4 cup pickled pepper juice).

Add salt, pepper, and chives. Stir gently so the potatoes don't get mushy. For the best results, stop at this point and let the mixture chill overnight. This lets the flavors really seep into the potatoes. This step isn't completely necessary, though.

Add the chopped pickles, peppers, celery, eggs, mustard, and mayonnaise. Fold these ingredients in gently, too. Taste the salad and add more salt and pepper, if needed, depending on your preferences. You can also add more mayonnaise, too, if you want a creamier consistency.

Keep the salad chilled until served -- and be prepared for future requests.

High and Dry: Why the Clothesline Deserves a Comeback

Throughout my childhood, we had a clothesline. It was just out the back door of the house, right past the laundry room. In many ways, the clothesline almost seemed like an extension of the house, like an outdoor adjacent room.  I can clearly remember my mom always hanging out the laundry. I loved to play in the damp rows of clean towels, cloth diapers, jeans, and sheets as they billowed in the breeze.  And, to this day, one of my very favorite smells is clean sheets that have been dried on a clothesline; when you lay down to sleep on them the smell is heavenly. If the sun has a smell, that has to be it.  When my family  moved away from the house with the conveniently-placed clothesline, my mom used the clothesline less and less for everyday laundry, though she still used it for sheets and pillowcases.

Despite all my pleasant memories of having a clothesline, I'd never given much thought to having one of my own until a few years ago ago when I got really interested in cleaning naturally. I remember reading books about green cleaning and being amazed/horrified by all the things in dryer sheets.  A ton of chemicals are used make laundry static-free (you can find a list of the ingredients here). I wanted to use a clothesline just to avoid the toxins in dryer sheets! (Sidenote: even if you use your dryer, you don't need dryer sheets or chemical softeners -- vinegar does the trick!)

I've also since learned that dryers are a major energy-using appliance. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the clothes dryer alone uses up around six percent of your home's energy usage. Of all household appliances, the clothes dryer comes in at #2 for using the most energy; the refrigerator comes in at number one. Isn't it interesting though, that, unlike the refrigerator that is on 24/7, the dryer ranks so high even though it is only used in spurts, just a few times a week? I've read that running a clothes dryer is the equivalent of turning on 225 CFL lightbulbs for an hour. And that's for an appliance that we don't have to use.

Let me repeat that. You don't have to use a dryer.

To read the rest of this post -- about why the clothesline has lost its popularity here in America and why it deserves a comeback -- check out my post at The Green Phone Booth (where I contribute every second Monday of the month)!

{This post is linked up to Homestead Barn Hop.}

25 Easy Ways to Conserve Water (and Save Money)

My husband and I spent the last few days away celebrating our wedding anniversary (ten years!). It was lovely. However, one not-so-lovely thing that greeted us upon our return was this:

Apparently, our city is running out of water, saying that if water usage stays at its current level, we'll have water outages. Yikes! I'm still wondering why they're only letting us know this now. I have to say, too, that we're all pretty bummed at our house about how this latest water emergency has basically put the kibosh on our new slip-n-slide. At least we got to use it once this summer...

At any rate, water conservation is something we should all be doing, whether you live in a desert (like me) or where rainfall is plentiful. It's always wise to conserve natural resources, especially when it's a limited one like water. A nice byproduct of water conservation? Saving money! Even though water is fairly cheap (the average price for tap water in the U.S. is $2 per 1,000 gallons), the little ways you save add up over time (I seem to say that about a lot of things, don't I? I'm feeling like that's sort of my motto for this blog.).

Here are 25 easy ways to save water, both indoors and outdoors. And none of them include that adage of "when it's yellow, let it mellow...". That one always sort of grosses me out.



Indoors

Laundry
1.  Try to wash only full loads in the washing machine. If you do a smaller load, try to match the water level to the load size. This simple step can save up to 1,000 gallons of water a month.
2. Wash clothes only when truly dirty. My family routinely re-wears clothing (especially when it comes to church clothes and school uniforms; also especially applicable in the colder months when my kids aren't playing outside all day). If it's not stinky, dirty, or stained, it doesn't need to be washed just yet.
3. Wash your towels and linens less. You don't need a new towel every day (my mom color-coded ours. Each kid in my family got two towels per week in our color; mine were purple. If we left ours on the floor and forgot to hang them up to dry, we were out of luck.). You can also wash sheets less and just switch out pillowcases more often; pillowcases are the dirtiest and most germy part of your bedding, after all.

Bathroom
4. Bathing isn't necessary every single day. I don't shower every day (unless I've worked out or gotten particularly dirty in the yard). My boys don't get a bath every night (again, unless they really need it. Some weeks, they seriously need a bath every night).  Just switching to every other day can make a difference.
5. If possible, bathe your kids together. Not only is it fun for the kids, but it saves a lot of water. The average bath uses about 30-50 gallons of water; if each kid gets an individual bathtub of water, that can translate to lots of water (and money) going down the drain. (This tip also can apply to couples...wink, wink.)
6. When running the water for the bath, plug the tub from the get-go. No need to wait for the water to get hot to start filling it; even if the water's ice cold, the hot water that comes later will balance it out.
7. Use a low-flow shower head. I know, I know...low-flow shower-heads have a (deservedly) bad reputation. The key is finding the right one; ours is awesome. Read here about our low-flow shower head. A four-minute shower uses about 20-40 gallons of water; installing a low-flow shower head can reduce that by 40%.
8.  Shorten your shower by just a minute or two. Shaving 1-2 minutes off your shower can save up to 150 gallons of water (per person) a month. Even I, the girl who loves ridiculously hot and long showers (I do my best thinking in there!), can handle shortening my showers by a minute.
9. I just learned this tip: keep a bucket in your shower. While you're waiting for the water to get hot, let the cold water fill the bucket; use the water in the bucket for other uses, like watering houseplants. I'm honestly thinking of keeping my green watering jug in the shower so I can water the pots on my porch.
10. This is the obvious one: turn off the tap while brushing, washing hands, and shaving. 
11.  The biggest water user in your home: the toilet (as much as 27% of the water in your home is used here). Watch out for leaky toilets. A leaky toilet that runs all day into the bowl can waste hundreds of gallons. To check if you have a leaky toilet, add some food coloring to the tank (as pictured below). If you see that color in the bowl within 15 minutes of not flushing, you have a leak. Such leaks can be pretty easily fixed and most often don't require a plumber's help.

(the food coloring test in action)

12. Stick a filled jar or water bottle in your toilet tank. The jar/bottle displaces some of the water and the tank doesn't refill with as much. As you can see in the picture above, I just reused a pickle jar full of water; it always stays full, even when the tank empties.
13. Don't use your toilet as a garbage can. Put used tissues, smashed bugs, and other things into the regular trash can.
14. Take care of leaky faucets. It usually only requires a new washer (which hardly cost anything -- maybe a quarter) to stop a leaky faucet. If a faucet leaks one drop per second, that's 3000 gallons of water per year that's completely wasted.

Kitchen
14. Store drinking water in the fridge. No need to let the water run at the tap and go to waste until it gets cold.
15.  Reuse drinking cups. My mom got tired of washing tons of cups every day so used to color-code these, too. We each got two cups in our designated color for us to use every day; if we just threw it in the sink after a drink of water or didn't rinse it out after drinking milk, we were out of cups for the day. Totally worked.
16. Instead of running the water and using the disposal for kitchen scraps, trying composting them instead. This doesn't work for everything that goes into the disposal, but it can definitely make a difference. I just keep this compost bin on my counter, next to the sink, to hold scraps for my compost pile outside and my worm composter in the garage. It holds any smells in very well.

17. Wash your produce in large bowl or pan instead of rinsing produce under running water. I did this today after my shopping trip (as you can see pictured above) with all my produce. After I was done, I emptied the water into my flowerpots on the porch.
18.  Reuse cooking water. I've done this a little in the past, but I got some great ideas from this article I found. For example, if you've cooked vegetables, save the water for stock. If you boiled or steamed  some vegetables for a rice or pasta dish, use that water to cook the rice or pasta. Water that has cooked pasta can be used to thin out sauces. Before you save water from boiling vegetables, taste it; only save it if it has some flavor. If the water is tasteless, use it to water plants somewhere.  One other cooking water reuse I employ around Easter: water that's been used to hard-boil eggs is excellent for watering houseplants because of the beneficial calcium.
19. If you use an automatic dishwasher, only turn it on when it's full. If you don't have/use an automatic dishwasher, fill one side of your sink with the rinse water; rinse that way instead of under running water.

Outdoors

20.  During the summer months, let your lawn grow longer (around three inches). Longer blades of grass shade the roots, making it need less water.
21. If you're going to wash your car at home, wash it on your lawn. Also, use a bucket and sponge instead of letting the hose run the whole time. Just five minutes of the hose running uses around 60 gallons. If you do opt to get your car washed professionally, look for a place that recycles its water; the carwash by my house does.

22. Mulch. Mulching has been my gardening revelation this year; I don't know why I haven't mulched in years past. A 2-4" layer of mulch helps your garden not dry out nearly as quickly. I've noticed a big difference in my garden and its need for water since I started mulching.
23. Instead of cleaning your porch and driveway with the hose, use a broom. 
24. Collect rainwater. My dad just starting doing this a month or so ago -- it only took a couple rainy days to completely fill the water barrel by his greenhouse. I'm sure if you live in a wetter climate than ours, your water barrel would fill even faster. I read that during an inch of rainfall, 900 gallons of water flows off a 30 x 50 foot roof! You can find more information from the articles I've pinned, here and here. But it's awesome -- my dad just has a pump hooked up to the water barrel by his greenhouse (he just built it -- I'm soooo jealous) and he waters the plants in there with collected rainwater. Awesome!

25.  Finally, one great way to save water is to spread the word! Share these tips and others you've come across or that you use already. Sure, this step doesn't really save you money but everyone benefits. A little conservation on all our parts can go a long way!

How do you save water in your home? 

Note: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. 

{This post is linked up to Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, From the Farm Blog Hop, and Little House Friday}

A Crumby Post about Two Crummy Loaves of Bread (or, Homemade Breadcrumb How-to)

Talking on the phone and putting a couple loaves of bread into the oven (while keeping a busy one-year-old away from said hot oven) at the same time doesn't work. At least not for me. Those two lovely loaves of bread that rose to the near-perfect height slipped from my hands and went crashing onto the open oven door.

The result were two loaves of weird-looking, very compact bread. I contemplated just throwing the loaves in the trash, a sort of cathartic act for my already frustrating day. Instead, I left them on the countertop, mashed and broken until the end of the day when I was ready to deal with them again.

When life gives you crummy bread, make breadcrumbs.

It seems a sort of postmodern thing to explain how to make breadcrumbs. No doubt my great-grandmother would have laughed at the idea of people buying pre-made breadcrumbs at the store. But I used to buy them. Regularly, in fact.

Making breadcrumbs yourself, though, is really the way to go. And you don't have to have full loaves of crappy-looking bread to make them. My mom taught me an easy tip that she has always used to homemade breadcrumbs: whenever she has bread that has gone stale (like old hamburger or hot dog buns) or whenever only the ends of the bread are left (my husband is the only person I know who actually likes eating a sandwich made from the ends of the bread), she keeps it in a bag in the freezer. Once she's got a good amount, she turns them into crumbs.

Here's how to do it:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Chop the bread into workable chunks -- not too big, but not too small (no need to dice them or anything). This step should only take like a minute or so. If you're using slices of bread or old buns, skip the chopping part and just rip them in half (or quarters, depending on the size).

Put the bread into a food processor and pulse until the crumbs are the size and uniformity you prefer. Some people use the grater attachment, but I prefer using the blade.

Spread the crumbs on an ungreased baking sheet (it doesn't have to be a single layer). I used two baking sheets, putting about a loaf's worth of crumbs on each.

Bake the breadcrumbs 20-25 minutes, checking on them every so often (like every 5-10 minutes). When you check, give them a quick stir around the baking sheet. The breadcrumbs are done baking when they're browned and dried. After I've taken them out of the oven, I like to run my hands over the breadcrumbs to check if they've all dried -- if you come across parts that still feel soft, pop the sheet back into the oven for a few minutes and keep an eye on it.

That's it: breadcrumbs for all your cooking/baking needs! If you want your crumbs to be even finer or more uniform (as you can see, mine vary in size), just run them through the food processor again. You can also season them at this point, too, if you like. I keep mine plain so they're more versatile.

I store mine (once they've cooled) in a plastic zipper bag in the freezer. They'll keep for a while in there, around six months or so.

And, with that, the frustration of failed loaves of bread are forgotten. All's well that ends well.

{This post is linked to Your Green Resource}

Clothesline 101: How to Get Softer Line-Dried Clothes

Spring makes me giddy. The boys and I have spent the last couple days out in the garden, digging, planting, and playing in the mud. How we've needed some fresh air in our lungs and some dirt under our fingernails! One other thing I've been looking forward to through the winter months: the return of the clothesline. I'm telling you, I've missed that sweet dried-on-the-clothesline smell!

A couple years ago when I decided to start hanging our clothes outside to dry, my husband was a little less enthusiastic about the idea than I was. He hated how stiff clothes get when they're dried on a clothesline. To be honest, I felt the same way, but having that line-dried, fresh air smell on our clothes and sheets was worth it to me. {I still don't line dry my towels, though.}

So I understand why some people would skip clotheslines because of the stiff clothes, especially when we're all so used to soft and fluffy laundry. There are ways to keep your laundry from feeling like cardboard when line-drying. Granted, these solutions won't make your clothes feel exactly like they do when they're warm and soft from the dryer, but they do make a difference.

Solution #1 -- Vinegar
Ah, vinegar. *sigh* Is there anything it can't do?  I've been using vinegar in place of dryer sheets and fabric softeners for a couple years now. Vinegar is a natural fabric softener. I keep a jug of white vinegar in my laundry room and whenever I do a load of laundry, I pour about 1/4-1/2 cup of it into the washing machine's agitator (where the fabric softener dispenser is). If your machine doesn't have a designated spot for the fabric softener, you can just pour in the vinegar during the rinse cycle yourself or use one of those fabric softener balls. Don't worry: adding vinegar to your washing machine will not leave your laundry smelling like a salad. The vinegar smell disappears once the clothes are dry.

Using vinegar on your line-dried laundry does help with softening it a bit, but your laundry may still have the roughness and stiffness. Enter Solution #2....

Solution #2 -- The Dryer
It seems odd to use your dryer, I know. Doesn't that defeat the purpose? Nope. Last year, when I mentioned how stiff and rough my baby's line-dried diapers were, my mom suggested doing what she did for years (after my grandma suggested it to her) and throw them in the dryer before hanging them. I'd always heard of tossing laundry in the dryer after they were on the line to soften up dried clothes, but I never did it. When I take my laundry off the line, I usually like to fold it right there and put it the basket (folding laundry is much nicer outside in the sunshine, you know?).  Putting it in the dryer before I put it on the line made more sense to me. So, lately, I've just been putting it in the dryer for ten minutes on the 'fluff' setting. This way, it's not heated and uses hardly any energy, so as not to defeat the money-saving purpose of line-drying altogether.

But does it really make a difference? Does the extra step make clothes softer?  I did some quick tests just make sure. I mean, I was doing the laundry anyway...

First, I tried it with two of my son's shirts. The green shirt was fluffed in the dryer and the orange one was put directly on the line after I took it out of the washing machine. Was there a difference? I'll be honest: not much of one. I had my husband close his eyes and tell me which one was softer: he chose the green one, though he also said that it was "just barely softer."

So tried it again the next day with a batch of cloth diapers.  The diaper on the left was put in the dryer, the one on the right was put directly on the line. I didn't take this picture at an angle -- the straight-from-the-washer diaper was more bunched up and wrinkled than the other, making it look smaller.

Up close, you can see the difference between the two (I took this picture at about the halfway-dry point). The diaper on the right is a lot more stiff and holding all those wrinkles in place.

{Sidenote: the house behind mine is for sale. There have been tons of people looking at the place over the last few days. Of course, right when I was busy taking pictures of wet diapers on a clothesline, I looked up and saw some prospective neighbors looking directly at me, most likely wondering what kind of weirdo takes pictures of wet diapers on a clothesline. Nice.}

Once the diapers were dry, I brought them in for the final test. The diaper on the right, the one that was taken straight from the washing machine, was definitely more stiff than the other. You can actually see how it held its shape on the clothesline by the way the top-center of the diaper sags in the middle like it did while it was hanging. The diaper on the left, the one fluffed in the dryer first, is still a little stiff, but not nearly as much as the other. The difference between the two diapers was much more noticeable than it was with the shirts.

Solution #3 -- Ignore it.
That may seem like not much of a solution, but it is. Sure, the stiff clothes bugged me a bit at first, but it's really not a big deal anymore. Everyone in my house is pretty used to it. Once you've worn the line-dried clothes for a little while, the stiffness goes away anyway. Plus there's a trade-off in all of it: you might not have the softness the dryer produces, but you get that wonderful smell of clothes dried in the sunshine and the breeze. Oh yeah, and it saves money, too (almost six percent of your annual household energy usage). Seems like a pretty decent trade-off to me.

My Herb Garden Staple; or, Why You Should Grow Chives

If I could only grow one herb in my herb garden (which would be sad, I have to say), I would choose chives. I think I may have inherited my enthusiam for them from my mom. Here are a few reasons why I love them and why you should have them in your herb garden, too.

1.  Chives are really, really easy to grow.  
Whether you plant chives by seed or transplant, you won't have much difficulty. Chives sprout easily from seed. Like most plants, chives prefer to grow in rich, moist but well-drained soil, but they're tolerant to other conditions. I can attest to this. My chives have grown, even flourished in my garden boxes when other crops haven't. They've gotten buried in late-spring snowstorms and baked in the summer heat and still produced wonderfully.

2. They are perennial.
Unlike many herbs, chives come back year after year. They're very resilient. My chives usually start coming back to life in March. I've walked to my garden, over my soggy, snow-spotted lawn in early spring to snip chives from my otherwise frozen garden. 

3. They're easy to harvest and use.
Just snip as many as you need out of your garden, rinse, and cut them into tiny pieces before adding them to food. It's recommended to harvest them before they flower, but I've used them after they've flowered. One other great thing about harvesting chives -- they grow back quickly. 

4.  They are versatile.
I use chives in recipes all the time. They give food a nice, mild onion and garlic flavor. I love using them in a variety of foods -- eggs, salads, dressings, salsa, any potato dish, pasta dishes, and lots of other things. If I have a recipe that calls for green onions/scallions, I'll use chives instead if I have them on hand.

4. They preserve really well.
Last fall, I wrote a post about preserving herbs and I mentioned that you can freeze chives. Simply cut up the chives into little pieces, spread them in a single layer on a plate, and freeze. Once frozen, store them in an airtight container or zipper bag. No need to thaw them when you want to use them. When I wrote the post, I hadn't used frozen chives before. I harvested all of my chives in the late fall and froze them. We used them all winter long and they tasted great and worked as well as fresh ones. My mom was so excited to learn this tip and she plans on freezing some of her chives all summer to build a stockpile for the colder months.

5. They're pretty.
They add a nice splash of color to my garden. Plus, they attract bees and I'm all for helping those little bees out.

6. They're good for you.
Since they're part of the allium family of plants, they have certain anticancer, antibacterial, antiviral, and anticlotting properties. However, since they are milder and contain less sulfur compounds, they're not quite as beneficial as their cousins, garlic and onion. Still, chives have high levels of Vitamin C and A, plus essential minerals such as potassium, calcium, and folic acid. They're also said to be mildly antibiotic and can aid digestion when they're sprinkled on food.

7. They're a great herb for the frugal garden.
The plant is inexpensive and will pay for itself since it comes back year after year. The savings is even better if you grow them from seed. I like replacing green onions with chives not only because it saves me the $1-2 dollars for a bundle of green onions, but because I waste less using them. I'll usually only use part of the package of green onions before they wilt and get kind of slimy. With chives in my garden, I get as many as I need as I need them.

8. Grow them anywhere.
In your garden, in a pot on your patio, or in a small container in your kitchen. Anyone can grow these and enjoy all the benefits. Who would have thought a little plant could do so much?

The Quilting Post: The Reveal, Plus 10 Reasons Why You Should Try

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I'd been taking a quilting class as a birthday present from my parents. It was a great learning experience and actually more fun than I thought it would be. Anyway, I've finally finished hand-stitching the binding around the edge of the baby quilt, so it's officially finished!

Drum roll, please...

Ta-da! My first quilt. The top side follows a sampler style (as shown in the book mentioned below). It has a mix a mix of rail fence, log cabin, friendship star, nine-square, and windmill squares.

On the back, I used a light yellow fabric called minkee -- it's really, really soft. It's a little tricky to use, but I know baby will love it.

It's not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. If you look closely, you'll see crooked stitches, seams that don't line up, and random repair jobs on squares. Still, I'm proud of my first effort.

For the class, we did the sampler quilt, as outlined in the book, Start Quilting with Alex Anderson. A couple people in the class complained about the book, but I think it's a great introduction to the art of quilting. The only thing I'm dubious about when it comes to the book is the claim on the cover: '8 Quick Projects'. Quick? Errrr...maybe someday. This quilt was not a quick project for me, but I'm still learning.

Anyway, why mention quilting on this blog? Am I just showing off? What does it have to do with living frugally? Here are some of the reasons why you should consider quilting. Really.

1. Anyone can do it.
When the class started, I was the only student who had recently used a sewing machine. Seriously. My mom wasn't comfortable with hers, the other lady in the class borrowed a neighbor's machine, and the other woman pulled hers out of a dusty box. All four of us made quilts, though -- and they all turned out great. To quilt, you just need to do a lot of cutting and you have to know how to sew a straight 1/4" seam. No fancy skills required.

2. It can be economical.
Please note the emphasis on the word "can".  If you're like me, you can step into certain fabric stores and want to buy everything in them. I can see how someone could get really, really carried away and spend a fortune on quilting. That said, quilting really can be economical if you choose your materials wisely. One of project I've been working on for a while is my denim quilt. I love the idea of reusing old jeans, old ones that you can't even donate, in a practical way.  My quilt is still in the collecting phase, but I think I may start putting some squares together. The quilt will take time to make, but not a lot of money since I'll only need to buy some material for the binding and backing and some batting for the middle.

3. Quilts are practical.
Some sewing projects may seem kind of superfluous, but quilts are practical and useful. Granted, there are some quilt designs that are a little over the top and not necessarily meant for their function (also known as 'art quilts'). That said, I know I plan on frequently using the quilt I just made.

4. It's actually kind of fun.
I was suprised how much I liked doing this. It's satisfying to see the quilt squares come together. Plus, if you're working with someone, it's just fun to chat while you sew. My mom and I spent hours together finishing our quilting class "homework" and it was a nice way to pass the time. The whole concept of those old quilting bees actually makes sense to me now.

5. It can also clear your head and help you relax.
One of the reasons I picked up sewing over a year ago was to clear my head. I was really struggling with anxiety at the time and my mind would just race with worries. When I sew (and now, quilt), I have to focus 100% because it doesn't come naturally to me. I really have to think about what I'm doing. As a result, I forget my worries and feel so much better afterwards. The teacher of the quilting class told us she picked up quilting for the same reason -- she was going through chemotherapy for breast cancer ten years ago and needed an outlet. She said it kept her sane during that trying time of her life. I know working on this quilt helped me focus less on how uncomfortably pregnant I am and how the baby feels like he'll never come. When I finished working on it, I felt clear-headed and ready to face everything else. A stress-reducer that ends in a tangible, beautiful result is a win-win situation.

6.  You create something uniquely yours.
Sure, you could go to the store and buy a quilt made by someone else. I have a beautiful storebought quilt on my bed right now and I absolutely love it. That said, there's something special about having things in your house, whether they be quilts or placemats or a bathroom rug or an apron or whatever, that are one-of-a-kind because you made them. You get exactly what you want when you make it. In our world of mass-produced everything, I find something really satisfying in having something unique in my home.

7. You can go at your own pace.
There's no need to feel overwhelmed with quilting. You can do as much or as little as you want or as your time demands. You can spend an afternoon designing, cutting, and sewing all your squares, or you can just spend an hour putting a couple together. You can leave the project and pick it up whenever. I really like that about quilting compared to full-on sewing projects. With sewing projects, if I don't just get it all done at once, I can lose my place and get frustrated. With quilting, I can do it piece by piece, step by step, whenever I feel like it.

8. Quilts make awesome gifts.
When my son was born, my mom and dad made a beautiful quilt for him out of squares of colorful fabric and various  sock monkey prints.  (Dad is the first quilter of the family -- he's been doing it for years. He even made me a tied quilt when I left for college. I love that guy.).  Mom even handstitched the binding while they were driving to the hospital to meet my little guy, their first grandchild. My sister-in-law also made a lovely star quilt for my my son when he was born and a friend of ours made an adorable frog patchwork quilt for him.  I loved all the gifts I got from people when my son was born, but there was something extra-special about those quilts. Not only are they useful gifts, but really meaningful because quilts take time. Knowing that someone would go to the trouble to devote hours to making them is the best gift of all.

9. It's a link to the past.
I know I'm a little weird about this. I'm an admitted history geek. I get all nostalgic about using a clothesline and canning produce because it feels old-fashioned, like something that my grandmothers did for generations. But I think there's something to be said for making homemaking a type of art. I mean, you have to do it anyway, why not make it enjoyable and beautiful while you're at it. As I sewed the log cabin quilt square design, which is pretty old and traditional design, I couldn't help but feel a connection to the women who came before me.

10. You can create an heirloom.
It doesn't have to be perfect to be at heirloom status. I think that the sentimentality of a quilt made by hand is enough. I know that I still have a couple of my own baby quilts stored away.  One of my future projects is to work with my mom and make a quilt out of all the fabric scraps and remnants we found while cleaning out my grandpa's house after he passed away. My late grandmother was an incredible seamstress and had tons of fabric left from her projects. Lots of the fabric is from the 60s and 70s and I can't wait to put to use all those fun prints in a quilt. This way, all that fabric will get used, plus we'll have a neat, tangible way to remember my grandma.  It's amazing the kind of feeling you can get from something thoughtfully stitched together.

Splurge to Save

I've known my share of both frugal people and cheapskates. The cheapskates I've known are the type of people who will complain about everything and anything at a restaurant or store to get discounts or things for free ("This book has a page with a bent edge. Can I get a discount?"). Or they'll fudge numbers or even lie to save a buck. Not cool.

On the other hand, my mom is one of my examples of how to be frugal instead of cheap. She knows how to be smart with money, but she also knows how to spend it . She knows when something that seems like a splurge is really an investment. Sometimes, she even reminds me to spend a little extra (especially when it comes to getting things for myself).  So that's the topic of this post -- sometimes, a splurge actually saves money. Really. {For a great read about the difference between cheap and frugal people, go here.}

There's a book I've been wanting to read (add it to the list of hundreds of books I want to read...) called Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. From what I've gathered, her book is about how our culture, in the pursuit of a "good deal", will forgo quality.  I watched an interview with the author and one of the things she said that stood out was the old Russian proverb she quoted: "I'm too poor to be cheap."

I know that I've forgone quality in the name of a "good deal". I've bought my share of "disposable" furniture at IKEA. But where will that get us?  In the end,  when we buy things that are cheaply made, we're often wasting more money than we're saving.

 Here are a couple examples of how skimping on things ends up costing more and how "splurges" can actually save.

• My husband grew up in a family of six kids. His dad was an artist (He actually worked on the Smurf cartoons back in the day. How cool is that?). From what my mother-in-law has told about my husband's early childhood, times were very tight financially. However, despite their family's limited budget, she would always splurge to get Hanna Andersson t-shirts for her boys.  For those unfamiliar with the name, Hanna Andersson is a clothing company from Sweden -- their clothing is very well made and it isn't cheap.  The reason why my mother-in-law could justify spending as much as she did for a Hanna Andersson t-shirt instead of one for $2 at a discount store was that the shirts lasted and lasted and lasted. They even held up for the next younger sibling to wear later. This is saying something considering the way boys play. In the end, she saved money because she got more wear out of the quality product. If she'd purchased the cheapest things she could find, they most likely would have had to been replaced more often.

• I am in love with my KitchenAid mixer. At around $250, they're not a cheap kitchen gadget. You could buy a similar mixer for less at a discount store, but chances are, it won't last as long. I have proof because this happened to my mom. My dad knew she wanted a mixer so he got an inexpensive model somewhere else. It worked all right, but the motor burned up after about a year or two. That following Christmas, he ended up getting her the KitchenAid she'd wanted in the first place.

• Have you seen the documentary Food, Inc.? It's a great film and I think everyone should see it. (I wrote a review of it on my personal blog a while ago, if you want my take on the whole thing). One part of it that drove my husband and I absolutely nuts was the family featured in it who rationalized that fast food and cheap products (like soda) were better deals than fresh produce.  Why buy two or three pears for a dollar, when you can get four 20-oz. bottles of Pepsi for the same price? Isn't that more for your money?  Isn't eating fast food more economical because you can feed a family of four for around $10?  Of course not. It seems outrageous when you watch these people, but it's not a totally uncommon mindset.  Instead of purchasing whole foods, so many people opt for processed foods in the name of convenience. More natural, less processed foods sometimes cost more than their mainstream counterparts, too, so many people skip them because they claim they don't have the money in their budget. Instead, I believe it's all about priorities. This is one of the problems I have with couponing -- you can get a lot of food for hardly any money when you use coupons, but very often those foods are overly processed and nutritionally lacking. So, really, are you saving money by buying those kinds of food, food that isn't healthy or filling, that could eventually negatively affect your health? 

But splurging to save doesn't always come down to an issue of quality over quantity. Sometimes, you just have to spend more money up front to save in the long run. Here are a few instances in my own experience:

• I just stocked up on all our cloth diapering supplies for the new baby. All the diapers (a mix of prefolds and pocket), covers, liners, the sprayer, and all the other accessories together ended up costing us a considerable chunk of change Even so, that amount (which ended up being around $400 for everything) will only be a fraction of what we would pay if we did disposables exclusively (most estimates are that it can cost anywhere from $2000-$3000 to use disposables for three years).  I'll also be able to reuse the diapers with baby #3 (oh boy, I can't even think that far ahead...), thus stretching the initial investment and spreading out the savings. {(for a good cost breakdown between cloth and disposables costs, check out this link).
• My husband used to hate shaving until he tried traditional wet shaving. The start-up cost for the razor, blades, soap, and badger-hair brush was around $75, if I remember correctly. That may seem like a lot, but really it isn't. The razor he purchased is made out of metal -- it's actually pretty heavy in your hand, especially compared to the mainstream plastic cartridge razors. I can't imagine him ever getting a new one. Ever.  The blade refills only cost about $1.50 for a box of ten. Waaaay cheaper than the cartridge refills. This razor and shaving method will easily pay for itself. As for the badger-hair brush -- when I was shopping for it (it was for his Father's Day present), I read a bunch of reviews. A quality brush can last for a really, really long time. In fact, the badger hair ones get better with wear -- one reviewer said that he uses his grandfather's shaving brush that's over 50 years old!
• I used to buy parchment paper for lining my baking sheets. When I ran out, I would just use non-stick spray. Then I got a Silpat for around $15. It seemed pricey for a single sheet of silicone, but I haven't purchased a box of parchment paper in years; a can of non-stick spray lasts a lot longer than it used to. I still use that same Silpat all the time. Plus, it gives me better results than the other options I used before anyway.
• Remember my post about the Diva Cup?  Sure, it seems pricey to spend $25 for "that time of the month", but in the end, it cuts your costs dramatically over an extended...ahem...period. {did I really just write that?}
• I know I've already mentioned my KitchenAid in this post, but it's another example of spending a little more up front to save money. I use this machine constantly -- for making bread, whipping up dinners and desserts, and even making ice cream. The thing is, it makes cooking easier and more enjoyable, which makes me much less likely to just buy the premade stuff at the store. Same goes for my
Cuisinart food processor - I use it all the time for shredding cheese, chopping up vegetables, making pie crusts, making salsa, and other cooking processes. I also plan on using it to make fresh baby food. Investing in this kitchen tool saves me the extra expense of buying things "conveniently packaged". 

The best way to sum it all up is in the saying, "You get what you pay for."  Am I against getting a good deal? No way. I love being able to shop sales and use coupons for things I normally buy, the things I would purchase at full price anyway. Do I splurge on everything? Of course not. But I do have my standards. I do my research before I buy. And all of that makes parting with money not quite as difficult.

Hiatus Explained

It's been a couple weeks since the last post.  While the no-bake cookies are delicious, I don't think they're good enough to hold the top spot on my blog for as long as they have.  In any case, I've been meaning to post, but have been totally wrapped up in a class/project.  It's a mix of nesting, mother-daughter bonding, and unexpected craftiness. 

For my birthday (which I celebrated yesterday, hence the all the cake and frosting in the picture above), my mom signed us up for a beginner's quilting class. At first, I was interested -- I don't know if I would have signed up without my mom's suggestion, but figured it would at least be a fun thing to try. Four classes later, who knew I'd find so much satisfaction in piecing together squares of material in various patterns for a baby quilt? (Only 24 more days left until my due date, not that I'm counting or anything)  There's something so old-fashioned and traditional about quilting that totally appeals to me. And like with most sewing projects, I have to concentrate since it doesn't come to me. So, really, it's a sort of brain workout, too.  Plus, it's just fun. A couple times a week, I head up to my cute little hometown, set up all my sewing stuff in a 100-year-old house with my mom, along with our super-patient instructor and two other women, and we just chat as we sit and sew for a few hours. Maybe it sounds kind of grandma-ish, but I love it. Then there's the satisfaction of seeing the project actually come together - not only my own, but also my mom's. My late grandma, an incredible seamstress, would be so proud of Mom and me.

To think that just over a year ago, I was terrified by my sewing machine...

So that's the reason for the hiatus. When I'm not doing my regular, everyday activities (which seem to take much longer when you're waddling around the house), I'm trying to catch up with my quilting class 'homework'. I'll be sure to show you my finished project (keep your fingers crossed for me -- I'm going to machine quilt it tomorrow and I'm a little freaked out), along with some insights and ideas of how you can give this generations-old art a try.  Then I'll be back to regularly posting my parsimonious ideas. Well, at least until the end of March.

"It's Chowda!"* -- Easy and Delicious Clam Chowder

When I was growing up, chowder was one of my mom's go-to recipes partly because all of us kids liked it and partly because it was so inexpensive to make. I love this recipe not only because it's inexpensive and one of my mom's recipes, but because it's really, really easy to make. And in the wintertime, it's hard to resist a steaming bowl of chowder for dinner.

There's a good chance you have just about everything to make clam chowder on hand, with the exception of the clams. I like to keep a couple cans of clams in my pantry during the winter so I can whip up this dinner easily. Here's the list of ingredients, along with the measurements:

2 cups potatoes, finely chopped
1 cup celery, finely chopped
1 cup carrots, finely chopped
2 7-1/2 oz. cans of chopped clams
1 quart (4 cups) of half-and-half (I didn't use half-and-half. More on that in a moment...)
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
Salt and pepper (and other seasonings. Again, more on that later....)

Cut up all your vegetables. In a large pot, combine vegetables with clam juice (don't add the clams) and enough water to barely cover the vegetables.

When the vegetables are tender, drain, but be careful to reserve a cup or two of the broth. You use the flavorful broth to adjust the consistency of the chowder before serving.

Next, make the white sauce.  First, you'll start with a roux by melting the butter over medium heat then adding the flour. Let the roux cook for about a minute. Add the half-and-half.  Stir constantly with a whisk until thickened and bubbling. Getting it to this stage took a little over five minutes for me.

Note:  I don't know how often my mom even used half-and-half, though her recipe says so. On the recipe I copied from her, she added "2% milk works".  I figure she wrote that because that's what she had on hand whenver she made chowder.  Yesterday, when I made this batch, I used the rest of the whole milk I had on hand (about a cup) and mixed it with 3 cups (or so) of 1% milk. Worked fine. Granted, the sauce will be creamier and will thicken more quickly if you use the half-and-half or even the 2% milk, but you can improvise.

Pour the cream sauce over the cooked vegetables. Add clams. Stir. Adjust consistency with the reserved cooking water.

Season to taste.  My mom's recipe doesn't have specific amounts for seasoning. She just listed some suggestions: salt, pepper, celery salt, garlic salt, parsley flakes, sugar, and red wine vinegar.  Personally, I think this stage is kind of fun because I get to pretend I'm some sort of gourmet chef, adding a dash of this and a splash of that.

In the batch I made yesterday, I used kosher salt, freshly ground peppper (as you can see above), celery salt, parsley flakes, just a dash of sugar, and few good splashes of red wine vinegar. Just do a little bit of seasoning at a time, taste it, and add more if necessary. You can also add more cooking water, depending on how thick or thin you like your chowder.

And that's it. Delicious, homemade clam chowder.  So good, so filling. Even better when served in a bread bowl. It's one of Mom's classic recipes for a reason.

*"Showdaire? It's chowda!"  If you caught that Simpsons reference, you're a friend of mine. Love those classic episodes.