Another Broke Mom

Product Review: Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce

2009-11-06T08:42:00.009-09:00

Spaghetti is a great budget dinner. Not expensive, simple to make and full of vegetables, it fills the bill for tasty, cheap, and nutritious. Somewhere along the way I was trained to think that canned spaghetti sauce is evil: if you don't make your own you are doing your family a grave disservice if you buy anything but jarred sauce. And since great sauce is apparently something only tiny ancient Italian nanas can do well, you'd better buy it in the jar or risk terminal embarrassment. (My husband, by the way, makes phenomenal sauce, but that's another blog.)

Some time last year I was shopping on my usual tight budget and I see Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce (in a can, oh horrors!) on sale for $1.25. Looking closer I see it's the same size as the usual jar of sauce, which is on sale two for $5. I'm willing to give most products a try if it might save me money, so into the cart it went, hidden behind the paper towels to cover my shame at buying canned sauce.

It seems to be the great unsung hero of the Hunt's tomato line - it's not even listed on their website. I never see coupons for it, although you will see it on store specials. It's always on the bottom shelf in the pasta isle, although it comes in a lot of varieties so it takes up a fair share of shelf space.

Opening it, it's a nice thick sauce. It's not chunky, but you can see herbs in it. It doesn't look like plain old tomato sauce. It's not that horrid orange-pink that indicates it's full of sugar and fillers, it's a lovely tomato red. Click on the picture - that is not a high-speed action shot, it's really that thick. I should have done video.

The flavor is quite good, I'd put it up against most of the fancy brands. It's not overly sweet, which is great as I hate super-sugared sauces like Chef Boy-R-Dee. Nor is it so tart that it makes you pucker. Truly a nice balance. I neglected to get a picture of the ingredients and nutrition information, but this is just nice sauce without a lot of junk and with all the nutrition you'd expect from a quality food. It does have corn syrup, but it's usually 3rd or 4th on the list of ingredients instead of right up top. It really doesn't even need "doctoring" unless you're a garlic nut or want to add meat.

The price point is very attractive: About $1.50 normally and $1 on sale for a 26 ounce can. Jarred sauce runs about $2.50 on sale and sometimes over $4 regular price. Catch some pasta on sale and you've got dinner for four for two dollars.

Another budget bonus: it's less expensive than plain tomato sauce. You can use this anywhere you might use tomato sauce: lasagna, baked noodle casseroles, pizza sauce, over a meatloaf. Spaghetti sauce is quite versatile: I've added chicken and broccoli with egg noodles for a pasta bake and the family loves it. Use it on pita bread for kid friendly pizzas.

Final Review: Sheer awesomeness. This is a quality product that is incredibly affordable. I've stopped making my own sauce because this product is not a compromise and it's cheaper than I can make it. This is a permanent addition to my pantry; whenever it's on super sale I get as many as I can afford, and I don't hide it in the cart. When you eat a lot of casserole, this can break up the monotony nicely! Go buy some! I've enjoyed every variety I've tried, but my favorites are: Cheese and Garlic, Classic Italian and Mushroom.

Penny Pinching: Fluff Coffee

2009-11-03T18:38:00.007-09:00

The Twitterverse is on fire with Starbucks holiday coffees. I have been just dying for a Gingerbread Latte, but we're in penny pinching mode to make a nice Christmas and a $4 coffee just isn't in my foreseeable future.

Fortunately you can fake a latte. Ideally you should have an espresso machine with a steamer and some really good espresso roast coffee. I've faked it with a little french press I got at the recycle pad and a milk frother my sister gave me. But let's do it with nothing but this can of MJB I've got sitting here and the stove.

Making "Espresso"
In your regular drip coffee maker, use 1/4 cup coffee grounds and 1/2 cup water. This makes 2 - 4 ounces of coffee concentrate, about two shots. Be warned this also concentrates the caffeine (oh darn!).

"Steaming" Milk
Some food safety warnings here: between 41F and 135F milk is considered unsafe. It's really easy for bacteria to grow in it. You'll want to heat your milk to at least 140F. On the other end of the thermometer, the scalding point of milk is 180F. You don't want to scald it, it changes the taste. My sister, a coffee shop manager who trained at Starbucks, tells me that Starbucks makes their milk about 165F, with a kid's cup at 140F and extra hot at 170-175F. You can use any cooking thermometer (like a meat or candy thermometer) to monitor the temperature.

That's all a bit complex. I heat mine until I can see it steaming. In the microwave, heat 1 cup of milk a minute at a time until it's hot enough. On the stove top, use a metal pan and low heat so it doesn't scorch. When it's hot use a whisk (or even a fork) to whip it nice and frothy.

You can adjust the coffee and milk amounts until it suits you. Pour the hot frothy milk into the hot coffee and ta-dah! You've got a basic latte. (Trivia: A latte is about 1:3 coffee to milk with a little foam. A cappuccino is 1:1 coffee and milk with lots of stiff foam.)

Fancy Coffee
The reason we all go to Starbucks is for the indulgent fru-fru flavored coffees. Here's where it gets a little tougher on a budget, but it's not impossible. You can, of course, buy the coffee syrups fairly inexpensively (try your local warehouse store instead of a specialty shop). Whipped cream is cheap, buy a house brand in the spray can and it'll last almost forever in the fridge if you never let it sit out.

Vanilla Latte
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
sugar to taste

You can also make your own syrup by flavoring simple syrup:

Vanilla Syrup
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Stir the sugar into the boiling water until it's dissolved. Add the vanilla extract. Reduce heat and cook a bit to reduce it, stirring constantly. Cool and store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. Add one or two ounces to a latte for flavor.

You can skim some calories on an eggnog latte by getting fat free eggnog. It won't be as thick, but the flavor is still there.

Eggnog Latte
for the milk use:
1/2 cup eggnog
1/4 cup milk
Combine the eggnog and milk and heat.
Add coffee.
Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg if desired.

This is my absolute favorite. I need to get some more ginger!

Gingergread Latte
For this one you really need a syrup.

Gingerbread Syrup:
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the water, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla in a small to medium saucepan. Medium is probably better since the syrup could boil over the top. Bring mixture to a boil then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. When done, pour into a melt-proof container and let cool. It will thicken a bit more once cooled.

Add 2 ounces to your latte. Top with whipped cream and cinnamon, if desired.

Another favorite, and Starbucks always runs out way too early in the season.

Pumpkin Spice Latte #1
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon canned pumpkin
1 tablespoon sugar or sugar substitute - you can halve this amount
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

For the steamed milk, combine milk, pumpkin and sugar and heat as noted above.
Top with whipped cream and sprinkle pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, or cinnamon if desired.

Pumpkin Spice Latte #2
Make a pumpkin spice syrup.
1c sugar
1c water
2 tablespoons pumpkin spice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Stir the sugar into the boiling water until it's dissolved. Add the pumpkin spice and vanilla. Reduce heat and cook a bit to reduce it, stirring constantly. Cool and store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Add one or two ounces to your latte. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, or cinnamon if desired.

This one's for Gnobrin, my favorite Starbucks addict:

Peppermint Mocha or White Chocolate Mocha
I tried this with peppermint candy and peppermint extract. It really needs a syrup too. Again, we just flavor simple syrup.

Peppermint Syrup
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon peppermint extract

Stir the sugar into the boiling water until it's dissolved. Add the peppermint extract. Reduce heat and cook a bit to reduce it, stirring constantly. Cool and store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

To make a mocha, add chocolate or white chocolate syrup to your milk. You can also melt 3 tablespoons of chocolate or white chocolate chips in your milk. I like a delicate peppermint flavor, so I only add one ounce of syrup. Top with whipped cream.

If you want to get really really fancy, make peppermint whipped cream.

Peppermint Whipped Cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons totally pulverized peppermints
1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Beat the cream, pulverized peppermints and sugar until stiff peaks form.

This one is just for Kiara.

Chai Latte
For this you need a Chai syrup concentrate. You guessed it, we're going to make simple syrup again! In this case it's not quite as sweet, it's more like the base for sweet tea.

Chai Tea Syrup
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
2-3 Chai Tea bags. I prefer Tazo, which is Starbuck's brand

Boil the water and add the sugar, stirring until it dissolves. Add the tea bags and turn off the heat. Let it steep until it's really strong, 15-20 minutes.

For sweetened Chai, add hot water to about 2 ounces of the syrup. For a Latte, add hot frothed milk.

A Note on Ounces, Shots, and Tablespoons
Those all seem to get bandied around a lot in coffee talk, don't they? It's pretty easy: there are two tablespoons in an ounce (by measure, not by weight). 4 tablespoons = 1/4 cup = 2 ounces.

A "shot" is a little vague; in coffee, my sister tells me, it can be an ounce to an ounce and a half depending on the coffee strength. If you're using a shot glass, be aware that they come in measurements from 3/4 of an ounce to 1 1/2 ounces. Get your tablespoons or measuring cup out if you want to know what size it really is.

Penny Pinching: Snacks to Go

2009-11-01T22:11:00.009-09:00

If you're a parent, you're busy. Seems you're always on the go for one thing or another, and at some point those kids need to be fed! How often do you find your self going for pre-fab snacks for convenience? It's pretty easy, what with 100-calorie packs being all the rage and those big cups of Nabisco snacks lurking right at the checkout next to the animal crackers. Problem is, they're expensive.

Take those handy little 100 calorie snack packs by Nabisco et. al. You're paying roughly three dollars for six snacks - 50 cents per. It doesn't sound bad unless you have a couple of kids eating them a couple times a day. And those cups of Teddy Grahams? I approve of Teddy Grahams as a snack, but there are three servings in those cups! Again, you're spending about 50 cents a serving.

It's really easy to make your own snack packs, it just takes a little preparation. The first thing you need is a box of snack-sized zipper-close bags (they're about half the size of a sandwich bag). Walmart's house brand is about $1.50 for a box of 50. Then get some snacks. Look for store-brand alternatives to the expensive national brands. Fred Meyer and Safeway have snack crackers and snack grahams in fun shapes that run about $2.00 a box on sale, and there's 9 servings in a box, so do this just once and you've paid for the bags.

You can just toss handfuls into bags, or check the nutrition information on the box for serving sizes. If you're counting calories, do the math and make your own 100 calorie packs. Spend a half hour on the weekend and fill a box or bin with your own pre-packed snacks and you're prepared for lunches, on-the-go snacks, and portion controlled munchies.

I like to avoid anything that needs refrigeration so that if you don't use the snack it doesn't go to waste, but that doesn't mean that you're stuck with crackers. Hit the fruit section for raisins, dried cherries, and yummy yogurt covered fruit. You can get a big bag of store brand raisins much cheaper than the national brand of little raisin boxes, and they won't go stale in a zipper bag like they do in a box.

Other easy and inexpensive snack ideas are dry cereal, popcorn, pretzels, and Chex Mix (make your own, it's tastier and more nutritious). I've even made cookies, frozen them two to a bag, and grabbed those on the way out the door (they thaw very fast).

Halloween!

2009-10-31T09:17:00.007-08:00

I love Halloween. I used to spend months designing and constructing costumes. Not so much any more, things are just too busy with the boys. Junior is finally old enough to have an idea about Trick or Treating, and to enjoy wearing a costume. Kiddo's been wound up for it all month!

Kiddo settled on a Bakugan costume. Bakugan is a trading card game with creatures that fold up into balls. Very cool, actually. We don't get the show here but he recognized the main character right off. For Junior I saw this very cool Wubbzy costume (a Nick Jr. show), but Walmart wanted $35 for it. Since Wubbzy is basically a big yellow square, I hit up the remnants bin at JoAnn's and made the costume for less than $7.

We've had a lovely long fall. The snow finally hit this week, and while it's staying above zero there's been a bitter wind. Now, back in my day we Trick or Treated in all kinds of temperatures (the first time I really remember it was -30F), but I'm a wimp now so we're looking for alternatives. Last year we went to the malls, and it was just insane. We just stood in long lines for candy; it was boring and noisy, and No Fun.

Local schools to the rescue! Junior's school had a Fall Carnival last night. Classes and clubs had activity booths that cost 25 cents (or you bought tickets) to raise money for field trips and such. We had a great time! This afternoon my old high school is also having a Halloween Carnival, so we're going to that one too. I really like getting more than one wearing out of the costumes.

Here's some pictures from last night.

Required poses with Storm Troopers!

Kiddo climbing the "web". He got way up there!

The whole family. This is an awesome picture, and my prize for the evening.

Coming soon: A review of the Swifter Wet Jet Automatic Mop, and a re-blog of my fruitcake-haters fruitcake.

Review Follow-Up: Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner

2009-10-22T09:45:00.005-08:00

Last week I blogged my trials and tribulations replacing my beloved Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner. The device gave me fits, but I was beyond pleased with the level of customer service I received from SC Johnson.

It took six days for my replacement coupons to get here (rather than the 10 - 14 they said). The full-cost device coupon was for $17, which concerned me as I paid over $21 for mine, but they sent two free refill coupons when I was only promised one. I also received a coupon book for SC Johnson higher-end cleaning and fragrance products. I was able to get a new device at Walmart for less than the $17.

Opening the box, the first thing I notice is it's not the same as the one that was dead upon opening. The unit is subtly more streamlined, but what jumped out was that the hanger assembly was very different. This leads me to conclude that not only is our local Fred Meyer overcharging, but they have really old stock on their shelves. In my opinion Fred Meyer corporate has some issues that are problematic at the local level, but that's a blog for another day.

Out of the box, put in the batteries that were in the bottom of the box (despite the warnings that batteries were not included), push the button... "Beep, beep, beep." It lives!

So I have a nice new Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner, two bottles of cleaning fluid (one from the original dead box), two coupons for free refills, and a shower that no longer requires scrubbing despite two boys who could make a bathtub ring out of thin air.

Final Review: I don't have enough thumbs! The product works as well as its hype; if you can afford buying the refills regularly, get one! And I cannot say enough good things about SC Johnson's level of customer service. If you ever have a problem with any of their products, do not hesitate to contact them. They are very serious about making sure you are happy with them.

Fleece Hats and Gaiters

2009-10-19T12:10:00.011-08:00

You don't have to be crafty or a sewing expert to save money making your own hats and scarves or neck gaitors! I see fleece on sale at JoAnn's all the time, and I thought "How hard could a hat be?"

Well, never having made a hat and not being the type to reverse engineer one, I went to the internet. It was interestingly hard to find instructions, but Martha Stewart came through for me. (I like Martha Stewart's crafts, but I find they often aren't appropriate for the budgetarily challenged.)

First, acquire some fleece. Note that fleece comes in different weights and qualities; I prefer the "no pill" variety. With a good sale or your 50% off JoAnn's coupon (you signed up for that mailer, right?), you can get it as low as $3 a yard. I can get six hats out of a yard, or three hats with matching gaiters. If you have fleece scraps you could also piece some together to make a patchwork or motley hat.

You're going to need thread (contrasting thread can look nice, so check your sewing box before you buy), scissors, and a measuring tape. A sewing machine makes these go REALLY fast but they are simple enough to hand sew.

Hats:
1. You'll need one panel of fabric to make this hat. To determine the width of the panel, measure the circumference of your head (around your ears), or use the size chart below; add 1/4 inch on each side for seam allowance. The length for an adult hat should be about 13 inches; for a child's hat, about 10 inches. Note that fleece has a stretch to it one way - be sure to make the longest edge in the direction of the stretch. Cut out the panel.

2. Sew the short ends, right sides together, to form a tube. Martha says to trim seam allowance closely. I just finger-press it open (don't iron fleece, it's plastic). Keep it inside-out for now.

3. To make the hat's cuff, fold fabric up about 3 inches (the hat is still inside-out); fold in again 1/4 inch. Sew hem close to the turned edge.

4. Sew along the top of the hat, leaving a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Trim seam. Turn hat right side out.

6. Join the two corners of the top of the hat together with a single stitch. Using strong thread, bring the needle through the inside of one corner and through the other point. Pull thread tight so the corners meet at the center. Tie off the thread. On one hat I did not join the corners; I put a pom-pom on each point instead, to make them easy to tell apart. Kiddo says it needs bells!

Poms-Poms:
1. For a large pom-pom, cut a strip of fleece 24 inches in length (9 to 12 inches for a smaller pom-pom) and as wide as you would like the pom-pom to be. Fold the strip in half the long way.

2. Lightly draw a line down the center of the fabric lengthwise. Cut fringes to the left and right of the line, leaving about 1/4 inch uncut in the center. The fringes can be as narrow or as wide as you like. Roll up the strip of fabric.

4. Using strong thread such as upholstery thread, bring the needle through the core of the pom-pom (you may need a thimble), and wrap the thread tightly around the center a few times. Bring needle through the core again, and tie a knot as close to the pom-pom as possible. Use the excess thread to sew the pom-pom to the top of the hat.

Gaitor:
A neck gaitor is just a tube of fabric worn like a scarf. They're much harder to lose than scarves, and there's no ends always coming untucked. This is also really easy.

Single-layer Gaiter:
1. Cut a panel identical to the hat panel described above.

2. Right sides together, sew the short ends together to form a tube. Leave it inside out.

3. Turn under each raw edge about a half inch and sew all around.

4. Turn right side out.

Double-layer Gaiter:
1. Use the measurements for a hat, but double the shorter measurement (the crown measurement in the list below).

2. Sew the crown measurement sides together to make a tube. When sewn the stretch should be perpendicular to the seam, so the stretch goes around your head.

3. Fold the tube so it's doubled on itself, seam side IN.

4. Pin up the unsewn edges about a half inch each as for hemming. You may like to baste them, I don't. Sew these two edges together, on the RIGHT side (the seams should all be inside, including the ones you just pinned up).

5. If you like, go back to the folded edge and sew a matching decorative seam all around.

Scarves:
Scarves are really really easy.
1. Decide how long and how wide you'd like your scarf.

2. Cut a piece of fleece that big. Stretch should go the long way.

2a. For extra warmth, cut it double-wide, sew one seam the long way and turn it right side out. Finish with a matching seam along the folded side.

3. You can get fancy by fringing your fleece. Sew a single line 4-6 inches from the end of the scarf. Cut even lines in the fleece to about 1/4" of the line.

Martha's Average Head Sizes Chart:
Newborn (6 months and younger)
Circumference: 14 to 17 inches
Crown: 8 to 10 inches

Infant (6 to 12 months)
Circumference: 16 to 19 inches
Crown: 11 to 12 inches

Child (12 months to 3 years)
Circumference: 18 to 20 inches
Crown: 11 to 12 inches

Child (3 years and older)
Circumference: 20 to 22 inches
Crown: 13 to 14 inches

Adult Woman
Circumference: 21 to 23 1/2 inches
Crown: 13 to 15 inches

Adult Man
Circumference: 22 to 24 1/2 inches
Crown: 14 to 16 inches

Product Review: Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner

2009-10-16T11:25:00.007-08:00

I'm having a really good Customer Service week. We've just had a lot of having to contact this or that company for various reasons, and it feels like the people we've gotten have been highly communicative and responsive. This ties into the blog title because yesterday I got a call from the SC Johnson Company.

I bought the original model Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner a couple of years ago and I just loved it. Push a button, walk away, and no more tub scrubbing. The thing really works as advertised. Unfortunately my original one died, although it took a couple years before it wore out.

I didn't replace it right away because money was extra tight, and honestly it's not the best idea if you're really broke; it's much cheaper to get a bottle of all-purpose cleaner and a spray bottle to dilute it into. By the time I could afford it again they'd upgraded the device, adding a second sprayer for more coverage.

My experience with the new model has been very disappointing. The first one used a ridiculous amount of the cleaning fluid, ate batteries at an astounding rate, and died after about six weeks. I figured I got a bad one and went to replace it because I really wanted that convenience again.

This one didn't work right out of the box. I'd thrown the box away so I went looking for somewhere to complain. Here's where SC Johnson Company starts getting points: it wasn't at all hard to find contact info. It took three clicks and I found it on the Scrubbing Bubbles website. I got an email back saying that their customer service people usually respond within 24 hours.

10:30 the next morning the phone rings: the Caller ID says SC Johnson. So does the person on the phone! No email correspondence, no song-and-dance, a real person (who spoke good English) called me personally and wanted to make me happy. She offered to refund the purchase price or replace the unit. I loved the original, so I opted to replace. She's mailing me a full price coupon for a new Shower Cleaner and an extra coupon for a refill. She also suggested a couple of things to try if this one doesn't want to work right away (apparently if they've been unused for some time it can take up to a half-dozen button-pushing to get the unit going again).

Final Review: Well, it can't really be a final review because I haven't a unit that works yet. But SC Johnson gets full points plus extra credit for customer service! I really hope this unit works, because I sincerely love this product. If you can afford to buy the refills every 20 days or so, I really recommend you give it a try (they publish coupons for them frequently, just keep your eye out for them). And if your unit doesn't work? Don't be afraid to speak up!

Response to Comments: In response to some comments on my Facebook page: My cat, who eschews his water bowl for fresh shower drippings, has never suffered any ill effects from the cleaning fluid. Furthermore, my son has incredibly sensitive skin and eczema. He can't use regular soap or bubble bath, but this fluid on the tub doesn't bother his skin at all. He had an outbreak once and it was the first thing we cut out. It turned out to be new laundry detergent.

Banana Bread

2009-10-07T21:10:00.006-08:00

The kids love muffins. I love banana bread! Making a week of snacks for Junior's preschool class has me getting out all kinds of recipes, including this one. The original recipe is from my faithful 2nd edition Joy of Cooking. I took blue ribbons at the fair with it as a kid, and you can tell it's a favorite recipe because the cookbook opens right to it and there's batter splats on the page!

The trick to awesome banana flavor in banana bread is to really let the bananas go. They should be darn near black and not quite liquid. Not only does it crank the flavor up, but it adds tons of moisture. This recipe is naturally low-sugar and low-fat because of that.

If you're planning to make banana bread, watch at the grocery for mark-down bananas. Around here they run 20 to 30 cents a pound less, and you want them all mushy anyway.

Quick Banana Bread

1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cups shortening
2/3 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups ripe banana pulp

Optional additions:
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup chopped nuts

This works best if all ingredients are room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl blend shortening, sugar, and lemon rind until creamy. Add eggs and banana to the sugar mixture.

Add the sifted ingredients in about three parts to the sugar mixture, beating the batter after each addition until smooth. Fold in any nuts or other goodies.

Place the batter in a greased bread pan and bake for one hour or until done. For muffins, bake 15-20 minutes. Makes one loaf or 12 muffins.

Usually with muffins or quick breads you want to mix them as little as possible or they get tough, but that's not true with this recipe, mix it very thoroughly. If the bread will last in your house, wait until it's completely cool before cutting - the steam escaping will make it go stale faster. That's not usually a problem around here.

For the kiddies I made blueberry banana muffins!

Product Review: Wonder Hanger

2009-10-04T12:18:00.013-08:00

Here's another "as seen on t.v." item that I ran across at Fred Meyer. I picked up a box to see if they could alleviate our packed closet issues.

The box comes with the parts for eight Wonder Hangers. They are ridiculously easy to assemble as long as you remember to get the hanging hooks going the same direction. The parts are hard plastic, which made me immediately skeptical. My experience with plastic hooks of this type (often used for cheap closet organizers) is that unlike the plastic used for tubular hangers, it doesn't keep its shape and will eventually stop being a hook.

The instructions specify not to load them with more than 20 pounds, which made them useless for our biggest closet issue: tons of jackets and coats for a variety of seasons. They say "great for purses and belts", so I loaded one up with my miscellaneous bags, and another with windbeakers and hoodies. They work just like the video shows:

Okay, so far so good. I used them for some summer blouses and some of hubby's concert t-shirts. So they worked, but I was concerned about the quality of the hooks so I held this blog for a bit.

I took the above pictures on September 9. I went back to look at the two I hung in the coat closet on October 3. This is what I saw:

See the stretched hook on the left? Its barely hanging on the bar. Neither of the Wonder Hangers were loaded with really heavy stuff, although some of it is bulky. I bet if I weighed the contents the one on the left would have just broken 20 pounds.

Final Review: Meh. I suppose if you're a serious clothes horse and really lacking in closet space these would be handy for your lighter stuff. If you're looking for a permanent storage solution for a lot of items this probably isn't for you. I wouldn't spend my money on them; I'll just keep packing up and storing seasonal stuff at the end of summer and winter to make space rather than wonder if all my stuff has slipped off the bar and ended up in a pile on the floor.

Ignore this, I'm trying something... blogsurfer.us

Do You Know the Muffin Man?

2009-10-03T09:45:00.009-08:00

I sat down to do this blog and discovered I'd somehow managed to not blog all of September. So much for resolve! I have the makings of several blogs that I kept meaning to get to... half credit, I suppose.

In the last six weeks everyone in the family has started school. Except me. Kiddo's in first grade, Junior started preschool, and hubby's taking night classes for his A.S. In the midst of that we had a brush with the flu, Kiddo had an ear infection, and I had my 25 year old crown removed for replacement. I've been busy at work too, as EQII released another game update and I had one staffer in the hospital for a week.

I really don't know how families with two working parents do it. I've been running everywhere for doctor's appointments, school orientations, regular errands, and getting kids to and from school (we're too close to Kiddo's school for a bus and Junior's preschool is across town). If I had a regular job I would have missed at least a quarter of it in the last month and I'd be paying for before-and-after-school care for the kids. Just trying to schedule appointments so no one misses school and I can pick everyone up on time requires a high level of organization.

This week my extra task is snacks for Jackie's preschool. We were told at the beginning of the year that parents would take turns week-by-week. So far Miss Jeannie, Jackie's main teacher, has taken all the weeks. I get the first parent's turn.

When I picked Jackie up yesterday they were having popcorn and fruit ring cereal for snack. Which is fine, I guess, the cereal's fortified and popcorn is a great snack, but I can't do anything by halves. I whipped out all my healthy fun kid snack recipes - chocolate zucchini bread, oatmeal applesauce cookies, banana blueberry muffins, and pumpkin cookies. I'll be baking all weekend!

I only had four recipes so I went looking. One thing I've got excess of is dates, which have been in our last few TEFAP boxes. I was thinking to make the Joy of Cooking basic muffin recipe and just fold chopped dates in, but then I found this recipe. The only thing I had to buy was an orange for the zest. The original recipe is linked; what I actually used is below.

Orange Date Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1/3 cup orange juice
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons oil
2/3 cup chopped dates

Makes 12 muffins (I tripled the recipe and it came out fine)

To get orange zest, take a fine grater to the skin of a thick skinned orange (try to avoid the white part). This will give your muffins a lovely fragrance and taste. The original recipe also had walnuts, but I've never liked nuts in my baked goods.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Place rack in the middle of the oven. Prepare a muffin tin by coating the cups with non-stick spray or use paper muffin cups.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, and orange zest. In a separate bowl, mix together the orange juice, buttermilk, egg, vanilla extract, and melted and cooled butter. Add the milk and egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir just until combined. Fold in the dates. Do not over mix the batter or the muffins will be tough when baked.

Evenly divide the mixture among the 12 muffins cups and sprinkle each muffin with a little sugar, if desired. Place in the oven and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until very lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.

Buttermilk substitutions are worth mentioning again. Buttermilk not only gives baking good flavor, but helps the raising. You can use plain yogurt in place of buttermilk, or you can make your own by adding 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice to one cup of milk and letting it stand for 10 minutes. I like to use buttermilk powder, which you add to the dry ingredients and then add the water you'd reconstitute it with to the wet ingredients.

By the way, you can fit 12 muffins in a gallon zip-close bag. Get as much air out as possible and you can freeze them. Just be sure they are completely cool before you do, or the condensation in the bag will make them a bit mushy when they thaw.

Coming soon: another product review, and the banana bread recipe that won me several blue ribbons as a kid.

Product Review: Danimals Crush Cups

2009-08-31T10:12:00.010-08:00

Since the end of school last spring Kiddo has been begging me for Danimals Crush Cups. These are yogurt cups marketed to kids, whose primary selling point is the squeezable cup which allows you to eschew a spoon and make tremendously rude noises slurping your yogurt.

Naturally I said no.

Now, my no has real reasons behind it. First, I want my kids to understand that they can't have everything they see on television. Second, because of his ADHD Kiddo cannot have any Red Dye 40. That's a whole 'nother blog, but the short version is that there's a ton of anecdotal evidence that in kids with clinical hyperactivity (like Hyperactive-Impulsive ADHD) Red 40 aggravates the symptoms. The FDA isn't buying it, but in the UK and several European countries it's been banned for that reason. I know that when Kiddo was having truely horrible behavior problems in preschool he was having yogurt with Red 40 every day, and that his behavior issues lessened when we got the dye out of his diet.

Anyway, we don't have Red 40 in the house, anywhere. And I've found that it's especially prevalent in yogurt. It was quite challenging to find yogurt (which the kids think is desert, and may actually have two or three servings during the day) that had no artificial dyes and didn't cost a fortune. Trix yogurts are out. "Light"Yoplait is out, but most of the regular variety is okay. Store brands like Lucerne are pretty bad about it. Organic yogurt is always dye-free, but very expensive.

Hence my hesitation on buying a kid-marketed yogurt. One day in the store Kiddo, who has learned to spot Red 40 in the ingredient lists, picked up the Danimals Crush Cup package and said "Mom, I don't see the yukky red here, do you?"

I'll be darned. No artificial dyes or flavors. No corn syrup. Twice the calcium of some brands. 10% RDA of protein. And live cultures called "LLG" that they're particularly proud of. This is the nutrition info from Kiddo's favorite, Blueberry.

The price point isn't bad, about $2.99 a four-pack when it's not on sale, or 75 cents each. At Sam's Club I found a pack that worked out to about 50 cents a piece, which puts it at the same price as generic yogurt on sale.

And best of all, this morning I found a coupon rebate offer! Bulk store purchases like Sam's don't qualify, but since the Sam's pack doesn't have all the flavors the kids like that shouldn't be a problem. You must purchase the qualifying products by October 31, 2009 and mail it immediately (they must have it by November 16). The number of $1 coupons you receive will depend on how many products you purchase to qualify. Get your copy of the rebate form here: Dannonomics Rebate

Final Review: Nice to see a kid-marketed product that appeals to my over-protective mom-sense! Not only has a lot of thought gone into the healthiness of the product but they address hot parent concerns like artificial dyes and flavors. Kiddo thinks he's getting a great treat because he knows I usually say no to stuff on commercials (the commercials are annoying, but the product is so good I won't count it against them). And, as the final bonus... the spoons come home in his lunch box. Dannon's Danimals Crush Cups get my approval.

Product Review: Betty Crocker Bake 'n Fill

2009-08-30T08:48:00.010-08:00

My birthday was last week. I decided to make myself a fancy cake, since I make one for everyone else! What I wanted was a filled cake, so I pulled out my trusty Betty Crocker Bake 'n Fill cake pans. I originally saw these on an "As Seen on TV" type ad, and hubby gave them to me one year for Christmas. Like many folks I'm terribly skeptical about things can't at least hold in my hand before I buy, and ZAM co-worker Pikko suggested it'd make a good blog.

What this product claims is you'll be able to make fancy filled cakes quickly and easily. It comes with four pans to make two different shaped cakes (a dome cake and a more traditional layer cake shape) and a booklet of instructions and recipes.

If there's a trick to using this set successfuly, it's in following the instructions exactly. You must use shortening, not cooking spray, to grease the pans and fill them precisely. The only time I've had a bad cake was when I mis-measured making the cake batter and it overflowed the pan. I've made ice cream cakes and cakes filled with puddings or fruit. Ice cream cakes are probably the most time consuming, as you have to soften the ice cream just right and pack it in carefully.

For my birthday cake I used a devils food cake and sugar-free white chocolate Jell-o pudding (sugar free because I couldn't find it sugar-full!). I wanted something like the creme they put in creme-filled doughnuts, and this was awful close. In hindsight I bet my Safeway bakery ladies would have sold me four cups of filling.

I used the round dome cake pans and the pudding-filled cake guidelines in the pamphlet. I should note that the recipe calls for one box of pudding, and this took two. You make the pudding with a half-cup less milk like you do for pie, for a thicker set. I also used one chocolate pudding cup for a dollop of chocolate in the middle. If I had a little more time I would have made a chocolate ganache and poured it over the top of the cake for a chocolate overload!

With the inside so fancy I kept the outside plain. My camera ate most of my in-progress pictures and a lovely pic of the just-cut cake (I finally contacted Kodak to troubleshoot that, shouldn't be happening any more), so you'll have to settle for a "before" and some half-eaten shots.

Final review: It works as advertised and I get very nice results. You'll find your cakes a little more dense than you expect if you're using pudding cake mixes: this is in part because you have to refrigerate or freeze the cake and part because the pans restrict the rise for a firm cake that won't collapse from it's own weight. You will want to give yourself a little extra time to make the cake (maybe start a day ahead), for filling and chilling or freezing it before serving, and don't forget to make room in the fridge or freezer before you start. Overall two thumbs up and a product well worth buying if you like making fun cakes.

PS: Surfing around looking for links for the Bake 'n Fill set, I discovered Betty Crocker also makes a mini-cake version! Based on my experience with the big one, this is going on my list!

Sweet Potato Pie

2009-08-16T09:54:00.008-08:00

One of the commodities we've been getting in our TEFAP boxes is canned sweet potatoes. The problem is, my family doesn't like sweet potatoes one bit. Not as fries, mashed, candied, or with marshmallows on top. I firmly believe that if we're broke enough to be receiving TEFAP, we should not let any of it go to waste, so I set out to discover some way my family would eat them.

The answer was pretty obvious when I stumbled over it: pie.

There are lots of recipes for traditional sweet potato pie. As usual I'm looking for recipes that don't require I buy anything special. Pie crust ("short crust" to my friend Emily) is easy, I've always got that stuff and other basic baking needs. I found a lot of recipes that use sour cream or evaporated milk, which I don't keep around. The one I settled on uses buttermilk.

I keep buttermilk powder around when I can afford it, but you can make a buttermilk substitute by adding one tablespoon of vinegar to a scant cup of milk ("scant" means "not quite the whole measure" - just take a tablespoon of milk out before you add the vinegar.) This gives the properties of buttermilk for baking, and the taste is close. It will clump and look soured when you add the vinegar, which is what you want.

The recipes I found also use pie crust or graham cracker crust interchangeably. Graham cracker crust is really simple to make if you don't want to muck with rolling out dough. It's just crushed graham crackers and butter.

Graham Cracker Crust

6 Tbsp butter or margarine
About 24 graham crackers, crushed to make 1 1/2 cups of crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
Cinnamon, allspice, or nutmeg (optional)

Crush the graham crackers by putting them in sealable bag and rolling them until they're crumbs. A food processor or blender also works well.

In a small saucepan or the microwave, melt 6 tablespoons of butter. Measure 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs into a medium bowl. Add 1/4 cup of sugar to the graham crackers. Add the melted butter. Add a little cinnamon, nutmeg, or allspice to the crumbs for a spiced flavor. Stir or blend together with your hands. Press into the pie plate or other pan. To pre-bake the pie crust, bake for 8 to 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F. oven.

Most of the recipes I found used fresh baked and mashed sweet potatoes, and what I have are canned in syrup. They mash very well, and the syrup just means a sweeter pie. The recipe I started with is from bakingbites.com, and here's what I ended up with. If you're using buttermilk powder, follow the directions on the can for adding liquid and the powder:

Buttermilk Sweet Potato Pie

1 15 ounce can of sweet potatoes
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 Tbsp flour
1 9 or 10 inch pre-baked pie crust

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a blender or food processor, blend the sweet potatoes to a smooth puree. Add a little buttermilk if they're too dry to blend. Add all ingredients except flour and blend smooth. Add flour and pulse the blender until it's just incorporated (don't over blend, it will make the pie tough).

Place the pie crust on a baking sheet and place baking sheet on the middle rack of a preheated oven. Pour filling into pie crust (it is thin enough that it will slosh if you put it in the pie crust and attempt to carry it over to the oven.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, until pie is set and jiggles only very slightly when the pan is bumped. You may want to put a crust guard (foil works) on the exposed pie crust to keep it from burning.

Cool on a wire rack to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight, before serving.

This is close enough to pumpkin pie that the kids don't notice the difference! A little whipped cream dresses it up.

For the pie pictured here I used a Wal-Mart "Great Value" pre-fab pie crust. I won't be buying that particular crust again. The first shrank up so bad on baking that what I had was a thick tart crust with barely any sides. So I rolled out the second crust a bit and left it laid over the edges of the pie pan for shrinkage, and it didn't shrink. It did, however, bubble up badly on baking (despite pricking it), which has left some shallow spots in the pie.

The good news is the kids don't care too much, they just like pie. And there's nothing wrong here that sufficient application of whipped cream won't fix.

Random Recipes

2009-08-07T15:58:00.005-08:00

I was poking around my web browser and ran across a bookmark folder called Cooking. I haven't peeked in here in a very long time! Since I always turn to the internet when I want new recipes or food information, I thought it'd be fun to explore what I have bookmarked.

Diabetic-lifestyle.com has a great page on reducing the sugar and fat in your baking. You sure don't have to be fighting blood sugar issues to use these tips! My biggest success was my Chocolate Zucchini Bread recipe, which I've taken from a sugary fatty recipe to one that I'll make for my kids regularly.

Oh goodness, here's the original link for my Very Best Rice Pudding Recipe at Foodgeeks.com! Haven't made that in a while. It makes a wonderful creamy rice pudding without resorting to a box pudding.

Doubble Crust Chicken Pot Pie at Cooks.com. This is a "cheater" recipe, because it uses prefab pie crust and cream of chicken soup, but it's awesome for "easy," "fast" and "tasty". I keep the link for cooking times.

Pretso's Recipe Page. Presto makes kitchen appliances, like deep fryers and pressure cookers. This link is handy when you're wanting to use your kitchen toys, I mean tools in a new way.

Baby Center's Recipe Page. I don't go here much any more, but if you need ideas for kids' lunches or kid friendly dinners. this is an awesome resource.

Grilled Potato Strips at Pilsbury.com. I'm not sure we've ever tried this recipe, but it looks awesome, so I'm keeping the bookmark. Hubby won't mind a new grill toy!

When I was making bread all the time I considered working with sourdough. Here's two pages about making your own starter: Mark Shepard's and Sourdough Home's.

My friend Ashbury's Eggplant Recipe Database. Ash is a vegan who always gives me great recipe ideas, and obviously has a fondness for eggplant!

The World's Healthiest Foods. I ran across this website looking up nutrition benefits, of what I don't recall any more. Whether you want food trivia, recipes, or want to change your eating habits, this is a great site.

Mr. Breakfast has awesome breakfast recipes, including this one for Whole Wheat Waffles. I was having a hard time with whole wheat waffles, they just weren't tasty. These came out great!

Peanutty Squares. This is from the "What to do with all this cereal" phase when we had three people on WIC. I approve of making "junky" snacks from cereal. It's at least full of whole grains and is fortified!

Scratch Coconut Cream Pie. I'm not sure I ever made this one. I love puddings and cream pies, ubt hate resorting to a box of pudding. This recipe from All Recipes got good reviews.

Beef Stew in Bisquit Cups. Do you subscribe to the Pilsbery news letter? You should! Sure, they want everything done with their brands, but it's chock full of good ideas. I'm saving this recipe for the next time I make stew.

What are some of your favorite recipe resources?

Zucchini!

2009-08-05T13:31:00.009-08:00

Our garden is producing like mad! We're starting to take bits home for daily use (and have been eating lettuce for a month) , but when the zucchinis were ready more drastic measures were called for. These are considered medium and medium-large for Alaskan gardens.

Yeah, gotta do something with those. That's a lot of zucchini bread!

Rather than try and make the boys eat zucchini for a week (they're not fond of it), I decided to freeze it. Frozen cubed zucchini works really well in anything cooked - spaghetti sauce, soups, stir fry, that kind of thing. So I started chopping. I did a little shredded too, but not a lot because blanching it shredded is a nasty mess.

Add far as food safety is concerned, you can't just toss zucchini in the freezer. The USDA has guidelines for food preservation, tested for bacteria and stuff. They no longer allow you to can zucchini or summer squash. According to my favorite canning site:

Recommendations for canning summer squashes, including zucchini, that appeared in former editions of USDA guides have been withdrawn due to uncertainty about the determination of processing times. Squashes are low-acid vegetables and require pressure canning for a known period of time that will destroy the bacteria that cause botulism. Documentation for the previous processing times cannot be found, and reports that are available do not support the old process.

Good enough for me, we freeze it (freezing takes less storage space, too). The USDA says to blanch it first. Blanching is just cooking the vegetable long enough to kill the bacteria. Too long and you get mushy veggies. not long enough, your food is unsafe. Be sure to use the USDA times and plunge the veggies immediately into icy water to stop the cooking.

They also say to leave a half-inch headspace in your freezer containers. Headspace is the space left at the top of a food preservation container. I finally thought to ask "why is the headspace measurement so important?", especially since I had to make sure it was right when I put my jam in the Fair.

Headspace, it says here, is necessary for the correct vacuum and sealing of your containers. Too little and the product can expand and the top won't seal. Too much and the air won't be driven out of the jar, leaving room for bacteria and discoloration. Since the Foodsaver sucks all the air out, that's not a problem here.

So I chopped and blanched and packed and marked and froze. The whole thing took me about an hour including getting everything set up. The results were 22 cups of chopped and shredded zucchini! I froze them in two cup packages, 'cause that's a nice size for most soups and such and coincidentally, the amount of shredded zucchini my zucchini bread recipes use. For shreds, be sure to measure before you blanch. When you thaw it to bake with it, just drain off any excess liquid before you use it and trust that was really two cups.

And this is just the beggining. We put only one zucchini plant in the garden, because the year we had three we had more zucchini than we could reasonably eat. This plant is far from done yet, there's a half-dozen more zucchinis growing, and more flowers!

Product Review: Dryer Balls

2009-08-02T10:35:00.008-08:00

I'm sure you've seen these. Dryer Balls (every time I say that Hubby snickers.) They come in a variety of brands, but are all the same basic idea: a "rubber" ball with nobbly protrusions. Toss them in the dryer with your wet clothes and they claim to cut down on drying time, eliminate static, reduce lint, soften your clothes, and make your towels fluffy.

It all sounds a little too good to be true, but I saw some at Fred Meyer for $5.99 and decided to cave and give them a try. I normally use dryer sheets (I always forget to put in liquid fabric softener). Kiddo has sensitive skin and fights excema, so I have to be cautious with laundry. Anything heavily scented is bad, but not softening the laundry leaves it too rough. I personally hate unsoftened towels and jeans, and it's so dry up here static is a big issue.

I swore I wasn't doing laundry on the weekends, but had enough for two medium sized loads after I sorted. So here we go, based on those two loads with the Dryer Balls and no fabric softener:

Drying Time: I'd have to do a bunch of loads and actually time them, but it does seem the clothes dried faster.

Static: Absolutely no static whatsoever, even on a load of cottons where I'd expect it.

Lint: The quantity of lint looks about the same to me, but again I'd have to try it with some normal-sized loads. The quality of the lint was different: I'd call it flufflier or lighter.

Softening: Yes! I made sure to wash towels and jeans, and neither have that sand-paper like unsoftened feeling. On the other hand, the clothes do not have that "slick" feeling you get from fabric softener. I do miss the little bit of scent you get even from unscented fabric softener. They still need the Kiddo's Sensitive Skin Test, but they feel soft enough to me.

Fluffy towels: Well, they aren't un-fluffy like they'd be if I line-dried them. Seems about as fluffy as with fabric softener. It did fluff up the beaten-down towel we use on the floor by the tub very nicely.

Overall Review: Works As Advertised. I'd like to do further testing to see if it really reduces drying time, because that'd be a huge bonus over never having to pay for fabric softener again. Overall, I'd recommend this product as a money saver that does what it says. Oh, and since they're reusable, they're good for the environment. Wonder how long they'll last?

Follow-Up Question: asked via Twitter, Beckanai wanted to know if the dryer balls get hot. They weren't any hotter than the laundry was. My dryer has a cool-down cycle at the end, though.

Jammin'

2009-07-30T09:30:00.007-08:00

So I've been seeing the preview for the new movie Julia and Julia. The premise seems to be women finding some kind of purpose beyond the every day life stuff, which will naturally lead to self-discovery (in the movies, at least). And I'm thinking "I need something like that." Then my other little voice says "You know, you have that blog you've totally neglected."

Yeah, I have, haven't I? The original purpose here was talking about what I've discovered trying to raise a family on a shoestring! So let's talk jam.

I've blogged jam before. My favorite website, if you want to learn to make your own jam, is Pick Your Own .org. These days jam and jelly are really easy to make (thanks to packaged pectin, which makes it gel without cooking it all day). You don't even need a canning set up - you can use freezer jars and freeze it instead of hot-water processing the jars for preservation. While the main purpose to most folks is flavor and jam enjoyment, the idea is to preserve food for later use.

TEFAP has been putting three pound bags of frozen blueberries in our allotments the last three months, so I'm making jam! One of the neat things about making your own jam is you know exactly what's in it. No preservatives, artificial colors, or corn syrup.

These berries are quite small, making them hard to crush. My first batch had far to many whole berries in it and was rather unspreadable, so the next batch I put them in my blender and pureed them. You need four cups of berry mash for this recipe, and the blender makes it really easy to measure.

I use Ball No-Sugar Pectin. It has natural sugars in it to encourage the gel but allows you to make jam with little or no added sugar. I add three cups of sugar (the max you can use, and half what regular jam takes) so you get the shiny color and nice gel. That, and a cup of apple juice (which adds liquid and also has natural pectin) is all you need. Just follow the cooking directions in the pectin package. This is not hard, but takes time and you really have to stir constantly. Then preserve it with the hot water bath or freezer method. Click this picture, you can really see the shine and color.

There'll be more jam coming, as it's berry season (raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries are all in season). I just have to find time to go picking!

I gave my neighbor some jam because she brought me some King Salmon, and she tells me I should enter it in the Fair. In the Fair? My jam? She claims it's blue-ribbon quality, and she's been canning a lot longer than I have. So I guess Saturday I'll be heading to the Fairgrounds, jam in hand. Wish me luck!

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T18:27:00.006-08:00

I always feel strange saying "Happy Memorial Day." We're commemorating those who have died in service to our country. Now, we can certainly celebrate their courage and sacrifice, but somehow "Happy" seems inappropriate.

However, I can be happy about the unofficial start of summer! While Alaska definitely doesn't follow the traditional calendar seasons, Memorial Day is usually the start of our glorious summers.

We have been wanting to take the kids camping, as once you're set up for that it's an inexpensive trip. We don't have quite every thing we need for an all-out camping weekend (like a real tent), so we went for a day trip out to the Chena River Recreation Area on Chena Hot Springs Road. It's about an hour away from us and a beautiful drive. This is the same area Hubby and Grandpa go moose hunting in the fall.

There are campsites, ATV and hiking trails, remote cabins and river access points maintained by the State of Alaska. What I like best is that while they are nicely maintained, it's still rustic. The amenities may include such fripperies as an outhouse, a pump with potable iron-flavored water, a cast iron fire pit and a picnic table.

The camps with river access were packed even at noon on Memorial Day, so we headed to the farthest-most site, Red Squirrel Campground. We didn't see any squirrels, but were pleased to find a flock of wood ducks on the pond (Cornell University says wood ducks don't come here, but those green heads are pretty unmistakable). There was one other family of humans we could see.

I haven't lost my Girl Scout skills and got a fire going on the first try while Hubby got the kids going with their fishing poles. Nothing was biting but a lot of practice casting occurred. Kiddo is very interested in fishing but has only recently developed the patience to keep at it more than 10 minutes. Junior was much more into throwing rocks in the water, which was fine.

After an hour or so I had great cooking coals and roasted hotdogs for the gang. We then demonstrated the fine art of marshmallow roasting, at which Hubby is an expert. Me, I always catch them on fire. Kiddo berated me for not bringing graham crackers, which astounded me as I didn't know he had any idea what S'Mores are!

I don't do well in the sun, so hubby set up our little bug tent to give me some shade and I - get this - I sat around and did absolutely nothing but watch the ducks and kids for about an hour.

Heaven!

Apple Tartlets

2009-05-17T08:41:00.013-08:00

Kiddo had been bugging me for apple pie. I'm not a big apple pie fan - no reason, it's just not on my favorite pies list - and since money's tight I like to make desserts special to offset the parade of casseroles we have for dinner. I decided to make some little apple tartlets.

Most of the tartlet recipes I found involved using puff pastry wrapped around apple slices seasoned like apple pie. I actually wanted little pies, though, so I improvised. There's two ways to go about this: assemble the tarts and bake, like an apple pie, or pre-cook everything and assemble them. I went for Option B because I could break the preparations up around chasing kids and making dinner.

I used store-bought pie crust ('cause I'm lazy). I found that a particular piece of plastic storage ware made a circle just right for tucking into muffin tins. I got ten circles out of the two crusts, and could have gotten 12 had I felt like re-rolling the dough remnants. I hindsight I might roll the crust little thinner than it is right out of the package.

I baked then for the shortest time listed on the package, I think it was 9 minutes. Let them cool and they come out of the muffin tins very easily. I was distressed that some of the shell walls seemed to have collapsed, but in the end that didn't matter one bit.

Since I was assembling my tarts instead of baking them, I looked for a sauteed apples recipe.

Sauteed Apples
3 Granny Smith Apples (peeled, cored, sliced)
4 Tbsp Butter
3/4 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1.5 Tbsp Cinnamon
8 oz Apple Juice
Combine apple juice and 1 Tbsp cinnamon in a deep bowl. Place apple slices in bowl with juice and soak 30 minutes. Melt butter in large skillet, add brown sugar and .5 Tbsp cinnamon and stir til melted. Add apple slices and juice, and heat to a boil (on High). Cover and boil, on High for 10 minutes. Remove cover and reduce heat, simmer for 5 minutes. Apples will soften and syrup will form. Remove from heat and transfer to serving bowl.

I used Gala apples instead and reduced the brown sugar to 1/2 cup. This resulted in a thinner syrup, but I don't think it hurt anything.

I let it cool so no one would burn their tongue (sugar syrups get very hot), and filled my shells. There was just enough to fill the 10 shells very nicely, so I didn't feel bad about throwing away the dough remnants instead of re-rolling them.

These were done just before dinner, and were still a little warm when I garnished them and served them. You could sprinkle a little cinnamon on the whipped cream if you like.

It occurs to me that you could make little pudding pies like this, or almost any kind of pie that you put into a pre-baked crust. I'm not sure you could bake the pies long enough to set a cooked pie without burning the little crusts, but I'd have to try.

Salmon, yum!

2009-05-09T15:39:00.003-08:00

So unlike many Alaskans we don't get to go fishing during salmon season or have friends with a fish wheel to fill our freezer. So when Fred Meyer had a one store, two days only sale on Sockeye Salmon ($2.99 a pound!) I jumped on it.

Cooking a whole salmon is really, really easy. I assume it's been beheaded and properly cleaned.

Roasted Salmon

1 whole sockeye salmon, cleaned (3-4 pound)
1 large lemon, sliced
fresh dill
1/4 c butter
1/2 c white wine (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Big sheets of aluminum foil

1. Heat the oven to 375F.
2. Piece together the foil to make a sheet big enough to wrap the salmon in a big foil packet.
3. Put the lemon slices and chopped dill into the body cavity with dots of butter. Fold the edges of the foil together but just before sealing, pour in the wine.
4. Bake the fish for 50-60 minutes.
5. Serve hot or cold. If you want to serve it cold, allow the fish to cool in the parcel and then gently peel off the skin.

Other things that go good in a salmon cavity: pineapple (or any acidic fruit), bay leaves, tarragon, apricots, or whatever your mom used to use! The drippings can be poured over rice. Salmon is full of natural Omega-3's; the acids help draw that from the fat under the skin into the flesh.

Leftovers, if you have any, make a lovely sandwich spread, just add some mayo like tuna salad.

The Hit List

2009-05-08T11:14:00.004-08:00

So Junior, three years old, has figured out YouTube. It started by wanting to watch our videos of the kids on his dad's YouTube channel. This linked to various things, all kid friendly. One of the favorites is Manah Manah, popularized by the Muppets.

Interestingly enough, Junior seems to prefer the original, which is from a 1968 movie, "Svezia, inferno e paradiso". Apparently it was the soundtrack to a scene involving a lot of Swedish women in a sauna. I like this one too, although the go-go music in the middle makes me think of Laugh-In.

Also on the hotlist are the Gummi Bear songs. These are the ones that currently have me going crazy, as they've been done in a dozen languages and a million remixes.

Junior and Kiddo will actually get up and try and copy the dances on these.

So how are your kids driving you crazy?

Busy Busy!

2009-04-27T08:01:00.004-08:00

Yeah, that's always my excuse, isn't it? Work's been very busy lately, and since I work online from home, it tends to eat every spare minute I have. See, last week we launched the complete re-do of the EQII ZAM site. Never mind the details, but for the month before that we were pretty much burried in the beta of that site. I'm very pleased with it.

The very next day my boss calls me up and offers me the Senior Content Manager position for our Free Realms site. In addition to my EQII job! Free Realms launches tomorrow, so I went from crunch time right into crunch time. It's a daunting project, but I've got a fantastic team and I'm more tired than stressed.

Needless to say that leaves very little time for blogging or doing anything interesting in the kitchen. But I do have a fast recipe to share.

Kiddo can't have any Red 40 (a USDA approved food color that's been banned in Great Britain and many European nations) because it aggravates his ADHD symptoms. This is a serious bummer, as it takes odd things out of his diet. The other day I was getting all cheesed because he can't have red Jell-o, just yukky flavors like lime. All but a couple flavors of Jell-o have Red 40 in them.

So I got on the net and figured out how to make my own "gelatin desert".

Not Jell-o

It's not Jell-o because that's a trademarked name. But your kids won't know and this is healthier, no added sugar! Be warned, this makes a HUGE bowl.

3 envelopes gelatin (like Knox)
1/2 c cold water
2 c boiling water
2 c cold water or fruit juice
1 12-oz can frozen juice concentrate
4 c fruit - pears, peaches, bananas, etc.

In a 3-quart mixing bowl, soften gelatin in 1/2 c cold water. Pour boiling water over gelatin. Stir until completely dissolved.

Add cold water or juice and frozen concentrate. Add fruit. Let set in refrigerator until firm.

I thawed the frozen juice in the fridge so it was pourable but cold. Like Jell-o, you may want to let it soft-set before you stir in the fruit. The flavor was strong enough that you probably don't need the two cups of cold to be juice.

Easy!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T14:43:00.002-08:00

Whether you believe in the Resurrection of Christ, pagan spring fertility rites, or just dig chocolate bunnies, I wish you a Happy Easter!

I managed to do pretty good cheap Easter baskets for the kids. I started about six weeks ago, combing the dollar bins at Michael's and prowling the Wal-Mart aisles. They ended up with cute little notebooks, sticky notes in the shape of their initials, little wind-up toys, candy corn with no artificial dyes, and pastel colored "chocolate" rabbits. I spent maybe 20 dollars on the whole thing, including egg dyes, baskets and grass. I would have loved to get more elaborate, but since they sat there playing with the stuff for over an hour, it's a success.

Easter has foiled my plans for blogging deboning chicken for later use (again), as Sam's Club is closed today. Safeway's less popular chicken parts are $2.39 a pound. No way. I did get a whole chicken at Wal-Mart, though, to roast and do the stock thing with again. See, we keep finding inexpensive chopped ham (five pounds for $4.99 today at Safeway), but we've been eating it almost exclusively for about six weeks. Now, to quote someone who's name I've forgotten, "Oatmeal every day is better than no oatmeal at all," but dang, I'm heartily tired of chopped ham. Chicken and rice was a nice change, even if I ate it five days in a row.

I found a new cheap recipe to put into the casserole recipe rotation. We haven't tried it yet; I'm making it tonight. This is courtesy of Baby Center: a Savory Bread Pudding. I hear bread pudding and think dessert (yum!), but we forget that a pudding is also a baked custard-y thing of almost any variety. Ask the British! This also bears a strong resemblance to the Stove Top Brunch Bake. In cooking, very generally speaking, you can think of "savory" as the opposite of a sweet, often rich and usually spicy. Webster's says "pungently flavorful without sweetness".

Savory Bread Pudding

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
4 slices bread, cut in half
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup broccoli, cut into small pieces
1 zucchini, cut into cubes
1 cup cooked chicken, turkey, beef or ham, cut into cubes
Salt and pepper
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup grated hard cheese

Preparations:
Use 1 tablespoon butter or oil to grease the bottom of a large ovenproof skillet or baking dish. Place the bread slices so that they cover the entire bottom of the skillet or dish. Heat the remaining tablespoon of butter or oil in a skillet over moderate heat. Add the onion and cook 4 minutes. Add the broccoli and zucchini and cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the meat and cook 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper. Spread the cooked vegetables and meat on top of the bread slices. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the milk and half the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture on top of the bread and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling and the eggs are cooked. Serve hot or at room temperature. (Makes 4 servings)

Variations:
This is a great way to use up leftover, somewhat "stale" bread. You can omit the meat and make this a vegetarian dish.

Bread never gets stale here, but I bought some day-old rolls at Wal-Mart ($1.50 for a dozen good-sized rolls), and used 2 1/2 of them to line a 9 x 13 baking dish (I sliced them like bruschetta). Zucchini is not a fav here, but I bought one broccoli head and a yellow onion. The meat, I have (shudder) cubed chopped ham. 4 servings won't be enough, so I'm going to increase the eggs to three and add an extra 1/2 cup of milk. The result should be somewhere between a bread pudding and a quiche. And most importantly, won't involve rice, pasta, or Cream of Celery soup. Just chopped ham....

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

2009-04-02T20:26:00.005-08:00

I was wanting some chocolate. Of course, we're broke, there's no money for non-necessities. But I have cocoa! And as I'm thinking on what I can do with it I recall one of my earliest favorite recipes, Hot Fudge Pudding Cake.

The original recipe, to me, is the one out of my Betty Crocker Cook Book for Boys and Girls. I think my Mom or Nana got it for me when I was in grade school. Mine is the 11th printing of the 1965 edition, not the facsimile of the original in the link, but that matters less than these marvelous, simple recipes with easy to follow instructions for kids. Just for fun I scanned the original.

If you like those molten lava cakes, or hot fudge brownie sundaes, you're gonna love this. Here's the thing: Somehow during baking, the cake and pudding reverse themselves and the sauce ends up under the cake.

The nice thing about this recipe is that if you bake you're likely to have everything you need on hand - nice for unexpected company and chocolate emergencies. The only thing I'm missing is a 9 x 9 square pan, which for some reason I've never added to my baking stuff. I use my 9 inch round cake pan, which is too too small, but my next up is too big and makes the cake to thin. I put a cookie sheet under the pan in the oven, mourn the lost sauce, and swear (again) I'm getting a square pan.

There's a lot of variations on this recipe, it's been around approximately forever. I recall a phase where I was looking for the best recipe for both the cake and pudding parts, mixing and matching to make the ideal Hot Fudge Cake recipe. Darned if I know what combination was the best, but I remember that my original recipe uses all white sugar in the sauce, which makes it grainy, so I went looking for a recipe that uses brown sugar.

The recipe I used is Hershey's version, which isn't in my Hershey's Chocolate Cookbook
but is online.

Hershey's ® Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder
1 1/4 cups hot water
Heat oven to 350 F. Combine 3/4 cup granulated sugar, flour, 1/4 cup cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, butter and vanilla; beat until smooth.
Pour batter into ungreased 9-inch square baking pan. Stir together remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar and remaining 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle mixture evenly over batter. Pour hot water over top; do not stir.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Remove from oven; let stand 15 minutes. Serve in dessert dishes, spooning sauce from bottom of pan over top. Garnish with whipped topping, if desired.

And here's what I'm eating as I blog:

Actually, I'm on my second bowl. Heaven!

"And buy chicken necks!"

2009-03-29T10:04:00.003-08:00

We got a whole chicken from TEFAP this month - actually, we got a very generous allotment from TEFAP this month, and it was well appreciated - so I found myself making chicken stock. I use this for "And Rice," which is a rice-based casserole. When I find myself boiling a chicken to pieces I think of Esther Rolle in the TV show Good Times. Whenever money was the topic she'd end the bit by laughing and saying "... and buy chicken necks!"

Anyway, we all know by now that chicken is not a budget food in economic hard times. The butcher I spoke to over at Safeway said that chicken just has too much processing overhead. According to him, the only way to make money in the meat business is in sheer tonnage, and the lower the processing cost the more tonnage you get. Pork, for some reason, stands out during hard times as the budget meat. (As we were talking he was putting out giant pork roasts at $1.89 a pound.)

So we got this chicken. I'm not overly fond of whole chicken, but it's easy enough to cook - in a pinch, throw it in the oven for a couple hours until done. Get as fancy as you like, but the important part is getting it completely done. I has some old garlic cloves in the cupboard, so I peeled them and put them in the cavity for flavor.

Then after dinner take as much meat off the bones as possible and throw all the meat, skin and bones into a large pot. Cover with water. Put a lid on the pot and boil the heck out of it until the rest of meat falls off the bones. There's lots of nutrition and flavor in the bones, you can boil it longer than that, but I prefer to fish out the vertebrae and cartilage before they're floating free in the broth. Add, if you like, onion, celery, salt and pepper, whatever is traditional for you, but ultimately all you really need is a chicken carcass and water. I used the roasted garlic from inside the chicken, parsley, salt and pepper. When you feel it's done discard anything you don't want to eat, like the bones and skin.

Here's a couple of basic chicken stock recipes. If you want to buy chicken just to make stock, you might find that chicken wings, necks and other less desirable parts are actually cheaper than a whole bird. Hence Florida's (the mom on Good Times) encouragement to buy chicken necks!. You could probably do this with ham hocks and beef soup bones, too, and a turkey carcass works well.

That one whole chicken? I will get five filling, healthy dinners out of it. We had chicken for dinner two nights in a row, then I made stock. I put it in two-cup freezer jars with meat and all. To make "And Rice", put the thawed stock in a pot, add a cup of vegetables and one cup of rice. Cook according to rice directions. Poof, cheap chicken and rice. (I should add that it takes three cups of stock and a cup and a half of rice to feed my family dinner. But I don't have three cup freezer containers.) You can also strain out the broth and use it for stock in any recipe. Save the meat for casserole or chicken salad.