Greywater

I am having so much fun researching a paper on residential greywater recycling. This is an article (and video) about a woman, also a reporter for the LA Times, who created a plumbing system to capture the water from her washing machine to irrigate her front yard ... for $312 and two days of work. I should add ... it sounds like she spent MANY more days planning, researching and procuring!

My mind is full of ideas for our own house ... wonderful.

Other sites for inspiration:
Greywater Guerillas
Oasis Design

Baby Poncho Project

Spring Break ... what a bizarre and wonderful concept, and a great chance to give creative me some time to play.

Project One was making a long overdue "baby poncho" for my niece. Way back when I cut out a picture of an adorable baby poncho (cost $56), which looked easy enough to make with the help of my ol'trusty sewing machine. And wa'la ... with some $3 red fleece from the bargain bin at Joanne's, some $1 blue ribbon and some striped cotton fabric tucked away in my fabric container ... a $4 red fleece pancho was born.

If anyone is interested in pattern details, I would be happy to share more info!

On another note, I have been cooking up a storm but between kids and school I haven't found time to post to TK. Alas, hopefully this will change soon. Who knows? Until then ~ Welcome Spring!

Happy Halloween

Or should I say, Happy Obama-ween?

We had a LOT of fun carving ours with premade Obama stencils, from Yes We Carve.

Vote. Vote Early. and Vote Often.... as my grandpa used to say.

The Professor’s Apple Pie

An apple for the teacher? Sure. But how about an apple pie? I can just picture the look on my environmental biological-chemical processes (wait, what’s the name of the class? Ah, oh well) professor’s face when a nice, golden hot apple pie is waiting for him before class next week.

In the last three weeks I have been having a little “pie off” of my own. I kid you not – I have made a total of eight pies – 7 apple pies and 1 peach pie. I have dealt with apples and dough in varying states of freshness, coldness and sweetness and think I have found my winning combination, once again originating from my mom’s recipe box and the family apple tree.

Never have I felt so strongly the correlation between apple harvesting and the start of school, as this week found me dusting off my mechanical pencil and graphing calculator to return to school. All in all it is a very happy thing, though I imagine in a few short days away from the boys I will miss them terribly … or maybe not, as I am feeling totally fantastic about where they will be spending their days. The other thing I will miss of course is the “extra” time I had to dedicate to saving money in the kitchen. Now, like most folks, I will have less time and less money. So, I guess as a last hurrah of sorts I set a personal mission to put all my thrifty muscle into enjoying and preserving as many “free” apples as possible.

The apples mostly found themselves eaten, pureed into applesauce (Lane’s first food) and into apple pies for immediate consumption and for the freezer (!!). My inner homesteader is beaming with the knowledge that our freezer has three beautiful apple pies just waiting for February (or some other winter month in need of a good occasion) when I can savor the “labor” of my last weeks of summer.

When you make the pie dough there will, of course, be extra, which is wonderful rolled out, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and baked at 450 degrees for approximately 10 minutes. Let it cool as long as people can wait, then huddle around, break into pieces and enjoy. I like to think this is one of the kitchen treats my kids will love the most.

And don’t forget the vanilla ice cream. Can you imagine the professor’s expression if some yummy ice cream found its way onto his desk as well? Priceless.


Grandma Margaret’s Pie Crust

This recipe comes from my dad’s mom, a fantastic Nebraskan cook. I tried two different piecrust recipes and this one won out due to its ease to make, workability and flavor. It doesn’t have the typical crazy flakiness of a shortening crust … but you get the comfort of having a healthier crust and I preferred the sturdier crust to the other which I found tender but kinda tasteless. I like to mix the dry ingredients and cut in the butter in a food processor, then transfer to a bowl to add the wet ingredients and bring together with my hands into two discs (one for top and one for bottom). The recipe below is reproduced in its beautiful straightforward simplicity. I always forget about the ice water until right before the recipe – so do that first!

Servings: 1 pie, 8-12 slices (depending on the slicer)
Cost: ~ $2/pie (if the apples are free!)
Time: 1+ hour prep, 1+ hour cook

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter

1 egg, beaten
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
Ice water, if necessary

(Make ice water.) Sift flour and salt together. Cut in butter. Toss in egg and vinegar lightly with fork. Start to gently work dough with hands to form discs, add ice water if necessary to bring dough together.

Apple Filling

This recipe comes from the 2007 Santa Cruz County Fair Best of Show award winner. So yeah, it seemed like a good place to start. While you are peeling and prepping the apples keep them in a bowl of cool salty water to prevent them from browning (another tip from Grandma).

8+ cups apples peeled, cored and sliced (approximately 12 small/med apples or 8 large)

1 ½ cups raw sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbs butter
3 Tbs brown sugar

1 Tbs milk
white sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a pie plate with half the crust rolled thin. Spread half of apples atop bottom crust. Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon and sprinkle half of dry mixture over apples. Place remaining apples in crust and sprinkle remaining dry mixture on top. Dot with butter and sprinkle brown sugar on top. Cover with top crust and pinch to seal. Brush top lightly with milk and dust with sugar. Place pie in oven with foil or baking sheet below to catch drippings. Bake for 15 minutes at 425, then lower heat to 350 and bake an additional 45-50 minutes. Cool (just a bit) and enjoy.

Notes on freezing:
This is my first time freezing pies, so I will have to report back in February about the results. Based on my web research I; froze pies unbaked; and froze the pies in pie plates lined with parchment paper (which will help me remove the pies from the plates for storage). The common recommendation was to use tapioca as a thickener, but I didn’t have tapioca, so instead stuck with the winning recipe that uses flour as a thickener, though this could make the pies “runny”. We shall see.

Camp Cookin’

Where o’ where have I been? Sadly, not keeping up with the Thrifty Kitchen!

During the last several weeks I learned many things about myself; one of which is that I cannot take care of two kids full time and adequately chronicle my cooking adventures.

I did however dream of an alternative technological future. Numerous times in the previous weeks I composed a post or recipe in my head only to be separated by distance and free time from my computer (and glasses – doh! I am going blind). What I needed was a telepathic link to my computer, a way to download my brainwaves, if you will. What do you think? Is it the future? Bluetooth turned brainwave?

But back to wondering, where have I been? We actually have been doing a bit of adventuring this summer, starting off with a couple nights camping at New Brighton State Beach in Santa Cruz. The highlights included Cole playing a seemingly endless game with our tent stakes, Lane bundled like an Eskimo, and creating a sand dude named “knock” who we gleefully knocked over shortly after he was created.

Before heading out I did some quick web searching for camp cooking suggestions. Reading a post from Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks about camp cooking led me to the Food & Wine website and a number of camp recipes, most of which we made. My favorite was a recipe for Corn Cake with Dried Cranberries. We thoroughly enjoyed two full recipes one morning for breakfast. I did make some modifications, below. It was kinda like a fuss-less pancake, and it tasted better too. Win-win for camping I would say.

Camping is a thrifty vacation option though a night’s stay costs at least $25, and reservations are insanely hard to get. I have to admit, I like to indulge a little on the food end while camping … I mean you surely aren’t indulging in many of the “typical” vacation accoutrements. This trip I packed in a cast-iron skillet, which we cooked every meal on. My inner river guide recoils at the amount of “stuff” you can bring car camping, but a good skillet is surely worth the space. Now the air mattress, I am still working on that one…

Corn Cake with Dried Cranberries ~ Modified

One cake will probably feed two people breakfast. Cole, Jon and I ate a double batch, though we are notoriously “big eaters”. This recipe has an increased amount of milk and doubles the amount of dried fruit compared to the F&W version. I also made a substitution of butter for oil which helped with the flavor ~ though of course don’t bother if it is too fussy to melt the butter on the camp stove! I also pre-packed all the dried ingredients in a ziplock bag before heading out … this way there wasn’t much measuring to do and we were only moments away from breakfast. Lets see what else ~ F&W recommends serving with butter and maple syrup. Hot with butter sans syrup was good with us. And yes, everything does taste better camping.

Servings: 2 modest appetites
Cost: ~$4
Time: 10 min prep, 12 min cooking, 22 min total

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ stone ground cornmeal
3 Tbls (packed) light brown sugar
Pinch salt
4 Tbls coarsely chopped dried cranberries (or try apricots)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
2 Tbls butter or vegetable oil
soft butter and (warm) maple syrup for serving

Whisk together dry ingredients and fruit before heading out and place into a ziplock bag. On morning of use, in a small bowl mix egg, milk and 1 tablespoon melted butter (or vegetable oil). Combine with dry ingredients, careful not to overmix.

In your favorite camp skillet, melt ½ tablespoon butter. Scrape batter into the skillet, spreading evenly. Cook over medium heat until, like a pancake, surface looks dry and bubbles have formed on the surface, about 5 minutes. Boldly flip with a spatula. Add remaining ½ tablespoon butter to pan, and cook another 5 minutes until cooked through and top springs back when pressed.

But really, is there such a thing as a “brainwave”?

Molasses Crinkles – What to save in case of fire?

With the summer heat most of us are not thinking of firing up the oven to make cookies, but the recent heat has gotten our family thinking about what is most precious to us. Cookies? You bet – along with all the memories of happiness they have inspired in the past and the possibility of their enjoyment into the future.


This sounds so philosophical, so let me back up. While down in Santa Cruz this last weekend - for my brother’s graduation from Junior High (Yeah Unkl Ty!) and father’s day - we were talking and reading about nearby fires in Bonny Doon . My mom heard a story of a man who stayed to protect his home after his family evacuated. In evaluating his options and preparing his strategy to protect the family homestead, he took the thoughtful measure of throwing the family silver into the swimming pool. This story absolutely captured our imaginations … and ignited numerous theories and speculation as to what our own strategy would be. What would we want to save?

After some thoughtful reflection, my mom confidently identified the item we should grab from the house in case of emergency. Her recipe box. It is just so perfect … So simple and packed full of more memories than any photo album or single treasure, and the best part is that if everything else burns, you still have the comfort of home and new memories to make with old favorites.

The one catch … not all of her favorite recipes are in the recipe box. Which is where I come in. One purpose of the Thrifty Kitchen (and one of my motivations for creating it) is as an online trove for all my favorite recipes. My own little recipe book was getting so full I was inspired to create an online cookbook of sorts. Now in case of fire our family favorites are safe … just in case the water proof box and swimming pool aren’t available at a moment’s notice.

This recipe for Molases Crinkles comes from my mom’s first childhood cookbook. The cookbook is wonderful, dogeared and loved by all of us. We tried to convince her it should be grabbed along with the recipe box, but alas this opened the door for confusion, so we kept it simple. These cookies are possibly my favorite ever - though I hesitate to commit – wonderful anytime of year, but especially around the holidays. So we have a while to wait. But just in case of fire, the recipe is safe here with us.

Molasses Crinkles

My mom has tried numerous variations on the original recipe to improve its healthiness. The winning combination is replacing the shortening with half butter and half Earth Balance (a butter substitute common at health food stores) and the flour with half wheat and half white. I have a little aversion to Earth Balance, and prefer the prior “healthy” version with some butter and some shortening (gasp!). This recipe makes a lot of cookies, so I love freezing half the dough in a log shape and defrosting it when a cooking craving strikes.

Servings: ~36 cookies
Cost: $4.50-$5 total, ~$0.12/cookie (MUCH cheaper than at the coffee shop!)
Time: 2 hours, 40 mins active

Adapted from Mom’s copy of Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for Boys and Girls

1 cup butter
½ cup shortening
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
½ cup molasses
2 cups wheat flour
2 ½ cups white flour
4 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
½ cup white sugar

Cream the shortening, butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and molasses and mix to incorporate. In a separate bowl whisk together flours, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon and ginger. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in one cup increments, mixing completely after each addition. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough into balls the size of walnuts, and dip tops into a bowl filled with white sugar. Place dough balls onto greased baking sheet, three inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, just until set but not hard. Cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a rack to cool completely (or enjoy warm of course).

How to Hard-Boil an Egg

It has taken me 29 years to learn how to hard boil an egg – but today, alas, I boiled four beautiful hard boiled eggs. Victory. I think my days of cracked, mangled and protruding boiled eggs are over.

I remember looking through my mom’s recipes many moons ago and stumbling across a recipe card for ‘How to Boil Water’ … As the story goes the recipe, now a family secret to be sure, was given to my mom as a bridal shower gift. A must have for every new bride (or groom… or college student?). This basic recipe for hard boiled eggs, I propose, should accompany the matrimonial recipe bouquet. I wish I had been spared the years of miserable looking hard boiled eggs!

Jon and I were struck with sticker shock the other day when we purchased two dozen antibiotic/hormone free/organic/cage free eggs at 4.29/dozen (~$0.36/egg). Alas, it still makes for a thrifty snack when compared to packaged granola bars (~$1/bar). Happily for me, it did rekindle our conversation about a backyard chicken coop … someday.

Hey Bryn … now that I know how to hard-boil eggs can you teach me how to devil them?

Hard-Boiled Eggs

Good for so many things, like sliced in a salad or a sandwich. Also a thrifty snack at home (peeled over the sink and sprinkled with salt) or at the park.

Servings: Up to you
Cost: ~$.36/egg for eggs from “happy” hens
Time: 25-30 mins

Eggs
Water

Place eggs in the bottom of a saucepan. Fill with water to approximately one centimeter above eggs. Cover and bring to boil on stovetop. When water begins boiling turn off heat. Leave eggs covered on stovetop for an additional 15-20 minutes (varies depending on the size of the egg). Run eggs under cold water until eggs and water are cool. Crack, peel and enjoy.

My First Rhubarb Pie

Rhubarb is beautiful. I had no idea. It was a joy to wash the long maroon and green striped stalks, pat them dry and cut the stalks lengthwise in preparation for these pies.

I think the seasons are moving by faster than I can keep up. Each month I am trying to experiment with a new ingredient (beet greens) or a spin on an old ingredient that is in season (asparagus). When I updated the last 'What's in Season' I knew rhubarb was this months' bird (so to speak). Jon and Cole found some rhubarb at the local farmers market for $3.99/lb, and with two pounds of rhubarb I made two yummy rhubarb pies. (I later spied rhubarb on sale at our local natural grocery for $2.99/lb and our local big retail grocery doesn't carry rhubarb even in season)

Finding the time to cook these days usually means spending the afternoon nap time in the kitchen instead of catching some zzzzzs. So depending on how exhausted I am, and how badly I want to cook something up, you will know where to find me. On Saturday the call of the kitchen won out and the pies were created. I did have a little mishap with my favorite pie dough recipe ... some overeager measuring of the shortening led to a very tender (and difficult to work with) pie crust. But alas, the pies, served warm with vanilla ice cream, were met with great applause and worth every lost zzzzz.

Rhubarb Pie

This recipe originated from Nancy's copy of the Complete American-Jewish Cookbook . When I told Jon I wanted to make a rhubarb pie, he immediately responded, "Oh, Nancy makes a wonderful rhubarb pie". It's so rewarding to chronicle these family favorites.

Servings: 8 good sized slices
Cost: $4/pie (based on $2.99/lb and pie dough from scratch)
Time: 1 hour total, 15 minutes active (this time does not include the pie dough)

2 eggs
3 cups rhubarb, diced
1 cup sugar
3 Tbls flour
1 pinch salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg
1/2 recipe plain pastry dough
1 Tbls butter or margarine

Preheat the oven to 425. Beat eggs with fork. Combine rhubarb, sugar, flour, salt and cinnamon. Add egg and mix well until all the rhubarb is equally coated. Place the rhubarb in a pastry lined pie plate. Cover the top with remaining rolled out pie dough. Dot the pastry with butter and place pie in oven for 40 to 45 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Nancy's Sweet Salad Dressing

I love my in-laws.

How rarely those words must be uttered, I know ...which makes me even more grateful. This last week they have been visiting, and I kid you not, it is the most relaxed I have been in months. Granted, I have taken a back seat in the kitchen ... and I mean I am sitting so far in the back of the bus I can't see the driver type of back seat. What is for breakfast, lunch and dinner tomorrow? I have no idea ~ but I know there is a plan and it will be delicious. I am on vacation in my own home. Unbelievable.

My one worry - how can I ever repay the kindness? A gift? Maybe. Flowers? This seams silly, as I would be the long term beneficiary as they don't travel well... The one thing I know I can do is pay their generosity forward. I hope to have the same opportunity to care for others. They have shown me how to do it with style, grace, ease and enjoyment. And, it gets better. I get to learn the "secrets" of the family's favorite eats, such as for Nancy's Sweet Salad Dressing.

One cost cutting measure we have employed is making our own salad dressing. Rarely (okay never) do I have time to make a salad specific dressing, so I am starting to make dressings ahead of time in saved salad dressing bottles. Not only is it economical, but it also feels good to pour my own dressing out of a nice glass bottle. This salad dressing is wonderfully sweet due to the addition of some maple syrup (the REAL stuff) and simple. We had it recently on an arugala, pecan and pear salad ... mmm, delicious.

Nancy's Sweet Salad Dressing

This dressing is best with the highest quality olive oil you can afford ... uh, which for us is the cheapest! All these ingredients can be varied to taste and what you have on hand, but here are the basics.

1 1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried or fresh herbs such as dill and/or thyme
1-2 Tbl maple syrup
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a salad dressing container with lid and shake vigorously. Taste dressing and adjust seasonings accordingly. We have kept this dressing at room temperature for two weeks and continued to use and enjoy it. Hope you will too...

Steel Cut Oats

I am back … or almost all back. But where, I ask myself, have I been?

Our little clan has been reeling with illness the last three weeks. Okay not to whine, but maybe just a little … two weeks of horrible cold/virus left me with the farewell gifts of a sinus infection/ruptured ear drum. After finally knocking the infection we got THE MOST contagious 24-hour stomache flu ever (thank you day care:). So there I was two mornings ago, having not eaten for over 24-hours and all I could think about was how wonderful a bowl of good’ol steel cut oats sounded.

One of our favorite breakfast meals is steel cut oats – a bulk oat that takes longer to cook than rolled oats but boasts a creamier texture. When I was working and/or in school I would make a big batch of steel cut oats on Sunday night and we would reheat bowls in the microwave for a simple, fast and nutritious weekday breakfast. Another plus for the steel cut oat: it goes great with lots of additions (chocolate chips! – I am such a junkie). Despite this awesome convenience, they really are best the day-of, though you need to give yourself at least 45 minutes from starting the water to sitting down to eat.

I have had some good conversations with folks lately about ideas for how to be thrifty in the kitchen - a universal theme is cooking more with bulk grains. This is definitely an area of my cooking repertoire I am eager to expand upon and hope there will be many future posts sharing recipes and stories from the bulk grain arena. Please, let me know if you have any ideas or favorites to share!

Steel Cut Oats

Servings: 5
Cost: ~$1 (CHEAP!)
Time: 5 minutes active, 45 minutes total

6 cups water
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups steel-cut oats

Boil the water in a medium size soup or sauce pan. Add the salt and oats. Lower the heat and allow the oats to barely simmer … bubbling like the La Brea Tar Pits ... for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the oats are desired consistency.