Good Eats

Seriously, there is nothing more satisfying than wholesome, natural food. Unfortunately, so much quality food is so expensive. I have resorted recently to buying cheap ground beef with insane amounts of fat and hormones, antibiotics, and the works, because I am unable to afford natural beef at this time. I do the same for chicken.

Fortunately, we won't have to be doing much of that anymore. Our family has been blessed with some venison! Dave was able to make a really good shot today-- uphill at 60 yards-- which pierced the buck's lung. It is a good sized buck which we will enjoy having in our freezer. We already had some tonight, despite Dave getting the buck this morning. It tasted pretty good, though it was a bit gamey. Dave attributes this to the fact that it is a buck and that it was "in the rut." A few days' hanging will help the flavor of the venison to become less gamey. It is cold enough that Dave can probably leave it several days in our friends' barn. Unless he gets an elk tomorrow, in which case the deer will have to come down and the elk up. I don't think I'll complain about gaminess if that occurs!

On to the pictures... CAUTION!! Dead animal and messy tailgate photos to follow:



Lacy is a proud hunter's daughter. She always likes to pose with her daddy when he gets something good to eat.

And of course there are always the fowl that he brings home... lately it's been goose, but we have also often have grouse and duck. I'm so spoiled! Except I have to clean up the feathers. Eh. No thanks.

(which is why I have feathers scattered on my back deck still)

DIY Halloween

This year Lacy decided to be a cheerleader for Halloween. I had one cheerleader skirt that I borrowed from my sister, and some purple and white pom poms that matched. I was able to get some dollar store red pom poms for Rose, but I needed a skirt. I took a look at the fabric I had in my stash. I didn't have much in the color scheme I was going for, but I did find several squares of fabric that were intended for a quilt. The large red and white striped squares were about 9 inches square (maybe a little smaller), so I cut them in half and made ten 4.5x9 inch strips of fabric. I found some yellow squares in my stuff and I cut them so they were just over 2 inches wide. The yellow fabric was shorter than the red fabric. At this point I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with that issue.

I pinned them together and sewed them into a fabric.
I ended up needing 10 red and 10 yellow strips to make a skirt that was wide enough for my skinny minnie Rose. The rule of thumb with pleats is to triple the waist measurement. Rose's waist is about 16 inches, so I needed 48 inches of fabric to make a nice pleated cheerleader skirt.

Now I started pleating. I made outward pleats, meaning I pleated the first half one direction and the other half the opposite direction. This post on Sew Mama Sew shows a nice picture of an outward pleat (it is the second picture down). I did my pleats a little differently because I had short fabric in between the red fabric. I ended up sewing the sides together to make the pleat and connect the top fabric, leaving the yellow fabric unsewn at the top. Since the fabric was 4.5 inches wide, I wanted to end up with 2 inch pleats. I folded the pleats the way I wanted them, and sewed them all together on the folds. This left me with a nice, full skirt and a little less bulky waistline that I could fold over and add elastic into without having to worry about it being super bulky and uncomfortable. This is the inside view of the skirt after it was finished:

Here is the skirt before hemming and other finishing was completed:
The fullness of the skirt is demonstrated here:
All that was left was to hem it.
I ended up going over all the seams later with a zig zag stitch because it was unraveling a lot. My serger is broken, otherwise I would have serged the strips together and not had to worry about unraveling.

I ended up not adding elastic because, hey, it stayed on and it's just a halloween costume. I may add elastic later, but I doubt it. This was a simple project that only took about 2 hours from start to finish.

The final results were very cute!

This is a very inexpensive and very cute costume that can be used as a dress up after Halloween is over. It's pretty simple to make and is easy enough for even impatient sewers like myself!

Happy Halloween! And don't forget to vote today!

Oral Care

This may seem like a strange topic for a Tightwad Tuesday blog. But I'm in the thick of pediatric dental heck, and our tab just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I've learned a lot in the last couple of years, and I would like to share what I've learned with you. Avoiding cavities will make everyone happier, healthier, and just a little bit wealthier! Seriously, the money is so minor compared to all the other benefits of good oral care, but it does make a difference, so it is definitely an appropriate Tightwad Tuesday topic!

Teeth Brushing: This is so important! And it has been my biggest problem from day one. You need to start brushing their teeth the moment they get their first tooth or when their diet includes foods other than breastmilk, whichever comes later. There is much evidence showing that breastmilk does not cause cavities. However, breastmilk + food on the teeth does = cavities. So what you can do is ensure there is no residue of food on the teeth when your child will be nursing, especially if your child is accustomed to nursing to sleep.

Brushing your child's teeth can be very difficult. I struggled with this for a long time. Until my sister taught me the best way to brush a child's teeth. I had been doing it wrong for so long! I learned a little too late for Lacy and Rose (they both have pretty bad damage), but with my next baby I will for sure be brushing her teeth well as soon as she needs it! This tooth brushing method is not for the young babies so much as it is for the toddlers. What you do is you pin their arms down under your legs. Your thighs help to keep the head from turning. You may have some leg flailing going on that you'll have to take care of-- use either your legs to pin their legs down or your free hand. There will be a lot of screaming-- even at almost 2.5, Rose still screams, though she willingly gets into the tooth brush position every single night. Occasionally she will allow us to brush her teeth without pinning her down. I try it that way first every time, but if she won't cooperate we go with the tried and true pinning method. I know it sounds cruel and a bit anti-AP to some people, but there are a few things that I personally put my foot down on, and having clean teeth is one of them. It is much, much worse to go through many of the experiences we have gone through correcting the dental problems than to pin your child down for 1 minute to brush teeth several times a day. I have blogged several times about our dental woes.

My kids already went to bed, so I had to have Dave take a picture of me demonstrating the toothbrush hold on Lacy's bear, Cinnamon, for this blog.

See how Cinnamon's arms aren't visible? They are secured under my legs. If I have to, I can maneuver my knees and calves around to keep flailing legs from becoming a problem-- Rose has escaped more than once using the strength of her legs to maneuver out of my hold. My soft, coushiny thighs cradle Cinnamon's head so I can easily brush his teeth. This is not at all painful for the child, but it is essential for healthy teeth to get them brushed at least 2-3 times a day. Brushing teeth may not be the answer for everyone's dental issues, but it certainly is the best defense. You don't really even need to use tooth paste-- our dentist friend from church told us about how he once brushed his teeth with Mountain Dew. Hmmm. Okay.

Some people are so lucky to have good genes and even constant junk food with zero oral health care results in perfect teeth, but we have bad genetics on our side, so even our careful diets resulted in massive tooth decay. And tooth decay is costly. We have excellent dental insurance, but it doesn't cover the cost of the drug cocktail that Lacy receives before her dental appointment-- that runs us $80 a pop. Rose's teeth were much more expensive: $200 out of pocket expenses for the surgery center, $80 for the anesthesiologist, plus additional costs for what our insurance didn't cover. I still owe the dental office about $200 and will be paying another $80 tomorrow.

Aaaand on to tomorrow: I already mentioned that we will need to pay the dental office $80 for Lacy's happy drink cocktail (Evil Dental actually worked on Rose's teeth without any medication, but this dental office is so much better and would never consider doing something so horrible-- I was so scared for Rose's oral health that I actually allowed them to do that. Bad mom!). She is getting a crown on one of her front teeth. She previously had a filling, but in her eagerness to lose a tooth, she popped that filling right off the tooth. Her permanent tooth will not come in until she is about 8, so the best bet is to crown it if at all possible. It also appears that she has a few minor cavities that need to be repaired, so the dentist will repair those at the same time. He will also polish up the yellowing from the fillings on her front teeth so her pearly whites will actually be white again. Our insurance covers nearly 100% on all these things, so very few out of pocket expenses. But very few does not mean zero, which should be everyone's aim. Not only will proper oral care minimize the cost for you, but it will also improve overall health.

Oral care is very important for children and adults alike. Don't neglect your own teeth! Brush your teeth after meals and floss once daily. Eat less sugar and lots of fruits and vegetables. Take care of your teeth and you'll have them a long, long time.

Seed Saving part deux: Fleshy Fruits

I bought heirloom tomato plants this year specifically so I could save seeds. The cost of a tomato plant is between $2-5 at the farmer's market for heirloom tomatoes. Each plant produced 5-10 pounds of fruit. That's a pretty good deal, but an even better deal is to save the seeds and start again next year from seed! I will be planting my tomato starts as early as February this year-- much later, and they don't get big enough in our climate. I was lucky I got any ripe fruit at all this year!

Here's what you do to save seeds:

Let a few tomatoes over-ripen and get all squishy. Then you cut them across their equators and scoop out the seeds. Put the seeds and the goop around the seeds in a jar along with a few tablespoons of water. Put plastic wrap over the top and poke a hole in it, to allow air circulation. This water will get scummy, so change it every day until the seeds are naked. Then, lay the seeds out on a paper plate or coffee filter to allow them to dry. Once they are bone dry, you can put them in an envelope and save for next year.

Yum!
You want some of that, don't you? Mmmmm, good.

People who know a heckuva lot more about seed saving are also on the web. Check 'em out!

Baby Shower Gifts on the Cheap

When you give a baby gift this beautiful, nobody will suspect that it only cost you around $5 This is my favorite kind of baby carrier, a traditional Asian baby carrier called a mei tai. The trick is to make it yourself using high-quality fabrics that are on sale. I really like using suedecloth (or similar fabrics) that makes it to the clearance bin at the local fabric store. I only use fabric that costs $2/yard or less (though with climbing prices, I may have to raise my threshold in order to find quality fabrics). For the front panel, I use beautiful brocades that I buy on sale. Normally brocade costs about $10/yard (sometimes more), but I wait until it is on sale or I have a coupon and buy it for around half that price. I can make four mei tai carriers with one yard of fabric. It takes about two yards of fabric for the back and the straps. It is also reversable, so you can have more of a basic fabric for the days when you're not feeling as fancy. The only other things you will need are thread, and something for padding in the straps if you want. I used polar fleece scraps.

It is surprisingly simple to make, and this one only took me one evening to put together. The hardest part is making the straps look good. I added padding, so it took longer to turn the straps inside out. Anyone with a little bit of sewing experience can make a beautiful mei tai carrier that will be the hit of the baby shower. They are also very easy to use, and as you can see by my almost 2.5 year old model, they are useful for a long, long time. Similar brocade mei tais sell for $40-60 on Etsy. The savings are huge if you make it yourself!

Here is a pattern for a mei tai that is similar to the one I make. I have made a couple variations to the pattern to make it more to my liking. You may find that you make variations, too, if you make enough of them. It's a great basic pattern to get you started.

Here are the instructions for wearing. I print this out when I give a mei tai as a gift.

Seed Saving

For today's edition of Tightwad Tuesday, I'd like to talk about seed saving.

I'm not an expert seed saver. But I do have a garden, and I did have some radishes that went to seed. So this is an experiment in progress!

A couple things... if you want to be serious about saving seeds, you need to get "heirloom" plant varieties, not hybrids. Heirlooms are plants that, when you save the seeds, will produce their own offspring. Hybrids will produce something else, perhaps an alien. I'm not exactly sure. However, you will have to be aware of how the seeds are pollinated-- if some plants are too close to another similar variety of plant, they could produce a cross. Different varieties of plants need to be separated by as much as a half mile in order to ensure cross pollination does not occur. Plants that are easiest to start with include tomatoes, beans and peas, summer squashes, and cucumbers.

Now, I didn't do a lot of research before I saved these radish seeds. I'm quite compulsive at times, and just decided to save radish seeds after I forgot to pick a couple radishes. Waste not, want not, you know! Apparently, radishes are one plant you are supposed to have separated from other varieties of radishes because cross pollination is likely. I had two varieties of radishes in my garden this year. So we'll see what I get next year!

Here's what I did: I had a couple of radishes that I let go to seed. When the pods started drying up, I cut the plants and stored them in paper bags, loosely sealed with tape. Once they were all dry, I opened all the pods and rescued whatever seeds I could. It was a LOT of work. Hopefully this will produce some radishes for next year. If not... well, this is a Tightwad Tuesday failure! The effectiveness remains to be seen.

I collected about as many seeds as you get in a packet of seeds from the store. I bet only about 50% will actually produce anything, so really my savings overall was quite minimal, maybe $1 by doing this. But heck, it's a dollar I may not have to spend next spring when we start craving some radishes!

I'm storing my seeds in an air tight container with an anti-oxygen pack in them, to keep them nice and fresh and ready for the spring.

The pods dried on the plant
The pods picked off and ready to open
An open pod with some very nice seeds
Empty pods for the compost bin
And the seeds!!!



Some resources:

International Seed Saving Institute
Seed Savers Exchange
Sand Hill Preservation Center
AHS- Master Gardener's Locators

Our farmer's market has a booth from our local ag school's extension office (which just so happens to be my alma mater). They have master gardeners there during normal market hours, and they have been very helpful to me with my gardening questions. I'm sure they'll be able to answer any questions you may have about seed saving, or at least point you in the right direction!

I'll update you next spring with how these seeds do!

Tightwad Tuesday

I'm adding a new feature to my blog. Let me know what you think, or how I can improve this feature. I plan to continue posting Tightwad Tuesday tips every week if it proves to be a popular feature of my blog. I'm calling it "Tightwad Tuesday" in honor of my mother, who for years was a loyal subscriber to "The Tightwad Gazette." My sister and I have followed in her path and put to use many of the tightwad tips we have learned throughout the years. Unfortunately we haven't put to use all our knowledge, otherwise we'd both be rolling in the dough right now. Or, at least not sinking in this stinky economy!

Here's my super-cool money saving tip for this week:

Garbage Soup

Sounds appetizing, doesn't it? Well, it's my alternative to buying expensive boxed chicken broth, or resorting to tasteless bullion cubes. Both of which don't have the flavor of a homemade broth, and probably contain ingredients you can't pronounce.

What I do is save all my vegetable scraps. I carefully wash all my veggies, and only save parts that are technically edible, just not something you'd want to put in tonight's casserole. Usually, I end up with a lot of carrot peelings and ends, celery ends and the leafy middle part, and onion skins. I save other veggies, too, but not in massive quantities like the other three. The onion skins actually give a broth a glorious golden color and are essential to a tasty broth, in my opinion. These vegetables are edible, but are usually thrown out because they are tough or difficult to cut up. I hate wasting food, so I collect all these pieces and put them in a container and store in the freezer.

Many of you may remember my obsession with buying whole chickens instead of pieces. For one thing, you have more choices when you buy a whole chicken (some birds only come whole), they stay fresher longer, and they're cheaper (if you buy conventional chickens). Once I've disassembled the chicken, a la Alton Brown, I freeze the carcass to be used at a later date. When I am running low on broth or my container of vegetable clippings runneth over, I put a frozen carcass (and the neck!) and my veggie clippings in the crockpot. I add a sprig of thyme (grown fresh in my garden-- a perennial herb that is very easy to grow, even for those of us who tend to kill plants), a couple bay leaves (purchased in bulk at my local co-op), a few peppercorns, and a pinch of kosher salt, and water to come up to about 1 inch from the top. I leave the crockpot on low all night long and have a beautiful aroma the next morning. Then I strain out the vegetable matter and carcass, put the broth in a bowl in the fridge, and the carcass in a ziploc bag in the fridge to cool. The veggies go in the compost pile-- they have served their purpose.

Eventually I pick the carcass clean of the meat and save it for use in a meal that calls for pre-cooked chicken. I usually end up with between one and two cups of meat, depending on how well I carved the chicken. Then I take out the cooled broth strain off the fat layer that is now hardened. I usually have about 8 cups of broth at this point. Then I put it in a pot to boil on the stove, and simmer it until it reduces down. I like to take my 8 cups of broth and reduce it to 1 cup. Then I put it in a plastic container and freeze it, or store it in the fridge if I am out of broth completely. It takes up very little room, and if I need a cup of broth for a recipe, I just put two tablespoons of the broth reduction into a measuring cup and add enough water to equal one cup of regular strength broth, and it's ready to go. It has the consistency of jelly at this point, so it is very easy to measure it out exactly. It takes a little time, but the flavor is so much more complex than canned or boxed broth, it takes up very little space in the fridge, and is easy to use. And best of all, it is practically free! Just a little electricity for the crock pot, and the cost of water, salt, pepper, and bay leaves. Everything else is "garbage."

Total hands-on for this project is about an hour.

Or, you can always skip the reduction part and make the most amazing chicken noodle soup you've ever tasted. Mmmmmmm!