Recently Read: The $64 Tomato

The $64 Tomato seconds my inkling that my backyard squirrels benefit more than I do from my efforts at gardening--half-hearted as my efforts are. I optimistically planted a few squash this year to test if my black thumb is turning any greener. They are alive and growing, but something's eating my squash. Every so often I get the urge to be a gardener. I usually get my hopes up, plant a few things, hold out hope for awhile, and then finally realize my failure (due to bad soil, bad lighting, bad squirrels, or who knows what). In my quest to plant a few things this year, I checked out a few gardening books. The $64 Tomato was among them.

It's a humorously-told memoir of a family's gardening adventures and their journey to realizing they actually spent $64 for one tomato. Well-written and easily read, it's good for an evening of relaxing. I wouldn't call it enlightening, but amusing. I don't think I'll ever have the energy to be as fanatical about a garden or food as William Alexander is, but I'm not giving up on my few plants yet. I'm holding out hope for a bit longer.

Something to Make You Feel Good about Spit-Up

So they won't make spit-up smell any better, but at least you have something pretty to look at.

Recently made these burp cloths for Matt and Amber and their soon-coming baby girl. Congrats, Matt and Amber! We're looking forward to meeting her!

Pants!

I've been having trouble finding pants that fit Caleb. Either they are too short or they are too wide. Finally I decided to save myself some time, avoid wrestling matches resulting from trying clothes on a squirmy little boy, and escape the headache of returning clothes. (Don't get me started on the Wal-Mart Customer Service Associate who gave me a lecture about how all Wal-Mart employees multi-task.)

I read several online tutorials since I didn't feel like waiting for patterns to go on sale at the fabric store. Since the process and the pattern seemed simple enough, I decided to try it out. I used a pair of pants that fit Caleb really well (except that he's getting to tall for them). I traced the shaped onto newspaper, added an inch or two to the length, added room for seam allowance, purchased some fabric and elastic, and started sewing.

The first pair of shorts I tried would have been great, if Caleb still fit into 3 month clothes.

Being my stubborn self, I tagged that pair of shorts with a "3 month" label and tried again. That pair actually fit Caleb, so I went back to the fabric store, purchased more fabric while it was on sale, and started sewing away.

Here's the result:

And as long as my Fashion and Textiles Major mom or my Family Consumer Science Teacher mom-in-law don't look too closely, we'll be ok and avoid pesky customer service associates. Oh, and Caleb will have summer clothes that stay on.

Due credit
I found the most helpful online tutorial to be the Simple Baby Pants at Make-Baby-Stuff.com. I also perused the following sites and picked up a tip or helpful picture or something: Craftsanity.com; Dishtowel Pants; Rookiemoms.com; Bandana Pants. I also picked my mom's brain when she came to visit one day. We experimented with several stitches on my sewing machine and figured out which was best for sewing on knit. Thanks, Mom!

Typical Work Week?

I just completed a "personal health assessment" questionnaire that earns us a health insurance discount. It's pretty silly. I answered a battery of questions, and then a score magically appears. Overall I score fairly well since I'm not stressed out, I eat a somewhat balanced diet, and I'm the goody two shoes non-smoking, non-alcoholic, seat-belt-wearing type.

This year I had difficulty answering the questions about my typical work schedule. How many hours do I typically work in a seven day period? How many hours does my employer expect me to work? How many hours did I work in the past four weeks?

Do you really want to know?

Do you really think those hours felt like Work?

House Project

Several summers ago I took down wallpaper in our master bedroom. I remember how tedious it was to get all the glue off the walls. Now I'm hoping I was thorough with that tedious job because I've discovered the effect of not getting all the glue off.

The effect? Peeling paint. Evidently the previous owners of our home took down wallpaper in the kitchen and dining room. For awhile I couldn't figure out what was causing the paint to crack and peel, but then I found the telltale mark of a paper tiger and some lovely striped and floral wallpaper above and behind some cabinets. When we moved in several years ago, this wasn't noticeable. Now it is.

And now that Caleb is capable of eating the peeling paint, I decided it was time to take care of it. For several weeks, I simply chipped away at the loosening paint. Each day I'd go back to it thinking, "Maybe I'll start priming today." Then I'd look at the wall and find some more paint to chip away. After priming with a primer that looked suspiciously like glue, I've started repainting--the same color. It seems wrong to repaint a room the same color it was before, but I don't want to replace the window cornices, and I like how the color coordinates with our living room.

So anyway, if you're stripping wallpaper anytime soon, my advice is to be patient. Otherwise you'll be doing it again in a few years.

Gun Show

Grocery Poll Follow-Up

Several years ago, Luke and I went through a Good Sense Budget Course with our ABF at church. It has been the best study we've gone done on the topic of money. It's both practical and principled. But I'm not planning to do a review of the course today. The Good Sense workbook had some interesting information about food costs. As I have written about all too frequently lately, it's taken me several years to figure out where our food spending should be. This information was helpful to me during that process. Maybe you'll find it interesting as well. According to the USDA Center for Nutrition in October of 2000, a thrifty family of 2 spent $248 per month on food while a liberal family of 2 spent $475.

And I'll leave it at that. I don't think I can possible write more about grocery shopping than I already have. Well, I probably could, but I don't want to write it, and you don't want to read it.

Poll

This week at my moms groups, we had a conversation about grocery shopping, menu planning, and saving money. Since I've discovered the world of blogs, I've discovered how much time can go into menu planning, couponing, and saving pennies. I've come up with a system that works for me--something that doesn't take too much time, but still helps me meet my budget. I was amazed at how much time and money some moms in my group spent on feeding their families. Currently I don't spend a lot of time chasing sales, but I'm wondering if it'd be worth my time. Could I save bunches of money if I spent a little more time? So I'm curious, how much money do you spend on groceries each month, adjusted as if you were feeding two people? The poll is anonymous, so you don't have worry about having a "frugal queen" tiara sent to you in the mail.

And then I found 10 dollars...

I have some very exciting news to report.

Brace yourselves.

Are you sitting down?

I met my grocery budget for 2008 with ten dollars leftover. Wahoo!

One of my jobs is to be the chef for our family. Although cooking isn't my favorite thing to do, I've decided to enjoy it, since I'm going to do it anyway. This past year, I really wanted to meet our grocery budget and cook good food. I don't consider it success to meet my budget but have Luke groan when he sees what I made for dinner. (Thankfully, he doesn't do that too often.) I also don't consider it success if I spend the right amount of money, but I dread my time in the kitchen making repetitive meals. Because I like to try new things, and Luke likes good meat, our grocery budget can easily get out of hand.

What helped me succeed this year?

1. Planning a menu. Sometimes I do this one week at a time, sometimes two.
2. Setting an amount that I could spend at the grocery store each week that left me with a few dollars to spend on the items I inevitably would forget to buy during my major shopping run. Oh, and I had to stick to this amount. If I inadvertently went over, I'd try to correct the next time I went shopping.
3. Trying new meals every week, but not multiple times per week. New meals tend to cost more because I buy unique items just for that meal without a plan for how to use the rest of that item.
4. Not buying extra food when it was on sale and it would cause me to spend more than my weekly budgeted amount. The exception was when meat would be at the lowest price I could ever find it. Then I'd stock up.

Now that this exciting blog post is over, any ideas on how I should spend my ten dollars?

Christmas at the Bakers'

Since I'm the youngest on my side of the family, I've seen Christmas traditions change as my brothers married, and then as kids were added to their families. Let's just say the days of duct-taped gifts and quietly reading after the festivities are no longer. Some traditions have remained: reading the Christmas story from either Matthew, Luke, or John, singing Christmas carols, opening presents beginning with the youngest, a big dinner usually including ham loaf, hugs from Grandma, and a competitive game of Monopoly.

I'm thankful for my brothers and their families who made the long trip back to Iowa for Christmas. This year they came by train, plane, and automobile through fog, ice, and snow. I hope it was worth it for them. We certainly enjoyed seeing them.

Caleb playing with one of the many toys he received for Christmas.

Caleb with Grandpa and Grandma and all his Baker cousins.

Mom and Dad's gift to us--an example of Mom's amazing artistry and craftsmanship. (Mom and Dad, we'll think of you when we see it on our dining room wall!)

As you can see, I have fewer pictures from this celebration. It probably has to do with 16 people living in one house and the ensuing chaos, I mean, good cheer. We had a blast and were so glad Caleb could meet his cousins, aunts, and uncles!

Pad Thai

I came back from Thailand with a love for Thai food, of which one common dish is Pad Thai. Pad Thai simply means Thai noodles. As such, there are probably hundreds (if not thousands) of ways to cook this dish. You can find Pad Thai anywhere from fancy restaurants to street vendors. My favorite version was one I purchased from a street vendor. After browsing many recipes, I came up with a recipe that I think remains true to the original spirit of Pad Thai, that is, making good food from readily available ingredients. It doesn't include a few of the ingredients some people say are required for "true" Pad Thai, but those ingredients are not easy to find around here. I'm no expert on Thai food--I just like to eat it, so this is what I came up with.

Speaking of hard to find ingredients, if anyone wants to give us an awesome Christmas gift, our Asian food store stopped selling our favorite Thai dipping sauce and we haven't found anything close to it. If you're in a city with a larger Asian food market, would you look for Mae Pranom Dipping Sauce? We'll reimburse you for it!

Pad Thai

Ingredients:
8 oz. rice noodles (medium width)
1 T. oil
Cilantro (freshly chopped is best, but dried will do
1/2 lb. chicken breast, diced
2-3 green onions, diced
2 eggs

Sauce:
2 T. fish sauce
1 T. oyster sauce
1 1/2 T. rice vinegar
1 1/2 T. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cayenne

Optional garnishes:
Lime juice
Sugar
Chopped peanuts
Crushed red pepper
Fresh bean sprouts

Directions:
1. Cook the rice noodles. Because I'm usually trying to rush things, I boil a pot of water, remove the pot from the heat, and then soak the rice noodles in the hot water for about 10 minutes or until the noodles are bite-able. Drain. Alternately, I think you can use really hot tap water and soak the noodles for a longer period of time. Do not try to boil the noodles like pasta. You'll have a sticky mess, not that I would know.
2. Mix the sauce ingredients (fish sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and cayenne) in a small bowl.
3. Heat 1 T. oil in wok or skillet. Cook diced chicken with cilantro over high heat until chicken is cooked through. Add green onions. Break 2 eggs into center of wok and stir fry until egg is cooked through.
4. Add more oil to the wok if necessary. Add cooked rice noodles and sauce to the wok and stir fry.
5. Serve and garnish with a splash of lime juice, a sprinkle of sugar, some chopped peanuts, crushed red pepper, and bean sprouts to taste.

If you want to eat this in true Thai style, use a fork to push the noodles onto a soup spoon and spoon into your mouth. If only DQ made 5-cent baby ice cream cones here like they did in Bangkok, then it'd be a complete meal.

Irish Shepherd's Pie

Luke and I miss several Ames restaurants, of which one is Dublin Bay for its Irish Shepherd's Pie and Irish soda bread. Since we won't be traveling to Ames anytime soon and I've been wanting fall food lately, I attempted to make a homemade version of Irish Shepherd's Pie tonight. While it wasn't the same as Dublin Bay, it wasn't half bad, and I got to try a new vegetable in the process. I'm posting the recipe here for my memory's sake. Here's the recipe I concocted:

Ingredients:
1 stalk celery, diced
3 medium carrots, diced
2 parsnips, diced
1/2 c. frozen peas
3/4 lb. diced steak or stew meat
1/2 onion, diced
Garlic powder to taste
1/4-1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. marjoram
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. basil

Mashed potato topping ingredients:
5 russet potatoes
1/4 c. cheddar cheese
Garlic powder and black pepper to taste
Enough butter and milk to create a spreadable texture.

Directions:
1. Boil potatoes in enough water to cover them for about 15 minutes or until fork-tender. Drain and mash with butter, milk, cheddar cheese, black pepper and garlic.
2. Place celery, carrots, and parsnips in saucepan with just enough water to cover. Boil for 10 minutes and then add frozen peas. Boil for 5 additional minutes or until desired tenderness is achieved. Drain the vegetables, reserving the water.
3. Meanwhile cook steak with onion and garlic powder. Once the meat is cooked through, drain any grease.
4. Mix together the meat mixture, the vegetables, 1 c. of the reserved water, and the spices (pepper, thyme, marjoram, oregano, and basil). Place into an oven-safe dish. Top with mashed potatoes. Top mashed potatoes with a few dabs of butter.
5. Bake in a 350 degree oven until warmed through and top is slightly crusty.

This was somewhat time consuming, but I completed steps 1-4 ahead of time and then tossed it in the oven in time for dinner. Since it was refrigerated between prepping and baking, it took about 45 minutes to bake. Because it's rather time consuming, I won't make this often, but it was good for a change from the usual. Next time I may try my hand at Irish soda bread.

Crafty-ness

The definition of "crafty" from the American Heritage Dictionary:

1. Skilled in or marked by underhandedness, deviousness, or deception.
2. Chiefly British Skillful; dexterous.
   

Call it crafty, creative, or crazy, here are several projects I've completed over the past few months (notice the word completed--not started and completed):

Crocheted Baby Blanket. "Peppermint Candy" pattern from 7-day Afghans by Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss using size I hook and Caron Simply Soft yarn in Berry and White.

Flannel Baby Blanket (36" square) and coordinating burp cloths. For when you get tired of wearing either spit up or a cloth diaper on your shoulder....

Filet crochet name doily using size 20 or 30 thread and size 12 hook. An ode to my great-grandmas' generation when they actually used this technique to make entire tablecloths and bedspreads 50 times the size of this little piece.

Buying in Bulk...worth it?

I have a love-hate relationship with buying in bulk. I love saving money and getting the best deal. I hate going over my weekly grocery budget, and buying meat for the next 3 months will definitely do that. I love having staples on supply in my freezer or pantry. I hated the pounds upon pounds of hot dogs that I ate as a kid because that's what we had on hand. I don't think I've purchased hot dogs since.



Recently I heard reports of cheap diapers at our area's warehouse club. So I started looking into a membership. Because they publish prices online, I was able to compare their prices with my usual grocery store price to see which items were big savers. I recently spent $54.02 to save $22.37. Of course those savings come with several footnotes. I've saved only if we don't use more than we normally would, simply because we have it. I've saved only if the products don't go bad in the pantry, fridge, or freezer. I've saved if I don't buy extra things we normally wouldn't get just because it's a good deal. And I've only saved if we don't have to buy a whole other appliance (like a deep freeze) to store my 'savings.' And then I have to consider the time (and gas money) it takes to drive to another store for groceries. Is this frugality really worth it? The jury's still out.

The real question is: Why am I saving money (if I end up actually saving)? Is saving money in an of itself a worthy goal? And now I'll stop writing before I get too philosophical.

Weeds

Recently I've spent time harvesting all kinds of weeds in my yard, which makes me wonder, "What makes a weed a weed?"