Peanutella!

For a long time, I've wanted a food processor. When I would read a recipe and get to the part where it says "use your food processor to . . ." I would be sad I didn't have a food processor. But I never got around to getting one. It seemed like a lot of work to figure out the best possible value in food processors.

Then the stars aligned to present me with Smitten Kitchen's recipe for chocolate-peanut spread, a killer sale on a Cuisinart Prep7, and a gift certificate usable at Macy's. So I got my food processor, and it was so worth it!

If you're like me, you don't get the appeal of Nutella. But that's because if you're like me, you don't get the appeal of hazelnuts. Hazelnut is right up there with coffee as a flavor that will keep me from trying a dessert.

So when Deb at Smitten Kitchen devised PEANUTella, I knew I had to try it. I've made it a couple of times now, and this is the method that works best for me (a non-gourmet, non-discriminating, lazy cook)

Lazy Cook Peanutella
Peanuts - about 2 cups. More or less. Whatever you have is fine. Planters dry roasted works, so don't worry about buying raw peanuts and toasting them yourself. I did toast the Planters ones for a couple of minutes the last time I made this, but I don't think it made a huge difference. Honestly, I suspect a couple of cups of peanut butter and some oil would work too.

Powdered sugar -- a little less than a cup. More if you want it sweeter, less if you want it less sweet. I used the full amount SK recommended last time (1.25 cups) and I thought it was great. But I didn't have 1.25 cups this time, so I used less. I liked it better.

Oil -- a few tablespoons? A couple of drizzles? I used avocado oil one time, olive oil another, and corn oil this time. I'm not sure it matters if it's a light tasting oil. I wouldn't use a strong oil unless you want the taste.

Cocoa -- 1/2 cup Hershey's one time, Green & Black's organic another time, a little of this and a little of that another time. I didn't notice a significant difference any time.

Procedure
Toast the peanuts if you want. Smitten Kitchen says 400 degrees for ten minutes. That seemed like a lot of work to me. Especially since you have to shake the pan a few times to get them evenly roasted. I don't have that kind of motivation!

Grind peanuts in a food processor with a drizzle or two of oil. DO NOT use your blender unless you have a hardcore, heavy duty blender. I may or may not have ruined my blender by trying to make this recipe before I got the food processor. SK recommends 5 minutes until they liquefy. Yes, liquefy. If you're looking at your peanuts and wondering, "Is this liquefied?" the answer is "no." You'll be watching your peanuts whirring around and all of a sudden, poof, liquid! Like magic.

You could be lazy -- and I wouldn't judge you -- and not wait for the liquefied state, and it will work just fine. But it won't be smooth and drizzly. It'll be chunky and stiff. But it'll still be yummy yummy yummy. It took about 8 minutes for my peanuts to liquefy. Based on Smitten Kitchen's comments, liquefying time varies. If you think it has been too long, try adding a bit more oil. I waited for the liquefied state the third time I made this, and it's well worth the extra couple of minutes.

Once you have liquid peanuts, add the sugar and cocoa and whirl it until well blended and back to the liquidy state.

Pour into a container and serve. It is excellent on toasted sourdough, vanilla ice cream, strawberries, and bananas. I'm sure it's excellent on other things too. It supposedly lasts a week in the refrigerator. I wouldn't know.

Pumpkin Tongue

I spent today canning and pureeing 8 pumpkins, which is one of Roscoe's favorite treats. Of course, after reading Nana's hilarious Countersurfer.com, I had to try some blender view shots of my own.

Old Navy Deals

I learned about this deal from a variety of sources, but once again Money Saving Mom is saving you money. And you don't even have to be a mom to take advantage.

Old Navy is offering a ton of stuff for $16 or less! Jackets, jeans, shirts, khaki pants, sweaters and more. Plus t-shirts are int he $6-10 range.

Sorry I'm getting it to you so late. I didn't even think about blogging about it. You can still take advantage of the online deals, though.

Old Navy

Jackets are a bargain at $16. Too bad I live in perfect San Luis Obispo where we don't really need super comfy cozy jackets that often, and I can't justify buying one no matter how cute it is. I did get to spend a gift certificate and buy a pair of jeans, a pair of leggings, a pair of cords, two sweaters, and a tank top for me and two pairs of khaki pants and 8 shirts for Joe, though.

Use the code ONSHIP50 to get free shipping for orders over $50.

Martha Stewart Living

Sign up for this at your own risk, but Money Saving Mom says it's legit. I signed up and used a different name to identify where the junk mail originated if I end up with junk mail. Not that I ever know what to do with it once I get it. I once signed up for something with Jenili (it was a Chili's promo, only it turned out not to be a legit promotion) and for a year I got mail addressed to Jenili. I haven't had that experience with anything else I've signed up for online, though.

Anyway, Rewards Gold is offering a subscription to Martha Stewart Living for signing up with them. I used a junk email as well. MSM is pretty good about filtering out the duds among the freebies.

Martha Stewart Living

Dairy Free Dessert!

I was bringing a dessert to a dinner with friends this evening, and I knew at least one nursing mom would not be able to have any dairy. I searched a few vegan and dairy-free recipe sites and quickly realized that my choices were limited to recipes made with less than natural ingredients or to ones with wacky ingredients that I didn't have or even know how to get - especially not cheaply and quickly! Things like kudzu powder, fortified rice protein powder, and agar. Isn't agar the stuff you grow bacteria on?

In desperation, I ransacked my cabinet for something sweet and dairy-free and came up with Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn! The only problem was how to stick the cinnamon and sugar to the popcorn.

Coconut oil to the rescue! The result was really yummy even if you don't have to avoid dairy, and I am munching on some of the leftovers as I type!

COCONUT CINNAMON SUGAR POPCORN
1/2 cup popcorn kernels, air-popped

2 tbsp melted coconut oil (3 tbsp would be okay for a stronger coconut flavor)

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon
Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.

Quickly drizzle oil over hot popcorn. You want to work fast because coconut oil resolidifies quickly and you want to be sure to get the cinnamon/sugar mixture on before the coconut cools.
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over popcorn.

I like to use a bowl with a lid and shake the whole thing to completely coat the popcorn.

The result is a cheap, low-calorie, dairy-free dessert with just a hint of tropicalness. Yum!

Much Ado About You Raving Fan!

I just won a calendar from Much Ado About You! Emmy hosted a "Raving Fan" and "Future Raving Fan" contest. To enter you had to submit a picture of you with your MAAY calendar explaining how much you love your calendar and why you should be chosen as her Raving Fan. Or if you had never owned a MAAY calendar, you could enter a picture of you with your sad, pathetic calendar and explain why life would be better with one of Emmy's calendars.

Here's my entry:
My Entry

That's not a picture of me and my calendar! But it is! Really! Here's a confession and slight digression, but I do have a point, so bear with me. I have half a post written (and have had half a post written for about a week now) and waiting to be posted; it is titled "My Husband Rocks!" In the last couple of weeks, I've had plenty of opportunities to see how much he rocks. One of the ways is that, despite his reluctance to see his picture online, he agreed to help me win this calendar. I had to promise the only place this picture would ever be shown was on Emmy's site if I won. I don't think he believed I'd really win.

But he really is my calendar. I always ask him what we're doing on certain days, so I know whether to schedule something or not. It does keep us connected regarding schedules, but it's not the most convenient method of scheduling. And as cute as he is, I really really wanted one of Emmy's super cute paper planners.

Anyway, I procrastinated so long that I won before I posted that I was trying to win!

I don't know what my calendar will look like because it's from her new and not yet revealed 2011 line, but if you want an opportunity to buy a 25% off September start 2010-2011 calendar, go to her etsy shop here:
Much Ado About You

Quick Tip: No Mess Bacon

My mom said I had to post this as a quick tip because she tried it just last week even though I have been telling her to do it for years. Moms. They never listen.

Bacon isn't exactly a frugal option ever. Not even on sale. It's hardly nutritious, and at its cheapest it's ridiculously expensive per cooked ounce. But it's so yummy, and I love it so.

Bacon's also really not a good option for a household of two. You can't buy it in packages smaller than one pound, and who can eat half a pound of bacon in one meal? Not me! Well, okay, I could but I shouldn't.

Not to mention, bacon is such a pain to fry. The grease splatters everywhere. If your stove is on its last legs, as mine is, the heat is uneven. You can really only fit one or two pieces directly over the heat or else half your bacon burns and half is soft and floppy. And soft, floppy bacon is . . . well, it's not even worth thinking about.

I haven't solved the artery-clogging problem, but I have solved the cooking problem and made inroads into the not-so-frugal problem.

I came up with my bacon cooking method when I was reflecting back on my Cal Poly years - specifically on the 5-month period that I spent cooking bacon for the entire campus dining organization. Every morning I would arrive on campus at 5:30 a.m. and begin peeling slices of bacon off industrial-sized slabs to place them on industrial-sized cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Then I'd place 4 trays on a rotating rack in a mega-industrial-sized oven. It was like El Pollo Loco's rotating chicken rack, only with flat racks for placing trays on and a tiny one rack's height opening. The trays would circle around and be fully cooked by the time they got back to the opening.

Ten times in a row (the # of racks in the oven), I had to set up raw bacon on 4 trays and throw them in the oven before the rack disappeared from view.

Once rack #1 returned, I would have to grab the now scalding hot metal trays full of scalding hot bacon grease and set them to cool in a rolling cart that could hold 24 trays of cooked bacon. Once the first rack returned, the task became grab 4 cooked trays & place them in the cooling rack AND place 4 raw trays back on the cooking rack before the rack disappeared from view.

Once the second rotation was finished, the task became grab 4 cooked trays & place them in the cooling rack AND place 4 raw trays back on the cooking rack AND move the cooling trays out of the way and replace them with empty cooling trays before the rack disappeared from view.

I did this for three and a quarter hours a day, every weekday, for 5 months. For the most part, I had a rhythm down. As long as there were no interruptions, it was pretty smooth if slightly hectic. If I got distracted, though, sometimes a cooked tray would escape for a second go-round. The second time around, it would be burned to a tiny strip of charcoal. If you got a BLT with a burned piece of bacon from The Sandwich Plant at Cal Poly some time between January 1993 and June 1993, I'm sorry. It's not easy to cook more than 100 pounds of bacon in three hours.

We won't even go into how not easy it is to clean up 3 pounds of melted bacon fat from a tile floor when you are rolling your cart and it hits a bump and topples over, spilling all the bacon fat and 24 trays of cooked bacon onto the ground.

If you got a BLT with a fuzzy piece of bacon from The Sandwich Plant at Cal Poly some time between January 1993 and June 1993. . . that's not my fault. I always threw those pieces away.

Anyway, when I reflected on that experience, I realized there was no reason to actually fry bacon and probably if I used quality bacon it would still be tasty after being refrigerated or frozen. The cold bacon at Cal Poly tasted the same as the hot bacon.

So I decided to try baking my own bacon at home. This was in the days before ubiquitous internet access, and I couldn't just look up any old "how to cook bacon" website and find out if this would work or not!

But it did work! And ever since, that's how I've gotten my bacon fix. I cook a couple of pounds, eat a slice or two (or three), and freeze the rest. Then when we want bacon, we can take out a slice or two (or three) and warm it up in the microwave or toaster oven. That means cook once, eat 5, 6, or 7 times!

That solves the hassle problem. The frugal problem is slightly remedied by the fact that you can buy your bacon in mega bulk when you find a good deal. Bacon really is one of those foods where quality is very obvious. Cheap bacon is overly fatty and shrivels; good quality bacon has a decent amount of meat and lays flat. But since it's also one of those foods you shouldn't be having very often anyway, $2.50/lb for mass produced bacon vs $7/lb for good quality local farmer bacon isn't too big a hit on your budget.

Anyway, here's how you can avoid fried bacon splatters and have a grease-free kitchen, too. If you have a Pampered Chef stoneware baking sheet, all you have to do is place your bacon in strips so that it covers the pan and stick it in the oven at 350 until the bacon would stand up on its own but isn't crispy.

Take the pan out and allow the bacon to cool on the pan (it'll still be cooking, which is how it gets to the crispy state). Store bacon flat or in crumbles. I actually break it in half and store in a small tupperware container because I don't care if my bacon is half-sized or not.

Wait until the fat congeals, scrape it off thoroughly, and rub the pan dry with a paper towel. The fat just adds to the stoneware seasoning.

Voila! Bacon with no mess!

If you don't have a Pampered Chef stoneware baking sheet (and you really should, seriously), you can use any old baking sheet, but I recommend placing the bacon on wire racks on the sheet. Use the same method, but bake a tiny bit longer before removing from the oven. Clean as you would any greasy pan.

Just for fun: Bacon Flow Chart

Thrifting - Days 11 & 12

Hands down, the best thing I've discovered about thrift store shopping is the cheap books. I'm talking 3/$1 paperbacks and $1 hardbacks! The book sections of thrift stores have officially become impossible to resist.



Many weeks ago, back when I was actually updating my blog consistently and going to thrift stores consistently, we visited the Goodwill in Arroyo Grande for their book sale and the Achievement House thrift store for their open house. Goodwill seems to have monthly book sales where paperbacks are 3/$1 and hardbacks are $1, and I snagged several hardback books that I've been wanting to read or that looked intriguing. Achievement House regularly has children's picture books for 50 cents, hardback or paperback!

I literally pulled a chair over from the furniture display at Achievement House and placed it smack in front of their stacks of children's books. I spent probably 40 minutes browsing the shelves and took every last copy of a book that was what I consider a "quality" picture book. By quality, I mean it has literary and/or artistic value. It's not a consumer product tie-in book (not the Barbie picture books or "baby Muppets" books, for example).

And I got them for 50 cents each!! Some are a little worse for wear - you can see above that Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday has a ripped cover, but the book itself is in good condition. Some are could-have-been-just-purchased-at-Barnes-and-Noble-for-$12 new.

I also scooped up a couple of spools of thread. They were originally 10 cents each! There was a whole basket of thread on real wooden spools marked as 10 cents. They looked to be better quality thread than what I'm getting for cheap - meaning $2 to 3 - at the local fabric store. If not, the wooden spools are cool just on their own!

The Achievement House Open House achieved its goal, in my opinion. I'd never been to their thrift store despite having heard about it for the hundred or so years I've lived in San Luis Obispo. Achievement House is a great organization. Their stated goal is to "provide an array of vocational services and programs to assist individuals in developing appropriate workplace skills and behaviors so as to enhance individual productivity, independence and community integration." Their thrift store provides some of their funding, so I was happy to buy 20 books for $10 from them. And I'm definitely planning a trip back because, besides the thrift store, they have a nursery with very inexpensive plants and a paper-shredding facility with competitive prices.

A neat, organized thrift store is my kind of thrift store!

Pretty plants at the nursery.

The Achievement House, as wonderful as it is, was not without its "seriously?" items, however. This is a "Lids Off" jar opener. Just like the name implies, it takes lids off jars for you. And, yes, I understand that some people with strength issues because of age or arthritis might benefit from a Lids Off, but that's not how the Lids Off is marketed.


No, the Lids Off is for every person because it will simplify your life. Says so on the box.

With the Lids Off, you can talk on the phone and take the lid off a jar! No more chaos in your kitchen with the Lids Off!
One of my steps toward becoming a conscious consumer is simplifying my life. Maybe I should have bought it?

Groupon's Fandango Deal!

I was actually a Cinema Studies student at NYU years ago. This means that I got to spend enormous amounts of time watching movies and it was not wasting time. In fact, I was supposed to watch movies. It was awesome. I love movies. I really love going to the theater to watch movies because big screen productions are meant to be enjoyed in the context of an audience and the audience you watch it with can significantly change the experience.

These days I am a private school teacher, which means that I still love movies but don't love paying for them.

This also means I am totally excited about groupon's current deal. You can buy a $12-value ticket for $4! That's less than matinee price!

It's a sneaky deal, so you might not have seen it even if you already have a groupon account. If you do, simply sign in and come back here to click this link:

Fandango Groupon Deal or use my Referral to Fandango's Groupon Deal

I don't know if the second one will work because I don't understand all the in's and out's of Groupon yet. Not many deals are valid in San Luis Obispo. But theoretically I would get credit for referrals! That would be cool, but if you just want to click on the generic link, that's fine with me too.

If you don't have a Groupon account, get one now and then come back to click the link.

Be sure to read "the fine print" before buying and note that you can only buy ONE, whether for a gift or for yourself. So if you want two, get your significant other to make an account and you can each have one.

I'm Back!

Apparently, I've been fighting a trojan for the last couple of weeks. Someone was pretending to be Google - trying to steal my passwords, and I couldn't get into anything Google-related. In the meantime, I fussed around with my various e-mail addresses and realized I have something like forty-bazillion email accounts and Google accounts and they're all interconnected. So I decided to clean them up and streamline them, and that's when I really confused things.

Long story short: Our friend Brian fixed my computer; I can get to my Google-related accounts; I have no idea how to streamline my forty-bazillion email and Google accounts and I just spent the last two hours trying to do so. At one point, I thought I had deleted this entire blog and I panicked.

The first thing I did when I finally got it back was export it. I might even print it out.

I still have no camera, though.

I do have LOTS of books from a variety of successful thrift store shopping trips, and I promise to write about them ASAP.

Win!

Emmy Blakely is hosting a giveaway on her blog Confessions of a Paper Freak. I was in Little Sisters of Alpha Gamma Omega with her sister Molly, and both Emmy and Molly are two of the sweetest, kindest people you will want to meet.

Anyway, I don't usually do this kind of thing, but I want to win this necklace. You can go try to win as well. Emmy is a super-talented entrepreneur who makes handmade calendar/planners. They're gorgeous, and I want one, but too many other things take priority right now. Someday, though!

Quick Tip: Speed Up Slow Drains Cheaply and Safely

I was reminded of this yesterday while cleaning my tub. If you have a slow moving drain (not a totally clogged one), you can fix it with baking soda and vinegar.

Simply take a cup or so of baking soda and pour it down the drain. I like to add water to it to make it a goopy consistency that I can pour.

Pour a cup of vinegar down the drain and immediately plug the drain with a washcloth or the drain stopper.

The reaction between the vinegar and baking soda will loosen the "gunk" in the drain, and the gas build up will push the "gunk" down the drain. Once all the fizzing stops (you'll hear it), you can run hot water down the drain for a minute or two.

Presto! Clear running drains again.

Thirty Days of Thrifting - Days Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten

My camera is broken. Cue tantrums of anger, desperate pleas with the camera shop, wails of sorrow, and . . . well, I haven't reached acceptance yet. I keep pressing the button, hoping that I'll get something other than "Error 99." Every couple of days I do, but never when I'm pointing it at something I actually want a picture of. I keep trying, though; talk about random reinforcement! Somehow I've convinced myself that my camera will come back to life if I just keep trying.

Anyway, I have been thrifting, but I haven't been doing any decent picture-taking, so I've been unwilling to post anything. I also haven't had anything interesting happen, so I've been trying to come up with something interesting to say.

I finally decided it was better to say something even if it was a bad, boring something, rather than leave you thinking I've started a project and left it unfinished (which wouldn't be entirely out of character).

I'll just leave you with this.

Bella is me, and the Bernese on the right is Canon.



Roscoe is demonstrating how I feel about my broken camera.


Scout is hiding because she knows she's gonna be blamed.

Healthy, Cheap, Yummy!

I made these cookies for a friend who is a new mom because everyone told me new moms need protein and fiber. And that's what these cookies have. They have the added bonus of being inexpensive and yummy. And when I say yummy, I mean Joe and I ate 3 dozen of them in two days.

The recipe is from my friend Heather - mom to three humans, two dogs, and a cat named Trouble - but she doesn't have a blog even though she really should because she's hilarious, inspiring, down-to-earth, and a good judge of cookies.

She got the original recipe from It Must Have Been Something I Ate and tweaked it a bit. I tweaked it a teeny-tiny bit more. Not because there's anything wrong with her recipe, but because I am the sort of person who doesn't read recipes carefully before shopping and who ends up desperate to make the cookies but without the exact ingredients.

Heather's Improved Healthy Breakfast Cookies Recipe
Makes 40 cookies for about $3 - $4

INGREDIENTS

2 cups powdered quick oats (I used regular oats, which didn't seem to cause a problem)
1 cup nutrigrain flour -- (Honestly, I have no idea what she's talking about here. Is it a Canadian thing? Even Google didn't know. I used half whole wheat and half bread. I'm not saying that's an improvement. I'm just saying, it didn't destroy the recipe.)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (I used about as much as fits in the bottom of a 1 teaspoon spoon without it looking like it filled half the spoon. Because I couldn't find my 1/4 teaspoon spoon.)

540 milliliter can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
(I used the garlic kind. I don't recommend this, but if you find yourself in a pinch, just be sure yours are drained and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and don't tell your husband until after he has eaten 3 and pronounced them delicious. Note, as I mentioned above, that Heather is Canadian and uses crazy terms like milliliters. If, as an American, you go to the store, you will see that your can of beans also says milliliters on it, but don't worry, the ounces are right there on the can as well. Five-hundred-forty milliliters converts to about 18 ounces, but I think American cans come in 16ish-ounce sizes. It's not important. Get the one closest to 540 ml. Just don't get the one that says seasoned on it.)
3/4 cup fat free vanilla yogurt (I used however much Greek yogurt was left in the container, somewhere between less than a cup and more than a half cup.)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup margarine (I used butter 'cause I didn't have margarine)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (homemade!)
1 cup chocolate chips (I used a whole lot more than that, which I actually don't recommend because the chip/dough ratio was off and made the cookies more prone to fall apart.)
2 tablespoons ground flax seed(I used 3, just because I'm like that.)

I also added honey because another friend - who does have a blog and is a really good mom and dog-trainer and totally wouldn't mind if you said "I do that with my dogs!" when she's talking about teaching her kids because she does too - said she added honey to her cookies. About a drizzle's worth. You decide what a drizzle is.

DIRECTIONS
Mix the first set of ingredients in the food processor until the oatmeal is powdered. Pour in a big bowl. (I ground my oatmeal in the Magic Bullet because I don't have a food processor.)

Puree the second set of ingredients til smooth and add to the dry . Mix together. (Again I used the Magic Bullet, but I had to do it in three batches. I recommend breaking out the blender to begin with, if you don't have a food processor.)

Bake at 325 or 350 for 15 minutes-ish. (One batch came out at exactly 15 minutes, most came out somewhere around there, and another batch was forgotten about and left in for almost 40 minutes. If you have a stoneware bar pan from Pampered Chef, which you can buy from my friend Jessica here, you don't have to worry! They won't burn! Seriously. I would not be able to have homemade cookies if I didn't have my stoneware bar pan to save me from black bottoms.)

To make these even cheaper and totally avoid potential garlic after-taste, make your own beans. A 1 lb bag of white kidney beans is less than $1 and makes several pounds worth of cooked beans.

Approximate cost, assuming you buy items on sale but do not necessarily try to go as cheap as you can: $2.75 - $3.55

2 cups oats - 35 cents
flax seed - 20 cents
honey - 10 cents
vanilla - 15 cents
canned beans - $1 (dried beans 20 cents)
flour - 25 cents
baking soda/powder - 10 cents
brown sugar - 30 cents
butter - 40 cents
eggs - 20 cents
yogurt - 50 cents

Heather says you could use applesauce instead of yogurt, or you could do as she did today and use prune-pear baby food and top off with yogurt to reach 3/4 cup. It certainly sounds as though you could do as you like in the fruit/yogurt category. I'm thinking of trying 1 banana and topping off with yogurt.

UPDATE: Heather says the flour is Robin Hood brand Nutri-flour. It is a Canadian brand.

Sufferin' Succotash

My brother had a blog. It was very funny. He posted 14 times on it and then stopped. I'm not sure why. There was something about a life and a job and a family . . .

Anyway, I posted one of his articles before. Back then I asked his permission to do it, but I didn't ask for this one. My reasons are inexplicable. Well, no, that's not true, I just needed a segue (not a Segway -nobody needs a Segway).

Inexplicable

I think inexplicable might be my favorite word.

I don’t really know why.

I hear it in my head the way Sylvester the Cat would say it. Some people might be drawn towards the way Vizzini from the Princess Bride (“Inconceivable!”) might say it, but that’s too short-sighted.

I think inexplicable could easily replace “sufferin’ succotash” whenever Sylvester’s attempts to capture Tweety Bird are thwarted.

If you really think about it, and I suggest you don’t, the whole notion of trying to eat Tweety is inexplicable. I mean, he’s all head; there’s no meat there! Then again, if the alternative is succotash…

Maybe that’s why he says, “sufferin’ succotash.” It’s similar to the saying, “I don’t suffer fools lightly,” which I’ve always taken to mean, “I’m not going to put up with your idiocy without pointing it out to you.” Sylvester isn’t going to eat succotash because, well, because it’s a mixture of corn and lima beans, which is just gross. He needs to remind himself why it is so important to catch Tweety. He will NOT be suffering succotash tonight.

Hmm, maybe that’s why I like the word inexplicable. Whenever something defies explanation, you can just make something up.

Precision of Language

I have a friend who refers to her grandson as "my very smart grandson." I think I will have to start referring to my niece as "my very smart niece." She comes by it naturally; she has a brilliant auntie on her father's side.

Just the other day she proved that she's one 3-year-old girl who understands the importance of precision of language.

She and my mom were out and about and they passed a park. K said, "Oh, that's the park Mommy always takes me to."

She paused thoughtfully, then corrected herself, "Well, sometimes we go there."

Another thoughtful pause. "Actually, not so much. We went there once."

Love that! She understands the value of using words correctly and the value of editing until you get it right.

Microwave Popcorn Update!

Sumiko and Kimiko at Near To Nothing shared about homemade microwave popcorn about the same time that I had the idea to share about it. We have a few Facebook friends in common, and I didn't want them to think I was copying their idea, but I decided my scatter-brained, slightly neurotic blog was different enough from their organized, efficient kitchen blog that it wouldn't seem that way at all.

However, I did notice a comment on their post (or maybe it was Kimiko's Facebook page, I forget) from someone who said she had purchased a special bowl to make microwave popcorn in. You can buy one from the Amish for $10, or you can go to CurioCity online and buy a $13 version. Cooking.com and Amazon.com sell the exact same bowl (though one calls it a 3-quart and one calls it a 12-cup) for $10 and $8 respectively.

All of this made me think back to my revelation that the super-special, microwave-friendly, high-tech bags
were not all that super-special. Very likely these super-special, microwave-friendly, high-tech bowls are not all that super-special either.

So I put a couple of spoonfuls of popcorn kernels in a glass bowl and tossed a lid haphazardly over the top. Two minutes later, I had popped corn and a too-hot-to-handle glass bowl. That might be the reason the bowls for sale are all plastic, but since I don't like to buy plastic if I don't have to, and all my bowls are glass, I'm willing to use a pot holder.

So that's a fun update to the microwave popcorn post! If you don't want to keep lunch bags on hand, just use a bowl.

But an even more fun update to the micrwave popcorn post is Kimiko's Chocolate-Caramel Corn Recipe

Go over there and read it right now. I will be making some ASAP.

Quick Tips: Homemade Microwave Popcorn

Microwave popcorn is how I survive some weeks. My kids come into the classroom and moan, "You had popcorn again!? And you didn't save us any?" No, I never save them any. It has been known to be my breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the day.

Typical microwave popcorn, however, hardly qualifies as eating healthy, what with the artificial flavoring and preservatives and diacetyl, which might be nice in a good beer but is definitely not nice for the factory workers or that guy who ate two bags a day for years.

Okay, I realize that even totally plain, air-popped corn as your sole food for the day also hardly qualifies as healthy, but it's better than my daily breakfast my senior year in high school - peppermint Certs and a Pepsi.

Do they even make Certs anymore? Two mints in one!

Just to clarify: totally not my mom's fault. There was real food available; I just preferred sleeping to eating and would hit the snooze button rather than take the 10 minutes necessary to eat cereal. I'd usually have Certs in my bag, and there was a vending machine on campus. These days, I have Lifesavers, purchased in bulk for the cheapest per candy price available, and I bring my Pepsi from home, having purchased it in 12-packs on sale with a coupon. I also try my very best not to have either for breakfast.

But back to my original point, which was the life-saving qualities of microwave popcorn and how unhealthy it is.

It's also not very cheap. Unless you get the ActII kind from Costco in bulk with a coupon, and even then it's more than 50 cents a bag and, frankly, kinda icky and chemically-tasting.

You can see how microwave popcorn, while having amazing life-saving properties, can be a bit of a problem.

The problem disappears, however, when you realize that you can make your own microwave popcorn bag for just pennies!

I suppose, technically, everything can be made for pennies if you have enough of them. But I'm talking about just a few measly pennies that don't even add up to enough to exchange for another coin (i.e., less than 5 cents).

Does anyone remember when microwave popcorn became all the rage? The bags were supposedly super-special microwave-friendly high-tech bags, and they were the reason our popcorn popped so nicely.

Lies. All lies.

Your corn can be popped in a plain ol' brown paper sack. Put a couple of tablespoons of popcorn in a bag, fold the top of the bag, and staple it shut with two neat staples. Or - if you're a big ol' chicken like me and remember that time you put a chocolate Santa in the microwave because you were low on chocolate chips that you planned to melt into hot fudge sauce, and your friend Brenda said "just put the Santa in," but you knew you weren't supposed to put metal in a microwave because your grandma had been very, very clear about the dangers of microwaves and metal, so you carefully took all the foil off, except maybe you missed some of it, and the next thing you knew the microwave was on fire - you can use tape.

You can even save and reuse the paper bag, thus saving your life, your money, and the trees. It's a win win win.

Thirty Days of Thrifting: It's My Blog & I'll Change My Mind If I Want To

Who knew shopping could be so difficult? I haven't been to a thrift store since, I think Monday. Maybe it was Tuesday. It's only Thursday and all my days are running together.

Monday I worked from 8 - 5, then dropped off a book with Joe so he could give it to a friend who needed it by 6 a.m. Tuesday, then dashed off to puppy class until 8:30 or so. Tuesday I was up at 5:45 a.m. to be at Jessica's for prayer at 6:30 a.m. Then work until 5ish and come home to prep for my Bargain Buffet and Book Swap evening with friends. It was the last day to cook some meat I had purchased earlier, so I made ground beef and cooked it as well. Bed around 1 a.m. Work from 8 to 5, Feisty Fido class, home by 6:40 to get ready for the party at 7. Work today from 8 to 5 and now I've got about 20 minutes before I have to run out to Elementary obedience until 8:30. More work tomorrow. Nosework on Saturday. Repeat next week, except the party. You can substitute our weekly community group in its place.

Notice there's no indication of eating in there. That's not just keeping things short. That's because, except for Wednesday's party, I can't actually remember eating a meal. I had some handfuls of granola here and there, and Joe made me a sandwich for work on Tuesday. Or maybe it was Monday. I'm pretty sure I had a few bites of the cooked ground beef to make sure it tasted okay, and I know I had a Snickers yesterday because it was getting embarrassing to have people to come to my desk and actually be able to hear my stomach growl from hunger.

Repeat the next week. Except maybe I'll find some time to eat something. I had a potato today.

Repeat the next week.

Repeat the . . . no, wait, the next week it's time to get ready for school again!! How did that happen?

So my series, Thirty Days of Thrifting, might just have to be turned into Thirty Non-Contiguous Days of Thrifting.

Thirty Days of Thrifting - Day Six

Today I chose to visit the Hospice Hope Chest. It is run entirely by hospice volunteers, and all proceeds benefit the hospice. It is definitely a higher end thrift store. There weren't any creepy bunny babies or rusted rickety rice cookers from 1967. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to do any serious shopping because I am spending this week working. I'm temping 8 - 5 all week plus assisting at three dog classes and hosting a girls' night.

I did manage to find out that they have an entire section called "The Boutique" with designer shoes and clothes. The shoes were about $8-10, and there were a couple of pairs I liked. I've still got used shoe issues, but if I keep seeing good deals, I might be able to overcome these issues eventually.

I only took one picture, and it was of The Frugal Gourmet, which I wasn't even tempted to buy. I'm not really sure what purpose cookbooks play in our society today for the average home cook. Everything you need to know about basic cooking is online.


I didn't photograph anything else because I felt like the volunteer was following me to keep an eye on me, and I got self-conscious. I do that a lot.

Once again, I spent no money and found nothing worth buying. I should say nothing worth buying within the parameters of my budget. There were two beautiful glass bottles that I wanted, but not at $5 each.

As of today, I have been successful for 2/3 of my shopping trips.

Tomorrow: maybe Goodwill again for their 10% teacher discount. I'm not sure if I could make it to the outlet store and back to work within an hour, though.

Thirty Days of Thrifting - Day Five

I'm exhausted. We went to the Midstate Fair today to watch the sheepdog trials and have fair-like fun. I love the "As Seen On TV" style vendors, which is why I go to the fair with $5 in my pocket and my debit card in the trunk of the car. I can't even begin to tell you how much I now want a Vitamix blender, a Rainbow home cleaning system, a Mr. Sticky Lint Roller, and foot relief insoles.

I was going to buy a sno cone for $1.50 but I couldn't find the vendor and my feet hurt too much to go on a wild goose chase because I didn't buy the foot relief insoles.

We didn't get home from the fair until 4:30 and by then all the thrift stores except Goodwill were long closed. Since I was tired, I told Joe I was just going to run in and do a quick look simply to meet my goal of going once a day.

When I got there, I found this:


I owned that from June 2000 to about four months ago when it was donated to a fundraising garage sale at church after having been unsuccessfully offered for sale at our garage sale for $3, including the matching pitcher! Goodwill was selling it with matching pitcher for $8.

I also learned something about Goodwills. They share product. This couch was at the Arroyo Grande Goodwill as of last Wednesday and is now being sold in San Luis Obispo.


Unless there are two of them. Which disturbs me even to consider.

I checked to see if my Dick Francis books were in the same spot where I left them last week. They were not. In fact, the entire book section had been rearranged. I wonder if that was a coincidence or if that happens regularly. Kind of like product swapping between stores.

I did want these shoes for $5 because they would replace a pair that wore out two years ago.


I didn't get them because I wasn't sure they were the right brown.

And I'm still working through issues related to wearing used shoes. I'm not sure I'm there yet.

Total for today: $0

Tomorrow: Not sure yet. I'm working downtown, so maybe I'll be able to hit something on my lunch hour.

Thirty Days of Thrifting - Day Four

Houston, we have a problem.

There's a reason malls build elaborate play structures and groceries have loss leader sales and big box stores have grand openings with bands and raffles. It's not because they appreciate you, and it's not because they want to give harried moms a break and let the kids play. It's because they know that the closer they get you to their stuff, the more likely you are to buy it. A free play structure in the air conditioned mall is a great idea, until you see all the stuff.

You had no idea you needed a quesadilla maker in the shape of a chile pepper or handcrafted paper bead necklaces from Ecuador until you saw them in the store, right?

I certainly had no idea I needed a 3-foot strip of fur, a bottle in the shape of a maple leaf, an Igloo cooler that fits 14 cans but is only 6 inches wide, and bracelets made from fair-trade tagua nuts until I went garage sale shopping.

For the record, I know it's just an old syrup container, but I thought it would make a nice bottle for my homemade vanilla since the vodka bottle doesn't fit on the shelf where I keep all the other baking supplies.

Thankfully, I went garage sale shopping with Joe, so out of that list I only actually bought the strip of fur. For $2. It's destined to become a "tug & calm" toy for the dogs.

We hit four sales after Nose Work class, in other words, as they were winding down. One was billed as a "four-family sale," one was an estate sale, one was a generic garage sale with super-friendly sellers, and one was a basic sale at a house near ours.

The four family sale was comprised of people who really didn't want to let go of their stuff. Everything was overpriced, and they weren't interested in negotiating. The tagua nut jewelery made by one of the women was pretty, though.

The generic garage sale had one thing I was really interested in:

It wasn't for sale.

They did have plenty of cute crafty things that I was also interested in, but only because I wanted to make them with my class.

I asked a simple question about them, and the friendly seller immediately and enthusiastically explained exactly how to make them and where to buy the supplies. She was very nice, and I wanted to buy something from her just because she was so nice.

Finally, we hit a sale on our way home, and I picked up one Dick Francis book that I haven’t even read yet (how did that happen?) and three books for my class. More problems: I’ve purchased 6 books that I specifically said I wasn’t going to purchase except at Goodwill on sale day. In my defense, they were comparably priced to Goodwill sale day.

Tomorrow: Goodwill again

Quick Tips: Boil Your Beef

I thought I'd start posting little "quick tips" of things I learned that made me think "You can do that?!?" and "Why haven't I done this always?!"

Tip 1: Boil your ground beef.

Not only is this method of browning ground beef practically fool proof, it's also mess proof and results in lean, practically fat-free meat.

I prefer to make my own (stay tuned for that tip), but you can do it to regular packaged ground beef. The best part is that it doesn't matter what level of lean/fat you get because the boiling will help you separate the meat from the fat.

I find that $1.99 for the 15% is comparable to spending $2.19 for the 7% when you compare the cost per pound of the cooked yield of each variety. I almost never see $2.19 for 7%, but $1.99 for 15% occurs every 15-18 weeks. Using this method means that you can buy the cheaper version and not be too concerned about excess fat.

PROCEDURE
Step 1.
Place ground beef in a large pot.

Step 2.
Cover beef with water.

Step 3.
Turn on heat to boil for 5-10 minutes. Simmer until all pink is gone, stirring very occasionally to break up the clumps.

Step 4.
Let cool to room temp and then refrigerate. The fat will rise to the top and congeal. Simply spoon it off and throw it away.

Step 5.
Drain & portion beef to be frozen for later use. One and two cup portions work well for most recipes. You can choose to season it now or later. I prefer to leave it plain and season it as needed.

SUGGESTIONS FOR USE
1. Add to pasta sauce
2. Have a quick & easy taco night - simmer until heated through with taco seasoning and a little water
3. Stuff a bell pepper - mix with brown rice and fill a hollowed out bell pepper
4. Use for Multi-tasking Mexican Mash
5. Create sloppy Joes -- add sloppy Joe mix or bbq sauce and serve on rolls
6. Fake a shepherd's pie - Use your favorite recipe, but skip browning the meat. Just simmer with the onion and garlic until heated through. Then carry on with the recipe.
7. Top a potato or mix with breakfast potatoes.

Thirty Days of Thrifting - technical difficulties

Having technical difficulties with posting the pictures, so stay tuned for Day Four.

Multi-tasking Mexican Mash

I have been known to say "cheap, healthy, convenient: pick any two." If you want to eat healthy and not put any effort into it, be prepared to spend some cash. If you want to save money and eat healthy, you will have to spend some effort. And if you are pressed for time and don't care what you're eating, you can eat very cheaply indeed.

Because my days during the school year can find me leaving the house at 6:30 a.m. and not getting home until 10 p.m., "convenient" ranks high on my list of priorities. However, we all know that I don't like to spend any more than necessary on anything and, while I'm no nutritionist, I am trying to feed my family (all one of him) higher quality fare than McDonald's and frozen pizza.

So what's a girl to do? Make her own healthy convenience food.

This is one of my favorite go-to recipes. I call it Multi-tasking Mexican Mash.

Actually, no, I don't. I just needed a name. I call it "that beans and rice thing we have in the freezer" if I refer to it at all.

When your family consists of you and one other person, and he is just happy to be getting fed at all, you don't spend a lot of time naming what you make.

It's cheap. It's moderately healthy. And it will be convenient in the future. But getting ready for the future convenience will take a little bit of effort. It's totally worth it.

You'll be making a rice version and a non-rice version. Once you have your individual servings, you can use it in any number of quick & easy recipes.

RICE VERSION
Burrito - fill a tortilla, wrap, bake
Enchiladas - add enchilada sauce, wrap, place in casserole dish, sprinkle with cheese and more sauce, bake
Plain - just eat as is

NON-RICE VERSION
Quesadilla - spread on a tortilla, fold, fry
Potato - top a baked potato or mix with skillet fried potatoes
Nachos - add to tortilla chips for hearty nachos
Taco - fill a taco shell and add taco toppings
Pasta - add more canned tomatoes to the filling and reheat to make a thick sauce, pour over pasta


INGREDIENTS:

1 - 2 pounds of meat - buy whatever is on sale and tastes good to you. I personally don't spend any more than $1.75/lb. Chicken thighs are frequently less than $1/lb, and every so often beef will hit $1.50/lb. Boneless skinless breasts hit $1.77/lb about once every 8-10 weeks. Pork loin is fine. Ground turkey. Leftovers from dinner yesterday. Anything you like. You won't be using a lot of it overall, so if you wanted to buy organic, free-range chicken at $4.99/lb on sale, even the stingiest of budgets could probably stretch that far. You could even skip the meat if you wanted to.

1 lb of dried beans - I use pinto. Pinto beans in bulk from Costco are about $.60/lb. Organic pinto beans in bulk from the local co-op are about $1.50/lb. Either option is cheap.

Taco seasoning or your own blend - I bought my taco seasoning from Costco six years ago. I still have almost one cup of it left. I'm guessing it's pennies per batch, though I do have to use more of it per recipe as it gets older. Individual packets can be had for $1.50/not on sale and for less than that with a coupon.

5 cups of shredded cheese - this is the budget and diet buster, but it just makes the whole thing so much yummier. I get the 5lb bag of Kirkland brand shredded for $10.89. If you wanted to shred your own, you could save $.20/lb. I've heard stories about crazy rock bottom prices on cheese, but Kirkland's the cheapest I've ever seen, coupon or not.

1-2 cans of tomatoes or salsa - canned Muir Glen Organic are $2.29/can and you can find coupons for them regularly to make them $1.29 a can. Del Monte start out at $1.29/can and with sales and coupons can frequently be picked up for 50 cents or less. Santa Barbara Salsa (my favorite) is $1.79/container on sale.

2 cups of rice - again it depends on whether you're going cheap, cheap, cheap or trying to use organic or wanting to support sustainable, fair trade farmers, but whatever your choice, rice is so cheap almost any budget will support any type.

1 lb of corn - I use frozen corn. Two pounds of the store brand is $1.88 on sale. Organic brand name was $3.79 the last time I checked. I've got a whole philosophy about how I choose when to go cheap and when to go organic. I'll have to write about it sometime.

PROCEDURE

Step 1. Day 1.
Crockpot the meat. (Unless you're using ground meat. I've never crockpotted ground meat, but I don't know that it works that well.) Place meat in crockpot and add a cup of salsa, water, or broth. Turn on low for 6 - 8 hours. I like to do this two nights before I plan to make my big batch of filling to avoid having to do too much work at once. Shred the meat in the morning and store in the refrigerator.

Step 2. Day 2.
Crockpot the beans. I do this the night of day 2, but if you're ambitious, you could scrub your crockpot immediately after shredding the meat and crock all day. Rinse 1 lb of beans and place in a pot. Cover with water and boil over high heat for 10 minutes. Pour the hot liquid and beans into your crockpot, add water to cover if necessary, and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Make sure there's enough water to keep the beans covered all night, or you'll have to spend time picking out burned beans.

Step 3. Day 3.
Cook the rice in your rice cooker if you have one. Use 1 cup of rice for every 2 cups of water or broth. My cooker is small, and I can only do 1 cup at a time. No worries. Just put aside what you've already cooked and start again.

While rice is cooking, take your beans and meat and mix them together with the taco seasoning, cheese, and tomatoes/salsa. If using frozen corn, cook it according to the directions and add to the beans and meat mixture.

Separate the mixture into two batches. One will have rice added to it. The other will remain rice-less.

Mix rice into one of the batches.

This is where I will tell you that if you don't have one already, consider buying a FoodSaver. Yes, you could wrap thoroughly in plastic wrap and then in foil, but it won't work as well. Not when you're batch cooking for weeks and not for days. A FoodSaver will save your food for months. I ate Thanksgiving turkey in July, and it was just as good as it was in November. If you buy the rolls with sales and coupons or at Costco, they aren't that big an investment and are well worth the convenience of freezer food.

If you don't have a FoodSaver, use your freezer storage method of choice. Freezer baggies with most of the air sucked or squished out and foil would work.

Measure out mealtime portions. In our house, that's 3-8 ounces per person depending on what we're doing with it. Remember beans are filling and, in many cases, you'll be adding other ingredients to it for mealtime.

Depending on whether you chose the "cheap cheap cheap" route or the blend of "cheap and organic," this recipe costs between $7 and $18 a batch and will yield more than 20 servings. In any case, it's less than $1 per person.

I'd say that qualifies for cheap, healthy, and convenient.

Thirty Days of Thrifting:~~~ Day Three

Day Three sent me over to Mission Thrift, which is the thrift store/fundraiser for Old Mission School. I never knew this place existed, and I drive by it not too infrequently. It's around the corner from the co-op where I buy coconut oil and vanilla beans and other random co-op-y type stuff. And it has a bright yellow sign. How did I not notice this was here?


It's a nice little store; the set up is not as utilitarian as Goodwill, and the prices range from significantly lower than Goodwil to significantly higher. It seems they try to price by value rather than letting it all average out in the end, like Goodwill does. A shirt could be $1 or $10 depending on the perceived value. I think it will be harder to find really good deals here, and I didn't have time for browsing clothes today.

Lots of glass jars, but they were in the $10-15 range. I'm not paying $10-15 for a thrift store glass jar.

I found three books. One Dick Francis for me and two books for my class. Fifty cents each.




Tomorrow: a garage sale

Thirty Days of Thrifting: ~~~~Days One and Two

I kind of cheated on Day One. It had already passed when I wrote my original "Thirty Days of Thrifting" post. And that Ralph Lauren skirt I used as an example? I already bought it. For $3.50.


I couldn't figure out how to show you the whole skirt without modeling it, and I didn't want to fuss with self-timers and self-consciousness. That's why you get to see the label. Notice how I artfully allowed you to see the word "petite" but covered the actual size? That's not an accident. And I haven't worn a "petite" since high school. I *red puffy heart* Ralph Lauren.

Is Ralph Lauren even considered a good brand anymore? Never mind. I don't want to know. I'm probably dating myself. At the very least showing my appalling ignorance of fashion.

The skirt is well-made, classic, and fits. That's enough for me.

Also in the category of "Am I dating myself with my appreciation for this brand?" -- a Guess Jeans wool sweater. Also for $3.50 and seemingly unworn. Not a pill or a snag to be seen on the sweater.

Rounding out the purchases for Day One were three shirts from a variety of better manufacturers, one with the tags still attached, and another sweater from a manufacturer I didn't recognize. But it seemed well-made and was in good condition. Altogether, I purchased six quality items that I can wear to work for $21.53, including tax.

Day Two was hectic as I miscalculated the amount of time it would take me to get some errands finished, so I only had time for a quick dash into the San Luis Obispo Goodwill. This store was not nearly as nice as Arroyo Grande's, and the staff was not nearly as friendly. In fact, they were a little snippy. I definitely recommend Arroyo Grande Goodwill if you're trying to decide.

Anyway, I immediately headed for the book section to see what they might have on my list. To my surprise, I found not one, not two, not even a mere three Dick Francis books, but FOUR hardcover titles. It's rare I find a Dick Francis book even in a used book store, so I was excited to see all four.

I stacked them up and took a picture. The teenage girls trying on shoes next to me scooted over a bit so as not to be too close to the crazy lady.


Ultimately, though, I passed on all but one. I already own two, and I couldn't bring myself to spend $3 on each book when in about a week, the same books would be only $1. I did get Dead Heat just in case someone else was looking for Dick Francis and not waiting for the book sale.

Then I stuffed the other one on the bottom shelf where you have to bend down and peer to see the titles.

I walked quickly down the housewares aisle, keeping an eye out for cast iron and letters. I did find letters, but after getting them home, I realized I need to be more specific about what I'm looking for in a letter. I knew they'd need quite a bit of sprucing up, but they also might be a little on on the small side. However, they were only 99 cents for all three, so that was a cheap mistake.

As I took my treasures up to the register, I passed an unopened box of 12 Kerr's wide mouth canning jar lids for $1. Since I use wide mouth canning jars with my Foodsaver, I grabbed those, even though they weren't on my list. Uh-oh.

It was a savings of a little more than $2, and I really do use them frequently. Really.

I was surprised that even with just a quick dash, I did manage to find 3 "worthy of purchase items," even if one of the purchases (the set of letters) turned out to be maybe not so worthy.



Next week, I'll be working from 8 to 5. When you add working Monday night at puppy class, hosting girls' night on Wednesday after Feisty Fido class, and going to the fair, I'm not sure when I'll actually have time to get into a thrift store. Maybe I should have thought out this challenge a little more thoroughly.

Tomorrow: Old Mission School Thrift Shop

Thirty Days of Thrifting

I've been temping at Goodwill this week, which is a story in and of itself, but I came up with an introduction to this post while I was there. You see, there was this doll and, well, it inspired me to think this:

CuteCreepy



Super-cute



Super-creepy

And here, in this spot, I had planned to post a picture of a doll looking strikingly like this one, only not as cute. Seriously. More creepy than this.



I was planning to go to my car, get my phone, snap a pic and have this big long post about the crazy things you can find at thrift stores. How you have to search through the junk, such as creepy baby dolls dressed up in bunny costumes, to find the stuff you'd really want to buy. And there were entire sentences pondering why thrift stores had crazy stuff that nobody would want to buy. And maybe a little poetic musing about what it is that makes baby dolls so creepy. I had it all planned and then, in the slow mechanical blink of a creepy baby doll eye, my entire post was ruined.

Because somebody bought the creepy bunny baby. Bought it. With cash money.

I'm still in shock. So you'll excuse me if the transition to the next part of my post isn't as elegant as I'd like.

I'm starting a new challenge. A couple of years ago -- I can't believe it has been that long! -- we participated in The Great Grocery Challenge, which was a self-imposed challenge to see how long we could go spending a mere $25/week on groceries.

This summer, I'm going to see what happens if I stop in at a thrift store every day for thirty days. According to The Nester, the secret to good thrift store shopping is persistence. She claims to find something worthy of purchase half the times she shops at a thrift store and find something truly great once every 20 times.

Therefore, I figure that, in 30 days, I will find one truly great find and 15 "worthy of purchase items." The Nester and I might have different ideas about what's worthy of purchase and what's a good price, however, as she has been known to spend twenty-five whole dollars on a whim because she "loved it."

I'm not at that stage of the budget right now.

I'm giving myself some guidelines. I don't want to go into a thrift store and start stocking up on junk or mere whims. I'll only buy something if I need it and have budgeted for it.

I already know that the Arroyo Grande Goodwill has set sale days and that teachers get 10% off on Tuesdays. They're planning a book sale on July 31 -- paperbacks 3/$1 and hardbacks $1. I'll be doing my book shopping on that day. I'll have to check on the other thrift stores in town to see what specials they've got going on in the next month.

So here are my guidelines:

BOOKS

I already know there are specific titles I'm looking for, so unless the book is one of these titles, I won't buy it except at a book sale. However, at those book sales, I'll be loading up on young adult fiction and picture books for my classroom.

Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell - because I loaned out my copy and it appears to be gone for good
The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller - because I've renewed it at the library already and would like to keep renewing it all school year
Cheap. Fast. Good. by Beverley Mills - same as above, except change "school year" to "forever"
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan - because I haven't been able to get it at the library yet
Dick Francis paperbacks - because Dick Francis is like the mac'n'cheese and hot cocoa of reading for me. It's good, solid, comfort reading.
Susan Howatch's Starbridge series - because I loved every title in the series, and I've been holding on to my mom's copy of the last book in the series a little too long

CLOTHES

My newly minted philosophy of thrift store clothing is that you should keep an eye out for quality (which generally means name brand or designer clothes) and skip the discount brands. My theory is that clothes have a certain number of wears in them before they start to fall apart. Higher quality items have more wears, and higher quality items tend to have been taken care of better by their original owners. A Ralph Lauren skirt for $4 is a better deal than an Old Navy skirt for $4 because my cost per wear is much lower. Not to mention, you could probably get that ON skirt for $8 on sale brand new, and you're more likely to find classier, more classic items in the high end brands and trendier, so last year items in the discount brands.

I also discovered in my time at Goodwill that you cannot browse a thrift store for clothing, which has long been my method (and has long resulted in not a single find). You need to take the time to consciously look at every item on the rack. That jewel of a wool peacoat for $7 is going to be squished between the purple fuzzy vest and the pleather overcoat. It's not going to jump out at you.

This means that clothing shopping will be reserved for those days when I can give at least half an hour to look through at least one complete rack. I will also go through my closet and look for what items I really do need. Off the top of my head, I know I need a decent-fitting pair of jeans and a straight black skirt.

HOUSEHOLD GOODS

I want to do this to my living room wall.


It's from Melissa at A Time for Everything and is way too expensive for me to consider going out and buying each letter. So I'll be keeping an eye out for funky cool letters that I love or that I could paint or decoupage into something I love.

Next, I want to replace my current cookware with cast iron. I've fallen in love with a cast iron skillet that I discovered in our garage (a leftover from a former boarder? a hand-me-down from my mother-in-law? we're not really sure), and I don't think I want to cook with anything else ever again. I was even willing to spend real money to buy new cookware. In my research, however, I discovered that 1)new, quality cast iron is seriously expensive and 2) new, quality cast iron is an oxymoron according to the aficionados. You have to keep an eye out at garage sales and thrift stores for original Wagner's (not the new, made in China ones) or Griswold. So I'll be keeping an eye out.

I also really want storage containers. Glass jars for storing things like flour, beans, sugar, and other staples. I have some that I received as a gift for our wedding, and I love them. I'd like to try to match them. I also want glass because, frankly, the whole idea of thrift store shopping - in the teeny tiny recesses of my snobby, germophobic heart - kind of squicks me out. Glass can be washed with a mild bleach solution and stuck in the dishwasher at high temperatures.

Finally, my classroom bulletin boards are covered in fabric, and I've changed directions in classroom decor this year. I'm trying to have an overall color theme to tie everything together. I have great hopes that this will make my itty-bitty room look less chaotic and more restful. This means I need new fabric. Specifically, a light blue or light denim to match my Hot to Dot borders and tags. I'll be measuring the bulletin boards to see exactly how much fabric I need.

I think that's it.

I'll be posting the results each day. Wish me luck.