The Winner Is....

The random number picked by Random.org is 18! Congratulations to Confessions of an Overworked Mom. I will be emailing you shortly with details.

Compromise

September is almost over and I have yet to update on the challenge I took a few weeks ago. You may remember I made my own variation of the $75 Grocery Challenge, and challenged myself to not go out to eat this entire month. Let me give you a little update.

The first week was easy. It was easy because we didn't go anywhere. Life would be so much simpler if we only stayed home wouldn't it?

The following week temptation was fairly easy to resist also. We had some homeschool activities. Those are almost always bring your own food or food to share, so that worked out well. But then I ran into my nemesis; grocery day.

We rarely go out for dinner. I am willing to bet 90% of our dining out is lunch. More specifically, lunch on errand day. I do not normally buy convenience foods. Even if I do, there certainly none left by the next grocery day. The mornings of our shopping days I spend scouting deals and making lists. I don't take the time to find or make something we can eat for lunch. Then we find ourselves out and about and hungry. (Big surprise!) Often we call my husband and we all meet for lunch.

It isn't cheap to feed the six of us out, even if we go to the cheaper places and use coupons. I can easily spend, on one meal, a quarter of what I spend stocking up on basics for two weeks of meals at Aldi. It essentially negates all the deal shopping I spent my morning on. I always feel guilty about this going out to eat expenditure.

This month I am determined to break that habit. When we went shopping last week my plan was to start early enough that we would be back for lunch. A few things came up that morning, and my plan was out the window. There really was nothing that could be packed for an on the go lunch. I considered going shopping after lunch, but then we would be into nap time. There isn't much worse than shopping with an overtired three year old. We couldn't wait for the next day. We needed a new plan.

The new plan involved compromise.

It bothers me to buy convenience foods. They are overly processed and overly expensive. In theory, I can make my own snacks and convenience foods for lunch time needs like those that occur on shopping days. The reality is that my schedule rarely allows for that.

The compromise was to buy some convenience foods at the grocery store that are normally not on my shopping list for lunch. I was able to get things that were on sale and I had coupons for, but they still made my grocery total jump considerably. Still, they weren't nearly as expensive as taking everyone out to eat. It is a good compromise.

So, we haven't gone out to eat at all this month. I'm not counting the ice cream that we got after our field trip today that my eleven year old keeps razzing me about. That was a treat, not a meal, so it doesn't count in my opinion.

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Don't forget the drawing for Family Feasts for $75 a week is tomorrow. Still time to get your name in the drawing!

You Just Never Know

Gardening is always and adventure, and always a learning experience. Every year we make a plan, drawing on knowledge gathered from book, blogs, and experience. Every year we tend to the best of our ability, and hope for bumper crops. And every year curve balls are thrown into the plan, and surprises occur. This year was no exception.

This was the year of the newbies. We expanded the garden significantly this year. This opened up a lot of space for items we usually don't bother with because they aren't very practical or because we haven't had much success with them in the past.

I've been amazed at how most of these items flourished. I wasn't pleased with them all. We just can't seem to produce eggplant, and I was less than satisfied with our carrots, but those were the exceptions.

We planted a row and a half of sunflowers on a whim. We did nothing with them, but put the seeds in the ground and hoe around them a few times. They were beautiful. We saved quite a few seeds to roast, and the chickens enjoyed the rest of the bounty.

We planted what seemed to be an insufficient amount of okra, maybe a dozen plants. They too were incredibly easy to care for. I think I fertilized them with corn gluten once. When they started producing, we promised ourselves we would plant more next year. A few months later, and they are still producing, we've promised ourselves we will plant the same amount next year.

Planting pole beans was an experiment too. We've always planted bush beans before. They grew wonderfully along the garden fence. They also produced way more than we needed. We will be planting these again, but in a smaller quantity.

Watermelon graced our garden for the first time this year. We've so enjoyed the sweet juicy melons. They are significantly smaller since the end of the summer has turned dry, but they still are delicious!

Then there are the pumpkins.

I didn't plant any pie pumpkins this year because the produced so poorly the past two seasons. One volunteer came up anyway. It produced a dozen or so pumpkins; plenty for some pies, and to freeze.

There was some space at the edge of one of the gardens, so we decided to plant some jack o lantern pumpkins. The kids always want to carve pumpkins, and it kills me to pay for them, so why not try to grow our own? They produced the largest pumpkins we've ever had. Pictured above with my five year old is what we harvested the other day. The largest weigh over 40 pounds. Plenty of carving material for the kids!

One lesson I'll be taking from the garden this year is to keep trying new things. You just never know what kind of wonderful surprises will be waiting for you when you do.

Family Feasts for $75 a Week -Giveaway

Do you read Owlhaven?

If you do, then you have certainly heard about Mary Osten's new book, Family Feasts for $75 a Week: A Penny-wise Mom Shares Her Recipe for Cutting Hundreds from Your Monthly Food Bill. Guess what? I have a copy to give away!

As a mother of ten, Mary has lots of tricks and tips for trimming dollars from your food budget. Roughly the first quarter of the book is devoted to teaching you these tips and tricks. She takes you on a shopping trip with her, explains how and why to set up a price book, how to make your time spent in the kitchen more efficient, and much much more. These are all fabulous tips, but the real gems, in my opinion are found in the remaining chapters of the book.

There you will find the recipes! What good is knowing how to shop frugally without knowing what to do with all those frugal groceries? What I really love about the recipes is the diversity. Mary has an ethnically diverse family, and she cooks ethnically diverse meals. I can't wait to try some of the Asian and African dishes that she has included in this book. Don't worry there are lots of standard favorites too for those with less adventurous taste buds.

This is a fabulous book for anyone wanting to trim their food budget, and pick up some good recipes for frugal cooking. You could win one of your very own. Simply leave a comment, be sure there is an email address at which I can reach you, and a winner will be randomly picked next Friday!

Good luck!

Elderberry Experiments

For a couple of years now I've spotted some small dark berries at the edge of our driveway. (Understand that our driveway is 3/4 of a mile long.) I thought they may be Elderberry. This year I finally confirmed that yes, in fact, they are elderberries, and I decided to pick them.

These berries ended up being more challenging than expected. From the driveway it looked like the berries were on a small bush that was right on the driveway. The bush actually is very large and growing about ten feet down a very steep slope. The berries that I saw from the driveway were actually the berries on the very top of the bush. They were just out of reach from the driveway. So, down the slope we went. Once at the bottom of the shrub, most of the berries were above our heads. Good thing the kids like to climb. Once we were able to get to the berries, we picked quite a few in a very short time.

We brought them home, where I realized that I had no idea what to do with Elderberries. I looked in a few wild food cookbooks. I did a google search, and asked a few friends on Facebook. I found a lot of interesting ideas, but pancakes sounded the easiest, not to mention they could serve as dinner that night.

I mixed up some Buttermilk Pancakes, and added the Elderberries to the cakes on the griddle. I like the way the Elderberries cooked up in the pancakes. They hold their shape and don't make a juicy mess. The taste, though, is pretty tart. The kids liked them. I thought they were ok, but I'd rather have blueberries.

Many of my friends also recommended Elderberry Pie. I made up some pie crust, and found a recipe for pie. The recipe called for three cups of berries and one cup of sugar. I was not thrilled with the result. The pie looks nice. The crust was wonderful, but the pie was too tart. If I make another Elderberry Pie I will use more sugar.

In looking at Elderberry recipes, I often read that the berries are an acquired taste. After the pancakes and pie, I began to see the truth in that statement. There were still berries left. I decided to try a recipe for bread given to me by a Facebook friend.

Elderberry Bread
3 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
1 1/8 cup oil
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla ext.
2 cup sugar
1 tsp butter ext.
1 cup elderberries(stemmed)
1 tsp almond ext.
3 eggs

Mix above all together except for the elderberries. Blend 1-2 minutes with mixer. Add elderberries and stir with a spoon. Pour into 2 large or 5 mini loaf pans that have been greased and floured. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees. While still hot glaze in pan. Cool and remove from pan. Enjoy!

GLAZE
tsp butter extract
tsp almond extract
tsp vanilla extract
cup orange juice
cup powdered sugar

Mix all together until smooth. Spoon over top of baked loaves.

This recipe restored my hope that I could enjoy Elderberries. I did not use that butter extract. I didn't even make the glaze. The bread itself was quite delicious.

Picking and using elderberries proved to be a bit more challenging than I imagined. It was an experiment. I'm done with elderberries for this year, but I probably will give them a try again next year.

Kids Eat Free

Every weekend in September Fazoli's is offering free kids meals. One free kid's meal per adult meal purchased at participating locations. I love Fazoli's and would love to take advantage of this offer, but we aren't eating out this month. Hope some of you can take advantage of this deal!

Grilled Watermelon

It sounded interesting......



It even looked pretty good....


But it didn't taste all that good. I prefer my watermelon cold, thank you very much. Chalk it up to a learning experience.

Garden Odds and Ends = Gumbo

Often when picking from the garden there just isn't quite enough to can or freeze, and I find myself with a little of this and a little of that. These odds and ends are sometimes just munched on for snacks, and sometimes put together for a stir fry. This year, though, we have okra, and those odds and ends were just begging to be turned in gumbo.

I've never made gumbo before, so I looked for a recipe. I found this chicken gumbo recipe at Recipezaar. What I made was very loosely based on that recipe.


I toned the spice down a bit since the kids would also be eating the gumbo, and used the vegetables and meats that I had on hand. It was served over rice with grilled corn on the cob. What a delicious dinner, and a great way to use the garden odds and ends!

You Don't Have to Learn the Hard Way

Sometimes life is hard to navigate. I tend to learn things the hard way, finally figuring something out after making mistake after mistake. Often my husband and I have commented how life would have been so much easier if we had just known such and such fifteen years ago.

Somethings are best learned from experience. Many others can be easily learned from the experiences of others. I'd like to think I'm a little better at taking advice from family now, but when I was younger it surely wasn't the case. Perhaps I would have taken a little advice from an outside source.

You Don't Have to Learn the Hard Way is over two hundred pages of sound advice directed at young people about to enter the big wide world on their own. The author shares advice on everything from careers and marriage to developing good habits and relating well with others. Obviously one book can not cover all the nuisances of these varied subjects, but this book does provide a great overview of navigating these different areas of life. I especially like the quizzes included in every chapter. These are great tools for self evaluation and change.



So while some thing in life are best learned with experience, we do not have to learn everything through our own mistakes. This book would be a great resource for a young adult just starting out on their own.

$75 Grocery Challenge

Owlhaven has issued a challenge. Can you feed your family for $75 a week?

Participating in this challenge is really easy. It is about seeing what you can do to save money. The challenge is also very flexible. You can aim for the $75 mark, or just aim to trim your grocery budget by a certain amount, or even make up your own challenge.

Are you up for a challenge? I am, but honestly $75 per week is not much of a challenge for me. I don't buy any meat, there are tons of vegetables from the garden, and the pantry and freezer are well stocked. So, my challenge will be hitting our weakness; going out to eat.

The first place we always fail in our budget is the dining category. I enjoy going out to eat. If we truly are broke, we do refrain, but when we don't feel so broke it becomes all too easy to stop and get a bite to eat instead of planning ahead. So my challenge to myself is to not go out to eat the entire month of September.

This will involve a little planning, and a lot of self restraint, but I am up to the challenge. I will be updating here weekly for a bit of accountability. Wish me luck!

The largest radish known to man

This summer I planted radish and marigold near my squash plants in hopes of keeping some of the pests away. I really thought it was working too. June went by with no signs of vine borers and very few squash bugs.

But by the end July, the little buggers were every where. They got all my acorn and yellow squash. They crippled my zucchini. Finally last week, I decided to pull the last of the zucchini up. Hiding under those plants were the once tiny companion plants I had planted.

I didn't know radishes could get so big.