Nancy on the Home Front

Prudent Pantry: Preserving Leeks

If you read My Garden post from yesterday you will remember that I have an abundant leek crop this year.

fall garden, prudent living — September Leeks

I plan to leave some of the leeks in the garden until after the first frost. However I have so many I wanted to put some in the freezer now while I have some free time.

Leeks belong to the onion family and they look a bit like an overgrown scallion! I love to add them to casseroles, soups or quiches. I’ve never heard of canning leeks but there are some other ways to preserve your leeks so you can enjoy them during the cold winter months.

Short term they will store quite well in your refrigerator. It’s pretty easy to prepare them to store in your fridge, just place them in a loose fitting plastic bag and plan to use them in seven days.

Leeks can also be frozen. They may not be as fresh as a fresh leek but used in a soup or casserole they will still be delicious. To freeze the leeks, remove the outer layer and rinse thoroughly. Slice the leek into thin circles.

leeks, preserving, prudent living — Cut leeks.

Place the sliced leeks in a freeze bag, seal, label and date the contents. You should plan to use them within three months for the best taste.

freezing, prudent living — Leeks ready for the freezer.

You can also dry your leeks. I use my dehydrator to preserve some of my leeks. Again remove the outer layer and slice into 1/4 inch circles.Place the leeks on your dehydrator trays.

dehydrating, preserving — Dehydrating leeks.

Dry at 100 degrees for 18 hours or until crisp. You could also dry them in your oven by baking at 170 degrees for 6 hours. Place the dried leek in a sealable bag and store in a cool area. To re-hydrate them, soak in hot water for at least 30 minutes and then drain.

No matter how you decide to preserve your leeks try to leave them in the ground for as long as possible. Once your temperatures drop to freezing, the leeks remaining in the garden should be harvested.

Linked to: HomemakersChallenge, LittleHouseInTheSuburbs, LauraWilliamsMusings, ThePrudentPantry, HomesteadRevival, ThePrairieHomestead, TheMorrisTribe, PreMeditatedLeftovers, CraftyGardenMama, GastronomicalSovereignty, WeAreThatFamily

My Garden: September Update

Labor Day has passed and there are signs of fall everywhere. The leaves are changing, the nights are colder, and it won’t be long before frost touches the valleys and hilltops of Vermont.

My garden did very well in some areas and not so well in others. We had a rather hot and dry summer, which is unusual for our area. My leeks did amazing well, soon I will be pulling and slicing them to put in the freezer.

The lettuce has preformed well all summer, we’ve enjoyed garden lettuce form the earliest days of spring right into the summer’s end.

greens, garden — Still enjoying lettuce.

Our corn did not do well at all; the summer was just too dry.

corn, vegetables — Disappointing corn harvest.

However the pumpkins did well and I will have plenty of pumpkins for soup, bread and pies.

The pole beans did well; I love the pattern of these Rattlesnake Beans. They are so pretty against the green foliage.

Kale did very well and continues to grow. I have picked and harvested and frozen kale and still it grows!

I’m always sorry to see summer come to an end but I do look forward to the slower pace of winter. It won’t be long before the new seed catalogs arrive and I begin to plan the garden for next summer.

Linked to: MsGreenthumbJean, ASouthernDaydreamer, AnOregonCottage, SidewalkShoes, FishtailCottage, BlissfulRhythm, TootsieTime

Frugal Tip: Continuing to Live a Frugal Life

As I continue to try to live a more frugal life I want to share some more ideas to help you save money and live frugally. There are dozens of inventive and useful ways to save, spend, reuse and live better for less.

When I was younger I volunteered my time with a women’s organization that held a huge yard sale each year. This group was active in numerous towns and they all came together in the spring for this large sale. I volunteered to help out in the children’s clothing department. It meant sorting through all the donations and organizing the clothes. It was a lot of work but it also meant being able to have first pick of any clothes that came in. Our two daughters were young at the time and I was able to completely outfit them for the year at a minimal cost.

frugal living, secondhand — Just one of the dresses I was able to pick up secondhand.

Purchasing used items is a great way to save money. Spend a Saturday morning checking your local garage sales. Spending a few hours on craigslist, ebay, freecycle or autotrader can save you thousands of dollars.

Buy in bulk. I have mentioned this before. Buying in bulk can be a great cost saving technique. This can especially be true for bulk items such as toilet paper, paper towels and detergent (if you don’t make your own). Know your prices so you can spot a sale and then stock up.

Spend some time going over your reoccurring costs. Can you give up your cable subscription? We gave up TV years ago and have never missed it. You can read the news on the internet, rent movies from Netflix, or even watch your favorite TV shows online with a website such as Hulu. There is no need for a hefty cable subscription. Go over your monthly subscriptions and start cutting where you can. Review your phone bills and your internet service provider and shop for the best plans.

TV, DVDs — Netflix, an alternative to cable.

A fun way to save some money is to set up a piggy bank. Put all your lose change in the container and don’t touch it for a year. Have that money go towards a specific goal. You will be surprised how much you can accumulate by saving small amounts of change throughout the year.

You may think living a frugal life is boring or to complicated. Take the time to learn more about frugality. There are numerous books and blogs out there devoted to saving money. Each Tuesday I share a frugal tip on my blog. Check back next week to learn more ways to save money!

“Being frugal does not mean being cheap!
It means being economical and avoiding waste.”
Catherine Pulsifer

Linked to: LearningTheFrugalLife, FrugallySustainable, TheThriftyHome, WeAreThatFamily, Thrifty101, FemineAdventures

A Perfect Almond Cake

Several months ago a dear friend of mine sent me this recipe. It’s adapted from Alice Medrich’s Pure Desserts. The recipe is true to its name; it is A Perfect Almond Cake! This cake is very rich so you only need small slices. I served it with Ginger Ice Cream and my company asked for seconds! That good! It would also be delicious with fresh fruit. Tightly wrapped the cake keeps for several days.

A Perfect Almond Cake

Ingredients:

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (4 ounces) unblanched or blanched almonds
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
3 large eggs
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into several chunks and slightly softened
1 tablespoon kirsch (optional)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

For crunchy almond crust:
1 tablespoon softened butter
6 tablespoons sliced almonds
1 tablespoon sugar

Directions:

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Smear the sides and bottom of the pan generously with about 1 tablespoon softened butter. (I use a shallow 10 inch in diameter pan with three inch sides) Scatter 6 tablespoons sliced almonds over the bottom of the pan and press some of them about 1 inch up the sides; distribute any extra nuts evenly over the bottom. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of sugar over the bottom and sides of the pan.

Place the almonds, sugar, salt, and almond extract in the bowl of a food processor and process until the nuts are finely pulverized. Add the eggs, butter, and kirsch, if using, and pulse to blend thoroughly. Add the flour and baking powder and pulse just until blended.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly.

Bake until the cake is golden brown on top and a toothpick plunged into the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Do not overcook.

Cool the cake on a rack for 10 minutes before unmolding. To unmold, slide a slim knife or spatula carefully around the inside of the pan, pressing against the pan to release the cake without cracking the crust. Cover the pan with a plate, and invert both. Remove the pan and leave the cake crust side up to serve.

Beach Plum Jelly

To me Beach Plum Jelly conjures up memories of summer, the beach, the ocean and Nantucket. I first went to Nantucket when I was in third grade and my family visited friends for a week. It seemed like such a magical place, beautiful beaches, sandy dirt roads, just the perfect place to spend a week as a child. It was years before I would visit again. In high school I went out to visit my boyfriend and his family. Little did I know that we would eventually marry and spend every summer visiting the island and his extended family.

During our visits I would often enjoy Beach Plum Jelly but I never saw anyone make it. My husband’s grandmother shared her recipe with me but was kind of vague about where you could actually find the elusive beach plums.

I found out that beach plums grow among the sand dunes, along the edges of roads, in any sandy location.

Beach plums mature slowly and love to grow among the poison ivy. They bloom in the spring and will be covered with tiny white blossoms. People actually locate the blooming bushes and write down their locations! You can never ask anyone where he or she finds their plums, as they just won’t tell you! I am now part of the group that knows where to find them! We recently spent a week in a quaint little cottage on Nantucket and the path to the beach was covered with beach plums. Every morning we would venture out to pick the plums that were now ripe! We tried to find plums that had reddish blush, as they would release the most pectin and make the best tasting jam. I’m sure I was the only one on the ferry ride home with a secret stash of beach plums.

After consulting Gram’s recipe I proceeded to make my very first batch of Beach Plum Jelly. The color is beautiful, a rich purple. This will be one jelly that will have a special spot in my pantry.

The recipe is very simple only three ingredients, beach plums, sugar and water.

Beach Plum Jelly

fruit, jelly, prudent living — Directions:

Wash plums, remove the stems and put the fruit in a stainless pot.

Cover with water, bring to a boil, drain and discard water.

This makes all the plums split their skins.

Return the plums to the pot, add enough boiling water to barely cover, and cook until the fruit is soft, mashing with a wooden spoon once or twice.

Turn the fruit and juice into a jelly bag made with several layers of cheesecloth. Allow it to drain until no more juice drips thought, overnight. The temptation is to squeeze the bag but you don’t want to do that or the jelly will be cloudy.

For each cup of juice add 1 cup of sugar.

Boil on medium high heat until the juice “sheets”, that is, it will not run from a spoon but will drip in two drops that run together and fall from the spoon in a sheet.

Stop cooking immediately. Skim jelly. Pour into sterile jelly jars and process in your water bath for 5 minutes. Store in a cool dark place.

My Garden: Potato Bucket Yield

How many of you remember that I planted my potatoes in buckets this year?

gardening, potatoes — Potatoes in buckets!

The great potato experiment! This past weekend I harvested my potatoes.

Was it a success? I did not have the five-pound yield per bucket that some folks claimed I might get but I did get about a pound of potatoes per bucket. There was a total of 15 buckets and I got just under 15 pounds of potatoes.

gardening, prudent living — Yukon gold potatoes

Not enough to feed us thought the winter but definitely worth trying again. When I’ve planted potatoes in the garden I usually have four or five rows of potatoes and end up with a wheelbarrow full! Enough to feed us all winter and then have some to re-plant in the spring.

The potatoes stayed free of bugs and were so much easier to harvest. I just picked up the bucket and dumped it in the wheelbarrow!

harvest, gardening — Harvesting potatoes

It’s also an easy way to plant different varieties. I had Idaho gold potatoes in the majority of the buckets but I planted fingerlings in three of the buckets. We ate a handful that night for dinner. They were so delicious!

I will try this again next year, either in taller buckets or in wire cages. Did you grow potatoes this year? How was your harvest?

Linked To: MsGreenthumbJean, SidewalkShoes, ASouthernDaydreamer, TootsieTime

Frugal Tip: How to Live a Frugal Life

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always live frugally! I have paid full price for some special article of clothing and I’ve even enjoyed a Starbucks fancy coffee now and then. Overall I do consider myself a pretty frugal person. How do you start living more frugally?

Understand it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to pace yourself and make little steps over time. Think about one area you want to take control of, for example your food spending. Start making more meals from scratch.

frugal living, prudent living — Cook from scratch

Cook extra and put some in your freezer so you’ll have meals on hand for those nights you just don’t feel like cooking.

Have a goal. What do you want to save for? Paying off your mortgage? Going on a vacation? Sit down with your spouse and come up with some simple goals and talk about how you will achieve those goals. Together decided on your common goal and what sacrifices are necessary to reach that goal.

goal setting, frugal living, prudent living — I enjoy saving for vacation!

Simple changes can go along way toward becoming more frugal. Reduce or eliminate some of your daily luxuries. Are you eating lunch out everyday? Bring a brown bag lunch to work.

frugal tips, prudent living — Pack a bag lunch each day.

Bring coffee from home rather than stopping for a take out coffee. Think about the regular daily expenditures you can easily cut down without a major impact on your life.

coffee, frugal tip — Take a coffee from home.

Do you drive to work or drive your children to school each day? Instead see if you can carpool. You will be saving on gas and helping the environment. I have to drive quite a distance just to do our grocery shopping; occasionally I’ve done the shopping with a friend. Not only is it more fun but also we save on gas. As the price of gas rises I will try to do this more often.

Take car of your automobile. By changing the oil and rotating your tires on a regular basis you will have a car that runs better, uses less gas and you can prevent costly car breakdowns.

These are just a few ideas to help you get started. I will continue to share ideas to help you save money and live frugally. There are dozens of inventive and useful ways to save, spend, reuse and live better for less.

“Being frugal does not mean being cheap!
It means being economical and avoiding waste.”
Catherine Pulsifer

Linked to: FrugallySustainable, TheThriftyHome, WeAreThatFamily, LocalSugarHawaii, FemineAdventure, HomemakersChallenge

Garlic Scape Pesto

Several weeks ago I harvested the scapes from my garlic plants. You want the plant to send all of its energy into bulbs not into a flower producing seeds. So you cut the scapes off. They can be used in many ways, you can cut them up and use them in a stir fry or you can use them to make garlic scape pesto.

We tried some in a stir-fry with excellent results; they were tender and had just a slight garlic taste. The rest I decided to turn into pesto.

After searching around on the internet I found the following recipe on A Garden For The House.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Ingredients for about two cups:

9-10 garlic scapes, knobby seed-pods removed and discarded
1/2 cup (2.5 oz bag) slivered almonds
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Special Equipment – A food processor; a rubber spatula

Preparing the scapes – Rinse scapes in cold water, then roughly chop into half-inch pieces.

Processing — Pour scapes and slivered almonds into the bowl of your food processor. Blend for 30 seconds, or until a fairly smooth texture is achieved. Scrape down sides of bowl with your rubber spatula.

With the machine running, slowly add olive oil, and process until thoroughly incorporated, about 15 seconds. Then add the Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper, and blend for another 5 seconds. Taste carefully — you might like to add more salt and pepper.

Although this pesto is good freshly made, it is even better when refrigerated for several hours or overnight. Before chilling, place the pesto in a glass bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.

This pesto can be frozen in an air tight container for up to three months.

This pesto is delicious on noodles.

Put a dollop on and mix it up.

Good to the last bite.

Peach Pie Filling

Recently I was lucky enough to combine a trip to visit family in Connecticut with peach picking. Connecticut has very good peaches and I love when I can pick a few baskets. Last week I posted the amazing Peach Lavender Jam recipe. This week I will share the Peach Pie Filling that I made. This wonderful filling doesn’t only need to be used in pies; I’ve also used it in cobblers and crisps as well. I’m sure you can think of other ways to use it as well. I love preserving peaches, as the bright yellow color looks so cheery on your pantry shelves.

Both this recipe and the Peach Lavender Jam recipe came out of the book Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

Peach Pie Filling

Ingredients:

1 cinnamon stick (3” long) broken into pieces
2 tsp whole cloves
12 cups sliced, pitted peeled peaches, treated to prevent browning – drained
2 cups finely chopped cored peeled apples, treated to prevent browning – drained
2 2/3 cup sugar
1 cup golden raisins
2 Tbsp grated lemon zest
½ cup lemon juice
¼ cup white vinegar
½ tsp ground nutmeg

Directions:

Tie the cinnamon stick pieces and cloves in a square of cheesecloth, creating a spice bag.

To remove the skins easily from the peaches drop them in boiling water for 30 seconds and immediately place in cold water.

In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine peaches, apples, sugar, raisins, lemon zest and juice, vinegar, nutmeg and spice bag. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, cover and boil gently, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

Meanwhile, prepare canner, jars and lids.

Ladle hot pie filling into hot jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Remove any air bubbles and adjust headspace if necessary. Center lid on jar and screw band down to finger tight.

Place jars in canner; make sure they are covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

Makes about 4-6 pints

My Garden: What Can You Compost?

I receive a lot of questions regarding composting; one common question is “What can I compost?” Earlier this summer we built a compost bin out of pallets. It’s been wonderful to have such a large 3-bin composter. For our bin we’ve been layering weeds from the garden, bedding from our chickens and adding manure as we layer.

compost, gardening, prudent living — Layering in compost bins.

Most people realize that you can compost these things as well as fruit and vegetable peels, leaves and grass clippings.

compost, gardening — Chicken scraps or compost!

Did you know that you could also compost coffee grinds and your used tea bags? If you have a dog or cat at home that you groom you can also compost their fur! We even compost the hair that collects when our son gets a haircut at home!

Here are some things you can compost from your home:

Coffee grounds and filters
Tea bags
Used paper napkins
Pizza boxes, torn into small pieces
Paper bags, ripped
Stale bread
Paper towel rolls
Nut shells
Wine corks (real cork)
Paper egg cartons
Toothpicks
Toothpicks
Cotton swabs made from 100% cotton and cardboard, not plastic
Dryer lint
Dryer lint
Old wool clothing, cut into small pieces
Envelopes
Contents of your vacuum cleaner
Newspapers, shredded
Newspapers, just need to shred them!
Ashes from your fireplace or outdoor fire pit
Natural holiday wreaths
Evergreen garlands

These are just a few ideas to get you started. I do not add cooked food or meat to my compost pile. I have read you can add such things as stale cereal, stale pretzels, plain cooked pasta and rice. However we have bears that like to get into the compost so I don’t add such things! Avoid adding cat or dog droppings as these may contain disease organisms. Don’t add meat, fat, grease, oils or bones as they do not break down and can attract pests.

Composting is a great way to enrich your soil and reduce your trash.

gardening, composting, prudent living — Compost

Linked to: AnOregonGarden, MsGreenthumbJean, Sidewalkshoes, ASouthernDaydreamer, TootsieTime, LittleHouseInTheSuburbs