It's the Pits

I took my own advice from yesterday and just mended the pits on no less than four t-shirts. I had to use iron-on patches because they had been mended once already by sewing. The fabric is wearing out but the patches should hold for a while.

Did I mention these are among my four favorite t-shirts? In fact, I painted one myself as an experiment a number of years ago. It's a long story. Bear with me.

You see, we lived in a small community with a high percentage of art cars. We had an old car and thought it'd be fun to do something creative with it. My sweetie cut out life-size animal tracks so we could paint it to look like critters were running all over the outside of the car. We used tracks from five native species, selecting a different color for each one. Using information from a book on identifying tracks, we even painted them in the pattern they would leave behind if the animal really did walk or trot across the car.

Unfortunately, we made one critical error. We used latex paint. This would have been fine if it had several days to cure. However, as luck would have it, there was an unexpected rain shower the following day. Entire tracks loosened by the rain peeled off the car as we drove down the highway. Our art car became a performance art car. I wonder what the car behind us thought of the yellow turkey tracks flying through the air...

I decided it would be interesting to paint the tracks on a t-shirt. I used the same stencils and sponged on the paint, just like we did for the car. I couldn't space the tracks out as much, though. When the paint was dry, I turned the shirt inside out and popped it in the dryer for a little while to cure the paint. It's held up all these years and is still one of my favorite shirts, despite now being too big for me.

Key to the tracks: coyote in blue, bobcat in red, and wild turkey in yellow. (Note patch under armpit on left of photo.)


Key to the tracks: mule deer in orange, bobcat in red, and raccoon in purple.

I hope the patches hold up because I plan to wear my comfy t-shirts until they fall apart.

Quick Clothing Fixes

As long as we're talking about used clothing, I should mention that clothing needs care and sometimes maintenance. It seems that just when you've gotten your favorite shirt or jeans broken in, they get torn or stained. No worries, many problems can be repaired with just a little effort.

Now keep in mind that I am not an accomplished seamstress. I was forced to learn how to sew a mumu in Girl Scouts many years ago; it was such a traumatic experience that I shied away from sewing machines for years. Mending was accomplished with simple tools: needle, thread, scissors, seam ripper, and sometimes the double-sided fusion material available where sewing supplies are sold.

Here's a quick look at how to fix some common clothing problems:


Patch a hole: I cut the butterfly off a worn t-shirt. It was thick from the paint used to print the shirt and gave me a good firm edge to stitch it onto the jacket with tiny stitches all the way around the edge.

Sew on a button: pay attention to how the other buttons on the shirt are stitched on and copy the pattern. If they are X's and you make a box, the difference will be noticeable.


Darn a sock: I like to use contrasting colors.

Repair a seam: my sweat must be caustic because I often have to repair seams in the pits of my t-shirts.


Cover a stain: you may be able to cover small stains with a chunky pin.

Replace a zipper (for the ambitious)

Hem pants


Repairing your clothes will save money and also save resources. Don't throw it away; fix it.

How to Quickly Find Used Clothes That Fit

I love to shop at the thrift stores for clothing because there is far more variety and the clothes are cheaper than retail stores. However, I hate the tedious process of trying on a zillion pairs of jeans and tops to find the ones that fit. Sizes are not consistent so this can be a frustrating task. So, being the lazy efficient person that I am, I found a shortcut.

Before I head out the door, I pull out current clothing that fits just how I like it. Then I measure them and jot down the numbers. For jeans, I fasten the top button and then measure the width at the top. Since I have short legs, I also measure the inseam. For tops, I lay them flat on the bed and measure across the bust from pit to pit. For long sleeves, I measure sleeve length from the pit to the cuff.

Whenever I go to the thrift shops, I go armed with my measuring tape and numbers. A list of current clothing needs also eliminates aimless wandering amongst the racks. I prefer the stores that divide their clothing into sizes because it narrows down the search. Still, though, I will check each item that looks like a possibility against my measurements. It takes a little extra time to do this but it sure cuts down on the time in the dressing room. Although it's not a foolproof method, it reduces the number of items that are discarded in the dressing room for poor fit.

One other thing I'd like to mention is how important it is to check for stains, holes, missing buttons, and working zippers. Stains require a quick but thorough examination of the entire garment. Holes in clothing other than denim are actually easier to spot if you turn the item inside out. A single missing button may not be a deal breaker if you always tuck in your shirts and can move the bottom button up to the missing space. Be sure to also check for spare buttons sewn on the inside bottom seam in finer men's button-downs. Unless you want to get into zipper replacement - a more challenging sewing job than moving a button - skip anything with a non-functioning zipper.

In less than an hour for just $43 today, we came away with 3 long-sleeved knit shirts and 1 long-sleeved technical (running) shirt for my sweetie, and 2 long-sleeved tops, 2 long-sleeved knit shirts, 1 long-sleeved thermal undershirt, 1 bar, and 1 pair of jeans. All in like-new condition. The technical shirt alone would have cost that amount new.

What are your favorite used clothes shopping tips?

What a Load of Crap!

Bike load, that is.


150 pounds of finely sifted compost went to my friend's house today for her fruit trees and garden before we headed over to Solar Rock Tucson.


Since Freecycle had a booth set up, I also dropped a bag off for their exchange table. They are all about making sure people don't throw their shit out and my bag was full of really good shit! Click on the label above to read the ingredients in my compost.


It took several hours for us to empty out the compost bin this morning, sifting out the chunky stuff and bagging the good stuff.


I spread the chunky stuff that was full of good organic matter under the citrus trees and then covered it back up with mulch. The uncomposted vegetable matter went back into the compost bin, along with some shredded office paper and more animal manure. We'll keep composting right up until we leave since my friend promises to get a compost system set up in her yard by then. As we've done several times before when we've moved, our compost will be passed along to someone who can use it.

Cooking Before Dawn

Yesterday's adventures with so much chard must have worn me out because I crashed at 8:30 last night. Unfortunately, this meant that I would likely wake up early this morning. Sure enough, at 2:08 am, I was crawling out of bed, tired of laying there hoping to get back to sleep.

Not one to waste an opportunity to get a few things accomplished, I went right into the kitchen. We had bibim bap again last night with a couple substitutions: chopped chard stems replaced the zucchini, sauteed carrot leaves replaced the fern brakes, and the cucumber and bean sprouts were omitted because going to the store for anything else right now would be idiotic! Leftover bibim bap is the plan for dinner but I needed to cook up more carrot leaves and shiitakes, as well as clean more lettuce. My sweetie will cook the Thai jasmine rice before I get home from the CSA.

It's 4 am and the lettuce is clean and the shiitakes are soaking. I won't cook up the carrot leaves (already clean) until the shiitakes are also ready.


A pot of basmati rice just finished cooking for my sweetie's lunch and two more dinners for the trip to go in the freezer. I'll be using some of yesterday's blanched chard to make Indian greens to top the rice.

That rice cooker, by the way, has a stainless steel pan. I usually buy rice cookers at the Asian markets but we got tired of the non-stick coatings wearing off. Most rice cooker pans are aluminum and once the coating wears off, your food is in direct contact with the metal. The stainless steel one should last a really long time and never create a cooking hazard. A layer of rice does tend to stick to the bottom, but I just pour about a third of a cup of water over it and let it soak for half an hour. I can then scrape it out with a spatula and add it to soup.


I intended to make a new loaf of raisin bread last night, but that obviously didn't happen. Instead, I made carrot-raisin muffins this morning with a new recipe. They are vegan, fat-free, low sugar, and high fiber. And, yes, they still taste good. (Here is the recipe.)

Now I'm sleepy again. Should I go have another cup of fake coffee or try to catch a few more minutes of sleep?

How to Dehydrate Your Greens

Overwhelmed with chard, kale, or collard greens? Have enough blanched and frozen to last a couple of years? Try something different! Dehydrated greens don’t take up much space, don’t require energy – like a freezer – after the initial processing, and are a great addition to your pantry stores. Here’s how to do it.


Obtain some greens. Grow and harvest your own, go to a U-pick farm, get them at the Farmer’s Market, or buy them at your corner store.



Trim the stems. Cut or tear the leafy parts away from the thick stems.



Save those stems to chop and simmer in a little water. They are great in soups or even by themselves with a little seasoning.



Wash the leaves. Meanwhile, bring a big pot of water to a boil. Don’t worry about spinning the leaves dry: just let them drain a bit.



Blanch the leaves just until wilted. The time it takes for them to wilt will vary with the type. Chard leaves are much thinner than kale, for instance, and wilt quickly.



Lift out and let drain. I set them in a colander.



Spread leaves in a single layer out on dehydrator trays. These round trays were a pain and had me lusting for an Excaliber dehydrator with rectangular trays. On the other hand, I got to nibble little bits of blanched chard while fitting them on the trays. Wipe the bottom of the tray with a cloth to remove excess moisture and put in the dehydrator while still warm.



Dry at 135 degrees until crispy. It only took about 4 hours yesterday. Sampling had to be curtailed because they were so tasty. I’ve read about people dehydrating kale specifically for snacking. “Kale chips!”



Store in an airtight, moisture proof container. Since I plan to take these on our trip to add to soups, I crumbled the dry leaves into bags for vacuum packing.



I didn't have enough trays to dehydrate all the chard I harvested today (the entire bed). This little ball is what two-thirds of the fresh chard pictured above shrank down to after blanching! I'll be freezing some of this for our trip and using some in our dinner.

Beet Alert!

It's gonna be another red poo day. I combined three unlikely ingredients last night for an awesome salad.

Navel oranges, roasted beets, and arugula - all from my CSA.


The salad was dressed with orange juice, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. And tasty it was. The spicy arugula stood its ground with the earthy beets and both enjoyed the sweet juicy orange segments. As you can see, it didn't even need any oil to coat the leaves.

Trip Food, the Solution

My brain is not always filled with silly arguments. Sometimes, it works and chews on various problems, eventually spitting out a solution or two. I just had a brilliant flash of inspiration, a way to resolve multiple problems easily.

Problem #1: I have too much perishable food (everything in the refrigerator or freezer) for us to realistically consume before we hopefully move this summer.

Problem #2: We are planning a cross-country road trip in a while to check out relocation possibilities. This two week trip only exacerbates Problem #1.

Problem #3: My CSA commitments have been double last week and this, resulting in an extra share each week. The plan was to give the extra share to the friend taking care of our place while we're gone as pre-payment. Last week, she took only about 2/3 of the food (which is why I have so much fresh stuff right now). Today, I called her to remind her I'd be bringing food this evening and she doesn't want it. Her significant other forgot and went shopping yesterday. This means I'll have even more perishable produce as of tonight!

Problem #4: The trip expenses are mounting between rental car, projected gas costs, and hotels. The thought of having to eat in restaurants for a couple of weeks was unacceptable, but we didn't have a good solution yet. Most nights, we will have a microwave and refrigerator in our hotel room. We planned on taking dehydrated food, a few seasonings, and supplementing with fresh produce and bread from local stores. Spending money on food with Problem #1 hanging over our heads would be aggravating.

Solution: Prepare the food now and take it with us on the trip. It worked last year.

• I can freeze meals for the first few days. With dry ice, food will stay frozen up to 5 days.


• I'm also going to pull the pressure canner back out and try canning some soups. (Thanks for the inspiration, Heather!)


• I have a book on dehydrating meals for backpacking and will pull that out for ideas on drying complete meals.


• I may even be able to vacuum pack some foods and keep them fresh for a few extra days.

This will mean quite a bit of extra work for the next few weeks, but the payoff - solving multiple problems - will be worth the effort. The delicious homemade food will also keep us happier on the road.

I am going to keep a running list here of food I'm packing for the trip. An asterisk* denotes food I preserved.


Note: see recent update on food choices!


Breakfasts - free hotel breakfast most days
Soymilk
Cold cereal (for days we're on our own)
Instant oatmeal (for days we're on our own)


Lunches - buy bread, lettuce, & tomatoes locally
Pomegranate jelly*
Prickly pear jelly*
Peanut butter
Dehydrated hummus*
Dehydrated great northern bean-red pepper spread*


Dinners - plus buy fresh vegetables locally
Vegetarian Baked Beans (can)
Fantastic Kitchen soup cups
Backpacker's Pantry dried meals


Snacks - plus buy fresh fruit locally
Dried banana chips*
Dried mulberries
Pumpkin leather*
Prickly pear leather*
Melon candy*
Pumpkin seeds*


Seasonings
Salt & pepper
Mrs. Dash Table Blend
Tabasco sauce
Nayonnaise

Conversation In My Head

The sensible and impulsive parts of my personality are often at war with each other. The sensible me believes in menu planning; the impulsive me hates it. Today, they had a conversation.

Impulsive me: Dang! We shouldn't have given our sweetie the last of the bibim bap for lunch today.

Sensible me: Yeah, I know. But, we've got other food to eat, so forget about it.

Impulsive me: No, I want bibim bap!

Sensible me: Tough luck, Cookie. Oh, wait. Maybe there is a way you can have some...

Impulsive me: Really?!

Sensible me: There was some of the sauce left over, remember? Just toss it with the leftover rice and salad.

Impulsive me: (Disgusted) That's not the same.

Sensible me: Hey, I'm just trying to help.

Impulsive me: (Resigned) Okay, it's not that bad of an idea, but we don't have enough salad for the bowl.

Sensible me: Easy. Just make more salad.

Impulsive me: (Whining) But that's not bibim bap! It's supposed to be a mix of cooked vegetables and rice with a little lettuce not a whole bleeping raw salad with rice.

Sensible me: Calm down already. How can we make a quick version? Here... We can blanch a handful of the chard leaves for the greens. We can shred a carrot and saute it up real quick-like. There's no way to rehydrate the shiitake mushrooms quickly though.

Impulsive me: Actually, it's sounding pretty good. Go on.

Sensible me: Aha! We can rehydrate the last quarter cup of our dried regular mushrooms and pretend they are shiitakes. Since they get sauteed with soy sauce and sugar anyway, it will only be a textural difference.

Impulsive me: Sounds good! Let's get cookin'.

Sensible me: (10 minutes later) Yum. This is good. You do know it wasn't on the menu plan, though, and now we've got to tweak it again, right?

Impulsive me: Oh, shut up and eat.

Meal-Planning Challenges

Yesterday I posted my meal plan through Thursday at my other blog. Here it is for your perusal:

MEAL PLAN

Daily snack options: carrot sticks, grapefruit, dried mulberries, toasted pumpkin seeds, banana bread (for hubby)

Dessert possibility: Sharlyn melon-prickly pear sorbet

Monday

• Breakfast: Leftover pancakes with syrup; whole wheat toast with pumpkin butter


• My Lunch: Noodles with leftover stirfry vegetables


• Hubby's Lunch: Leftover rice & stirfry vegetables


• Dinner: Leftover bibim bap, dessert wine

Evening - cook Indian greens & mince lemons for tomorrow’s lunch.

Tuesday

• Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with marmalade


• Lunch: Rice with Indian chard topped with minced preserved lemons


• Dinner: Barley-vegetable soup (including pickled purslane), rye toast, roasted beet-orange-arugula salad

Wednesday

• Breakfast: Raisin or banana bread


• My Lunch: Salad with pickled purslane & toasted pumpkin seeds, rye toast


• Hubby's Lunch: Leftover soup


• Dinner: Yaki soba – soba noodles with onion, carrots, cabbage, and I’itoi onions

Bake raisin bread in the evening.

Thursday

• Breakfast: Raisin or banana bread


• My Lunch: Leftover yakisoba


• Hubby's Lunch: Rice with salsa


• Dinner: Rice with curried carrots, cabbage, & sweet lemon pickles

In planning the menu, I carefully considered what perishable produce needed to be used first, meal portions, and leftovers. But I already encountered problems with the plan last night.

I have tried meal planning periodically and always seem to have problems with it. A common one is for me to sit down, plan out the whole week's meals, and then absolutely not want to make what is scheduled. For a while, I tried just figuring out the dishes for the week with the option of mixing and matching to make them on the days we wanted them. That worked better but I still often wanted to make something else entirely - still using the ingredients on hand but in different combinations. Mess up one meal's plan and it throws off the others, meaning I was back to figuring out a new plan or going day by day.

My next attempt was to sit down each evening and figure out the next day's meals only. This worked pretty well as it built in a lot of flexibility to use leftovers or anything that urgently needed to be cooked as well as letting me change my mind for meals throughout the week. Then I started getting more and more busy and this planning shifted to the next morning. On a busy morning, I'd blow it off, and eventually drop the planning altogether. The saving grace about many vegetarian meals is that they can be thrown together at the last minute without a great deal of planning. Heck, even dry beans can be cooked in less than an hour using a pressure cooker.

One of my biggest problems with meal planning, though, is the one I ran into last night: miscalculation. The plan was to finish up the bibim bap. However, I wasn't terribly hungry last night so I didn't finish my portion. This isn't a dish that freezes well, but the meal plan for today didn't leave space for shifting my lunch. The other miscalculation was that I wasn't up to cooking the next day's lunch late in the evening. (It was a long day and I was worn out.)

Something had to change in the plan. I decided to cook rice this morning - on the plan anyway - and mix some with the leftover bibim bap, sending it to work with my sweetie instead of the Indian greens. For my lunch, I'd eat the leftover salad I missed in the inventory, leftover rice, and do a quick saute on the radishes. Tonight, I can add the chard to the soup instead of making Indian greens and my sweetie can have the last piece of cornbread (also missed in the inventory) with it instead of rye bread.

Sounds like a plan, right? Well....now the problem is the soup is going to make far more than 3 servings (dinner tonight plus my sweetie's lunch tomorrow).


In fact, this picture shows just the chopped stems from the garden chard - about a quart's worth! (They are in water to keep the cut edges from browning.)

And, there's more rice than I need for lunch today. So, more re-figuring is necessary or I'll be throwing leftover soup and/or rice in the freezer for the weekend. Hey, that's not a bad idea. We always are strapped for time to prepare lunches on the weekend so soup would be really handy.

Problems are all solved now, right? Wrong. On my toast this morning, I planned to have marmalade. There are two kinds of marmalade open in the refrigerator: tangerine and limequat. I don't like the smell of tangerine peels so I pulled out the limequat. Ick! The smell and taste of lime is overwhelming for a marmalade. This is not a good toast topping, so I used pumpkin butter instead.

Now, though, I have to figure out how I can use this tart lime-y marmalade. I think it would work in my Pad Thai recipe to replace lime zest, lime juice, and some of the brown sugar. It might also work in a sweet and sour sauce. I need more ideas for using it in savory dishes. Toss me some suggestions! (No meat dishes, please.)

And, please, also share your tips for successful meal planning. I, obviously, have not got this figured out yet.

Actually, I think I would do far better with meal planning in a food scarcity situation than in one where too much fresh food may spoil if not used as scheduled. I am really good at stretching food. Is freezing, dehydrating, and canning on a very small - and almost daily - scale the answer? Or is my plan to move to an area where there is not year-round farming going to solve this problem for me since I'll have to preserve more during the abundant growing season and eat from stored food during the winter?

Too Much In My Refrigerator!

After yesterday's post on trying to clear out our refrigerator and freezer before, hopefully, moving this summer, I did an inventory of what was in there. Holy Cow! I thought I'd been making progress but I found jars of pickled vegetables in the back corners that I had forgotten about, condiments of every sort, and other odds and ends that had slipped my mind. How we are going to reduce this to a single ice chest - because there is no way we can eat all of this before moving - is a challenge I am working on.

The first step was to find out what was in there.

The second step was to list it all out, in categories so it's easy to see what I have. It was a toss-up deciding whether to consider some things vegetables, fruits, or condiments on the list, but I tried to consider how I use them in choosing the category. The perishable part at the end of the list will constantly fluctuate, but is useful in meal planning. See the list below.

Please note that the reason there is so much alcohol listed is because we drink it so rarely it lasts forever!

The third step was to print this list and post it on the refrigerator door so it is right there in my face when I go to prepare meals.

The last step is to get back to planning meals and consciously include items from the list regularly. (See the meal plan for the next few days here.)


FREEZER

Starches
Durum atta flour
Wheat germ
Shortgrain brown rice
Vital wheat gluten
Rye bread
Banana bread
Whole wheat bread
Whole wheat pitas
Raisin bread

Vegetables
Ginger – lots
Beet puree
Corn
Leftover stirfry vegetables

Fruits
Dried banana chips
Raspberries
Sharlyn melon puree
Prickly pear leather (candy-like)
Overripe bananas
Ripe bananas
Orange juice concentrate
Apple juice concentrate

Seasonings
Orange peel
Lemon peel
Onion soup mix
Basil-tomato puree cubes

Nuts/Seeds
Pecans
Pistachios
Flax seeds

Angel’s food
Cooked rice with a little turkey
Beef bone (organic, local)

Other
Coffee beans
Decaf coffee beans


REFRIGERATOR

Preserved Vegetables
Salsa
Bok choi sauerkraut
Pickled cauliflower
Pickled purslane
Pickled beets
Olives
Greek-style olives
Red pepper-eggplant spread
Pumpkin butter

Preserved/Dry Fruits
Dried cherries
Sultanas
Prunes
Prune puree
Limequat marmalade
Tangerine marmalade
Lemon syrup
Honey lemon syrup
Lemon jelly
Merlot candied Calamondin limes
Watermelon rind pickles
Sweet limequat pickles (Indian spiced)
Preserved lemons
Candied grapefruit pith
Blueberries pickled in molasses

Condiments
BBQ sauce
Ketchup
Mustard
Nayonnaise
Pickles
Sweet onion relish
Mustardy watermelon rind relish
Capers
Horseradish
Pickapeppa sauce
Raspberry chipotle sauce

Asian Condiments
Soy sauce
Teriyaki sauce
Vegetarian fish sauce (nuoc mam chay)
Thai red curry paste
Szechuan paste
Sriracha
Tamarind paste
Gochu jang

Nuts/Seeds
Toasted sesame oil
Peanut butter
PB/honey mix
Sesame tahini

Other
Soymilk
Maple syrup
Baking yeast
Sourdough starter
Ginger liqueur
Calamondin lime booze
Limoncello
Dessert wine

Angel’s food
Sesame oil
Pet vitamins
Pet prozyme

Perishable Produce/Leftovers

Lemons
Limequat
Lime
Bananas

Lettuce
Frisee
Chard
Red cabbage
Green cabbage
Carrots
I’itoi onions
Cauliflower
Radishes

Roasted beets
Leftover bibim bap

Eating for the Big Move

We are hoping to move this summer. That means I am starting to think about some of the logistics of the actual move and pondering ways to make it easier.

Keeping perishable food cold over a number of days on the road takes considerable effort so I'm trying to work our way through the frozen and refrigerated foods. We are definitely making progress. Several months ago, I emptied out and sold our small upright 5 cubic foot freezer. A couple months ago, I was finally able to unplug our refrigerator out in the garage. At that time, though, it meant that the household refrigerator and its freezer section were packed to the limit.

I love my CSA but the generous share we get each week is almost a Catch-22. The abundance of fresh food that must be consumed weekly decreases our ability to use up preserved foods already open in the refrigerator. I'm not complaining! Getting farm fresh produce year round is a treat I'm going to miss. In the meantime, I'm starting to share some of my surplus with the friend who will be house-sitting for us on our house-hunting trip. She doesn't mind working for food.

Our efforts to enrich our soil have also finally paid off. We have a thick bed of rainbow chard, adding to an already bountiful portion of greens from the CSA.


I harvested this mountain of chard this morning. It will go into bibim bap this evening.


The bed still contains much more. I wonder if chard would dehydrate well? That could make a nice addition to soups on a snowy winter's night in our new home.

Last year, I blanched and froze my extra greens but that won't work now with my efforts to clean out the freezer. It's only about half full at this point. Granted, some of the freezer space is simply the result of my getting rid of all the foods that seem to trigger the dizziness and vertigo. And some of the food left in the freezer, such as whole wheat flour and coffee beans (for my sweetie), can make the trip without being chilled.

The refrigerator is getting a little less crowded, too. I am cleaning out one to two jars of condiments or preserved food each week. I need to put a list on the front of the fridge so I know what's in there and remember to use it. If I don't rummage around in there, I don't think to add these foods to the meals I'm making with fresh CSA produce.

This past week has seen me eating lots of salads. I've added olives or pickled Jerusalem artichokes to some of them. I've used up the homemade thousand island dressing (vegan mayo, ketchup, sweet relish, onion powder) leftover from making vegan Reubens. The last two days, I've made tasty dressings with leftover homemade raspberry chipotle sauce mixed with either balsamic vinegar or the wine/vinegar juice from the olives.

If I do an inventory and write down everything that's left in the fridge (other than fresh vegetables) and freezer, do you want me to share it here?

Can You Dress Yourself?

First we have the sock incident. While it was fun to blame my sweetie for mismatching my running socks when putting away laundry, I carefully avoided mentioning that I didn't notice that my socks didn't match until I took my shoes off in the evening.

Today, we have the backwards shirt. I just got home from having not-coffee with a friend and wondered why the neck on my t-shirt seemed to be riding high. As I grabbed it to pull it down, I felt the tag. Yeah, I was out in public - not for the first time - with my clothes on backwards.

This brings to mind an embarrassing incident that happened while I was in Junior High. (Most people are smart enough to make sure they never tell anybody about embarrassing incidents...but those people don't have blog readers who demand to be entertained!) My mother sewed many of our clothes but usually let us pick out the material and pattern. Somehow, she allowed me to pick a somewhat sheer fabric with a nice flower print on it for a blousy shirt that was rather short at the midriff. (Think belly shirt way back before they were cool.) I also had succumbed to the fad of hiphugger pants, which I could definitely get away with back then with my hourglass figure of those days.

I pulled these two items out of my closet one school day and threw them on. Had I glanced at myself in the full-length mirror, I would have immediately recognized my error. The combination of the short blouse and the hiphugger pants left a huge expanse of bare flesh, not aided by the translucent qualities of the top. When one of the older Lotharios in the band trapped me in the instrument room and came on to me quite strongly, I realized this was not going to turn out well. I called home to have my mom bring me a sweater but she was out. My grandfather, the retired minister, was the only one available to come to my rescue. Wanting to spare him a heart attack, I lied and said I was cold and needed my sweater. I had to borrow a friend's sweater to even meet him at the car. It was not my finest hour.

I still have the full-length mirror that I began checking religiously before leaving for school every morning following that day. Evidently I need to get back in the habit of checking it before leaving the house!

Tax Advice

Obligatory Disclaimer: I am not a Certified Public Accountant or tax expert. These are just my hard-earned lessons. Take my advice at your own risk.

I hate figuring out my taxes. No office task can make me stress out faster than the prospect of having to do the taxes. I spend way too much time poring over IRS publications to try to figure out how to do them correctly. Due to my own mistakes, and other people's errors, I've had to amend my taxes more than once and even had to defend my calculations once. We received an improperly labeled statement from an employer that went bankrupt between the time we filed and the time IRS asked us to get a corrected statement from them. Once the IRS confirmed this, they left us alone. Tax time is probably responsible for most of my white hairs.

I have learned a few lessons along the way. They may not apply to you or you may choose to make different choices. Following these guidelines, however, reduces my stress and that, my friends, is priceless.

1. Do your taxes correctly the first time. Filing an amended return is a pain in the tuckus.

2. File an amended return when appropriate. There are times when circumstances change and you can amend your taxes to get a refund. It's definitely worth the effort to do this. Also, if you are required to amend your taxes to be in compliance with the law, do it. Cheating doesn't pay.

3. If you are filing for a refund, file as early as you can. I've found refunds come more quickly before the IRS is inundated with returns in early April.

4. If you owe taxes, make sure you have the funds set aside to pay them, but don't mail them until due. You might as well earn interest on the money until you have to pay the bill.

5. If you get a large refund each year, modify your withholdings to get a smaller refund. Why let Uncle Sam be your banker when you can use the money from your paycheck to pay down your own debt (credit card and mortgages) and reduce interest costs?

6. Keep good financial records and keep receipts for everything that might be tax-deductible. If someone else prepares your taxes, talk to them about what deductions you could take if you had proof of the expense. Keep these receipts in files, organized, so that they are readily accessible at tax time.

7. Copy receipts printed on thermal paper. This is a lesson I learned just this year. About six years ago, we did a major remodeling job on the house we just sold this past year. As I gathered up these receipts to add to the basis (cost) of the house, I discovered that the receipts from Home Depot - where we spent several thousand dollars - had faded and were almost illegible. Luckily, I was able to use a copier on the darkest setting and make most of the printing visible. Now I know to do this immediately with any thermal receipts I'll need for future taxes.

8. Copy your signed, completed return before mailing. (Good record-keeping, remember?)

9. If possible, don't move to another state. Filing two state returns is a pain in the tuckus, especially since different states figure the percentages of what you owe differently. I'm not looking forward to doing 2009 taxes for this reason.

10. If you do move, save those receipts. Moving expenses are deductible last time I checked, but only if you move for a job or business. Guess we better get jobs lined up before we move!

No More Dirty Words

Does your keyboard look like a hazardous waste site? Of course not, because you are a responsible person that takes care of your possessions, keeping them clean and maintained at all times.

Yeah, right.

Earlier this week, I got a very rare take-out soda on the spur of the moment. I didn't take my own container so it was in a non-recyclable cup with a plastic lid and straw. Shame on me. The next stupid thing I did was to take it into the office. There were papers strewn all over the computer desk because I was working on our taxes. Underneath the papers were a couple of coasters. As I set the soda down, I realized - too late - that it was hanging halfway off a coaster under the papers. It tipped over and spilled a few drops on my keyboard. (Thank goodness the lid didn't come off!) I quickly wiped them up and thought I was in the clear.

No such luck. I noticed later that the N was stickinnnnng. I used a Q-tip (still working from a huge stash bought years ago) and rubbing alcohol to clean the edges. This didn't stop the sticking but I hoped it might get better. All on its own. Yeah, how often does that happen?!

This mornnninnnng, it was worse. NNNNot onnnnly would the key stick annnnnnnd repeat, sometimes it would't come back up ad words would be missig the nnnnn. Quite annnnoying as you might imagine.

Years ago, I worked at a nonprofit that received computer donations from individuals, schools, and governments, usually when such entities were upgrading their entire system. We tested all of the donated equipment. Anything that no longer worked went to a local electronics recycling firm. Anything that did work was cleaned up and either sold in our discount store or donated to needy schools. I learned then that keyboards can be cleaned up pretty easily.

My keyboard is pretty old but I'm not ready to replace it even though some of the keys don't work well all the time. It's an ergonomic design that I just love. I hate spending money on electronic upgrades all the time and I certainly hate creating electronic waste. It was time to deal with this N though before it drove me bonkers.


I used a letter opener and carefully pried up the N from the keyboard so that I could clean any sticky syrup off of it. Holy Cow! There was all kinds of crap underneath it: dirt, dust, lint, and grime. Sigh. It took a while but I popped off all of the other keys so that I could clean up this mess.


I duplicated the position of the keys on the desk so I would be sure to put them back in the right places.


I dug out my mini attachments for the Shop Vac so I could begin cleaning. These little tools are great for getting in small places.


After vacuuming, however, the keyboard was still a mess. I poured some rubbing alcohol in a small bowl and began cleaning the crevices with Q-tips. While I feel bad about the disposable waste involved in this cleaning, it is better than wasting an entire keyboard simply because grime is slowing it down.


Once the keyboard was as clean as it was going to get, I used a rag dipped in the rubbing alcohol to clean the keys before pressing them back into place.

I put everything in the right place, except the up-down arrows inexplicably ended up upside down. That was easy to fix as was the one key that was still a little sticky. See the slightly dirty spot in the middle of the picture above the previous paragraph? Yep, had to go back and clean that better.


The keyboard looks like new, other than worn letters, and works great.


In other cleaning news, this is what happens when I ask my sweetie to put away the laundry.

"A Future That No Longer Exists"

I had a hankering to watch a disaster movie over the weekend. We chose The Day After Tomorrow, a silly movie but relatively entertaining. The premise of the movie is that global warming will trigger a new ice age and it will happen very quickly. While the dialogue struggles at times, the plot is full of holes, and the acting in only slightly better than a SciFi channel movie of the week, there was one exchange I thought was interesting. It happens between two students discussing being stressed by things that don't matter in the face of the huge blizzard outside.

The boy tells the girl, "You haven't had time to adjust yet."

She responds, "How am I supposed to adjust? Everything I've ever cared about, everything I've worked for has all been preparation for a future that no longer exists."

We (humans) are not likely to face such a cataclysmic change in our climate, but we are facing changes that I didn't expect to see in my lifetime. It, along with peak oil and economic issues, has definitely changed my plans. In a couple of months, we (my sweetie and I) hope to be looking for a new home in the Midwest, far from where we ever thought we'd live, but where there should be water in the coming decades.

We are learning skills to increase our self-sufficiency, such as gardening and preserving food. We are walking and biking more to become accustomed to non-motorized transportation. We are living a simpler life with less frills. We are connecting with others on the same path.

How about you? Are you still working towards a future that no longer exists or have you shifted your focus to deal with our changing world?

Lessons from the Great Depression

On Friday, Frugal Veggie Mama posted about an interesting series of YouTube videos on Great Depression cooking. Clara, now 93 years old, shares the foods her family ate during the Depression as well as memories of that time. She has a series of cooking episodes on YouTube, and her own website where you can order a DVD of these if you'd like.

I watched all the videos over the weekend and, while I probably won't make the recipes, I gleaned some great tips. This information will look somewhat familiar because bloggers, including myself, are picking up ways to decrease our food costs and environmental footprints from many sources. The tips I gleaned from her videos are listed below with my additional comments or links in italics.

• Starches such as potatoes, pasta, and bread are cheap and fill your belly.
  Use whole grain, if possible, for more nutrition and fiber. Wheat berries, for example.



• Lentils are a cheap and filling source of protein. Meat was very expensive and rare; the cuts were very thin.
  Lentils are the fastest cooking of the legumes, and will therefore use less energy.



• Cut potatoes in small cubes so they cook faster, using less energy.



• Finish cooking foods by covering the pan and turning off the heat.
  See Retained Heat Cooking for taking this a step further.



• Trim the bruised parts off fruits and vegetables rather than throwing out the whole item.
  Anything to avoid food waste is good!



• One tip I would add is use a rubber spatula to scrape every last bit of food out of the bowl or pot.



• You can survive with salt and pepper as your only seasonings.
  Grow some herbs for variety.



• Use lots of olive oil; it's healthy.
  I disagree with this one. While oil was an easy source of calories in hard times, its copious use is not a nutritious part of the diet. (See these two articles.)



• Grow your own vegetables for more variety in your diet.



• Save seeds from your food to dry and replant next year.



• Make sure your neighbors know they can't harvest from your garden without permission.
  Help them develop their own food security to reduce theft issues.



• Keep chickens for your egg and meat needs.



• Eat smaller portions.
  Americans today are used to super-sized meals. Huge portions were not available during the Great Depression.



• If you live in a cold climate, you can bury food in the snow instead of owning a freezer.
  I'm assuming they didn't have a dog...



• Turn the heat down and bundle up to stay warm.
  See Crunchy Chickens' challenge and read the comments for ideas on how to stay warm.



• Find cheap sources of entertainment. Read a book aloud to the family, for example.



• And, most importantly: Don’t use up everything you have; keep some aside, in case conditions get worse.

Purple Broccoli

Broccoli in our garden....

....becomes broccoli on our plates.

I dressed mine with a little toasted sesame oil and balsamic vinegar, and sprinkled I'itoi green onions over the top. The colors in the top picture were not retouched.

A Blogger's Business Card

Although I blog anonymously (my real name is not "Chile"), I do occasionally tell folks I'm chatting with that I write a blog. If they are interested, there's always a brief scramble for pen and paper for them to note the blog's URL. Whether they come check it out is unknown. (However, it kind of freaked out my sweetie to meet a CSA friend at the Sustainable Energy Expo that said, upon meeting him, "Oh, I've read all about you!")

Anyway, back to my point. Months ago, I had the bright idea to mock up a business card for my blog. I started on the project and never finished. I decided to pick it up again for the expo in case I met anyone that might be interested in reading my little ramblings here. I handed a few out while there.

Sharon loved the idea and said she might do the same. Honestly, I was a little surprised she hadn't already done something like that, but hey, she's been a bit busy with writing three books, farming, and raising four children!

I should also note that I printed my cards on card stock made from recycled paper, originally purchased to print our wedding invitations almost two decades ago. I bought a ream then because the print shop would not sell them by the sheet. I've finally found a good use for what's left!

Tangerine Jelly & Frugal Canning Tips

The tangerine tree is practically bare and so is the fruit basket in the house. Extra tangerines went to the Food Bank and both pick-up days at my CSA. I kept the ones with torn tops for marmalade. (Tangerine skins are thin and the tops often pull off when using a long-handled fruit picker to get them off the tree.)

The problem was I didn't feel like making marmalade. I got marmaladed-out during the summer of 2007. We're still eating that marmalade, all five different kinds of it. Rob mentioned making jelly in the comments from my post earlier this week so I decided to try that instead. I found a recipe online that looked good and was encouraged by the 10 min prep promise.

That prep time was a vicious lie. Granted, I doubled the recipe so there was more labor involved, but it took far longer than 20 minutes of prep time. Perhaps the recipe author has gigantic tangerines that magically peel and chop themselves for the recipe and then drain in a few minutes. I don't. My tree produces puny little fruits. It takes a while to peel and chop them. A long while.

Nevertheless, I finally got my 12 cups of chopped tangerine pulp in the pot with the 2 cups of chopped lemon pulp, cup of thinly sliced tangerine peel, and 2 cups of water. After bringing this to a boil, I was to reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. I was tired by this point and was glad to sit down. I was not happy to hear the pot boil over a couple of minutes later. I moved it to the other burner, left the lid ajar, turned the flame as low as possible, and cleaned up the mess. I got to sit for a total of one more minute before the damn thing overboiled again. You don't want to know what I said, but at that point, I turned off the heat, put the lid on, and just let it sit without heat for a couple more minutes.

The next step was to strain it through a jelly bag. Got that, but don't have a stand. Argh. So, I lined a colander with cheesecloth and poured in the glop. Half an hour later, there were maybe four cups of juice in the bowl. It was supposed to yield 8 cups. Thinking the cheesecloth/colander was the problem, I rigged up the jelly bag to hang from my pot rack with the pulp. It yielded about 2 tablespoons of additional liquid. Great.... So much for something easier than marmalade.

By this time, it was late and I was frustrated so I put the juice in the fridge and went to bed. The only option I had this morning was to juice the remaining tangerines I'd hoped to save for my sweetie to snack on. There is one token tangerine left for him. Did that bring my juice total up to 8 cups? No. I also had to fish out the frozen orange juice concentrate tucked in the back corner of the freezer for the final cup and a half!

Heavy sigh.

I prepared my jars - 5 half-pints (per batch) - and started making the jelly in two separate batches. For each batch, I mixed four cups of the juice (a mix of strained and fresh) with 1 package of dry pectin. When this came to a boil over high heat, I dumped in 5 cups of sugar. At this point, you've really got to be paying attention because the jelly will come to a full rolling boil. This is why a mere 4 cups of juice go into a big ol' pot! The stuff needs to boil hard for 1 minute before the foam is skimmed off and the jelly is ladled into the hot jars. Ten minutes of processing in the hot water bath and it's all done.

Canning tips:

• Don't try to cook a double batch of jelly. It may not set.




• Measure all of your sugar out ahead of time so you can add it quickly.


• Use a large pot, even for what seems like a small batch of jelly.


• Get the hot sterilized jars out of the canning pot during the jelly's one minute hard boiling period. That way you can get it into the jars quickly before it starts setting up.

Besides the money you save by preserving your own garden surplus, re-using canning jars over and over, and buying sugar and pectin on sale, there are ways to cut costs while canning.

Frugal canning tips:

• Be organized. Have your ingredients and supplies ready before starting. Jars need to be sterilized in the boiling water bath for 10 minutes before putting the food in them. Time your food preparation to finish at the same time as the sterilization period.




• Sterilize an extra jar in case the recipe makes extra. I often end up with more than the recipe is supposed to yield so I always prepare an extra jar. In a pinch, I use a commercial jar for the excess, put it right in the fridge, and use it up quickly. (This recipe was supposed to yield 5 half-pints. The first batch made 6 half-pints, a 4 oz jar, plus a little more.)


• Scrape every bit of food out of the pot. With jelly, this means there will be lumps in the final jar. I am less concerned with whether my jelly is clear and gorgeous than I am with avoiding food waste. One ugly, but still tasty, jar of jelly is fine with me.



• Taking this one step further this morning, I even saved the foamy stuff I skimmed off the jelly before putting it in the jars. It tasted just fine on my breakfast toast. I also scraped the jelled jelly off the utensils and added it to my little spare jar of jelly I'd already put in the fridge.




• Can several batches of food back to back to take advantage of the boiling canning water. It takes a fair bit of energy to get that mass of water up to a boil, so be ready with another set of jars to sterilize and fill as soon as you get the first batch out of there.


• When done with the canning, take advantage of the hot water. Use it to wash up all the dishes. Wash the sticky floor with it. Let it sit and humidify the house with the steam. Dump it in a bucket to soak really dirty laundry. Unclog a drain by putting some baking soda and vinegar in it for a few minutes and then pour in the very hot water. Let it cool and use it to flush the toilet.

What are you going to can this week?

Read a Good Book Lately?

The Blogging Bookworm crew would like to remind you to let us know if you've read or reviewed a good ecologically-relevant book lately. We have a long list of book titles there with links to reviews posted by assorted bloggers.

Book Categories include:

Children & Young Readers
Climate Change
Environment & Nature
Food
Garbage
Gardening
Green Movement
Historical
Inspirational
Just For Fun
Living Lightly
Marketplace
Parenting
Peak Oil
Social Justice
Spiritual
Water

If you scan through the list and notice we've missed a great book, let us know by leaving a comment on the Monday Round-up post. Be sure to leave the link to a review you've done of any book on the list, or one that should be on the list, and we'll add it!

I Shoulda Had a Monkey

When I was a kid, I used to climb a big mulberry tree in the back yard. Scrambling up the tree gave me a sense of freedom. I could get on the roof from the middle of the tree but I prefered to climb higher and then hang upside down from my legs. During this phase, we had workmen at the house building an addition so that my grandfather could come live with us. The owner of the remodeling company was a nice old gentleman that nicknamed me "the Spidermonkey" for my climbing habits.

My tangerine tree has buds forming on it so all the fruit needs to be picked now. If I wait any longer, like I did last year, I'll knock the blooms off while cleaning off the tree. Last week, I picked most of the low-hanging fruit and took it to the CSA for everyone to enjoy. Over the weekend, Sharon and I picked the remaining low fruit for her to savor. All that was left was the high stuff.


I don't climb trees anymore so I needed the ladder and fruit picker this morning. After an hour, I had a bag to take to the Food Bank. I saved the smaller ones to make marmalade for my sweetie. (I don't like tangerines myself.)


This afternoon, I worked to clean off the rest of the fruit. Despite my best efforts, I simply cannot reach the high ones in the middle of the tree. I've even used the fruit picker while standing on the ladder, but they are just too high or far away. (Click on the photo to see the remaining fruit better.)


I need a monkey to climb the tree for me. I guess having my own little monkey (kid) might not have been such a bad idea after all. I hate to see the fruit go to waste up there, darn it!

Sharing a Local Feast

What happens when you offer an impromptu dinner invitation at the last minute to a fellow blogger whose major focus is sustainable living? I'll tell you what happens: first you panic over whether you can pull it off, then you calm down and start thinking about options, and finally you realize how important food preservation is to eating locally.

Let me back up a bit. Sharon Astyk came into town for her speaking engagement and we planned to have lunch on Friday. It turned out that she had more time available so she got to explore Tucson a bit with me. We started with a nice walk along 4th Avenue where we checked out a thrift store (I found more canning jars!), the Food Conspiracy co-op which sells some local produce, and Native Seeds/SEARCH which offers seeds from indigenous crops, great books, and local food products. We checked out the rainwater harvesting cisterns and gardens at the UA Visitor Center and then headed to the Tucson Botanical Gardens. After a very nice walk through their grounds, chatting about the adaptations of plants to desert life and comparing our respective climates, it was time for lunch at a local Mexican restaurant.

Next up was the tour of my home. Here was someone who could appreciate the stacks of canning jars, the food pantry, and the extra quilts, without thinking I was paranoid or crazy! I think she was envious of the citrus trees in the back yard, but the bag of grapefruit and tangerines should help temper the envy. I'd been pondering what kind of dessert I could provide that would showcase local foods and finally came up with a prickly pear smoothie. There was still some pureed Sharlyn melon (from the CSA) in my freezer and prickly pear syrup from fruit I collected and processed myself.


I put both in the Vortex blender, which I still use on occasion despite the problems with it, and let Sharon do the cranking. Each glass was garnished with a bit of the prickly pear leather I made with the same ingredients. It was yummy!


Sharon toasted to tasty local food but, all too soon, it was time for me to drop her back at her hotel so that I could do my volunteer stint at the CSA. However, I had her talk to look forward to at the Expo, so it was not a sad parting.

This afternoon, my sweetie and I biked down to the Expo, wandered around the booths, and settled in for the Sustainable Living Speakers. "Mrs. Green" hosted the panel which included Sharon, John Neville from Sustainable Arizona, and Deron Beal, the founder of Freecycle (yes, it was "born" in Tucson!) They all had interesting talks but it was rather disappointing to see only about 50 people in attendance for this panel. Sharon soft-pedaled her message but I still think some members of the audience were a bit freaked out by the thought that technology might not solve all our environmental problems and cutting back would be a really good idea. (It's time to join the Riot for Austerity!)

This brings us up to the time of the impromptu dinner invitation: 3:30 pm. When I asked Sharon if she'd like to come for dinner, she accepted but requested we have an early meal since she needs to head to the airport at an ungodly hour tomorrow morning. We pedaled our bikes home as fast as we could, with my mind racing about what kind of meal I could pull together in an hour or so. I really wanted it to be mostly local foods and was quite relieved I'd just brought home my CSA share the previous evening. By the time I walked in my front door, I had the menu figured out. My pressure cookers really came in handy!

Without further ado, here is what I prepared with notes about the source of the ingredients.


(Click to enlarge.)
Tossed salad

• Mixed spicy greens - CSA
• Spinach - CSA
• Red cabbage - CSA
• Carrots - CSA
• Hakurei turnips - CSA
• Cilantro - CSA
• Olives - wild harvested; home-cured

Prickly Pear Vinaigrette

• Prickly pear syrup - local; homemade
• Lemon juice - local from friend's neighbor's tree
• Juice from olive jar (water, vinegar, wine, olive oil, oregano, bay leaves, garlic) - the water and garlic were local
• Salt & pepper to taste

Beverage

• Water - local filtered
• Lemon slices - local

(Dishes listed left to right - click to enlarge.)
Pressure-cooked Beans

• Mayocoba beans - CSA. Our farmer gets many of his seeds from Native Seeds.
• Dried red chile peppers - fresh from CSA; I dried them in ristras.
• Dash of Liquid Smoke for flavor

Vegan cheese sauce

• Recipe from Jo Stepaniak's great Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook

Pressure-cooked Chicos

• Chicos - CSA corn that I roasted and then air-dried (like the picture in this post but with ears of corn instead of onions)
• Dried green chile peppers - fresh from the CSA; dried in a food dehydrator (to prevent rotting)
• Salt & pepper to taste

Potato & Vegetables

• Red Lasoda Potatoes - CSA
• Fajita vegetables - leftover from our lunch on Friday (I always get a doggie bag!)
• Chorizo seasoning - homemade spice mix

I put a jar of my pickled guero peppers (peppers and onions from the CSA) on the table and was impressed when Sharon ate two whole peppers, seeds and all. Those suckers are HOT! I can eat tiny portions and my sweetie avoids them entirely. After dinner, she got to sample my pomegranate liqueur (more details here on the process of making it from local fruit). Everyone is always amazed at the flavor this liqueur packs and she was no exception.

The evening came to an end too soon. I am thrilled to pieces that I got to meet and spend some time with such an important part of the blogosphere that I call home. If you ever have the chance to meet bloggers from your own area or ones traveling through, do it. Meeting the person behind the words is a great experience!