Blessings, Darlings!
Yesterday they announced the list of retired football players who have been voted into the Football Hall of Fame. Richard Dent is on that list.
Back when I was pregnant with the Spawn ... I lived in the Chicago area, where he was playing. It was the season the Bears ended up winning the Super Bowl. I was also working at a homeless shelter at the time.
We women were following the Bears, and discussing them over lunches. One day when I was VERY pregnant we were discussing Dent.
"He's certainly not pretty".... "well, not his FACE. But on the field, in those tight pants, his butt is a thing of BEAUTY".
I laughed so hard I pulled a round ligament. Was in pain for DAYS.
Totally worth it. And a true statement to boot.
Richard Dent - I salute your football playing abilities/career, and your sweet hind end.
Frondly, Fern
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Egypt
Blessings, Darlings!
Yes, the Mubarek government has to go - they have a history of oppression and are the tool of the oligarchy. Yes, some coalition has to take its place that is not totally tied to the oligarchy (but, clearly, has to have the approval of the military).
I'm no policy or urban or economic development wonk, or an economic history buff (either professional or hobbyist). But SOMEONE out there must be!
How do you turn an oligarchy into something that allows for economic opportunity for everyone in the country? What exactly does a government to do promote job development in this case, when just a relatively few families hold all the assets and apparently only hire people they know?
Are they historic examples of this happening? If so, tell me about them, please!
Frondly, totally at sea Fern
Yes, the Mubarek government has to go - they have a history of oppression and are the tool of the oligarchy. Yes, some coalition has to take its place that is not totally tied to the oligarchy (but, clearly, has to have the approval of the military).
I'm no policy or urban or economic development wonk, or an economic history buff (either professional or hobbyist). But SOMEONE out there must be!
How do you turn an oligarchy into something that allows for economic opportunity for everyone in the country? What exactly does a government to do promote job development in this case, when just a relatively few families hold all the assets and apparently only hire people they know?
Are they historic examples of this happening? If so, tell me about them, please!
Frondly, totally at sea Fern
Friday, February 4, 2011
Test 1,2,3
Blessings, Darlings - this post is just to see if I've screwed up adding something to the HTML.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Sprouting Beans
Blessings, Darlings!
I got a question on how to sprout mung beans. So here's the answer!
Buy a bag of whole mung beans, still in their green 'skins'. Take about 1/4 cup of them, pick them over (broken ones out, stone out, etc), and soak them for a few hours or overnight. Drain and rinse.
Put them in a sprouter ... or in a big jar and put a piece of cheesecloth over the top. Put the jar on its side in a cabinet or in a paper bag - you don't want a lot of light on the little darlings at this point. Rinse the beans, draining well, two or three times a day.
Depending on how warm your house is, they will take 3 to 7 days to sprout to the point you'll want to use them.
They last well, in a covered container in the fridge, once you 'harvest' them, for up to a week. I've frozen them the rare times I've had too many or when unexpectedly called out of town and that worked just fine.
Frondly, Fern
I got a question on how to sprout mung beans. So here's the answer!
Buy a bag of whole mung beans, still in their green 'skins'. Take about 1/4 cup of them, pick them over (broken ones out, stone out, etc), and soak them for a few hours or overnight. Drain and rinse.
Put them in a sprouter ... or in a big jar and put a piece of cheesecloth over the top. Put the jar on its side in a cabinet or in a paper bag - you don't want a lot of light on the little darlings at this point. Rinse the beans, draining well, two or three times a day.
Depending on how warm your house is, they will take 3 to 7 days to sprout to the point you'll want to use them.
They last well, in a covered container in the fridge, once you 'harvest' them, for up to a week. I've frozen them the rare times I've had too many or when unexpectedly called out of town and that worked just fine.
Frondly, Fern
Cheap menus
Blessings Darlings!
I was asked what my menus are for this funds-free time/cash-flow problem. So, here you go!
Breakfasts are mostly hot cereal - oatmeal with dry milk, dry fruit, nuts or grits or cornmeal mush.
Lunches are soups, often with open face grilled cheese, and with an apple or orange. I make a gallon or so of soup once or twice a week. Currently we are having split pea soup.
The dinner menu is where the variability is. Now, while we are currently working on a $40 a week budget for 3 adults and two cats, before we were on an $80 per week budget. That allowed me to fill the freezer and pantry, and is allowing us to eat a larger variety of foods now. I'm only buying meat for one meal in the next 3 weeks, altho' I am buying eggs and cheese.
So, our dinners for the first 3 weeks of 'middle class survival' eating are:
Shrimp Yaki Soba, using cabbage, carrots, and home-sprouted bean sprouts.
Sausages (in hot dog buns), potatoes, cole slaw.
Stew with beef (beef is leftovers from a previous dinner.)
Eggs - veggie omelets for Chubby Hubby and I, sandwich for Spawn; and fruit and home made rolls. We'll do this once a week.
Pork Fried Rice, featuring more home sprouted bean sprouts.
Fried Chicken - we will have this 3 times - I made a lot and froze it because chicken was on a GREAT sale; home-canned corn, veggies
Pasta Carbonera, salad, veggies
Superbowl Sunday - okay, I'm buying a pound of deli meat/cheese and one tomato and making subs. But I'll make the bread and cole slaw myself. And pop corn, not chips.
Corned beef - I've a corned beef brisket in the freezer. This will be at least two meals, maybe 3.
Chicken or pork stir fry - more cabbage/carrots/bean sprouts in use, rice. Once a week.
Pasta with meat sauce, salad, veggies. Some pasta once or twice a week.
Home-made steak and cheese, because we have thin sliced raw beef in the freezer and I can make rolls. More cole slaw with this, and potatoes.
Tacos - filling half beef and half black bean. Taco bell has nothing on me. I can make tacos where the filling is only 38% beef myself!
Spanish rice.
Pulled pork (we smoked a pork shoulder that was at a GREAT price recently)
Veggie Flautas
Mackerel/salmon patties/crouquettes
Pancakes
Waffles
Remember
I can do this because I have a fairly full pantry. I've not even worked the canned ham or tuna into rotation, mostly because I think the guys will be using them for half sandwiches at lunch when we don't have cheese. Or we could use them at dinners with soups, an have peanut butter at lunch. We have options.
I was asked what my menus are for this funds-free time/cash-flow problem. So, here you go!
Breakfasts are mostly hot cereal - oatmeal with dry milk, dry fruit, nuts or grits or cornmeal mush.
Lunches are soups, often with open face grilled cheese, and with an apple or orange. I make a gallon or so of soup once or twice a week. Currently we are having split pea soup.
The dinner menu is where the variability is. Now, while we are currently working on a $40 a week budget for 3 adults and two cats, before we were on an $80 per week budget. That allowed me to fill the freezer and pantry, and is allowing us to eat a larger variety of foods now. I'm only buying meat for one meal in the next 3 weeks, altho' I am buying eggs and cheese.
So, our dinners for the first 3 weeks of 'middle class survival' eating are:
Shrimp Yaki Soba, using cabbage, carrots, and home-sprouted bean sprouts.
Sausages (in hot dog buns), potatoes, cole slaw.
Stew with beef (beef is leftovers from a previous dinner.)
Eggs - veggie omelets for Chubby Hubby and I, sandwich for Spawn; and fruit and home made rolls. We'll do this once a week.
Pork Fried Rice, featuring more home sprouted bean sprouts.
Fried Chicken - we will have this 3 times - I made a lot and froze it because chicken was on a GREAT sale; home-canned corn, veggies
Pasta Carbonera, salad, veggies
Superbowl Sunday - okay, I'm buying a pound of deli meat/cheese and one tomato and making subs. But I'll make the bread and cole slaw myself. And pop corn, not chips.
Corned beef - I've a corned beef brisket in the freezer. This will be at least two meals, maybe 3.
Chicken or pork stir fry - more cabbage/carrots/bean sprouts in use, rice. Once a week.
Pasta with meat sauce, salad, veggies. Some pasta once or twice a week.
Home-made steak and cheese, because we have thin sliced raw beef in the freezer and I can make rolls. More cole slaw with this, and potatoes.
Tacos - filling half beef and half black bean. Taco bell has nothing on me. I can make tacos where the filling is only 38% beef myself!
Spanish rice.
Pulled pork (we smoked a pork shoulder that was at a GREAT price recently)
Veggie Flautas
Mackerel/salmon patties/crouquettes
Pancakes
Waffles
Remember
I can do this because I have a fairly full pantry. I've not even worked the canned ham or tuna into rotation, mostly because I think the guys will be using them for half sandwiches at lunch when we don't have cheese. Or we could use them at dinners with soups, an have peanut butter at lunch. We have options.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
More Cheap Eats
Blessings, Darlings!
Since we're still digging out from moving expenses (not only was moving more costly than we had figured, but when you're self-employed all that time spent packing, loading, unloading, unpacking you don't earn a penny!) my choice for February is to either have a working cell phone or food. And my cell phone isn't that expensive... so it's going to be a very low food budget month. Like $200 for the month.
So last Friday I did shopping that will get us thru' 2 - 4 weeks, with some fresh food added at times. I bought 15 pounds of white flour (I grind my own whole wheat flour already, but husband and son aren't yet hungry enough to eat 100% whole wheat everything), two dozen eggs, two gallons of milk, lots of sale priced apples and oranges, two pounds of carrots, a bunch of celery, three pounds of frozen green veggies, cat litter, and a few other things. I do wish I could have afforded more veggies and a few cans of cream of mushroom soup, but I just didn't have the money.
I figure we can get thru' February spending maybe $40 a week on food and such. That would be $8 on milk, $15 on produce, $15 on meat, and $5 on 'misc'. "Meat" includes eggs and cheese, for those keeping score at home.
Oatmeal with dried milk and raisins for breakfast. Soup and maybe peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. Lots of cabbage and carrots featured in dinners. I've 2 1/2 weeks of dinners planned, and we'll see what meats may or may not go on sale for meals later in the month. Sunday night we had shrimp yaki soba (the shrimp was a BOGO purchase, and we used bean sprouts and cabbage in it), Monday night we had a little sausage with cole slaw and buns, Tuesday pot roast leftovers became a stew that will double as a lunch later this week, tonight is veggie/cheese omelets and home made rolls......
Of course, as this hits it has also become clear that the bag of mung beans I've been using for sprouts are past their prime - the sprouting ratio has dropped. Instead of getting 3+ cups of sprouts from every 1/4 cup of dry beans I barely got 1 1/2 cups the last time. I've one more bag that's about the same age - we'll see how that goes - but I also have two newer bags I bought this fall. They should still be in good shape.
Since we're still digging out from moving expenses (not only was moving more costly than we had figured, but when you're self-employed all that time spent packing, loading, unloading, unpacking you don't earn a penny!) my choice for February is to either have a working cell phone or food. And my cell phone isn't that expensive... so it's going to be a very low food budget month. Like $200 for the month.
So last Friday I did shopping that will get us thru' 2 - 4 weeks, with some fresh food added at times. I bought 15 pounds of white flour (I grind my own whole wheat flour already, but husband and son aren't yet hungry enough to eat 100% whole wheat everything), two dozen eggs, two gallons of milk, lots of sale priced apples and oranges, two pounds of carrots, a bunch of celery, three pounds of frozen green veggies, cat litter, and a few other things. I do wish I could have afforded more veggies and a few cans of cream of mushroom soup, but I just didn't have the money.
I figure we can get thru' February spending maybe $40 a week on food and such. That would be $8 on milk, $15 on produce, $15 on meat, and $5 on 'misc'. "Meat" includes eggs and cheese, for those keeping score at home.
Oatmeal with dried milk and raisins for breakfast. Soup and maybe peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. Lots of cabbage and carrots featured in dinners. I've 2 1/2 weeks of dinners planned, and we'll see what meats may or may not go on sale for meals later in the month. Sunday night we had shrimp yaki soba (the shrimp was a BOGO purchase, and we used bean sprouts and cabbage in it), Monday night we had a little sausage with cole slaw and buns, Tuesday pot roast leftovers became a stew that will double as a lunch later this week, tonight is veggie/cheese omelets and home made rolls......
Of course, as this hits it has also become clear that the bag of mung beans I've been using for sprouts are past their prime - the sprouting ratio has dropped. Instead of getting 3+ cups of sprouts from every 1/4 cup of dry beans I barely got 1 1/2 cups the last time. I've one more bag that's about the same age - we'll see how that goes - but I also have two newer bags I bought this fall. They should still be in good shape.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Chocolate
Blessings, Darlings!
I've been on a chocolate binge lately. Chocolate frosted yellow cupcakes, hot cocoa, chocolate pudding, moon pies, candy bars, sleazy Hershey's Kisses (TM), you name it - if it has any chocolate in it I've been eating it.
This has happened to innumerable people before, and will continue to happen in the future. No news there.
The only thing new was that I made chocolate pudding from scratch. This was ENTIRELY the fault of @jmfield on Twitter, who tweeted "Cheffirmation: I am never more than 15 minutes away from homemade chocolate pudding. :)". Well! I took that as a challenge.
In fact, it took me 18 minutes - mostly because my husband or son had put my whisk away in .... well .... a place I would NEVER had put it, and it took me FOREVER to find it.
One of the many joys of chocolate pudding is that the ingredients are mostly pantry-stable. I could have used powdered milk instead of fresh (and, while looking at recipes, I saw that the 'instant chocolate pudding' recipe by America's Test Kitchen uses powdered milk), I suppose I could have used baking chocolate instead of cocoa powder and butter (yes, the cocoa powder is shelf-stable, but the butter isn't), the flour and cornstarch and salt and vanilla the recipe called for last forever.
It was fast to make. It was easy. It tasted WONDERFUL.
Everyone to the kitchen, grab that 2 to 3 quart saucepan, set your timer (so you can see how fast this really is), and GO!
I've been on a chocolate binge lately. Chocolate frosted yellow cupcakes, hot cocoa, chocolate pudding, moon pies, candy bars, sleazy Hershey's Kisses (TM), you name it - if it has any chocolate in it I've been eating it.
This has happened to innumerable people before, and will continue to happen in the future. No news there.
The only thing new was that I made chocolate pudding from scratch. This was ENTIRELY the fault of @jmfield on Twitter, who tweeted "Cheffirmation: I am never more than 15 minutes away from homemade chocolate pudding. :)". Well! I took that as a challenge.
In fact, it took me 18 minutes - mostly because my husband or son had put my whisk away in .... well .... a place I would NEVER had put it, and it took me FOREVER to find it.
One of the many joys of chocolate pudding is that the ingredients are mostly pantry-stable. I could have used powdered milk instead of fresh (and, while looking at recipes, I saw that the 'instant chocolate pudding' recipe by America's Test Kitchen uses powdered milk), I suppose I could have used baking chocolate instead of cocoa powder and butter (yes, the cocoa powder is shelf-stable, but the butter isn't), the flour and cornstarch and salt and vanilla the recipe called for last forever.
It was fast to make. It was easy. It tasted WONDERFUL.
Everyone to the kitchen, grab that 2 to 3 quart saucepan, set your timer (so you can see how fast this really is), and GO!
CHOCOLATE PUDDING - served the 3 of us because we showed some restraint
1/2 cup white sugar 2 3/4 cups skim milk
3 tablespoons dutched cocoa 2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup cornstarch 1 1/2 tablespoons amaretto
Into that saucepan you grabbed, add all the dry ingredients. Whisk them a bit to make them as smooth as possible, it helps reduce lumps later. Add the milk. Heat at medium (medium high on my stove, but your stove will vary!) until boiling, stirring constantly. Reduce to a simmer, keep stirring. Soon it will be thickened. Take off the burner, add but butter and amaretto (you may prefer the more traditional vanilla). Try to let it cool long enough that you don't burn your tongue. Can be served warm or cold.
We tasted it before the amaretto was added - it was nice, but 'flat'. Amaretto and butter kicked it up wonderfully.
Frondly, Fern
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