Friday links: 4 March, 2022

 Happy Friday! The end to another week, and for those of us in the northern hemisphere, one week closer to warmer weather! (Can you tell I’m getting excited about pulling my swing out of the garage?)

Not a bad week at all around these parts, just busy. Next week will be busy too, with two doctor appointments (just yearly checkups, nothing major). I did sign up for a volunteer project at my synagogue this week. It’s not until April, but I’m still really looking forward to it! It’s nice to have something on the schedule- besides doctor appointments, that is!

Here’s what I found interesting online this week!

 

At least 5.2 million children have lost a parent or caretaker to Covid-19, study estimates

Ouch. That’s a devastating number. Even if Covid didn’t affect kids as badly health-wise as it does adults (which is an entire myth), this is another consequence of this pandemic that we’re going to be grappling with for generations. Grieving kids, kids thrust into poverty after the death of the sole breadwinner in their family, kids traumatized over seeing their parent or caregiver suffer and worrying about the health of their surviving parent, kids who have to leave behind their home to go live with someone else because their parent passed or can no longer care for them…Covid affects kids in a lot of different ways. Not just health.

 

Twitter thread on the war in Ukraine. *CONTENT WARNING*

Daria’s Twitter thread illustrates the hell that is war. Be warned, though- there are some videos of things like planes zipping low in residential areas, complete with bombings, that are absolutely frightening to watch. Be warned and don’t watch it if it’s going to traumatize you or cause you distress you can’t handle right now. I’m sharing this because I think Ukraine is heavy on our hearts and in our minds right now, and this is their reality. I’m so worried for the Ukrainian people.

 

Use It Up, Wear It Out: Frugality from the Greatest Generation

I love articles about frugality! I’m a pretty frugal person, but every now and then, I need a little inspiration (who doesn’t?). It’s a good kick in the pants to have a reminder of why I do all of this, and of how important it is (these days, important for the environment, but in the past, it was important for the war effort). This article helped get me moving the other day when I didn’t feel like doing much; maybe it’ll inspire you as well!

Along those lines…

 

75 Old Fashioned Living Tips to Save Money Today

A similar article, but hey, the more, the merrier! You can never be too inspired!

And last but not least…

 

You’ll probably need a second Covid booster shot – here’s when experts say it could happen.

Just a heads-up. They’re saying (as they have for a bit) that Covid vaccines will likely end up being annual, like flu shots, and that’s fine by me. I’ve seen articles talking about how they’re working to combine the two into one shot, which would be nice; that way, we could knock them both out of the way at one time, with only one poke and half the needles used! Getting the vaccine annually doesn’t bother me one bit; I get my flu shot every year and have for years, and needles… I grew up with my dad being a Type 1 diabetic. He gives himself multiple injections throughout the day in order to stay alive. No way would I whine about one extra shot every year, knowing what he’s gone through for over forty years now. (He’s a case of adult-onset Type 1. Rare indeed!)

 

That’s it for now! Tomorrow is a high of almost 70 degrees F here, so I’m thinking we’re definitely going to get outside and enjoy it while it lasts! (Possible dusting of snow on Monday, because of course.) Whatever your plans are this weekend, stay safe and enjoy yourselves! Shalom, friends. : )

Combining two recipes to make one tasty dinner!

I'm not a hugely creative cook.

I'm getting better these days, though. When I first started out, I was terrified to make any substitutions. If I didn't follow exactly what the recipe said, my dish was doomed to fail, I was sure, and I would be left dinnerless and sobbing on the kitchen floor, a ruined mess of a defeated cook, never to attempt even the most basic recipe ever again.

Well, something close to that, anyway. I really don't like screwing up.

But over the years, I've learned when I can deviate from a recipe, what goes well together and what I can switch out for something else, fortunately without a lot of epic fails. Books like Kathleen Flinn's The Kitchen Counter Cooking School helped me realize that cooking is an art, and it helped me find my confidence as more of a wing-it home cook. (Truly, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's a delightful read, mixing both cooking information with the wonder of students discovering true cooking for the first time. I absolutely loved every page and was sad when the book ended. Five shiny gold stars for this inspirational book!) I'm still not great at creating recipes entirely from scratch, although I've definitely improved on that front.

So this week, I was throwing together a list of what I could make out of what I had on hand and what I'd be picking up at the grocery store, and one recipe that came to mind was The Prudent Homemaker's Chicken Fried Steak (which isn't steak at all, and we referred to as 'fake'. It's perfect for us, as I'm vegetarian). I'd never made this before, but it's been on my Pinterest for ages, so hey, why not tackle it and see how it turns out? I read through the recipe and paused when I got to the part about cream of mushroom soup.

Now, I'm not a picky eater whatsoever. I love trying new things, provided they fit in my dietary guidelines, but cream of mushroom soup, for me, is a hard no. Hmph. So I pondered over this, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit it took me a few days to come up with a decent substitute. I thought about making a white sauce and adding some sautéed mushrooms and garlic but was worried it wouldn't be thick or hearty enough, and then I thought about the recipe again and realized it probably needed a little more protein to make us feel full. And in the car, on the way from picking my son up from a friend's house, I got it.

White Bean Gravy! YES!!!!!!!

White Bean Gravy has been a family favorite for ages. I usually season it with rosemary, sage, thyme (no parsley, though; my apologies to Simon and Garfunkel), fennel, and pepper, and if I have mushrooms on hand, I'll sautée them and toss them in too. I usually serve it all over chunks of homemade bread, and it's wonderful and carby and comforting and delicious. White Bean Gravy would go perfectly in this, and I even had mushrooms.

I got the White Bean Gravy going first; it's super easy and comes together quickly, and then I got working on the chicken-fried 'fakes.' The mixture was a little wet and I needed to add a few extra handfuls of oatmeal, but they smelled and tasted wonderful once they came out of the frying pan (I had to try a few pieces, right?).

Since salad was on sale at Aldi this week, we had two bags of salad in the fridge, so I chopped up some veggies to toss in, and whipped up a lovely Italian dressing (The Kitchen Counter Cooking School absolutely convinced me that homemade salad dressing is the way to go. I've since stopped buying all bottled dressings. It saves money and as an added bonus, there are no preservatives or food colorings). After I picked my husband up, I threw everything together, and...

Pretty? Absolutely not! I'm about the worst food photographer (and regular photographer) ever to wield a cell phone camera, but it was delicious, it was made with ingredients I had on hand (no last minute trips to the store!), I figured out a solution to make the recipe work for me, and I've added a new recipe to my repertoire. I call that an all-around win!

Are you a genius in the kitchen? Or are you more timid like I used to be, and still am to an extent?

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Produce for nothing, and your kicks for free.

It's rare in life that we get something for nothing.

Two years ago, my son was out mowing the lawn. I was also out in the backyard playing with my daughter, and when the mower stopped, I figured it had run out of gas. But there was a brief pause before my son called, "Mom? Am I supposed to mow over these things?"

 Well then.

I joined him by the side of the compost bin, where he stood staring at the ground, and was shocked to find two cantaloupes tucked away in the unmowed, overgrown grass. Seeds scattered from the composted remains of an on-sale cantaloupe must've made their way outside the compost bin and taken root in the fertile ground there. Since my son wasn't exactly an enthusiastic lawn mower, the melons had grown, undisturbed and unnoticed, for quite some time. They weren't ready to be eaten quite yet, but I answered my son's questions with an resounding, "NO! Holy crap, we're growing compostaloupes!"

We ended up with four surprise compostaloupes, juicy and sweet and kind of amazing for something we didn't plant, didn't water, didn't tend to in any way. As I'm not a huge cantaloupe fan, my husband and children enjoyed them, while I enjoyed that they were nourished by something that appeared out of nowhere. Hurray for free food!

So.

You know where this is going, right?

Two nights ago, I was mowing the lawn. (I've since taken over the job; the last time my son mowed, it set his allergies off in a bad way, and as it turns out, I'm really great at mowing. Our lawn looks fantastic!) It was a pleasant evening, cool and sunny, and I'd been enjoying the task at hand. I had finally begun the home stretch, circling the mower back by the compost pile, when I began reminiscing about those compostaloupes from two years ago. 'Haha,' I thought to myself as I pushed the mower closer to the compost bin. 'Remember those compostaloupes? That was so funny. Wouldn't it be funny if we were growing something agai-'

Well then. Again.

And there we were, yet again. 

Not compostaloupes this year.

Compostomatoes.

Two of them, in fact, and each plant already has several flowers.

I continued to mow, careful not to disturb my new little friends, laughing the whole time. 

It's not often that we get something for nothing. Sometimes, we don't even get something for something; often, hard work goes unnoticed and unappreciated. But on occasion, every once in a while, we get a gift that we didn't have to work for, a tiny reminder of the goodness of life, small and green and perfect.

May your day be full of compostaloupes and compostomatoes. 

Things I Love: The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn

Have you ever had the course of your life completely altered by a book?

This was that book for me.

I was 19 or 20 the first time I read it. I'd always been frugal, saving my money for things that I really wanted and frequenting thrift stores and yard sales, but as an adult, I was surprised to learn that there were whole online communities of people out there like me. Entire online forums devoted to the practice of saving money? Sign. Me. Up. And then someone mentioned The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn. They referred to this book as the bible of frugality, and of course, my penny-pinching brain was intrigued. Off to the library I trotted, and I came home with the hefty book tucked proudly under my arm.

My mind was blown by this book. Here was a woman who knew how to Get Things Done. She cooked from scratch (even when the pantry looked bare), sewed her six children Halloween costumes (out of a surplus of black fabric, so they could be whatever they wanted as long as it was something black), threw a party decorated with what was basically scraps from the trash and recycling bin... The list went on and on and I'd never been so impressed with anything in my life. I wanted to be just like Amy, and I set about incorporating her ways and ideals into my life.

And over the past *coughcoughletsnottalkaboutnumbers* years, I've done my best to live up to those ideals. I cook, bake, craft from cheap or free materials, decorate with what I have on hand and what I can scavenge inexpensively. I use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without, and so much of what I've learned has come from this wonderful book. It has a place of honor with my cookbooks and I pull it out several times a week to reference a recipe or thumb through for a tip on some topic or the other. Usually once every year, I'll sit down and page through the entire thing for frugality inspiration, to get myself back in the mindset of doing it myself.

Several of the recipes (the food processor pizza dough, Create-A-Muffin recipe, Real Tightwads Eat Quiche, Tuna Cheddar Chowder) have become staples around here. I learned to always compare unit pricing thanks to Amy, I got in the habit of creating my kids' Halloween and dress up costumes because of her, and I've used countless tips and hints throughout the book to make my home and daily life run easier. The Complete Tightwad Gazette absolutely made me the homemaker that I am.

This book is frugality inspiration between two covers. Has the book aged over the years? Of course. Some of the articles- healthcare, long distance plans, if you really need the internet at home- aren't exactly relevant these days, but the vast majority of the book has held up surprisingly well. Frugality is a mindset, and while you might not need to sew Halloween costumes out of leftover black fabric or find a use for your baby's old crib, it's still ridiculously inspiring to read about how Amy did those things, and it puts the reader in the mindset of, "What can I use up around here? How can I improve my quality of life using only the things I already own?"

If you've never checked this book out before, RUN, don't walk, to your local library. I suggest that first, but if you're anything like me, you're going to want your own copy (I'm on my THIRD. Yes, THIRD copy of this book. That's how useful it's been to me!). Amy Dacyczyn is a Woman Who Gets It Done, and I'm proud to say that she taught me how to Get It Done, too.

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