About A Picnic Basket - Part III

On our last visit together, a four day Thanksgiving weekend, my grandmother and I talked about a ton of things, which was nothing unusual for us.  We could talk up a storm with little trouble.

One of the things we talked, and laughed about, was the fact that she hated to sew, absolutely hated it.  Along that path we also talked about how she never learned to crochet or knit and hated to embroider, despite her mother's best efforts.  She insisted that gene had leap frogged right over her and been passed on to me, however.

I am not this talented at all.

She even said she was relieved to have boys so she wasn't obligated to teach them any of that stuff, because it wouldn't have happened.

We had quite the discussion about my great-grandmothers many talents.  She sewed beautifully, embroidered, crocheted and knitted.  She could even tat.

In the picnic basket I found quite the collection of doilies and dresser scarves all tightly packed together. 

I shared quite a lot of them with my nieces but I also kept several for myself.  They are so sweet and quite lovely.  I just recently washed and pressed them and I plan to use them in my next home when I decorate.

Adding warmth and a touch of nostalgia will be quite nice, I think.

How sweet are these?!

Also inside the basket were several hankies trimmed in great-grandma's handmade crocheted lace.  Love these!

I wish they still made hankies like this.

Love the pretty edges on this one.  So dainty.

And a few darling printed ones I added to the basket when I cleaned out my grandmothers bureau drawers.  I remember her using these and thinking they were so pretty.  Now they are rather warn, but still quite lovely.

A darling crocheted pin cushion was tucked inside too.  It is a larger one for sticking hat pins into.  I don't think it was ever used.  Super, super cute!  I can envision it sitting on top of a dresser in the guest room.

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday morning I stuffed, and I mean literally stuffed, a huge pork roast into my slow cooker and let it cook all day long.  I had paid 88¢ a pound for several nice sized roasts awhile back and I believe that is our last one.  L  I took half of the roast and shredded it with a fork before adding BBQ sauce to it.  I pulled the whole wheat rolls out of the freezer that I had made the week prior and we used those to make pulled pork sliders for supper.

I took the remaining half of the roast and put it up in the freezer to use for a meal later down the line.  Perhaps some verde burritos.  That might be nice.  I also took the resulting broth, allowed it to chill, scraped off the layer of fat that had formed and put it up in the freezer.  I plan to add it to soup or beans.

I baked two loaves of Friendship Bread.  They turned out nicely and were absolutely delicious.  We enjoyed some sliced with tea and finger sandwiches on Sunday afternoon.  A little tea party with my girls.  They also enjoyed slices for breakfast throughout the week.

As time allowed I worked on a couple embroidery projects.

Thursday we made our way to the library to return the books we had read and check out a new supply.  On the way home we stopped at Albertsons to pick up some items on sale.

Baking supplies are already on sale super cheap.  This year I don't plan to do a lot of baking, but some and the baking box has really dwindled over the year.  Two 4# bags of sugar (bringing my total for the month, and year for that matter, to 3 bags) $1.69 each, two 2# bags of powdered sugar for 99¢ each, two bags of baking chips $1.99 each, and 4 pounds of margarine for 75¢ each.  I do use margarine often, instead of butter (on sale for $2.49 each), when I bake, especially at the holidays, because it is thriftier.  Unless I'm making shortbread.  You have to use butter in shortbread.

Friday evening I introduced the girls to That 70s Show.  I love that show.  I warned them ahead of time it was the era I grew up in.  They laughed, a lot.  Especially at the clothes.

I washed out a couple gallon size Ziploc bags to reuse.

I worked a little bit of overtime.

How was your thrifty week?

Only Three More Months Until Christmas

Time is ticking away rapidly.  School has begun, summer is over and it is officially Fall now.  Halloween décor, costumes and candy are front and center at the stores these days.  Soon to be replaced by Christmas with poor Thanksgiving as a side note.  As of Sunday we'll have only three months left until Christmas!  Holy moly!

So far I've managed to get the Christmas cards ready to send out.  Once I get our annual letter completed I'll print it out and tuck one inside each card before I seal them.  I found that I still had a lot of stamps leftover from last year, but I still need three so I will plan to stop by the post office the end of October or first part of November when the Christmas stamps are available and pick up a new book.  That should give me plenty to use next year as well.

I've made some gifts in the past month and even acquired a couple for free.  Yay.  I wish I could show them to you, but certain people read my blog and it would give away the surprise.  We certainly can't have that.  I've also used some gift wrap and supplies I already had to wrap up a few items I have done so far, so I'm even a little ahead of the game there too.  Yaay.

Since one of the gifts I am making is a big sewing project I was super thrilled when JoAnn's Fabric and Crafts sent me a load of coupons in the mail as well as to my inbox.  It will really help to save me a small fortune when I go in to get everything I need.

I made a trip to the liquor store to grab a bottle of brandy (for sipping and recipes) and a bottle of spiced rum (hot buttered rum).  I plan to buy two bottles each month (September, October & November) to restock the cabinet.  It has been very empty for a long time.  I have a couple cocktail type parties planned throughout the holidays this year, one of which will be centered around some blueberry martinis.

I see a hot buttered rum in my future

Along with making a list for the fabric store and clipping coupons I've put some items in my Amazon cart so they will be ready to order here soon.  Just have to wait for payday.  Now I'll have to get busy with a little holiday meal planning and a list of the goodies we will want to make.

That pretty much sums it up so far.  How are your preparations coming along?

Need A Gift Idea? Well, Who Doesn't Love Pie?

Need a great gift idea?  Check out this old post from 4 years ago.  I'm actually thinking of doing this this year.

  Pie!

   Click here

I see these at thrift stores quite a bit

After you check it out tell me what you think.  I'd also love to hear some of your gift giving ideas.

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are delicious and surprisingly easy to make.  They are also extremely thrifty.  Did you know they aren't just for dessert?  It true!

I usually will fill them with whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup on top or with homemade vanilla or chocolate pudding.  A scoop of ice cream is nice too.  But savory options are nice too like a creamy broccoli and chicken combo or even something as simple as some eggs and cheese.

Cream Puffs

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/8 tsp. salt

1 cup flour

4 eggs

In a medium saucepan place water, butter and salt, bring to a boil.  Add flour and stir well until mixture forms a ball.  Continue to cook for one minute.  Remove from heat and allow to cool about 5 minutes

With a and mixer or wooden spoon add one egg and mix until well blended.  Repeat until all four eggs have been added.  Drop dough by spoonfuls onto lightly oiled baking sheet.  Bake in a 400° oven for 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown.

Remove cream puffs to a rack to cool completely.  Split and fill with your favorite fillings.

Whether you make these as a dessert or a main dish I think they are quite elegant and a simple way to make a fancy presentation.

About A Picnic Basket (& Campfire Girls) - Part II

Both of us were Campfire Girls, she in the early to mid 1930s and I was a Bluebird from 1969 to 1972 and a Campfire Girl from 1972 to 1974.  I always loved to look through her handbook.  I found it so quaint and far more interesting than my own.  I would often take on tasks and challenges to complete from her book even though they were old fashioned and often no longer relevant.  I personally found them very relevant.  I wanted to do what she had done.

Her Indian costume was magnificent.  I remember making ours out of brown paper grocery bags and stamping them with potato stamps.  Hers was "real"!  I was so impressed.

And look at all the beads she earned.  You earned beads by completing certain tasks and accomplishing set goals.  I only earned a small handful of beads but she had a bunch.  That would have taken a lot of work to earn that many.

I love her beaded headband and she even had her name beaded too.  That name patch was once sewn to her Campfire Girl uniform.  I love the thunderbird patch, another thing you had to earn.  I had a few patches I had earned as well.  Not sure what ended up happening to mine.  I still have my Bluebird pin though.

I was a top seller of Campfire Girl mints.  I remember cases of the things sitting in our garage and I would troll the neighborhood with my old rusty and somewhat red Radio Flyer wagon full of mints and sell door to door to the entire neighborhood.  I'd hit up the teachers at school and my mom's bowling league too.  No one was safe.

My favorite chapter

When we moved to Idaho the big thing here was Girl Scouts.  I didn't join because I felt it was disloyal.  I didn't want to be a traitor.  How funny is that?

I checked and there is a museum for Campfire Girls memorabilia in Seattle, Washington.  I'm seriously considering sending her Indian costume to them to put on display and perhaps her beads.  The book, for now, will stay with me.

I haven't finished working my way through it yet.

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Oh my gosh!  Another busy week flew by in a flash.

Bread rising

Getting ready for the week ahead

Sunday morning I got my dueling bread machines working to make dough for an Italian loaf and a batch of whole wheat dinner rolls.  Then I made a triple batch of granola and while that was baking I did some food prep for packing lunches.  I prepared sliced bananas in cherry gelatin, filled up the milk containers and made a batch of peanut butter cookies.

Fresh baked peanut butter cookies

I watched a couple Nascar races on Youtube while I worked on various projects around the house.

I repaired a tear in the lining of my oldest daughters faux leather jacket.  I also re-hemmed the pants of her band uniform and then steam pressed them to remove the old creases and reset the hem.

I saved the lid from an empty peanut butter jar to use with my regular mouth canning jars.  I pulled out all the ones I have saved up and used them to cap the 1/4 pint jars I used to for the gelatin.

I made a pint of creamy Italian salad dressing.  After using a rubber spatula to scrape out the last of the mayonnaise I put a splash of milk in the jar and shook the living daylights out of it.  I used the milky mayonnaise in the salad dressing, so no waste.

I printed more embroidery stencils onto scrap paper and then traced the designs onto fabric.  I embroidered quite a bit throughout the week.  I also used scrap paper and scotch tape to make more patterns for another project I've got in the works.  I will be sure to share that with all of you when I am finished.

I taught my youngest how to make a vegetarian lasagna.  We had a lot of fun making all the parts and putting it together.  It was very tasty, a lot like baked ravioli, only better and much less expensive.

Using the cheap dish soap I buy at the dollar store I mixed up some foaming hand soap solution for the dispenser at our kitchen sink.  2 Tbs liquid soap mixed into 2/3 cup warm water.  Easy as pie.

Dinner rolls for the freezer

I did another Fred Meyer store survey and added 50 extra bonus fuel points to my rewards card.

The squirrels were kind enough to leave us three apples on our tree this year and no plums or pears.  Little buggers!  (I usually say worse)  The girls and I enjoyed one of those apples sliced and shared with a couple peanut butter cookies for our dessert one night.  It was delicious, so I can see why they steal them.

Cute! Like new and only $1.95!

On the way home from marching band practice the oldest and I popped into one of our favorite thrift stores.  I've been on the lookout for forever for a teapot and guess what?  I finally found one I liked.  For a whopping $1.95!

$4 well spent!

Very nice condition

I don't think it saw a lot of use

I also happened across another bread machine.  No, not for myself.  Remember my friend that fixed the one I had?  Well ever since they have wanted to get one so I bought this one for them as kind of a thank you for him fixing mine.  Now they both can make homemade bread to their little heart's content.  I got a screaming good deal on it.  Only $3.95!!  Can you believe that?  And it works too!

The ads last week were not all that spectacular so I did not do any grocery shopping.  Yaaaaay!  Lots of money stayed in my pocket.  And we had plenty of good stuff to eat all week long.

I worked a little bit of overtime.

Thursday night we went to my oldest's high school football game.  It was also homecoming.  The highlight, of course, was to watch her band march the halftime show (proud mommy moment).  They won the game too.  It was a lot of fun.

Before the game we had about an hour to kill and I had a couple really good coupons to use at Bath & Body Works.  I picked up a small size hand lotion (Christmas gift) for free and a tube of body cream at 20% OFF.  I use the cream as my face moisturizer and I was almost out.  They also gave me another good coupon to use next month for another free item (probably another Christmas gift).  Love that!

The youngest had a school dance Friday so the oldest and I decided to run our errands and free up the weekend before we needed to return to pick her up.  First off we needed to eat.  We used a coupon I got in the mail for a couple of bacon cheese burgers and an order of fries at Burger King for $4.  It also came with a drink.  I added a side salad and gave my daughter the fries and drank water so our entire meal was less than $6.

A trip to the liquor store for a bottle of brandy and a bottle of spiced rum was on the docket.  With the holidays approaching I have a couple of cocktail parties planned and I want to stock the liquor cabinet a little at a time until then.

Next we headed to the dollar store for a few items and a get well card for a friend of  mine who had double knee replacement surgery last week.  I also picked up a birthday card for another friend.

This guy is kind of a mama's boy

As we were shopping my daughter informed me her school backpack had a huge rip in it and one of the straps broke.  An unexpected expense but, not entirely.  I had noticed her backpack was pretty worn out.  I just didn't think it would rip out like it did.

A lifetime supply of backpacks!

We picked up little sis and headed to Walmart and boy am I glad we did.  I was expecting to spend $20 for a new backpack and as it turned out we hit a clearance sale.  The backpacks were marked down to $1 and $5!  I decided to spend the full $20 on backpacks and now we have enough to see both kids through high school and probably college too.  Two of them are for me to use for day hiking.  They have pockets for my water bottles too and are the same colors as my two favorite football teams - Boise State and the Raiders.

Can you believe this?

How was your thrifty week?