Someday A Goat

Goats right around the corner!

There's a weedy kudzu-filled patch right around the corner from my house, in between an elementary school and church. Well, it used to be full of weeds and kudzu. Thanks to the new sheep, goats and a sweet herd dog, the weeds are way down. The goats and sheep had tons of visitors on the Sunday I stopped by to snap these pictures, and no doubt the schoolchildren adore the new addition.

I checked out the company listed on the signs -- what a fabulous business idea! They're sure to have plenty of business. It's a mobile flock of sheep and goats -- the animals eat well, no chemicals are needed, landowners are happy and this guy should be in business for years. Wonder if they would loan us a goat for our backyard??

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2011 Cookfest One: Apple Butter

On Sunday, I peeled, cored and sectioned 6 pounds of apples by hand. It took much longer than I thought, but I had apple butter on the agenda.

I followed Money Saving Mom's crockpot apple butter recipe, but for the intial apple cook-down, only used 1 tablespoon of vanilla, which was plenty.

 

After about 3 hours of cooking, the apples started to go down in volume.

 

After 7.5 hours of cooking, it was time to add the sugar and spices. I only added 1 cup of turbinado sugar (1/2 cup less than recipe), and the butter was still too sweet with the variety of apples I used (Sweet Tango and Winesap). Left out the cloves, and only added a scant 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Next batch is getting some kosher salt, and perhaps something a little spicy.

Two months until xmas

We have 2 months until Christmas -- 62 days to be exact! Have you started budgeting and planning for the holiday? We set aside our first small amount mid-month (only $20, but you have to start somewhere!). The $200 we have scheduled over the next two months won't cover all the gifts we plan on buying, but it's something. We started late this year, and in prior years, we always used the "extra" October paycheck from my husband's company (he's paid biweekly) to put aside Christmas present money. This year our budget is structured a bit differently, so we'll have to be creative in both present selection and carving some extra Christmas budget from everyday spending.

2011 Cookfest One: Butternut Squash

I kicked off 2011 Cookfest One on Friday night, roasting the butternut squash. I used Once a Month Mom's method -- it worked perfectly fine, although with the convection oven it cooked maybe a little too long. I just mashed with a fork and portioned for storage. I yielded 4 cups and change from a regular-sized butternut squash.

Prepping the squash to cook.

Immediate plans for said squash:

- butternut squash risotto

- butternut cornbread muffins - Publix recipe that I don't see online yet

- harvest pancakes

Husband isn't sure how well he likes butternut squash, so we'll see if it becomes a staple.

Roasted squash.

2011 Cookfest One main post

2011 Cookfest One

Stock pot with chicken and lovely trivet, halfway through filling with water.

Besides a birthday party Saturday night, we had a blissfully unscheduled weekend. The freezer is almost empty and I've felt out of sorts for weeks, but we had a cooking and yard-work filled weekend; now everything is a bit better.

All told, we:

• cleared acorns. It's our second bumper crop year in this house. Removing untold number of acorns is pretty heavy physical labor, done almost entirely by husband. I set some aside to make acorn flour. If I can get them cracked and cooked in the next few days, it's a success.

• roasted butternut squash. I now have some stowed in the freezer for those tasty fall recipes that call for squash.

• made chicken stock. We have stock leftover from summer, but it was time for a new batch, and we also need precooked chicken for easy weeknight dinners. This one is potent. I've made many stocks over the years, and the Le Creuset cast iron trivet has made it so much easier, it was a gift from my in-laws a year or two ago. Any food-safe cast iron trivet should work just the same. I layer vegetables under the meat, and the trivet easily holds both layers down, making it easy to skim the stock while cooking.

• rendered lard. The jar of rendered lard cooling on the counter, I swear it looked as if it were filled with lemonade. Husband is going to post about the project later this week.

• made apple butter. I've been missing apple butter for the better part of a decade, I don't know why I stopped buying it. Well, now I've made it.

• chopped veggie snacks for me to take to work.

My big kitchen focus for fall is baking bread, but first I needed to get a batch of stock out of the way. Now that it's done, this week I'll be prepping dough to cook over the weekend.

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Linkity Link 10.20.2011

A few favorite blog posts from the past few weeks. Links open in new window.

Crockpot Apple Butter Great topping for work breakfast, although I'll likely reduce the sugar. If it's sweet enough after the first cooking session, I might leave out the sugar. I keep meaning to check out Aldi, inexpensive apples might be just the opportunity.

A Dose of Financial Reality Today v. 1970: Affording education and housing, from Trent at The Simple Dollar. I'm lucky that my parents paid for my college education. I know people still paying off loans, and others who aren't going back to school because of the cost. This can't be good for the long-term success of the U.S. over the next few decades.

The Forever Recession Seth Godin perfectly delineates the changes I truly believe are coming to the way we structure employment. There are days I sit in my cube with literally nothing work-related to do, but management still freaks out about internet usage. I'd be happy to take less money and only come to work when I'm needed, freeing up time for other income-producing pursuits.

The Style Guide: "Comfortably Dressy" For too long I've let lack of money be my excuse for not being more thoughtful about my appearance. I can guarantee I have more clothes than Rachel at A Small Notebook, but look nowhere near as polished. Wearing a bit of mascara and powder to work for the past two weeks has been my first step toward looking nicer. Working on my clothes is next. Money Saving Mom also linked to a fantastic scarf tutorial.

A small habit for a big car loan

With the cloud of layoffs looming at my job, I've been hesitant to throw every last penny at the car loan. Our second largest monthly bill after the mortgage, we've paid the balance down by about 22% in the first 11 months of the loan. We have miles to go and can't sprint through a marathon; with an interest rate of 1.9% on the loan, it makes more sense to focus on emergency savings.

If I'm honest, we could cut our spending -- no cable, no trips, no weddings, etc. -- to speed up the measly pace at which we're building an emergency fund and paying off the car. But we're pretty frugal already, and at this stage of our financial lives, living bare bones isn't a necessity. Balance, however, is.

In early March 2011, I found a way to achieve a little balance while making headway on the loan. Biweekly payments are a popular way to reduce mortgages and pay down principal, why couldn't I do the same with the car loan? We allocate certain bills to each paycheck (more on this habit), and the car loan comes from husband's paycheck. Since he's paid biweekly, with half a payment per check, the timing was already perfect, and we have no prepayment penalty clause.

Not only are we saving on interest and shortening the loan term, it's also an emergency backstop of sorts, feeding my need for security. Due to the way payments are allocated, additional or advance payments are applied to the next payment. So by making biweekly payments on a monthly loan for the last 8 months, we're more than a month ahead of schedule and closing in on 2 months of breathing room. Sure, I could direct the bank to apply any extra payment to the principal, which would save even more on total interest paid, but at 1.9%, I like the double whammy of breathing room for job loss and a shorter loan term with less interest than if we made normal payments.

Mac & cheese cups

I never have decent lunches prepared for work, and while my husband has a lunch budget, I don't. He works at a huge corporation: big shared kitchen/fridge, no toaster oven(!), microwave with a line only. Hey, our health insurance is crazy good , so he gets to eat out. I do occasionally, but for the most part I eat at the office. Lunch is frequently cheese and crackers, but I'm trying to improve. More leftovers, more small meals batch-cooked in advance. More carrots, less crackers.

I spotted mac & cheese cups on pinterest and had to make them stat. The pinner linked to The Curvy Carrot, who adapted the recipe from the Deen Brothers. I made a few changes to Curvy Carrot's recipe: subbed panko for the Ritz crackers, used emmenthaler and aged cheddar instead of cheddar and Boursin, and spiced it up with cayenne (instead of flakes), lemon fleur de sel and a skosh of smoked paprika. I also beat the eggs lightly per the Deen Bros. recipe.

 

Emmenthaler (a perfect melting cheese) was on sale, so I risked replacing the creamy Boursin with a half-pound of emmenthaler, and a generous cup of the 3-year aged Cabot cheddar that we adore. Husband thought I might need a bechamel to add creaminess, but it didn't end up gritty. Next go-round though, I'll add some cream cheese that he suggested.

Perhaps because I was generous with the cheese and the noodles, the recipe made way more than the eight servings listed. Using tiny muffin tins would be difficult with the crust and the size of the noodles. Maybe I can find tiny macaroni noodles; it would be pretty cute.

My first bite: delicious. You can see the crust -- panko was a great choice, but I should have crushed the crumbs a little finer, and grated the cheese for the crust smaller. I had a hard time getting the crust thin. The seasoning was great -- my husband had made fleur de sel with lemon per a Thomas Keller recipe from Ad Hoc at Home, and the cayenne and smoked paprika made for a great kick after each bite. Chopped jalepenos would be a nice addition. Bake time is 20-25 minutes, this went about 22 minutes in a convection and it was a bit overdone, especially reheating the next day in the microwave. A scant 20 minutes would have been perfect.

They popped right out of the pans to cool on parchment paper before freezing. The silicone muffin tin is one of the best things ever, it's so versatile for freezing and baking cups of awesomeness. It's Oneida, but I can't find a link to it anywhere, unfortunately. I used a light coat of Pam on the all-metal larger muffin tin. Since I'm primarily making to freeze, I think I'll undercook them a bit next time.

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Goodbye Wells Fargo

Our first joint checking account is now closed -- I feel like that has more significance than a simple financial transaction. Between the debit card fee and the strange $310 daily ATM limit, it was time. Honestly, I've loved one less account. Money is transferred faster, and things are generally simpler. We'll see if ING improves the deposit process soon as promised, and how we deal without brick and mortar locations.

I will say that I think banks are intentionally shedding accounts like ours -- free to the customer with a few restrictions, holding a small average balance with tiny savings account attached. Most of our money is elsewhere; I'm not surprised we're unprofitable for Wells Fargo.

I've stopped clipping coupons

My sales bag, full of unclipped coupon inserts.

I'm still saving big at the grocery store, but I've stopped spending 2 hours every Sunday clipping and sorting , then culling expired coupons. All that work had become more and more of a chore, and with the plethora of great sales/coupon match-up sites, the weekly project basically became unnecessary.

Match-up sites I love: I Heart Publix (she's Atlanta area, which is perfect for me), Coupon Mom, Money Saving Mom (Crystal runs much more than a deal blog these days)

Sales/coupon match-ups can now be drilled down to the regional level, and last month as I stared at a stack of 15+ coupon inserts that needed to be clipped, I realized that I could just stop. Stop clipping, stop sorting, stop spending so much time. I will still have to occasionally cull inserts and booklets that are way past expiration.

I'm still on my kick of changing how I save, and this change has worked beautifully. I might miss a sale here and there if I forget my running list of match-ups since I no longer have clipped coupons organized by category, but the time gained is amazing. I'm not even going to bother with organizing the inserts in a binder. They all just go in a bag that lives in my car, with loosies in the front pocket. I might save one of my three coupon organizers for printables, but those just go in with the loosies for the time being.

Along the same lines, I've started checking coupon previews before I head to the store to buy a double paper each week. Coupon inserts were pretty thin this summer, and a double paper now costs $3.50, so I make sure it's worth the purchase with about 3 minutes on the computer before I head out on Sunday. Yesterday, it wasn't worth it for me, so I have an extra $3.50 in the budget.

In the past 6 months, I've started to realize just how few coupons apply to products we buy. I don't think I'll ever give up on coupons entirely, but it's no longer the only way I save. Weekly sales, menu planning and strategic stockpiling go much further.