Cleaning out the Freezer to make ... pizza.

I'm still on a mission to make room in my freezer in preparation for the 80 pounds of chicken I've ordered.  (It will be here Tuesday.) 

Tonight, I used a packet of pizza crust from Walmart and a bag of pepperoni minis along with items I had in the freezer and fridge to create a homemade pizza.  Pizza sauce was in two mini containers in the freezer from previous pizzas, two packages of frozen shredded mozzarella cheese (part of one went back in the freezer) and frozen sausage crumbles from dinner last week.  From the fridge, I used some bell peppers that we leftover.

Just five more days until I pick up the chicken.  I'll continue to use some of the freezer items and work towards organizing and consolidating what's there.

Even More Apples!

Wow!

Three more quarts of apple slices in light syrup (that makes 8 total) and three pints of applesauce for the freezer.

Still probably have two dozen apples or more.  Next, I will slice and freeze some to use in either fried apples or apple pies.

Publix has pears on sale again this week and this time, they're only .88 per pound.

What do you do with apples that are beginning to spoil?

I found that I had 4-5 apples that were beginning to spoil - spots, bruises, etc.  My dutch oven was otherwise occupied slowly simmering dinner so I got my next biggest pot - a two quarter - and chopped the best parts of the apples directly into the pot along with about a half a cup of water.  I allowed it to simmer slowly while I continued preparing dinner and only stirred occasionally to cook all the pieces.

After most of the pieces of apple appeared to be softened, I used my potato masher to mash down the pulp to a chunky apple sauce consistency.  I added just a little sugar (maybe 1/8 cup) to offset the tartness of the two granny smiths I used.  I placed the fresh made applesauce into a clean quart jar.  It's sitting on the counter cooling.  This is my first experience making applesauce and it was (pardon the pun) easy as pie.

More Canning - Pickled Pears version 2

I mentioned in a previous post that I had a quart and a half of pickling syrup left over from the first batch of pickles.  I picked up three more pounds of pears this past weekend to see if a greener pear would pickle better.  I think this is it.

I purchased these on Saturday afternoon and pickled them tonight.  They were still quite firm and in some cases, peeling them was more like peeling a firm apple.  Since I only had three pounds and the pickling syrup only needed to come to temperature, it was pretty quick.  I think I could have gotten them all into three pints but I chose to stretch to four for ease of serving.  This resulted in about two pears to two and a half pears per jar.

The resulting pears had much better (firmer) texture when they were packed.  I'm hopeful that these will be firm-ish when eaten.  Funny thing is, I still have almost two cups of syrup left.  I'm tempted to try picking an apple or two.  If I have space in the next canning session, I'll sneak a pint in to see what they're like. 

For now, I have nine pints of pickled pears. 

Menu Monday

Saturday - Chicken Fingers and Mashed Potatoes
Sunday - Hamburger Steak with potatoes and onions
Monday - Taco Salad
Tuesday - Ham and Veggie Fried Rice with Egg Rolls
Wednesday - Chicken and Dumplin's
Thursday - Homemade Pizza and Salad
Friday - TBD

9 days til the chicken arrives.

I have purchased an extra roll of freezer paper and plenty of freezer tape.  I'm going to pick up some freezer bags next weekend.  My plan is to make some broth from the trimmings of the chicken (hoping not to waste one ounce of our chicken purchase).  I'll have a pot simmering and the trimmings will be place directly in the pot along with a few carrots and onions.  I might even throw in a breast or two to cook for dinner.  

Grocery Shopping and Lack of Deals

By design, my grocery shopping this week was light, especially on the deals.  I picked up a few odds and ends to make what I have work for dinners this week along with some ground sirloin and potatoes for Sunday's dinner.  I also picked up some deli meat, cheese and flatbread for lunches.  A few fresh fruits and veggies to finish out the shopping trip including 3 pounds of pears that I will be pickling tomorrow.

DH also asked that I ensure that our stockpile of salt was sufficient.  I knew that I had a couple of extra containers so I picked up five more.  When I got home, I realized that I had 13 boxes of salt.  I hope that's enough for now!

It's hard to fathom but I didn't buy the first buy one, get one free OR use the first coupon.  (Please don't tell the coupon police!)  My OOP was only $58 but I only saved $3.05.  That could be a record!  Hopefully, the sales next week will be things that I can use and the coupons will be back in service.

Product Review - Kitchenaid Apple Corer and Slicer

I purchased this apple corer/slicer from Target to help with the forty pounds of apples I had.  This was the largest diameter model and since it was made by Kitcheaid, I thought it would be the best quality product and would hold up to my use.  Unfortunately, it broke while I was using it on the fourth apple.  The apple got stuck half way and the blades broke out of the plastic frame.  I had to cut it out.  When I did this, the cutting blades came completely apart.  During this "event," the blades came up and cut my hand.  I promptly returned this to the store and got a refund.  I'll stick to the old-fashioned method from here on out.  This was my own personal experience and may not be indicative of the product's overall performance.

Still Canning

I tackled my first batch of canned apples today.  I had hoped to can 6-7 quarts but I ran out of syrup after five quarts.  For the first three quarts, I followed the directions and boiled the apples 5 minutes in the light syrup.  I think this is too long because the apples are much too soft going into the jars.  For the other two jars, I allowed the five minutes to start when the apples were put into the pan.  The syrup wasn't boiling but it was hot and by the time the jars were packed, the texture was more like I would expect.

I didn't use nearly as many apples as I anticipated and I'm sure I have enough for at least another 5 quarts.  I may try to can another four and then freeze a couple of quarts in a sugar pack.  I may make a small batch of applesauce with whatever is left.

I mentioned in my previous post that I had more than a quart of picking syrup left from the pears.  I purchased another three pounds of pears at the store today (they were still on sale) and that will be my next project.  If there is any syrup left after that, I will pickle a few peaches

DH and I visited a survival store today.  I was intrigued with some of the items they are carrying.  They carry canning supplies year round and have the special bucket lids that screw off and the food grade (6 gallon) white buckets.  I may start using some of these if I get large quantities of items that may absorb odors.  For now, some of my larger quantity items (sugar, flour, rice) stays in the original container and gets stored inside a plastic tub.  For now, most of my items are stored for less than one year.
 
The store also carries long term food supplies such as oxygen purged buckets of grains and beans.  They also have #10 cans of food supplies.  I am thinking of ordering a can of powdered eggs, milk and perhaps butter.  These are items that I cannot store long term and require refrigeration.  The powdered form is a much better solution for long term needs.

Busy Evening

I got home a little early this evening since I knew my pears were ripening quickly.  I put up five pints of pickled pears.  I purchased about 8 pounds of pears and turned all but two into the pickled pears shown.

I was very pleased with my new water bath canner (shown in the background).  It made processing quick and easy as compared with trying to do it in a pasta pot!  These will be soft pickled pears but should taste good.  See the cute cinnamon sticks in the pears.

Thursday Tip

When cooking Italian Sausage, it's always a challenge to ensure that the sausage is done in the middle without overcooking on the outside.  To fix this problem and have tender sausages, I first take the casing off the sausages and brown all sides on a medium-high heat.  Once they are browned, add about 1/3 cup of water and cover.  Allow to simmer until the water is absorbed.  A thick dark brown color appears on the bottom side of the sausages.  Turn the sausage and repeat.  Both sides will be browned and steamed done without burning.

Usually, I will slice the sausages into coins and serve with sauteed peppers and onions over pasta with tomato sauce.  Give it a try.

Grocery Savings

This past weekend I found a couple of good deals at Publix.  The best deal was PF Milano cookies for .85 after sale and coupons.  Krusteaz Pancake Mix and Muffin Mix was only.75 after sale and coupons.  Peter Pan peanut butter, kettle chips, Hunts tomatoes, and Ronzoni pasta were also on sale but had no coupons.  In total, I spent $78 and saved $54. or a savings of 41%!  Not great but some good deals.

Unfortunately, in looking at the preview for next week, things don't look quite as promising.  That may be a good thing since I need to focus on getting more stuff out of the freezer.  I can likely save enough money to pay for my chicken purchase.

Menu Monday

This week is all about utilizing items in the freezer:

Monday - Stuffed Potatoes
Tuesday - Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice (freezer s&s chicken)
Wednesday - Spaghetti with Sausages and Peppers (freezer sausages)
Thursday - Taco Salad (freezer taco meat)
Friday - Hawaiian Pizza (freezer canadian bacon)

I will be continuously looking for items in the freezer to use.  Remember, I'll be getting 40 pounds of chicken in only 16 days.  Next week will be a freezer week as well.

One of my tasks next weekend will be a mini organization of my freezer.  I want to ensure that all like items are together (sausages with sausages, chicken with chicken, ice cream with ice cream).  This will allow me to also use the older items first.

Adventures in Apple Picking

Saturday's mild, autumn-like weather was a perfect opportunity to head north to the apple orchards.  We drove a little over an hour north of Atlanta to the town of Ellijay.  (Home of the Ellijay Apple Festival.)  Some of the orchards have their own "festivals" in the weeks leading up to the main event. 

We chose an orchard and went to pick our own apples.  Entrance is $6 per person and that includes all activities except the petting zoo (extra $3).  Included was milking Buttercup, tricycle races, pedal cars, bungie swings, horse drawn and tractor drawn wagon rides, and a bouncie mat.  The festival offers food items and a store with apples, jellies and accessories.

As for the apple picking, you pick a bag size ($5, $9 or $15) and you pick all that will fit into your bag.  We got a minimum of 21 pounds in the $15 bag.  Several varieties were available and plentiful.  The only confusing part to me was keeping track of what variety apple I was picking and then which were which once they were in the bags.  A small wagon or other wheeled device would be helpful if you are unable to carry your bags (they get very heavy).

Tip!

I recently cooked cubed steaks.  I prepare these using a cast iron frying pan with about a half-inch of vegetable oil in the pan.  After the steaks are cooked, what do you do with that oil? Pouring it down the drain risks a clog.  I've poured it in the yard before but sometimes, that's just not practical. 

I found an easy, simple solution.  I take a small section of the newspaper (5-6 full pages/double truck) and fold to fit in the bottom of the pan.  Your pad of paper will be quite thick.  Place a can of vegetables or other heavy object on the paper to weigh it down.  This allows the paper to stay in contact with the oil.  The paper will absorb most of the oil and you can simply put the oil soaked paper into the garbage.  (You can repeat the process if you still need to absorb more oil.  I usually let the paper sit overnight or 24 hours.)

The Chicken is Coming! The Chicken is Coming! (updated AGAIN)

Zaycon Foods will begin accepting orders for boneless, skinless chicken breasts beginning tomorrow for delivery to our area.  $1.69 per pound, cheaper than the rock bottom price at Kroger and much lower than the Publix brand.

I am so excited (really, over chicken) so I must immediately institute freezer week(s) to make room for this new chicken - 40 pounds.  Dinner for Wednesday will remain the same (ground beef for tacos from the freezer) but after that, my goal will be to utilize 1-2 items from the freezer for dinner.

Possible dinner ideas will be the sweet and sour chicken from BJs Wholesale.  This is stored in a box that takes up more space than necessary.  Also, I have a couple of packets of frozen broccoli and a new recipe for Broccoli Cheese soup.  I think there's a pumpkin pie in there - DH will really like that!

(Updated 9/14/11:  I ordered my chicken this evening and it will be delivered the first week in October.  I can't wait to see what 40 pounds of chicken looks like.  I've estimated that we'll have about 60-80 chicken breasts depending on the size.)  

(Updated 9/22/11:  I got an email last night announcing that the chicken prices had decreased to $1.49 a pound.  DD emailed me and suggested that we should get a second box.  I just placed the order for another 40 pounds of chicken.  Also, according to some blog posts I have read, the chicken breasts they have received were quite large and we may only see 40 breasts per box.  I think that if they are nearly a pound a piece, we can probably divide each one in half for two portions.)

Taking advantage of Discriminatory Pricing

When I was first introduced to discriminatory pricing, I had a hard time understanding why a business would do such a thing.  After I better understood why a business would find this pricing methodology beneficial, I started to question how I could make this work to my benefit.

Initially, the best example of discriminatory pricing is the concept of matinee pricing at the movie theater.  To make this example work for me, DH and I would frequently take in a matinee instead of an evening movie.  Sale prices are also discriminatory pricing.  Again, to make this work for me, I try to buy as many of my groceries at sale price instead of the regular (often overpriced) price. Taking this example just a little further, when I utilize coupons or rebates, I am able to save even more.

Sometimes, it's a matter of timing.  DH and I will be re-vitalizing our planting beds this fall.  While we're not planning on tackling this next weekend, we took advantage of a sale at Lowe's and purchased 8 bags of mulch to hold until we need it.  Again, instead of paying regular price we paid the discounted price.

DH also found a used freezer for DD and DSIL.  She had expressed an interest in getting a small freezer and when the opportunity popped up, we quickly took advantage of it.  For $40 less than the retail price, the freezer we found was a name brand and less than two years old.

This is basically my whole philosophy or grocery purchasing.  I buy when the products are at rock bottom pricing trying to limit full price purchases to perishables or time-sensitive necessities.  (Sometimes it just can't be helped but by making it an exception, you will drive your costs down overall.)

The week without a dinner plan....

I'm not sure exactly what happened this weekend or why the stars aligned in such a way that I wasn't even interested in going to the grocery store.  It could be that last week was just so good and this week, by comparison, is a dud. 

We went to Walmart Friday night (we usually do) and I picked up just a couple of food items including some breakfast bars (they have the best price and I've found no coupons for these yet).  Saturday, we stopped by BJs Wholesale Club.  We got some cinnamon coffeecake muffins, chips and guac along with a big 10 pound bag of baking potatoes. 

I'm thinking that I may just stop by Publix after work tomorrow and pick up a few essential items (milk, bread, etc.) along with the Bugles if they're back in stock.  There weren't too many deals I was interested in this week.

I'm also working on a strategy to empty some of my freezer items in preparation for a delivery from Zaycon Foods.  They sell boneless, skinless chicken breasts for less than the extra special Kroger price of $1.99 per pound.  They are, however, only sold in 40 pound boxes.  I may need some help with portioning and wrapping when it comes.  They will have a delivery sometime in October.

Here's my first pass on what's for dinner:
Sunday - cube steak and baked potatoes (freezer and on hand)
Monday - Ham Steak and Mac and Cheese (on hand)
Tuesday - BLT and Broccoli Cheese Soup ?
Wednesday - Tacos with Cheese Dip and Queso
Thursday - undetermined at this time
Friday - undetermined

New Toy/Tool

I've been wanting one of these for a while.  I was able to water bath some pints using my pasta pot but I knew that if I ever wanted to can a quart jar, I would need a real canning pot.  I considered looking at garage sales and thrift stores but I've had very little luck finding things like this in my area.

I found this little gem at Walmart.  It's not very fancy but it did include a rack AND it's made in the good ole USA.  I've found that it makes an excellent place to store those canning tools (funnel, tongs, and my Ball canning book). I look forward to canning some fruits in the coming weeks. 

Unexpected use for your Dehydrator

So, I did a foolish thing.

I had a small plastic container with some milk in it.  I stuffed it in my coupon bag to bring home this afternoon.  When I pulled my coupons out later this evening, I was horrified to find that my envelope with the coupons I intend to use tomorrow had been the intended victim of a spill.  About half of the coupons had a corner that was damp and beginning to stick to it's neighbor.

I immediately pulled them apart (gently, of course) and tried to keep them from sticking.  As soon as I got home, I separated the coupons and placed them carefully into the dehydrator.  I hope that I can save most of these.  I've got some great coupons for Bugles (got a rain check from last week) and some Johnsonville Sausage coupons.

Project Update.... (Updated 9/10/11)

We started along this journey in the middle of June when we disassembled one whole section of our porch railing.  As I've shared previously, the first section needed to be rebuilt completely with all new balusters.  The second section needed about half of it's balusters replaced.  By the end of July, we had the two sections rebuilt and were on to painting.

Flash forward to today (September 6th).  I have three sections completely primed and painted.  Sections four and five have the top sections primed and painted.  Tropical Storm Leo has slowed my painting progress down significantly.  I was able to get the inside portion of the lower balusters of sections 4 and 5 primed today.  It's drizzling outside so I doubt that I will make any progress on the outside section.

Here's a quick pic of where we are today.  I still have to complete the actual painting of the lower sections of 4 and 5 then move on to the stair section.  After that, we have three more full sections (these will be a challenge with the height of the porch at that end).

Then, we will paint the ceiling and replace the fans.  Depending on when I get all this done, I may proceed to paint the windows.  Eventually, we'd like to replace the windows and the paint color we chose will more closely match a white vinyl window.

Updated 9/10/11:  I have completed sections 4 and 5 and consider myself half-way through this project. 

Menu Monday

Saturday - Chicken Strips and Mashed Potatoes
Sunday - Sliders with Beans and Corn on the Cob
Monday - Ham Steaks, Sweet Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli
Tuesday - Meeting, going out
Wednesday - Italian Chicken, Mashed Potatoes
Thursday - Taco Salad
Friday - TBD

60% Grocery Savings

This was a good week for grocery deals at Publix - at least for me.  Who can complain about .35 spaghetti sauce and .30 chex mix?

Here's the quick run down:  My OOP was $62 (including tax) and I saved $93!  Thanks to DD for sharing a $5 off coupon she received in the mail.

I picked up 6 Chex mix at a net price of .30 each.  These are great snacks for movie night and along with a sandwich for lunch.  I wanted to also get six Bugles but all they had was chocolate flavor. 

I was able to get six Kraft salad dressing utilizing the bogof sale, two target coupons for a free one when you buy two and two manufacturer's coupon for $1 off 2.  My OOP for these six was $5 or .75 each.

All small and mighty detergent (the free kind is my absolute favorite laundry soap and one small bottle will last me about two months) was on sale for $3 each and I found two coupons for $1/1.  Yea, $2 laundry soap or $1 per month.

I got two jars of Mt. Olive pickles for only .40 a jar.  Finishing up my list were BC Cookie mixes at .80 each and Knorr sides for only .50 each.

In addition to these specials, I picked up two packages of ground beef, two packages of hot dogs, some pepper jack cheese, hot dog rolls, Bush beans, fresh tomatoes, yukon potatoes, and Muller's pasta (bogof).

There are NO coupons scheduled to be in tomorrow's (Sunday's) paper.  Happy Shopping!

Figs

Figs were on sale last week and again this week at Publix.  I remember my great grandmother serving me the syrup from fig preserves over her homemade biscuits and I just had to try my hand.  From two one pound containers, I was able to make two and one half pints.  (I had to toss out a couple of really soft ones.)  I followed the directions from the Ball Blue Book and used the water bath method.

This is good to start until we determine who likes it. 

What would you do? Are you ready?

Just tonight, the news highlighted the power outages in the Northeast as a result of the recent Hurricane. Almost a week after the storm, current estimates have the power out for some folks until middle of next week.  They also showed still shots of empty grocery store shelves.

What if you were in this situation?  Do you have adequate food supplies complete with easy to heat and eat items?  Paper plates?  Extra flashlights and batteries? 

Can you keep your cold items cold for several days?  Our first priority would be to consume items in our fridge and kitchen freezer.  After a couple of days, we would have to start consuming items from our big freezer.  (Our plans include purchasing a small generator in the near future.)  As for cooking, we have a gas stove and a propane outdoor grill.  For other needs, we have a small camping stove.

Be sure to include plenty of bottled water in your emergency supplies.  If your local water service looses power, you'll either need to boil water or use the bottled.  Bathtubs full of water will also be helpful for sponge baths, emergency laundry, and flushing.  (We've started collecting clear jugs for water storage.  They've been washed and are kept inside a plastic bag.  If conditions warrant, they can be filled with fresh clean water to supplement our existing supplies.)

Start thinking about your plans now,  it's hurricane season and winter ice storms are just around the corner.