WHEY-ATE A MINUTE

Dairy and egg prices in my area, and maybe yours, have skyrocketed this year. 

Old Mother Frugal often cooks with soft cheeses such as cottage cheese and ricotta. However, an unwillingness to pay the high prices for these products sent me to the internet to find an alternative way to keep costs within my budget.

As a bonus, making my own soft cheese allows for the control of the salt content which is important for my health. Store bought ricotta and surprisingly, cottage cheese contains large amounts of sodium.

I began to notice that some grocery stores mark-down gallons of milk as their “best use by” date draws near.  To contain my costs for ricotta cheese, Old Mother Frugal waits for milk mark-downs and then prepares a cottage cheese/ricotta type of cheese.

My price point for a gallon of milk ranges between $0.99/gal to $1.49/gal. The only other ingredient needed for this product is a cup of vinegar.

Now, if you have a freezer and there is room to store a gallon of milk or two, milk can be frozen and used at a later time. If you come across a good mark-down price on milk, stock-up the freezer.  Defrosted milk can be used for drinking or cooking at a later date.

Once the cheese is made, there is an abundance of liquid remaining in the pot. This is the whey. Before you think about pouring that down the drain….whey-ate a minute! Cooled whey can be frozen into smaller one-cup portions and used in baking where milk or water is an ingredient.

Old Mother Frugal highly recommends going online and finding a recipe for homemade cottage or ricotta cheese. Don’t whey-ate an extra minute! Use homemade ricotta or cottage cheese the same way you would use either of these cheeses in any recipe. My preference is lasagna/ eggplant roll-ups or baked rigatoni.

A gallon of milk will yield 2+ cups of homemade cheese at a fraction of the cost of the store bought variety.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: The “best use by” date on a gallon of milk is not an expiration date. Milk can be frozen; if concerned that the gallon of milk will not be consumed by the “best used by” date, freeze the milk in 1 cup Ziploc bags for recipes at a later date that require milk as an ingredient. Adding 1 tsp of vinegar to the cup of milk will yield buttermilk in 5 minutes.

 

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS

During one of Old Mother Frugal’s excursions to the local Goodwill Store, there were several, nearly-new looking Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners on the showroom floor.

The one that caught my attention was missing the brush attachment.

For the price of $9.97, and in excellent condition, it was hard to walk away from the vacuum cleaner. A quick search online indicated a replacement part would cost about $8.00. If purchased new, this vacuum was a fraction of its original price.

After making sure it was in working order and thoughtful consideration, in short order it was in the back of my car.

I’ve been burned in the past, purchasing a previously owned appliance without all its pieces because replacement parts were either impossible to purchase or very expensive. This time, the unexpected happened before I had the chance to order the replacement part.

Several hundred miles away in another state, while at a recycling bin, I saw what looked to be a vacuum cleaner brush lying on the ground adjacent to the recycling bin. I had to adjust my Granny spectacles to view this spectacle.

The brush attachment needed for the Dirt Devil vacuum was at the tip of my toe! Excited by this discovery, I quickly snatched up my treasure, examined it and brought it home.

A brush of kindness from an unknown stranger and this free, very clean vacuum cleaner brush attachment sits on my Goodwill Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner.

 

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip:  Before I purchase a used appliance, I check its condition [clean, excellent or good]; it must work and it must have all its parts or the part can be purchased at a reasonable price. Some older “vintage” appliances parts have been discontinued making unusable your “new” older appliance.

 

                                   DIRT DEVIL FEATHERLITE BAGLESS VACUUM

 

A LABEL FABLE

Once upon a time….there were two little boys.

When they were young, they could eat Old Mother Frugal out of house and home. It didn’t matter that they started out as picky eaters; they more than made up for it in the pre-teen and teen years.

Batch cooking and freezing has been a principle of cooking for years. When the boys were home, instead of labeling meals with their recipe title, Old Mother Frugal resorted to labels that read: “DO NOT EAT”.

As they grew and moved on to homes of their own, the habit of labeling food as “DO NOT EAT” ceased and recipe titles replaced it.

Then one day, it happened. Dinner was missing.

One of Mother’s Little Helpers came home to visit and helped himself to the contents of the refrigerator. Normally, Old Mother Frugal wouldn’t have cared except he ate dinner… as a snack. Temporary amnesia must have set in as dinner did not have a label.

There is a happy ending to the story.

He didn’t eat ALL the meals in the refrigerator. Batch cooking saved the day!

Upon his next visit home, yellow Post-It notes appeared on the meals in the refrigerator. This time, each container was labeled with its recipe name.

Welcome home, little helper!

 

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: When storing meals in a freezer, if using any glass-type container, defrost the meal in the refrigerator first and do not place it directly into the oven or microwave. You risk shattering the glass container and ruining a perfectly delicious meal. Recycle old newspapers or aluminum foil to wrap the meals to prevent freezer burn, label and store in the freezer.