BRACING FOR S'MORE

It’s been many years since the Mother’s Little Helpers were pre-teens and teenagers. One of the most challenging experiences being “Old Mother Frugal” was raising teenagers in my frugal world.

It was not only a matter of economics that prevented them all from participating in after-school activities. It was also matter of not being able to be in three places at the same time!

One after-school activity that two of my helpers participated in was that after-school activity known as “going to the orthodontist”.

New food habits had to be formed while eliminating old foods from diets.

One of those food items off the menu were marshmallows. The youngest of Mother’s Little Helpers loved marshmallows as a child. He also loved to prank Old Mother Frugal.

One afternoon after school, little helper was left alone in the kitchen with an after-school snack. Suddenly, an inaudible phrase emitted from his vocal chords. It sounded like….

“Mom, do you think I’m allowed to eat marshmallows”? We were on different levels of the house. Since I wasn’t clear as to what was asked, it was repeated for me, yet again in the most garbled of tones.

“Do you think I’m allowed to eat marshmallows”?

Eating marshmallows? Braces?  Oh, this cannot be happening. Racing into the kitchen expecting to see a mouthful of gooey marshmallow crème affixed to silver braces, what waited for me was my prankster child with a marshmallow-less grin from ear to ear.

Humor can be a very frugal form of entertainment and one that Old Mother Frugal has em-“braced” for many years. To this day, nothing conjures up a smile as quickly as those little square white plumps of sugar and Mother’s Youngest Helper.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Be frugal with calories as well as finances. When making S’mores, break or cut the marshmallow in half to reduce the amount of calories consumed when placing them between the graham crackers. The same principle can be used with the chocolate component. Replace solid chocolate candy bar with a few chocolate chips or drizzle chocolate syrup over the marshmallow. You will not miss the reduced flavors or the calories!

 

SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL

Have you ever peered into your kitchen cabinets and thought “there has to be a better way”?

Sometimes, all that is needed is a better mousetrap.

What began as an exercise to find space for a newly purchased kitchen tool, quickly sent Old Mother Frugal into a downward spiral. Overwhelmed, this began the search for the illusive better mousetrap.

Money for closet and cabinet organizers were not options. This had to be a frugal redesign. Scattered around the house there were shoe boxes, a few baskets, CD racks and Clementine crates. Time to get to work with these hodgepodge containers.

Three piles were created. There was the pile for the recycle bin, the pile for Goodwill and the pile that needed to find a new place in the kitchen cabinet.

Tupperware and plastic containers could have a cabinet all unto themselves. Actually, they did but an afternoon of purging greatly reduced the inventory of containers without lids. Twelve aluminum pie tins went to the recycle bin with them.

Unused items warranted contacting Mother’s Little Helpers. If they had no need for the Crème Brulee torch, it was going onto the Goodwill pile in its new box with all its little ramekins.

In the end, there was room to add a 9” spiralizer to the kitchen tool shelf. Another “Mother’s Little Helper” has come to our home. And although it  does requires food, it doesn’t consume any!

SOUND THE BULGE! Today’s tip: Think outside the box by using a different type of containers as a closet organizer. Shoe boxes and Clementine crates make for sturdy and inexpensive closet organizers to corral those small items on your shelf or in your cabinet.

 

 

 

 

MISERABLE MERINGUE

In yet another tale of a frugal beginner cook, there would be that of a failed baker.

One technique that Old Mother Frugal did acquire growing up was the skill of making a pie crust from scratch.

Many bakers have their favorite tips to a successful pie crust and the continuous learner in me can still acquire a good tip here and there.

The most recent tip that came my way was before filling an unbaked pie crust, place it in the freezer for 20 minutes and the result will be a flakier pie crust! 

Until then, the only tips that had come my way for a successful pie crust were using Crisco from the blue and white can along with ice water when preparing the dough.

You might wonder, why is knowing how to make a pie crust a good frugal skill when there are a variety of frozen pie crusts readily available for purchase in the frozen food section of the grocery store.

Those do cost money and being frugal is all about using what you have on hand. In an emergency, purchased frozen pie crusts will suffice as a vehicle for your recipe. No judging here.

Pie crusts can be used for desserts as well as for dinners. With eggs, milk and leftover cubes of ham and Swiss cheese or broccoli and cheese, a quiche is a wonderful dinner or breakfast.

As a young bride, my problem was not the crust. It was the meringue. Oh, it whipped up nicely and looked amazingly wonderful as it sat atop the lemon pie filling. I placed it in the refrigerator and proudly took it out to display it for my loving, new groom to adore when it was time for dessert.

But much like the facial expression that confronted me when served boiled hamburger, lemon meringue pie was received with the same quizzical expression.

“Aren’t you supposed to bake this”?

Really? Darn. How did I miss that step in the recipe!

Quickly my new groom was realizing he did not marry Julia Child.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Not every two-crust pie recipe needs to be made with two-crusts. If you are looking to cut calories [frugality takes on many roles], make a single-crust pie. For example, generously grease a pie plate and add your pie filling, such as apples. Then, cover the apple mixture with the single-crust and bake. If you like pumpkin pie but not the calories of the crust, generously grease the pie plate before adding your pumpkin pie mixture and bake

                              HAM, BROCCOLI and CHEESE QUICHE

 

GRANDMA'S DISH

One of my favorite things about family gatherings is the food. Now that Old Mother Frugal’s family is growing and adding more cooks, this brings more family recipes to our dinner table.

With family recipes come some great family stories.

I have a personal obsession with Depression-era cooking. I am in constant amazement the depth at which (mostly) mothers went through to place a meal on the kitchen table for their families. As a result, I look at dandelions as something other than a weed in the grass.

It seems every family has a dinner entrée referred to as “Grandma’s Dish”. Most “Grandma’s Dish” recipes came out of need to feed a large family during the Depression.

In Old Mother Frugal’s family, my grandmother’s dish was “Jumbutt”. It was a skillet dish of varying bell peppers, onions, potatoes and hot dogs or some type of sausage. Grandma never measured; she just counted the mouths she needed to feed and chopped accordingly.

For my daughter-in-law, that dish is aptly called “Grandma’s Dish” which is a tomato-based ground beef dish with varying spices.

At my daughter's wedding reception, she incorporated her groom’s grandmother’s favorite dishes and the family’s favorite salad dressing.

Whether it’s from Manhattan, NY or near Manhattan, KS or along the coast of Charleston, SC the legacy that grandmother’s leave to their families are the stories of family. Salute!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: My favorite website for Depression-era cooking is www.greatdepressioncooking.com with the late Clara Cannucciari. She was 98 years old when she passed away yet she share recipes that her mother made when Clara was a child.  These are simple yet inexpensive meals that can be applied to today’s frugal cooking.

                                                                   JUMBUTT

HAMBONE HAMBONE HAVE YOU HEARD?

Growing up on a street of attached homes, the aroma of food began to escape through windows and doors around 5PM on a daily basis. Except for Sunday. Cooking began early in the morning and one would try to guess what was on the stove top or in the oven while walking to church. 

Your nose could lead you to my grandmother’s apt in her building on any given Sunday. Italian sauce was a staple there.

And when dinner was over, she would pack up the leftovers and send them home with my parents which then became dinner for Monday.

Later on in years, my mother would do this for her children, and in turn, Old Mother Frugal does this for her adult children.

That was the genesis of loving leftovers. It goes back three generations. A time when ancestors were cooks during the Great Depression, of standing on long food lines and wasting not a morsel of food.

Old Grandmother Frugal was always quick to say “the closer the bone, the sweeter the meat”.  That was the translation, not sure how that’s stated in Italian.

Bones were a key ingredient in her cooking repertoire. There were pork bones and pigs feet for spaghetti sauce and chicken bones for her soup.

Just when you thought all the meat was scraped from the bone, she’d find more meat or just cook with the bare bone. She vowed there was still flavor to be savored in that bone.

Decades have passed since the Great Depression. It’s already 15 years into a new century. But the ways of our ancestors need not all been left in the past.

One of Mother’s “Grown-Up” Helpers has begun to freeze and keep any unwanted ham bones for Old Mother Frugal.  Typically there is enough ham to be scraped away for a meal of some sort [quiche, omelets, or pasta] and then the bone is used for split pea soup.

One recent ham bone yielded three pots of soup. With each pot, the flavor diminished a little but it still “looked” to have use beyond one pot of soup.

What may appear as one person’s trash is indeed another person’s treasure!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Keep all bones! Don’t be shy…ask the butcher to include the pork bones when he cuts a roast out of a pork loin and all parts of a chicken. If family has no plans for the Easter ham bone, take it home in a doggy bag. In return, bring a sampling of soup to the family for their generosity. Before bones become trash, be sure to convert them to a treasure!

 

                                          CORN BREAD and SPLIT PEA SOUP

 

PRESSURE COOKER SPLIT PEA SOUP

 

REFREEZE BONES FOR ANOTHER POT OF SOUP

 

A LABOR OF LOVE

There is an expression that calls to mind all the times Old Mother Frugal performed a service or prepared a meal that had multiple steps in its preparation. A “labor of love” is work done for interest in the work, rather than for payment.

When growing up, there were stories told by mom of ironing handkerchiefs, pillow cases, sheets and undergarments. Undergarments? That speaks to a “labor of love”!

Ironing shirts. That speaks to a “labor of love”. It’s a service that one can pay for but it’s an expense that can be eliminated in the effort to save money. Yes, Old Mother Frugal irons shirts. It is something to admire when nicely pressed shirts hang neatly aligned from the closet rod.

As a guest in my son’s home recently, he made biscuits and gravy from scratch. From browning the pork for the homemade white country gravy to nearly grating off his fingerprints on the cold, frozen butter for the biscuits…homemade biscuits are a “labor of love”. One can taste the love when they came out of the oven.

Four years ago, while in my local CVS store at Christmas time, an animal waffle iron sat on the shelf. I had Extra Care Bucks from CVS and a valuable coupon to be used on a non-sale item, so the animal waffle iron found its way to my kitchen shelf.

These animal waffles are served plain; with peanut butter or syrupy dip because that is how the little pre-schooler and toddlers in my family like them. Making animal waffles are not only a “labor of love” but a taste of love as well.

So when you are cooking or baking that special something, “love” is that secret yet intangible ingredient to be enjoyed by all!

SOUND THE BUGLE: Today’s tip: Find your favorite waffle recipe, make a stack of waffles and freeze them. They can be plain, made with fruit, pecans, chocolate chips or crispy bacon. Out of taco shells? Try using a waffle as a substitute for your taco shell. Not only do they make a great breakfast but they can also be used at dessert as a waffle sandwich filled with ice cream.

                                                 

 

                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THICK AS A BRICK

Chicken remains one of the least expensive meat proteins that one can prepare on a shoestring budget and still serve an elegant meal. Buying the whole chicken is the most economical use of your grocery dollars.

The price point that Old Mother Frugal targets is less than .99/lb. To find whole chicken at .69/lb or even .53/lb is stockpile time!

If you have concerns that you don’t know what to do with a whole chicken, most butchers will section it for you at no charge. Just remember to ask for all the parts. You will need and want them for soup stock.

However, if the butcher is not available, you can roast the whole chicken or place it in a large pot of boiling water and reduce to low boil for about 45 - 60 minutes. Once cooked, save the liquid stock for soup and remove the meat from the chicken carcass. The cooled chicken meat can then be placed in Ziploc bags and frozen.

Recently I experimented with a cooking technique called “Spatchcocked”. It required removing the breast bone between the two chicken breasts of a whole chicken and frying the chicken flat, under bricks that were covered in aluminum foil.

Marinating the meat in the refrigerator for two days with ingredients from my pantry, the end result was a scrumptious and moist piece of chicken for a price of .53/lb. The pressure of the bricks gave the meat a crispy sear that made for a lovely presentation on the dinner plate.  

All this to say that even Old Mother Frugal, who may be “thick as a brick” on occasion, can still learn a thing or two about cooking and trying something new!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Price points. A “price point” is the amount of money that you are willing to pay for an item. My price point for chicken is the following:

§  whole chicken is .99/lb or less;

§  leg/thigh quarters are between .39 and .49/lb;

§  breasts on the rib cage are .99/lb. I make my own boneless, skinless chicken breasts by removing the skin and the meat from the rib cage.

§  boneless, skinless chicken breasts would be $1.99 or less.

If you are squeamish about touching raw chicken, disposable plastic gloves at the Dollar Tree stores are great barriers between your hands and your chicken. Depending on where you live, your price points may be slightly higher. Find your price points and you will find savings in your wallet!

 

 

                                      SPATCHCOCKED METHOD

 

                                             MARINATED CHICKEN LAYING FLAT
                                              BEFORE GOING INTO PAN

 

 

PRESSURE FROM BRICKS

GIVES A GOOD SEAR TO THE CHICKEN

 

 

READY FOR SERVING