Month: March 2018

My Pantry: A Black Hole of a Mess

There comes a season for all things and Spring has somehow been named the season to clean. Too bad for Spring. Instead of fun, its claim to fame is work.Overloaded pantry

Well, in keeping with the spirit of Spring, I decided it was long past time to tackle the chaos in my pantry. As you can see from this photo, I’ve managed to ignore this chore for too many Springs. No longer. This year is it.

First thing was to take a trip to the dollar store. There is always an interesting array of baskets and bins that are ideal for organizing untamed stuff. I picked up a dozen assorted items in a lovely lime green and brought them home with pride in accomplishing this much. Secretly, I hoped the elves would come at night and finish the job. They didn’t.

Armed with my new bins and baskets, I faced the pantry and froze. Where do I start? I just didn’t know. There was just too much stuff. I needed an answer for the miscellaneous small items that jammed the shelves, most of which were spices and seasonings. My spice and seasoning organizer was already full and the overflow had no where to go.

The next thing I did was hit the Internet for an over-the-door shelf unit to store those small items. Once that came, I could revisit the pantry. I took out all the loose, small items that were cluttering the shelves and put them on the door unit. Eureka! I Created space. From there, I could move forward.

The next items I addressed were the canned goods. They were sorted into usable categories and stacked into bins. More space freed. Baking supplies were the next to succumb. A basket corralled powders and extracts nicely. Dry beans found a home. Pasta had a place. Things were really coming together.

As things were sorted, I found things that had been pushed to the back and lost for some time. Four packages of dried chilies surfaced from the depths. Only one was opened. Apparently, I couldn’t find them so I bought more. Not a very frugal thing to do.Dried Chili Peppers

I took some of those chilies and made some great enchilada sauce with them. I adapted a recipe from A Dish of Daily Life.

Enchilada Sauce


2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons flour
4 dried Ancho chilies
2 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt to taste

Chop the dried chilies into small pieces. (The food processor works well for this.) Set aside
Heat oil in a medium saucepan. Add carrots, onions, and garlic. Saute until soft. Stir in flour.
Add water slowly, stirring until well mixed. Add the chilies, oregano and cumin. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Allow to cool. Puree the sauce in the food processor, a blender, or with an immersion blender until smooth. Season with salt.
May be frozen.

Pantry

My pantry isn’t completely finished but it is so much more workable now. I can find things and I’m working on using things I have on hand to further reduce the clutter. I’m feeling pretty proud of myself. I faced this challenge with only a little fear.

It’s Time to Spring Forward

bluebonnet

It’s that time of year again. It’s time to get an extra hour of sleep and change all of your clocks. This Sunday is the start of Daylight Saving Time 2018. Oh, boy! (Yes, that is sarcasm)

The idea can be traced back to Benjamin Franklin. While he was in Paris he enjoyed playing chess until the wee hours and then he would sleep late. He found that the sun streamed into his bedroom window and woke him much earlier than he liked. In a published letter, he suggested moving the clocks forward so that the effect of the sun was minimized . Some of his generation thought this a fine idea and implemented the practice not realizing not realizing that Franklin was writing in jest.

I lived in Arizona for many years. That state is one of the few places in the US that doesn’t participate in the bi-yearly time manipulation that the rest of us have to endure. I miss that.

We don’t have many clocks anymore that require manual setting though my husband has to get the instruction guide for his watch every time. The car is the biggest challenge and is often left alone. The time is right for half the year.Please Drive Slowly

Modern Daylight Saving Time was conceived as a way to better utilize natural daylight in the summer months by shifting an hour from morning to evening. The problem with the practice is that there were no standard time zones until the early 20th century. Time was set locally prior to that and each community might have a different time than the town down the road. Trying to accommodate the differences in time wreaked havoc on railroad schedules. The railroads had to establish their own standard time zones and did so in 1883.

This still didn’t solve the problem as many areas continued to set their own time. In 1918, Congress passed the Standard Time Act which brought the entire country into line with established time zones. The law was a way to normalize the country and also to help conserve the fuel needed to generate electricity. The savings were needed for the war and was set to begin March 31, 1918.

Daylight Savings Time proved to be unpopular and Congress repealed the law in 1919. Local control over time was re-established.
During WWII, President Roosevelt called for year-round Daylight Saving Time, which was called ‘War Time,’ and it lasted from 1942 t0 1945. Localities took control of time again after the expiration.

Daylight Savings Time was done again in the 1970s and studies during that decade showed that the practice saved energy. In fact, one study done by the Department of Transportation found that DST trimmed electricity use by 1% each day. That was significant then but, as the use of air conditioning in homes increased, the savings decreased.rollercoaster

The practice of saving daylight went through some changes. Most of the time it was just altering the start and end dates. In 2007, the US started what we have now:

Spring forward on the second Sunday in March

Fall back on the first Sunday in November

The second Sunday in March is upon us.

DIY Stuffing Mix: Not Just for Thanksgiving

DIY Stuffing MixMy favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is the stuffing. Maybe the pumpkin pie, too but mostly the stuffing. The meal is simply incomplete without it. I make a big batch every year and there’s always plenty of leftovers. This is one time I don’t worry about it because not a crumb will go to waste.

Bread stuffing is just too good to only have once a year. There are alternatives to homemade but packaged stuffing mixes are just short of awful, in my never humble opinion. They are loaded with salt and little else. In their defense, they are convenient.

A weeknight dinner doesn’t lend itself to lots of time-consuming cooking in most households. Even in my retirement, when time is not at such a premium, I don’t want to spend a lot of time on dinner. There are simply too many other things to do. That doesn’t mean I don’t want good food. It’s why I love this mix. It takes a couple hours to make but most of that time is waiting for the bread to dry in the oven.

I use the French or Italian bread I find on the clearance racks at the store. It’s usually half the price of a fresh loaf and perfectly good for this mix. Cubing the bread is a little tedious, but worth the effort.

This recipe comes from the book Make-A-Mix by Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward, & Madeline Westover. If you like DIY mixes, it’s worth the effort to find a copy. I have to admit that mixes fascinate me and I’ve written about them before:

Five Frugal Things I’ve Done This Month

The Baking Mix Scoop

The original recipe calls for adding dried onions to the mix. I made them optional in my version because, if I make it for stuffing a chicken or a side dish, I want to add fresh onions to it. If I use it as part of a recipe, then it’s easy to add a bit of dry onion.

Herbed Stuffing Mix


30 slices firm-textured bread, cut in 1/2 inch cubes
2/3 cup cooking oil
3 tablespoons instant minced onion (optional)
3 tablespoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons garlic salt
3/4 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Put bread cubes in two 13×9 baking dishes. Toast the bread in the oven, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven and cool slightly.
Drizzle oil over bread cubes. Add onion (if using), parsley, garlic salt, sage, and pepper. Toss to combine.
Store in an airtight container. Use within 3-4 months.

The following is straight from the Make-A-Mix book. I’m sure you would only need half of this recipe to stuff a chicken.

Supper Stuffing


3/4 cup water or broth
7 cups Herbed Stuffing Mix
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 onion, diced
4 large stalks celery, chopped

In a large bowl, moisten stuffing mix with liquid.
Melt butter in a medium skillet. Saute onion and celery until tender. Combine with stuffing mix and toss lightly.
Mixture can be baked in a lightly buttered casserole for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

What mixes do you like to have in the pantry? Please leave a comment.