I leave you with my favorite leftover turkey recipe:
Turkey Loaf
Ingredients:
Directions: Mix together and put in a loaf pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until you can put a knife in the center and it comes out clean.
I am loving these $20 lamps made from a recycled can from MariposaAvenue’s Etsy shop.
“All lanterns are made exclusively from recycled tin food cans. I hand cut each one myself so they are each one of a kind.”
What a clever idea for a tin can.
About a year ago, I noticed two things:
1.) I was having to go to the store a lot and spend money on different cleaners. It was starting to add up in my budget.
2.) When I would spray a cleaner on my counter, I would practically reel back gasping from the chemical fumes. Maybe I’m sensitive, but I didn’t like breathing all those unknown poisons.
I decided to try out my own cleaner. Despite my sensitivity to the chemicals in my store-bought cleaners, I didn’t opt for a completely chemical-free cleaner but chose to make one that uses ammonia. While I didn’t like breathing a concoction of unknown chemicals, a little ammonia didn’t bother me, especially considering how watered down it is in the formula. In addition, I wanted a cleaner that had a kick to it–I am sure baking soda/water or vinegar by itself works fine, but I suspected you have to scrub more with them. I am a lazy housekeeper.
After a year of using my homemade cleaner, it’s unlikely I’ll ever go back to buying cleaners. It is incredibly easy to make and costs a fraction of store-bought stuff–it costs only one quarter per bottle! On top of that, it uses fewer chemicals and does a fine job cleaning. I do keep a bottle of the heavy cleanser around for the tough jobs, but use it very rarely.
Here’s my “recipe:”
Homemade Cleaner:
Ingredients:
Directions: Mix together in a bucket until everything is dissolved. Pour into a spray bottle.
This makes two spray bottles worth of cleaner. I poured one in a (used) spray bottle and saved the rest until I’m out.
Cost: Vinegar: $.12; Water: free; Ammonia: $.12; Baking Soda: $.25.
Total Cost: $.50 per two bottles of cleaner, or $.25 per bottle of cleaner
In the Store: 1 bottle of cleaner: $2.99
Total Savings: $2.74
Creature Comforts has show how to make a gift topper using a plastic bag. Talk about frugal gift wrap. Plus, it looks pretty spiffy.
I also like her final point: “Eco-bonus: Try wrapping smaller gifts in the paper from brown grocery bags.”
Hmm, imagine a Christmas where we don’t buy any wrapping paper or bows, just reuse things around the house. Could it be done and still look festive? All signs point to yes.
I want to shy away from granite countertops when I re-do my kitchen next year, so I was excited to learn about recycled glass countertops this weekend. A company called Vetrazzo in Richmond, California is one of several places making these sustainable countertops. I really like this idea, but I think the product is overpriced. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Vetrazzo’s countertops are “glass with a binder of cement, additives, pigments and other recycled materials such as fly ash – a waste by-product of coal burning power plants,” according to their website. As far as I can tell, the countertops are glass that has been stuck in cement and treated to be used in a kitchen. All the glass is recycled:
Our largest source of glass is the neighborhood curbside recycling programs. (See if you can spot last night’s Heineken bottle…) Other glass comes from post-industrial usage, windows, drinking glasses, stemware, automotive glass, stained glass, laboratory glass, reclaimed glass from building demolition, and other unusual sources such as decommissioned traffic light lenses. Because of the unique nature of the glass used in the production process, every Vetrazzo surface has its own history
For example, this is their Colbalt Skyy countertop, made from Skyy Vodka bottles:
I also liked Bistro Green:
“The glass in this mix is from your kitchen… your soda bottles, olive oil containers, pickle jars, wine and water bottles could have been waste. Instead here they are, made into something beautiful: Bistro Green.”
And finally, check out Alehouse Amber, made from beer bottles:
I was excited about this product until I discovered that these countertops cost about $55/square foot. I don’t understand this pricing. A marble countertop means that the stone has to be quarried, shipped, processed, manufactured, and shipped again. The price is all in the shaping of the natural product into something you can use in your kitchen. On top of that, it is a limited resource and in demand by consumers, which further drives up the cost.
But recycled glass countertops? First of all, this is concrete and glass. The glass, I assume, would be easy to come by and cheap, if not free. After all, it’s essentially trash. And everyone knows that concrete is one of the cheapest options for counter tops. So even assuming that there is some high tech equipment involved here, I don’t understand how Vetrazzo gets away with that kind of pricing. They must be making a huge profit on every countertop at that rate, since manufacturing has to be much cheaper than stone. Or am I missing something?
Anyway, when recycled glass countertops are priced the same as upscale stones, my interest in the product wanes. “Going green” only goes so far with me and then you have to also have good pricing and practicality into the mix. But that’s just me. I still think these counter tops are neat and colorful addition to any kitchen. And they definitely tell a story.
Not to brag, but it’s rare for me to throw out food. Very little food goes bad in my house before we eat it. This has not always been the case, however. I used to throw out a lot of food. When I first got married, I discovered that my husband won’t eat leftovers except for some rare foods like pizza or chili, so I had use other methods to keep us from wasting food. Here’s some things that worked for me:
1. Pay attention to how much your family eats–After awhile, I noticed a pattern with my husband. I was consistently throwing out about 1/3 of the food I put on his plate, so I reduced his portion size by 1/3. Now he usually eats everything I give him.
2. Prioritize older food—If an ingredient in the fridge is on the older side of fresh, make a priority to use it first before it goes bad. Make a continual mental list of what’s in your fridge or put a “use it up” list on the outside of the fridge, crossing out food as it gets eaten instead of wasted.
3. Use your freezer–-I regularly toss the remains of a can of something in Tupperware and stick it in the freezer. Then the next time I need that ingredient, I go to the freezer first before opening a new can. For example, I used to have tomato paste go bad before I could get through a can of it. Now I freeze it in between uses and never have tomato paste go bad.
4. Buy multitasking foods-–Buy food that can be used multiple ways. One of the reasons I’m having a hard time using up the box of instant oatmeal is because it has sugar, salt, and chemical flavorings mixed in, which makes it difficult to eat any other way than as instant oatmeal. The bulk rolled oats I usually buy are not only cheaper and better for you, they can be used in any recipe that calls for oats—for example, cookies.
5. Learn how to preserve food—Try out canning or pickling. Learn which vegetables can be frozen raw and which have to be blanched first. Dry something in your oven. It’s all much easier than it seems.
4. New uses old-ish food–-I know dozens of uses for stale bread starting with bread crumbs and ending with bread lasagna. I have recently figured out uses for stale tortilla chips and nonfat milk. And let’s not forget the ultimate frugal food, vegetable broth made from vegetable ends. So turn that bruised-but-good fruit to ice cream or cut up that old apple into apple pancakes. Reducing waste takes creativity and exploration.
The goal here is to use every penny you spend on food. You will know when you accomplished this when, on the rare time something does go bad in your fridge, throwing it out seems like a novelty. You’ll find yourself wondering when the last time you had to throw food out was and you won’t remember. That’s when you know you’re doing something right.
My fall salad greens are ready to eat, so for lunch I made my first salad out of them. I had a fennel bulb and grapefruit in the fridge, two flavors that really compliment each other. The resulting salad was refreshing and satisfying and colorful. Here’s the recipe:
Salad with Grapefruit, Fennel, and Baby Greens
Ingredients:
Directions:
Remove all the pith from the grapefruit and chip into small pieces. Slice up half of the fennel bulb into bite-sized pieces. Mix together with greens, almonds, and mozzarella balls. Toss the salad with a drizzle each of olive oil and vinegar. Mix in a pinch of salt. Enjoy!
Right now, one of my two cats is perched on my knee like a parrot. He’s somewhat traumatized because it’s trash day, which means it’s scary to go outside, and because my husband and I have been locking both cats out of the bedroom at night. It’s the cat hair–I have been restricting where they can go because they shed and I’m sick of hair on everything I own.
As I slowly kick them off of one piece of furniture after another, it’s becoming necessary to consider what they can sleep on. After all, they live here too. Luckily, attractive cat furniture is coming onto the market for the first time ever, as far as I know. I’m considering buying some but a. it’s extremely expensive and b. who knows if the cats will take to it? Still here’s a few I like:
Cat Interiors offers an array of attractive cat beds that I actually would put in my living room. Problem is, they are expensive. $576 Euros for this number above. I am cheap about my cats–I made them a scratching post out of free carpet remnants and scrap wood instead of buying one–so this kind of money it out of the question.
However, I gotta say, how hard can something like the following be to make?
Not all cat beds are this expensive. I like this $155 Pod Bed, but not enough to have in my living room. Still, I might put it in a corner somewhere:
But my cats are very social and would never go off in a corner to sleep, so buying that would be a waste. Along other lines, there’s the cat cave. There’s several versions of this on the market. It’s basically a cube or an ottoman with a hole inside for the cats to sleep. I liked this one that is designed to look like an old speaker:
This was sold at Scandinavian Details for $650. I’m not sure if it is still available. Again, I wouldn’t spend $650 on my cats, but this had me imagining getting an old speaker from a thrift store and converting it somehow.
Then there’s this ottoman from Cat Livin’:
Not bad, but $250 and doesn’t fit in with my decor.
Check out more cat furniture on this blog, Modern Cat.
If I found a piece of furniture that accommodated both cats, was attractive, and under $200, I would buy it. (I would probably make the $200 back in supplies and saved time from cleaning up their hair in no time.) Since that doesn’t seem to exist yet, I may have to make something.
Thanksgiving is a week away already … ? Wow. Ok, I guess I’m going to have to go shopping and get things together. One thing should work in my favor–the wall of our dining room is orange because of some unfortunate 1970s wallpaper that we have yet to remove. Thanksgiving is the one holiday that works with the wallpaper, so that’s a plus.
I usually let my mother do the table decorations, but this year I want to go with something a little different. Here’s a few table settings I thought were nice:
Domino Magazine suggests using
pheasant feathers as a centerpiece. Dramatic!
I found this on postscript love’s flickr site and was impressed with her use of the tiny pumpkins. Simple and effective (plus it leaves room for the food).
Martha Stewart has a whole slideshow of Thanksgiving table settings, including this elegant set up.
Also on Martha Stewart, this little pumpkin centerpiece. I don’t like the flowers that are being used here, but I love the idea–a pumpkin being used for a vase.
Personally, I think I might go with the pumpkin vase filled with chrysanthemums. Or maybe I’ll get some bare Manzanita branches and put them in a vase, sort of along the lines of the pheasant feathers. Either way, along with the unfortunate orange wall, the room should look pretty Thanksgiving-ish when I’m done.
Mr. Peacock decoupaged his ceiling and it looks pretty cool! He made black and white xerox copies from a book, cut them out, glued them to the ceiling, and then did a wash of decoupage to seal it. Says Mr. Peacock:
People ooh and ahh when they step into our home for the first time and notice the glorious “birds and bees” on the ceiling. It also adds some depth to the ceiling and makes the space feel taller.
Apparently, if you get tired of it, the decoupage is easy to remove. You just wet them with a towel and scrape them off. I think this is a great idea, especially if you live somewhere with high ceilings.
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