The other night, I spent a couple of hours chopping and stirring and ended up with a pot of Boeuf Bourguignon, the famous French beef stew where you braise stewing meat in a red wine sauce. We had the stew with a glass or two of red wine, and it was very satisfying and delicious. I told my husband that I wanted to start cooking more French food since it is always so wonderful and yummy. (And when it comes to something like Beef Bourguignon, you don’t mind eating the leftovers.)

Apparently NPR heard me, because they have a story called “A French Culinary Love Affair” covering several French recipes, including Beef Bourguignon (pictured above). I used a Julia Child recipe, but this one looks like it would get the job done as well. NPR also features recipes for Frisee And Escarole Salad With Lardons, Potato Gratin, and Tarte Tatin.

Beef Bourguignon

Ingredients:

5 Tbs olive oil
3 lbs beef chuck, cut into chunks
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 c cognac
4 carrots
1 large onion, cut into large chunks
4 garlic cloves, smashed
1 bottle red wine
1 c beef stock
1 can tomato paste
2 tsp thyme
1 lbs pearl onions
1/2 lbs mushrooms, halved
1 Tbs brown sugar

Directions:

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in a large ovenproof pan.

Season beef with salt and pepper. Working in batches, add beef to pot in one layer and brown on all sides. Transfer to a bowl. Add cognac to pan and deglaze pan over medium-high heat, scraping up bits. Allow to reduce by half. Pour cognac over beef and set aside.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coarsely chop 2 carrots. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in same pan. Add chopped carrots, onion and garlic. Saute 3 minutes over medium heat. Add beef, wine, stock, tomato paste and thyme. Beef should be covered by the wine and stock. If not, add more stock to cover. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 2 minutes. Cover pan and place in oven. Bake until meat is tender, 2 to 3 hours.

About 30 minutes before beef is done, cut remaining carrots in 1/2-inch-thick slices. Steam or blanch carrots until crisp tender; drain. Saute mushrooms and pearl onions in a skillet with 1 tablespoon olive oil until they turn light golden brown.

When beef is tender, remove from oven. Strain liquid from stew into a saucepan. Boil liquid until sauce is reduced by half and has a sauce consistency, skimming fat from surface. Add sugar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour sauce back over beef. Add carrots, mushrooms and onions to stock. Simmer 15 minutes.

Now, what French dish should I tackle next?

We have decided to get chickens. I have three reasons for wanting to get chickens. They are:

1. Fresh eggs—Obviously, chickens lay eggs.
2. Free manure for the garden—Chicken manure is the richest in nutrients of the animal manures and is a great fertilizer.
3. Bug control—Chickens eat bugs. If they do their job, I should be able to curtail using pesticide.

However, I will not be eating my chicken. My chickens will be pets.

There are tons of varieties of chickens. So far, I’m leaning toward having two chickens, a Rhode Island Red:

(Courtesy Wikipedia)

And a Silver Laced Wyandotte:

(Image Courtesy Fowl Visions)

So, does having chickens save money? I eat a lot of eggs and I love the idea of having a source of protein in my own backyard, but is it worth all the trouble from a financial point of view? Let’s do a cost analysis.

The Cost of Owning Chickens:

Upfront Costs:

Coop: It depends on the coop—they come in all different sizes and price range. But let’s assume we get this one for $550.
Chicks: $10 for two chickens.

Ongoing Costs:

Food: A 50 lbs bag of chicken scratch costs $10. A chicken eats about 2 pound a week if you don’t supplement its diet with table scraps. (And why wouldn’t you do that?) However, assuming no extra food, that’s about one bag of chicken scratch every three months, or four bags a year.

At $10 a bag, that is $40 a year in food. Assuming both chickens live a full 7 years, that’s $280 total for food, $40 a year.

Water, nesting supplies, etc. are free to cheap, so we’ll ignore them for now.

Total Cost Of Owning Chickens (with fancy coop): $550 + $10 + $280 = $840 total for seven years, or $120 a year.

That is, if you buy a coop. If you make a coop, the cost drops significantly. Let’s say you build a coop for $100 in supplies (a nice round number). That’s $100 for the coop, $280 for food, and $10 for the chickens.

Total Cost of Keeping Chickens (with DIY coop): $390 total for seven years or $56 a year.

Now, let’s look at the cost of things if I don’t get chickens:

Eggs: If you buy organic, local, hormone-free eggs at some place like Whole Foods, they cost $4.50 a carton. My husband and I go through about 10 eggs a week, or 43 cartons a year. That is $193.5 a year. Multiply that by seven years, and we’re talking $1354.5 for eggs, $193.5 a year.

(Of course, I don’t really spend $4.50 eggs. We buy local eggs for $3 a carton, or $129 a year. But since the chickens would be producing something akin to the Whole Food eggs, I am comparing apples to apples.)

Manure: Chicken manure is one of the best fertilizers for your garden. It costs $4 for a bag, which seems to weigh about 25 lbs. The University of Georgia College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences estimates that each laying hen produces about 20-30 pounds of litter per year. So let’s say the chickens produce 50 pounds of poop, 25 lbs per chicken. That’s a savings of $8.

That’s $56 total for seven years, or $8 a year.

Pesticide: I use insecticide soap. It doesn’t work very well but I am hesitant to try anything stronger. I buy about two bottles a year, so about $16 for pesticides.

That is $112 total for 7 years, or $16 a year.

Totals Cost Without Chickens: $1522.50 total cost for 7 years, or $217.50 a year

Okay, so now it is time for the cost analysis. I will look at the cost of owning chickens compared to the cost of not owning them.

Total Savings Of Owning Chickens:

With Fancy Coop:

Cost Without Chickens: $1522.50 total for 7 years, or $217.50 a year
MINUS the Cost of Owning Chickens: $840 total for seven years, or $120 a year.
Total Savings: $682.50 or $97.50 a year

With DIY Coop:

Cost Without Chickens: $1522.50 total for 7 years, or $217.50 a year
MINUS the Cost of Owning Chickens: $390 total for seven years or $56 a year.
Total Savings: $1132.50 or $162 a year.

But! There are also insubstantial factors to weigh. For example, if chickens eat as many bugs as I hear they do, then their being in my yard means fewer pests without my having to do anything. This is an organic, chemical-free, and efficient form of pest control. Or–another example–fresh eggs apparently taste better than grocery store eggs, plus they have lower cholesterol and a higher nutritional value. That is another huge benefit of having chickens.

On the other hand, you have to care for chickens by feeding them, cleaning their cages, worrying about their safety, etc. But really I don’t mind, except for the cleaning poop part.

And I can deal with that.

All in all, it looks like you come out on top.

I like these Hive Tumblers by Balance Glassworks. They are designed to look like part of a honey comb. The glasses come in sets of four, so this picture is more like four or five sets in a row. Very cool looking. (Via Poppytalk)

Sassafras Creations on Etsy specializes in making jewelry out of old knitting needles. Some I like include the earrings, for $12:

The Knitting Needle Pendant–a perfect gift for a knitter you know–for $8:

And also these Cuff Bracelets, currently sold out, but maybe they’ll make some more:

This is a great way to use up that spare knitting needle you have lying around… (Via Recycled Crafts)

While I do like the clean, streamlined look in decorating, I seem to prefer houses that combine different styles, display quirky collections, and reflect someone’s personality. I like decoration that is interesting, where everywhere you look there is something to take in.

Samuel Barrett Genthner’s house tour on Apartment Therapy certainly fits this description. He is co-owner of Monument, vintage and antiques shop in San Francisco. Apartment Therapy gushes that “almost every San Francisco house tour seems to mention Monument as a favorite source and inspiration.” And it is indeed a very cool store–I have been in there many times–although expensive (some might say overpriced). Anyway, Genthner’s house is like the best of Monument. For example:

I love these drapes and the gun pillow cases.

Dining room with cool lamps and mustached head on the table.

Brilliant.

Owls! And a close up on the lamps.

Part of the living room. Notice the globes in the corner. Like owls and old phones, globes seems to be getting hot for people to collect. They can be a cheerful collection to have in the corner or on top of a shelf.

Genthner also has some good advice on decorating: “Trust your eye and your instincts. Go with your feelings. If it’s attractive to you, it’ll be attractive to someone else. Try not to follow trends.”

More of the house tour here.

A question that came up on the post on carrying your food and entertainment budget in cash is, how do you determine your food and entertainment budget in the first place? I’m no financial expert, but I can take you through the steps that worked for us:

(Of course, we have an overall budget that encompasses all of our expenses, but food and entertainment is worth talking about by itself because it is a place where a lot of people lose track of their money.)

1. Set Your Goals. Food and entertainment are a lot of things–fun, educational, delicious, exciting, life enhancing–but they don’t tend to be lasting. After you eat food, you don’t have anything to show for it except the memory of the experience. And while that has its good points, spending too much on food and entertainment can become excessive and wasteful. I would like to have things to show for our money besides memories of meals, things like, you know, a retirement account and a paid mortgage.

So the first thing to do is to look at what you are getting in exchange for keeping the food/entertainment budget. That means, looking at the big picture. In our case, we wanted to a. increase our savings account and b. pay off all our debt. Those are our goals, what we would get for tightening down on how much we spend.

2. Define What Food and Entertainment Is. Next, think about what you mean by food and entertainment. For us, it meant either food we eat or amusement that has no lasting value beyond the experience of doing it. So obviously movie tickets, grocery bills, and restaurants fall into that category, but what about buying toilet paper? We buy it at the grocery store but we don’t eat it, so we don’t include it in the budget. What about sporting goods? We use them for entertainment, but they are things that we use again and again (lasting value), so it’s not in the budget. You get the idea.

3. Track Your Spending. Now that you know what expenses the budget would encompass, the next step is to get a sense of what you are actually spending on food and entertainment. This means recording every single purchase you make in the food and entertainment category for at least a month. You can either write every purchase down or you can use a tracking program on your computer or online. I have found Mint.Com to be a useful tool for tracking spending. Some people also track their spending on their cell phones. Be militant and honest with yourself about this. This isn’t about feeling bad, it’s about gathering accurate information so you can do better in the future.

4. Set the Budget. At the end of the month, add up how much you are spending on food and entertainment. Warning: this number may upset you. You may be shocked at how high it is or feel out of control or ashamed. This is normal. Try to ignore the feelings and carry on.

So once you know how much you are spending, it is time to cut that number down to how much you actually should be spending. For us, this had a lot to do with Step 1, our goals. So for example, say that after tracking our spending, we discovered that we were spending $1,000 a month on food and entertainment. That’s $12,000 a year just for eating and having fun. We would then look at that number and decide to spend only $6,000 a year on food and entertainment so that the other $6,000 could go into savings. Therefore, we would divide that $6,000 by 12 months and end up with $500 a month. We then divide that $500 by 4 weeks and end up with $125 a week allowed for food and entertainment. That is the budget.

How do you know if $125 a week is the right number? Well, you really don’t until you try it for a few months. You have to look at your family size, how much everyone eats, how much you cook at home vs. eat out, and a host of other factors based on your situation. It’s about finding a balance between both what you really need (essential groceries) and how much fun you allow yourself (what keeps you from feeling deprived) vs. larger goals like saving money, getting a college education, having a retirement account, paying all the bills, etc. It’s a soft science, so you have to try it out for awhile and see if you are being too hard or too easy on yourself.

5. Stick To Your Budget. This is the difficult part. There’s going to be an adjustment period where you feel deprived or a little sad that you can’t go out as much. However, resist temptation and it will flee from you. After awhile, you will get used to the new amount and start to like the benefits of having a budget. Focus on what you are gaining, not what you are losing. Not only are you gaining your goal in Step 1, you are gaining control over your money and, by extension, peace of mind. And one thing I know for sure about finances: those who control their money are on the path to financial freedom.

So that’s how I do it. Oprah has a good how-to on creating an overall budget if you want more information. And please leave any tips/thoughts you have in the comments.

This is a tree trunk garden house in Hilversum, Netherlands. Designer Piet Hein Eek created it as a study for music-entertainer Hans Libergis. Set on the edge of a forest, the house is carved from a stack of logs.

The house also has sliding windows that are fitted into frames made from plastic and steel. When they shut, the house looks like a wood pile.

Here it is at night.

Jealous.

More images here.

Like the above Corned Beef Pizza, I like trying unusual toppings on my homemade pizzas. One of the best pizzas I have ever made was one with barbecue ribs. It had rib meat, a combination of mozzarella and smoked cheddar, and a mixed marinara and barbecue sauce. It was awesome.

We have also tried pulled pork, arugula, squash, chorizo, chicken, falafel, and lots of other toppings. All have been good. The trick is to think of the whole pizza as complimenting the flavor of the topping. So with the ribs pizza, I didn’t just dump meat on top, I also incorporated cheese and sauce that mirrored the flavor of the ribs. This gives the pizza an overall harmony, and harmony = delicious.

Now, I’m not claiming that chicken or ribs are all that mind-blowing when it comes to unusual pizza toppings, but I’m interested in expanding into new areas. Here are some toppings I’m curious about:

Egg Pizza

I have tried egg on a pizza before and found it unnecessary. However Michael Ruhlman’s egg pizza makes me want to give it a second chance. For one thing, he paired the egg with asparagus and bacon, which sounds darn good. Also the egg I had was practically raw, and he cooks his in the oven for a few minutes, which would make a lot of difference in texture. It gives a whole new meaning to breakfast for dinner.

Chard Pizza

I am going to be growing chard this year, so will probably try it on pizza. In particular, I like the looks of In Praise of Leftovers’ broccoli, chard and chévre pizza, pictured above. Wow.

Pear Pizza

Pear sounds like one of those ingredients that could either be awful or genius as a pizza topping. This recipe from the Rustic Kitchen gives me hope that it is the latter. It is pear pizza with red onions and walnut pesto, which sounds kind of awesome.

Corn Pizza

Here’s a picture from the Biggest Menu of “pizza with fresh corn, balsamic marinated roasted red onions, mozzarella, smoked mozzarella topped with fresh chives.” I’m sold. I know that’s good.

Potato Pizza

The LA Times has a recipe for potato pizza. Sounds like the trick is to slice the potatoes very thin to get them to cook. They put the potatoes with an white sauce, but I’m not a fan of white sauce on pizza, so would probably tweak the flavorings to go with marinara instead.

Really, this can go on and on. There’s no end to the deliciousness of pizza, especially when you make your own, so I’ll stop there.

What unusual pizza toppings have worked for you?

I’m not sure it makes sense to pay $25 for a bank to save for your dream, but I like this bank from Uncommon Goods anyway. It is a bank where you insert a picture of the thing you’re saving for so you have inspiration to keep saving.

I heartily approve of setting money aside for things you want, and cash does add up. Of course, you don’t need to buy a $25 bank to pin up a picture of your inspiration next to your piggy bank. Just sayin’. (Via Rare Bird Finds)

I’m trying a new thing with our food/entertainment budget, and it seems to be working. At the beginning of each week, we withdraw our budget in cash. Then we only spend out of that pile when buying food or entertainment. When the money is gone, we don’t get to spend anymore until next week.

So far, this method is keeping us from going over budget. Even better, since any extra money gets rolled over into the next week, it is encouraging us to save and spend less money. Likewise, when we are done, we have to stop because there’s nothing left.

A few point about carrying our budget in cash:

1. It is keeping us honest. We were surprised to find that we were almost out of money by Thursday. My husband and I thought we were keeping close to our budget, but it turns out that we had been regularly overspending without realizing it. This method showed us that in no uncertain terms, and it was a good thing to learn.

2. We learned what our budget feels like. Now we know how it “feels” to spend the amount of our budget. In the future, I will know approximately how much food/entertainment I can have in a week for that amount of money.

3. I am spending less. When I have $20 left in my wallet and that’s all I get, I am more likely to shop for bargains and weigh every penny before spending it. It is keeping me frugal.

4. It is making me more creative. Instead of spending money, I am more likely to use what I have or to do without. Instead of going out for a bottle of wine when I had a friend over, I improvised cocktails. Instead of going out for breakfast, I made a satisfying one with oatmeal and mulberries. My incentive here is to save as much money as possible so I can have more fun with what’s left.

5. No surprises at the bank. Although we never overdraw our bank account, this way it’s not even a possibility. The money comes out at the beginning of the week and that’s that. No surprise dinners that I forgot about and have to transfer extra money from savings to cover. (A rarity, but it has happened!)

This method only works if you are disciplined about spending cash. But if you are, I suggest trying your budget in cash, if only for a few weeks. It simplifies the matter and forces you to keep to it.