I did a bit of food rescue tonight. In our effort to eat more organic produce (or just more produce), I sometimes find that I have overbought a bit (or even a lot). Tonight I went through the two produce drawers in the fridge to make sure everything was still edible. The strawberries were starting to look a tad past their prime so I pulled off the stems, cut them up, and put a little organic cane sugar on them. The sugar will act as a preservative and keep them edible for a couple more days. There is less than a cup, though, so I will encourage someone to eat them tomorrow.

I also found half a bunch of celery that was wilted. I cleaned and cut up the remaining stalks, putting the center most ones aside for the chickens. I find those ones flavorless (except the leaves which are great in stock). The other ones I put into a container with water. That will rehydrate them and they will be crispy and crunchy in less than an hour.

I performed the same trick with some limp carrots, peeling and cutting them up into finger length sections, and putting them into water. By morning they will be crisp again.

I had some rather sad looking oranges that have been in the frigde for...well, I don't remember the last time I bought oranges, but I know it was in the winter. I cut them in half. The wooden looking ones I set aside to give to the chickens and the ones that still looked like they were juicy I put on my citrus press and squeezed the juice out, so there is a quart of fresh squeezed orange juice now sitting in my fridge. We will taste it tomorrow and if it isn't quite sweet enough to be drinkable I will freeze it in ice cube trays to add to smoothies. I don't think I'll be buying a case of oranges from Costco again any time soon.

There was a canteloupe half that had gotten put into the drawer, which I figure DH did because no one else would. We (the rest of us) all know that cut melons don't go in the drawer because they can seep juice all over everything else. It was just beyond saving, not moldy but getting that tight look that changes the texture, so it will go to the chickens.

Sadly I found 2 cucumbers and a jalapeno pepper that could not be salvaged in any way, not even to give to the chickens.

On the bright side I didn't throw out any lettuce or meat. I've been staying on top of that much better. I'd like to get my food waste down to about 2%. I think it's at around 5% now.

I found a source of food dyes derived from natural sources, as well as colored sugars also colored from natural sources, things like beet powder and pomegranate. This means that I can once again make colored frosting for birthday cakes and decorate Christmas cookies with sugar sprinkles. This may seem like not much of a big deal for some of you, but we've had nothing but homemade chocolate cocoa frosting or homemade vanilla frosting on our homemade cakes for the last 4 years due to allergies to chemical tar-based food dyes, which is what things are normally colored with in the food industry.

I love the idea of having sprinkles and blue or yellow frosting and not having to worry about my child breaking out into hives. And I can make colored play clay again, which my kids (now 12 and 15) still love to play with. I could also, if I so chose, color a pitcher of homemade lemonade pink because there are some days when you just want pink lemonade. I can make green mashed potatoes on St. Patrick's Day!

It's just nice, when you are confined to making almost everything from scratch to have fun decorating opportunities again. The set was a bit pricy, for three primary color dyes and six colored sugars it was $54 plus shipping, but like all food dyes a little goes a long way and it should last for years. And sometimes it is worthwhile to spend a little bit more for a product that will enhance your life even if just in small ways.

The brand is called India Tree for anyone who might want to try it. I'll do another post about it once I've received it and used it, but I found very, very positive reviews for it.

So DH was going through his check stubs and realized one was missing for a date back in February. And his numbers were not adding up to where they should have been. So I checked with the CU and it turns out a paycheck was never deposited for that date. It was back in February and it was one of the two day paychecks. I was really sick then. That's the only reason I can think of that I didn't notice. Anyway, he's thinking the time sheet might have gotten lost in the shuffle of start up after a month long shut-down.

So he talked to his boss and his boss is going to figure out what happened there and how to submit for the lost time. The long and short of it is that eventually we'll get about $1000 net when they issue the missing paycheck that we weren't expecting. That would be enough to make the deposit on the grass fed beef and have a little left over for the freezer fund.

My check from American Opinion Consumer Panel came today. It was $20.05. It will go into emergency fund.

DH cleaned out his wallet as he flies out today and so I had $10.32 to put into the coin jar.

No money was spent today, but I gave DD $5 to pay for her field trip tomorrow.

Today was a very boring day.

After having made cheeseburgers with bacon for lunch and beef potroast for dinner, trying three of the items we bought from the farm, I am very happy with our purchase of the grass fed, organic beef. The hamburger is so lean (5% fat) it doesn't make enough fat to fry the meat in, though. We ended up just frying it in the bacon fat for our bacon cheeseburgers, which was delcious though it took away from the 5%. The bacon was lean too, but being bacon still had some fat, but I was surprised at the much smaller amount of drippings.

The chuck roast was very moist and tender after cooking in the crockpot on low for 8 hours. It was incredibly flavorful. I am glad they warned us to not have such a free hand with seasoning because half of what I normally put on was all that was needed. In fact DH forgot to put seasoning on the bacon cheeseburgers that he made (they were out when I made mine, so he made his and the kids' when they got back) and he said it didn't even need the seasoning. I thought that might be from the flavor imparted from the bacon, though.

They also told us to take smaller portions than we were used to eating because grass fed, organic beef has more protein in it per ounce and it fills you up faster. So far I have found that to be true. I ended up giving the last few bites to my son because I wanted to have room for my fresh organic strawberries and my organic mixed greens. So even though it may be more expensive to buy it, the fact that you don't have to eat as much of it to get full, might help lower the overall cost a bit.

I am really looking forward to trying the steaks and the sausages over the next couple of days.

I want to get some meat from the other farm in Bow to try. This one was black angus but the other is chiangus a cross between angus and chianina. I know I like angus, and I know chianina is supposed to be wonderful but I've never had it. If they don't sell any steaks to try, I guess I will go with the first place.

So we are back from our trip to Skagit River Ranch. We bought $255 worth of beef, a pack of their bacon, a pack of their mild Italian sausage, and a dozen eggs (since our chickens still aren't laying enough to keep up with five people).

We got to see quite a lot of the animals as we drove in, there was a lot of acreage. It's almost funny to see chickens out in a pasture, it's not the idea of Americana farmer that I have in my head, though it should be.

We were greeted by a rooster, three hens and a dog who looked like he was mostly border collie who'd been rolling around in something as he had leaves and dirt on him. He smelled okay so not something else you might find on a farm! He was very friendly and had a tail that could thump you hard with his happiness.

We went into the little farm store they had that is open only on Saturdays and we got to pick out our meat. Since it was our first time there, the girl running the shop went to get her father, the farmer, and he talked to us all about his farming practices and how he'd started farming the healthy way after he'd had serious health problems.

It was interesting and I learned a lot about sustainable farming, pasture rotation, composting, etc. He is very passionate about it and isn't that what you want in your food producer? Someone who cares about the health of the land and the animals and their vitality?

I can't wait to try the beef tomorrow. We will be making cheeseburgers for lunch and having a pot roast for dinner.

Good a reason as any to blog, isn't it? I have to be up in the morning to let the chickens out at 8, but then I can go back to sleep if I can for a couple more hours. It will be a full day. There is one open house we want to hit up on the hill. It is a rather spacious house at $262,000. No hardwood floors so I imagine it's all the carpeting that makes it so they can't ask for ridiculous pricing. We will hit that house early as we can. The open house starts at ten so we will be there near the start.

After that we will head to Sedro Woolley to Skagit River Ranch. They have a farm store that is open only on Saturdays from 10 to 6. They are a farm that sells grass fed animals. They also sell specific cuts of meat in their farm store and I would like to get some ribeye, t-bone, chuck roasts and hamburger and try them out before making a decision about buying a half a steer later this year. Mom wants to go in on it with us and buy the other half of the steer. Buying a whole cow together would bring the price down a little.

We'll see how it tastes. I am considering this farm and another one that is in Bow. The one in Bow costs less, but it's Chiangus as opposed to just ordinary Black Angus. I know I like Black Angus, but I don't know what difference Chiangus makes in taste, flavor or leanness. I am hoping to visit the other ranch on another day to see if I can buy samples as well.

Then when we get back DH has to set up the computer. The cobbled together mess DS has been using finally stopped working. They were financing 18 months same as cash, so we got an inexpensive desktop only, since our monitor is in perfect condition. DH finally took the back up laptop in to be fixed before the warranty runs out. Hopefully they won't have to wipe it because there are no backup discs for reinstalling windows. I have $200 in the laptop fund, so that money will go towards paying for the new desktop. I was hoping we'd get ahead of the curve on things that were going to go wrong and I'd save up enough before we got to this point, but the thing gave up too soon.

The kids have to have one fuctioning computer between them to write on for their writing assignments and no one wants to give either one of them one of our laptops. They are too hard on things.

It is time for DD to visit the eye doctor and if needed she can get new lenses. Not frames of course, those are every 18 months. She has been complaining about headaches and she thinks her prescription might have changed.

I forsee a very expensive spring/early summer. And sometime before fall I'll need to buy a chest freezer if I am going to get that much meat.

I added $8.67 to the coin jar tonight and $1.57 yesterday.

DH managed to break his tooth because he wouldn't stop eating hard candies. He doesn't suck on them, he chews them which you are really not supposed to do for the sake of your teeth and it's not like he hasn't been warned to knock it off. For years. Not only did he chip the tooth he broke the crown off. So now $1500 worth of work has to be done to fix it and I am very irritated because I was supposed to be next in line to get my teeth fixed and now I have to wait. I have some cracks in two of my six-year molars, just general wear and tear, but they have to be fixed before the cracks get down to the gumline or we'll be talking root canal, etc. And they hurt when I chew anything tougher than chicken, fish, or hamburger. I am trying not to be resentful about this, but I am afraid it is not working. Especially since it means post-poning paying off the last credit card. Which frustrates me even more. Our dental insurance sucks.

In our quest to eat more locally grown, sustainable, and organic foods and still try to not break the grocery budget, I stopped by a local farmstand today. I got all of this:



for $6.09. Pretty food, huh? Except for the kiwis, everything was from my state, most of it from my county or the next county over. I can't even tell you how beautifully the green onions and celery smell. Quite often I shop with my nose, even with foods that most people won't normally think to smell. It's obvious to sniff pineapple and canteloupe, but did you know that you can tell how celery will taste by the smell? If it smells bitter it will taste bitter. If it smells sweet and fragrant and sort of like parsley, then it will taste exactly as it should.

I haven't made the menu plan for the week yet, but I will do that tonight. Yes, I know it's Wednesday. Today we are having leftovers, but I do need to make one up for the rest of the week. Now that I've got a bit more produce on hand, I know what I am working with.

I added my ING interest of $2.31 to the emergency fund. This brings the EF to $1,036.03. I do dislike seeing that number so low, but I know using it to pay off debt is the right thing to do. And we will build it back up again.

I can't believe it is May already. This year is just whizzing by. Yesterday was very busy. I had an appointment in the morning, $90. DD had a dentist appointment, which will be billed to insurance and be fully covered because it is the first of the year.

We paid the property taxes yesterday for the half year on the old house, $524.75. DH took the two new toilets out to the old house. His father will help him install them on Wednesday. While out there he dropped off the water bill and saved a stamp, $144.

The money from ING showed up yesterday but we didn't have time to go over and make a payment at BoA. I am hoping we will today, but if not then that will get paid tomorrow.

We finally took the kids to The Hunger Games movie last night. We went to the 6:30 showing so we could get out and be home at a decent hour since it was a school night. I would have preferred to go to the 4:00 one, but DS doesn't even get out of school until 3:45. I was really well pleased with the movie. I felt it stayed true to the book on almost everything and only missed one tiny little scene not being included, the district 11 sending the bread scene. It should have been there as it was such a pivotal moment, but oh, well. You can't have everything in a screen adaptation, but this was pretty close.

Still it cost us $40 for the four of us to go. This is why we seldom see movies in the theater. $9.50 per student and $10.50 per adult. Even matinee prices would not have been that good. It's not like they are half price anymore. They are just a buck or two off per ticket to go at a less convenient time. I think it was worth it this time, but I miss the days of $5 movies. Heck, I miss the days of $1 movies.