Frugal dinner idea, book review, frugal victories, and garden photos!

[Kerri]

Okay, this is my everything post. LOL.


Supper tonight, because of the book I'm reading (see below, lol) seemed complicated to me. I needed it to be cheap. I needed it to be from stuff I already had on hand, and after reading this afternoon, I wanted it to be made with local produce. So I searched the cupboards and garden and thought a little and ended up making a huge hit! Lettuce wraps. Homegrown lettuce with steamed rice (I added some apple cider vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic to the rice when it was cooking), grated carrots, chives (homegrown), and a yummy sauce I made from garlic chilli sauce, peanut butter, soy sauce, and apple cider vinegar.

I had a few frozen chicken thighs that I also cooked while the squares were baking and we added those too. I didn't know what was in the freezer bag, other than it was chicken. But it was all frozen in an unrecognizable block. It ended up being thighs and it was all good. I also made dessert which from stuff I had around. Rhubarb custard squares. Wow. Big hit. And local grown (from our garden) rhubarb fit the bill too. I feel clever and confident that I could do this more.

I am just LOVING the book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." It is making me feel like I can make a difference and eat well without being such a part of the consumerism society. Wow. I highly recommend it to everyone and will loan mine out as much as I can. LOL.

I took the kids to the park across the street after dinner, and I saw some people in their yard that backs onto the park, mowing their lawn. I asked them what kind of plum tree they had, because it was just LOADED with plums and was a really low tree that would be awesome for the kids to pick from. In our front yard we have a japanese maple that the kids won't stop climbing and it's not doing well. So I think when it goes, we'll put in a plum tree because they're low maintenance, pretty close to disease-free, they blossom pretty and would provide fruit which is a nice bonus as well. Anyway, I asked her what kind it was and she asked us if we wanted to pick some. Which of course my kids bounced up and down with excitement about.

So she unlocked her gate and gave us some grocery bags, and we picked three bags full. And made a new friend, and the kids had a blast. Turns out it's not a short tree, nor did they train it to grow so low, but it was so loaded with fruit that it actually broke and fell over, and that's why it was so low. They'd tried to prop it, but once we got close I could see, yeah, it was snapped in half. LOL. It didn't break all the way through, though, and the fruit was still ripening. Crazy. So we'll be eating plums and probably making jam, and freezing some for making jam in winter, because I love making my house smell like summer in the winter when I'm canning jam. LOL. I wish I had a dehydrator right now.

Now, onto the garden progress. We just put in a tiny garden this year. First time, and I didn't want to overcommit to alot of work, not knowing how well it would produce the first year. It's probably 6 feet by 8 feet or something like that. We did carboard over the law in January, then soaked it and layered it with leaves, compost, grass clippings, mushroom compost and let it sit for a few months. Then in April and May we planted. Holy cow, this garden has exploded! I took photos. I'm having to hack leaves off things every couple of days because it's so lush I can't water the dirt with all the foliage. I didn't think it would produce much, so obviously planted things way too close. Oh well, live and learn. The kids are enthused, and I'm excited. It hasn't been much work, because there are hardly any weeds with all the mulchy layers.

Kerri

[Kerri]

Okay, my connection isn't working very well. I'll keep trying on the photos!

[herc]

Sounds liek a wonderful summer evening Summer is coming to a close so fast here. Dh starts back to school not next monday but the next, and liam starts kindy the week after that. All of my well intentioned plans have gone out the window, and I am entering freakout mode LOL. Your post reminded me to just take a deep breath and make time to just enjoy some of the simple things.
heather

[Kerri]

Yeah, see our kids don't go back to school until after labour day, so they've only been off for about three weeks. I'm going crazy with finding things to keep them busy!

Trying the photos again:

#1 is our little garden patch. Little and overloaded.

#2 is a closeup of some promising tomatoes

#3 is some sunflowers in the front flower garden, with tomatoes in between!

[Marina]

I'm going to check my library for the book. Thanks for the recommendation!

And your garden looks great! Isn't it just incredibly rewarding to walk outside and have food? There's no worry about where to get it, where is cheapest, is it on sale, do I have enough to pay, etc. Will you make it larger next year?

I'm jealous though. My rhubarb didn't come back. I was talking to some locals, and evidently that's a problem here. It doesn't come back. Grows great the first year you plant it, and then it's done. bummer. And sadly mine was from my grandmother, who passed away. My mom got some out of her yard before the house sold. I felt really bad that I killed it.