Vintage Cookery - Rhubarb Crisp

 

Rhubarb is probably something most people had growing in their yards back in the day.  Many of us still do.  I had my best and largest rhubarb harvest ever this past month.  To celebrate I made this rhubarb crisp dessert using my vintage Betty Crocker cookbook from 1969.  It was fabulous!

 

Rhubarb is rather tart so it is important to get just the right amount of sugar in your recipe to make it palpable, but I happen to really enjoy the flavor and tartness so I don’t mind if it isn’t quite so sweet.

 

Click on the picture for a larger view of the recipe

I plan to make the apple and the blueberry
crisps in the not too distant future

With any crisp recipe my favorite part is the crunch topping and this recipe didn’t include oatmeal so I added a half cup to the rhubarb crisp recipe after looking at the apple crisp recipe on the same page.  Doing that made the topping just right for my liking but you certainly don’t have to add it.

 

The only thing missing was a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but I didn’t have any at the time.  Nonetheless it was still very delicious all on its own.

 

My Tireless Retirement – Week 118

 

Hello my friends!  How was your Independence Day holiday?  I hope you had a nice day.  I did although I had no plans and didn’t do much other than stay home to hang out with the kitties and help them stay as calm as possible.  Poor little Jack doesn’t do too well with fireworks and other loud noises.

 

Last Saturday I went ahead and installed the second A/C unit in the guest bedroom so I now have two running upstairs to keep the house nice and cool.  With the hotter temperatures now I am really enjoying the A/C.  Depending on the weather they will most likely stay installed until Labor Day weekend.

 

All of this ended up wrapped and in the LTFS

On Sunday I was a busy girl.  Once again it is time to start planning ahead for the upcoming winter.  I made out a list, as well as a budget, and mapped out a plan of attack before I set out to get things done.  My first stop was to Home Depot to look at refrigerators (um, yeah that’s happening).  Then I went next door to Fred Meyer to pick up meat that was on sale, plus I had digital coupons and a $20 Kroger gift card.  I got a full bag of groceries and only had to spend $4 out of pocket.  I wasn’t sad about that.

 

After I left Fred Meyer I went to the feed store and picked up wood horse pellets for the bunny’s bin and a 50# bag of chicken feed as the first part of my winter stock up for my pets.  When I got back home I went through everything I still had on hand and was able to top up the feed bins.  After all the decluttering I’ve done I had several empty bins in the garage that I was able to repurpose and use now for storing pet food and supplies so I used them to store the new stuff I just bought and my Chewy order from last month.

 

Stella gave me her seal of approval

Now that I am the only one who feeds and takes care of the animals here I have a much better idea of what works best for me.  With everything now in bins I cleaned and reorganized the shelves and the designated pet area in the garage so it is now all nice and neat plus I know where everything is and it is easily accessible.  I love it!

 

There was a cleaning of an oven

and under the kitchen sink

While I was out in the garage I was able to do some minor repairs to the insulation board on the garage door that had popped loose.  I can’t tell you enough what a difference insulating that big door has made in keeping the garage cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.  It no longer gets scorching hot in the summers or freezes in the winter so I can pretty much store anything I want out there worry free.  While I was in repair mode I also was able to troubleshoot why the doorbell was no longer working and discovered a loose wire that I repaired and now it works just fine.

 

I shined up my grandmother's Revere Ware
I love cooking with these pans

Burritos for the freezer

Meals I Prepared: 

I emptied two jars of home canned pork verde into my slow cooker to reheat and put together shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, grated cheese, salsa and sour cream for tacos to entertain a friend for lunch.  I sent home some leftovers with her and then I used what was left along with some black beans and a little bit of rice to make a few burritos to put away in the freezer for later. 

I pulled a burger patty and a bun from the freezer to thaw and made myself a hamburger one evening along with a serving of tater tots I baked in my little toaster oven.  The burger was nice and juicy and the tater tots on the side with some homemade fry sauce made it a classic diner meal.  This was my favorite meal I made last week.

 

Potato salad

The remainder of the week was pretty simple.  I pulled out a couple frozen pre-made meals I had squirreled away in the freezer to reheat – rice & pork roast and crack chicken.  I made tacos with the crack chicken.

 

Fourth of July was super simple.  On Wednesday I made a potato salad and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.  It was really tasty.  I had five angus beef hotdogs and five buns leftover from Memorial Day that I pulled from the freezer and thawed.  On Thursday I made a small batch of coleslaw.  We just toasted the buns and grilled the wieners in my mini skillet and enjoyed our meal.  It was delicious!

 

4th Of July fare 😋

I spent the holiday catching up on a few chores from my quarterly checklist and doing some paper crafting.  I was able to spend some time outside in my garden and with the chickens too.  It was a great day and a great way to end a busy week.  I hope it was a wonderful day for you too. 

FYI - My retirement week runs from Friday through Thursday.

 

My Fun & Leisure Budget

 

We are now in the middle of 2024 so I did some financial planning as well as a review of all of my little budgets and the one that I felt needed, or rather deserved, some tweaking is the Fun & Leisure Budget.  All of the others, with the exception of my pet food and supplies budget, are right on par, in fact I’m well under budget.  The pet budget is for another day and I’ll discuss it more at a later date.

 

Because I am doing so well overall with my 2024 budgets and I recently got a $2 an hour raise at my part time job I decided I could definitely expand the Fun & Leisure budget for the remaining half of 2024 and with good reason.  This budget encompasses my social life and all expenses related to that.  I include dining out, movie tickets and performances, extra fuel for daytrips, alcohol, soda, candy and ice cream purchases, etc.  It is my discretionary fund and also holds the caveat that no expense requires explanation or justification.

 

In the last two years I had been well under budget as far as the amounts I spent each month so at the beginning of the year it made sense for me to cull it a bit and bring it more in line with my actual spending.  However, this year has been a little different for me in that I’m branching out and doing more things.  I’ve been putting myself out there, trying new things and spending a lot more time with my friends.  Most of my friends love to go out to eat or to have a drink and an appetizer at a local restaurant and I don’t want to miss out on those opportunities.

 

In retirement it is really important to get out and do things.  Spending time with friends, making new friends, trying different things and treating ourselves to an occasional treat is important to our self worth and wellbeing.  Besides, we’ve work hard all of our lives to get to this point.  It doesn’t make sense to not make this a priority right now.

 

I decided I could easily afford to quadruple my monthly budget through to the end of the year and I’m really glad I did.  I also decided that if I go over budget a little bit on occasion I will not beat myself up over it.  As long as the money is there and I am not incurring any debt it is all good.  It is a subject that is very important to me.  Fun & Leisure.  Isn’t that what retirement is really all about?

 

Why I Don't Do 15 Minute Chores Anymore

 

Quite simply the reason I do not do 15 minute chores anymore is because I don’t need to.  I can do them in about 10 minutes or less now.  I attribute it, in large part, to the all of the decluttering I have done over the last couple of years, especially last year.  Being an empty nester helps a lot too.

 

I’ve also streamlined my processes and habits over the years to the point that I am now in the habit of picking up after myself and just keeping things tidy.  If I get something out I put it away when I am done using it.  I don’t leave the bathroom until I’ve checked everything over and made sure I’ve wiped up any water spills, put things away, gathered up any dirty laundry and all trash is thrown away.  I do enough deep cleaning on a regular quarterly basis that I don’t need to spring clean anymore.  With that being said I’ve also stopped cleaning things that really don’t need to be cleaned.

 

The nice thing about having a weekly cleaning list/schedule and a quarterly checklist is that I’m able to keep tabs on what I have cleaned and what needs to be cleaned so I’m not losing track and either miss something or forgetting and cleaning something again.  It happens.  Checklists help a lot.  But if I don’t get to something, like the dusting, I also know it will come back around and I’ll hit it next week and be right back on track.

 

I do not include laundry or cooking and washing dishes as part of my regular housekeeping, however I have also streamlined those processes to the point that I can get my laundry done once a week and it hardly takes me any time at all.  I cook and meal prep once a week as well so I’m only cooking on one day and then reheating those meals the rest of the week.  Because of this I find that I only need to wash a small sink full of dishes once a day and it only takes me about two minutes to wash them and then I let them air dry.  I also find I can put the dishes away in less than the time it takes to reheat a cup of coffee or heat water for a cup tea.

 

Having fewer chores to do saves me a ton of time.  I have far less to manage or clean and so much more time for fun and activities.  I also save a ton of $$!  I use so much less dish soap, cleaners, water, and electricity.  Over the past couple of years I’ve seen my utility bills go down substantially even though the power, water and sewer rates have increased.  I also create a whole lot less trash so I only need to walk my trash bin to the curb every other week and my recycle bin once every month to month and a half.  I feel like I no longer work my guts out trying to keep up and maintain a clean and tidy home.  I think it is fabulous!

 

It's Time For Another Pantry Challenge!

 

Even though I am still very much doing my extreme $50 a month grocery budget challenge I still feel like I sometimes buy too much of some things, especially fresh produce.  I also still have a lot of items in my pantry and the freezer I’d like to use up and not repurchase again like rice and pasta mixes, some condiment items as well as several things I’m still a bit overstocked on.  I honestly thought I’d need far more food than what I am currently using so I’m just not using up the things I’d previously stockpiled as quickly as I’d anticipated.  Therefore I think it is time for another pantry challenge.

 

I have decided I will go ahead and see how far I can get this month without going to the grocery store.  My hope is to pull the older items from the pantry that have been hanging out for a while and get that handful of items used up.  I want to make sure I’m using up the items I’ve squirreled away in the freezer eaten so they don’t get old and freezer burn.  I also want to thin out what is in the deep freezer a bit so it is easier for me to see what I have in there on a daily basis.

 

The reward for me doing a pantry challenge at this time is that I’ll be able to save my July grocery budget, plus the rollover funds and add them to my August budget so I can do some more stocking up in my long term food storage (LTFS).  My goal at this time with my LTFS is to add more of the items I use on a regular basis, more home canned goods and better quality items as I make my way toward my health goals and eating REAL foods.  I am very much looking forward to that.

 

 

My Tireless Retirement – Week 117

 

I feel like my summer is whizzing right by me, I feel the whole year is!  Anyone else surprised it is almost July already?  I sure am.

 

I’m keeping myself plenty busy though and this past week was no exception.  I was blessed to be able to spend the afternoon with one of my favorite friends last Saturday.  She and I and another friend got together for lunch at a Chinese restaurant before we spent a bit of time trolling through Hobby Lobby (they were putting out Christmas already – Yikes!).  We yakked the whole time and were even coming up with ideas for a “girl’s trip”.  I hope we do it and soon.  I love, love, love spending time with my gal pals.

 

Blessed with free produce

When I got to work on Monday I noticed people with bunches of bananas and bags of oranges.  One lady had filled up her bicycle helmet with oranges, which I thought was pretty cute.  Some wonderful person had donated cases of bananas and oranges to the senior center.  I was able to partake and had a banana at work as a snack and then I took two loose bananas and two of the loose oranges home in my backpack which was plenty for me.

 

I found someone to take that bus pass I won a couple weeks ago and I was thrilled to be able to give it to her.  Probably more thrilled than she was to receive it.  One of my co-workers at the senior center also found her a collapsible shopping cart that she can use to get her groceries with and take on the bus.  The two of us totally made her day!  YaY!  I love it!

 

Meals I Prepared: 

I pulled a small baking dish with Sopa Seca in it from the freezer to “bake” in the microwave.  I also pulled an Eggroll In A Bowl meal kit I had made up a couple months ago out of the freezer to thaw and prepare.  Meals sorted!  Easy peasey!

 

I had a jar of berry jam in the pantry that was getting on in years so I used it up by making a kuchen for Sunday brunch.  I made scrambled eggs and bacon to go with it and after frying up the bacon I added all of the rendered fat to my bacon fat Mason jar I keep in the refrigerator.  I love to prepare my eggs using bacon fat and since I had just fried up bacon I used the residual fat and all those bits of bacon left in the pan to scramble the eggs in. Boy oh boy, those were some tasty eggs!

 

Sunday Brunch - delicious!

I am happily using my new journal and got busy planning for my big winter stock up as well as some more plans for my LTFS.  I made new pages to use for monthly strategizing.  I also finalized my plan of attack for stocking up on pet foods and supplies.  Now it is time to get busy and put those plans into action.

 

I printed off the next six months of planner pages

I love decorating the pages 😃

I made my way into Fred Meyer with one of my Kroger gift cards and picked up some meat on sale to put away in the deep freezer for winter.  I found two of the three pound rolls of Angus 90% lean ground beef on markdown.  I also picked up a family pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.99 a pound.  They haven’t been that low in a very long time. I ended up getting all of that meat for only $7 out of pocket after I used my gift card.

 

A great find!

I hope everyone had a great week and that you are enjoying the weekend.  I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to.  Anyone doing any winter stocking up yet?  How about Christmas plans?

 

My retirement week runs from Friday through Thursday.

 

This Month's 2024 Extreme Budget Grocery Spending - June

 

I was quite impressed with the amount of produce I had leftover in my refrigerator at the end of May.  Five and a half pounds of russet potatoes, four pounds of red potatoes, a head of cabbage, a head of romaine lettuce, a bundle of asparagus spears, two pounds of carrots, a few celery stalks and a quarter of an onion.  At the first of the month I went to Trader Joes and picked up some green onions and grape tomatoes and continued making fresh green salads to go with my meals.

 

I ended the month of May with a pretty full produce drawer

My first shop of the month

I had two and a half pounds of cheddar cheese, a block of cream cheese and half a container of sour cream leftover.  I picked up a quart of cream for my coffee when I stopped in for butter that was on sale for $2.49 a pound.  I bought two packages of butter.  Condiments remain a constant thing I’m working to use up and slim down the quantity of what I keep on hand, however I do use most of them on a regular basis so I’m not sure I’ll be very successful in that endeavor any time soon.  At Trader Joes I picked up a package of grape tomatoes and some green onions to round out the produce I already had and to make some more tasty salads as well as a pair of bananas simply because it had been awhile since I’d had one.  I don’t eat bananas very often.

 

My Trader Joe's haul

All of the canned goods are for the LTFS
Tater tots for some meal prepping I plan to do next month

My goal heading into the month of June was to use up as much of what I already had on hand in the refrigerator and freezer as well as my kitchen pantry so heading off to the grocery store to do a major shop wasn’t on my radar since I was pretty well stocked.  I had only a few things left on my May/June shopping list to pick up for the LTFS so I did go to Winco mid month and pick up those items – canned tomatoes, tomato sauce and green olives.

 

Five foaming handsoaps (one is a gift) and
a FREE bottle of shower gel to make my refill solution!

For nonfood items I went to Bath & Body Works and picked up five foaming handsoaps that were on sale plus I had a 20% OFF coupon to add to the sales price.  One of those handsoaps I plan to give to a friend as part of a Christmas gift I’m putting together for her this year.  The other four I am putting into the linen closet to replace the three I’ve worn out and leave me with a spare.  The total I spent on the four soaps as part of my household items came in at $17.28 bringing my total nonfood budget spent to $29.01 and leaving me with $20.99 left to spend this year.  I’m still feeling pretty good about where I’m at with this part of the challenge.

 

This month's totals
Lot's of stock up items too!

With the year officially at the halfway point I felt it a good time to look back and evaluate my progress on this extreme grocery budget challenge I have been on.  Currently I am not depleting any of my resources.  My deep freezer and LTFS shelves are full and while I’ve been eating quite a bit of the food I home canned I’ve also added quite a bit of home canning back.  I have made chili and soups, canned some roast beef and I’ve been able to replace quite a few items in the freezer as well as on the shelves as I’ve used them.  I have had plenty of variety in my meal plans with loads of healthy and nutritious options.  Do I feel deprived in any way?  Not even a little bit.

 

No deprivation here!

So far, so good! 😊

I am really pleased with how well it is going.  My monthly budget for groceries this year is only $50 ($600 for the entire year) and although I’m at the midway point I am under budget!  So far I have only spent $266.51 leaving me with a remaining budget of $333.49.  I have big plans for the month of July as I head into it with a fresh $50 plus $33.49 left to rollover from this month giving me a total starting amount of $83.49.  Keep following me to see what I have planned for the month of July.  It’s going to be epic!