Mother's Day Gift Idea: Little Recipe Books and.... a GIVEAWAY!!!

These little recipe books were super easy to make but look cute enough to give as a gift.  The covers came from The Frugal Hostess's idea of heaven, Paper Source, and are over-sized matchbook shapes.   The recipe cards are A2 size notecards, equivalent to a fourth of a letter-size piece of paper.  In fact, you are encouraged to use actual paper rather than card stock, because you can't fit enough card stock into the cover.  You can get, like, a maximum of four pieces of card stock in there. whereas you could do 8-10 sheets of typing (Ha!  Is that even a thing any more?) paper.  But it's up to you.

Easiest directions of all time:

1.  Buy those matchbook things.
2.  Type up your favorite recipes and cut them up.  You know, into the quarter-size sheets that will fit into the matchbook, not a bunch of paper flowers or something.
3.  Poke or punch holes in the recipes to fit the matchbook.
4.  Stick in the recipes; fasten with brads.
5.  Then, stick a fabulous label on the front, and you're done!

The adorable labels on the front?  The Frugal Hostess has been on the verge of wetting her pants over these.  For real, could you die?  They are from a set of stickers and gift labels called "CONFECTION-ERY", and they are precious illustrations of cupcakes, candies, Popsicles, and ice cream sundaes.  FruHo wishes she could chew up the stickers, they look so good.

Don't you wish you had some?

Hmmm.  Well, OK.  TFH has some for you.  Yep, you heard right.  You can win some of these fabulously adorable stickers - in fact, a whole box of them!  But that's not all.

In case you don't have time to make your mom a recipe book, The Frugal Hostess picked up a few little things to go with the labels.  There's a pink journal for recording favorite recipes and the best bake sale ever cookbook (affiliate link, but you won't be buying it because you're gonna win!).

To win, just leave your favorite baked good in the comments, and FruHo will pick someone at random.  Leave your comment by 6PM Eastern on Friday, and the winner will be announced on Sunday.  Yippee!

UPDATE: If you love baked goods and hate the idea of childhood hunger, visit or donate to the Atlanta Food Bloggers Bake Sale, benefiting Share Our Strength.  All details are here.



OOPS, forgot to mention: This giveaway is sponsored by The Frugal Hostess.  Because she loves you.

Hacking the Coffee Roasting Biker

Once upon a time, The Frugal Hostess was a little girl, and, at about age 11, she met Dave the Coffee Roasting Biker.  Except he wasn't a coffee roaster or a biker at that time, just a really smart guy with longish skater bangs.  When they were in the 9th grade, Dave once hacked into the local Navy (or Air Force?) base and sold all of our military secrets to the Yugoslavians.  Just kidding, but he was the first person FruHo ever heard talking about the internet.  So, it's apropos that TFH and DtCRB met up again a few years later online.  Today, FruHo has turned the tables and hacked into Dave's brain for all of his coffee roasting secrets.  Enjoy his guest post about roasting your own coffee at home!

 

 

A few weeks ago, a friend in the office shared something really remarkable with me. He shared a cup of coffee, freshly brewed in his French press. I've been a coffee drinker all of my life, but I quit a year ago as part of a series of diet changes. I mistakenly thought my heavy caffeine intake was causing my energy crashes throughout the day. Come to find out, it was the excessive use of highly refined sugar.

My friend re-introduced me to coffee in a big way. It was the first time that I had coffee from a French press, although that alone didn't account for how amazing it tasted. That kind of flavor is only accomplished by high-quality, non-blended coffee beans that are roasted a few days before and ground that morning. My friend is a home coffee roaster.

A Lost Tradition

Buying your coffee roasted and ground is a relatively new trend that emerged in the 20th century. Until then, people often bought their beans green and roasted them at home since green beans store dry for months. Eventually, neighborhood roasters starting taking over the roasting chores for urbanites. It really wasn't until breakthroughs in packaging that people were later able to buy reasonably fresh coffee that was roasted, ground, and shipped to their local corner markets.  [Fruho's note: who knew?]

Even though the neighborhood roasters were being pushed out, coffee shops still survived. Then with the explosion of Starbucks, Americans were re-introduced to good[-ish] coffee. It wasn't the quality of their signature Arabica beans that won our hearts, though. It was their mass marketing and fancy coffee drinks. Starbucks provides Americans with a wealth of flavor through different brewing techniques, added flavorings, and liberal use of sweeteners.

It's a real shame too, because all of these contrivances actually mask the wonderful flavors in good, fresh coffee. These are flavors that we simply aren't experiencing, because we're buying generic blends roasted months ago and packaged into bags with one-way valves to let CO2 out and prevent fresh air from oxidizing the coffee.  [The Frugal Hostess digs the word "contrivances."]

Thanks in large part to the Internet, the tradition of home roasting is being resurrected. It's incredibly easy, very fast, and more rewarding than you can imagine.

How Is it Done?

There are numerous home roasting appliances available, but they're all expensive, and they're all slow. My friend uses a popcorn air-popper, and it works really well. Unfortunately, the newer designs have a simple metal screen at the bottom that allows the hot air to flow in to the cooking chamber. This does little to circulate the beans, and so you have to stir them too.

Air poppers are not the only device that can be multi-purposed to roast coffee. Alton Brown would be seriously proud of the Internet home roasting community. They use everything from pans on a stovetop to dog dishes. My research led me to the method that seems to be the most advantageous: the bread machine / heat gun method.

WARNING! Pretty much any re-purposed setup that rapidly roasts coffee is going to cause some smoke, lots of light and fluffy chaff, and some strong aromas. I should probably state that there's a fire hazard, so please be careful. It's not at all recommended that you do this inside. Maybe I better go on record by stating the following: I do not recommend that anyone try this at home at all. This is for illustration purposes only and represents what I do in the privacy of my own backyard...with a fire extinguisher.  [Quit lying, Dave the Coffee Roasting Biker.]

My First Attempt...Poor Dogs

I already had a bread machine and heat gun at home, so I decided to order some beans. I use Sweet Maria's. They have a wonderful selection of delicious beans. They get their beans from responsible farms that they personally visit often to ensure that they meet their criteria. The site is also a great source for home roasting supplies and information. I highly recommend that you stop there next after reading [and commenting on] this.

My bread machine is actually a loaner from a friend. It's design has a large hole in the bottom, which doesn't work well for removing the pan and pouring the hot beans into the colander for cooling. I poured my green beans in, readied my heat gun, and turned the bread machine on the dough cycle as you don't actually want the bread machine's heating element going.

The bread machine happily stirred the beans as I aimed the heat gun down into the pan. The beans started to heat up, but then the little mixing arm on the bread machine started to slide off the top. It seems the resistance of the beans was not enough to keep the arm from being pushed off. I thought I was going to lose my first batch of beans. Then I remembered the dog bowl technique.

I quickly cleaned out my dogs' ceramic water bowl, transferred the beans, and started stirring them by hand. [But not with your actual hand, right?]  Amazingly, it turned out really well. The bowl got incredibly hot, and I actually broke it when I dropped it a mere two inches into the sink later. But all in all, it wasn't bad.

Headed to Goodwill

I decided to get the bread machine of my dreams for the next batch. I headed to Goodwill and bought their top-of-the-line model for $9.00. The pan has an enclosed bottom, and a larger stirring rod that won't slide off easily. Besides, I could even mount it permanently if I wanted too since it wasn't a loaner. [Heh.  Insert joke about permanent mounting here.]

I didn't like the way that the dough cycle pulsed the stirring arm, so I took it apart and hard-wired the AC motor to a switch. This wasn't necessary, but the geek in me just had to do it. This new setup is absolutely perfect. I can roast a pound of green beans in one 20 minute session and that lasts me two weeks.

The Basic Procedure

I won't go into too much depth, as Sweet Maria's has much better information. Here's a nice video that I found too: Coffee Roasting Video

Heating the beans with a hot air source is a terrific way to get heat into the beans quickly...sometimes too quickly. So I start my beans off with my heat gun on high (1000 degrees [holy crap!]), then when they hit about 350 degrees, I slow it down by dropping my heat down to 800 degrees. The beans will begin changing color and then start their first crack. Coffee beans crack just like popcorn, except they do it twice.

Once the first crack finishes, I drop the heat gun down to 700 degrees. The transition from first to second crack can be quick, and so you don't want to overshoot your degree of roast. There are a variety of stopping points, and Sweet Maria's goes into exquisite details. They also give you recommended ranges for each of their bean varieties too. I personally like a "Full City" roast, and so I stop roasting about 10-15 seconds into my second crack.

The second crack is quieter than the first crack, and the individual cracks are more rapid. For this reason, I try to make that build up to the second crack slowly since my bread machine and heat gun make a lot of noise. Once my beans are done, I turn my heat gun's heater off but leave the blower on. Then I remove the bread machine pan with oven mitts and poor them into my metal colander. I then put the colander on top of a running fan and shake them about. The quick cooling is important, because the beans will continue to roast after you remove the heat gun.

Once the beans are cooled, they can be stored in a glass or ceramic jar with a loose lid. They will continue to release CO2 for a few hours, so you don't want to seal them in. You can brew with them in a few hours, but I usually wait overnight. I only grind what I need for each pot of coffee to help preserve the freshness. Green beans [coffee beans, not haricot verte] can be stored for months, and roasted beans can go one to two weeks, but ground coffee has to be used immediately.

Wrap Up

I personally think the bread machine / heat gun is the best method for its speed, volume, evenness of roast, and precise control of roast profile. You really don't need a thermometer, but I am red-green color deficient, and so can't detect color changes really well. You can also go by sound alone for most degrees of roast, but I like having the extra information.

You're going to be amazed at how good freshly roasted coffee is. You may not ever buy a fancy coffee drink again. It's certainly cheaper. Most of the beans that I buy are under $6.00 per pound. Add in the cost of my primo $9.00 bread machine and new dog dish, and I'm still ahead.

The Frugal Hostess is ready to roast some beans. What about you?  Please comment. You can also join the Frugalistas on Facebook for exclusive content, follow on Twitter @frugalhostess, or subscribe so that you always know when a new post appears.

Living in Season: Spring

Happy Spring!  Here are the fruits and vegetables that are in season.

Things you should look for at the thrift store:

Fourth of July decorations - especially because these are usually hopelessly dorky, so you will need to look long and hard to find some that don't suck.

Awesome winter clothes - swim against the tide, Fruglistas.  Everyone else will have their heads turned by sun dresses, and you can score!

Beach toys and towels

Camping gear - if you're into that sort of thing

Dishes you can use outside - metal or plastic tableware that won't break but isn't disposable.

Things to give some thought to:

1.  The Fall holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Decorative Gourd Season.  Where are you spending them?  If you're hosting, start looking for cool stuff for your table and guest room.  For extra credit, you might want to start a tear-sheet file of recipes, decorating ideas, etc.

2.  Getting a pedicure.  Or giving yourself one. Just don't show us your corn cob heels and yellowed naked toenails.  Unless you want to.  But everyone will gag.  You've been warned.

3.  Cleaning your ceiling fans.  Since they will soon be pressed into service, dust those suckers off.  You could probably fill a compost bin with all the nasty dust currently resting on The Frugal Hostess's fan blades.  Take a sheet and spread it over any beds or other furniture under the fan.  Using a fuzzy duster, rags, or socks on your hands, rub that grody dirt frosting away, letting it land on the sheet.  When you're done, wrap the sheet up, shake it off outside, and move on to the next room.

What else would you add to the "things to do in Spring" list?

photo by taberandrew

The Frugal Hostess has Spring fever. Please comment. You can also join the Frugalistas on Facebook for exclusive content, follow on Twitter @frugalhostess, or subscribe so that you always know when a new post appears.

Sustainable Table is a Cool Site

This website about eating sustainably is awesome! Check it out. Then click below and step inside the Meatrix! [Bwah-ha-ha-ha]

The Frugal Hostess loves you.  A lot. 

Emergency Rationing

The Frugal Hostess has a friend, Ghostwriter, who has recently experienced a major change in her domestic situation which has resulted in the DPs - that shaking of the hands, not unlike the DTs, when one confronts the very real possibility of Debtors' Prison in one's future.  Because FruHo experienced a similar bout of the DPs last May, and continues to feel the aftershocks to this day, she felt it best to make a list of the money-saving steps anyone can take to soothe their own DPs.

1.  Use your last three months' worth of bills, bank statements, and credit card to come up with a monthly average for each expense.  If you spent $50 on PBR in January, $40 on PBR in February, and $30 on PBR in March, then your average monthly PBR expense is $40.  Write all of that down on a list. All of it.

2.  Add up everything on your list.  Divide the amount of money you have in savings and/or can reasonably expect to have rolling in by the total.  At this point, you will probably note that you cannot afford to continue your current lifestyle, at least until your book deal/TV show/monkey sky-diving business comes through/takes off.  It's OK to cry a little at this point, but then you have to stop.

3.  Next, go through your list of expenses, and cross off any that are not necessities.  That includes watching cable, eating out, going to bars, buying clothes, buying books, buying housewares, or really buying anything at all except food.  Yes, dead serious.  Do it.

What remains are your "fixed" expenses - bills, groceries, etc.  Except, TFH thinks these expenses can also be fixed.  As in, made lower.  As follows:

- See how many days you can go without turning on the heat/AC.  When you must, don't put the heat above 64, and don't put the AC below 74.  When you leave the house or go to bed, make it appropriately colder/hotter.  You will get used to it, The Frugal Hostess assures you.

- Follow the sun around your house so you can avoid turning on the lights.  Change your lightbulbs to CFLs, even if the incandescent bulbs are still burning.  (The amount you save over time with the CFLs far exceeds the waste of a few days worth of traditional bulb).  Once you've made the switch, don't turn on the lights.  Also, unplug every appliance that you aren't using  - toaster, espresso machine, cell phone charger, etc.  Hang your clothes to dry (or, as many as will fit in the shower if you don't have a line).

- Wash and reuse plastic bags and aluminum foil.  Bonus points if you mutter unintelligible things like, "In my day..." or "See here, sonny."  Never buy another paper towel; use tee-shirt rags instead.  Don't buy anything except white vinegar for cleaning. Use any wretched plastic grocery bags you have for trash and cat litter disposal.  Under no circumstances should the word "disposable" be found on anything in your grocery cart.

- Only meet clients and business contacts for coffee (never lunch or, heaven forbid, drinks).  Or have them to your house for coffee, if you're close enough.  Email presentations in advance of meetings and only bring one printed copy.  Keep a box under your desk for paper that has only been printed on one side.  Take every free pen you are offered, ditto with post-its, etc.  Never throw away a paper clip.

- Call every company you deal with, from car insurance to wifi, and ask for a better deal.  You have to do this, even if you are embarrassed.  It will work on some of them.  Go through all of your junk drawers and handbags and put every gift card or 20% offer you have in one place, hopefully close to your keys.  Get in the habit of checking that place every time you leave the house, so you don't spend money when you don't have to.

- Stop buying any prepared foods, frozen meals, or individually portioned items.  Stay away from convenience items like pre-shredded cheese or baby carrots.  For about $3, you can buy a bag each of rice, barley, split peas, and lentils.  Do so.  (But do not buy cheap meat.  Just don't eat meat if you can't afford decent, humane meat.)

- Read one of FruHo's favorite blogs, Save Money You Cheapskate.  You'll laugh, you'll cry from laughing, and you'll laugh again.

OK, what did The Frugal Hostess miss?  What else can Ghostwriter do to save money until her DPs subside?

Photo by WordRidden

The Frugal Hostess has to go unplug some stuff.  While she's gone, it would be great if you would subscribe to this blog, either in your reader or via email.  Don't know what that means?  No problem - leave a comment for personalized instructions. 

What Do You Want, Man?

What if this were a real, grown-up, professional website?  Like, what if you came here once a week or so to get the latest news -- err, the latest news? More like the most recent nonsense. -- what would you want to see?  Categories?  More frequent posts?  Less frequent posts?  Dancing girls and boys? 

Obviously, this site isn't ever going to carry the up-to-the-minute dispatch of plastic plates or chemical concoctions for parties, but if you could make it the most useful it could ever be, what would this site include?  (For me, the anonymous typist of this post, the answer would be categories like recipes, crafts, gift ideas, etc., but what do I know?  I might also dig some video and download-able templates, recipe cards, etc.)

Anywho, put your thoughts in the comments.  The Frugal Hostess wants this shizz-nit to be all it can be, so, you know, your input is invaluable.  Love ya.

The Frugal Hostess is not joining the Army in May.  Because, God bless the soldiers here, there, and everywhere, all our wars are BS wars lacking morality.  Please comment. You can also join the Frugalistas on Facebook for exclusive content, follow on Twitter @frugalhostess, or subscribe so that you always know when a new post appears.

Frugal Cleaning in the Laundry

Is it weird that The Frugal Hostess digs doing laundry?  As household chores go, it’s one of her favorites.  She’s given this some thought and thinks there are two things that separate laundry from other household chores.

First of all, you’re cleaning and moving the household forward, but you’re doing it with your stuff – your tee-shirts, your Pink Panther socks (What?  You don’t have Pink Panther socks?).  So rather than cleaning up the detritus of a whole bunch of people’s dead skin cells a la dusting, you are actually doing something that benefits you directly and measurably.

Second, there is an end to laundry.  Listen, Jon and Kate Plus Eight or whatever you are now, TFH totally gets that laundry is a recurring project like all other cleaning, and that, especially in your palace of dysfunction, it feels like laundry never ends.  But there is an end to a load of laundry – you wash it, dry it, fold it, and put it away.  Whereas a coffee table is never really clean, and dust or fingerprints appear mere moments after you think you finished cleaning.  Laundry has a satisfying cycle of beginning and end and, while it may happen time and again, each time that satisfaction is there.

Seriously, who knew The Frugal Hostess could write a dissertation about laundry?

Here are FruHo's tips for making laundry cheaper, easier, and less annoying.

Pick one day a week as laundry day.  That doesn’t have to be the day you finish the laundry, but it’s the day that you call last call, sort it all out, call last call for real, and start washing.  If you do laundry every day, then you're doing laundry every day, and that sucks.

Start with the pile of whites first, then work your way up to darks.  If you wash loads from lightest to darkest, you avoid any dye bleeding from one load to the next.  Also, beware the false frugality of stuffing a few black socks in with your load of tighty whities.  The money you save with fewer loads is quickly spent replacing your tighty gray-ies.

At The Frugal Homestead, clothes go into one of four piles: whites, mediums, darks, and delicates.  Don’t stress yourself out about keeping all the green clothes separate from the blue ones.  And, don’t wash less than a full load.  If you only have three dark items this week, save them until next time.

Borax is a natural brightener, and it’s not as dangerous to living things as bleach.  It brightens whites and can be used in a multitude of ways around the house (like, as an abrasive in the shower).  It's also cheap.

For delicates and dry clean items, FruHo pretty much always risks it in her washing machine.  Now, it is a very new front-loader with both delicate and handwash settings, so maybe the risk is lessened.  And, as you've heard before here, the Champion King of All Laundry Soap, Charlie's Soap, is as mild and gentle as a lover's caress (eww). 

Items that have been washed with Charlie's Soap in the washer: cashmere and merino sweaters, antique linen napkins, a pants suit (low risk as it was bought on a HUGE sale for, like, 40 cents), nylon travel bags, slacks (TFH doesn't really say that word), blouses (ditto for that), most tights, and a raw silk comforter. 

Items that FruHo won't risk anywhere but the sink: bras and other, ahem, foundational items; fish nets and other patterned tights.  That's it.

And, yes, this is totally a commercial for Charlie's Soap.  They just don't know about it.  But if you decide to buy some, use that link, and TFH will get some cash money.

A final tip: if you want to, you can just go through the laundry basket and smell everything.  If it doesn't smell dirty, it may have experienced the not infrequent phenomenon known as Laundry Resurrection, wherein dirty clothes become clean again by spending a few days in the hamper.

Photo by Prakhar

The Frugal Hostess gets lonely. Please comment. You can also join the Frugalistas on Facebook for exclusive content, follow on Twitter @frugalhostess, or subscribe so that you always know when a new post appears.

FruTV

Act One | The Request

Moving Picture Man: Hey, FruHo!  I was recently hit over the head with an anvil.  Wanna film a TV show based on your blog and pitch it to TV networks?

The Frugal Hostess: Hell to the yes, MPM!  When do we start?

MPM: How does next week strike you?

TFH: Sure, I'm in!  Someone get me another anvil. 

Act Two | The Preparation 

Interior shot of house.  Close-up on hard wood floors.  From the left, a fuzzy image rolls into frame.  As the camera focuses, we see that it is a dreaded Dog Hair Tumbleweed.  An ominous mood takes hold, and we are left to wonder if the Dog Hair Tumbleweed can be vanquished.
~
Close up on dingy gray fuzzy slippers.  The camera slowly pans upward, and we see The Frugal Hostess place some seemingly disparate items onto a blond wood tray.  She shuffles over to the counter, and we watch as she pulls the leaves off of flower stems.  Then, with a jarring suddenness, a large Dog Hair Tumbleweed enters the shot.
~
The camera is centered on a white pasta bowl, into which some whole wheat noodles are being placed.  Slowly, mushrooms and kale begin to dot the surface of the pasta.  We overhear one side of a phone conversation.


TFH: Well, I'm doing a vegan cleanse to prepare for filming.  No, no beer or wine either.  [pause] Yes, that's right, just vegetables and grain.  It's actually not that bad.  You sort of stop focusing on food as anything but fuel.

The Dog Hair Tumbleweed nods in agreement.

Act Three | The Production

Moving Picture Man: Uh, where am I?  Why is all my camera equipment here, FruHo?  And man, why does my head hurt so bad?

The Frugal Hostess: Ummm.

Act Four | The Aftermath

Interior shot of house.  Close-up on hard wood floors.  From the left, a fuzzy image rolls into frame.  As the camera focuses, we see that it is The Frugal Hostess, sprawled on the kitchen floor.  In one hand, she holds a gnawed chicken leg; in the other, a 40 oz. bottle of Old English.

***

And that, Fair Reader, is how The Frugal Hostess wound up filming a demo for a possible TV show based on this blog.  Yes, this blog.  Seriously.  You can see some photos on the Facebook page.

The Frugal Hostess is having a meat-dairy-beer extravaganza, just to ensure she has the ever-endearing Carb Face on the next shoot.  Please comment.  You can also follow on Twitter @frugalhostess or subscribe so that you always know when a new post appears.

Cheap Entertaining: Potluck Oscar Party

Are you waiting on a check?  Are you having a tough year?  Are you a victim of the economy?  Are you having a cash flow issue?

Are you, if we're being honest here, straight-up, flat-ass, broke-as-a-joke poor? 

Of course you are!  So is The Frugal Hostess.  Like, way more than usual.  To the point that she can barely afford to complain about it.  FruHubs has put his foot down about hosting another party until the current deficit is corrected, and FruHo actually agrees (for a change).

But she's having an Oscar party anyway.  What?  It's not 1950!  TFH never promised to obey!

To keep the cost down, FruHo is asking her guests to bring a dish or drink inspired by the (453) movies nominated for Best Picture.  Decorations will be, well, spare (maybe she'll artfully arrange some DVD cases around the house?), and the entertainment is built in.  Cleaning is the only thing she will do, and we all know how thoroughly The Frugal Hostess tends to clean.

If you want to have a super cheap Oscar party, here are some ideas to help you out.

Pandora’s Bento Box (over-sized bento box filled with sushi), or blueberry pie?

Buffalo wings and pigs in a blanket

Nine kinds of candy?  Umm, chicken wings to symbolize that freaky alien arm the bad guy wanted to eat?  Better keep it simple and stick with some South African wine.

Bangers and mash.  Think about the double entendre possibilities.

Ice cream bombe.  Or bottle of champagne.

German beer and brats.

What’s the most depressing food you can eat?  Serve that with a painkiller and vodka cocktail garnished with a razor blade topped with a suicide note umbrella.

Knish, latkes?  Who knows - did anyone hear of this movie until this week?

Nitrous balloons?  Of course not, what a terrible idea.  Blowpops -- the hidden gum surprise looks like a balloon when you blow it.

Airline chicken, travel-sized portions, or a really expensive fruit and cheese platter with at least one rotten grape per person.

UPDATE: Here are some posts with really cool Oscar party ideas. The first, from the awe-inspiring Bakerella, features seven (that's right!) different Oscar-inspired sweets.  And the second, courtesy of the always festive Hostess with the Mostess, has a centerpiece idea that could be modified for a  birthday party or shower.

The Frugal Hostess will see you at the movies. Please comment. You can also join the Frugalistas on Facebook for exclusive content, follow on Twitter @frugalhostess, or subscribe so that you always know when a new post appears.