Repetitive Posting

Hiya.  The Frugal Hostess is spending Make It Yourself Monday over at How to Cook Like Your Grandmother today; hope to see you there.  While you're at it, buy one of Drew's cookbooks or some recipe cards.  (Click here to view more details.)

In other news, today is the last day to vote for The Frugal Hostess's ice cream concoction, Summer Tomato.  While it may sound a tad unusual, the world will never know if it's good or gross unless you vote for it to be made! 

Some FruHubs Food is coming soon!

Cocktail Rings

Here's something you can make that is easy and yet, extra-awesome.  The Frugal Hostess has been meaning to make these for quite some time, but only recently have the correct craft supplies and available time converged to make it happen.  Ladies and Gentlemen, please behold:

That's right.  What do you mean what the hell is a cocktail ring?  Well, seriously, who knows.  It's an over-sized ring worn on the right hand; that much is clear.  These giant, dramatic rings first became popular in the 1940s and are also known as dinner rings.  While Wikipedia says that that they are typically made of precious or semi-precious stones, we are all very aware of the likelihood that an emerald turned up in The Frugal Hostess's craft supplies: 0%.

 Instead, FruHo made her cocktail rings out of buttons.  On her one and only visit to the World's Longest Yardsale (overpriced and therefore not the place for deals, but still very cool and worth seeing once), TFH picked up an old-school Mason jar filled with buttons.  She's sorted through them a number of times, pouring them out onto a tray and picking out the best for various projects.  If you don't have a jar filled with buttons, you should get one.  Fo' rizzle.

Ingredients
Rings blanks (available at craft stores)
Buttons
Some kind of wire cutters and/or pliers
Hot glue gun
Jewelry wire (optional)

Directions
1.  Choose large or glamorous, sparkly buttons from your stash.
2.  Cut or pull off the hook from the back so the button will lie flat.
3.  Put some glue on the ring blank, press down the button, and then put more glue where the ring and the button meet up.  Please note: TFH used hot glue sticks from the 1990s, and they didn't work all that well.  There used to be six rings, but the sixth cam unglued after an hour or so of wear.  (Not sure if this is the result of old glue or hot glue itself, so please weigh in if you have a better adhesive solution.)
4.  Let it dry.  When you wear the ring, do your very best not to pick at the glue, or it will fall apart.
5.  [Optional step]  Depending on the style of button you are using, you may want to use some wire to pull them together and/or secure them to the ring blank.  The ring pictured above with three gold spheres is wired together and then glued.

Wear your ring as often as possible, particularly while sipping a cocktail.

The Frugal Hostess is well-accessorized and watching a special about The Satanic Verses.  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.

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.

Make It Yourself Monday: The Return - Re-purposing Household Goods

The Frugal Hostess kind of forgot that she used to do this Monday column about making stuff yourself.  Oops.  Sorry about that.

It's back!  For one week only.  Or, you know, until the next time FruHo remembers to do it.

This time, we're going to talk about re-purposing things you already have so that you don't have to buy other things.

Item One: Liquid Soap for Your Guest Bathroom

Here's what you do.  Get a squeeze bottle - sort of like the ones for ketchup and mustard, but clear.  Fill it with: dish soap; gel shampoo; shower gel; or Dr. Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap.  Presto - you have liquid hand soap!  And then people actually think you wash your hands!  When, of course, you totally don't, since you're trying to cultivate the good bacteria.  Or whatever.  Yuck.

Item Two: Bath Oil (or moisturizer)

Fill a small jar with canola oil.  Add several drops of orange, almond, or other non-floral essential oil.  Shake like hell.  Drip into bath water and/or rub on skin.  Actually, you can use floral scents, TFH supposes, just don't give her any.  Gross.  Sneeze-o-matic.

Item Three: All-Purpose Surface Cleaner

Take a squirt bottle (feel free to use an old cleaning product bottle, but just wash it well to get rid of the nasty chemicals and chemical smell).  Fill it with half vinegar and half water.  Spray it all over anything dirty.  Wipe and repeat.

Item Four: Buttermilk

Hardly anyone ever has buttermilk hanging around.  Although, given it's extraordinary ability to improve baked goods, maybe we should.  Either way, if you don't have any buttermilk, just use regular milk with one tablespoon replaced with white vinegar.  In other words, if you need a cup of buttermilk, pour a cup of milk, scoop out one tablespoon of the milk, and add a tablespoon of white vinegar.  Unlike many substitutions, The Frugal Hostess can honestly say that this is exactly the same and results in no change to your final product.

Item Five: Leather Cleaner

This may be somewhat controversial, but FruHo has heard - from the horse's mouth, no less - that cobblers use lemon Pledge to put a shine on your briefcases.  That's right; you pay $10-$20 to have your Coach Legacy briefcase freshened up, and the dude sprays Pledge all over it and calls it a day.  Shocking, but certainly frugal to do yourself.

Item Six: On the Spot Blemish Treatment

You do not need to fork out for a special mask or cream or potion for the occasional pimple.  Cover it with toothpaste, sleep, and wake up with less of a problem.  (Don't, however, rub toothpaste all over your face.  As TFH can attest, that is just a bad idea.)  Please note: the toothpaste needs to be paste and not gel.

Item Seven: Cuticle Oil

See bath oil above.  Or, drip some olive oil on your cuticles.  What a ridiculous thing to spend money on.

Item Eight: Labels

You don't need to buy a P-Touch Label Maker.  You can use masking tape and a Sharpie.  Duh.  Full disclosure: The Frugal Hostess is having a torrid affair with her P-Touch label maker and is absolutely head-over-heels in love with it.  So, you know, this is more do as TFH says not as TFH does-style advice.

Item Nine: Furniture Buffer

According to this article on Lifehacker, you can use a walnut to take care of scuffs on wood furniture.  Hmmm.  That looks awesome, but FruHo hasn't tried it yet, so caveat emptor.

Item Ten:  News

Twitter.  It's much faster, more accurate, and usually more hilarious than the news.

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.

DIY XMAS: Stack of Books

In honor of faithful reader, Karen, today's DIY XMAS is for the book-lover on your list.  The Frugal Hostess herself is a voracious reader, and she would absolutely love a gift like this.

Cheap and easy, as you've come to expect from FruHo, is the name of the game when giving a Stack of Books.  Here are the steps:

1.  Identify four or five interests of your intended giftee.  For TFH, this would be: entertaining, old-fashioned preserving, etiquette, 1960s left political movements, art - well, she could go on and on, but you get the idea.  If your recipient isn't forthcoming about her interests, you might list some key characteristics like national origin or heritage, hometown or home state, or profession.  You'll need to have at least a few options for each person,because you can't count on finding everything you need in one store.

2.  Go to the thrift store or used book store and pick out volumes that relate to the interest(s) you've identified.  In The Frugal Hostess's opinion, it's better to buy four books about gardening than one each about gardening, cooking, yarn, and pet rocks.  There's just something more appealing about a stack of different takes on one subject.

3.  Be sure that the books you choose are quite obviously old, rather than appearing to be your own cast-offs.  While this may seem counter-intuitive, the point of this gift is that you selected several old books on a subject the recipient likes, rather than that you had a stack of books lying around and felt like you could pass them along.  Make sense?

4.  Wrap them individually but tie a ribbon around the whole package.  That would be fun to open.

5.  Bonus options: 
- Add a card that says something like, "I know you love to knit, so I found a bunch of interesting old knitting books for you to look at." 
- Decorate the package with something that hints at the contents, like a pair of knitting needles or something.  That would be cool.  Although perhaps a bit dangerous if they're sharp.  But, as an adult, The Frugal Hostess is certain you will make the right decision.
- Create a bookmark to go with the theme of the books.  Just make sure it's not too dorky.  Bookmarks walk a fine line.

Voila - cheap and easy, just like we like it!

The Frugal Hostess has read everything. Would you like to challenge her to a speed-reading contest?  If so, 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.

DIY XMAS: Cinnamon Rolls

OK, sorry, The Frugal Hostess has yet to post a single episode of the DIY XMAS series.  Oops.  She's been working on it, don't you worry, but she realized that two of her three total readers are family members and thus potential DIY XMAS gift recipients who, you know, might not like to know how cheap their gift was prefer a surprise.  So, TFH had to do a bit of shuffling.  But, she's supposedly got it together now, so let the D-ing IY commence!

Well, except for, in just this one case, FruHo is DI-ing it a la The Pioneer Woman and Paula Deen.  (And, seriously, if you read this blog and don't read The Pioneer Woman, you have your priorities completely jacked up and need to have your internet connection taken away.)  With some major minor changes, as per usual.

These cinnamon rolls are a great holiday gift for neighbors and co-workers.  It's also a good idea to make these if you'll have a lot of holiday company, as they are impressive (play up the "from scratch" angle) and make the house smell good.  And, you know how TFH feels about cinnamon, so these must be good if she will choke them down.

While The Frugal Hostess is ordinarily quite firmly opposed to disposable, well, anything other than toilet paper, delivering or freezing these in disposable aluminum pie pans is a good way to accomplish using them for a gift, unless you have been buying up pie pans at the thrift store for a few months.  New pie pans = $6 or so, whereas a package of three aluminum pans is about $1.50.  Again, this is only for anyone experiencing the drier end of a cash flow problem; if you have enough to budget about $10 per person, make the pie pan the real gift and the cinnamon rolls a bonus.

Here are directions for making 12-15 rolls adapted from Paula Deen; The Pioneer Woman has a big batch recipe if you want to make a great deal at once.

Ingredients

Dough
1/4 oz pkg yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup scalded milk (you know, just under boiled.  TFH always adds a splash more to account for the milk that sticks to the pan.)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3.5 - 4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling
1/2 cup melted butter (use the extra for the pan)
3/4 granulated sugar
2-3 teaspoons cinnamon
Optional raisins and/or pecans


Icing
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons of hot water

Directions - Make dough and let rise for 60-90 minutes. 

1.  Dissolve yeast in warm water.  TFH usually adds a pinch of sugar and whisks this lightly, as it supposedly "feeds" the yeast and makes it more excited or something.  Who knows if this is actually necessary.
2.  In a large bowl, mix milk, butter, salt, and egg.  Add two cups of flour and mix, then add yeast mixture.  Add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time until dough is easy to handle (although it will still be sort of sticky).  TFH found 3.5 cups, plus another perhaps eighth of a cup, of flour were plenty.
3.  Kneed for five minutes or so on a floured surface, then place in a greased bowl and cover to let rise, at least one hour.  Cooking spray is fine for greasing the bowl, and you can just rinse out the ingredients bowl and use it again rather than dirtying up a new bowl.

Make the rolls, and let them rise again.  Unlike the South.

4.  When dough has doubled in size, punch it down like that dough has thoroughly pissed you off.
5.  Roll out on floured surface to about 15" by 9".  Easier said than done, of course, but your best bet may be rolling it too big and folding over the excess, since it won't affect the appearance of the final product.
6.  Melt filling butter and brush all over the rolled out dough, followed by the sugar and cinnamon (mix together first).  Add any optional ingredients.
7.  This is the exciting part!  Roll the filled dough longways (from the 15" side), and then pinch the crease to the roll to seal it.  GIANT LOG OF CINNAMON ROLLS!!!  Cut the log into slices (12-15, with 14 being the ideal amount for two aluminum pie pans).

8.  After you butter the pan(s) and sprinkle sugar all over the place (fine to use leftover sugar and cinnamon mixture, BTW), arrange the rolls closetogether and let rise for another 45 minutes.
9.  Bake in a 350 oven for 30 minutes.

Make the icing while the rolls are baking.  Please note, ingredients listed produce about twice as much icing as you actually need.  You could use the excess on cookies or some gross foods you may have received.


10.  Mix melted icing butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla together.  Then add hot water a little bit at a time until you like the thickness of the icing.
11.  Spread icing on rolls after letting them sit for ten minutes.

Long-Term Planning

The Frugal Hostess suggests that you make and bake off rolls for gifts before freezing, rather than refrigerating or freezing the raw dough.  This dough gets a little tough when it sits, so you are better off to freeze the baked rolls and then ice them when you're ready.  TFH promises, because her mama told her so, that baked goods do really well in the freezer, so quit worrying (lookin' at you, FruHubs).

The Frugal Hostess loves Christmas! That is all.

Christmas Handicrafts

A few Christmases ago, The Frugal Hostess was flat broke.  She and FruHubs had spent a ton of money on their wedding [and, yes, their parents paid for everything, so how they accomplished that level of post-wedding poverty remains mysterious but may or may not be related to a year-long spending spree on things "for the wedding/honeymoon/to celebrate our engagement/because we're celebrating/etc."] and were living in a part of town they couldn't really afford.  Meanwhile, TFH had recently begun drinking an Al Gore-flavored Kool-Aid that made her want to decrease her consumption [conveniently, this coincided with a time when she would be consuming on behalf of others rather than herself].  So, she decided to make each and every one of the Christmas gifts that she and FruHubs would be giving to anyone.

Have you ever Googled "homemade Christmas gift" or "Christmas crafts"?  If you haven't, The Frugal Hostess will spare you.  Almost every result is either something made of macaroni like a small child would create (and then be too embarrassed to give you) or something so ridiculously complicated that you spend more money on the equipment that you would purchasing the non-homemade version of the same thing.  Hmmph.  Pipette, Martha?  Really???

Some parts of this DIY XMAS plan were easy.  TFH had gotten into paper crafts and had, before poverty struck, purchased a ton of supplies for making her own greeting cards and gift tags.  She bought a bunch of cheap wrapping supplies at after-Christmas sales the year before, and she had started her Regifting Closet.  So, you know, she wasn't totally screwed.

However.

However, there was a lot of this that was exceedingly hard and annoying.  So this year, as her Christmas gift to you, The Frugal Hostess plans to give you detailed instructions for make-it-yourself presents that are A.) not made of macaroni, and B.) don't require a huge amount of special equipment.  Merry Christmas!!!*

To get you started, here are some past posts that include great DIY presents.  TFH has a long list of things she'll be making on your behalf, but if you have an idea you'd like her to try, leave it in the comments or email it to frugalhostess [at] gmail [dot] com.

Homemade Grenadine
Limoncello and Other Cordials - PLEASE NOTE: these take six to eight weeks, so start now if you're doing them for Christmas!
Dog Biscuits

*On the whole Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays debate, TFH comes down firmly on the side of say what you celebrate.  If you celebrate Kwanzaa, tell people, "Happy Kwanzaa."  If you celebrate Hanukkah, wish someone, "Happy Hanukkah."  And, obviously, if you celebrate Christmas, say, "Merry Christmas."  If you don't have a tradition, or if your tradition is one without nomenclature like Festivus or Solstice or Commercialus, and yet you still (maybe oddly) feel the need to throw out a seasonal wish, say, "Happy Holidays."  Just because you don't celebrate Hanukkah doesn't mean you should get offended at someone wishing you a happy one.  Duh.  Don't be an asshole.

photo by Kevin Dooley and Hans van de Bruggen

The Frugal Hostess wishes you the happiest of Happy Kwanzaas. Please send a card, or a comment of you're so inclined. 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.

MIYM: Breadcrumbs

A few years ago, The Frugal Husband made a smoker.  He saw it on Alton Brown's Good Eats, and he decided to make one for himself.  FruHubs is so good like that.  (If you'd like instructions, go here.)  The first thing he smoked was a pork butt, and it changed The Frugal Hostess's life forever.

Can you believe that she had never had a pulled pork sandwich before?  Isn't that just absurd?!

Now, they have smoked pulled pork sandwiches semi-regularly.  The best way to eat pulled pork is with lots of yummy barbecue sauce on a sandwich roll with sesame seeds - delicious.  If you serve it with salad and potato wedges, you will be extra happy!

But what happens when you buy a package of eight rolls and only have enough pulled pork for seven sandwiches? When life gives you extra bread, make breadcrumbs!

Ingredients
Old bread
Extra bread
Heel of bread
Hot dog bun
Hamburger bun
Stale crackers from party - crackers make EXCELLENT breadcrumbs, FYI.
In other words, whatever you have in the bread family.  TFH throws the above items in the freezer until she has enough to make a big batch of breadcrumbs.

Directions
1.  Thaw anything frozen.
2.  Spread on baking sheet and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.
3.  Break into pieces.  Toss pieces into food processor or blender and process or blend to desire crumb.  If you don't have those, put into a big Ziploc bag and crunch up.  That is so fun, BTW, that you might want to just do it that way.
4.  You can stop there.  Or, you can add spices.  FruHo always adds spices because her daddy always used Italian breadcrumbs for everything, and she is a traditionalist.  And by traditionalist she means, breacrumbaditionalist. Spice options: pepper (any color), salt, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary (chop finely first), onion powder, garlic powder.  Spice requirement: red pepper flakes.  No idea why, but this is the one ingredient that never varies.  It makes the breadcrumbs slightly spicy and highly delicious.

Another thing to do with old bread is make croutons.  Thaw, cut into cubes, mix in a bowl with spices and melted butter, then spread on a baking sheet and bake.

And the cheater's way to make croutons, if you need a small amount of them for Caesar salad or something, is this: Toast two pieces of bread in the toaster.  Cut into crouton-esque cubes.  Melt butter in a pan over low heat, toss in the bread cubes, and add spices as desired.  You could also melt the butter in a microwave (use a coffee cup) and do the rest in a bowl.

A last idea, if you have children or grandkids, is to save your old bread for a while, then thaw it out and go feed some ducks at a park.  Whatever you do, don't feed birds at the beach, or you will create a scary swarm of dive-bombing seagulls that poop on your head.  Not that The Frugal Hostess has any experience with this.

Don't waste bread, yo.

photo by net_efekt

The Frugal Hostess feeds the birds. What do you think of that? You can join the Frugalistas on Facebook for exclusive content, follow on Twitter @frugalhostess, or subscribe so that you always know when a new post appears.

MIYM: Truffles without Morals

After Eat on $30, The Frugal Hostess planned to have a day of decadent eating, topped off by the Sunday Soiree at Running with Tweezers’ pad.  Alas, Dear Readers, life got in the way.  Football happened.  And a garden plot was begun.  Incidentally, should The Frugal Hostess be concerned that the palm of her right hand is so sore from digging (that’s right, sore – huh? Yes, from digging.  What?) that she can’t make a fist?  It’s kind of the height of being out of shape when you can’t use your hands without major post-traumatic digging disorder the next day.

So, while TFH did fix a big batch of the world’s best macaroni and cheese (stay tuned for the patent pending recipe in another post) and gobble up a couple of chicken wings, the candy-making wasn’t finished until today.  But it was totally worth the wait.  And handy, since the candy can now count for Make It Yourself Monday.  Ladies and Gentleman (men?  Dad, are you still reading?), The Frugal Hostess gives you…..

Truffles without Morals

(a recipe completely absent ranting and raving about food politics)

Ingredients (basic truffle)

12 oz.bag of semi-sweet or bitter sweet chocolate chips (Ghiaradelli, if you’re askin’.)

One can of sweetened condensed milk

Splash of vanilla

Directions

1.  Melt the chips in a double boiler or bowl set over a pot of boiling water.

2.  Remove from heat.

3.  Stir in the can of sweetened condensed milk.  It’s OK if you accidentally eat some.

4.  Stir in the splash of vanilla (like a tablespoon or so).

5.  Put the bowl in the refrigerator to cool and harden.  This takes about four hours, so TFH usually leaves it over night and does the rest the next day.

6.  Once cool and firm, use the small side of your melon baller to scoop out little scoops of chocolate.  They will not look cute, so you will have to roll them around in your hands to make beautiful shiny spheres.

7.  Oops, you should have already lined a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with wax paper.  Do that, then get back to handling your balls.  What?

OK, now’s where the candy-making gets fun.  There are a ton of variations that will make your truffles extra fancy.

Variations

Stir-ins: Before you start to roll the chocolates, mix in a small jar of maraschino cherries, finely chopped.  This tastes so good, just like chocolate-covered cherries but without being a huge pain to make.  You could also mix in candied citrus peel, nuts, dried fruits, unmelted chocolate pieces, or toffee.

Liquors: Instead of, or in addition to, the vanilla, try a flavored liquor like Chambord or Frangelica.  Yum.

Coatings: The easiest version of this truffle is to make the balls and roll them in unsweetened cocoa.  This makes a nice contrast to the sweetness of the chocolate and looks pretty.  Just sprinkle cocoa on a dinner plate and roll the little suckers around.  Powdered sugar would work the same way.  You could also do it with crushed nuts. 

But, if you want extra credit, do this (which FruHo found on The Pioneer Woman): refrigerate your dark chocolate balls until they are nice and cold.  Melt a half a bag of milk chocolate chips.  Coat the dark chocolate in milk chocolate, then sprinkle on a touch of sea salt.  So good, The Frugal Hostess promises – she had one tonight.  Look at the (horrific) picture.  A sprinkle of crushed pistachios would look really pretty, too.

The best way to serve or give these is to put them in those little mini-muffin cups inside a box or on a tray.  Or, you can just stand at the refrigerator door and pop them into your mouth.

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.

MIYM: A Mess

This Monday, The Frugal Hostess is reveling in the fact that her weekend was spent doing whatever she wanted whenever she wanted to, in her own house.  She had no idea she was such a crotchety old woman, but The Frugal Hostess is O-V-E-R traveling, at least until Christmas.  Not that any of her trips have been anything but pleasant and fun, but TFH finds herself craving stability and regular-ness and her own flipping house.  Here's a quick trip timeline:

May: started new company; various house guests three out of four weekends; other weekend spent as part of a week-long working trip to Florida.

June: four day camping trip; ten day trip to Martha's Vineyard; flea infestation begins; various house guests two weekends and one week.


July: house guests two weeks and another set one weekend; flea infestation worsens, mostly while The Frugal Husband is out of town.

August: four-day trip to WPB; house guests one weekend.

September, so far: five day trip to Mexico Beach and PCB.  Party and partying planned for next weekend.

This calendar excludes the various concerts and special events that The Frugal Hostess has attended and/or hosted.  Whew!  How exhausting.

All of this to say: The Frugal Hostess had the BEST weekend!  With literally nothing scheduled and no pending deadlines, TFH spent Friday night trying (and failing) to make grit cakes.  For whatever reason (and TFH blames milk) the m*-ing grits (ooh, sorry, still a little rage about that) would not set up, so she was making grit cakes out of quicksand.  Not effective, FYI.  But, no matter, The Frugals still had shrimp and grits with some crazy sausage-gravy-esque sauce a la The Frugal Husband.  Delicious!

On Saturday, The Frugal Hostess went on a search for pinking shears, a task that sounds easier to accomplish than it actually was.  She was buying those for a forthcoming project, so stay tuned.  [Incidentally, did you know that you could sharpen scissors by cutting up a folded piece of aluminum foil?  TFH can't remember where she read that, but good advice, no?]  As she drove around on her quixotic mission, she encountered a number of yard sales and dropped a little cash here and there.  In her humble opinion, church yard sales are the very best, as long as you can shake off their recruiting tactics.  All of the goods are donated for the benefit of a higher power, so the prices are low-low-low, and you can usually find some incredible hand-crafted foolishness with which to entertain yourself for 10-75 cents.  Saturday evening, she prepared the only dish she makes better than her husband, meatloaf, and started on the above-mentioned Pinking Shears Project.

Sunday was Episode One of the mini-series known as Football Feast.  The Frugal Husband and his BFF prepare an extravagant feast every Sunday during football season, and they drag all of the TVs into one room so they can watch NFL games all day long.  TFH is invited to drop in occasionally for a snack, but it is mostly a Big Giant Sausage Festival.  For The Frugal Hostess, that resulted in her reading and reading and reading all day long.  She can't remember the last time she spent an entire day reading (although her physique is perfectly designed for it).

So, this Make-It-Yourself-Monday, The Frugal Hostess has only made a mess of her house.  She started a couple of projects, read a bunch, and ate some snacks.  And that, Dear Reader(s?), is all she's got.  The lesson here: stay home at least sometimes, and don't feel bad if you really just need one weekend to wallow around in your own fat pants.  Like how TFH turned her filthy home into a life lesson?  Ha!  That's why she's The Frugal Hostess and you're not.

The Frugal Hostess wants to help. Please feel free to leave your entertaining (in every sense of the word) question as a comment, and she will answer it in her typically sensitive and charming way. You can also rate this post below, join the Frugalistas on Facebook for exclusive content, or subscribe so that you always know when a new post appears.

In a Pickle

The Frugal Hostess is going away for a few days.  Actually, she feels like she's always going away for a few days.  One of the irritating things about travel is that it often results in spoiled or wasted food.  The Frugals try their hardest to cut back on fruits and veggies when a trip is forthcoming, but they don't always succeed.  Fruit Rescue is one procedure that helps (read about it on our sister blog here), but TFH needed another method to make her food last longer.

[Wouldn't it be cool if at this point in the post we revealed that The Frugal Hostess invented pickling?  Of course, she didn't; it's been around forevah.  But it still rules.]

So, when faced with a pile of okra and green beans before a trip, TFH decided to pickle them.  Please note: canning comes with a bunch of annoying rules, so TFH made refrigerator pickles.  Act like a grown-up and wash the jars, blah blah blah.  If you get botulism, The Frugal Hostess is out of the mix.  She also completely invented the blend of spices by looking at a recipe and her spice cabinet and having the twain meet, as it were, and she encourages you to improvise accordingly.

Ingredients

Some okra and green beans, uncooked
Jars (Figure out, roughly, how many jars' worth of vegetables you have.  You can also throw carrots, onions, and garlic into the mix.)
Vinegar (Like, half a cup per jar.  Ish.)
Water
One bay leaf for each jar
Three slightly crushed garlic cloves per jar
Spice mix (more on this in a minute)

Directions 

Divide the veggies evenly between the jars (after you cut off anything gross, wash them, etc.  Again, you are an adult).  Stuff 'em in there, but be careful to leave room for the pickling brine.  It's better to have too few vegetables in each jar than too many, in The Frugal Hostess's opinion.

Fill each jar half-way with white vinegar, and add a bay leaf and three cloves of garlic.

Divide your spice mixture (seriously, calm down - explanation is forthcoming) evenly between the jars, then top off with water.

Shake a few times and refrigerate for five days.  After that, eat like crazy.  Or make Bloody Marys like crazy and garnish with your homemade pickle goodness.

Spice Mix Extraordinare

The main spices for a pickling brine are mustard, dill, pepper, and salt.  You want two tablespoon of mustard and dill seeds per jar, one tablespoon of pepper per jar, and a half tablespoon of salt per jar.  The specifics really make only minor difference in taste, so feel free to mix yellow and brown mustard (and powdered versus seeds if necessary), dill weed and dill seeds, and every color of pepper you can rustle up.  Try to use kosher or sea salt, though - larger crystals seem to work better.  Mix all of the spices in a bowl, then add a traditionally sweet spice - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice - about two teaspoons or so for the whole mixture.  Then divide the spice mixture equal between the jars.

Yo, yo - pickles.

The Frugal Hostess is on the road. Please talk to her so she doesn't lose touch with reality. You can also mark your reaction below, join the Frugalistas on Facebook for exclusive content, or subscribe so that you always know when a new post appears.

MIYM: Hummus

This is so flipping easy that The Frugal Hostess ought to be ashamed of herself. She's not even gonna dignify this post with a picture.

Ingredients
1 16oz can of garbanzo beans
1/4 cup liquid from can
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 Tablespoons tahini
2 cloves garlic (roasted is also good)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Directions (Should this say "direction?" Singular?  Get it?)
1.  Blend together all ingredients in food processor or blender.

Of course, TFH is pretty well-known for wanting to complicate the uncomplicated, so she has started making her own tahini instead of buying it.

Ingredients
1 cup of sesame seeds
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
(This ratio works up to at least five cups of sesame seeds.  TFH has never made nor plans to make five full cups of tahini, but she thought you'd like to know.)

Directions
1.  Toast the sesame seeds 5-10 minutes in a 350 degree over, shaking often with spatula.
2.  Cool for 20 minutes.
3.  Blend with oil in food processor.
4.  Store in an airtight container FOREVER.  Seriously, this stuff lasts a loooooong time.

Eat with carrot sticks and pita chips.  Scrumptious!

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Paper Fetish

Like many a lady, The Frugal Hostess admits to a certain fetish for paper. Stationery and art supplies knock her socks off, and she knows the difference between an A2 and an A4 envelope. Please don’t show her any embellished file folders or odd-shaped paper clips, or she’ll be forced to purchase them. In fact, TFH is one of the few people on earth who enjoys wrapping Christmas presents. All of this paper is expensive, though, and not just financially. The production of paper causes air pollution, solid waste, water and energy consumption, and all manner of unnecessary trouble. Check here and here and here and here for details. So what is a frugal fetishist to do? Well, in the case of The Frugal Hostess, she has decided to try to make some compromises that allow her to indulge her paper fantasies while positively impacting the environmental realities. First, here are the easy ones.
1. Change from regular to recycled toilet paper. If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees. Keep in mind that all brands are most decidedly not created equal, and TFH does not want you to suffer. She recommends Seventh Generation, which is softer than most and 100% recycled (80% post-consumer).
2. Limit yourself to one or two rolls of recycled paper towels per month (yes, you heard correctly). Take all of your stained bath towels and cut them into rags. Do the same with old tee-shirts. And buy a stack of matching dish towels that are attractive enough to hang in plain site but cheap enough that staining them will not break your heart. Get out the cloth napkins you have, and/or buy some that meet the above attractive but cheap qualifications. Then, when you spill something, wipe it up with a washable rag. When you eat dinner (or lunch, or breakfast), wipe your mouth with a cloth napkin. Clean your furniture with tee-shirt rags. You get it. You might need paper towels for a few things, like soaking up bacon grease or killing a roach, but most things that you use paper towels for are better accomplished using their washable siblings.
3. Switch sides. Of your printer paper, that is. Use a box or tray to collect paper that’s blank on one side. Cut some into quarters that you staple together to make notepads, and use the rest for scratch sheets and coloring canvasses.
Now, slightly harder: One of the more difficult projects The Frugal Hostess undertook last Christmas was to use only recycled wrapping supplies for her gifts (that may be why she talks about that so much on this blog, now that she thinks about it). In addition to reusing gift bags and tissue, TFH collected brown paper grocery bags on days when she forgot her cloth ones (they still have them, many with convenient handles). When the time came to wrap gifts, she carefully unglued the seams of the paper bags to make the biggest pieces possible, then cut them to size for her gifts. Using a snowflake stamp and some silver ink, TFH dotted each gift with a random dusting of snowflakes, and she tied them each with a piece of shiny, real ribbon. These were pretty cute, and they accomplished the no new wrapping paper goal.
However, this year, TFH has started collecting the bags early, and she’s planning to try out some more complicated techniques. She’s thought about sponge painting – not the faux finish kind popular in the 1990s. TFH plans to dilute paint with water, dip a sponge in it, and make wide stripes of color on the bags. If she does this far enough in advance, the paper will have plenty of time to dry. She’s also thought about using punches to cut out shapes, which she will back with recycled tissue paper. This should give the gift some texture and visual interest.
What other things could The Frugal Hostess do to brown paper bags to make them more exciting as gift wrap? Leave your ideas in the comments, and look for a post about this project in the next few weeks.

photo by Lara604

MIYMonday - Flea Fighting Dog Biscuits

The Frugal Homestead was recently infested with fleas. Boy, was it ever horrible. The Frugal Hostess and Husband started out trying not to use chemicals, researching home remedies and natural products that were supposed to rid the house of fleas. Well, friends, the fact of the matter is that, once the situation is advanced enough to qualify as a full-on infestation, the home remedies are just about useless. Bomb the crap out of the little buggers with chemicals, get rid of them, and then start your all-natural flea prevention campaign.

There are a number of different things you can do to prevent fleas from taking over your home. One of the most effective for TFH was to sprinkle Borax all over the carpet and big rug. Borax is a non-toxic, uh, thing – not sure if one would say non-toxic chemical? It’s a powder, kind of like baking soda, and it has a multitude of applications around the house. It is also very inexpensive. Anyway, if you sprinkle that around the house, leave it over night, and then vacuum it up the next day, it will kill/maim/destroy flea eggs without doing the same to your pets and yourself.

Another suggestion is to put a small amount of apple cider vinegar in your pets’ water each day; this is supposed to keep fleas away over time. Who knows how – probably something all sciency and boring. The Frugal Hostess made a solution of half water and half apple cider vinegar, then added to that a few drops of castile soap, a few drops of citronella oil, and a few drops of peppermint oil to mask the smell of the citronella (which is totally gross). If you don’t have cats, you could use tea tree oil instead of citronella oil (cats are opposed to the oil of the tea tree and will scratch your eyes out of you put it on them). TFH put all of that in a spray bottle and uses it as an all-purpose cleaner which has the added bonus of repelling bugs.

A final, and universally agreed-upon, natural solution is garlic. Apparently, fleas and other pests hate garlic and will stay off of your garlic-eating dog. Obviously, it might be a little awkward to feed your dog cloves of garlic, so here’s a recipe for garlicky dog treats. These have the added (subtracted?) bonus of having no gross chemicals or fillers, and you can even make them organic by choosing organic ingredients.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons yeast

Half cup lukewarm water

2 tablespoons parsley (optional)

3 tablespoons minced fresh garlic

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

3 tablespoons honey

1 egg

5 cups of whole wheat flour

Directions

1. Dissolve yeast in water.

2. Stir in all ingredients except flour.

3. Gradually blend in flour, adding enough to form a stiff dough.

4. Transfer to floured surface and knead 3-5 minutes or until smooth.

5. Roll and cut with cookie cutters (dog bone shape is best, but anything rather small will do).

6. Bake 30 minutes. Turn over and bake an additional 15 minutes.

7. Let cool overnight.

These last forever and freeze well. Enjoy! Woof!

Photo by Ashnikov