The $5 Dollar Dinner Mom Cookbook

Rarely do I care to critique or review anything, much less take the time to write about it. Not a movie, a product or even a book because I feel that what may appeal or work for one person may not (and usually does not) work the same or appeal the same for another. HOWEVER, I am making an exception.

First, I should explain to you a bit about what it is that brought me to this endeavour. Really kind of the silly side, to begin with, but now it has grown in to a cause or mission so to speak.

It really was a humble little start. We went on a camping trip up the mountain to ride the trails with our dirt bikes and my quad, several minor things went wrong to cause a change in plans for the whole weekend. Our first choice for camping sight was still closed off to the public due to snow. Yes, this late in May and there is still a lot of snow up there. Guess it is all that rumored global warning. Don't worry, I am not getting started on my feeling about that propagandist lie. We, or rather my husband, had to back our thirty foot trailer down the single lane dirt road to get to a large enough spot to turn around. Now I ask you...would have really taken too much manpower or money to have someone post a sign at the BEGINNING of the road that the campgrounds were closed? You know back where there was room to turn around?

So on to plan B and off to our usual spot to camp. Normally this spot about the lake is really warm this time of year...but, a little front had moved through bringing cooler temperatures and rain. I always have a good stash of emergency ... shall we say supplies for alternate activities. Such as games, DVDs, crochet bag, magazines and such. About a month's worth actually. Growing up with Gilligan's Island am always prepared for the two hour tour to end up taking longer. We get set up and find that while the generator will turn on, it is not kicking over to create electricity. Hubby looked all over all the connections and announced we would be with electricity for the night and he would check it out the next morning when he had more light. Okay, we have battery lighting, propane cooking, fridge and heat. No problem. While I am heating up the chili for hot dogs, hubby and his margarita jump up from beside the fire, grab a flashlight and go check one more thing. He informs me it is now working, he found the problem. He plugged it in. PLUGGED IT IN?

So it was that on the last day of camp, my daughter-in-law and I decided we would let the rest of the bunch ride in the rain and cold while we would watch a movie. We watched Julia & Julie. Most definitely a chick flick, but now romance. I won't spoil it completely if you haven't seen it, but Julie, a modern day city dweller, obsessed with cooking, decides to create a blog in which she post about making all the recipes from her hero, Julia Child's cookbook. One year to make over 500 recipes. You understand that the cookbook is about French cooking for the American housewife? My family would throw it back in my face if I prepared a meal of tomato aspic. Why aren't there books about normal cooking? I don't get it. I understand about having a cause, I have one as well. I want to blog about, and read about, real meals with normal ingredients. Plan out the menu so I don't have to think about it, maybe even do some cooking ahead. I want to put a meal on the table and still have time for all my hobbies. You know, Farming on Facebook, quilting, machine embroidery, crocheting, scrapbooking and such.

So, after watching the movie, and being a little lost myself, well not really lost since I know where I am, which is back to being a stay home mom, but better to say overwhelmed with the changes, I started thinking. Thinking I needed something to motivate me, to feel so strongly about. No, not a blog about Julia Child, it has been done, and never mind the fact that there are probably less than ten recipes out the over 500 that my family would actually eat or that I could afford to make. I did however renew my desire to plan out some affordable meals that would be eaten. So, now you are up to speed with how it came to be that I pulled out a cookbook from my bag and started looking for recipes.

I recently bought a cookbook written by Erin Chase and titled The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook. When I first picked it up, the recipes sounded like my family would like them. That was a good start. Then, the ingredients were much of what I use normally. Another good start, no running off to specialty stores or the cost of those stores. She had frugal tips and strategic shopping guides, all of which sounded reasonable. And the recipes are set up for a family of four, and we are now three. The introduction to the book states, and I am paraphrasing, that the author set out to feed a family of four on $5 a meal using the best and most wholesome ingredients. All good at first glance.

Now I say this because some time ago I had gotten caught in to the web of frugality a little too much. I was a member of an internet group whose goal was to feed a family of four on four dollars a day. Four bucks for all three meals. That was about the same time I had gotten my Tightwad Gazette and both of those groups suggested going to the feed store to buy oats and making lots of oatmeal. They also lived in an area that had orchards and farms you could pick your own fruit and they raised their own eggs. Then, the four dollar group started posting their menus. Yikes, lunch was a half a sandwich? It may work for them, but not for my family, which at the time included two boys that ate double servings.

So, you can see how really good this book looked. I bought it. Then, I started looking at it a little closer, in a little more detail. First few glances were looking good. Each recipe listed the ingredients needed, and the cost of each ingredient, bottom line was that all the recipes were costing $5 or less for each meal. Even some recipes for homemade things like seasoning mix, baking mix, the everyday things. This was really sounding great. Now all I needed was to make a list of recipes to cook. Then, last night, my brain found it. The errors. Nothing really major, just what my dad would call "over thinking a bit" but enough to rial me up. Kind of like watching a movie about early Rome and seeing a watch on a Roman soldier or jet plane fly over as a multitude of arrows were released upon the enemy. I am the first to admit that I am one of those persons that notice these things, like typing errors or listing wrong descriptions. Like in a novel when the couple meet in a Chinese restaurant and after visiting with each other to set the stage for what is coming they order pizza. Or go to see a movie and leave from a play. Like I said, nothing major in the grand scheme, but bugs me.

You get my meaning. That is how it started. I would notice that a recipe for 4 people called for 2 cups of corn. That is like two can, which is a lot of corn, especially when added to a casseroled or soup. Then, the really irritating thing was when I noticed the price of ingredients. I pay close attention to grocery prices and the book is way off, at least for my area. So here it is, my take.

The book is:
1. Very inconsistent with pricing of ingredients. One recipe list 3/4 pound of ground meat for .76 while another recipe listed a 1/2 pound ground beef for .75 so am wondering where you buy meat that you get a quarter of a pound for a penny. Can I have three of those quarter pounds that cost a penny to make 3/4 of a pound for three cents? Of course not. And, in the book the same 3/4 of pound is also listed with the cost of $1.12 a pound. Now I am no math whiz, but the cheapest I find ground beef is $2.28 a pound which doing the math would make that come out to around $1.68 for 3/4 pound. Other ingredients are just as inconsistent. Roast listed on one recipe as one and half pounds for $2.73. Sorry, on sale roast is running over three bucks a pound. Another example is a recipe that list an egg for ten cents. WOW would I love to be able to get a dozen eggs for a dollar twenty. Or sour cream, half a cup for fifteen cents. Why do I feel like I am getting a huge bargain when it is on sale for $1.59? I want a carton of sour cream for thirty cents! I could go on with much more, but you get the idea.

It was enough to spur me on. To prompt me in to action. I will blog about the recipes in the book and evaluate my cost and families reactions to them.

I must say, the book has good home style recipes and her strategic guide to shopping makes sense. I just felt that the author and publishing company should have checked the final copy for the little details better. The author is soon releasing a lunch cookbook and in all honesty will probably buy it as well.

If you read this, please comment. It is always nice to know someone read it.

Today's little treasures.

Taking a bit of a break while I try and decide where to go with what, what to do with what, what to do next.

Today is so pretty outside that I had to go and take a photo of my lone yellow rose that survived the wind storm.

Originally it was climbing in front of the living room window, I had an arched trellis that had honey suckle growing all over it as well, but the wind storm destroyed it. Kind of ironic that I have this heap of beat up greenery running a muck every where and out of it is this single vine pushing it's head high to hold up a single rose. The honey suckle is blooming out and those vines are just all spread out, which I am sure is just where it will stay becoming ground cover instead of trained climbers.

Now that I have my treasures put away, thought I would post a some photos of the glass ware in hopes that some one might be able to identify the pattern for me. All I know about them is that they are supposed to be depression ware.

I have both stem ware in pink and clear, there are shorter wider ones that my mother has called sherbert glasses. I also have the matching cream and sugar bowl plus a couple of serving pieces as well. Mom would pour ginger ale in the stem ware, put rainbow or orange sherbert in the sherbert glasses and we would play tea party with them. We always had bologna and cheese as well, having to eat bread so we wouldn't get worms. Whole story for another time.

This is another pink piece. Not sure what it is, maybe a sugar bowl, but a large one.

I also have a larger serving bowl with a lid that matches. Have always loved these pieces as they match up with mom's Dessert Rose dishes.

The last piece is from an aunt, not sure if it is actual depression glass, but know that it is probably from the 30's as it was supposed to come from the home place, or the home my mom and her sister's grew up in.

Like I posted, if anyone has any idea what these patterns are called please let me know.

On the another front, the afghan is moving along, slowly, but growing. I am however ready to be done with it. Crochet is so slow for me. Rather, I am slow at crochet. Hubby announced we would be taking a day trip this week end and I will take it along and see how much I can get done. There was a plan for several strips of the yellow and green, but the plans are constantly being revised and shortened. Will see what I actually end up with.


Guess I better sign off now, nothing will get done if I spend the day on the computer. Need to run get some meat for supper as well. Until next time.

Home to Chaos

I am finally home and sitting in the middle of true chaos. We went to Texas to finish up my mother's move here to California. OH MY WHAT a job. I knew it would be tough, but thought that the majority of the items left behind when we moved her in November was pretty much all staying there. A lady is doing an estate sale and will be taking care of everything left behind. We ended up filling every inch, every nook and cranny, of a U-Haul trailer again. I sure wanted to take one of my mom's couches and dining room table, but there was absolutely no room. We were loaded to the hilt with memories. I admit, several of the boxes are mine that I claimed, but I just couldn't let go of that beautiful depression ware, and mom couldn't let go of things she got when she was in grade school.

I am really happy to have the ceramic figures I had painted for my dad over the years. I had traded mom for her computer desk. We brought the one from her house that she likes so much. Planned on putting it in son's room, but there is just no way it will go in there at the moment. He has this big desk and needs it there until I buy a chest of drawer for his TV to sit on. Understand, this is the big flat screen TV we bought him for Christmas, which is never in his room because he has it at his friends apartment, which is where he lives most of the time anyway. But back to the point. I pulled out the couches and cleaned well behind them. WOW my little dog is bigger pack rat nester than I am. When I got it all back in place, the corner computer desk that I got from mom fits perfectly in that corner. Two of the figures are still in a box and when I get them out and set up I will post a photo of them.

I am considering renting a small storage space for a few months until I can have a garage sale. I have boxes of items to sale that are in the storage building in the back yard and now have several boxes of things that I brought from mom's. I need to go through my cabinets and sort them out to make room for the new stuff. I am both excited and dreading this job. Excited to have the things, both the memory items and the functional items. Wish I had gotten some of those cookie sheets. I have found that I have neglected my cooking skills for so long that I will have to work at getting them back. Meals have been severely lack luster, but eatable. I will work on that.

My little dog Kit is acting a bit...strange since our return. Last night he laid down in the bed with Buster (mom's dog that we took over) and went to sleep. Normally they both go get in bed with hubby when he goes to bed, so fully expected to loose them when I got up to retrieve my current crochet project. But, no they never budged. When daughter went to bed, she picked up the dog bed, with both dogs still curled up, and took it to her room. I sat in the living room and crocheted for a while, just worn out. Finally after a bit just gave up and took a bath and went on to bed. I guess I was more tired than I thought, because my son came home and then left and I never even heard him. That is just not normal for me. I usually hear everything. Guess that not only has the physical aspects of the past week caught up to me, the emotional ones has too. I think the emotional can be more draining sometimes. And yesterday I had an emotional melt down...may be why I was so tired...over a stupid chair. Mom brought an old recliner when she first moved here. It was the chair my dad always sat in. I was going to store it at my oldest son's apartment until the fall when I take over my youngest son's bedroom. Well, oldest son had problems with having to look at the chair because it was his grandfather's. My "always right" husband informed him that he was wrong about the chair, even got in to a heated argument with younger son about it. Later I found some photos of mom's house and the chair, showed it to hubby and told him he owed son an apology. Long story short, I couldn't leave the chair at oldest son's so now it sits in my van.

Okay, I have rambled on long enough. I need to get done with the computer and get started on the kitchen cabinets so I can get rid of what I don't want, put up what I do want.

Yesterday I went to where a group of local knitters and crochers meet to work on projects and socialize. As I posted yesterday, I found the group through Ravelry. I am always a little uneasy with groups and new people at first, but these ladies were absolutely the most wonderful people I have ever met. They welcomed me warmly and by the time I left had been made to feel like one of the group. I look forward to meeting with them again.

I am thinking it over, and trying to decide if I should start a blog for crocheting or if I should just put everything on this one. I will post information should I add a blog.

Best of plans

Well, I had planned to meet up with a group of knit/crochet people that get together on Ravelry. OH MY GOSH is the greatest place for yarn crafts. However, hubby has taken my car to get new tires and I am afraid the group will have left by the time I can get there. Will see what happens.

Life is looking better.

Life is looking better. It has been a really long time since I have posted anything, it is totally disgraceful. But...life is looking better. March 26 will be my last day at work. OH IF YOU COULD ONLY SEE MY HAPPY DANCE. The countdown has begun so let me bring you up to date.

The last week of March is our Spring Break, we will be driving back to Texas to do a couple of repairs to my mom's house and put it on the market. We moved her here to Bako and she has a nice apartment in a retirement community. She is really liking it and I hope that this trip doesn't change that. I do so enjoy her being close and when I am not working it will be nice to spend time with her.

However, that also means that the finances will have to be drastically tightened as while I was working I picked up a car payment. I ACCEPT this challenge however in order to stay home as long as financially possible. I will be spending the first part of my "retirement" creating some menu plans and doing some bulk cooking or cooking ahead. Now, one might ask why cook ahead if I am going to be home? Simple, so I can spend time on other things, like catching up on house cleaning and hobbies. OH HOW I HAVE missed my hobbies. Also, once a month cooking, also called quantity cooking or bulk cooking is the absolute best way to cut the household expenses. When the menu plans are created...and utilized...there is no impulse buying. It is all planned out and only the items needed for that meal are bought. Also, my freezer and pantry is over flowing so I have a wonderful stock pile to work from. I am low on beef, but there is tons of everything else. I also plan to utilize Angel Food Ministries to keep out of the grocery store so much. I also look forward to getting back in to weekly bible study and quilt group.

I will start cleaning this house room by room and purging to the hilt the clutter and excess. Then, will have a massive yard sale. I will be bringing some things from mom's house that I just can't let go to strangers. This will also help get the house ready for the big move this fall. Not that we are moving, my oldest son is moving off to school. I have grand plans for his room. New paint, new flooring, and some work stations for various crafts. I will be getting my machines out of the closet and set up for use. I miss my quilting and machine embroidery so very much and actually hope to make up a few things to try and sell online or by word of mouth. Craft shows are really hard to get space at around here. I will need to get my embroidery machine out next month though as I have found a deep purple window pane shirt to machine embroidery some red hat designs on and hope to have it finished by Mother's Day to give mom. Also, I have a scrapbook project that I started for Mother's Day last year and still sits unfinished. Oh man, when I come back from Texas I will have all the photos. I spent an insane amount of money setting myself up to scrapbook, then got side tracked on other projects and all of that is put away as well. Also, I have some quilt projects and crochet projects as I have a new grand baby, a boy, coming the first part of August. I kind of expect it a little earlier, but will be happy to meet him when ever he gets here and send daily prayers that he is healthy and everything goes alright.

I have also been facing some health problems and that is the what has caused this change in working. For now the main part, the heart problems, is being treated very well with medications. However, when they did a scan of the heart they found a hernia and that problem is still being worked on. So, wait on doctors, wait on results, soon it will be worked out.

We also have taken in my mom's dog, a Jack Russell mix, and he is really funny to be around. He gets along well with Kit and the other dogs so that is the good thing.

Okay, new employment situation, new grand baby, new plans in the work for the hobbies, new plans for organizing the house, new budget to work with, new dog, guess that pretty much sums it all up for this update.

I am off to try for a fourth time to figure out this "easy - beginner" crochet pattern.

I know...but am here now.

Okay, I know it has been almost a month since I wrote, but hey it was like four months before that. I count this as improvement. Now for the updating.

My goals have fallen pitifully far away from the primrose path I planned. I have eaten out way too much, even though I vowed not to. Have been pretty much taking lunch to work though. Not as an excuse, but in my defense, I have been sick for about three weeks now. I probably should take a day to just stop, stay in bed, and gather myself back together, but with my boss that ain't happening. I did get approved to take off for Thanksgiving though so am happy about that.

I do have some recipes pulled to the side that I plan on trying. So that has progressed a small amount. I still need to organize and then do a little of the prep work for it to work the way I want though. I went and got my box of food from the Angel Food ministries. You can google them for mor info, and I will try to put a link in a little later. Overall the boxes seem pretty nice, was more impressed with the people running it. Totally organized, so very friendly, was a real treat to work with. I do have a list of recipes to try that uses what came in the box so that will be fun trying that.

I have to play taxi driver so will check back in later.