food - Surviving and Thriving

Using up the stockpile.

January 20, 2019July 26, 2013 by Donna Freedman

After a particularly aggravating shopping trip back in late March, I suggested that we buy as little as possible for the month of April. We’d live off what was stored in the cupboards, freezer and basement, filling in with vegetables, fruit and dairy as needed.

At the time I meant to report the findings here. That didn’t happen. In fact, I can’t find the envelope with our April receipts. However, I do remember that DF added them up and they came to about $91 – which shows that vegetables, fruit and dairy for two people can be pretty darned expensive up here. (Hint: We’re not buying organic or out-of-season stuff and we use milk for cooking, not for drinking.)

How’s our stockpile looking? Surprisingly unaffected, dammit.

Sweating the cost of summer fun.

June 6, 2013 by Donna Freedman

Late last week I suggested we drive to the Turnagain Arm Pit BBQ for supper. It wasn’t that there wasn’t anything to eat at home. It’s that the weather was too nice to stay inside.

Sure, we could have had leftovers at a table in the back yard. In fact, DF suggested we do that rather than spending $30 or more on ribs. But I wanted to take advantage of the splendid drive along Turnagain Arm, and then sit on the patio eating fried pickles and basking in the nonstop Alaska sun.

Summer can do a number on a frugalist’s finances – especially if your friends don’t play fair. Whether it’s beer and chicken wings after a pickup softball game or al fresco lunches with pals on a sunny Saturday, the next few months could lead to all sorts of uncomfortable money situations.

Chowder: It’s not just for breakfast anymore.

May 1, 2013 by Donna Freedman

I smelled burning bread when I woke up, a clear sign that DF was fixing himself some breakfast. When I got to the kitchen I found he’d split and toasted two homemade rolls in the same frying pan used to cook a salmon burger and some onions.

By “toasted,” I mean that one half-roll was as black as the inside of a brunette cow. The other three halves were brown with cinderized rims. DF’s motto for his own food prep is simple: If it’s smoking, it’s cooking; if it’s charred, it’s done. Then again, he used to eat burnt match-heads when he was a little boy.

Burned bread, sizzled onions and a salmon patty: The breakfast of champions. It could just as easily have been leftover fish chowder, or leftover chili with rice. Or oatmeal with flax seed but no milk. Or nothing but coffee, if he’s fasting for religious reasons. His idea of breakfast is much more flexible than mine.

I almost always have oatmeal, although yesterday it was toast and fruit and homemade yogurt because we were out of milk. (I like a looser oat than DF does.) Neither way is necessarily better: Breakfast is, or should be, whatever works for you. If more people felt that way, they could save a lot of money.

What whale tastes like.

April 21, 2013 by Donna Freedman

Just spent a couple of days in Fairbanks with my friend Linda B. Today I came home to freshly waxed floors, freshly baked bread and freshly boiled whale. I am not making that up. Yes, DF really did wax the floors.

And yes, he really did boil a piece of Balaena mysticetus.

Slash your grocery bill with this free webinar.

March 12, 2013 by Donna Freedman

Want to cut your food bill? Jump-start the process with the “Grocery Couponing 101” webinar, jointly sponsored by Savings.com and LearnVest.

The free program, designed to reduce your supermarket spending by up to 50%, takes place from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, April 4. Presenters are Andrea Deckard of SavingsLifestyle.com, Lauren Greutman of I Am That Lady and Ellen Derrick, a certified financial planner with LearnVest.

Just how much can you learn in an hour? So glad you asked.

Sweet and spicy treats.

August 10, 2012 by Donna Freedman

Last week I was invited to a party affiliated with the BlogHer conference in New York City. Since it took place the night I arrived and since I met the entrance criteria (blogger, 45 or older) I accepted. The sponsor was Boombox Network, an “online social media collective” for Baby Boomers.

(It’s always a surprise to realize that yes, I am a Boomer even though I never really associate myself with that group.)

Boombox throws a nice party and I met some very interesting women. Afterward the organizers told us to help ourselves to the lovely snacks that had been set out. Some of these were unopened and will remain so — until this week’s giveaway receives them.

Does the photo of Lavender Pecan Brittle hold any appeal? If not (or if so), there’s always the New Mexico Red Chile Caramel Corn?

A matter of timing.

April 24, 2015July 22, 2012 by Donna Freedman

The kitchen timer Mom gave me is working once more. It had met a clumsy yet oddly appropriate end about two years ago, when I knocked it off the counter and into the bucket of bleach water I was using to mop the floor.

I cried out in dismay, and later cried actual tears. Yes, it was just a timer. But it meant something to me. It was a gift from my mother, during a time when I couldn’t talk about what was going on in my life – but she knew what she saw, and she must have guessed that what she couldn’t see was much worse.

What’s better than chocolate? Free, organic chocolate.

April 29, 2012March 30, 2012 by Donna Freedman

My friend Linda B.’s doctor has advised her to eat an ounce of dark chocolate daily. I wish I could get a prescription like that.

Whoever wins this week’s giveaway will be a healthier person because the prize is a trio of organic, fair-trade chocolate bars made right here in Seattle.

Up for grabs: All You magazine plus cookbook.

January 20, 2012 by Donna Freedman

This week’s giveaway is a six-month subscription to All You magazine, which thrifty types love for its numerous coupons and its life hacks.

Oh, and its recipes. Can’t forget those, which is why I’m throwing in a copy of All You’s new “Eat Well, Save Big” cookbook.

And if you’re not the winner? You can take advantage of a $6 subscription deal.

The hottest news in yogurt making.

April 11, 2021November 28, 2011 by Donna Freedman

I’ve been meaning to write an update to “Lactobacillus love: Is it wrong?” Making yogurt in the slow cooker was pretty easy in the summer, but autumn brought several fails in a row – and I never could get the process right while up in Alaska last summer. So I went online to research what I might be doing wrong.

Turns out I should have been making sure the milk was heated to 180 degrees and then cooled to between 105 and 110 degrees, and also making sure of a guaranteed, long-lasting source of warmth. The latter isn’t easy in a cooler or downright cold season.

One writer suggested heating the oven to 100 degrees, then shutting it off (but leaving the oven light on), then putting the covered bowl of milk and starter in to “cook.” Despite the current cold snap in Anchorage, this worked great.

That is, until I set my friend’s oven on fire.