Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Since late fall, I've been collecting seed catalogues, with plans to grow a balcony vegetable bonanza this upcoming summer.  I just got my latest catalogue this week and I literally cannot put it down.  I've put in my order but I still flip through the thing at least twice a day.

This is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  It's an *incredible* catalogue.  They have heirloom varieties from all over the world, and I mean that in the most literal sense of the phrase.  They have varieties that aren't even being grown in their native countries any more!  And even if heirloom, rare garden species aren't your thing, this catalogue is well worth getting (it's free) for the photographs alone.  The owner of Baker Creek is also a stunningly competent amateur photographer and his work is liberally sprinkled throughout the pages.

I don't agree with their politics but I'm also not a huge fan of modern hybrid garden seed.  I'm very thankful for companies like Baker Creek who are keeping non hybrid seed in circulation.

Bay Rum Procedure

Bay Rum is, of course, *the* classic men's after shave.  It's one of very few that Ranger Daddy likes and now I know how to make it.  Yay!  I have never been so excited to go to a liqueur store and buy cheap spirit.  Here's how it works.

1)  Buy a big bag of bay leaves.  Hint:  Asian food stores sell big bags of these for small bucks.

2)  Break up the leaves and put them in a jar that has a tight lid.  Add any other aromatics you like.  Whole vanilla bean and citrus rind are excellent choices.

3)  Pour enough cheap dark rum into the jar to cover all the stuff.  Screw on the lid and put in a cool dark spot for thirty days.  Mark the date on the calendar and DO NOT TOUCH until the appointed day.

5)  Spend the next month looking for fancy pretty bottles (best are ones with narrow necks) to pour your finished product into.

6)  On the appointed day, pour the rum through a strainer and into a second jar (or through strainer, into a funnel, and into fancy bottles).  Discard the aromatics.  Seal the bottles tightly and place strategically where you'll remember (or your husband will) to use after shaving.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm

A Shaving Light Bulb Moment

Ranger Daddy and I had a mutual light bulb moment yesterday.  Over the course of the next month or so (during which our current stockpile of safety razors will run out) we are going to invest in the equipment necessary for each of us to have, and know how to use, straight razor.  Making the decision was easy.  It's fairly obvious that safety razors toss an awful lot of garbage into the trash, even if two adults each use just one per week.

Finding reasonably priced straight razors was a bit of a challenge though.  It took us about ninety minutes with Google last night to find anything decently priced.  It seems that shaving with a straight blade has become something reserved for the upper reaches of wealth and comfort.  For the first hour of our search, the cheapest blade we could find was about $100!  Then we happened upon the brands Krieger and Zeepak.  Both of these companies feature perfectly competent blades running between $13 and $30 dollars.  FYI, the fancy shaving sites such as Classic Shave have nothing but scorn for these cheap blades in their discussion forums.  The derogatory comments smacked of elitism when I saw them last night.  Keep in mind that a razor blade, like a good watch, can only be perfected so far.  At a certain point, you're paying for the finish and detailing, not the blade itself.  One how-to page we read said you shouldn't pay more than $30 for your first blade.  Once you master the learning curve, you can upgrade if you like but start cheap.  

Zeepak also has a complete starter kit (two blades, strop, stone, mug, soap, and brush) for $100.  We're going to get the kit.  We need two blades, minimum, and of course don't have any of the sharpening tools.  We do have a mug and brush (Ranger Daddy has been using soap and brush for going on three years now) but our brush, courtesy of Urban Cowboy, is cheap and falling apart.

So there you have it; yet another way to save big bucks in a small way.  Switch from safety razors to either an electric (Ranger Daddy likes electrics but I hate them with a passion and we need something both of us will like) or a good old fashioned straight blade.

Furniture Polish

I have a couple older wood pieces around the place - a late 50's HiFi set, a similarly aged night table, a somewhat newer, solid oak dinning set.  All of them are used and all have clearly been dying for lack of a good, rehydrating polish.  But my parents run a furniture refinishing shop and I know from growing up around that business that your average over the counter furniture polish is a very bad idea, especially if you have any plans at all to refinish in the future.  All of these older pieces are going to get refinished at some point.  The problem with most commercial polish is that most of them contain silicone to keep dust away.  Silicone gets into the grain of the wood, forever to remain.  You can strip a piece all you want, it will look clean to the eye, but the instant you put new lacquer/varnish/shellac/polyurethane on it, you'll get these oily spots called fish eyes in the trade all over the place.  It isn't pretty and there's literally no way to fix it.

So I've opted for no polish at all rather than risk fish eyes on my solid wood pieces in the future.  Until two days ago when I just happened to stumble upon the easiest furniture polish recipe ever.  I mixed up a batch immediately and gloried in the results.  My good wood furniture looks absolutely beautiful.

The recipe is, 3 parts any oil you happen to have around (I used olive oil but seriously, any vegetable based oil will work) to 1 part lemon juice.  You can put it in a spray bottle, remembering to shake before using, or you can put it in a little jar and upend it over your dusting rag (this was my option since I didn't have any spare spray bottles lying around).  It goes on super easy, absorbs into the wood within a couple minutes, and there are no harsh fumes or artificial scents to foul the air.  I absolutely love this stuff

Practicing Frugality

I'm not sure why this is.  According the the Yahoo article I just read, our nation is in turmoil.  Yet my husband has a good paying job with tremendous job security, we're living within our means, and we're going to try and get a land contract on a nice little house in a decent working class neighborhood in the next few weeks.  I personally do not feel like we're in turmoil.  I actually feel pretty secure.

Here's how we do it:  

1)  One vehicle that we don't have payments on, and which is old enough we don't need to carry full coverage insurance on it.  Liability insurance alone is $56/mo.

2)  Basic cable service plus internet service.  I would love to ditch the cable tv but can't quite justify it on account of Ba'al's mental health.

3)  Our grocery budget is under $150/mo for three adults and one baby.  I shop the bargain grocery stores first, use ethnic stores for "unusual" ingredients, and buy dry goods in bulk.

4)  Everything possible, I make at home.  I can clean my house in its entirety, wash dishes, do laundry, and keep our bodies clean with cornstarch, baking soda, vinegar, and a few other basic household things I buy anyway.

5)  We buy almost nothing prepared.  95% of meals in this house are made completely from scratch, including the bread.

6)  We eat out twice a month and usually for lunch.  Lunch menus are *always* cheaper.

7)  The last movie we went to was in August, at the budget theater where a ticket is $1.50.

Yes it's stingy.  But we like it this way and we feel pretty confident about surviving and living well while doing it.

Cheap Yogurt !

This procedure comes to you courtesy of a crockpotting mom here on blogger.  I tried it yesterday and sampled the results this morning.  AWESOME yogurt for much less than cups of the stuff cost and much healthier too since this isn't laced with sugar, gelatin, and G*D knows what else.  

Pour half a gallon (8 cups) of milk into a crockpot.  A 2 quart will work but having some room to stir, a three or four quart crock, will work better.  Turn your crock to it's lowest setting, cover the milk, and leave along for 2 1/2 hours.

Turn off the crock.  Leave the milk covered.  Don't touch for three hours.

Now that the milk is warmish, scoop out 2 cups.  Mix in 1/2 cup store bought PLAIN yogurt that has "active cultures" listed in the ingredients.  I used the Great Value brand from Wal-Mart with no trouble at all.

Pour the milk/yogurt mixture into the crock.  Add up to 1 cup of powdered milk.  If you're using whole milk to start, you don't really need to add powder.  But use powdered milk if anything less than whole milk, and use the full cup of powder if you started with powdered milk or skim milk!

Now wrap the whole crock up, base and all, in a thick bath towel.  Leave it alone.  Forget about it.  Hopefully you're doing this part in early evening and you can leave it on the counter until morning.  That's best.  The longer the milk is left undisturbed, the thicker your end product will be.  After 8 to 14 hours, unwrap your crock and check on the results.  The milk should have thickened up (texture will depend on how much fat and protein are in the milk you used) and taste tangy.

You can serve it toped with honey or fruit or you can stir fruit in.  Growing up on homemade yogurt, I opt for the topping it with something option.  Mixing stuff in tends to break the protein chains and make the yogurt runny.  This is also the perfect yogurt to use in Middle Eastern and Indian cooking and it makes a rich substitute for milk in baking.  I used mine for the milk in biscuits this morning and my word!  They are they best biscuits I've every had.

New Discount Grocery in Town!

We have a new scratch and dent grocery in town and this one is close enough to where we live to actually make going there practical.  I am so excited about Extreme Bargains!  They advertise prices up to 70% off  regular grocery store prices.  Unlike Bargain Mart, which we have to drive twenty minutes to get to and which has a generous selection of sauces, dressings, and spices and very little else, EB had pasta, pasta sauce, flour, sugar, goat milk (!!!), and a wide variety of other items I would like to buy more regularly but usually don't have the grocery dollars to get.  I spent way more than necessary on our first visit but I won't have to spend much on groceries when Ba'al gets paid this week.  So we're all happy.

I've also finally gotten a sewing machine.  My last one got left behind in Wisconsin when we moved here from there almost a year and a half ago.  I did not get a new one.  I do not like the modern plastic machines that have to go to a trained professional for such simple things as a lube job and cleaning.  No, instead I went to a pawn shop and bought a 1960's model that's insanely heavy but can be lubed and cleaned by someone with few mechanical skills (moi) and then operated without spending hours hunched over a manual first (like the last machine I had which my dear Ba'al thought he was doing a good thing by buying me a brand new model).  That one ended up in the shop a month after purchasing because cleaning fabric fuzz under the foot plate was decidedly not a do it yourself project.  So we're very happy around here with the Dressmaker model S-3000 purchased for $60 (pawn shops are as good or better than thrift stores for electronics).  That price is about half what the same machine goes for on ebay so I think I got a pretty good deal.  

The same day, we got a gently used Philips DVD player from the same pawn shop.  Y'all know what that means?  Means that when we got to pay our cable bill this week, we're also taking in the cable box for the TV!  We are going to become a one service (internet) household, using the DVD player and the 'net to do all of our TV watching.  I have to put together a TV lineup this week so we know what shows to download for our viewing pleasure and what days to look for them.