Giving a Tea Party is the Cheapest (and Fun!) Entertainment!

Less expensive by far than a dinner party or even cooking a brunch, conducive to entertaining in even a Tiny House, the tea party is an old-fashioned activity that needs reviving!

As a person who has been holding such gatherings several times monthly for many years, let me offer some tips:

• ·         Regular guests tend to be happiest coming every other month. Occasional guests can come perhaps once or twice annually.
• ·         Serve a different sweet each time that a given guest returns to your home.
• ·         If a guest is coming over on his or her way home from work, serve a high tea that includes a protein and bread, instead of just a sweet or in place of it. PB and J is fine for those not allergic, there is no need for extravagance.
• ·         It is fun to use cloth napkins, napkin rings, and cloth placemats.
• ·         Keep a cream/milk pitcher, a sugar bowl, a container of honey, and two spoons on a dedicated tray.
• ·         You can get assortments of six kinds of teabags in each package—herbal, green, or black, Bigelow brand—for about $14 each on Amazon. Organize the bags, four or five of each selection, in a large divided tray, such as is sold for flatware.

Hints on Spuds

Potatoes are, not just for the Irish during famine, but for anyone who is feeling poor, the cheapest calorie-dense food there be that is nutritious. Each tater has as much Vitamin C as an orange, so long as you do not pare the peel away.

A ten-pound sack of potatoes sells for under $5.00 in many stores, well under $10.00 in all. When you get the bag home, dry out your kitchen sink and toss the potatoes in. The worst of the dirt will remain in the sink, and you’ll reduce your cleaning chore with each cooking session. Inspect each potato for soft spots or any greenish or blackened areas. All of those need to be cut away, so plan on using affected potatoes first.

Store the potatoes in an opaque fabric bag. A cloth sack is best, but you can even use a cloth duffle bag. Make it a habit to check your spuds twice a week. Take out all the potatoes and tear off and discard any sprouts that might have developed.

The secret to restaurant-quality taste of Idaho or Russet potatoes is to soak them before baking. To save energy, bake as many at one time as will fit into your oven.

I use a jumbo dishpan for soaking (while cleaning.) I put in five squirts of Veggie Wash®, for convenience in cleaning them. I place the potatoes in the basin and add cold water to cover. (The Veggie Wash is a cleansing agent that removes pesticides. Especially if you take any medications, you do not need those chelated heavy metals in your body! . The large container I bought on Amazon years back seems to be lasting a lifetime to refill a spray bottle version from.) Rinse the potatoes free of the cleansing solution in a colander and then dry each thoroughly with a kitchen towel. Remove any eyes.

Use a fork to make two deep sets of four pricks into each potato, one set on each side. Place the taters directly on the racks of the oven, then turn the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for forty minutes. Turn the oven off but let the potatoes continue to bake in the already-hot oven, for another ten minutes.

Store the baked potatoes in the fridge for up to five days. You can freeze baked (or boiled, etc.) potatoes for longer storage. You can then reheat them in the microwave or make cottage or home fries from them.

NOTE: Potatoes for French fries should be soaked for restaurant-like taste. But they should not be baked before deep-frying.

Inventories: The Benefits of Writing Down Your Grocery Stocks

Keeping a running inventory on the refrigerator of leftovers, and another of fresh produce stored inside, makes it easy to keep track of what you have. You are reminded of what needs to be used up.

Your result? Much less frequent unpleasantness of needing to throw out spoiled food!

It is also helpful to keep a list of foods that you have placed in the freezer. I find it helpful to include a hint of what sort of container the food is in, if it’s not a gallon-sized freezer bag. (“Orange circular Glass-Loc,® for example.) This makes it possible not to have to remove just about everything from the freezer and set on a massive chore of label-reading, at least in some cases. Similarly, I batch all the wrapped servings of cooked beans, chopped chicken, etc, that are stored in freezer bags, into a plastic produce bag or other large bag and label the large bag. Then on my list, I tally as follows for six units of an item: 11111 1. I strike off each unit as I use one up.

I keep similar inventories of foods in each additional area that I cannot view through the glass doors of cupboards. For me, these areas include foods stored under-the-bed and those in a top drawer of canned goods. (I keep a large emergency food supply.)

All the inventory sheets beside the refrigerator one, including that for the freezer compartment of the refrigerator, I house together in a plastic envelope to which I have easy access. So that the inventories remain legible, I rewrite the refrigerator one weekly and the others monthly.

Keeping the inventories helps immensely by saving time in writing shopping lists, as well as money. I do not duplicate what I already have available in the house.

RECIPE: Jambalaya—This is a Kosher dish!

Pork and shrimp are traditional ingredients in Jambalaya, but this recipe tastes great without them! Bonus: it’s a “meat-stretching dish” all the way!

You need an 8-qt stockpot for this dish.

Group 1: This goes directly in the stockpot.

14 oz to l lb kielbasa or Polish beef or poultry sausage of your choice. I use turkey kielbasa. Cut it into 1”-long round chunks.

2 T oil, preferably olive

Group 2: This goes into a large bowl.

1 or 2 stalk(s) of celery, chopped

1 huge or 2 medium onions, chopped

4 large cloves garlic, minced

1 large bell pepper, chopped small. (If it’s harvest season so that all colors of bell peppers cost the same, choose red for its sweetness and bonus nutrition.)

1-15 oz can tomatoes, diced in the can (you can do this with kitchen scissors.)

Stir thoroughly to mix well.

Group 3: Place in a small bowl and reserve.

A bay leaf

1 tsp salt

½ tsp cayenne pepper

Item 4: If this was kept in the freezer for good preservation, be sure to defrost it at least four hours before. In any event, place in a medium bowl and reserve.

2-1/2 c uncooked brown rice (NOT instant)

Group 5: Use a quart measuring cup if you have it. Otherwise, you need a medium bowl to hold this.

Chicken broth, preferably home-made, combined with water to equal 4 cups

Item 6: ½ lb frozen peas, thawed

Brown Group 1 on medium flame, turning sausage once you can smell its aroma. Remove from pan and reserve

.

Place Group 2 in the pot. Cover and cook on medium-low flame for 10 minutes.

Return Group 1 to pot.

Mix Group 3 into Group 4’s bowl. Stir into pot, mixing thoroughly. Add Group 5 (this is the additional liquid—the veggies have given off considerable liquid already.)

Cover pot again and cook on high heat for 5-8 minutes, until rapidly boiling. Turn heat to Gas Mark 3/medium-low heat. Keep covered and cook for 1 hour. Check at the 50-minute mark—if you do not see steam escaping from the pot still, turn heat down one Gas Mark/to lowest-possible heat.

Stir in Item 6 (the peas.) Place all in large bowl and serve by apportioning to the family’s dinner bowls. Immediately cover the large bowl or a storage container and refrigerate it.

Thanksgiving Turkey Sales Advantage

Coming up very soon indeed will be the week during which you should take advantage of the low, low sales price of turkey! Watch your grocery store flyers to see which week it will be that the price will be at loss-leader, rock-bottom price. In most stores, that week for quality turkeys that are not pre-seasoned with sugar and salt and nitrate this-and-that precedes the week during which those that are so doctored up are at rock-bottom price.

How many will the store allow you to buy at that price? Snap them all up! And perhaps the store will let you buy even more at a still-low, but not loss-leader, price.

If I were you, and I had a chest freezer (as I do, thanks to a very kind brother,) I would buy as many as I could find room to freeze! This means that now, the month of October, is the time to use up all the meat and meat alternatives in your freezer. This is not the time to buy and use fresh foods!

You can find a set of recipes within this blog for roast turkey and turkey-carcass soup on the Recipes page. (It is a Thrift with Flair blog page, not a dated post.) You’ll have plenty of turkey left over (unless you have a huge family) each time you prepare a roast turkey to be able to make several casseroles, such as turkey pot pie.