Archive for July, 2009

Settling in back from our trip. Had to restock some food.

First trip: Central Meats. I was hoping they had rennet… am I on a mission, or what? They have lots of seasonings and preserving products, but no rennet. Bummer. But they did have a small pack of salt-packed sausage casings ($6.14 including tax). Now I’m all set to make my next batch of brats or kielbasa (pork butt is in the freezer). Not the cheapest casings in the world, but a decent price here locally for 50 feet or so.

Next, on to Sams Club. Pizza fixin’s were at the top of the list. They now have another brand of pepperoni, in a larger package (5 lbs), that worked out to about half the price per oz. of the Hormel, so I got it instead. Now I have enough pepperoni to last me well into 2010. Boy am I glad I had room in my chest freezer. I also got 5 pounds of shredded whole milk mozzarella, which will be used on the pizzas, as well as lasagna, baked ziti, and a few other recipes. Mike asked me to pick up some fresh brats, and it didn’t occur to me that I’d just bought casings… (duh), but we’ll go through them, as we love them grilled in the summer. And last, but not least, half and half for our coffee. Mucho slurge, but I don’t like my coffee any other way. I got 3 quarts since I don’t actually go to Sams that often. Total: $35.21

For dinner tonight we had meatloaf, baked potatoes and green beans from the garden.

The meatloaf was one I had in the freezer — frozen raw in a 1-gallon zipper storage bag. I flatten out the whole thing before I freeze to take up less space. I make them up when I buy hamburger on a loss-leader sale for no more than $1 a pound.

Meatloaf – Serves 5

1 ½ lbs Ground Beef
3/4 cup oatmeal
1 ¼ cups Milk (reconstituted dry milk works fine)
1 lg Egg
¼ cup Onions — chopped
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 ½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Dry Mustard
¼ tsp Pepper
¼ tsp Ground or Rubbed Sage
1 clove Garlic — crushed

Mix all ingredients. Spread in an ungreased loaf pan, 9×5x3 inches. Cook uncovered in a 350° oven until done, about 1-1/2 hours. (I usually make 6 mini meat loafs placed in a 9×13 baking dish and baked for 45 minutes — faster!)

Want to make more?

7 meatloaves:

10 lbs Ground Beef
5 ¼ cups oatmeal
2 ¼ quarts Milk
7 lg Eggs
1 ¾ cups Onions — chopped
½ cups Worcestershire Sauce
¼ cups Salt
4 tsp Dry Mustard
2 tsp Pepper
2 tsp Ground or Rubbed Sage
7 cloves Garlic — crushed

Mix all ingredients together well. Divide into 7 portions. Fold back the sealing edge of gallon-size freezer bags (to keep the zipper clean) and plop a portion into each bag. Seal the bags ALMOST closed and then smoosh the meatloaf mixture until it’s flat and fills the bag (how’s that for a technical term!). It should be about 3/4″ thick. Once you’ve got it flat, finish sealing the bag. Mark the bag with a Sharpie®. Stack flat to freeze. Once they are frozen they can be stored on their end like a book to make the most of your freezer space.

I’m really getting frustrated. I’ve been to countless stores (okay, I guess I *could* count them) and I can’t find rennet anywhere.

Dang if The Original White House Cookbook 1887 Edition that I got at a garage sale for a buck doesn’t have a whole section on making cheese (as well as lots of other wonderful old-fashioned recipes). These recipes call for rennet, too!

I’ve called and written the folks at the Junkett company and haven’t heard back yet.

I *can* get it online, but I was hoping to just get it locally. I have one more shop to call to see if they have it.

By the way, The White House Cook Book is AWESOME. I love the way the recipes are written. No list of ingredients, just stuff like “mix one half teacup of milk with a spoonful of flour”. Oh, and “make a brine strong enough to float an egg.” I guess that means salty enough so egg stays aloft. Then there’s also the coffee cup measure. A salt spoon. And lots of other terms that were probably common in the 17th century that I haven’t a clue about. It has a black bean turtle soup — but it also has a real turtle soup (one large green turtle!), plus recipes for cooking squirrel, and other critters.

I’ve already decided that I’m going to try the coleslaw recipe. It has a cooked dressing. Mostly the same stuff that would go into mayo, plus sugar and vinegar, but I want to try it out, nonetheless. I’ll post my results here when I do.

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Ah… the trip home. I knew I wasn’t gonna get off scott free!

We made a pit stop on the way to the freeway and picked up snacks: over-priced chips, donuts and ice (we still had soft drinks left over from my previous shopping trip and the ones in the van we brought for the trip up). I spent $7.67. I’d have preferred to just get ice, but I think having the snacks kept up from having to stop for both lunch and dinner. 10-hour drive.

We did stop for lunch at Taco Bell (my all-time favorite fast-food restaurant). Andy wasn’t hungry, so he didn’t eat. Just Mike and I, cost $6.88.

We didn’t stop again for food. We got home about 9:30 and munched on snacks already available. Glad there was food in the house!

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Another day of mooching off the in-laws. (It’s 600 miles away, so it’s not like we could go home for meals.) After a very late breakfast we all (excluding Andy) trekked out to do a bit of shopping at Walmart. I did actually spent about a buck and a half (receipt is around somewhere) on some Pocky for Andy. At home I get it at the commissary for about 85¢, but it was over a buck in Ohio. Andy has been a total trooper — not complaining AT ALL about being dragged to Ohio for a week with no other kids around. So a treat was in order.

After shopping my father in-law treated us all to ice cream. Yum! I had butter pecan, which I haven’t had in decades. There was so much to choose from that I simply picked the first thing on the list.

We went out for dinner, also compliments of my father in-law, at a Chinese restaurant. Good food. Good conversation. I think we were all savoring our last night together.

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Zippo spent today. Still enjoying the generosity of my in-laws as their house guests.

We went to some antique stores and a thrift store, but I didn’t buy anything until we got to the gift shop/nursery. I found a Calathea. I’d looked locally and couldn’t find one. It’s a gorgeous house plant with great big leaves with a cool design on them and the backs of the leaves are dark purple. Honestly, every time I see one I think they look like silk plants because they’re so sturdy. It cost $18.99, but it’s not groceries, so it doesn’t apply to my allowance. More than I’ve ever spent on one.

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