The Penny Worthy Project

oh wow not sure how long my post is going to be today. My Mac won't charge, it taunts me with the I'm charging light but actual charge is not happening. It randomly dies and I have to do this ritual of unplugging and restarting to get it working again. No animal sacrifices needed, yet. Actually my dear husband did some research on it and it looks like this model has this problem quite a bit. Hrrrmph.

I found a few treasures this week:

 an Ewok Piggy bank, dated 1985. SO cute! and I'm pretty sure he's going to get listed ASAP.

I love this chicken and I think it's going to stay right where it is for now, in my bathroom watching the snow melt.

 And here is our room, a little bit of it anyway.


refresher--this is what it looked like before ~~SHUDDER~~

Here we are primed

nothing ever happens without cat help

painted a lovely pale grey

here is the only photo I could get, it was really hard to grab a shot of it looking grey

We have trim to finish up and we need to affix the the doors/headboard to the wall more securely. I love the way it looks, it feels very calm.

 What makes you insanely thriftily happy??

  Peace and Love


 

Apple Cider Vinegar

How to make apple cider vinegar.

1. First you need to eat some apples, this is the place to splurge and buy organic apples. Why? They consistently make the dirty dozen list, the list of 12 foods you really want to eat organic if you can.  Apples have been found to have up to 40 different pesticides on them, on their skin and you want to use the skin to make vinegar. We buy our apples from Azure standard and have them shipped up to Alaska. The price is right, a 20 pound box usually runs around 21 dollars plus shipping. But if you live in the lower 48 Azure has truck routes and they will drop your order along the truck route FOR FREE. A really good deal and a super way to add at least the dirty dozen in organics to your diet. 
2. SO you need to eat about 5-10 apples. Saving the peels and the cores, letting them get brown is perfectly fine, so take a few days to eat them
3. put the peels and the cores in big canning jar, mine were 2 quart jars fill with water to about 2 inches from the top, add a sprinkle of sugar and stir well, cover with a piece of cheesecloth and a rubber band
4. let it set for about 2 weeks on the counter, stir every 2-3 days
5. next you will need a wee bit of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar "with the mother". This means it has the mother culture in it and you want that to move your apple cider along to vinegar. I had a bottle and happily used it, then put the last dregs of vinegar with my apples to let it all ferment in there together. I added about a Tablespoon of vinegar total.
6. after 3-4 days strain out the apples and pour all the liquid into a clean fresh jar, cover with a clean cloth and keep in a dark space for 4-6 weeks-check weekly and skim any scum from the top-it will start to smell vinegary too
7. now about the time you strain an put away it's time to start thinking of the next batch, and so on and so forth--I kept a bit of the original Bragg's to start one more batch and then I'll use the mother that's culturing in my homemade vinegar to start future batches

Why make my own vinegar? I like to use it in cooking, I clean with it,I use it in my laundry to banish boy stink. Plus I can make it with my own home grown apples too. I also get a kick out of thinking I never have to buy vinegar again, I can totally make this!

Peace and Love--



 

Crock Pot Slow Cooker Bean with Bacon

This is a great soup for late winter when you want to be outside channeling water, cleaning up from winter and yet somehow you still have to make dinner. EVERY night. I happen to love throwing dinner in the crock pot at 10 am and knowing that dinner for the most part is done. Plus it smell like you slaved away all day when you really spent time playing outside or napping.

Crock Pot Slow Cooker  Bean with Bacon
4 cups of white beans-dry uncooked beans
3 quart of fresh water
1/4 pound of bacon
1 pound bag of frozen butternut squash cubes
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons of thyme
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt, more if needed
smoke flavor-if desired

wash the dried beans
pour them into the cooker and pour the 3 quarts of water over them
drop in the bacon and pour in the peeled butternut squash, still frozen is fine
cover and cook 6 hours on high
open after 6 hours and stir to start smushing the squash, it should fully melt away by the time the soup is done
remove the bacon and chop finely, then stir back in
add the herbs, salt, sugar and some extra smoke flavor if desired
continue to cook for two more hours on high, leave the top off if you want it to thicken up or leave it partially off if you prefer it more soupy
use a potato masher to partially mash some of the beans and the rest of the squash if you like
serve whenever you are ready to eat and the soup is as thick as you like it

Souper (HA sorry couldn't help it!) easy and very affordable. This Bean with Bacon is so much better than anything you will find in a can.


Peace and Love--


 

Salty Sweet Organic Caramel Sauce

That you can make right in your kitchen, and you don't even have to stir it. Can it get any better than that? Well yes yes it can because this is made from Rapadura, a natural sweetener. Less processed than white sugar Rapadura is simply evaporated cane juice. It's granulated like sugar, a little more coarse, and has a great brown sugar taste. It's similar to Sucanat, which is the French name for natural sugar, but unlike Sucanat my kids can stand the taste of Rapadura. You can order Rapadura online but it's usually available in the natural foods department of major grocery stores in the bulk section.

You can, to my knowledge and experience, use it pretty much like sugar. I've made cookies and used only Rapadura, they were great. No need to add brown sugar Rapadura replaced both sugars equally well. I've used it to sprinkle on pancakes instead of brown sugar and I keep it in my sugar bowl so if you come for tea you can have Rapadura or honey.

So I've converted to Rapadura and I decided to make caramel sauce for a dinner last week. Uhhh ok a dessert AFTER a dinner last week. And as I whip through getting ready I suddenly come up hard against the fact that we have no white sugar, I decide what the hell lets give it a whirl. And that is where this post comes from, a"what the hell moment". Enjoy!


Salty Sweet Organic Caramel Sauce
2 cups Rapadura
1/2 cup of water
1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
2 Tablespoons of butter
1 teaspoon good sea salt

mix the Rapadura and the water in a heavy bottom sauce pan
let set it on a burner over medium high heat
bring it to a boil
reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes
lower heat if needed and stir in the cream very slowly-you don't want to add the cream to a boiling mess, so make sure it's not boiling
then melt the butter in
sprinkle in the salt and remove from the heat
add more salt if you like it more salty, I added another dash-we like salt
use immediately OR store in a mason jar in the refrigerator for 3-4 days

Peace and Love--


 

Just Another Meatless Monday Avocado Salad Boats

We've been chugging along on the bedroom redo for the last 40 hours straight, ok LIE we did sleep for about 5 hours, on our bed in the living room. I am so tired I am shaking. Our entire house is a complete mess. It's funny how one bedroom can create a mess much bigger than itself. And I still had to cook, sort of. The only room in our house that maintained even a semblance of balance and cleanliness was the kitchen. I bought a big bag of fresh bagels, some lunch meats and for the most part we ate bagel sandwiches twice a day and had a regular-ish dinner. It worked well until I realized I didn't have chocolate in the house, HA! 
I wasn't particularly vegetarian too much this week so I thought I'd share the avocado salad from last week. Yum. And guess who has avocados again this week, thanks Full Circle.
Avocado Salad Boats2 ripe avocados1 ripe tomato1/4 of a cucumber1 Tablespoon of chopped cilantro4 Tablespoons crispy fried onions-I used Lars Own, you could use French's
cut the avocados in half and remove the pituse a spoon to scoop out the flesh leaving the shells intactcut the avocado in to bite size pieces, place in a bowl and set asidewash the tomato, remove the stem end and cut in to bite size pieces
wash the cucumber and finely chop
toss the tomato, cuke and cilantro in with the avocado
put back into the avocado shells
top each 1/2 with 1 Tablespoon of crispy onions

Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

Whoops! Yes I've been posting on Fridays lately and I like Fridays for posting but life got in the way last night. We had some friends over for dinner and then we went straight to bed, gee it stinks getting old! This morning I dashed off to a rummage sale and my husband got to work on our room remodel. So here is our room torn down, goodbye UGLY paint and hello drywall ceiling! 

Look at the goodies I drug home in the midst of our trashed out house, everything from our room is in the living room, dining room and mudroom, kind of spread everywhere. I had to squeeze in to about 1 square foot of space to get a few photos.
 1978 Garfield Game

Igloo cake pan...I'll be using this to make a death star cake

Small Spackleware pot, like 3 inches high.

Vintage Strawberry Shortcake Carafe and matching cups

measuring cups-I try to keep a measuring cup in each jar of grains and beans so I always have a measuring cup right there

Small Duchess Cheese milk glass pot

Adorable vintage girl

Bike Basket

this is a needle point, can you believe that?

amazing double handle crock, made in the USA no name or details yet!

Bone or ivory? Don't know, assuming it's bone because ivory is illegal unless scrimshawed, beautiful isn't it?

Peace and Love--

Cheesy Polenta

Oh so good, talk about comfort food, a big steaming bowl of Cheesy Polenta will make anyone happier. And if you're stymied on what to make for dinner, while this cooks up you could be sautéing vegetables or ground beef or making a sauce to serve over it and have dinner all ready in under 30 minutes. Comfort, quick, delicious and low priced, can't lose there!

Cheesy Polenta
6 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 quarters cups organic polenta
1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
6 ounces cream cheese

bring the water to a boil
add the salt and whisk in the polenta
reduce heat to medium low and cook stirring occasionally for 20-25
minutes until the polenta is cooked through
then slowly sprinkle on the Monterey Jack and stir to combine
stir in the cream cheese and let it melt through
stir to combine and serve!

I made this for dinner with a meat and vegetable packed spaghetti sauce to serve over it. I thought there would be leftovers, I was wrong, one small scoop was all that survived. Next time I'm doubling it so we have enough to put in a loaf pan to slice and fry.

Peace and Love--


 

Be Aware of the Arsenic in Rice

I heard about this on NPR and did a little digging so I could share it with you all. It was one of those fleeting moments when I wanted to sit in my car to listen but had to run an errand and so off I went. When I came back it was over. Thank goodness for the google.

Apparently Dartmouth College found high levels of arsenic in rice and surprise surprise it's naturally occurring. Apparently rice plants normally collect and condense naturally occurring arsenic in the soil and the water, we eat it and we're fine. Organic arsenic(naturally occurring) passes right through us, but inorganic arsenic is what can hurt us, and that's what they're finding. Rice plants inadvertently collect arsenic whether it's organic or inorganic.

So then what if the water or soil used to grow your rice is contaminated with arsenic already? Well then you're not fine, your getting too much inorganic arsenic and it's dangerous. Arsenic can be used in pesticides and it remains in the soil and runs off in to ground water. Plant a food crop later on that collects arsenic or flood a rice paddy with that water and you have a crop with too much arsenic. The scary part about this? There is NO real defined limits for arsenic in your food and the only country that has a limit for arsenic in their food is China. Shudder.

Organic Rice and Non Organic rice both can have the same amount of arsenic, it doesn't seem to matter which way it's grown. Except that organic fields don't use pesticides containing arsenic. Therefore organic rice crops should generally be safer and contain less arsenic if the farmers have been organic for a while. Check your food sources, know your farmer and your farmers neighbors. It's imperative to your health.

What can high levels of arsenic do to you? Kill you, but first it will make you miserable with a headache, diarrhea and drowsiness that get worse and more disturbing, then you die. It can also cause night blindness after long term exposure, yikes!

What does all this mean?

• Beware of how you mix your rices. WHAT?? If you are eating a granola bar with puffed brown rice, puffed white rice, rice flour and brown rice syrup that's a whole lot of rice in one place, probably more than you need. 
• Rice milk in large quantities can be a large slug of arsenic at one time, try almond milk to change it up.
• Also baby food is sweetened with brown rice syrup as are lots of foods marketed to children, read your labels, educate yourself, if a product has more than 1-2 forms of rice you  may want to pass on it.
• Try to the best of your ability to know where your food comes from, how it's grown and if you can the farmer.

We are eating rice in ways that no one ever has to avoid wheat and gluten but is it a safe alternative?





Peace and Love--



 

Just Another Meatless Monday Rustic Caramelized Onion, Wine and Cheese Tart

Rustic Caramelized Onion, Wine and Cheese Tart. Oh HELLO delicious! Wondering what to make for lunch today, with all of us getting over a nasty cold that kicked us down that last few days, brought me to the cupboard where I was storing some onions. I immediately wanted French Onion Soup but being without french bread and the gumption to make it I started thinking about the onion pie I wanted to make. Plus an hour of caramelizing onions just sounded like something I wanted to smell. Once I started the onions I whipped up a batch of pie dough for the crust and let it chill, then I had 45 minutes of sweet freedom until it was show time. I did laundry, I was even too tired and sick to do anything fun. I did poke around on the internet for cooking times and saw many versions of a tart rather than a pie, so I went with the tart, I guess I was feeling rustic.
Once the onions were done and wine soaked it was easy to finish off the tart. I rolled pie dough, topped it with cheese, onions and more cheese, then I just folded it over and baked it. EASY. I think in the end I should have baked it longer, my pie dough was NOT quite done in spots but it didn't stop everyone from demolishing it. Warm food just makes you feel better, doesn't it? 

You  might notice that my crust is a little darker than normal, I used half whole wheat flour in my recipe. Feel free to use all white or half whole wheat in your tart.

Rustic Caramelized Onion, Wine and Cheese Tart
total time 1 hour 45 minutes
3 red onions1/2 cup butter3 Tablespoons red wine1/2 teaspoon saltpie dough for one crust pie--I made a regular batch and saved the second one for a Dutch Apple Pie, you could use a pre made crust 1 1/2 cups shredded swiss cheeseflour for dusting
in a heavy pot melt the butter over medium heat then reduce to medium lowslice the onions, cut off the top and the bottom, cut in half and slice top to bottom in stripsadd the onions to the butter, stir to coat and let cook for an hour, stir every 15 minutes or so, don't let them brown or scorch just let them cookmeanwhile make your pie dough or thaw it or let it come to room tempand grate the cheese so it's readywhen the onions have cooked for 50 minutes add the wine, and stir and browned goodness off the bottom of the pan cook for 10 more minutes preheat the oven to 450˚then roll the pie dough out on baking stone or parchment paper about a 12-14 circlelay down half the cheese in the inner 8 inches of the circleadd the salt to the onions and wine, stir to combineand spoon them over the cheesefold up the edges of the pie dough not quite to the center, you want to leave some of the tart opensprinkle the last of the cheese on the topbake for 10 minutes at 450˚ degreesthen reduce heat to 375˚ and bake for 20 minutes morelet it rest for 5 minutes or so, if you can, anywaythen slice and serve

Just add a salad for a perfectly lovely spring luncheon. I'll show you the salad we enjoyed with it another day, I'm just too tired to keep writing.








Peace and Love--

The Penny Worthy Project

Well I have to say I think the snow is starting to lose the battle against almost 12 hours of sunlight. It's melty and drippy and WARM(ish). We are still finishing a few projects in our house, like our bedroom and living room ceilings, so while we want spring to be here, we're also using the time wisely. 
I finished the rag rug from last week and it's on the floor, in use. I need to make a backing for it so it lies flat and straight. Midge the mastiff loves it and constantly lays happily on it, consequently it's always rumpled. But it's done!  
I pulled out some thrifted flannel from early this winter and cut out three pairs of pajama pants for Union. He;s grown so much nothing else fits! Three new pairs will help keep this boy in jammies for the rest of the year. One more project down.

We started to paint something, the outside of something anyway. Do you know what it is?

 Our brand new bee hives!! 

We have two and will be getting our bees in 5 weeks. Union and I took a 10 hour bee keeping class last month and we got our hives last week. Excitement!
I found an interesting book in a new to me thrift store, I'll sell it after I read it.

Mr. SirPrize got this great stamp at a thrift store too. He loves planes and stamps so this was a no brainer. 

I also found this really cute little tile, it's maybe 2x3 inches, don't know where I'll hang it yet but I love it!

I also used a recipe linked up last week for a super frugal and easy dinner. It cooked all day in the crock pot, all I had to do was come home and serve a hot dinner. You can find the recipe on Frugal in WV for Pinto Beans and Ham Hocks if you want and give it a try. 

What have you found this week? What are you eating? Feel free to link up anything that makes you insanely happy, projects accomplished, homeschool fun, frugal recipes, thrift store finds, ebay stores, flips, easy stores and the like. 

Don't forget to check out The Penny Worthy Board on Pinterest! It's getting lots of attention and I hope driving traffic to your blogs. Enjoy!


 



 Peace and Love--