Jul 30, 2010

Musing about abundance and poverty

My college roommate had an older sister who did her junior year abroad in Africa (Kenya, I think), and I’ve always remembered their mother mentioning once that her older daughter had had a difficult time adjusting upon her return because she’d seen so much poverty. It’s a thought that’s stuck with me through the years, and hits me especially when I read posts from bloggers visiting poverty-stricken areas in Africa and South America.

One of those bloggers is Kristen of We are THAT Family, who went to Kenya earlier this year and has periodically shared the residual impact of that trip since her return. Earlier this month (because I am that behind on my reading), Kristen wrote about a boy who was happy and content despite his horrifying living conditions, who, when she asked why he was happy and unafraid, responded, "Because I have Jesus." And Kristen wrote about how, ever since, she has tried to live so that Jesus is enough for her.

Her post brought to mind the same struggle I’ve had for years, and one that’s been on my mind more lately because I’ve been feeling particularly blessed: How do I balance the abundance in my life against the poverty of others?

I am Christian, but I am also very much a capitalist, and so while I believe in charity, I don’t believe in the redistribution of wealth. And yet, I feel guilty when I ask God to continue blessing our family – when I pray, I can’t pretend that I’m asking for more for our family so that we can share our blessings with others. That’s certainly a part of our intention, but not the main part. What I’m really saying is, Please, God, give us the financial security and stability so that we can send our boys to the best private middle and high schools because the public schools are unacceptable and all of our other options are not guaranteed, and I would love to know that my boys’ education can be taken care of without compromising our retirement planning.

My prayers seem, well, selfish and greedy when there are children in this world who starve to death and don’t have enough clothes and are sold into slavery.

I don’t have any answers. I do my best to do God’s will, to be generous and kind, and set a good example for my children. I remember that it makes little sense to help a child thousands of miles away and yet be a bad neighbor or friend. And there are other causes that I want to support too – the USO is especially close to my heart, and I highly recommend the inspiring articles in their magazine, On Patrol. And I can’t do it all.

So I guess it comes down to what most things come down to: Do my best, and hope that it’s good enough.

I'll never really know if it was good enough. But I can live with that.

Jul 27, 2010

Tuna Pasta Salad 2010

One of the very first recipes I posted here was for Tuna Pasta Salad, but I stopped making it for a few years once Alex started eating real food because it wasn't something we could share with him. I began making it again recently, although the kids don't like it. For them, I just set aside some plain pasta and toss it with a little butter, and serve it with some fruit and artisan bread.

My new version of this pasta salad is lower carb - I've cut back on the amount of pasta and increased the amount of tuna. I've also eliminated one of my favorite ingredients, the pine nuts, because of allergy issues.

Tuna Pasta Salad 2010
Serves 4 to 6


6 oz tri-color rotini pasta (like Wacky Mac) or other short pasta
1 lb broccoli, cut into florets
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced or grated
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, cut into thin strips
1/4 cup kalamata olives, sliced
3 cans chunk light tuna packed in water, drained
1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 cups shredded lettuce, optional

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. You can either steam the broccoli separately, or just add it to the pasta in the four minutes to blanch. Drain pasta (and broccoli, if cooking together) and set aside.

2. In the same pot that you cooked the pasta in, heat the olive oil, garlic, basil and oregano over medium heat. When the garlic and herbs are sizzling, add the sun-dried tomatoes, olives, tuna, balsamic vinegar and salt. Stir to combine. Add the pasta, broccoli and parmesan cheese and toss to combine. Serve over shredded lettuce, if desired.

Jul 26, 2010

Update on my New Year's Resolution: End of June

Back in January, I shared my financial resolution for this year, which is to save a crazy amount of money to create a large cash cushion. I promised a monthly update, but I've been remiss and I totally skipped last month's. This month is almost over, but I do have an update for the end of June so I figured I'd better get it posted. In the last two months, we've saved 12.5%, which puts us at 42% of our total goal this year. That's a little short of the 50% of the year that's passed, but I'm still quite pleased, because we've consistently saved more than the minimum I've budgeted for each month.

The key to our success has been continuing to do the things I've written about before. Some things, like paying ourselves first, are on autopilot. Other things, like snowflaking extra income, are habits.

One thing that kind of amazes me is that our budget works. Even though I know it should, theoretically, I'm still a little surprised that it works in practice. We've been quite lucky, in that we've been able to avoid large unexpected expenses. For instance, when my small, frequently used oven died, I decided to make do with my toaster oven and large bottom oven instead of buying a new one. (It's still working out for me - I use the big oven once or twice a week, and my toaster oven three or four times a week.)

I'm pretty sure we won't reach our goal by the end of the year, but I know that we'll get closer by aiming high than by setting our sights too low.

Jul 20, 2010

Grilled Artisan Bread

Background: For Christmas, I received a book about making artisan bread in five minutes a day (I highly recommend it). You can read my progress thus far here, in reverse chronological order.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try making grilled pizza (with the Bob Evans Wildfire BBQ chicken), and since I only use artisan bread dough for pizza these days (because it’s already in my fridge), I decided to grill that. The book has instructions for grilling the dough, but it calls for the use of a pizza stone in the grill. I might try that method still, but I decided to go for putting the dough directly onto the grill.

The verdict: Messy, but delicious.

I used olive oil instead of cornmeal, but the dough didn’t slide off my baking sheet the way I’d hoped it would, so I had to lift the pizza, with all of the toppings on, and place it on the grill. I lost a little bit of cheese and chicken, but fortunately, I’d made the pizzas pretty small – no more than six inches in diameter – so they were manageable.

And worth it. The parts of the dough that didn’t get burned tasted amazing.

But yeah, I burned some of it. I figured since the temp in the oven is always over 450 degrees, I should have the grill on high. Um, not so much. It turned out to be too high, but trial and error is my favorite method of learning to cook ;)

The very next day, I decided to just grill some bread, so I made some rounds about four inches in diameter and one inch thick. I plopped those directly onto the grill too, with the heat around medium high. The temperature gauge on the grill said 350 degrees, but I don’t trust it – the dough shouldn’t have burned the way it did at 350. I forgot to keep track of the cooking time, but I don’t think it took more than ten minutes.

The grilled bread was so tasty, it’s now my favorite way to cook the artisan dough. It's more of a hassle than baking it in my toaster oven, which I still do several times a week. But when the weather is not too hot, I can see myself grilling bread every day.

(Sorry about the lack of pictures. It was such an experiment, because not only was it my first time grilling bread, but my first time grilling ever, that it never even occurred to me to grab the camera. Next time.)


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Jul 16, 2010

Quick Product Reviews

It's been a while since I posted some quick product reviews, but I've recently tried some new products. You can see previous quick product reviews here.

Rosarita Salsa - Ever since Ralphs introduced Ralphs Rewards to replace the old Ralphs Club Card, they've regularly sent paper coupons to my house, as well as sent me electronic coupons via email. A recent mailer had a coupon for free Rosarita salsa, probably because it's a new product. Alex had just tried jarred salsa for the first time at a friend's Fourth of July party and liked it, so he was happy that we were buying salsa. I picked the mild, since he hates anything spicy. So imagine my surprise when I tried the salsa myself before giving it to him and discovered that it's quite spicy. Too spicy to give my children - nothing mild about it, actually. I mixed the salsa with some sour cream and ate that mixture with tortilla chips - it was quite delicious. But I definitely don't recommend this product if you're avoiding spicy foods.

Kraft Garlic & Herb Sandwich Shop Mayo - I'm not a huge mayo eater, but I do like a little bit on my sandwiches. I thought this product had a pleasant flavor and made for a nice change from plain mayo, but I'd just as soon stick with plain mayo rather than keep multiple jars around.

Method detergent - This is definitely a more expensive laundry detergent than I normally buy, and I only got it because CVS had a sale a month ago that made it $1.99 after coupon. At that price, I wanted to try it, which I did last month. I was shocked at how concentrated it is. I usually buy concentrated detergent anyway, but the directions called for 4 pumps, which yielded very little detergent. But my clothes were clean. Once I'd used about half of the bottle, the pump started to give me grief when I tilted the bottle, which I needed to do because of how my HE front loader is set up. Eventually, I discovered that it was very easy to unscrew the pump so I could pour the detergent out. I'd buy this again if I could get the same low price.

Snuggle Almond Creme fabric softener - I bought this because we love the scent of almond extract, and the scent of the fabric softener was actually reminiscent of it. But once the clothes were dry, there was no lingering scent at all, which I find to be true of Snuggle in general. I'm actually okay with that - my clothes smell clean, but not really scented, if that makes sense. I liked this product, but I wouldn't spend extra money on it.

Jul 12, 2010

What I Learned This Weekend: Patience Pays Off (With a Little Luck)

We have a Brita faucet filter that's at least five years old, so I decided last month that it's time for a new one. (We have very hard water, and there's quite a bit of discoloration where the water comes out.) I printed off my coupons - one was a Target coupon for $10 off with the purchase of a Brita system and multipack of filters, and a manufacturer's coupon for $4 off any Brita system (neither coupon is available now).

When I went to Target last month, the filters were on sale, but the systems weren't. The Target coupon didn't expire until 7/31, so I decided to wait. I checked the ad each week, and the shelf when I visited the store. But it wasn't until the past Saturday that I spotted a good deal on its last day - if it was in the ad, I'd totally missed it.

The cheapest faucet mount system was on sale for $14.84 (normally $16.49). And the multipack of filters was on sale for $25 with a $5 gift card offer. So with my coupons, I paid $25.84 plus tax. And I got back a $5 gift card to spend next time, so it was like paying $20.84. Considering the multipack of filters is usually around $29, I felt like I'd hit the lottery.

What I realized afterward is that I've changed in the two years since I started playing The Drugstore Game. By nature, I'm not the most patient person, but I've learned that if I can wait, a good deal will come along. It makes me uncomfortable to see only a cup of mayo left in the jar and not have an unopened jar in the cupboard waiting, but I've learned to wait because maybe it'll go on sale the next week - and it usually does.

The corollary to this lesson is that it isn't necessary to hit every sale at every store, because the deals will repeat themselves :)


Jul 6, 2010

Recipe: Double Batch Pudding

The is the last recipe from my emergency cooking project a few weeks ago, when I tried to use up an entire gallon of milk in one afternoon. I could have sworn I had a Martha Stewart chocolate pudding recipe saved to try sometime, but I. Could. Not. Find. It. So I turned to Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everythingfor a basic recipe and doubled the ingredients (for the most part). Then I divided the pudding in half and made one batch of chocolate pudding and one batch of banana pudding. It actually turned into a day of using up not just milk, but other ingredients, because the bananas were over-ripe. (I also made rice pudding using leftover rice.)

Double Batch Pudding - adapted from How To Cook Everything
Makes about 12 servings total

1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 eggs
5 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter, softened
3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3 ounces of fair trade or other similarly sourced bittersweet chocolate, melted*
3 ripe bananas, chopped

1. In a large saucepan, combine the sugar,cornstarch and salt. In a medium bowl, mix together the eggs and milk. Pour the milk mixture over the sugar mixture and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat until thickened, about 30 to 40 minutes, stirring frequently at the beginning and constantly after about 20 minutes. There will be lumps of cornstarch in the beginning but they will magically smooth out if you keep whisking.

2. Remove pan from heat. Stir in the butter and vanilla extract until the butter has melted and thoroughly incorporated.

3. Pour half of the pudding into a medium bowl. Add the melted chocolate to the bowl and stir until the chocolate is thoroughly incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap, letting the film rest on the surface of the pudding if you don’t want a skin to form. Refrigerate until cold.

4. Add the chopped bananas to the pudding that’s still in the saucepan. Stir well to distribute the bananas. Pour the pudding into an 8x8 baking dish and cover with plastic wrap, letting the film rest on the surface of the pudding if you don’t want a skin to form. Refrigerate until cold.

Note: If you want vanilla pudding, stop after you add the butter and vanilla extract. Transfer the pudding to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, letting the film rest on the surface of the pudding if you don’t want a skin to form. Refrigerate until cold.

*The chocolate doesn’t have to be fair trade, but read this Baby Toolkit post to find out why it should be. I buy bars of fair trade chocolate at Trader Joe’s almost every week. I also won some cooperatively produced Kallari chocolate bars from Leslie Loves Veggies that were fabulous.

Jul 2, 2010

Kitchen Tip: Keep an Aloe Vera Plant

When I was growing up, my parents made a point of always having an aloe vera plant outside. Whenever someone had a burn, they would cut off a piece of the plant and spread the sap over the burn. They always sang its praises, and I believed them but didn’t have much personal experience because I didn’t have a fondness for hot things or flame.

Fast forward to about ten years ago, when Marc and I moved into our first home together. One of the first things I did was buy an aloe plant. The amazing thing is, we’ve thoroughly neglected it and it’s still alive and well on our patio.

Over the years, I’ve periodically burned myself in the kitchen and asked Marc to bring me a piece of aloe. It’s always helped, but I developed a renewed appreciation for it this week when my left middle finger came into contact with the wire rack in my toaster oven as I slid out a loaf of freshly baked artisan bread. At first, I didn’t think the burn was that bad, but it started throbbing after a few minutes.

Marc responded promptly to my call for help, and I applied fresh aloe to the burn repeatedly until bedtime. I wore gloves when washing the dishes, but even then the contact with the hot water through the glove made the burn sting so I knew it was a bad one. Amazingly, despite a little discoloration, the skin on my finger is smooth, and it didn’t hurt after that first night.

I’m not a medical expert, so I can’t swear that aloe vera will work for every one or for every minor burn. But you’ll never find me cooking without an aloe vera plant nearby!