DIY: Pancake mix for camping

Normally we buy Bisquick mix so that we can make pancakes when we’re car camping, but I wanted to try making a mix that we could just add water to with ingredients that we already have in the kitchen.

Just-Add-Water Pancake Mix

• 1 3/4 c. flour
• 1/3 c. powdered milk
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 T. baking powder
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 T. meringue powder (optional, but provides some of the benefits of adding eggs, in addition to a nice meringue crust on the pancakes)

Mix all ingredients together and add between 1/2 and 3/4 cup of water per cup of dry mix when you make the pancakes.

The bulk food aisle

The bulk food aisle of grocery stores can often yield good deals.  It can also cost more.  I like to pick up certain kinds of foods like dry beans and oatmeal in Fred Meyer’s bulk food aisle, where I can get oatmeal for as little as $.59/lb (sale price).  You can also find  runner peanuts (for peanut butter) for less than the non-sale price of Fred Meyer natural peanut butter.  Sometimes if we are going camping, we can also get some dry vegetable soup that we can just add water to.  However, rice and flour are more expensive per pound than in their respective aisles at either Fred Meyer or Safeway.  Also, any bulk processed product (like dark chocolate almonds or dried mangoes) is often more expensive than buying the same thing at Trader Joe’s.

What is nice is that you can get as much or as little as you want for a fixed per-pound price.  Sometimes you cannot get as good of a price unless you buy many pounds worth of a food item.  If you know how much the same items cost at different places, you can save quite a bit.

 

Recipe: Kneadless White Bread

Here is a bread recipe that I have adapted from Nancy Baggett’s book for no-knead bread recipes.  I have cut her recipe in half so it only makes one loaf, and I have fiddled with the flour and water ingredients, and incorporated leftover whey from yogurt-making and sourdough pour-off.  If you don’t have starter, increase flour by 1/2 c. and whey by 3 oz.

Easy White Bread

makes 1 loaf

• 2 c. all purpose flour
• 3/4 c. high gluten flour (like Sir Lancelot from King Arthur Flour)
• 2/3 c. sourdough starter
• 2 1/2 T. canola or vegetable oil
• 1 3/4 T. sugar
• 1/2 T. salt
• 1/2 t. yeast
• 8 oz. cold whey

Mix flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in large bowl.  Mix wet ingredients together.  Stir wet ingredients into dry.  Dough should be stiff.   Brush or spray with oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3-10 hours.  Then let rise at cool room temperature for 15-20 hours.

Stir dough, then press into loaf pan and let rise covered for 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours.  Remove cover when dough nears the top of the pan.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  When dough is about 1/2 in. above pan top, lower oven temp to 400 and bake for about 40-45 min.  Cool in pan for 10 min.

Recipe: Sourdough bread!

I finally had the chance to make a true sourdough bread from my homemade starter.  I have been using the pour-off from the starter for various things, including pretzel knots and sandwich bread (recipe coming soon!).  However, this is my first bread that I can say has a true sourdough flavor.  This recipe is adapted from Nancy Baggett’s Kneadlessly Simple, a book on no-knead breads.

San-Francisco Style Sourdough Bread

• 3 1/2 c. (17.5 oz.) bread flour or all-purpose flour (I use all-purpose with Sir Lancelot flour as the extra flour)
• 1 3/4 t. salt
• 1/4 t. instant yeast
• 1 T. vegetable oil
• 2/3 c. sourdough starter
• 1 1/2 c. whey

Stir flour, salt, and yeast in large bowl.  Whisk oil, starter, and whey in another container, then add to the dry ingredients.  You will want a very stiff dough, so add extra flour if needed.  Spray with oil, cover with plastic wrap, then refrigerate 3-10 hours.  Let rise at cool room temperature 18-24 hours.

Stir dough, adding extra flour if necessary.  Fold sides toward center then let rest 10 minutes.  Sprinkle with 3-4 T. of flour, and work flour into dough.  Dust with flour, then form dough into a round.  Transfer to an oiled Dutch oven.  Dust with flour again and cut cross-hatches (3 parallel slices bisected by 3 parallel slices in the opposite direction) across the top.  Cover pot and let rise 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours until doubled.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Reduce heat to 425.  Bake covered for 55 min.  Uncover and sprinkle top of dough with water.  Bake approximately 10 min.  Cool on rack for 10 min.  Cool thoroughly.

Note: You will really be able to smell the ripe starter doing its work after the second rise.  I got a big whiff of alcohol when I took the plastic wrap off!

Adventures in gardening

Last week I was talking with a coworker of mine who has his own garden, and I told him that I wanted to try starting one of my own, but I wanted to learn more about gardening before I attempted anything.  He suggested that I just try planting the seeds and see what happens.  This conversation was inspiring because I am often reluctant to try new things unless I’ve done a lot of research before hand.  Part of this is because I have to buy materials and other resources, and some of it is probably just my personality.  I want to know what I’m getting into.  However, this same personality trait sometimes prevents me from trying new things because I get daunted by my research, which makes things sound really complicated and tiresome.  My research on gardening made it sound like I would have to wade through a lot of contradictory advice on what to plant and how, and that it would be a lot more expensive in terms of water.

However, this weekend I decided to go ahead and take my friend’s advice.  I did some preliminary research on what would be good late summer/fall seeds to plant, and I headed out to Fred Meyer and bought packages of seeds for:

• Purple plum radishes
• Endive
• Broccoli
• Onion
• Gourmet lettuce blend

I hope that something ends up growing, because I know that I would feel more encouraged to try growing other produce and invest more time in gardening.  I also hope that I have other opportunities to try little things to see if I get satisfaction out of them before I decide to plunge headlong into them.

Cutting out soda

It has been my goal to cut down on soda for health and cost reasons, since I consume a lot of artificial sweetener through sodas.

There have been studies about how artificial sweeteners still conditions your body to want sugar, and a variety of ills have been attributed to artificial sweeteners.  Even if artificial sweeteners turn out to be health-neutral, it would still save money and feel healthier – and considering that placebos can sometimes be effective, I try not to underestimate the power of mind-body connection.  Plus, it would be better for my teeth to not drink too much soda, regardless of whether it has artificial sweetener or not.

Oddly enough, something that I have found to be effective in not drinking soda is drinking ice water.  Regular water doesn’t do it, but for some reason drinking water with a lot of ice cubes is satisfying in a way that allows me to skip soda.  Not sure why it works, but I’m hoping it will continue to work even when I am bringing my lunches to school.

Recipe: Deviled eggs

I like cooking to require very few ingredients, yet also be delicious.  Sometimes the trade-off is that it’s complicated to cook.  Not so with deviled eggs.  It’s almost not even a recipe because it’s so simple.

Deviled Eggs

• 5 boiled eggs
• 4 bread-and-butter pickle chips (I use Trader Joe’s because it lasts a really long time and is relatively inexpensive)
• mayonnaise
• salt and pepper to taste

Peel and cut eggs in half lengthwise.  Add egg yolks to a small bowl with chopped up pickle chips, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Add mayo and mash until creamy.  Fill egg whites with mixture.

That’s it!  You must use bread-and-butter pickles for this, though – I have tried other kinds and they do not taste right.  If you made the bread-and-butter pickles from scratch you’d need more ingredients, and they wouldn’t last as long as TJ’s.  (If you are so inclined, this pickle recipe seems like a recipe I would try.)

Growing basil

I do not have a green thumb by any means, but having a single basil plant as my pesto source has been a terrific way to save money on basil and have delicious home-grown food at the same time.

It is incredibly simple, and I have been able to make several batches of pesto this summer so far with my little container plant of basil.  I bought a plant from Trader Joe’s at the beginning of the summer.  I water it a couple of times a week or more – depending on how hot it gets (the instructions said once a week but when I didn’t water it for more than 4 days it started to wilt).  I also occasionally add old coffee grounds to the soil.  If it starts to grow flower buds, just pluck those off.  It grows like crazy and makes delicious pesto, and it livens up a tomato sauce if you add it at the end.

It has inspired me to try to grow a garden this upcoming year.  I am thinking an herb wheel with a different herb between each set of spokes.

Was it Worth It? The Great Outdoors

Even though I live in Seattle, where outdoor recreation is part of the culture, it’s really not that cheap to indulge the habit – denizens of REI attest to this!  Since Mr. LL and I plan on indulging quite a bit, both now and in early retirement, it makes sense to consider the costs of outdoor rec.  Even hiking is not free, despite the fact that it’s nice to think so.

Let’s assume we have all the clothing and equipment we need for hiking, snowshoeing, camping, etc. so that we don’t need to buy or rent anything.

If you are doing any sort of hiking around Seattle or Puget Sound on a regular basis, you will have to account for a Discover Pass ($35), a Northwest Forest Pass ($30), and a National Parks Pass ($80) to have access to all the places you want to get to.  If you are going snowshoeing in the winter, you might need a Sno-Park Pass, too.  The fees just rack up, and that does not include the cost of skiing or snowboarding, if you are so inclined (which Mr. LL and I are).  It averages to about $12/month for the passes alone.

It would be nice if you could share the expense with a like-minded friend, but we have noticed that it doesn’t actually work out that way – we ended up buying passes when our friends who had the passes bailed on various trips.

Mr. LL once calculated the cost per mile for my 13-year-old Honda Accord, including depreciation, insurance, maintenance, gas, etc., and it came out to approximately $.35/mile.  It’s nice if you can share the cost here, too, but better to assume that you will bear the total cost.

If the average trip ranges from 120-160 miles round trip, we end up with $42-56 per hiking trip.  This past year we went skiing/snowboarding about 4 times, snowshoeing about 4 times, and hiking perhaps 10 times.  That averages to about $63-84 per month for driving alone.  So $75-96/month including the flat fee passes.  Of course, we can add on lift ticket prices for those 4 times of skiing and snowboarding and tack on another $40/month.

Now we’re at $115-136/month.

And as many people who have finished a long and/or strenuous hike, the first thing you want to eat afterwards is something salty, fatty, protein-y, and preferably with a side of sweet.  Mr. LL and I rarely say no to a burger and fries after a hardcore hike, particularly if it’s a social outing, so we end up spending more on dining whenever it is hiking/snowshoeing season.  I won’t count it in the final total, though.

Was it worth it?  Of course.  It’s fitness, outdoors, social gatherings, road trips, fun, etc. all rolled into one.  However, the cost isn’t negligible, and I am sometimes inclined to think of it as though it were.  Little expenditures add up to a pretty big fixed cost in terms of monthly expenses.

DIY: Whole wheat bread

I recently bought 1 pound of instant yeast from King Arthur Flour for 11.95 (including shipping and handling), and I have been regularly making bread with it.  You can either make sandwiches with it (if you use a loaf pan) or toast it (either a loaf pan or dutch oven).

It is terrific fresh out of the oven, and can be used for a few days afterward.  You can then store it in the refrigerator and revive its crunchy, delicious crust with a toaster.

Whole Wheat Bread

Makes 1 loaf (9 x 5 pan) or 1 round (dutch oven)

• 1/2 tsp. yeast
• 1 3/4 cup whey (from homemade yogurt) or water
• 2 3/4 c. all purpose flour
• 7/8 c. whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp. salt

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise anywhere from 2 hours to overnight.

IF USING LOAF PAN: Transfer to greased pan and loosely cover until dough has risen to touch the top of the covering (plastic wrap or tea towel).  Bake for 30 min. at 450 degrees, then remove from pan and bake directly on rack for 10 more minutes.

IF USING DUTCH OVEN: Preheat oven to 450 with dutch oven inside for approx. 30 minutes.  Grease dutch oven and transfer dough to the pot.  Bake for 30 min. covered, and then uncover dutch oven and bake for 10 more minutes.

Let cool completely before slicing (although I never can wait to eat that first piece).