Granny Sue's News and Reviews

A Trip to the Doctor=A Trip to Thrift Shops

2012-01-27T13:37:00.000-05:00

We have to make our trips count. If we have to go to town, we try to accomplish several things, not just one. It's a habit for country people; if we need gas for the tractor we're going to wait until we need milk or something else. Then we'll add in a stop at the library and whatever else we can to make the most of the money we're spending on gas. I bet most of you do the same thing.

Yesterday was Larry's regular appointment with the VA doctor in Charleston. I'd stopped at the ReStore, Habitat for Humanity's resale place, on Tuesday evening and found a little gas heater for the greenhouse we'll be building next month. I also noticed a lot of doors and windows--we plan to build this greenhouse using old windows and other salvage and I wanted Larry to look at them with me to see if we could get what we needed for a reasonable price. So that meant I needed to go with him to Charleston (which is 50 miles from here).

He dropped me off at a big thrift shop--and he was gone 2 hours! Do you know what kind of damage I can do in two hours? I combed that place pretty thoroughly, I can tell you. Lots of finds, a couple mistakes (do you ever do that? Something looks great but when you get home you find the chip or the stain or it's not what you thought), but overall it was a worthwhile stop.

When he picked me up we headed to another small church-run shop. There I found some good vintage linens and some vintage dishes (Daisy by Indiana Glass--5 grill plates). Then we headed to ReStore. We looked through windows but then I saw the sliding glass doors. The windows were just too pricey, but the doors--not full doors but individual panels--were just what we needed. We could get 3 foot by 7 foot door panels for $15-20 each. It doesn't take many of those to make a wall of glass. We also bought a good storm door with a sliding screen for the entrance, and an antique interior door for the log cabin room we're building. That door had the neatest hardware, a handle with little flowers all over it and old hammered hinges.

I found a small 9-drawer cabinet for the bathroom (one drawer missing but that makes a nice cubby for all sorts of things) and boxes of decorative tins that I will sell on eBay. I wondered about the tins--they had pallets of them? So what was the story? Did the truck wreck? The boxes were waterstained, so had a warehouse flooded?

There must be some story behind all those tins ending up at the ReStore--as there is a story behind every thing they get. I was enchanted with a fireplace gas heater that I could just see in the room we are building. Larry wasn't as enchanted with it so we came home with it.

When I got home I found inside one of the drawers of the pink cabinet a very pretty cameo and silverplate box. The hinge pin is missing but I'm sure I can fix that.

We ended up with 6 glass panels, the interior door, storm door, and the other things for $137.00. We have all the glass we need for the greenhouse now except for the roof, and just need one more door. The greenhouse will be built against the garage so we only need three sides. Larry is going to build a block foundation for it, then we'll build frames and slide the glass panels in, caulk them along the seams, and trim them with wood so they look good on the outside. The roof will be partly glass, and I'd like to use something that will open for a vent. Still working on that part. For this year the roof may just be plastic sheeting until we find what we want.

We were tired when we came home but we worked on the used washing machine we'd got the night before and after a lot of fiddling around, got the loose part back in place and hooked up the washer. It works like a champ and look new inside and out. I have a lot of wash to catch up on today!

And after all of that, I worked on eBay until after midnight. Yesterday and today are free listing days so I try to take full advantage and get as much listed as possible. These finds are from earlier in the week and I was cleaning them up last night. Haven't got them listed yet, though, as I concentrated on listing some things I'd had for a while.

As you can imagine, we were late getting up today and I am moving slow. It's a good day for resting, cloudy and drizzling. So I am working on the grant applications, packing a few eBay things and taking the day as it comes, one thing at a time.

I hope you had some good finds yesterday. Be sure to check out Colorado Lady's blog to see what others found!

A few more finds--yes, I do love colored glass :)

Back to grant writing!

A Bread and Beans Kind of Day, and Some Nice People

2012-01-25T21:46:00.000-05:00

We had so many things to do today it was hard to decide which one to do first! Larry is working on his little log poutin' house (pics later this week), but he also felt he needed to finish the couch stripping project. I wanted to write more on my novel, work on grants, and cook. And I needed to work on eBay too. What got done? The cabin came first for Larry because the weather is good and he wanted to take advantage of that. I managed about 1000 words on my novel and wrote out the outline for the rest of it. Now I know what is going to happen and why and how it will be resolved. I did a little on the grants and then got into the kitchen. Tonight I'm working on eBay, after a little side trip I'll tell you about below.

I needed to make bread so I tried out a recipe for Honey Oatmeal Bread. Result? It's delicious, although the crust got browner than I usually like. This is one of the recipes in my KitchenAid cookbook, and I thought it might make a nice change from wheat bread.

The stove was busy today--bread raising on the back and beans in the canner. I still haven't put away last week's vegetable beef soup

The other cooking project today was canning black beans. Last week I canned white beans with ham as well as the vegetable soup, and the week before was pinto beans. I wrote about canning dried beans last winter; it really does save a good bit of money. At the current prices, the amount of beans I canned would have cost over $18.00 at the grocery store. I spent $6.45 for five pounds of dried black beans and about 3 cents each for the lids (I bought them in bulk last summer and still have about 30 left). Since the gas is free and the water is too, this is a good savings for very little time invested.

This evening we drove to Parkersburg, about 50 miles away, to look at a used washer. My trusty old Kenmore that I bought in 1993 or 1994 finally kicked the bucket last week. We were going to try to repair it--all it needed, we thought, was a pump--but when we pulled it out we saw how rusted it was. There was really no use to repair it, the poor thing was done for. I was happy with my old Kenmore because it was a workhorse that had never given us any trouble. So when I checked Craigslist for a used washer and found one almost identical to mine but a good many years newer, I was thrilled.

We found the lady's house easily, but...she told us that in moving the washer a piece had come loose and she didn't know where it went or how to fix it. It seemed to be an important piece, the one that keeps the tub in balance. We tried to find where it went too, but no luck. It seemed like the washer would need to be taken apart to fix it. The lady was so upset that we had come all that way that she said, "If you'll take it as it is, you can just have it." And she meant it! So we loaded up the washer and brought it home. Can we fix it? I think so, or at least, I think Larry can! If not, we have another washer to haul to the scrap yard. But I think it's fixable and I am still astounded at that lady's generosity. People like her remind us that the world is still full of good folks, it's just that the other kind are noisier.

So that was our busy, oddly productive day. A lot of smiles, a lot of mess, and a lot of things accomplished.

Quick Fix: Homemade Mayonnaise

2012-01-24T04:31:00.006-05:00

It's one of those days when you seem to be out of everything you need. Like mayo. Chances are, though, that you have everything you need to make it right in your cabinet. When I was a new housewife, lo those many years ago (about 40 or so, to be more precise) I found the recipe for mayonnaise on the side of a can of dry mustard. I tried it and it was so easy that I made my own for several years. We moved, time passed and I just forgot all about it. Then recently I was looking for a recipe and there was my mayonnaise recipe, stained and wrinkled.

I pulled it out, and gave it a try. The process was just as easy as I remember. Now, note that my recipe uses raw eggs. Websites today recommend using pasteurized eggs. I have no idea where to find pasteurized eggs, but if you worry about raw eggs, then I'd recommend looking at this recipe with instructions on how you can pasteurize eggs at home.

Ingredients:
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 cup cooking oil, maybe a little more (that's what my recipe says!)

To make:
Beat the first four ingredients with a wire whisk (I used the whisk on my Kitchenaid mixer, using speed 4) until completely blended.

Add the oil in a slow steady stream as you continue whisking the mixture. The mayonnaise will thicken slowly, but the entire process of making it takes about 5 minutes.

That's all there is to it! There are several other ways to make mayonnaise, as this article from the UK's Guardian shows.

The finished product is thick, slightly yellow (my chicken's eggs have dark yolks, and that affects the color), with a nice tangy flavor.

It's just delicious and so much better than what is in the jars at the store.

I use this just as I would use store-bought mayonnaise. I store it in the coldest part of my fridge and make sure I use it up in two weeks.

It can be mixed with sour cream, parsley, dill (if you have it) and green onions plus a little milk or buttermilk to make an excellent ranch dressing, too, if you have some ranch dressing addicts at your house. Just grind up the herbs, garlic (or garlic powder), green onion (or use onion powder) and garlic in the blender, add the sour cream, and mayo, and add milk until it's the consistency you like.