(March 4, 2009) – A good, inexpensive meal can center around soup. With homemade soup you can control the ingredients – limit salt and sodium and leave out artificial ingredients.
The taste can be far superior to canned soups, but the basics should be followed. And basic to soup is stock. Stock can be based on beef, chicken, fish or vegetables.
A basic stock recipe consists of a quartered onion, a couple of stalks of celery cut on a bias into sections a couple of inches long, and a couple of carrots sliced similarly. Add a little garlic, a little pepper, a little thyme and a bay leaf or two. You fancy it up with a quartered turnip or, perhaps, some broccoli. In other words, most any vegetable you can cook. Add the vegetables to several quarts of water, raise the temperature to boiling, then reduce the heat to low and cook for several hours.
Supermarkets once gave away bones, but now they charge for them. Look for beef bones with good marrow. Cook the bones with the onions, celery and carrots either in the oven or in a non-stick electric fry pan for about an hour at 475 degrees. Then add all to the water pot. Clear the cooking pan with a little water – scrape the bottom to get all the good bits and add to the pot, too.
After cooking, drain the stock through a colander or other strainer and throw away the solids. The liquid can be frozen for several months. The stock forms the basis for you other soups.
Remember soup is the sustenance for body and soul. And it can be cheap.
(March 3, 2009) – You’ll also save a lot of money if you pay cash for your car. How can you do that? By taking small steps.
First save up enough money to buy a beater for cash. Say you can find a car for $1500, and you get the money by saving $150 a month. After you buy the car, continue to save the $150. [continue reading…]
(March 2, 2009) – If you trade cars frequently, you are leaving money on the table. Frank Highland, a former sports writer for the Atlanta newspapers, took things to the extreme, but his idea was sound. Frank would go down to southwest Atlanta’s Stewart Avenue where the cheap used car lots did business. He would buy the cheapest running car he could find. [continue reading…]
(March 1, 2009) – When I was a kid looking for a job, all I had to do was go down to the state employment agency and talk to a counselor. The counselor made a phone call, I went over to the business, filled out a one page application, and started work that afternoon. [continue reading…]
(February 28, 2009) – It’s Saturday – the day for hitting the yard sales and thrift stores. I love to read, so finding cheap books is always a delight.
But some authors have written so much, it’s hard to remember what you already have. I learned to make a list. First, I kept a little notebook – later I moved the list to a Palm Pilot (or whatever they’re calling those things now.) [continue reading…]
(February 27, 2009) – You’ve got a health problem and need first aid – should you go to the doctor, the emergency room, or treat it yourself? The Mayo Clinic has a web page that may help you decide. [continue reading…]
(February 27, 2009) – One way to save money is to make your food at home. If nothing else, you save money by not driving to a restaurant. You can make food that’s better for you, and if you have food allergies or need to watch your diet, you can carefully choose the ingredients in the food you make. [continue reading…]
(February 26, 2009) – I have a sensitivity to perfumes. Doctors say it’s not an allergy – I think they call allergies only those things they can treat.
A lot of laundry detergent is so perfumed, it makes me sick, so I began to experiment with making my own detergent. Here’s a formula I found, and what you need to make it: [continue reading…]
(February 24, 2009) – We’re a nation beset by clutter. Clean it out. Get your closets empty. You can organize a yard sale, or sell the stuff on Craig’s List, or on eBay. You can donate your junk to charity and maybe get a tax deduction. At any rate, someone who can use the stuff will have it, and it won’t be cluttering your home. [continue reading…]
