Category Archives: homemaking

Peach Crisp and Peach Cobbler recipes, canning peaches

frugal strategies, homemaking, recipes

It’s the summer and summer means delicious peaches are in season!

With all these luscious sweet fruits to work with, I’ve appreciated being able to make desserts that I don’t make the rest of the year – peach crisp and peach cobbler.

In case you’re wondering what the difference is, peach crisp is a baked dessert that uses a crumb topping over the peach filling. With peach cobbler, the cooked peach filling is baked with a biscuit dough – sometimes the dough is placed on top, sometimes on the bottom. I tried making it both ways in the last couple of weeks.

I have fond memories of my mother making peach crisp when I was a child, so I enjoy it when I have a chance to make it. It’s an easy dessert to make, and easy to make gluten free. Here’s the recipe I made:

Peach Crisp

  • 4-5 peaches, sliced
  • 1 c. ground walnuts (or any other nut flour)
  • 1 c. oatmeal
  • 2/3 c. sugar
  • 1/2 t. cinnamon
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 c. melted butter/coconut oil
  • 1 t. vanilla

Place the sliced peaches in a pan. Mix all the remaining ingredients for the topping, then sprinkle on top of the peaches. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius for 40 – 45 minutes. Serve hot.

Frugal note: if you don’t have nut flour (and many times I don’t), just substitute an equal amount of oatmeal. To be clear, I don’t mean rolled oats, but the chopped rolled oats that are sometimes sold as instant oatmeal. If you only have rolled oats, whiz them in a food processor to make them smaller.

The peach crisp is on the right in the picture below (one pan was already eaten by the time I thought to take a picture for you!); the peach cobblers are the other two pans.

Peach Cobbler

  • 5 c. fresh peach or nectarine slices
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 2 T. potato starch
  • 1 T. lemon juice

Topping:

  • 1 c. flour (use a gluten free flour mix to keep this gluten free)
  • 2 T. sugar
  • 2 T. brown sugar
  • 1 t. baking powder
  • 3 T. butter or coconut oil that has been refrigerated so it’s solid
  • 1 egg
  • 4 T. milk or coconut milk

Combine the peaches with sugar, potato starch and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, let cook for a couple of minutes. Pour the peach mixture into a 9 x 13″ baking pan.

Mix the dry topping ingredients together. Cut in butter/coconut oil. Mix the milk and egg together, then combine them with the dry ingredient mixture. Stir until just combined to keep the crust flaky. Drop this mixture by spoonfuls on top of the peach filling. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius for 25-28 minutes, until brown.

Upside Down Peach Cobbler

  • 6 T. butter/coconut oil – put in baking pan and melt
  • 1 c. flour (use gluten free mix to make gluten free)
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 2 t. baking powder
  • 1/4 t. salt
  • 3/4 c. milk/coconut milk

Mix the batter ingredients in the order listed. Pour the batter on top of the hot melted butter/oil in the pan. Top this batter mixture with the peach filling, including the juices. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celcius for 38 – 40 minutes.

I made two 9 x 13 pans of this one as well, but didn’t take a picture. The batter mixture rises up through the peaches. It’s a different kind of recipe than the first cobbler; my family liked them both and didn’t have a preference for one or another. By the way, serving any of these hot with vanilla ice cream is so, so good.

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I don’t buy gluten free flour mixes, so I looked up a recipe and mixed up my own. I used a combination of white rice flour, millet flour and potato starch. (I have a grain grinder so this was the work of just a few minutes to whiz them up.) This worked great for the cobbler recipes but was too dry when used for Yirmi’s birthday cake.

I had some more ripe peaches and though my children wouldn’t mind daily fresh pans of peach cobbler exiting the oven, I keep foods like this for a treat. The season that peaches are very affordable isn’t usually very long, so I decided to can whatever peaches I had that had a soft spot or two that would lead them to spoil.

Though I prefer to minimize sugar, my first batch of cooked nectarines really wasn’t good. As compote it would have been perfect, but I had added lemon juice as a preservative for canning it sugar-free, and that took away the sweetness. I probably added too much lemon juice, but I can’t say for sure.

What I do know is that I added a bit of sugar to the cooked fruit mixture before water bath processing them, and then it tasted great. Anyone can do water bath canning with a regular stock pot, as long as it’s high enough to cover the jars with an inch or two of water.


The above jars are a liter, which means they each hold four cups of cooked peaches, so one jar is just right for a 9 x 13 pan of cobbler or crisp.

Avivah

Introducing…Buttercup and Bambi!

homemaking, homeschooling

I’ve made a number of calls in the last couple of weeks regarding goats, visited three different goat owners, and after much thought and discussion narrowed my options down to the following:

a) Buy a milk goat from the goat broker (yes, that’s a thing!). He has only one, and I’ve been waiting a few weeks for him to get more milk goats, which he keeps saying he’s going to do soon. He mentioned in a later conversation that he also had several young female kids. This is the most expensive option (2000 shekels for the milk goat, and the kid is double the price I’ve seen anyone else asking for a non-purebred kid) but also the most convenient, as he will deliver. Not purebred. 3400 shekels.

b) Buy two purebred goats with high milk production that would double the output of the single milk goat above. However, there is the extra fee for delivery with someone who is licensed to do animal transport, and they are two hours away. 3500 shekels, seller flexible on price.

c) Buy a different nursing goat and her kid, but this seller was letting the kid have all the milk and there was no clarity about what quantity of milk we could expect. Basically the same pair arrangement as the first option but much less expensive, and a motivated seller. Need to arrange animal transport, also two hours away. Not purebred. 2400 shekels.

All goats aren’t created equal. They produce different quantities and flavors of milk, have different personalities, and have different physical features.

Physical features have no significance in and of themselves, but there are a couple of features that I prefer. I like the look of ears that flop to the side versus standing straight up, and I prefer no horns (though most goats have horns). They just look more friendly to me. That doesn’t mean they are more friendly, just that they give that impression to me!

I’ve been mentally going in circles thinking about all the different possibilities. The biggest question would seem to be which goats will give the most milk, since that’s what they’re being purchased for and the more milk they give, the faster the return on expenses is. They basically eat the same amount regardless of the amount of milk they give, so it makes sense to get the highest milk production goats I can find.

Again and again, I circled back to the purebred option as the best value. Not only would I get double the milk quantity, opening up possibilities of yogurt and cheese making for our family diet, the future kids of a purebred animal will bring a higher price. Physically, this pair of goats have long horns sticking straight up on top of their heads. My boys told me that’s a good thing, that it makes them easier to hold onto and direct. I don’t love the look, but how important are looks when you’re buying milk goats?

The third goats I decided to completely take out of the equation – though I liked the way they looked, they were far away, so going to see them would be a five hour trip. And then if I wanted them, there would be the extra expenses. None of which seemed justifiable for a questionable amount of milk.

Back and forth, back and forth I circled. I strongly preferred the first set of goats but it didn’t seem smart financially. For three days I couldn’t make a final decision, and I was getting fed up with my indecision.

The frugal me was really resisting on this front; I really hated the idea of being a motivated buyer and paying more for them than any other goats I had seen listed. But the way they looked really mattered to me – if something is going to be in my space, I’d like to have a positive feeling when I look at it, rather than tolerating it. Finally, I realized that I just needed to allow myself to spend more money and be grateful that I found a good milking goat with the features I wanted, and not need to get a bargain deal on top of that. Sometimes the price really isn’t the most important criteria.

**Edited to add: after writing this, I had another conversation with the seller, and he explained something that I hadn’t previously understood. He told me that he bought these goats as kids from a small farm that has bred them for high milk production. I only knew they weren’t purebred. Until this conversation I thought the reason he could charge such a high price was because he was a good salesman. If I had understood that they are objectively very desirable milk goats, I wouldn’t have had any hesitations about the price in my decision making process! As I’ve told my children about other things, if you listen to your gut feeling you’ll never regret it, even if you don’t know why you’re making the choice you do, and that’s certainly the case here. ***

And so, introducing pair A, Buttercup and Bambi!

On arrival – where are they?
Ds13 and four month old Bambi, being taken from the truck to her new home.

We had two young fruit trees growing in the area where we built the pen. Since goats like to browse (climb up and eat from trees and bushes), we surrounded each with a metal post and fencing to protect them. Despite our protective efforts, they were persistent about getting to it and within a few hours, the persimmon tree had no leaves left – that’s the stick you see next to the post above. I hope it will continue growing but accept it may not. So far the fig tree is holding its own – they don’t seem to like the flavor.

They are very sweet and though a little skittish, after just a day they’ve gotten much more comfortable with us.

We’ve had two milkings so far, and have been very appreciative of how patient and calm Buttercup is while being milked. Her milk is rich and delicious, and we’re all happy with the newest inhabitants of our yard and to have our own source of raw milk!

Avivah

Cutting project costs by building with pallets

frugal strategies, homemaking, homeschooling

I started looking at ads to buy goats, then realized I better get a pen built first so that I didn’t create unnecessary stress for myself by finding the kind of goats I wanted but not having a place to keep them. So my husband stepped in as the overseer of that building project while a couple of our boys did the building.

I had been planning a certain kind of pen, but when I saw how expensive the goats are, was inspired to offset those costs by finding more frugal options for building the pen. I settled on using pallets, which are a good source of free wood, but they come with the not insignificant effort of dissembling them. For the pen design itself, we decided to minimize our work and use whole pallets, mostly avoiding the need to take them apart (the door is the exception).

Building with whole pallets has its challenges; since the pallets aren’t identical there’s extra time and effort involved so that the end result doesn’t look haphazard. Ds16 and ds14 worked together to get the main pen built; my only physical input was to redirect some passionfruit vines from along our fence to the area above the pen. Passionfruit grows quickly and my intention is for them to is that they will eventually cover the top of the pen, providing shade as well as making it look more visually appealing.

Building the door did require wood of a specific size, so ds14 found a method that is very effective in breaking them apart – though he makes it look easy he quickly developed blisters on his hand and I felt tired just watching him. That young man has a huge work ethic and a lot of stamina! Once he took the pallets apart, he built the door and now all that’s remaining to add is a lock.

Though doing your own projects is less expensive than paying someone, building materials nonetheless add up quickly. Ds14 and ds20 discovered this for themselves last year when they co-purchased geese and building materials for a pen. I suggested to them that they consider using recycled wood, but they didn’t think it was worth the effort. They spent 1500 shekels on a wooden frame, chicken wire and screws, and soon experienced for themselves how fast the expenses added up. Later when they decided to end the goose experiment, ds14 decided to switch over to chickens and wanted to add a chicken run. He chose to use recycled materials; almost doubling the space but spent only 100 – 200 shekels more).

Independent of cost considerations, I very much like reusing and recycling. It’s gratifying for me to find a way to use what I already have or what already exists rather than get something new.

About using pallets – it’s important to know that they have different codes printed on the pallet that indicate how the wood was treated. Sometimes dangerous chemicals are used and those pallets marked as such should be avoided for a project like this. We chose pallets that were untreated or heat treated. To see a list of the symbols and what they stand for, check out this site.

My husband gets the credit for shlepping the pallets home. Talk about a good attitude – he did it smilingly and told me he appreciated the chance to get a physical work out loading and unloading them (so far he’s brought home 25 pallets!). Next on the list of pallet projects is a hay feeder, milking stand and outdoor stairs.

Avivah

Thinking about getting milk goats – am I crazy?!?

homemaking, nutrition

Over the last couple of years my son told me he really wanted to get goats, and I adamantly and repeatedly told him, “No, we don’t have enough room,” and offered rabbits as an option. He agreed but that wasn’t what he wanted and after a year gave them away.

In the meantime, he has helped friends take care of their goats and learned to milk them.

For the last few months I’ve been noting how much space owners set aside for two or three goats, and it’s less than I thought was necessary. I spent a long time thinking about if I was willing to change the look of my yard to make room for two milk goats and a pen for them. I started to slowly find the idea more doable and acceptable.

Until recently, I had hoped we could rent or buy some land adjoining us. One person was willing to lease us the entire plot of five dunam but only for a year and for five times the going price for agricultural land. The other didn’t want to lease or sell any land. The thought behind having more land was so we could raise some animals and practice permaculture principles to rebuild the completely depleted chemically farmed soil, and develop some kind of food forest. That would mean investing in fencing and many other significant start up expenses, that we wouldn’t be willing to do without a long term lease.

I realized if I scaled down my vision, I could do some of those things in my yard right now. But it means giving up – to some degree – the kind of ‘pretty’ yard I’ve spent time developing.

Why would I want goats? Seventeen years ago I learned about the incredible nutritional benefits of raw milk, and since then have thought how amazing it would be to have our own source of milk. In the US, I traveled every month or two to Pennsylvania, where I bought raw milk directly from a Mennonite farmer, twenty plus gallons at a time.

When I moved to Yavneel, I was able to buy raw goats milk from a local family and was thrilled to let someone else raise the goats and for me to have the benefits. My daughter and I bought all that they had. However, the supply became irregular and then petered out completely.

Healing our very broken industrialized food system begins with supporting local farmers, and there’s nothing more local than producing food yourself! Though milk hasn’t been an important part of our diets since we left the US, when I thought about what would be the best use of our very limited space to raise some of our own food, milk kept coming up as the top option. (Eggs would have been number one, but my son is already raising chickens.)

This is NOT a frugal undertaking. From a strictly economics perspective, it doesn’t save money but this goes beyond money for us, since we see it as an investment in our health. If we had our own raw milk, it would replace other less nutritious things that we currently eat.

So what are the costs involved in getting milk goats?

First is buying the goats – and the costs have gone up quite a bit in the months since we began thinking about this. A good milk goat costs between 1800 – 2000 shekels each. (I asked the goat broker why they’re more expensive than a few months ago, and he said, “Gas has gone up, food has gone up, meat has gone up – why wouldn’t the cost of goats go up?!”) You can buy young female kids for 700 – 1000 shekels but then have to feed them and breed them and wean the babies before you get milk, which costs plenty of time and money.

Then there’s the issue of buying hay. We’re in a shmita year, and can’t buy hay that is currently being grown. There is literally a hay field opposite my house, and a few days ago I watched him bale the hay and stack the bales, thinking how easy and convenient it would be if I could run over to the tractor driver and ask him to drop a bale over the wall into my yard – but I can’t buy any of it. Everyone who had animals who was concerned about shmita issues knew to pre-buy hay for the upcoming year. There’s no hay that I know of available for purchase left from last year – several months ago we found one person who had a few small bales who told us to call him back in a week, since he was out of town. When we called back, he had already sold the non-shmita hay to someone else.

When my son bought his purebred barred Plymouth Rock chickens from a Circassian woman a couple of months ago, I asked her for her hay supplier. I’m allowed to buy hay from a non-Jew, since he’s not violating any Torah laws by growing hay during shmita. She gave me a number, but when I called him, he said he’s no longer selling privately, and all of his hay is now sold directly to a broker. He had no suggestions of anyone else I could speak to.

We have to ask a rav if we’re allowed to feed animals hay that was grown as heter mechira, because that’s what most Jewish farmers have relied on.

Then there’s the cost of animal feed that is going through the roof. You can’t save costs by pre-buying feed, because after a couple of months the weevil eggs inside the grains hatch, multiply, infest the batch and the feed gets ruined.

And of course, we need to be able to house them, and in addition to the pen need a hay feeder and a milking stand – all of which costs more money.

Despite all the costs and logistical challenges, I’m still seriously considering goats. Does that sound crazy?

Avivah

Asking myself what feels fun – then joining basket weaving course!

homemaking, personal development

Frequently when a writer or commentator wants to hold up an example of a useless thing to spend time learning, they mention basket weaving. Or underwater basket weaving.

It’s interesting what we consider valuable and what we consider worthless. Hands-on creation of a useful object is a waste of time, and tapping away at a computer screen living in a digital world is an accepted norm. But putting that aside…..

I mentioned having participated in a basket weaving activity a while ago. I didn’t really enjoy it, primarily because of what I was telling myself. When forming the sides of that basket, it seemed like I needed to be an octopus to keep hold of the different ends. I looked around and all the other women seemed to be managing better than I was. I was feeling increasingly frustrated and inadequate, comparing myself to them. Thoughts began running through my mind: “Why do I put myself in these situations? Why do I have to do new things with new people and look like a complete incompetent?” I was convinced that I wouldn’t be able to complete the basket and would walk away without anything to show for all of my effort.

After a few minutes of this, I got hold of myself and recognized the direction I had gone in. (It takes very, very little time for a mind to spin out into negativity!) I then asked myself, why am I telling myself this? It’s a beautiful day, it’s a lovely group of women and I get to do something I’ve never done before. I reassured myself that the basket would look just fine when I was done, and that my focus should be staying in the moment and enjoying the experience.

So I did.

And the basket, while not an impressive masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, looked like a basket when it was done.

My first weaving project ever – woven using westontonia and banana leaves

When I saw the ad about the next session before Pesach, I was simultaneously interested and avoidant, not wanting to have a repeat of my initial experience of inadequacy. But I told myself, I’ve already done it once and I’m going to enjoy it. I quickly sent my rsvp.

This was a project that I enjoyed much, much more.

Trivet made using olive branch for a frame, and date stalks

While we were working on our trivets, someone mentioned that there’s a local teacher who formally teaches basket weaving using traditional methods. I got her number when things quieted down after the holiday.

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I’ve been interested in learning basket weaving for a long time.

As a frugal person, sometimes I’ll say no to things that seem unnecessary or don’t add value. Whether basket weaving has intrinsic value to anyone else or not, I’ve been becoming increasingly conscious of making decisions not from a logical/intellectual space, but by asking myself, what do I want? What feels good to me? The more I ask those questions and act in alignment with the answer, the better things seem to go.

When I called the instructor to inquire about her classes, I was delighted to learn that a new eight week series was beginning just a few days later! Despite it taking place in the busy late afternoon/evening hours, I was determined to make the child care arrangements work so that I could participate.

I’ve done two sessions so far, each three hours long, and am enjoying it so much.

The sessions takes place in a tent outdoors, lined with beautiful handmade projects the instructor sells.


All of the weaving in these sessions is done using date stalks. When I finished my first basket, the instructor suggested I could hang it up and use it to keep small items in. No, I rushed to tell her, I was happy to have the experience learning how to weave and wouldn’t be displaying it.

Well. Here it is on my bedroom wall now. 🙂

I haven’t yet trimmed the ends of this, but for now am enjoying the natural look of it.

In the second session, we made small baskets. I made two – they are a good size to keep use on the desk and I’m going to use these as well.

One of my baskets in process.

There are four of us in the workshop; two beginners and two who did the first eight sessions, and are continuing with more complex projects.

In the background, a more advanced student working on her basket.

The instructor does her own weaving projects alongside of us.

The basket the instructor began during this session.

There’s a meditative quality to basket weaving, and the more you do the more relaxing it is. Right now I’m just learning the basic process and the end result is usable but far from perfect. I’m really okay with that. I’m more interested in learning and am so, so much enjoying it. Coming out with a concrete project is a nice bonus but the creative process alone is worth it for me. I’m already thinking I’d like to continue when these eight weeks are finished!

Avivah

Stopped overthinking and got a new car, finally!

homemaking

Over two years ago, we bought a seven seater car, which has been very well used. It was a much older car than anything we bought in the past, since here in Israel, seven seaters are much more expensive than five seaters, and I was staying within a very tight purchasing budget.

I have never had the experience of constant repairs until owning this car. We have literally replaced every single part in the last two years, and every time we do, I’m sure that’s the last thing that will need to be replaced. Then a month (or less) goes by, and there’s something else!

The more money we put into it, the more it seemed we should keep it. After all, it’s all new under the hood! (If we had spent the sum up front that we spent on repairs to buy a car, we could have had a very nice car in excellent condition to start with! Not fun to think about but it’s been a good lesson.) When I bought that car, I was grateful to find a car that had so many things we were looking for, even though it was clear to me when I bought it that it wasn’t a vibrational fit for me. It was very functional but it felt like a step down to buy it.

After a particularly big repair a few months ago, I told my husband this car is trying to work its way out of our lives because it isn’t a match for us vibrationally. I’m positive that someone else who would be excited to have it could own it for years and would hardly need any repairs, but the car is doing its part to help us move towards something better for us.

I’ve been clear for over a year what our next vehicle would be when we were ready: a very good condition seven seater with four wheel drive. Seven seats so we can fit everyone at home if we go on a family trip, and four wheel drive since I live in an area with back roads where that would be useful. Cars like these are quite expensive – and not gas efficient at all.

When I finally began looking for a car a few months ago, I had a dilemma. I expected we would see a rise in gas prices, and couldn’t see spending more for the vehicle purchase, more for insurance – and then more to continually fuel up. Since the vast majority of our driving is just one of us, sometimes with one or two kids along for an errand, it was too much car for our true needs.

I had a really hard time letting go of the idea of a seven seater, though. (A seven seater is about twice the cost of a comparable five seater in terms of age and mileage, so the cost is a significant part of the decision.) Even when I let go of a seven seater, I couldn’t let go of the idea of four wheel drive. Those cars are also in a more expensive category (to buy/insure/fuel), and though it’s nice to bounce along a back road, it’s something we rarely do.

Finally I let go of that, too.

I’m the researcher and car buyer of the family, and when I asked my husband for his feedback as to what to buy, he replied, just buy a car in good condition that’s not old.

But what about this feature, and that feature? He really didn’t care. I did, though, and finally decided on a car that had the features and ‘look’ that I preferred. The challenge was that the cars that met my parameters weren’t being sold by private sellers locally, and my husband wasn’t available to go together with me to see these cars.

He travels to Tel Aviv once a week for work, so I found a car in that area, planning to drive in to work together with him. The intention was I’d drive the old car home, and after work he’d come home with the new car. I set up a meeting with the seller, agreed on the time we’d check in to confirm with each other first thing in the morning and made travel plans for the next day. Then my husband, wanting to save me the significant driving time, suggested he take the train to work, then take a bus from work to the seller and look at it himself. I was happy to save four hours of my time, and agreed.

However, there was some miscommunication between us about when he was supposed to contact the seller to confirm the meeting time. The meeting didn’t happen, and though they talked about meeting in the evening, that didn’t happen either. When he came home that night at 10 pm (obviously without the car I had assumed he would buy), I was frustrated that all the time and effort I had spent – researching and narrowing it down to this brand and then finally this car- had shown no concrete results. Though my husband said we could go there together the following day on his day off, I absolutely did not want both of us to drive two hours in each direction to go look at it. He has so little free time, and the point had been to go look at it when it wasn’t out of his way.

At 10:30 that night I spontaneously decided to look for a completely different car that had not been on my mental radar at all. I narrowed it down to the best three choices within an hour from us, then narrowed it down to the best car of the three – a seller twenty minutes away.

I called first thing in the morning, and an hour later was looking at the car with my husband (who had a day off since it was Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day). We test drove the car, I made an offer, then a counteroffer. When the seller accepted, I nodded and left my husband to take care of the transfer details. It was fast and easy.

It was also a bit anti-climactic. It’s not the look I preferred, it doesn’t have the extra features I wanted (both of which are minor details and can be added) – but I honed in on what is most important for us and it has it all. It’s a car in excellent condition with lower mileage, is a brand known for reliability, gets good fuel mileage, has a generous sized trunk – and we got a good price on it.

My primary initial feeling was relief. I’m not a person who does well with indecision; I like to make a decision, take action and move on to the next thing on my list. To keep thinking and thinking and overthinking one topic was sucking up so much of my mental energy. This has been a big thing on my to-do list for a long time and it’s really nice to have it taken care of.

Now that I’ve let go of all those things I thought I wanted, I’m feeling the freedom of having a smaller car with a smaller fuel intake, and appreciating driving something that runs quietly and smoothly!

Avivah

Odds and ends and Purim menu plan

homemaking, menu plans

I have some fun things I’ve been doing recently – hosting a soap making workshop, attending a foraging workshop to learn about edible plants growing in the wild, learning rudimentary basket weaving – I wanted to share with you about each of these things but didn’t, and here we are almost at Purim!

Ds9 and ds5 returned to school today after ten weeks at home, just in time for the class Purim parties. I’m glad they went back in time to enjoy some of the Purim activities.

I’ve only dressed up twice in the last thirty years, and even then, it was pretty lowkey – once a blue wig with my regular clothes, once a brocade robe with my regular headgear. This year I decided I want to more actively contribute to the fun Purim environment so I’ll be dressing up a bit more. I whipped up a couple of Mexican-style ponchos for my husband and me – I used a bright yellow chenille bedcover that matches the sombrero I bought – I got the bedcover at a second hand shop, and for a half hour of time and a few shekels, we have something fun to wear.

We’ll be attending a large communal meal tonight at a private home after the megilla reading at shul, and I’ll be contributing rolls and green beans for that. I’m also going to be sending challah rolls for our shalach manos, and making some kind of flatbreads for our Purim seuda, so I’ll be doing a lot of bread baking today!

For the Purim meal tomorrow, we’ll be hosting our married daughter and her family, and another young family. I thought of doing a Mexican theme for mishloach manos and the Purim meal, but then decided to stay with something more simple.

Last year Purim was on Friday and there just wasn’t time to deliver to all the people who I had prepared mishloach manos for. This year I hope to make it to everyone on my list. Because I live in a small community, I feel like I should give everyone or give just one or two people. I think of Purim as an opportunity to reach out and connect with others, some of whom I already have a very nice relationship with, and others I’m less frequently in touch with, to let them know they are thought of and cared about. So I try to make a generous number of mishloach manos.

For the Purim seuda, I wanted to serve something that would be special but different than our typical Shabbos fare. I decided to go with a casual theme of Israeli-ish foods:

  • zaatar flatbreads
  • techina
  • chumus
  • chopped avocado
  • seasoned olives
  • pickles
  • grilled beef skewers
  • cranberry meatballs
  • grilled honey mustard chicken cutlets
  • french fries
  • Israeli salad

Usually for dessert I put out any baked goods we’re given for mishloach manos, so I won’t be preparing anything extra on that front.

What I haven’t yet completely decided on is what to give the teen girls who attended my weekly class for the last year. I’ve recently stopped giving the class and want to send something small to each of them. I’m thinking about some homemade chocolates with a muffin – I have heart shaped chocolate molds and a heart shaped muffin pan, so that could work nicely together. I want something simple and small but nice – it all needs to be done today and I hope that I’ll manage timewise to get all that I want to do, done!

Avivah

Finding storage space to stock your pantry

frugal strategies, homemaking

After my recent post about shopping the grocery sales, I received the following question.

One thing I find particularly difficult, is that since homes are smaller in Israel, storage options sometimes limit me being able to buy the way you suggest. Do you have any tips regarding that? Each person can obviously do the best they can given the space they have. But if you have any specific creative storage options, I’d love to hear them.

I have to clarify that I’m not suggesting you buy massive quantities of foods that you’d need a basement to store, though I can see how my example from my US days about buying six months of grape juice would lead you to that conclusion. (Even that was just four cases of juice, stacked in the corner of my very small storage spot at the time.)

Now, practically speaking about finding space for your pantry. Since living in Israel, I’ve lived in three homes with four different kitchens. All of them had fairly minimal kitchens when we moved in, though when we renovated each of them, I was conscious of adding as much storage space to the room as possible.

I’ll show you pictures of what I was working with so you understand I’m not talking from an ivory tower kichen space! Here’s a link to my last kitchen’s before pictures. And the first kitchen in Israel that I renovated. And below is a before picture of my current kitchen. The entire kitchen was just the dark brown (half rotted) cabinets in the corner where my son was standing; in the foreground are some of the new cabinets before installation.

Okay, so onto some ideas for how to maximize storage space!

1)Declutter! Go through your cabinets and get rid of things that you rarely use that that are taking up your precious kitchen real estate. I realize it can be hard emotionally to let go of things you have, but going through this process will leave you room for your money saving purchases. Things tend to accumulate, so I do this periodically.

2) Look at places that you don’t use efficiently. For example, I tend to not use the space under my sink efficiently. Actually, the deeper bottom cabinets tend to be areas that don’t maximize space. (For that reason, I put drawers or sliding shelves into all of the kitchens I renovated, to make those hard to reach spaces accessible.) Any space that isn’t well organized can be reorganized and I’m often amazed how much less space things take up when they’re reorganized!

Another example: I noticed one of my bottom cabinets has two shelves but there is room for three, so I asked my husband to put adding a third shelf onto his do list. (I asked him to do the same thing with a bedroom closet – he’s a good sport about putting things on his list and I’m a good sport about waiting until he has a chance to get around to them.:))

3) Your storage space doesn’t have to be in the kitchen. In the first kitchen I linked a picture to, I had a small laundry porch adjoining (it wasn’t more than a meter wide by two meters long). One narrow side had the washer, on the opposite narrow wall I put a plastic shelving unit that had three shelves. When I got more produce than I could fit into the fridge, I stored it right there next to the kitchen, with the cool air from the outside helping to keep it fresh. I did the same thing in my next home, though the porch wasn’t adjoining the kitchen.

Really, there’s no reason you can’t store your well-sealed non-perishable foods in whatever room you want, even in an entirely separate storage area! I’ve needed my bedroom spaces for clothing and my independent storage room was converted to my office, but know it’s an option to carve out non-traditional spaces wherever you can if it’s worth it for you.

4) Only store what gives you the most savings. When shopping, consider your space constraints, and buy accordingly. I generally buy the more compact items that are on sale, not huge packages that I don’t have room for.

You will never find me with more than one extra package of toilet paper at the very most. I don’t care how cheap it is, it just takes up too much space to buy more than I need until the next shopping outing. Similarly, I’m not going to stock up on napkins to save thirty agurot (ten cents) a package. They take up too much space, so I’ll buy enough for a couple weeks and that’s it. But I will buy tuna when it’s 30% off. That’s a big savings and cans/vacuum packs are compact enough to store in a small space.

5) Split big purchases with frugal friends. You don’t have to buy that five kilo bag of beans and store it all yourself! Ask friends if they’re interested in splitting a big purchase. You all get savings and none of you are stuck with huge quantities.

How much you buy when something is on sale will depend on your budget and your space available. Even buying two 1 kg bags of rice instead of one will save you money! And that doesn’t take much more room.

I think this is obvious, but it bears repeating to be on the safe side. Don’t buy something you won’t use, even if it’s a really good price. That’s a waste of your money and your space. This reminder has saved me lots of space! (I remind myself of this when canning as well: I don’t want to store food that isn’t something I’m likely to eat, even if I could get it for free. It would take up space that could be used for things that I really want to have.)

So don’t be deterred about buying more than this week’s items when you find a good sale. When there’s a will, there’s a way, and I’m confident you can find some space to use!

Avivah

Shop the sales, fill your pantry with what is cheap

frugal strategies, homemaking,

>> Aviva, can you maybe do a post about how to shop frugally in Israel? We are a family of 7 and I am finding it very challenging to stick to a grocery budget of less than 4000 nis a month. Would appreciate a post if you’re up for it.<<

I’m happy to share on this topic! While I’ve written loads about frugal shopping in the past, my own strategies are constantly evolving. However, the basic mindset remains the same, and that’s what I’ll start with. I’ll later share more posts on different specifics.

At the foundation of my shopping strategy is this: I don’t shop for specific ingredients, but shop to fill my pantry, and then cook based on what I have. This is a huge, huge difference from the typical shopping most people do, and where I save a lot of money.

When I shop, I’m looking for the sales. When I find a good deal, I buy a lot of that item. For years, people have been looking with curiosity
into my shopping cart (and many times commenting or questioning me about specific items they see), because generally my cart looks different than most people. Instead of a small amount of a lot of different items, I buy a lot of a few items.

I call this buying the loss leaders, the sale items advertised weekly to lure people into the stores. Where I live now, I don’t get any advertising booklets or sales flyers, so I don’t know what I’ll find on sale until I get to the store.

On my most recent trip to the supermarket, I saw they had beef bones for 12.90 a kilo, instead of 29.90. People passing by saw me putting a bunch in my cart and all of them glanced at me and then at the price, and kept going. Only one woman stopped and jokingly asked if I was leaving some for everyone else. (There was a ton, I hardly made a dent in what was available.) I told her I was buying a lot while the price was good, and she told me she was planning to do the same thing, and would come back later in the day when she had a car to transport it. (Not surprisingly, she was a a middle aged Russian woman – the Russians this age know about frugal shopping!)

Beef bones are something I only infrequently used in the past. Now that they’re on sale, it’s not hard to find ways to use them! The last few weeks I made meat soup instead of chicken soup for Shabbos dinner; they are delicious for cholent, and they make amazing, nutritious, rich broth that is a great foundation for any soup or stew. Some of them have more fat, some have more meat – I chose the fattiest ones I could find – and I cut off and rendered down chunks of the excess fat to make tallow.

During that same shopping outing there was also meat on sale for the lowest price I’ve seen in over seven months. Why are these things on sale now? I don’t know. But I did know the price wasn’t going to last long and got two cases. I do the same with chicken – when it’s on sale, I get as much as I can fit into my freezer.

Don’t get caught up in the specifics of my beef bones or meat! You can substitute any other sale item. This is just an example of one strategy that I regularly use that makes a huge difference in how much I spend. When I say that I shop to fill my pantry, I mean that I don’t buy enough for just that one week, but stock up at the sale price.

When I know how long the sales cycle is, I buy enough to last until the next sale. Back in the US, I would buy grape juice twice a year, when it would be half price. When it would go on sale for 2.99 a bottle instead of 5.99, I would buy six months worth each time. There was no point in buying more than that, because I knew there would be another sale – and there was also no point in buying less, running short and having to pay full price.

I recently began shopping with Mishnat Yosef, a group buying organization (the website is set up for member use and only members can see what is available that week, but there’s no cost to becoming a member). Their staple items are less expensive than the supermarket’s regular prices, and they cycle through their staples items regularly. I’m now learning their cycles and buying accordingly.

Six months ago I learned that at the supermarket I shop at, produce was priced half off one day a week to compete with the weekly ‘shuk’. (Now that shmitta began, it’s the same price all week long.) I shifted my shopping day from Wednesday to Tuesday to take advantage of this. You can start to see how if you regularly buy your groceries at a 25 – 50% discount, it will cut your grocery spending!

I guarantee that wherever you live, there are great shopping options! Everywhere that I’ve lived, I’ve found great deals, and routinely, people living other places said that I was lucky to have the prices that I did, that they didn’t have those kind of opportunities. (And people living in the same place as me would wonder why they couldn’t find good deals …) Your sales will be different than mine, but you definitely have good opportunities wherever you are. You just have to look for them, and buy what is inexpensive for you.

Buying the sales goes hand in hand with buying seasonally. I don’t buy produce that is out of season, which is guaranteed to cost much more and not taste as good. Right now avocadoes are an amazing deal (six shekels a kilo), and I’m buying lots of them! I wish I had a way to preserve them for the long term, but I don’t so I’m enjoying them while I have them. I don’t touch them outside of this season. In the same vein, while in the summer we had loads of tomatoes, now I hardly buy them.

This shopping strategy of stocking up on sales gives me a nice selection of items to work with when planning my weekly menus.

Most people who menu plan first make the menu and then shop for the ingredients. That’s a good strategy and definitely much better than randomly buying items without a plan, but I do the opposite. I shop, then make my plan. I make a list of what I have in my pantry, then look for recipes to use what I have. If there was a great deal on sweet potatoes, it will be in my menu. If they’re not on sale, I won’t use them.

Buying the sales means that even when you are eating the same foods as the full price shoppers, you’ve paid much less. Only your timing is different.

Avivah

Another new grandson, canning activities, making cheese

canning, cheesemaking, dehydrating, food preservation, frugal strategies, homemaking, homeschooling, parenting

On Wednesday evening, my daughter gave birth to a baby boy!

I told my neighbor yesterday, and she looked confused. “I know…you went to Jerusalem for the bris.” No, that was two and a half weeks ago – this is a different daughter!

Who knew when our two daughters got married twelve days apart, that they would later have baby girls 2.5 months apart, and then baby boys 2.5 weeks away?! It’s so special.

Thank G-d, this is our fourth grandson in the last 12.5 months, making for, as my sister said, “A bumper crop of boys!”

This was my daughter’s third birth, but first homebirth. It was so nice to see her an hour later in her own space, looking relaxed and happy. As she said, a homebirth is a completely different experience than a hospital birth.

Now they’re here with us for a few days, and I’m tapping away at the keyboard with this tiny cutie pie on my lap.

One hour old.
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After dashing out to meet my new grandson, I came directly back home where several women had already arrived for the canning workshop that I was giving that evening. I offered a canning workshop for women in our community several weeks ago, and then did this second one for women who couldn’t make it to the first one.

What I covered was waterbath canning, something that can be done very inexpensively with supplies that are probably already in your home or inexpensively purchased. Canning is a good strategy to make the most of great produce sales, to extend the seasonality of your fruits and vegetables so you can enjoy the when they are no longer in season.

Waterbath canning is good for high acid foods only – that means fruits, fruit juices and pickled items. So while it’s limited, it’s still a great skill to acquire for your frugality and self-sufficiency toolbox.

It took me some time to figure out how to can things here since the jars and lids are different from the US, where most of my canning experience was. I did a bit of canning when I first moved to Israel using recycled jars, then stopped until this summer. What changed things for me was finding where to buy jars very affordably, and how use them. It was a drive to get to the seller but worth it, since just a day after I bought them, someone in my community who does holiday food distribution called to tell me they had given out all the parcels and were left with some produce. Did I want any? Perfect timing!

It’s been fun to get back into canning! There’s a limit to how much fresh fruit you’re going to get, even if it’s free, because there’s a limit to how much you want to eat, and there’s a limit to how long it will stay in your fridge before it goes off. In this case, I got a case each of apples and pears, and with the help of my new jars and large stock pot, preserved them so they are now shelf stable.

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When I went to Jerusalem for the bris a couple of weeks ago, my son-in-law asked me if I wanted zucchini. He knows the quantities of food we go through, and he also knows that I find ways to use whatever comes my way! (Frugality tip – when something is offered and it seems like something that will be helpful, accept it even if you aren’t yet sure what to do with it! You can pass it along to others if you don’t use it.)

At his yeshiva, many families participate in a vegetable buying order; every week each family gets an identical box of assorted produce. They pick up their orders at a central location, and when someone doesn’t want an item that was in their box, they put it to the side. Anyone who comes to pickup his box can add to the extra produce put to the side or take it. On the Friday that we were there, there was a lot of zucchini, and my son-in-law brought me a case and a half!

What to do with so much zucchini? I could have chopped them and frozen them, but am trying to get away from using my freezer so heavily. I don’t like to depend exclusively on something that is dependent on electricity. (I remember well being without power for a week in Baltimore when a storm came through, and trying to cook all the chicken in the freezer before it spoiled, as the daylight faded and I had just a candle for light.) I decided dehydrating the zucchini in the oven would be my best option, but all three batches failed – one spoiled (not hot enough), and two got overdone when the heat was too high. Our chickens enjoyed them, at least.

Since it was clear dehydrating wasn’t working in this case, I thought about what to do with the remaining zucchini. I could can them, but as a low-acid food my only choice was pickling them, and that didn’t sound appealing.

When I began canning in 2008, I made lots of the recipes in the canning books. They looked good and filled the jars, but they weren’t foods that we ate. I learned my lesson – now I won’t can something unless it’s something I know I’ll use.

I started cruising for zucchini inspiration and came across a comment about mock pineapple that got my mental wheels turning – I started thinking about zucchini as a potential palette to absorb other flavors. With some more looking, I found recipes for apple pie and lemon pie filling made from zucchini, as well as pineapple zucchini. It sounds strange, I know. I think of it like tofu. It doesn’t taste like much on it’s own but it can turn into whatever you want.

I made the mock pineapple, and when one of the jars didn’t seal when processing, we put it in the fridge and had some the next day. My boys told me it actually tasted like pineapple and was really good!

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The mock pineapple was especially yummy with homemade yogurt, made by ds14. We got a call a couple of nights ago (from my other son-in-law) that a large synagogue was giving away tons of milk that was due to expire a day later. We got a bunch and while I was out at choir practice, ds14 was busy making loads of yogurt. Literally – he made an 18 liter bucket full! (You can see it behind him in the picture below.)

Making cheese

Then over the next couple of days, he and ds12 experimented with making soft cheeses, adding flavorings, straining them, weighting them down. They are using only lemon juice and vinegar for a curdling element, no rennet. My favorite so far was made by ds12, with milk, salt, eggs and yogurt. It takes a lot of milk to make cheese, and it’s fun to experiment when all the milk is free! My boys appreciated the opportunity since they’ve been wanting to experiment with cheese making for quite a while. (A while back ds14 did some cheesemaking, but that ended when the budget I allotted was spent.)

This was my favorite so far, by ds12 – it sliced up really nicely in firm slices. He weighted it down quite a lot to squeeze the liquids out.

The shalom zachor will be at our home tonight, and today will be a busy day getting ready for that as well as Shabbos. Dd21 and ds15 came home last night so they can be here for the shalom zachor (they were initially planning to only next week for the Thursday bris and then stay for Shabbos), and since my birthday is tomorrow I appreciate them being here even more!

Avivah