Fourth Quarter

This is my favorite time of the year. The summer heat (not that we had much this year) is cooling down and the light grows softer and more golden in the afternoons. In the morning, I feel a refreshing crispness in the air.The farmers' market is still full of peppers, eggplant and basil, but there are also the first winter  squashes. The abundance is intoxicating and I revel in all the dishes I can make.

After the pleasures of summer, it is a delight to feel a renewed call to discipline and planning. The rest of the year will be busy, with a cascade of holidays, so I get out my beloved Filofax and start planning so that everything will get done. I dream of projects to bring to fruition and revive plans that had been set aside to pursue summer activities.

This year, I am aided by an unexpected change. For the foreseeable future I will be working four days a week instead of five, with (of course) a corresponding cut in pay. It's a sacrifice, to be sure, but I see potential:  additional time and energy to work on the projects that bring me joy and satisfaction.

One of those projects is to revive La Dama de la Casa. I now have Mondays off so I plan to write a blog post that day. I will continue to focus on simple living and the joys of making, as well as some philosophy and unexpected topics. A few years ago a friend urged me to write about my wide range of enthusiasms so I will finally take her up on it. I hope you find my ramblings interesting and inspiring.

Eating during Wartime

This weekend I attended the opening reception at our local agricultural museum for an exhibit on the role food and agriculture played during the World Wars. I saw this poster, which dates from World War I and was instantly struck by how timely the advice was. It could have easily been written this week by Michael Pollan or a devoted locavore or even La Dama de la Casa!

These are all excellent points. Even in peacetime, it is important that we treat what nourishes us with respect and care.

So I came home and inspired by the example of the wartime damas de las casas, I made  yummy pork fried rice with leftovers and local veggies, topped with a sprinkling of chopped green onions from my backyard herb garden.

Duster Socks

 

I recently ran out of the cloths that attach to my floor duster. I had recently scored five skeins of my favorite cotton yarn and decided to knit up a few replacements. I modified a pattern I found on line.

The new "socks" grab plenty of the dust, cat hair and flotsam and jetsam that accumulates on my hardwood floors. When I'm done, the socks go into the wash to be cleaned for the next cleaning day.

Whenever possible, I prefer things that don't leave La Casa once they've arrived. Food, for example. I hate to throw away anything edible. Any veggies that are too tired for soup go into the compost bin to become soil for next year's veggies. I develop meal plans that use up all the meat products we buy.

I didn't use many duster cloths and I know that it won't make a significant difference in the landfills if there are a few fewer.  It is more a mindset shift to go to reusable cloths. And I like having a quick and easy knitting project!

Produce Exchange

Several years ago, I was intrigued by a flyer in Santa Barbara for a produce exchange. Not long after, I read an article in the newspaper about a local produce exchange. I was warmly welcomed into the group and began sharing veggies and herbs from La Casa.

During the growing season, we meet once or twice a month at a member's house. It's like the fishes and loaves-- it seems like members leave with more than they brought! We discuss gardening issues, share announcements of gardening events, and then share the bounty of our gardens. Several times a year we have a potluck, usually built around a theme. Last weekend, members of the group met to make dozens and dozens of tamales for the holidays.

It's a great way to supplement the produce I don't grow in a manageable quantity. Through the generosity of my fellow exchangers, I've learned new gardening techniques and tried fruits and veggies I had never tried before. It's a wonderful way to build community and share the excess (especially herbs) that might end up in the compost bin.

In our last meeting, a member brought lots of Granny Smith apples grown on her property. I have been longing to make apple pie and this was a great opportunity to stock up on lots of pie-worthy apples.  La Casa is going to smell heavenly on a chilly autumn night!

Frugalista Date Night

I've always been a frugal girl. The dictionary defines frugal as "economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful". My personal definition is "wisely and thoughtfully using one's resources". I worked hard for my money and it's only right that I should honor that expenditure of energy by using its fruits in a thoughtful and resourceful manner.

Being in between jobs, it is more critical than ever that I use my money resourcefully. But I don't want that to mean boring food. Food is one of my great pleasures in life and I have been making a game out of finding ways to eat well on a slimmer budget.

Last weekend I made yummy beef tips and mushrooms in a creamy sauce over egg noodles. I baked the butternut squash I got at Produce Exchange for a side dish, picked lettuce and herbs from the garden for the salad. For dessert I baked cookie bars which I served with a scoop of the ice cream I'd gotten free for donating blood. I did a rough estimate, calculating that the dinner, including the surprisingly yummy cheap wine I'd gotten at Trader Joe's, came to $10 for two! Show me a restaurant where two people can get a delicious entree, side dish, salad, dessert and a glass of wine for $5 each! We didn't have to make reservations or worry about drinking too much before driving home. Oh, and for another 75 cents, we got the evening's entertainment courtesy of our Netflix membership.

Oh, and the leftovers of the butternut squash made a satisfying soup later in the week when mixed with the chicken stock I'd made last month and frozen. I added the lentils I made for Sunday dinner and added fresh picked sage from the garden. I finished the soup with a hearty dollop of half and half and had lunch for two days.

What is your favorite frugal yet satisfying meal?

Routine business

Because my days are less structured right now, I have to be especially vigilant so I don't slip into slothful ways, spending hours on the Internet looking at cute animal photos. This time off is a great opportunity to try new things and tackle projects I have never been able to get to. I am also starting a small business to generate some revenue. So structure is very important.

Last week I codified my morning routine. I have found that if the day starts in a structured way, it is more likely to remain so. I get up at a certain time (challenging now that it is getting chilly in the mornings and the cats like to pin down the covers around me), then follow a few steps. These create the track that keep my day aligned with what I need to accomplish.

The Morning Routine:

1. Write down my dreams. I have a pretty lively dream life and for the past year have been writing them down in hopes of learning from them.
2. Write in my diary. I always wake up with some topic I want to write about, so I take advantage of this to scribble for a few minutes.
3. Read improving literature. For 5-10 minutes I read something written to improve my life, whether physically, spiritually or psychologically.
4. Check on the garden. I take my coffee and stroll outside for a few minutes to see how the "green children" are doing. It is a good way to start the day, breathing in fresh morning air, listening to the birds chatter and sing. If possible, I do my morning routine outside to maximize the energizing effect of being outside.
5. Review my to do list. This way I know what's ahead and can determine the order of the day.
6. Visualization meditation. I spend 3-5 minutes simply visualizing my ideal life. I recently started doing this and was surprised how often I found things I could do immediately to move my life in the direction of my ideal.
7. Read the paper, eat breakfast. Simple enough
8. Tackle one item from my to do list. If everything else goes to Hell in the day, at least one item got checked off!

I'm not the only one who swears by a morning routine. Here are some links to other writers on their morning routines and how you can improve your own:
http://zenhabits.net/habit-4-my-morning-routine/
http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/my-morning-routine
http://alifeofperfectdays.blogspot.com/2012/02/create-amazing-morning-routine.html
http://lifehacker.com/5537478/top-10-ways-to-upgrade-your-morning-routine

Summer Garden 2012

The summer veggie garden is winding down. The tomatoes are pretty much done for the season. Yet the peppers are just getting started.

My veggie garden was better this year than it was last year, but still not the best it could be. The soil at La Casa is pretty clay-ey and veggies often struggle to grow, even with plenty of amendments and fertilizing. So I tried more containers this year and that's where I had my greatest success.

I have several "salad bowls" going. I plant lettuce seeds every other week and that keeps us in salads. I also had great success with growing basil from seed-- something that fellow gardeners tell me is difficult to do. However, I learned long ago not to rest on my gardening laurels. My first veggie garden at La Casa produced a prodigious yield of basil and tomatoes and I smugly proclaimed myself a gardening genius. The next two harvests were downright pathetic and I was suitably chastised. Pride goeth before a fall...

It is probably just psychological, but I swear I feel especially energized when I eat a salad made from La Casa's garden produce. So I have started the winter garden, sowing radish, carrot, beet, arugula, spinach and lettuce seeds in a raised bed of my own design to keep the goodness growing.