Here, there, and everywhere

Tomorrow I head off for a work retreat, which means I may, or may not, find time to post some more. I will be out of town until Thursday.
Then, there was the drive home from work today, which takes about 30 minutes. Usually I listen to NPR, but they're in the middle of their winter membership drive. I've heard fall drive and spring drive, but now it's the winter one. Sheesh, pretty soon it will end up being the daily membership drive. Ok, maybe not that drastic. Also, I am not contributing. I did, once, as a dollar a day member. I think that ought to get me through a few more years before I pony up again.
Besides, the discretionary income is almost non-existent. I have a purpose for almost every little penny, which includes savings and I don't touch savings.
So, not wanting to feel guilty about to listen to the winter membership stuff, I switch to a station. They've been advertising on TV that they got a whole new play list. Guess what? They do! And I liked every single song I heard.
I ended up in the middle of hearing I'm alright sung by Kenny Loggins.
Then they played something by Three Dog Night, which reminded me of my dad. I think he had (still has) Three Dog Night: Joy to the World: Their Greatest Hits. I think I know all the songs by heart. We'd dance around in the living room to mom and dad's record player, sometimes.
(Nothing really to see here except a record player with Just an Old Fashioned Love Song.)
Then a little Bubbly by Colbie Caillat.
A very short break and then I'm listening to the Beatles:
My taste in music is eclectic and I liked to listen to 1960s music in the 80s. I am sure it was a direct influence of my dad.
Then I get an 80s song and I'm bopping in my seat again. Feeling a little like a junior high kid again.
As I'm pulling into my driveway, I get to hear Eric Clapton. And it makes me grin.
(He shot the sheriff but not the deputy.)
Boy, for those 20-30 minutes, I not once felt like I would want to switch stations. It is plenty eclectic for me, running the whole range of songs I've caught snippets of from my youth to the present.
Still making me smile. Hope it will do the same for you.
[Give me virtual pats on the back for figuring out how to embed in my log now. Am I getting cool or what?]

Your Frugal Friend-Tip Four

Money saving tip #4: Put something away for retirement and college.

But maybe not all of it in mutual funds, IRAs, ERAs.

Actually, we're not sure about that yet. We're meeting with our finance guy (yeah, funny, we have a guy) this coming weekend, to see what damage the stock market has done. But we have our account set up to automatically take money every month to buy more stock in one of those accounts. Instead of a lump sum at one time, say, at the end of the year. That way, during the down turn, we're buying stock low, so we get more stock for our money at this point. When it goes higher, our account will quickly go higher. But I'm worried about when that turn around in the stock market will come.

We're young. We have at least 30 more years until retirement (maybe more, they keep moving the social security age back). As it is, I don't think my husband nor I feel like there will be any social security once we come of age. You'd think I'd be mad about my Social Security taxes taken from my check, since I don't think I'm getting any? No, because an obligation has been made to the older generations about their retirement. Social Security probably should have been reviewed, recalculated and rehauled once every ten years to keep it healthy, but our representative government is not really conducive to planning ahead. Votes are gotten by things that happen for your constituents here and now. I heard this said about a city council once, and I think it doubly triply quadruply infinity applies to our federal government.

I'm a bit worried though about my son's education. I do not expect to be able to pay for all of it. But I would like to be able to pay for part of it. In addition, I am hoping, no, I'm banking on it, that he will get scholarships. Yeah, nothing like pressure on a kid still in elementary school. I'm actually banking on hoping both of them will get academic scholarships. Because I did. It really does help. A lot.

In addition, I have no pie in the sky ideals about sending them to Harvard or Yale (once, I imagined myself going to Yale. Ha!). Just a good solid public state university, with in-state tuition. I prefer that to community college, because frankly, I don't want them living at home. Hence, I would like to help pay for room and board, on campus, if need be.

So, as everyone says, we should probably diversify more. This probably means that in addition to IRAs and ERAs and annuities, I should look into CDs (the interest sucks), savings accounts (interest sucks) and maybe savings bonds (good for middle term investments, between 5 and 10 years, see about.com; it was a handy article).

But, we need to keep putting aside the money. No matter what. And do our best not to touch it. As we contemplate things like braces, Mr. Wild and I are looking at other parts of our budget and what to cut back. Savings is not one of them, no matter how we are distributing those savings.

Looking for Frugal Favorites

I'm still looking to add to my Frugal Menu from you folks. Maybe my parameters were too tight. Kid-friendly AND adult-friendly might be asking too much. And the ease of preparation to rival getting take out, okay, maybe a bit unrealistic.

BUT, I would like your help with recipes and/or meal ideas. Here, I'll get you started. Mr. Wild's favorite meal to fix (the man loves chopping things up, you gotta love that)

Tacos

Brown the hamburger. Use prepackaged taco seasoning WITHOUT silicon dioxide (the brand we have at the moment is Carlita's, but when we run out, I'm trying to make my own) with whatever water they tell you to use and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Put tacos shells on a pan (we used Carlita's again [FYI it is a SuperValu brand]) and bake according to directions. Make sure you time it, you might get burned taco shells otherwise (and yes, that can happen).

Chop up any of the following: lettuce, tomatoes, onions

Also, make some SteamFresh frozen veggies (we like the corn), serve in a bowl, and chop up fruit into a fruit salad. Put some shredded cheese on the side, maybe salsa, maybe a little light sour cream, maybe ketchup (don't ask, at least the kids eat the tacos).

Voila, dinner!

What?! You want me to tell you what it cost per serving? Pshaw! At least we ate at home around our dinner table. At the very least, we didn't spend any money on gas.

What's on your table?

I wonder...

So, I'm looking all over the blogosphere. Some folks have photos of themselves in their profiles, some do not. I wonder, should I have a photo of myself? In my profile. I've done it already with my kids. Will it demystify the Wild Child?

Then I start contemplating the photo. My Facebook photo is a couple years old. I haven't even gotten a picture of my new hair cut (which is getting much older by the minute. I think I got this one back in December and I'm still trying to figure out how to wear it) to share with one of my friends back in Chicagoland, who had specifically asked for it.

But I see a lot of smiling faces looking back at me in the comments sections of the various blogs I visit. Everyone looks very friendly. I suppose you would like it if I added my friendly face? I don't know. The whole getting a good photo might be tricky. I'd feel obliged to wear the right shirt and the right makeup and make sure my hair is decent. It seems like a lot of work suddenly. Maybe Easter, maybe I can get a good picture then. We dress up and look nice, so it might work.

I will have to continue to ponder. Meanwhile, there are followers of this blog who already know my crazy mug and I don't think they'd care one way or another.

100 days

100 days. 100 episodes. 100 friends on Facebook (not 100 posts, yet)

How many of you have, or had, kindergarteners out there?

*Looks around the crowd, sees a few hands*

There may be a few of you with preschoolers who may have experienced this, too.

Today was the 100th day of school celebration in her class. It's been more than 100 days since I started this blog, but I started on Labor Day and she started soon thereafter, so let's call it a milestone for both of us. She (we) had homework this weekend. We had to send a bag with a 100 collection in it. Yeah, I know, I was also like, what? We don't own 100 of anything. Actually, we do. Crayons. Good thing, because I was not going to go out and buy paperclips, or rubberbands, or whatever else was suggested. Crayons were good. And, as the teacher directed, we counted out all 100 crayons. However, I was NOT going to send the crayons all loose in the bag. They were nicely housed in the 64 crayon box, and the 24 crayon box, and the extra few scattered in the bottom of the bag. But I swear, we did count every single one, like we were supposed to. Because I am the overachieving mom.

We also had to send a 100 snack. 100 sticks of pretzels. We diligently washed our hands. Well, she did and she counted every single one.

Then, poor babe, she got the cold Mr. Wild and I had. It was touch and go, but she said she felt well enough to go to school today, and she really wanted to go. She had a good time with all her 100 things. The teacher mixed all their 100 snacks together, the kids counted by 5s and 10s, colored, and talked about 100 all day. She had paper glasses made out of 100, and a crown with counting by 10s on it. All in all a good thing.

We also had parent-teacher conferences tonight. WC #2 is doing just great. (So is WC#1, but his conference was last night.)

Except.

She perhaps talks too much and doesn't concentrate on getting her work done. The teacher was very nice, saying that talking was okay, as long as they talked about their work and got their work done. And she said it was a very chatty class. That must be something, lots of chatty kindergarteners.

You all hear my mom in the background? Yeah, she's nodding her head. That's because it's hereditary.

See, when I was in first grade, apparently I was a bit chatty. And guess what? I have the comments from my report card:

"Wild Child is progressing well in all academic areas of first grade study. We are continuing to stress with Wild Child that it is important to complete certain tasks daily and that it is also necessary to help by being quiet during study periods. Wild Child is very socially inclined and we are trying to chanel [sic] that admirable trait."

Wow. She says that very nicely.

You're all wondering how I came to have that report card.

Too much chocolate?

Ok, you say, how can that be so? I am sharing a recipe from a friend of mine, who shared it with family and friends about 3 years ago. I finally got around to trying it, because, well, what goes well with Valentine's Day? Chocolate, of course! This recipe is for Mocha Velvet Cream Pots and it is from the Cook's Encyclopedia of Chocolate. (And my friend knows who she is. Well, actually, I think her husband made these for her family, he's the chocolatier).

The following recipe has lots of annotations, so you will probably just want to copy it by hand from here.

Mocha Velvet Cream Pots

Serves 8 [I cut the recipe in half, and thus had four pots of Mocha Velvet Cream]

1T instant coffee powder [my friends used instant espresso from an Italian grocery, I used Taster's Choice and I have a measuring spoon that measures 1/2 T, which is very handy, I might add]

2 cups milk [I used 1 cup of skim, because that's what we had]

6T of sugar [I used 3T]

8 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped into small pieces [my friend recommended Ghiradelli, which I used, but didn't know if the 60% or 72% bittersweet chocolate was the right one to use. No other Ghiradelli choices in our store (did I mention we live in a small town?). I decided to use the 60% because I was serving it to my kids, and I used 4 oz]

2 teaspoons vanilla [I used 1t]

2T coffee liqueur [optional, my friends didn't use it, and neither did I, again serving to kids]

7 egg yolks [ok, you're wondering, how did I split one egg yolk in half? I didn't. Somewhere at the back of my foggy brain, I knew, read, found out that when splitting eggs in half for a recipe and of course you really can't, you round up. I used 4 egg yolks. I would have gone for the smallest eggs, but they were all kind of big.]

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place eight 1/2 cup custard cups or ramekins [I used four, the recipe also notes you can use oven proof coffee mugs] in a roasting pan [a casserole also works, and is what I used]. Set aside. [side note: about three years ago, I bought 8 1/2 cup ramekins from IKEA with the intent for actually making these little desserts. Yes, this is the first time I used them.]

2. Put the instant coffee into a saucepan. Stir in the milk, then add the sugar and set the pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until both the coffee and sugar have dissolved completely. [this actually happened before it even came close to boiling, so I kept it on until it boiled and then on a little longer]

3. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until it has melted and the sauce is smooth. Stir in the vanilla and coffee liqueur, if using. [my chocolate never seemed fully melted, it was very grainy in the pan. I did not put it back on the heat, but I was sorely tempted. I don't know what was going on there. Maybe that's normal for Ghiradelli?]

4. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks to blend them lightly. Slowly (very!!) whisk in the chocolate mixture until well mixed (start with a slow bead of chocolate mixture into the egg so you don't cook the egg0, then strain into a large pitcher (or large pyrex measuring cup, which I have!). The straining removes any little cooked bits of eggs - yuck![my friend's notation, I actually had very little bits and they might have been chocolate. This went much better than expected, except it was hard to keep a slow bead of mix flowing out of the pan into the egg. It was more like dribbling down the side of the pan and I was worried it would not make it into the bowl.] Divide the mixture evenly among the cups or ramekins. [It actually makes slightly less than an actual 1/2 cup in each bowl, in case you were wondering]

Pour enough hot water into the roasting pan (or casserole) to come halfway up the sides of the cups or ramekins (less if you are using the coffee cups) [and I wondered, why is that?]

5. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the custard is just set and the knife inserted into the custard comes out clean. [for me it was actually 40 minutes before this happened] Remove the cups or ramekins from the pan and let cool. Place on a baking sheet, cover and chill completely [if you don't have room for a whole baking sheet in your fridge, you can cover each and set them individually around the fridge] Decorate with whipped cream, if desired.


VERDICT: Well, it was very rich. The small half cup serving was all I could handle. My children couldn't finish theirs. Not even close. WC #1 had it with whipped cream and more milk to drink, which seemed to help, but he gave up. WC #2 really wasn't impressed. The first bite or two got raves and then it was too much. It really did need the whipped cream to cut the richness a little. Whew! It was good chocolate, but really only for adults. I thought I did pretty well on the first try. But, I'm unsure about Ghiradelli and its melting abilities, and perhaps I should have used milk with a little fat. Though, that might add to the richness. Shoot, I should have taken a picture.

I also need to have other recipes to use in the ramekins, because, honestly, I am not going to be making this that often.

Food additives

I don't normally worry or care much about food additives. But lately, there's one that has got me flummoxed. Silicon dioxide. Which happens to be the same stuff that is in the packets in jacket pockets, purses, shoes that say "Do Not Eat" and "Throw Away." So I'm told.

So, I pull out the chili powder and see silicon dioxide after which in parentheses it says "anti-caking agent." So, I'm thinking, hunh?

Maybe the manufacturers think the amount they put in the spices or powdered mixes is not much. But why do the little packets from your purses and shoes say, Do Not Eat? Those are never very big packets. How much of the chili powder will I eat to be equivalent to the packets in my jacket? We eat quite a bit of it, usually using 3 T in our chili batches. Which we make quite often in the winter. Me, Mr. Wild and WC 1&2 all eat it. So, I'm thinking that can't be good. Why in the world, if the packets in goods, like purses and shoes, say do not eat, and then it is added to our food? Yeah, seemed weird to me, too, maybe stupid.

So it gets me thinking, maybe I don't want to buy stuff with that in it? And I'm thinking, do we, as consumers, really care that our sprinkling of spices doesn't cake? So, I check other packages for anti-caking agents. Grated parmesan like Kraft, that sits on the shelf instead of the refrigerated section. They use cellulose. Um, is that paper then? Or tree bits? The taco seasoning mix uses tricalcium phospate. Which apparently, according to wikipedia, can be used occasionally as an antacid. With tacos that might not be so bad.

But still, I ask again, do we as consumers really need our powdered stuff not to cake? Because I would be perfectly happy to pound the container or package on the counter until it separates itself and then sprinkle it in whatever, or on whatever.

I guess I'm getting to be more of a label reader. I am finding that you can find stuff without the MSG and other things if you just read a label and pick a different brand. I also avoid high fructose corn syrup if I can. Mostly, it takes making things from scratch to avoid most additives. So pull out your cookbooks and give those recipes a try again. I'm not overly cautious, but I am more cautious than I used to be.

Happy hunting.