As I explained it to Marissa earlier tonight, I am getting pretty bored with this whole not working thing. Most people would think I am crazy, and would die for a "vacation" like this, but the idea of vacation is that you have something central to come back to. And right now, there is nothing "central" to my life. I mean, I have my little to do lists and projects, and then there is always reading the binders of work information that the supervisor gave me to prep...but there isn't a "central" piece to my life right now. Which can be kind of a downer at times. And that's kind of where I was at yesterday. Today, though, a different story!
I decided to be more positive about my current life circumstance. And take this time to read, watch random videos on the internet (I don't have cable, and can't say I miss it all too much), and get things more settled permanently in my apartment. And one of the other things I have been doing has been thinking a lot about issues of sustainability, and more important, what I can do to sustain my own life and lifestyle better. And one of those things that I can readily do is learn how to make things more on my own rather than buying food products that are 1) from who knows where 2) expensive 3) full of high fructose corn syrup and other weird sugary things and 4) come with tons of packaging.
One of the realities of making this move out here is that I am on a limited income until I get my first paycheck at the end of August. I thought it would be a lot harder than it has been, but I have been very intentional about thinking through every time I spend my money (i.e. do I need this NOW or can it wait or do I "need" it at all, what is the intended use of this, am I replacing something or just adding on, etc) and I also have created (well, changed) a really detailed budget through MS Excel that Marissa sent me a while back. So, its really cool to be watching my money, and seeing where I am spending (and not!) it. The other reality of moving out here is that I am taking a pay cut in terms of salary and cost of living for the career opportunity and lifestyle/location opportunity. So, with that, I especially need to be conscientious of every penny, and try to build my savings and repay things as I can.
Anyway, enough of this rambling! In my how can I save money/be intentional with my money/be more conscientious...I taught myself how to do two things this week: 1) make bread and 2) make yogurt (ish).
The breadmaking was an interesting turn of events, because I decided to be all awesome and buy one of those baking stones from the Machias Hardware store. Marissa had sent me this awesome recipe for fridge bread that produces many loaves from one of my favorite magazines, Mother Earth News. What they (stone manufacturers) don't tell you is that the sonofagun smokes like crazy when you first put it in the oven. Incidentally, my oven was only cleaned in parts, so that was also causing a LOT of smoking. (My landlord got a cleaning company to come in here before I moved in here, but I am pretty sure he got majorly ripped off because my apartment was not cleaned as it should be....hence a smoking oven). So, after researching and reading a ton a ton online...and after cleaning my whole over (one hour later....) I decided to just cook the "boule" on a baking sheet. Here's a progression of how that worked out for me:
ABOVE: This is what the bread looked like right after I mixed all ingredients together.
BELOW: Machias Hardware Store helps out again, this time I take my first foray into their bulk natural goods section. Note how I am getting a lot for very little $$.
ABOVE: I figured baking bread is like baking cookies with mom...so I gave the spoon a lick just to make sure it tasted good. Yummy yeasty goodness!
BELOW: The neato (one of them) things about this bread is that it is a NO KNEAD bread. You just set it on your counter (or stove, if you are like me an have about three inches of countertop space) to rise at room temp for two hours. And then presto chango, this is what you get! And then you throw the whole batch in the fridge overnight while you sleep (or try to).
ABOVE: I should've put something against my cute boule for size reference, but in the recipe it says to take out a chunk about the size of a grapefruit. So, hence here is my grapefruit-sized boule getting ready to hop into the oven!
BELOW: Success! One lovely "Panera like" loaf of artisan bread!
ABOVE: Doesn't it look awesome? So pretty, loaf, you are...
BELOW: Look mom and dad, I am eating my own from scratch bread!
Bread successes!!! How fun, huh?
My other food making experience that I am trying right now is making yogurt. See, the way I figure is that I should learn how to make from scratch the things I eat the most. And cut down all the unnecessary sugar (I am fat enough, thank you) and salt (my 12,000 ill kidneys thank you) and I can save money and eat healthier.
So, I found this recipe for making yogurt in a slow cooker, which seemed like a good time. For anyone that knows anything about me is that I LOVE my slow cooker. I think....I could make a whole Thanksgiving dinner from slow cookers...in fact someday I should do that. I think they are just about one of the best kitchen inventions ever. So, back to the yogurt. I read many many recipes, and settled on this one. I went and got a half gallon of Tide Mill Organic Farm whole raw milk (if you remember, this is where I get my CSA from, so in the future I can add a half gallon of milk every couple of weeks to my order to make more yogurt for no additional cost!), and the local whole food market had yogurt starter too! So, I followed the directions:
Alas, when I woke up this morning, I discovered things did not work out so well.
As it turns out, one should probably own a kitchen thermometer (would be good for holiday baking, too, right?). I don't think I let the milk cool enough before adding my starter. Speaking of starter....I think it was bad. Because, after I took the above photo, I noticed on the side there was a label suggesting it be refridgerated (not after opening....just always). And I bought this off of a shelf. SO, needless to say, that was a few bucks down the drain. I consulted back with one of my favorite books Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to find out the company that she uses for cheesmaking supplies, as I figured they might have yogurt starters too. And sure enough, they do! So, I ordered a couple packets, which should be coming in just a couple days (yay New England!).
So, hopefully I will have more success to share with you in the future regarding yogurt.
In other news, I have seem to have a few organisms that have decided to live around me. I have a big spider that takes up residence outside my door every night, as well as a cousin of it that takes up residence outside my kitchen window. For those of you who don't like spiders, skip over this pictures. But, its been real cool because I have seen them eat consume two mosquitos each now, which I most certainly appreciate (I want to get a bat house to put outside to bring in more squito eaters, but I think that will wait for permanent home dwelling). Please meet Aragog and Charlotte (if you need a link for this one, I should hit you over the head with a pan).
(I love the above picture because it looks like the spider is 1/3 of the size of my car!)
And, I found this guy today when I was washing out some more vegetables from my CSA share. It appears he didn't much like living in my fridge for the past day. Although, he warmed up quickly and I set him free outside. Not until I named him Slug-Go, though.
OK, enough creepy crawly pictures, right?
How about something more....Maine? What would you do if you were out for a walk around your neighborhood today (trying to get more exercise...always...) and saw this on the side of the road:
Don't see it? Look closer:
So, what would you do? Perhaps similar to what I did: Pull your iPod earbuds out of your ears and start jumping up and down yelping "I found wild Maine blueberries!!". (Please note...I was on a pretty heavily trafficked road, so I am sure I was a site to see.). So I took some pictures, and then plucked off a handful of berries and nibbled on them all the way home....and ohhhhmyyyygoooodness were they tasty! For use Midwestern folks, we are used to the huge blueberries that are rather tart. Wild Maine bluberries just grow all over the place up here, and they are tiny and taste amazingly sweet. They were so good. I think I also saw chokecherries, too, but I didn't try them (that is rule #1 of harvesting wild edibles...don't eat it unless you can verify by leaf, fruit, and location that it is what it is...) so I will have to bring some home another time to identify them.
How thrilling, though, huh? Just in case you were wondering, or wanted something to go "wow" about...the blueberries I found....on the side of a 55mph road...across the street from the county hospital. Plants are so awesome.
So, yeah, that is all the excitement for today. I am really loving taking pictures and being able to share with you all my small and large adventures in Maine here, and would love to receive any comments and thoughts you have!
ADDITION TO THE POST: I have a received a request (not sure if it is in jest or serious!) about what the cost per unit for both the bread and yogurt would be, so I've broken it down here for you:
BREAD (per batch):
Yeast: $.22
Flour: $1.30
Kosher Salt: $.05
Cornmeal (i used 2tbls): $.06
Water (tap water, per Maine water costs): $.001
LP Gas: unknown (I don't pay for my propane, but I cooked for 1/2hr at 450 degrees)
Batch total cost: $1.63
Loaf cost: $.41
I am not even going to run the cost savings numbers here, since long gone are the days where you can go to a local bakery (if you even have one!) and buy a loaf of FRESH bread for $.40!
YOGURT:
Milk: $3.50 (1/2 gallon of locally grown/produced raw milk)
Starter: $5.49 (packets of four, two used for 64oz/half gal batch)
Electricity (crock pot): again, don't pay the bill for LP so I don't know.
Crock pot: Already had one and you should too.
Batch total cost (initial, with purchase of 8 8oz ball jars): 12.75 ($1.57 ea)
Recurring batch cost (reuseable containers of course!!): $6.25 ($.78 each)
To compare, I saw a 32 oz (1/4gal) container of both Brown Cow (from California) and Stoneyfield (closer, in N. Hampshire) for around $4.30 a container. Compare the homemade, which would be $3.12. And its even better for individual (8oz) servings. Both B.C. and S.F. run their 8oz cups around $1.20 each (!) and mine are...$.78!
For someone like me...who eats 8oz of yogurt a day probably 5 days/week:
Buying Stoneyfield or Brown Cow individuals: $312
Making my own: $202.80
OK, I really do think I will run my own homestead/hobby farm someday....live off my land...
Did you figure out how much your bread costs per loaf? Curious minds want to know =D
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