Cooking on a Budget --or "making something out of nothing"

I have really enjoyed cooking (and eating) last night and today. While I'm not a great cook, I think I do pretty good.  And I do enjoy cooking and baking. Pies are my favorite thing to bake (and eat). Probably my forte in the kitchen though is putting together a tasty, somewhat balanced meal with what's on hand and doing it quickly.  I was doing 30 minute meals way before Rachael Ray was popular. Albeit, probably not as fancy as hers. Truthfully, I usually have a lot on hand that I've bought when it was "on sale".  We study the grocery store ads each week and often go to 3 different stores to stock up on the "sale items" that we use regularly.  Throw in a few coupons for further savings and we are able to eat well on a limited budget. I seldom buy items that are not on sale, unless it is staples we have run out of or something I need to make a particular dish.
I sometimes make planned-overs, also.  That is left-overs or extra food that is deliberately planned to make a different second meal.
Sometimes I tell hubby that a meal is "made from nothing".  His response is " I'm glad we had 'nothing' to make it out of."
Today I made Chicken Soup. This is one of my "something from nothing meals".  Truthfully,  I didn't intend to make Chicken Soup this week, but the Chicken Breast I got out of the freezer yesterday turned out to be the bones and skins that I had saved for soup stock. You see, when Chicken breasts are on sale for $1 per lb. I buy several packages.  I then cut the skin and bones off, leaving boneless skinless chicken breast which I put in appropriate sized packages  to freeze for use in various dishes calling for boneless skinless chicken breast.   I put the bones and skins in another package to use for soup stock. Or sometimes I cook it right then and make soup or put the stock in the freezer.

Anyway, I put the chicken on to boil after supper last night.  I put in sea salt, black  pepper, savory, some chopped bay leaf, a couple of stalks of celery, about 3/4 of an onion I had already peeled in the fridge, a small carrot chopped in large pieces and covered it all with water.  I brought it to a boil and simmered it covered for several hours. I was gone for short time and when I came back in, the house smelled so good.  Told Hubby we should start a cafe.  The smells would be so attractive.  The food might not be the best, but the aroma, ummmm!
This morning early, I removed all the bones and skin.  There was 3 to 4 cups of meat and veggies to put back in the stock.  Later, I added a can of mixed vegetables, a can of diced tomatoes, and a couple of packages of Ramen Noodles with the seasoning pack and voila! Chicken soup.  We like to crush the noodles into tiny pieces in the package before adding them to the boiling broth.  Sometimes I have fresh frozen tomatoes from a local garden, but since those are all gone, we had to revert to canned ones. Also sometimes I use frozen mixed veggies.  It just depends on what I have on hand.  In any case, the canned or frozen foods have been bought on sale and ramen noodles are cheap, cheap, so the whole big pot of soup costs very little.  This chicken soup turned out so, so yummy. I will definitely stick with the sea salt and the particular herbs I used. We ate some for lunch with whole wheat crackers and I took some to Mimi.  Then late afternoon Paul and  each had a second bowlful. UMMM Good. There is still enough for another meal.  I may freeze it to use sometime when I don't have time to cook or we may eat it tomorrow.

For supper, I pulled 2 Tombstone pizzas out of the freezer and into the oven. Added a green salad and we had a real treat for a Friday night meal and avoided the expense of going out.  I got the pizza recently on a special of 4 for $10.  We will have left over pizza for breakfast too.

We had ham for Christmas dinner.  Last week, I took the ham bone which still had a lot of ham on it and made 15 bean soup.  I buy the package of 15 bean soup mix for that. It includes a seasoning packet and has the instructions on the package.  We really enjoyed that also. I know it sounds like we do a lot of soup, but say hey, it is winter and a good bowl of hot soup is real comfort food. Of course, you could stretch the dollars a bit more by buying pinto beans or navy beans or whatever you like and seasoning them up yourself, but no more often than we have ham with the bone I sort of splurge and get the 15 bean soup package.
Happy Cooking Everyone---

This was actually written a week or so ago. I just now got the pictures put together, but hey that's okay.
Meantime I have enjoyed shopping,cooking and we have enjoyed eating a lot more good food.
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Flowers, Flowers, Flowers....Where have all the Flowers Gone?

Here it is the dead of winter and we wonder where have all the flowers gone?  Soon it will be spring and our town will be a showcase of azaleas and other flowers as evidenced in Our Town in Spring. Actually I might say All the Flowers are gone to Silsbee.  There is always something blooming here. The beautiful spring flowers are followed by the crepe myrtles in the summer.  There are huge crepe myrtle trees of various colors in yards around town as well as the small ones in the median of Highway 327 aka as Tiger Lane. This year the fall roses were absolutely gorgeous and of course we had the October Daisies.  Now we are enjoying a pot of pansies under Mimi's carport.  And the camillas are blooming by our front porch and in Mimi's backyard.  A nice harbinger of spring is a clump of paper whites (narcisscus) blooming in our back yard.
You also might say All the Flowers are Gone to ESN.  Our scavenger hunt this week takes us on a search for flowers..flowers to help us look forward to warm spring days.  There are as usual so many to choose from.  Here are a few.
I love Daisies and here is a beautiful fabric from Lil Bit of This N That.

Isn't this cheery? 
It would be neat in a kitchen or for something for a child.

In fact, Lil Bit of This N That has more floral fabrics. It is hard to decide which one is prettiest. You might choose several if you are a "sewer".

If you are not inclined to sew or make something yourself, have a look at I M Designs for lovely floral handbags.  This beautiful flowered bag for spring is one example.

Beautiful roses, daisies, buttons and lots of pockets!

Colors of Silk has a lot of gorgeous silk scarves and pillow covers with big bold flowers. Like this one with red and blue poppies.

Big Bold Summer Flowers on rich silk.

 Hang in there. Look at the Flowers on ESN and Dream.  Spring will be here sooner than we think.

Keeping Warm with Colors in January!



Well, here it is January. Christmas is passed. The Year 2011 is on it's way.

The New Year's gathering of the Goodman/Wood Clan has come and gone. I must say it was a good holiday season over all. I did get pictures of the tree going up, falling down and finally decorated, but at this point getting  it taken down and stowed away for another year takes precedence over posting pictures after the fact. Maybe on facebook??  Right now I am searching for Warm colors among the ESN listings. This for the new scavenger hunt.  January is not particularly cold here but we are expecting a rather cold rainy Sunday and even colder next week.  We will need to think warm and stay warm then.  It is amazing to me how color can do so much to make us feel warm or cool or happy or sad or whatever. I know on some of the dreary, cloudy days we have here a yellow something is like a bright spot of sunshine.  It can be really cheery. I have zeroed in on some nice warm red items to cheer us and make us think and feel warm.

Here we have a tie with warm colors and with a beach motif. How warm is that?

Dynamite Silk tie with Deck Chairs. Off Island by Tommy Bahama. The Deck Chairs are blue and yellow with the background a beautiful coral with yellow is available at GriffinGarb

And here is a warm wool jacket in a nice warm red color.





Apostrophe NEW Red Wool Blend Peacoat from Gigi's Closet

And can't you just see the fire in the red of this moonstone pin?



Stunning Rare Red Moonstone Pin at Beachcat's Bargains

The possibilities are endless.  Whereever you are and how ever cold and dreary the weather you can find something to cheer you and warm you on ESN.
Hope everyone is getting off to a good start for a Happy New Year. 




All I Want for Christmas is My two front teeth. . .OR. . .

The ESN Savanger Hunt this week is "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth".  The challenge is to find two items we would like to give or receive among the items shown on ESN.  This was quite a challenge--to pick just two items from the thousands pictured.
I decided to look for things to put on my wish list. 
Hubby likes to get me jewelry, so I searched jewelry and found that BeachCat's Bargains has lots of jewelry to choose from. She has fashion jewelry, estate sale jewelry, hippie jewelry, little girl's jewelry, and more.
This three strand turquoise moonstone necklace caught my eye. It is one of "my colors." I'd say if you are shopping for jewelry for someone on your list, take a look at Beach Cat's Bargains.

See this 3 strand moonstone necklace at

Beachcat's Bargains

Also found these viva beads with matching bracelet at Beach Cat's
Bargains.
These are "my color" also.



For second item on my wish list I chose this neat gadget for a little pampering.
Think how good this might feel on those tired aching tootsies!

From Barb's Bargains

There is just no limit to what you might find on ESN.

I hope everyone gets lots of nice things that are on their wish list. And most of all I hope everyone gets to spend the holidays with lots of special family and friends.
Merry Christmas to All and Happy New Year too!

What is a HodgePodge?

What is a HodgePodge?

Recently a customer in the music store saw my sign "Hazel's HodgePodge" in my little nook and asked "What is a HodgePodge?"  I really thought everyone would know the answer to that, but apparently not.  When I picked the name "Hazel's HodgePodge" I had two things in mind. One was the alliteration of Hazel and HodgePodge. The second was that since I've never been known for making decisions, I felt that HodgePodge left the business open for whatever. I could just pick up items of any genre for resale and not be limited to things of one type.  You see, the word hodgepodge generally means a mixture of various things. Other synonyms are mishmash, patchwork, odds and ends, assortment, variety, and mixed bag.  Some words that are associated with food are olio,smogasbord, ragout, gumbo, hash, and salad.  All of these could be considered a hodgepodge as they are a mixture of various and/or dissimilar ingredients.  Some of the not so nice connotations of hodgepodge are jumble--my office--, mess, clutter,-my dining table full of "hodgepodge items", muddle, shambles, and tangle. These all describe the state of my collection scattered all around my house and shop. You might say "unorganized collection" is the best definition of Hazel's HodgePodge when you look around here at all of my "stuff" waiting to be processed, listed, stored, and sold.
.
However, when you are shopping at Hazel's HodgePodge, I hope you will consider all the good things about a hodgepodge, such as variety, good assortment, a mixture of various things.  I hope you will consider it to be a store where you can find any kind of treasure, where you can find a special item for your collection or the missing dish for your set, where you might find something nostalgic or something unusual. Here are some of the latest items I have listed. As you can see even these few items make up a hodgepodge. They are so unalike, but each one is a treasure in itself.

This Little Pig is Gold Plated
Made in Japan Piggy Bank is one of many collectible items at Hazel's HodgePodge

16 piece set of Platzgraff Snow Village Dishes
Perfect for your holiday entertaining!
You can buy these and other Christmas Items at Hazel's HodgePodge



This Bella Casa Platter by Ganz is one of several decorator items
available at Hazel's HodgePodge

This is my MeMeMe entry into the ESN scavenger hunt for last week. If you can't find what you are looking for in MY STORE, take a look at the items on ESN.  It opens up a world of shopping choices.
Better Hurry and get that last minute shopping done while you still have time for delivery for Christmas.



Visiting Miss Martha

 Most every Sunday after morning worship, Hubby and I go to see Miss Martha. It is part of Hubby's "deaconly" duties to take the Communion to the shut-ins. I realize that some would argue that this not necessary, and I would tend to agree. But, it is probably one of the high-lights of Miss Martha's week.  We only spend a few minutes, but she always has something to share with us...flowers someone has sent, cards, pictures, news of her family. She is 96 years old, and confined to a wheel chair but when you ask how she is, the usual reply is "I'm still kickin', not too high, but still kickin'". 
She loves cats and for a good while there was a big cat in her yard called "Alex". Alex, who had a very tiny voice for such a big cat, had just come there and he stayed for a good long while. Recently, Alex just left. I suppose he finally decided to go back to his old home.
Now a new kitty has appeared. Miss Martha says she hesitated to get attached to any more cats since something always seems to happen to them. First week this kitty was there, both her daughter and the sitter advised us to look out for this kitty as it likes to get under your feet. It really does. It is a leg circling cat for sure.

The latest kitty at Miss Martha's

Kitty looking to get underfoot

Sometimes Miss Martha's daughter has to work away from her home, which is in another city, for a week or so, and she brings her two kitties for Miss Martha to "baby sit". These are beautiful big kitties who both stay inside.  I can't think of their names just now.

There are all kinds of flowers and plants in Miss Martha's yard. I just happened to notice this bush out her front window loaded with red berries. Turns out to be a Holly Bush.  When I lived up in the country in Polk County, we had lots of holly trees in the wild around our house. None of them ever had berries that I recall.  I have heard that Holly Trees are either male or female. I was inclined to think that we just had male ones, but maybe they were all female and needed male ones to produce berries. I would guess you need one of each kind to produce the fruit. Anyway, this one is just covered with red berries. It is so pretty.

Holly Tree outside Miss Martha's front window.

The next two things I took pictures of are the Christmas Cactus that someone had given her for Thanksgiving and the "animal" that her daughter had received. She asked the daughter to leave the "animal" with her for a while.



Lighted Angel Pig complete with wings and halo.
"When Pigs Fly?"



Beautiful Christmas Cactus with Salmon blossoms

And this is the lady herself. Not the best picture but one taken the day we were there after Thanksgiving.

She is always dressed to a tee and waiting for us to arrive.

Miss Martha

I know that in our hustle, bustle hurry up lives it is often hard to "make time" or "take time" to visit the elderly and shut-in's, but when you do you can light up their life and break up their day or week. I know our "Mimi" really enjoys having visitors and even phone calls. It is so important that people realize they are not forgotten and the only way they know this is if we reach out and make contact. Whether it is a phone call, a little card in the mail, or an in person visit, why don't you take time this week to reach out to someone who is shut-in at home or in a nursing home? A few minutes of your time can mean so much to them.  And you might be surprised how much it can mean to you.

Red and Green and ...Santa will soon be here!

Just where does the time go?  This day, this week, the month of November, the year 2010, all have slipped by so quickly.  I always heard that time goes by faster as we get older.  I really believe that is true. At least it certainly has been in my experience.  It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is past, we've eaten all the sweet potato pies and made soup of the turkey bones and left overs and now the count down for Christmas is underway.  At the rate I am going, I might--just might--get the Christmas tree up before December 25.  Hubby actually got the life sized Santa out of storage and standing on the front porch one day this week. And people are putting guitars, violins and other things on lay-a-way in our music store, Mr. Bandman. 
Aside of getting my tree up, I am way behind on the ESN scavenger hunt for the week. I think I get the booby prize again this week for being so slow. The theme of this week's hunt was Red and Green.  If you search the photos at ESN, you will see there is no shortage of Red and Green items. Deciding which items to choose is much harder than finding Red and Green items. However, here goes:


 If you are like me and still in the planning stages of decorating, you might find a use for this and it is both Red and Green.


Red, Green, White Mix Mesh Netting
from Pence Christmas Tree Farm
They have so many, many neat ornaments and trims at Pence Christmas Tree Farm.


And look at this beautiful green sherbet dish. I can think of several festive ways  to use this for holiday decorating.
What would you do with it?

Hazel Atlas Sherbet Dish
from Carolina Blue Lady


And when you get "dressed up" for that special holiday occasion, how about these Dramatic beads in lapis blue with malachite green accents trimmed in goldtone and rhinestones?

Beads with a touch of Green
also from Carolina Blue Lady


This Froggie Tote from BeachCat's Bargains is just too cool to pass up. Cute, Cute!

For the eco-friendly on your list!

And for something to keep your head warm during the cold winter season
check out Eccentric Thrifter's toboggans

Knit Toboggan in Red!

Maroon Red Crochet Toboggan Hat
And there are so many, many more red and green items available through the ESN.  Be Sure to check it out.


I will decorate my Christmas tree this weekend. I will decorate my Christmas tree this weekend. I will decorate my Christmas tree this weekend. I will decorate my Christmas tree this weekend. I will decorate.....
And I will post pictures when it's done.....I promise!