Mid-Century Style: Three-bean Salad

Well-marinated

I loved my grandmother's Three-Bean Salad.  I got the recipe from her before I got married, and made it on occasion for potlucks and family gatherings.  Unfortunately, my husband and kids didn't share what is arguably an acquired taste.  I did look forward to my father-in-law's visits, as he was a fan.  After he died, I had few opportunities to make it and, unfortunately, misplaced the recipe.

Recently, I had a hankering for the salad.  Also, I thought it might be a good meal to have on hand for visiting vegan children (once I located vegan Worcestershire sauce).

I had one recipe in my files, but when I realized it contained no Angostura bitters or celery salt, I knew it wasn't Grandma's.  So I asked my mom if she had it.  Yes, she thought she had the recipe her mom had written out.  This struck me as a little odd, since Gert (as the family called her) really wasn't a recipe follower.  In fact, she had a healthy disrespect for all directions, discarding the user manual for every appliance she ever brought home as soon as she took it out of the box.

Original "recipe"

My mom took a picture of the recipe with her iPad (for which, I'm sure, she still has the user's manual) and e-mailed it to me.  It gave me a big laugh.  Clearly, only Gert or one of her female descendents could prepare a dish from this recipe!

Actually, I'm not entirely certain I interpreted Grandma's instructions correctly.  It didn't taste exactly as I remember, but that could be the lack of anchovies in the Worcestershire sauce.  After two potlucks and many lunches, we just finished the first batch, and will make another before the second batch of vegans visits.

Mom said Gert got this recipe at a cooking class at Lawry's California Center, a Los Angeles landmark for decades which closed in 1992 as a result of cost-cutting by the parent company.  In addition to restaurants, the center offered cooking classes featuring Lawry's products.

One more note: Angostura bitters are most often used for mixed drinks, so look for them in the liquor aisle of your grocery store.  When we first moved to Washington, I had to go to the State Liquor Store to find it.

Gert's Three-Bean Salad
1/2 cup each white and brown sugar
1 cup oil
2 cups vinegar
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
3 Tbsp. Angostura bitters
1 tsp. celery salt
1 Tbsp. seasoned salt
2 cans each green beans, waxed beans, garbanzo beans, and kidney beans
1 cup each (or to taste) chopped celery, green pepper and/or red onions

In one-gallon container, mix all ingredients except beans and vegetables.  Drain beans and add to bowl.  Add vegetables to taste.  Refrigerate at least 24 to 48 hours, stirring twice a day.  (Also can be made in plastic food storage bags for ease of turning to marinate.)

Salad only gets better with age and can keep for a couple weeks.

Salad looks like this when first mixed.  Not nearly marinated enough!

The priceless gift that costs less than an hour

This blog is about things we can do that are fast, frugal and fit - like being able to save a life (or two or three) by giving less than an hour of my time.

Every two months, the bloodmobile pulls up at work.  It's usually the highlight of my week.  Alas, today I was turned away; my iron tested slightly below the limit.  I'll have to wait two months to give again.  (Unless, of course, I get a call that my blood is needed because a child is having surgery.)

Why do I love giving blood?

It saves lives.  Each donation can be used for several patients, some with life-threatening injuries and illnesses.  When I was a young adult, I was afraid to give blood.  Then I visited my grandmother in the hospital and saw the blood she was receiving from an anonymous donor. I knew I could do it - as long as I didn't look.

It's a privilege to be able to give blood.  It means I'm healthy.  My irreplaceable friend Cheryl was a regular blood donor until she was treated for cancer.  (Since then, the guidelines have been eased so that it's not an automatic disqualification.)  I pledged then, I would never miss an opportunity to give.

It provides an opportunity to socialize with people on different floors.  There are people I work with I only see on bloodmobile day.  Call it networking or socializing, you can learn a lot from someone when you're reclined with a tube coming out of your arm.

It helps the nurses in my life.  I have "baby blood," because I've not been exposed to a common virus which is OK when blood is transfused to adults, but not children.  My niece is a pediatric nurse; she says my blood is like gold.

A few years ago, we lost Cheryl over Thanksgiving weekend.  It was a bittersweet time, because we also learned we were to be grandparents for the first time.  The week before Christmas, the blood center called.  "We need your blood for a young boy who is having surgery.  Can you come in?"  As I was sitting at the center giving blood, I thought about the young boy who could have surgery because there was blood available, and realized I was giving his parents - and grandparents - the gift of hope.  It was the best Christmas gift I received that year.


The life you save could be someone in your family.  I have the same blood type as my son and at least one of my grandsons.  Of course I pray they never need blood, but it's comforting to know that if they did, they might get mine.

It's a reminder that I live a quiet (read, boring) life.  OK, no one likes the intrusive questions that have been in the screening for the past couple of years, but isn't it nice to report I haven't done anything dangerous in the past couple months?

The perks.  Every donation is an opportunity for juice, snacks and a cool-colored bandage on my arm (I always go for hot pink).  My blood center has an annual dinner to honor donors, with small gifts like lunch bags.  My husband goes to a different center (that conveniently visits the church up the street every two months); his center gives out cookbooks.  Now no one is going to give blood for dinner or a cookbook, but it's nice to hear "thanks."

Giving blood could have health benefits.  One study found blood donors are less likely to have heart problems.  The screening process also lets donors know if they have conditions like high blood pressure or, in my case, low iron levels.  It's also a great excuse to have steak for dinner, to replenish the iron in our bodies.

In short, giving blood not only saves lives, it makes donors feel better in body and spirit, and it doesn't cost a dime.

To find out more about blood donations, you can check out the FAQ of my blood center.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - and Repair!

At one of my Toastmasters meetings, I heard a speech from about the three "R's," no, not the "reading, 'riting and 'rithmatic" from my youth, but "reduce, reuse and recycle," a way of cutting down on pollution, energy consumption and/or landfill waste.  The speaker mentioned a fourth "R," which I can't remember - and when I looked on line, I found variations of the extra "R," the most common being "recovery" and "reclaim."

There were some interesting points in the speech.  Through ads on Craig's list, he sells his empty beer and wine bottles (no screw tops) to home brewers and vintners. He doesn't make a lot of money, but it's a nice reward for recycling. 

Inspired to do my part, I started looking for a small sewing kit to repair some clothing, my choice for the 4th "R."  I started with items of clothing which, well in the interest of being delicate, wouldn't be seen by anyone besides my husband and the ladies at the gym.  I spent $1.25 on the sewing kit, and saved several times that with my first "repair" session.  Maybe my work will improve and I can graduate to sewing buttons on blouses and repairing hems on skirts.

None of us can save the Earth by ourselves, but we can all do little things:

• Meat takes more of resources to produce than other forms of protein.  You don't have to go vegan, but we can all eat less meat.
• Buy a pressure cooker, and use less energy to cook.
• Shop at thrift stores and library book sales.  You might find some real gems.
• Take your spent batteries to community recycling (but be careful how you store them).

Whatever your 4th "R" is, you can help save the Earth - and a little of that other kind of green, money.

Card crazy, getting organized

As I mentioned last month, the Hallmark Store is one of my happy places.  I buy special cards that say "mom," "dad," "husband," "son and wife," "grandson," etc. for birthdays, anniversaries, Fathers Day, Mothers Day, St. Patrick's Day, and other card occasions.  Every once in awhile, I'll go in and buy cards for the next two or three months (allowing time for cards to reach the kids who live overseas). 

Did I mention I have a lot of people to buy cards for? Two parents, a husband, 5 kids, 3 spouses, 2 (soon to be 3) grandsons....  Yes, life is full.  And February is our "tornado alley" for cards: 5 birthdays (not counting mine), 1 anniversary, 2 Vietnamese New Year and 8 Valentines (not counting mine). 

The system usually works pretty well, until this weekend when I tried to find the Fathers Day card I know I bought for my dad.  It wasn't in the Hallmark bag with college graduation cards for my son and daughter's boyfriends.  Surely I must have bought it when I was getting May (2 birthday, 1 anniversary, 2 Mothers Day) cards.  Why would I buy cards for graduations that took place on Fathers Day weekend, and not the Fathers Day cards.  I must have put them in a safe place, but where?

I finally just made a stop at the grocery store (Hallmark not yet open) on the way to work so I could get my dad's card in the mail today.  Yes, I can drive to his house in 24 hours, but sometimes it takes a week for the Postal Service to get it there. 

The time has come, I realized, to come up with a better system for keeping track of what cards have been purchased, and which ones I still need to shop for. 

I carry a small photo album (purchased from  Dollar Tree) with a few 4x6 photos of my kids and grandsons.  I use the pockets to keep things like: the list of who drew whose name in the Secret Santa Sibling exchange; the monthly Joann's coupons; and coupons from Hallmark which can get you 25% off or $2 off your total purchase.  So I decided to make a list to go into one of the pockets, next to the Hallmark coupons. 

In Word,  I did the following:

1. Using "Page Layout," orient is landscape, and increase the bottom margin to 1 1/2 inch.
2. Make four columns.
3. Using bold ALL CAPS, type every month of the year.  
4. Under each month, put bullets with the birthdays for that month, one per line.
5. Add "Anniversaries," with bullets for the names.
6. Do the same with card-giving occasions that apply to only certain people, like Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Halloween and Veterans Day.  Put bullets for those names.
7. Now add in holidays where you'll get personalized cards for all/most people on your list: Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Bullet the names for each card recipient(s), then copy and paste for each occasion.
8. Add spaces, if needed, so each month is in the same column.
9. Print and cut into 4x6 sheets to go into the album pocket.  (I put them all in the same pocket and will just put the current sheet in back when all cards have been purchased.)
10. Cross off the cards as you buy them.  It'll save a lot of searching through bags, desks and wondering if you're going crazy.
11. SAVE the list for next year, to add new grandchildren, delete graduations, and if necessary move Easter to March.

For now, I keep the cards in the Hallmark bag.  If the family gets much bigger, I'll have to use one of the card organizers I've collected over the years.  But I found one blogger who made her own, if you'd like to try.

Now, I just have to see if I can find the cards I may or may not have bought for my husband and son before Sunday.....

Five life lessons from the thrift store

Antique pressure cooker - do not use!

I love to brag on our Goodwill Store.  I've been to more than a dozen in three states, and the one near my house always has real gems.  I like to go every month or so just to see what I can find; maybe a piece of my stoneware or china that was discontinued 35+ years ago, or some flatware to replace the lost forks and spoons from my set, or a great cookbook.

I usually start in housewares.  We always need Corningware casseroles and/or lids, then a careful look through dishes and flatware.  A quick trip through pots and pans to see what Revereware is there.  Then over to afghans to see if there are any worth rescuing.  Across from that is yarn, notions and pattern books. 

Unless I'm in the market for clothes or a new purse, I head over to books and get lost for awhile in the cookbook aisle.  I've gotten some fun ones for myself or my newlywed daughter.  On the way out, I'll look at movies.  My treasure hunt usually lasts about an hour and costs less than $20. 

This time, I came home with one book for my husband and a sewing kit for more purse - but also with five lessons learned.

Know what you're looking for.  With the help of my favorite vegans, I put together a list of desert-island vegan and vegetarian cookbooks.  I keep a copy of it in my purse.  This weekend, we looked at the library book sale and at Goodwill, and couldn't find any on the list.  In fact, there were very few vegetarian/vegan cookbooks at all.  (Unlike diet cookbooks, people don't donate these books; even if they go back to eating meat, everyone eats vegetables.)  So I didn't buy any cookbooks this trip.

Know what you can live with.  Last month, I made a great find at another thrift store, $40 worth of Homer Laughlin Fiesta dishes for $10.Yesterday, I found dinner dishes and soup bowls in the same color.  What a great find!  Unfortunately, the dishes were in poor condition, so I passed. 

Think before you give: What has lasting value?  The chotchke aisle is always good for a laugh.  You see vases, photo frames and other "collectables" that are very dated.  "Oh, this person got married in the '90s."  "Oh, I remember getting something like that as a wedding present in 1978."  None of these seemed to hold their value.  All those gifts, I'm sure, were given with the best of intentions.  All ended up at Goodwill (especially those that outlived the marriage).  Hence, we are careful what we give for wedding gifts.  Usually, we give a check (so we know it was received; thank-you notes are falling out of fashion) with a book and/or hand-made potholder. 

Finish what you start.  Several of the afghans I found on this trip were incomplete; squares needed sewing together, yarn ends left to be woven in.  It reminded me I have two baby afghans I need to complete - projects I lost interest in or put aside before moving on to a more-urgent project.  I need to finish them myself, before then end up on the rack at Goodwill for $5.99.

Recognize what is a bargain, and what isn't!  Need a pressure cooker?  Do not buy the antique one pictured above.  This is the kind your mother or grandmother used.  They've gotten much safer since then.  I  have bought small appliances at Goodwill.  The bread maker was a bust, but my husband found a $150 coffee maker for $10.  Research before you go, and also consider buying new at Big Lots, Wal-Mart or Amazon.  Same with other items.  Donated yarn was bagged up in odd lots, for a cost about what I could get at a craft store with a coupon (for colors and yarns I choose myself).  My daughter, on the other hand, got three sweaters and a shirt for $18.  (Yes, bargain shopping runs in the family.)

Got an hour and a few bucks to invest, visit your local thrift store.  You could walk away with a few life lessons.

Read the label, don't pay for the label

As I mention in my post, Help! My kid has gone vegan!, I love making big family meals even when dealing with complicated food preferences.  (Maybe even more, since I also enjoy a challenge.)  I have two recipes in mind to make for my son and his wife when they visit, my grandmother's Three-Bean Salad (recipe to come soon) and Ree Drummond's Burgundy Mushrooms.  Both call for Worcestershire Sauce, which surprisingly is not vegan, since most contain anchovies.

I took a look at Trader Joe's, and was surprised not to find it there.  My Facebook friends had helpful suggestions for stores that might carry it, as well as mail-order Worcestershire labeled as vegan.  Since Whole Foods and PCC have yet to open in my middle-class suburb, I hadn't made the trek yet to the wealthier neighborhoods.  But the mail-order bottles were way north of $5, with none of them on Amazon Prime.  

So I started checking our local stores, including Fred Meyer, a chain of grocery/department stores in the Pacific Northwest.   I scoured the organic/vegan/specialty aisle and found a few vegan items, some by the manufacturers recommended to me, but no Worcestershire sauce.  So I went to the Worcesterhire Sauce aisle.  Nothing was labeled "vegan."  However, I read the ingredients on the labels.  Two did not contain anything I recognized as animal products.

The Kroger (store brand) bottle was $1.59 for 10 ounces.  Another was labeled "Louisiana Worcestershire Sauce," but it was actually manufactured in Washington State by Cornet Bay.  The cost was $2.29 for 6 ounces.  I confirmed on a vegan Q&A board that the Kroger is vegan; the Cornet Bay has the same ingredients, but I have sent a message to the manufacturer to confirm.  

The moral of the story:  Don't pay for something labeled "vegan."  Just read the label.  You might save some money.

(Reviews and recipes for the "vegan" Worcestershire sauces to come.) 

$5 fashion refresh

I love wandering through my local Dollar Tree store.  I just never know what I'm going to find.

This spring I found some lovely scarves to add color to my wardrobe.  (A reminder that solid color tops and skirts are so practical!  They can be perked up with a bit of color.)

I grabbed the colors that appealed to me most, purple and coral because they're among my favorites, and bright green because it's a Seahawks color, duh.  I went back the next week to get a couple colors I passed on, including blue and gold.  Since my local store is small, they had sold out.  But this is Seattle, so I grabbed a couple light winter scarves because, hey, this is Seattle.  You never know what the weather will be like, even in spring.

I knew I had a winner with the scarves when my daughter looked through them, seeing which ones she wanted to borrow. 

And that's my $5 fashion refresh.

$3 taco meat!

Since I first tried this Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Beef, my family has been hooked!  I've made it both in the pressure cooker and the Slow Cooker as in the original blog by Queen Bee Coupons.  I've kept a jar of salsa verde on hand, and kept my eye out for roast or stew meat in the "Manager's Special" bin at the store. 

Today I found a 3-lb. roast on sale for half-price, which brought it down to about $9.  I'll cook it right away (since it's at date) and freeze in three segments for dinners.  It may take 20 minutes of prep work now, but I can guarantee when I serve it on tortillas or a baked potato some work night, it'll be fast, frugal and fit!

View my original blog here.

Desert-island vegan cookbooks

 

As I mentioned in previous posts, I have a few kids who eat exclusively – or mostly – vegan, and I’ve tried to go a little bit vegan myself.  Being a cookbook collector, I’d like to get a couple that will help me make vegan dishes.  So I went to my advisory board (my daughter, daughter-in-law and Facebook friends) asking for their five "desert-island" cookbooks.  I hope to find at least a couple of them at this weekend’s library book sale. 

I already have two vegan/vegetarian cookbooks: “Happy Herbivore Abroad” by Lindsay S. Nixon, a gift from my daughter, published in 2012; and “Ten Talents,” a classic published in 1968 by a Seventh-day Adventist couple, Fred and Rosalie Hurd.

 My informal poll found that most people had favorite authors/series, not just cookbooks.  Here are the top-five recommendation of my expert panel:

  

1.  Lindsay S. Nixon's Happy Herbivore series.  Highly recommended by my daughter and daughter-in-law.  "The recipes are not complicated at all; they're easy, healthy, and cheap."
   

1. "Veganomicon" or other books by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.  This was my daughter-in-law's first vegan cookbook, and she still calls it her vegan bible.   Other recommendations in the series are "Isa Does It" (good, basic, "how-to" vegan); and "Appetite for Reduction" (concentrates on healthier dishes).

1. "Betty Goes Vegan" by Dan and Annie Shannon.  Like my mother and grandmother before me, I raised my kids on the Better Crocker Cookbooks, so my daughter has found some comfort foods in this one.  "It's a great transition book for new veggies," she said.  The author, Annie, started a blog and worked her way through the Betty Crocker Cookbook, veganizing the recipes as she went along. My daughter's two critiques are that it uses a lot of oil and synthetic meat.

1. Moosewood series  Recipes from the 40-year-old restaurant in Ithaca, New York, like the Seventh-day Adventists early pioneers of American vegetarian cooking, and especially beloved by early adapters.  Among the most highly recommended are: "Enchanted Broccoli Forest," "The Daily Special," and "Moosewood Restaurant Favorites."

1. "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" by Mark Bittman.  According to my colleague Ryan, "has tons of good recipes and does a really good job of giving you pieces of the meal to combine with other (dishes)."  

And honorable mention goes to:

• "The China Study Cookbook" by LeAnne Campbell

• "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman

• "Vegetarian Cookbook for Everyone" by Deborah Madison

• "The Vegan Cheat Sheet" by Amy Cramer and Lisa McComsey

  I'll be expanding my collection, and sharing with you all as I go along.

Six lessons for weekday lunches

When my kids were going through youth group at church, I was the mom the youth pastor could call to organize lunches for after-church training for missions trips.  The pastor graduated to adult ministry, and so did I!  This past Sunday, I put together lunch for about 40 people, mostly adults but a few teens and older kids, interested in tutoring refugees over the summer.

I spent about $85 between Costco (for the large quantities of veggies, oranges, big tin of tuna and large bag of chips), Safeway (less-expensive bread, eggs, cheese and other items where I didn't need Costco-sized quantities) and Dollar Tree (for mustard, peanut butter and jelly - the latter as alternatives for vegans, not choices for picky kids).  I added about $5 in staples at home, but we brought home about 1/4 of what we took, so we easily spent less than $2 a person.

Some lessons for making weekday lunches for the family:

Spending 20 minutes chopping celery is a great investment.  I bought the Costco bag of celery because I needed one head for the tuna sandwiches.  I cut up another couple heads for the luncheon, and with the leftover I've been able to pull a handful out of the refrigerator to put in my lunch.  They go well with baby carrots from the Costco bag (no chopping required).  Fast, frugal and fit!

Quartered oranges are so much easier to eat at work.  Instead of cookies, I bought a 13-lb. box  of oranges at Costco, then quartered them.  Again, I grab a few pieces each morning for my lunch, which I don't have to peel like a whole orange.  And everyone at the luncheon appreciated the healthy alternative to baked goods.

Tuna and egg salad sandwiches are still the bomb!  I know it's very mid-Century of me, but I've always loved tuna and egg salad sandwiches.  I brought home the leftovers (made with reduced-fat mayonnaise); my husband and daughter have been enjoying sandwiches and wraps all week.  Both are easy enough to make on the weekends for school and work lunches during the week.

Lettuce wraps aren't just for the gluten intolerant!  I have been eating gluten free for the past year, and wanted to make sure we covered all our bases at the luncheon.  Gluten-free bread is expensive and I have yet to find one I like.  So I brought corn tortillas, and we also announced there was plenty of lettuce for wraps.  I was amazed at the number of people who skipped the bread and just wrapped their proteins in lettuce.

Buying in bulk really saves $$.  In the past, I would have bought variety packs of chips in individual bags.  But my life has gotten simpler over the years - as well as my tolerance for picky eaters.  I bought the 3-pound bag of baked tortilla strips for $3.59, and put them in a punch bowl.  Again, plenty to bring home, which my husband and daughter have been snacking on.

Leave some room for life's little pleasures.  I had extra cans of olives from the holidays, so we brought one along and put them out.  It was just a nice little extra, which didn't cost much. 

We learned a few lessons about putting on a luncheon, as well.  I left the egg and tuna salads in large containers, so people thought they were salads and kept asking where the forks were.  Two cans of olives next time.  And the white cheeses (Swiss and Mozzarella) were more in demand than the yellow (American). 

The biggest lesson, however, was I could do the same thing on a Sunday for less time and money, to prepare for weekday lunches for my family.

Desert-Island Appliance: Egg Cooker

What appliance would you take with you to a desert island?  Granted, it would need to be an island that was fully wired with electricity.

When I was a kid, my mom had an egg poacher.  It was the only way I knew how to make eggs.  As a bride, I tried to make boiled eggs on the stove.  Tried several different methods, but just couldn't get them perfect.  A few years ago, my mom sent me a "just because" gift, a new egg poacher.

It's been a treat for the whole family. In 20 minutes, we can have seven hard-boiled eggs, an inexpensive source of protein and a quick snack.

Peeled, hard-boiled eggs are now a stable at grocery and big-box stores.  I priced them recently at $2.79 for six, a good price for a healthy snack.  But yesterday I bought a dozen eggs for $1.09 and boiled them myself, saving more than $5.  Mine turned into egg salad sandwiches for a lunch at church, but my daughter likes making deviled eggs, or just eating them as a snack. 

One hint for using them; if you want to keep the shell intact, prick a little hole in the top.  (I use the end of the a corn skewer.)  My mom's mid-century cooker had a small needle in the lid. 

So packing for my desert island?  The egg cooker might not make it into the first suitcase, but definitely the second.