Of June hot buys, & thrift-store appliances
THE PENNY ORCHID – “Thrift with Flair” is copyright Deborah Michelle Sanders © 2004-2005. All rights reserved. You must seek permission to copy any portion of this blog or its predecessor print newsletter.
Engage in the study of Scriptures, & do charity, even with an ulterior motive, for that habit of right doing will lead also to right motivation. -- The Jewish Talmud
HOUSEHOLD HINTS:
Tired of the high price of oil cooking spray? Have you tried with no luck a regular spray bottle? Here’s a hint for you. All you need is a pastry brush. Put ½ tsp of oil into your pot or pan (before you start cooking). Then, use a pastry brush to spread the oil around.
If you are selling a car, be sure to ride along with a prospective buyer who wants to take the car out for a road test. Otherwise, your prospect may turn out to be a thief….
The beginning vegetable gardener should plant kale to have a most nutritious and VERY easy-to-grow crop.
HOT BUYS FOR JUNE:
Groceries for picnics (soda, beer, potato chips, charcoal, paper goods, marshmallows, & ketchup & mustard) are all on sale this month. So are beets, corn, okra, English peas (peas that need to be shelled), dairy products, local onions, tomatoes, apricots, blueberries, cantaloupe, cherries, figs, plums, STRAWBERRIES in abundance, & watermelon.
Regarding items that are not found in your neighborhood supermarket, here’s the list:
Tires
Furniture & home furnishings/floor coverings & bedding
Refrigerators
Tools & building supplies
Storm windows
Summer clothes & clothes for boys
Televisions
Fishing & camping gear
For the dads: ties & aftershave
Swimwear & summer clothing IN TOURIST AREAS ONLY
A SAMPLE APPLIANCE BOUGHT AT A THRIFT STORE – HOW-TO’S
It can be iffy to purchase an electrical appliance at a thrift store. Sometimes, the store has an electrical outlet available for you to use to ensure that the appliance’s motor works. But you still don’t know whether the appliance will do what it was originally manufactured to do, in a safe way. Let me recount for you how I handled the purchase of a CrockPot®.
I got mine for $4 – it was marked at $8, but I got it at Salvation Army on a half-price sale day. The regular price for a new one is $40.
However, I knew that the prior owner had to be dissatisfied with something. In this day & age, slow cookers have returned to fashion, so it couldn’t have been the mere desire to clear out clutter.
Most likely, I figured, the calibration (temperature levels) was off. And so I found. All you need to do in such a case is to measure the scope of how far off it is, & then adapt.
This is what I did. I wanted to make my experiment by cooking only veggies in the CrockPot®, to avoid any chance of food poisoning (from cooking eggs, poultry, dairy, or meat). I cleaned the unit thoroughly – I’m sure that you know not to let water touch the metal housing. It is also vital to only run hot water into a heated slow cooker, lest the cooker’s crock crack (say that 3 times fast!).
I cooked 3 cups of sliced carrots in 1 cup of hot water with 2 T of oil & 1 T of dried dillweed, at low temperature. According to my cookbook, that should have taken 2-1/2 hours to cook to the point of making the carrots crisp-tender. They were NOT ready, so I continued to cook the veggies, & checked them every half-hour. They actually took 4 hours. I did some calculations & figured that my slow cooker needs to be on for 160% of the expected time to cook at the low temperature.
I then tested a recipe calling for high temperature, & found that the cooker worked as calibrated, without needing to increase the time that recipes give.
So, I can only assume that the last owner had given up on the slow temperature setting, & decided to “throw out” the cooker for that reason.
Test & test again, that has to be your mantra when you have purchased an appliance at a thrift store or a garage sale.
RECIPE:
Confetti Stuffed Potatoes
4 large Russet potatoes:
2 T canola oil
1 small bell pepper of a color that is cheap when you market, chopped
1 small bell pepper of another color, chopped
½ large or 1 medium onion, minced
1 c lowfat cottage cheese
2 T milk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pierce potatoes, & bake them for 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, sauté the veggies in the oil for 10 minutes, covered. Stir occasionally.
Combine all other ingredients well.
When potatoes have baked, cut in half & use a metal tablespoon to scoop out the pulp. Add pulp to the veggie/cheese mixture. Stir thoroughly. Return the mixture to the potato skins. Return to the oven for 10 minutes to warm the filling.
Serves 4.
Engage in the study of Scriptures, & do charity, even with an ulterior motive, for that habit of right doing will lead also to right motivation. -- The Jewish Talmud
HOUSEHOLD HINTS:
Tired of the high price of oil cooking spray? Have you tried with no luck a regular spray bottle? Here’s a hint for you. All you need is a pastry brush. Put ½ tsp of oil into your pot or pan (before you start cooking). Then, use a pastry brush to spread the oil around.
If you are selling a car, be sure to ride along with a prospective buyer who wants to take the car out for a road test. Otherwise, your prospect may turn out to be a thief….
The beginning vegetable gardener should plant kale to have a most nutritious and VERY easy-to-grow crop.
HOT BUYS FOR JUNE:
Groceries for picnics (soda, beer, potato chips, charcoal, paper goods, marshmallows, & ketchup & mustard) are all on sale this month. So are beets, corn, okra, English peas (peas that need to be shelled), dairy products, local onions, tomatoes, apricots, blueberries, cantaloupe, cherries, figs, plums, STRAWBERRIES in abundance, & watermelon.
Regarding items that are not found in your neighborhood supermarket, here’s the list:
Tires
Furniture & home furnishings/floor coverings & bedding
Refrigerators
Tools & building supplies
Storm windows
Summer clothes & clothes for boys
Televisions
Fishing & camping gear
For the dads: ties & aftershave
Swimwear & summer clothing IN TOURIST AREAS ONLY
A SAMPLE APPLIANCE BOUGHT AT A THRIFT STORE – HOW-TO’S
It can be iffy to purchase an electrical appliance at a thrift store. Sometimes, the store has an electrical outlet available for you to use to ensure that the appliance’s motor works. But you still don’t know whether the appliance will do what it was originally manufactured to do, in a safe way. Let me recount for you how I handled the purchase of a CrockPot®.
I got mine for $4 – it was marked at $8, but I got it at Salvation Army on a half-price sale day. The regular price for a new one is $40.
However, I knew that the prior owner had to be dissatisfied with something. In this day & age, slow cookers have returned to fashion, so it couldn’t have been the mere desire to clear out clutter.
Most likely, I figured, the calibration (temperature levels) was off. And so I found. All you need to do in such a case is to measure the scope of how far off it is, & then adapt.
This is what I did. I wanted to make my experiment by cooking only veggies in the CrockPot®, to avoid any chance of food poisoning (from cooking eggs, poultry, dairy, or meat). I cleaned the unit thoroughly – I’m sure that you know not to let water touch the metal housing. It is also vital to only run hot water into a heated slow cooker, lest the cooker’s crock crack (say that 3 times fast!).
I cooked 3 cups of sliced carrots in 1 cup of hot water with 2 T of oil & 1 T of dried dillweed, at low temperature. According to my cookbook, that should have taken 2-1/2 hours to cook to the point of making the carrots crisp-tender. They were NOT ready, so I continued to cook the veggies, & checked them every half-hour. They actually took 4 hours. I did some calculations & figured that my slow cooker needs to be on for 160% of the expected time to cook at the low temperature.
I then tested a recipe calling for high temperature, & found that the cooker worked as calibrated, without needing to increase the time that recipes give.
So, I can only assume that the last owner had given up on the slow temperature setting, & decided to “throw out” the cooker for that reason.
Test & test again, that has to be your mantra when you have purchased an appliance at a thrift store or a garage sale.
RECIPE:
Confetti Stuffed Potatoes
4 large Russet potatoes:
2 T canola oil
1 small bell pepper of a color that is cheap when you market, chopped
1 small bell pepper of another color, chopped
½ large or 1 medium onion, minced
1 c lowfat cottage cheese
2 T milk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pierce potatoes, & bake them for 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, sauté the veggies in the oil for 10 minutes, covered. Stir occasionally.
Combine all other ingredients well.
When potatoes have baked, cut in half & use a metal tablespoon to scoop out the pulp. Add pulp to the veggie/cheese mixture. Stir thoroughly. Return the mixture to the potato skins. Return to the oven for 10 minutes to warm the filling.
Serves 4.
posted by THE PENNY ORCHID -- "Thrift with Flair" at 1:34 PM
<< Home