May Frugals

[Jilly]

Stella, my daughter went to one of those a few weeks before Mother's Day and came home with tons of great stuff. I was working and could not go with her, so sad. Those conferences are so informative and so much fun. Have a great time!

[Stella]

I am looking forward to it, Jilly. I think it should be a lot of fun!

Cdttmm, your visit with your mom sounds really nice!

I had a bit if a dinner snafu this evening, but I was able to rescue it. I asked Zach to get me some ground beef from the freezer for the enchiladas and by the time I was halfway through cooking it I could smell that it was actually Swedish Meatball mix. Not so good for enchiladas. I ended up making it onto a Swedish Meatball stroganoff hybrid with homemade spaetzle and peas. It was really good. The family asked me to make it more often.

I also made the enchiladas, but just cheese enchiladas since we eat meatless meals on Fridays. I didn't add the sauce, but the are ready in the fridge for tomorrow. I will just add the sauce and a little more cheese and bake them.

I am also making Popsicles with some fruit that needs to be used up. I had strawberries and a mango to use. I had saved some syrup from a can of pears thinking I might toss it in some muffins, so I tossed it with this instead. Yes, it's sugar, but I figure most Popsicles are nothing but sugar and at least these have fruit in them. I added a frozen banana and we have a snack for tomorrow. The next batch I make will be with frozen bananas and some vanilla yogurt that needs using up.

[SteveinMN]

I asked Zach to get me some ground beef from the freezer for the enchiladas and by the time I was halfway through cooking it I could smell that it was actually Swedish Meatball mix. Not so good for enchiladas.

A bit off-topic, but I bought a package of lefse once and there was a recipe for "Swedish Enchiladas" printed on the package. That was a bit of a hoot to start with since the stereotype is that, in Scandinavian cooking, milk is a spice. Their recipe called for lefse (naturally) instead of tortillas and canned beef stew instead of Mexican-seasoned beef. That made me laugh so hard! I kept that portion of the bag. No one would ever believe it otherwise...

[Stella]

Hahahahaha! Oh that is priceless. I should make those for my grandma. That sounds like an enchilada she could get into.

[Rosemary]

Great story, Steve. When I had lived in MN all of 3 months as a transplant from AZ (though I originally hail from the east coast), a friend from college who grew up here in MN came over for lunch. I had made chili - certainly not incendiary, but probably with a chipotle or two in there. She made the comment that oatmeal was about as spicy as she liked her food. Oops!

On a similar note, a cafe in our area frequently offers on its menu the "pot roast quesadilla." I am always puzzled by this and find the concept unappetizing. But now I see the light: it's basically stew on bread, smothered with melted cheese. How Midwestern!

[JaneV2.0]

A bit off-topic, but I bought a package of lefse once and there was a recipe for "Swedish Enchiladas" printed on the package. That was a bit of a hoot to start with since the stereotype is that, in Scandinavian cooking, milk is a spice. ...

I love that! Even though I'm now officially "Scandinavian*," I sure didn't inherit the bland food gene. Or the seafood gene, either.

*According to Ancestry.com DNA results

[fidgiegirl]

I scored an incredible deal on my favorite pads today at Walgreens, so I bought six packs. I had to make a return trip for the rest of them once I figured out that it was such an awesome price. Got six packs for what I'd normally pay for three. And since I use cloth when at home, I can really stretch a pack of pads for several months now. These will last me more than a year, I bet.

And then I went and spent all the savings at Whole Foods. But man, oh man, did we have a yummy supper.

[Blackdog Lin]

fidgie: tell us about your yummy supper. Even if it cost too much - I love to hear about yummy suppers.

I posted this already in the gardening thread, but DH found an old cattle panel in the barn and used it with metal fence poles (of which we keep a large supply around, they come in handy for so many things) to set me up a garden trellis for the cucumbers. A free trellis, just needed DH to use his imagination to use what we had on hand already.

[rosarugosa]

Kelli, we do this all the time - save with one hand and spend with the other. Always a work in progress, I guess!
STELLA! (said in a loud Marlon Brando-like voice) - Glad you're back! We "talked" once about the germanic/scandinavian culinary traditions, and your swedish meatball enchiladas are giving me a great deal of amusement! Mind you, I only make salads, so it's a friendly type of amusement, with not
a drop of scorn nor condescention

[fidgiegirl]

Spring greens salad with gorgonzola (cha ching) and dried cherries (cha cha CHA ching) with balsamic vinaigrette, and Santa Fe turkey burgers pre-prepared in the meat case. Mmmmmmmm!

I just changed the antenna on my DH's car!! I feel completely badass! I even bled! Got the antenna for about $12 online, but it came with no instructions and this is the first time I found nothing helpful online. So I dived in, and discovered that the original (non-functioning) antenna apparatus looked quite different than the replacement one, but I figured it out nonetheless. And now his radio does AM stations! Yip yip yippee! I am so proud of this it is getting cross posted in the "finishing" thread.