January 2015 frugals

[cdttmm]

May I ask: Are you making the englishmuffin toasting bread from scratch? Does that require yeast rising? And if so, how is it warm enough to rise?

Tiam, I use this recipe from King Arthur Flour: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recip...g-bread-recipe and it does require rising. So to combat the cold kitchen factor, I warm up my microwave/convection oven to about 100 degrees, turn it off, then pop the dough in there to rise for about 45 minutes or so. It works pretty well and I'm only paying to heat a small space instead of the entire kitchen.

I got the chickpeas made yesterday, although I initially overloaded the crock pot so it was a good thing I was around and checking on them and not just doing a set-it-and-forget-it approach. And I got the giant pot of cabbage soup made -- enough for 25 servings. Good thing I like cabbage soup! Also, experimented with making roasted chickpeas as a snack. That was kind of a flop, but they were edible and I'll simply have to try again. I need to bake the bread today because I didn't get that far yesterday.

This morning I'm experimenting with making chai tea. I'm usually a strict green tea drinker, but after realizing what my tea habit costs in a year (sorry, green tea snob in the making over here!), I'm trying to use up any random tea that I simply have on hand. And I acquired two free tea bags yesterday so that just adds to the stash.

Got a coupon online for $3 off eye care items at CVS. Since I was planning to top there today to get more contact lens solution, this will save me a few bucks.

And, yesterday was a no-drive day. Unusual in this house. We were planning to go to the gym, but then it started to snow and we decided against it. Saved a little on gas as a result.

[Azure]

No spending today either. Made french bread dough and used that as sandwich rolls for crab salad sandwiches for dinner. Made a very small shopping list for the rest of this weeks meals. I will stop on the way home from work and pick up these items so there won't be any extra driving to get them.

[danna]

Jan 04,2015
--no spend, no drive, mostly because the weather and roads were not great
--temperature is dropping so trying not to keep the heat up
--ate leftovers for supper
and that is about it for today.

[Tiam]

I only heat rooms. So the rest of the house is COLD!! But the kitchen is cold too. So rising bread in the deep of winter is iffy for me, even in the heated rooms.

[lessisbest]

I only heat rooms. So the rest of the house is COLD!! But the kitchen is cold too. So rising bread in the deep of winter is iffy for me, even in the heated rooms.

Tiam-

There is nothing wrong with a cold rise for bread dough, it just takes longer. When we refrigerate bread dough (aka retarding the dough) it's generally 40°F or colder in a refrigerator (or for food safety it should be) and the dough will continue rise for a period of time until the yeast gets too cold and goes dormant, so if the temperature is still in the high 50's and low 60's, you'll just have to wait a little longer. Doug rises according to the strength of the yeast and the ambient temperature and humidity - NOT a clock. You actually develop more flavor and it opens the texture of the crumb slightly using a cold rise.

If you want to speed things up a bit in a cold kitchen, turn the light on in your oven when you start to make the dough. This will gently warm the entire oven chamber and it will hold a more constant temperature. When it's ready for the first rise the oven should be warmer than room temperature and great for rising dough (you may want to check the temperature in different parts of the oven to make sure the temperature isn't too hot - 75°-85°F is about optimal). I generally placed my dough at the opposite side of the oven from the light. Just make sure you keep the bowl/dough rising bucket/etc. away from the light itself, where it can be too warm.

You can also preheat the oven for a few minutes, but I don't suggest using that method because the shot of heat can actually be too hot for dough because people rarely take the actual temperature of the oven before placing the dough in. The whole oven chamber generally hasn't been heated long enough to hold the temperature. A shot of hot followed by a quick cooling isn't good for the rise. Another good method is to place a 9x13" cake pan in the bottom of the stove and add boiling water TO the pan (do not fill a cake pan and then try to move it to the oven - you may accidently spill that hot water while moving it). The added moisture from the hot water is also an asset and will aid the rise.

There is another method where you heat a small amount of water in the microwave to warm the chamber, but once again, people rarely take the actual ambient temperature and it can be too hot. There are any number of ways to make a proofing box so you can control the proofing temperature. I like the oven light method because it's already there.

[cdttmm]

lessisbest, that is some really great info and suggestions -- thanks for sharing!

[merince]

I've also let dough raise overnight in the garage where the temp is in the low 50s. Works just as good.

Keeping the frugals the same - bake bread, try to procrastinate as much as possible between shopping trips. It feels like I am not making much progress, but the actual numbers tell a different story

[kimberlyf0]

When my kitchen is too cold I use an Excalibur dehydrator as a proof box; I figure that it uses a lot less energy than running my furnace.

[rodeosweetheart]

No drive days yesterday and today, too darn cold.

On New Years Day, put bubblewrap on most of the windows in the house. The timing was fortuitous, as now it is very cold here.

On Sunday, put together a grocery price book like the one I had when following Amy D--now you can look online for grocery prices, when there was no on-line in those days. Already figured out some interesting things vis a vis pricing and quantities in our local stores. Am using a 5 x 8 plastic looseleaf binder and sorting items by grocery type. This led me to starting my pantry list, so hopefully, we can do a much better job this year in planning our eating--am striving to cut grocery spending radically, which is going to require planning and tracking.

Starting to try to figure out a way to get phone costs under control this year, so lots of surfing of different plans and phones.

[Azure]

I need to start figuring out phone costs. My phone is out of contract now. And I'm guessing my DH's is as well. I'll have to check. The boys both have newer phones so they are still under contract. I'm just not sure what I want to do and there are so many options it just confuses me.