Buy One Get One Free Milk!

This is not a new or original idea, although I have tried it in small doses in the past.  What am I talking about? Making one dollar do the work of two, of course!

I have, on occasion, added a wee bit of water to the milk to make it stretch a bit further when needed. About a year ago, I saw a father on youtube touting this as the way to go.  Pshaw! me thinks; I’ve been doing that.  However, he said something I hadn’t thought of: whole milk and lower fat milks often cost the same.

Recently, I experimented (shhhhh!  Our family’s major milk consumer will flip if he finds out and will no longer drink it if he thinks he’s being “tricked”).

I bought a gallon of whole milk when our gallon of 2% was  almost empty.  I came home, poured out the rest of the 2% into a jar, thoroughly washed the plastic jug, and filled half of it with the whole milk.  I then ran some water through our Pur filter and finished filling each of milk jugs with purified water.  I stuck the gallon marked 2%  in front of the whole milk gallon in the fridge and didn’t say a word. ( I put the older plastic jug in front for two reasons: it had already been used once and the expiration date on it was closer, although I think I did write the new exp. date on it)

Nobody mentioned that anything tasted amiss; they simply consumed the milk.  I found out later that my husband mentioned to Younger Son that the milk was creamier.  Hahahahahahaha!  Ok, sorry. I’m not normally a tricky person but I am cheap as all get out.  By the way, I secured that gallon of whole milk for 1.99 at ALDI.  So, 1.00 per gallon for milk, folks.  Whadya think?  It can’t hurt to try!

Are they hard boiled or not?

When my daughter was little, she used to like to crack hard boiled eggs on her forehead. One of the funniest memories I have is when, you guessed it- she was cracking before I could tell her the egg was raw!  The other day I was boiling some eggs and just for fun, I added some blue food dye.  I realized that the dyed eggs were a great way to know which eggs were hard boiled and which were not. They came out a very pale shade of blue but it was just enough to differentiate. Don’t forget to add some vinegar to the water, too!

Update: this is a great idea for dyeing Easter eggs. Set up a few pots of   water with different colors in each (don’t forget the vinegar) and simply boil your eggs in the water.

Warning: If your family has a tradition of dyeing Easter eggs, you may get some resistance if you do it this way.  However, if all the egg dyeing is under your purview, it may be something fun to try.

Hard Boiled Eggs

Add eggs, water, and about 2 T vinegar to a saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil on high, then turn the heat down to med-high and set the time for 13-15 minutes. After the timer rings, drain water from pot and re-fill with cold water. Add ice or ice packs to cool the eggs down and stop the cooking process. Store in refrigerator for up to one week.

Wordles-Creativity and Word Games All in One!

Do you Wordle?  Take a peek at http://www.wordle.net/ 

It’s  great fun, pulling word play and creativity all-in-one. It is also a terrific tool for creating  family reunion T-shirts and gifts.  I put all our family’s first names in, played around with color, design, and font and printed one out. Then I framed it. There is a new baby in the family and one due in the late summer/early fall- so I will be updating our Wordle soon.

I still haven’t quite figured out how to do a .pdf with it, although the instructions are there, I can’t quite figure it out and that’s how I should be able to put one on my blog.  Oh, well, it’s a slow learning process here but oh, so fun!

Now, once I went to wordles.com www.wordles.com instead and found some fun cryptograms to do-I enjoy those!

So, if you are a word-nut like I am, have fun with those sites!

Sharon

Greetings!

Welcome to putterandpatter.  As I sit in my less-than-average-sized house with the beautiful summer sun pouring through the windows, I wonder….how do I introduce my blog to you?  I’ll start with the name.    I wanted to reflect the variety you will find on this blog, which is very much a reflection of me…a bit of this, a bit of that. I love conversation and chit-chat (patter) and I love to work around the house (putter).  I searched the internet for all the names I had in mind (it seems I’m not very original!), I finally landed on a name that both reflects who I am and isn’t being used by someone else.  So, there you have it! 

As for content, I plan to include bits and pieces of all the things I like. A hodgepodge of a blog with no particular purpose. Why not? That is the stuff of life! I will tell you my passions and interests: Books-I love to read and would choose a good book over any movie anyday.  I even took books on my honeymoon to read on the beach.  Words-I love words. I love their sounds, their meanings, their nuances.  My favorite games are word games.  Frugal living-I love to find a bargain but it’s only a bargain if I was going to buy it anyway!  I have said that I am not sure I would know how to live as a rich person but I can do low-income any day of the week!  Domestic Arts-love ’em!  Cooking is my favorite, I enjoy sewing, and I enjoy decorating, although you would not know that by looking at my house (it all goes to the frugal-living thing).

Politics and religion-who says you should never discuss them?  You may, occasionally, see a reference, a post, or a comment about one, the other, or both. 

Gardening-ummm….not!  You grow it and I’ll can it but I have a black thumb. However, dear hubby, the horticulture major, has agreed to answer any questions you may have about your garden, shrubs, and trees.  

So, welcome to my blog.  Bear with me, grow with me, and enjoy!  I take criticism well so any thoughts and feedback you wish to offer are welcome-just be kind.  As a former co-worker often said, “Choose Kindness”.  I like that.

Sharon