bits and bobs: A random assortment of things; small remaining pieces and things
A house is being built up the street from us and Gladys Kravitz Lucy is fascinated with the concrete trucks. I’m pretty sure she thinks they are filled with dog treats and it takes a good 30 minutes or so to convince her to come inside after she has seen one. Also, is it just me or does Lucy’s belly fur in this photo look like she is wearing a Peter pan collared shirt and high waisted pants?
I fell in love with this bike at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show pretty much on the spot and now I want one. Basket included of course.
I don’t know how I missed Mrs. HB throwing this in her cart last week but you better believe I pulled it out when I saw $1.89 flash across the checkout out screen. Seriously. Who pays $1.89 for 2+ ounces of oatmeal? C’mon, raise your hand if you’re guilty.
Is it weird I dream about the day I’ll get to shovel snow off my front path all winter long?
When did our food get so complicated? Spinach dip should only have 6 ingredients {all of which you should be able to pronounce}. Do people even care anymore? Or is life just so automated now people just grab things off a shelf and toss them in their carts without even thinking about what they are putting into their bodies?
What does one do with a bottle of wine {I’m assuming my mom left behind the last time she was here} besides use it in pasta sauce? And don’t say drink it. Blech! Seriously, I need suggestions. I’m sure the street value is like $4 on this baby and I wouldn’t want it to go to waste.
Do you remember the Waltons? Do you remember Oliva’s money tin she kept in the kitchen? The tin held her grocery money and other small things she was saving up for. It was a pretty sacred thing. The only people I ever remember touching it were Olivia and Grandma. I’m pretty sure the tin originally held spices or some other type of food stuff but she thought the tin was useful, so she kept it.
Now days, people throw these type of containers out all the time. And then when they need a container they just go and find one on Amazon and pay money for it all over again. It’s kind of weird when you stop and think about it. Imagine how much junk we could keep out of landfills if we just took the time to really take a hard look at something before tossing it in the trash. Am I the only one who thinks about these things?
Keep On, Keepin’ On.
~Mavis
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Tisha says
Pour the wine into a jar and freeze it. Then when you want to cook with it, you can scoop some out. Or, make a roast with it or coq au vin (chicken in red wine).
I have never been a big fan of the rule about being able to pronounce something and then being able to eat it. I can pronounce fritos just fine, but probably should not eat it. I never seem to get gyro right or bolognese but they definitely belong in my diet.
Melissa says
Lol good point about not being able to pronounce some delicious and worthwhile food – the point about the Fritos though, is how many of the INGREDIENTS on the list can you pronounce 😉
I agree about making a delicious pot roast with the red wine in a Dutch oven – or any kind of pan gravy/sauce you can use some wine mixed with broth for a rich flavor to go with red meat, or a hearty beef stew like beef bourguignon – not sure if I pronounce or spell that one right lol
ronda says
I was going to say make coq au vin too, so good.
Delores says
Let it turn into red wine vinegar?
One month, a few years ago, I did a month long challenge: I bought nothing that had over 3 ingredients listed. It worked out pretty well. Until I couldn’t buy cheese and had to make my own potato chips. But it was a great experience for me and the family! 😉
Marcy says
I use any leftover wine to make vinegar. I used 1/2 cup of an apple cider vinegar with the mother in it as my vinegar starter. I just added the vinegar to the wine bottle, secured a piece of coffee filter over the top with a rubber band, and put a label with the date I did this on the bottle. In 3 months, it was definitely vinegar; in 6 months, it was good wine vinegar. I now have bottles with red, white and champagne going in the big pantry. Before I add more wine, I taste what’s in there and, if I like it, I pour off a bit to use as is. I add the new wine and write the date I added it on the label.
I use my homemade vinegars to make vinaigrettes, of course, but I also use them as the foundation for herbal vinegars. I have some outstanding tarragon vinegar I made a couple of years ago, as well as some spicy Thai white wine vinegar flavored Thai basil and jalapeños. All the herbs come from my garden, so I have a way of using up extras that might go to waste otherwise.
Elena says
Chicken Thighs stewed in red wine. Easy, cheap, and delicious. Just brown the thighs. add garlic, thyme, mushrooms, and wine. cook in oven for 40 minutes. Serve with rice.
Mavis Butterfield says
I can do that! Thanks.
gina says
My suggestion, too!
UpstateNYer says
Freeze the wine in 1/2 cup sizes for future use in recipes (once defrosted). I add some to Chicken Caccitore (Hunter’s stew). It is delicious. It helps in beef stew too.
Rosaleen says
Individual cereal cups? I looked at some as maybe convenient for travel, then saw the price. It took about a nano-second to nix that idea.
Too many weird ingredients? OK, some are simply the technical names for vitamins, perhaps, but look at the junk being sold as yogurt! Buy plain and mix in your own flavorings.
Left over wine? (No such thing here! ) Yes, freeze it, but in ice cube size portions. Use as at least part of the liquid for any roast from chicken to beef, whatever. Think beef bourginon, coq au vin, etc.
Cathy says
Yep…Freeze the wine in an ice cube tray. After frozen, pop them all into a zipper storage bag & store in your freezer. Then you can use just the right amount as needed!
Sue R. says
I have a thing about tins…I’ve definitely saved several from the landfill and repurposed 🙂
Lisa L says
Do you want the bike to ride? or for decoration in your garden?
Leslie says
I’ve been wondering how you handle storage of all the tins and bottles and plastic tubs that we can save to reuse. I usually end up with a stack that is in my way and cluttering up my pantry. I seem to only need extra containers in spurts. Lots of inconvenience in the meantime. Do you have a tip for this?
Earlene says
Poach some pears or peaches in the wine with the smallest amount of sugar, cook for about 2 hours on low heat, the wine will become like syrup! Yummy!!!
MEM says
As if you didn’t know, we can’t have too many photos of Lucy! Such a cutie-pie! And be glad she’s so curious.
Rebecca in MD says
Add the wine to a big crock pot full of beef stew. It will tenderize the beef and give the stew a fabulous flavor.
I, too, have a hard time throwing out packaging containers that could serve another purpose. I use the blue plastic trays from some of the fresh vegetables I buy (like mushrooms) to keep odds and ends in. For instance my dishwasher tablets, pens, paper clips, etc. They fit in drawers very nicely and keep things together.
That Lucy is soooooo cute!
Em says
I have been buying oat groats in bulk for a while now. I eat them as “berries” or flaked like rolled oats. Less expensive!
And I think it may be a little weird to dream about shoveling snow, but if it makes you happy, that’s great!
marie says
Invite Mom & Dad over for dinner and serve her the rest of the wine. Done. I wouldn’t add it to a beef or chicken dish as on some level you will taste it’s odd flavor and then you will not want to finish it=waste.
My husband felt like he was going mad with all of my saved containers. Plastic, metal & glass clutter everywhere (in his opinion). THEN, one day, he began feeding our neighborhood birds and now we have a variety of bird feeders that have a dual purpose-first, a hobby for him and secondly they provide food for our natural travelers!
Dawn, DE says
I can never get enough pics of Miss Lucy the Puggle Princess! I have a bike like that and I LOVE it. It has a basket too. You have to have somewhere for the flowers you pick along the way. Here in Delaware, we get a great variety of weather. Not too much snow, usually just enough for us to get our fill. We keep all of our tins. The come in handy.
Rebekah U says
Make some yummy sangria!! If you do not like it, wait until you have a couple of people over, and then serve it. Makes any occasion special! Add more juice to reduce the wine taste if you do not like wine. And you are so right about our disposable society! I cannot make myself throw some of my jars and tins out. I always look for a new way to use it, or a way to use it as a gift to someone else. Beautiful jar? Fill it with flowers for a neighbor! Use it for SOMETHING!! We cannot recycle glass here, so I struggle with throwing it out. And you are so right about our current food situation. So full of JUNK and CHEMICALS. No wonder we have so many people on prescriptions – struggling with things like cancer and leaky gut. I just cannot imagine what the chemicals are doing as they are absorbed into our bodies. Change starts in our own homes, with those that we love. We love them, we teach them, and soon our message starts to spread. Love your blog Mavis!
Carole says
Make vinegar out of it. Really easy and basically FREE since you did not buy it in the first place. As for snow, if I never see another flake I will be just as happy. Not a fan. I got one of those bikes. Just don’t get the doggy attachment that trails behind. She need exercise too. I save nice jars and tins too but only if I am positive I can use them for something else.
Tracy says
Now I can’t get the picture of Lucy dressed in a short pants suit with Peter Pan collared blouse underneath….good grief.
Teresa says
I love that bike! Did you get any details on it? Who makes it? Schwinn? I want a basket too.
I love Lucy’s peter pan collar and high pants 🙂
Nancy says
You can come and shovel my snow whenever you want!!!! I think you may like it for one year, maybe two, and then will join the rest of us with a sore back and frozen toes.
As for the wine, I add it to beef stew. I don’t like wine or stew, but DH likes both, so it is the perfect solution for us.
Chris says
A saver friend that goes through a lot of rotisserie chicken gave me her washed containers and I plan to try starting garden plants in them like mini greenhouses.
Kathy Gardner says
That is a wonderful idea!
KBonikowsky says
I adore the Waltons. When we were super poor living on $10 an hour with 2 kids, I used to watch it to up my spirits. I thought, if the Waltons can be happy, so can I! Seriously, the show is an inspiration.
Jeanie says
I use up red wine that we maybe just didn’t like in stews and for pasta sauce. It adds a certain something but if the wine is especially tannic, you can usually mask that with other ingredients. Mushrooms simmered in wine and beef broth for hours are super yummy too. Throw in some thyme and black pepper and yum!
I remember Livvy’s money tin. Probably the best place to keep money during the Depression!
Sue says
I use red wine for sauteed mushrooms. Adds a nice flavor but you don’t actually taste the wine, at least I don’t notice it.
Nancy says
Make homemade red wine vinegar from the leftover wine. It is really easy…you just add some natural unfiltered vinegar (like Bragg’s) that has the mother still in it. Probably a quarter cup of vinegar would work for that bottle of wine. Just put it in a mason jar with a paper towel or other breathable cover over it and let it set. After a month or two, the wine will have all turned to vinegar. We have done this many times and would just add leftover bottles of wine to the jar as we had them. Makes great Christmas gifts.
Vickie @ Vickie's Kitchen and Garden says
Are you going to move to a place that has snow?
My husband went with me to Sam’s a couple of weeks ago. I left him alone and went looking around by myself. All of sudden he came to my cart with a big smile on his face and a huge big container of pork rinds. How can anyone say no? They are finally gone but the container is cool. I just washed it today. Now to decide what goes in it.
That is if I can pry it away from him. He wants to put bolts in it!
Mavis Butterfield says
Hopefully someday. I LOVE SNOW.
Deb says
Make wine cake with the left over wine Google for wine cake recipe. I first tasted wine cake at a winery dinner..it’s unique and a touch spicy great for a baking adventure.
Texas Deborah says
I love recycling containers, and so does hubby. A metal tin like you have in the picture, is good for recipes and so much more. With a bit of paint, and or decopage, it’s can be a treasure box for anyone, depending on what you put on it.
I do like the money tin. I wonder if I can start me one. Hum, first to find an empty tin can with a lid. May have to make it look like a spice tin or a tea tin.
erin in ia says
Those oatmeal in a cup taste awful. I find unopened ones in the semi trucks I clean all the time. We tried a few but now I donate them to the food pantry. Plus check out how any calories are in just one.
Brianna says
Worst case scenario with the red wine….add it to your compost pile. I’m sure it would enhance the microbiome and make it rich and healthy. You could also bake several batches of chocolate brownies with the wine incorporated, I do that with liquors that don’t get my fancy, but red wine could work.
K K says
Make a nice wine vinegar. Great for salads and anything a wine vinegar is uses for.
Kristen says
Mavis, girl. Please use that wine in some homemade beef stock. Martha has an amazing recipe, it doesn’t taste wine-ish. Then freeze it up and make some wicked French Onion soup with croutons and melty Swiss cheese. Before it gets too warm!
You are just a lovely lady and I truly, honestly love reading all your bits. You inspire me to get off my square butt and get shit done! Thank you, Mavis!
Lesley says
You are sooooooo not the only person who thinks of these things (unpronounceable ingredients, waste, simple pleasures, puppy love). That is why we are your fans! You speak our language. Your Sunday goals are my favorites. And the older I get, the less stuff I want and the more I want to learn about doing for myself. #skillz
Sandra says
The wine has likely “turned,” or gone sour, by now. If you don’t want to help it along on its journey to vinegar, the small amount you have could be composted.
Next time your mom brings over wine, have her help you make wine jelly out of it. It’s good with meats and on a cheese plate.
(I agree the oatmeal is noxious. Tried it once to see if it would be useful for my mom, who has low vision.)
Julie says
The wine has probably gone off now, make vinegar. Food ingredients are a big deal for us too, another of my hated ingredients is palm oil. I keep telling my daughter not to buy that oatmeal, too expensive, full of additives, including sugars, she says she doesn’t have time to make regular porridge/oatmeal!
Plastic, tins, everything gets saved but eventually I have to take it all to the recycling centre or put it in my recycling bin.
We have spent the winter South by about 1200 miles to avoid the snow! Heading home on March 22 so hopefully spring will be on the way. Here in Portugal if someone has a nice tin or container they don’t want they leave it beside the bins for someone else to re-use!
Miss Lucy looks gorgeous.
a says
Are you wearing a blanket under your coat when shoveling the snow?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes. Yes I am. 🙂
Kathy Gardner says
Lucy is so adorable that she can “wear” anything that she wants to. I honestly look daily for a pic of Lucy. She puts a smile on my face. I have a 13″ spoiled rotten beagle that is laying beside me on the sofa now snoring up a storm. She is spoiled rotten and I would not have it any other way.
I keep empty containers. I use them to put leftovers in or to pour grease into that I don’t want so that I can dispose of it safely. I don’t throw away a lot of things. It’s good to have some odd containers that you can put food into when you carry food to a friend or neighbor and you can tell them not to worry about returning the container.
I have stage IV pancreatic cancer and I have been trying to watch what I eat and I am sticking to pure food. Fresh vegetables and fruit, lean protein. I do buy bran cereal for me and Daddy to keep the plumbing going with the chemo and medications. Most things I make from scratch and they are simple meals. I’m not 100% there but we are eating much healthier than in the past. We are planting a garden this year. Daddy is 84 and I have cancer and it may be a little ambitious but it is good exercise for both of us and the fresh, organic food will be a blessing. And I have lots of wonderful neighbors and friends to carry our surplus to and share with them.
Keep posting those pics of Lucy! You don’t know what a lift they give to me. I would love to give her a hug in person.
Sheila says
Blessings to you and your father, your positive and cheerful attitude despite your circumstances is truly inspiring.
Mavis Butterfield says
You grow that garden Kathy! Even if you can’t get out there everyday it is something to look forward too and you can always have a friend pop by to help with the weeding and harvest. 🙂
Vivian says
Oh my gosh, I love Cupcake wine! If I lived closer than across the Sound I would come over and take it off your hands! I also cannot get rid of a container. The cottage cheese and sour cream containers are taking over the house. I use them for frozen applesauce and strawberries but still have WAY too many. I volunteer at a soup kitchen and often people need containers to take extra food home. Hooray, a solution! They are happy and I am too!
Julia says
I love Cupcake wine also, so there wouldn’t be keftivers at my house!! Everyone has such wonderful recipes for the wine!! My son loves all the Lucy photos. I tried one of those oatmeal cups when I had a free coupon. They are way too mushy for me and full of sugar. I save plastic tubs and take them into our church kitchen when they get used for packing up leftovers from our Wednesday night meals. And I also love the Walton’s! Another thrifty tin can bank mom was the mother in the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She used a tin can to make a star bank which she nailed to the floor of her closet.
Joyce says
I save all of my tins and give them to the local middle school art teacher. The grade school teacher may take them as well. That way the kids can upcycle them. I go through a lot of Altoids…
Gina says
What would I do without you, Mavis? LOL
I love your posts and especially your love for Lucy. I have two chihuahuas that I rescued one year apart on our gravel road (unbelievable that someone would drop them off like that). I love them so much and rarely find someone who loves their dogs as much as you and I do.
I wanted to comment about the tins. I love them, too! I save the ones from Christmas (various sizes) for storing homemade cookies and muffins in my pantry (instead of using plastic, which I hate). I would be curious to see if there are hidden dangers in them for food storage. My daughter uses a small popcorn tin for storing her flour. I try to use as little plastic as possible so love using reusable tins!
Thanks for always posting great ideas and inspiration! This is a fantastic blog!
Jenn says
for the wine, look up a recipe for mushroom bourguignon. It’s delicious.
You can also use the wine as if it were juice and turn it into jelly. great with a fancy cheese plate.
or reduce the wine with a bit of honey, garlic, and butter and use it to sauce a piece of baked salmon. yum
last option I could think of, use it as the liquid in a chocolate cake.
mari says
That is a good bottle of wine, you can use it to flavor almost every beef recipe. It deepens flavor and wine cooks off 🙂
jaime says
Bouef bourguignon will use up all of the wine, and it’s delicious!! Great for a snowy cold day (especially served over mashed potatoes).
Linda Bick says
We love the Walton’s show and we watch and record it all the time!