 One of the things I love about living the Cheapskates way is the challenge to re-purpose things. Sometimes it's things we no longer use, often it's things we have never used but have in the house, just waiting for a purpose.
Over the years I have collected a lot of vintage linens and I love to turn them into things I can use, things that make me smile and make our lives as a family just that little bit more comfortable. Today I made a scosie from a lovely old tea towel. I have been waiting for the perfect project for this tea towel and the scosie was it. A scosie is a scone cosy, a simple way to keep fresh scones warm while on the table. After all scones with jam and cream go much better when the scones are warm. You can use new tea towels, but vintage tea towels add a charm that new fabric just doesn't have. Waffle weave or toweling tea towels will keep the scones warm until the last bite. For a prettier scosie use printed cotton or even tulle and lace. To make a scosie: Step 1. Use a dinnerplate to trace 2 circles onto your fabric. Cut around the edge of each circle. Step 2. Finish the raw edge of each circle with bias binding. Add any lace or ric rac embellishments. Step 3. Use tailors chalk (or a very light pencil) to divide one circle into six wedges. Place the marked circle on top of the second circle. Sew along the lines. Scosies make a lovely gift, especially if you fill them with scones and present them on a vintage plate. Shared from Debt Free, Cashed Up and Laughing
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 My local greengrocer had a fantastic special on onions this week - 10 kilo bags for $3! That's just 30c a kilo - about an 80 per cent saving on supermarket prices.
I couldn't resist and before I knew it two bags had mysteriously made their way into my kitchen. So faced with 20 kilos of brown onions what was I to do? Well first off I roped in all the family and had them take turns at peeling - a half a bag each. That was the worst chore over and done with. Then I took out the food processor and, using the chopping blade, I processed half of them. Now that's a lot of chopped onion, and I did it in batches. With my trusty 1/2 cup measure I portioned those chopped onions into ziplock bags ready to go into the freezer. Those bags of frozen onion will be used to prepare rissoles and burgers, meatloaf, pies, soups and stews, casseroles, pies and quiche and anything else that needs diced or chopped onion this winter. The remaining onions were sorted and any small enough to roast were blanched, drained and put onto a baking paper lined baking sheet and then flash frozen. I'll use these for our Sunday roasts. When they are completely frozen they'll be bagged up too. That left about 7 kilos of rather largish onions. Those were sliced on the mandolin. They will be great for hamburgers and steak sandwiches and crumbed they'll make lovely onion rings. The mandolin had them sliced up, into lovely even slices, in no time. And again they went into ziplock bags, this time in 1 cup portions. Now there is a green bag in the freezer, full of packets of diced, sliced or whole onions. It did take a couple of hours to process that 20 kilos, but it will save me a lot of time over winter. When a recipe calls for onion I will be able to just pull a packet out of the freezer. And know that I've saved around $24 too. What do you buy in bulk to prepare ahead and freeze? Leave a comment and inspire us! This post was shared from Debt Free, Cashed Up and Laughing  I've just been browsing the Coles catalogue for this week and notice that condensed milk is on sale for $2.50, save 70 cents. I was gobsmacked! It's obviously been a while since I bought condensed milk because the last time (I just checked my notes) it was $1.69!
I do use condensed milk quite often, in baking and to make Russian caramels, but I can assure you I wouldn't be if I had to pay $2.50, let alone $3.20, a can (and those cans are about 30g smaller than they were when they were $1.69!). MOO condensed milk has been a staple in my pantry for years. It's easy to make, tastes and works exactly like the tinned version and costs less than $2 to make more than double the quantity you'd be paing $3.20 for. Here's my go to condensed milk recipe - and don't worry about being able to store it before it goes yellow. It will keep in the fridge for at least a week, longer if you turn the container upside down. But it freezes! Yes, put any extra in the freezer until you're ready to use it in another recipe. MOO Condensed Milk Ingredients: 1 cup hot water 2 cups skim milk powder 2 cups white sugar 6 tbsp butter or margarine Method: Place all ingredients in a food processor and mix for about 3 minutes. The mixture will be quite thin, but thickens on standing for about an hour. Use immediately or refrigerate for up to one week. Can be frozen, thaw before use. Makes 3 cups. Seriously, it is so quick and easy to make and so cheap - why would you ever spend your hard earned dollars on tinned condensed milk? Shared from Debt Free, Cashed Up and Laughing |
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