Spearmint!

I spent some time with Mr. Scrimp's mom yesterday. We hung out, made ice cream, and canned blueberry jam--and she gave me a huge bag full of fresh spearmint!

This stuff grows like a weed, but it is a super useful plant, and I'm really excited to have so much of it. I will be hanging this batch in my pantry to dry for easy storage and use throughout the upcoming year. For instance, did you know that spearmint tea can treat nausea?

This fall, one of our goals is to reduce our use of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and one of the ways we're preparing to do that is by making our own remedies at home.

Do you use any home remedies or herbs on a regular basis?

Summer Forces Unconditional Surrender

A couple of nights ago, our power went out.

Normally, this would be no big deal. But we happen to be in the middle of a monstrous heat wave, and even though it was only an hour before midnight when the power cut out, the house was still oppressively hot, and outside was not much better.

But, it turned out to be a great time. We called the power company to report the outage, went to CVS to pick up some cold drinks, and then came back and sat on our front step with our upstairs neighbors, our next-door neighbors, and another neighbor from down the street who we had never met before.

We stayed out there for nearly three hours waiting for the power to come back on, dripping with sweat, choked with heat, but having a great time. We met several of our neighbors who we'd never spoken with before, because as soon as everyone's fans and window air conditioners went off (none of the houses in our area have central air), it was too hot to keep sleeping and they all took to their porches and sidewalks.

I remember spending a lot of summer nights outside on porches when I was a kid, or hanging out in basements, garages, and even under bushes to keep cool.  Sometimes I sort of regret having air conditioning because it tempts us so strongly to stay inside all the time instead of getting out, getting used to the heat, and slowing down a little bit.

Would you ever consider getting rid of air conditioning in the summer?

Oak Park Hates Veggies

My post today is not about cooking, crafting, or sewing (although I've been up to all of those things lately!)

No. Instead, I'd like to tell you about a unique little blog I found. You see, the city of Oak Park, MI is prosecuting a woman there for growing organic vegetables in her front lawn. She claims that she isn't violating city code--they claim that she is, and that it is illegal for her to grow food on her own property where others can see it.

I encourage you to read her blog, do some research on your own, and draw your own conclusions. And if, as I hope, you draw the same conclusions that I did, I also encourage you to join me in contacting the city of Oak Park* to make sure they know that we find it unacceptable to punish a law-abiding citizen for making healthy choices on behalf of her family.

* in a polite and non-threatening way, of course!

Menu Planner

I really like to have meals planned out advance, even if it's just something like "chicken on this day, beef on that day," et cetera.

So you can imagine how excited I was when I saw this awesome menu planner tutorial. I included both the first one I found, at our perfectly imperfect life, and the one that inspired that, at Thirty Handmade Days.

As you can see, the menu planner (made of a decorated cork board) uses clips for each day so that meals can be rearranged on a weekly basis. It features envelopes for recipe cards and to hold a selection of meal choices to be pinned up.

I think this is such a cool idea, especially if you can find a cork board secondhand where it often costs only a couple of dollars. And, of course, there's no end to the styles or colors you can use. The only limit is your imagination and your materials.

Recipe: Peach Custard Pie

As it so often seems to happen around here, this recipe was so delicious that we gobbled it down before I remembered to take a pretty picture of the result. I did, however, find a pretty picture of fresh peaches!

And hey, the lack of a picture of the pie has got to be a good recommendation for it, right?

Why Keep Eating Poison?

GMO crops, conventionally grown corn and soybeans chief among them, can be found in a huge proportion of our foods these days. It's one of the big reasons that Mr. Scrimp and I changed our eating habits. We became convinced that we were eating foods that had been contaminated with poison.

A report at the Huffington Post now tells me that we were right, and I only wish we had run away screaming from conventionally grown food even sooner. You see, those GMO crops have been modified to be resistant to the weed killer RoundUp. They get sprayed with it again and again throughout the growing season. It cuts down weeds and increases crop production.

It also causes birth defects in mammals, and that has been kept secret from the public for quite a long time now.


I know there are readers of the blog who have maintained that Mr. Scrimp and I are overly concerned about GMO foods and conventionally grown vegetables. I hope this makes you reconsider.

Mrs. Beeton's Household Management

Have you heard of Mrs. Beeton? In the 19th century, Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management was the Victorian homekeeper's bible.

That is one intense book jacket.

You can find the entire text online here. It's worth a read, if only for a chuckle over the way things have changed.  The book is primarily a cookbook, but also opines at some length about social conventions, visiting, managing servants, and caring for invalids.

I mention it because I read a quote from the aforementioned Mrs. Beeton in which she said, "What moved me, in the first instance, to attempt a work like this, was the discomfort and suffering which I had seen brought upon men and women by household mismanagement. I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife's badly-cooked dinners and untidy ways."

Obviously the blame for this no longer lies just at the feet of the housewife. But I'm curious to know, readers, do you think that bad dinners and an untidy house are a source of "family discontent"? Domestic stress? Mr. Scrimp and I certainly seem to have a much better time when things are really clean and organized.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.