Frugality: Strip Cards

This week I needed to make some envelopes for forwarding mail to some missionaries who had gone home.  Well, not needed to, but wanted to. As I was working on the envelope I put the leftover strip of colored paper into the leftovers box and put it back under my desk.  A lightbulb went on!

After taking out the leftovers box again, which was all strips of colorful papers in various widths, I took it to the guillotine cutter and cut off the white strip that held the paper glued into the paper pad. There were a LOT of strips!  Some of the envelopes required a piece of paper 11 x 11,  others 9 x 9, etc.  There were many strips to choose.  Since I love making cards, I thought these would be perfect.

This is what I did for the first card.  (Well, maybe I have done this before, maybe even blogged about it, but I don't remember...one of the bonuses of growing older: everything is new and exciting.  Even if you have done it a dozen times before!)

Here is the front of the card onto which are glued five strips.  After they dried I cut them and then folded them into A2 sized cards.  I did discover that I had not put enough glue along one edge of one strip so I inserted more glue there, which seems to have worked.

There was a little bit of overhang on the back which I cut off.  When I cut it off, there was an apparent unevenness so I put it back in the guillotine and made another cut.  The end result was that the card was slightly smaller than a standard A2 but close enough for me.

Here is the final card and the envelope it went into.  It makes me happy to make cards.  In this case, there were two cards, so one is sitting in my drawer with the the other cards I have made doubles of.  Nice to be ready to share a thought with someone at the drop of a hat.

Food Friday: Delicious Refrigerator Soup

There were more than usual small containers of leftovers in the refrigerator one morning lately so I pulled them all out of the refrigerator, tossed them into a large soup pot and, after chopping up three onions that I found in separate containers, I turned on the heat, brought the soup to a boil, then let simmer until the onions were mostly cooked.  It is a delicious soup.  Sadly, not to be duplicated....My mother was truly the master at making refrigerator soup.  Those soups always tasted good.  Sometimes mine have not been as tasty.  This one was BUT  Dear One had a bit of problem with it, though he did try.

These were the ingredients I used:

3 partial onions, chopped

1 bunch dried out scallions

2 cups homemade baked beans

1 1/2 cups homemade macaroni and cheese

2 cups roasted Brussels sprouts and cauliflower

2 cups sautéed onions and spinach

1 quart pork broth

1 quart chicken broth

2 -3 Tablespoons French onion dip made with sour cream and French's Onion Soup mix

2 Tablespoons Harvest Blend Seasoning...basically dried vegetables and herbs

2 1/2 Tablespoons dried red bell pepper flakes

Ragu spaghetti sauce

Chopped the onions finer then began cooking them in the two broths and broths.  After about 2 minutes, just added everything except the dip and Ragu sauce and brought everything up to a boil then simmered until the raw onions were softened...well, 15 minutes, then an additional 6 minutes because the onions were not yet soft.

Munchie Monday: Red Refrigerator Soup

When I was growing up our mother often would go to the refrigerator, pull out a few containers of leftovers, and make the most delicious refrigerator soup.  Absolutely scrumptious soups.  The only problem was, they were impossible to replicate.

In our house, I have made a few refrigerator soups.  They are rarely popular, except with me.  This time I made one which I am not even going to offer to Dear One. He does not need to feel like a bad guy.  I AM rather likely to share it, however, because there were two quarts of it!

To start any good soup you need to get out a large saucepan and a good-sized onion.  Add 2 cups water to the pan and start it heating over medium heat.  Add the chopped onion and put on the cover.

Now go to the refrigerator and see what is in those three or four containers that have been there a couple days or more.  Because we did not have a lot of containers this time, I cut up several small red potatoes, skins and all, and popped them in to cook with the onions.  I also smashed a couple cloves of garlic and dropped them on top.

Now for the good stuff:  some celery was just about ready to go, as in: rather wilted, so I chopped it and tossed it in. There was a tiny bit of kale.  Next two very small containers of thyme-roasted beets, then some very wilted lettuce which I chopped fine.  Half a green bell pepper was chopped well and added to the pot.  The next to the last delight was about a cup of sauerkraut and juice.  I know what you are thinking, BUT it really gave the soup some pizzazz!  Finally I checked the refrigerator one more time to see if there was something else hiding in there that the soup needed.  There was!  A pint of homemade tomato-vegetable sauce.  In it went and the soup was just about ready.

There was not much broth, which I think is the best part of any soup so I added some more water and a teaspoon of Better Than Bouillon Vegetable seasoning. 

This soup was pretty good.  Of course,  the picture is not a food photographer's dream, but you get the idea.  I am looking forward to another bowlful pretty soon.  Well, the next time I need to eat, which won't be for a while.