Frugal Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome back to Frugal Friday!  This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which may change as we proceed.

Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc.  I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #3:  please keep it to one tip per person per week. Data dumps are tedious for me to moderate and also for readers to use. If you have lots of tips, great -- post one per week. This is an ongoing project. If you want to comment on someone else's tip, that's welcome, but again, don't use that as an excuse to post a second, unrelated tip of your own.

Rule #4:  please keep your contributions reasonably short -- say, 500 words or less. If you have something longer to say, please post it elsewhere -- a free Dreamwidth account is one option -- and simply put a link here. Teal deer comments won't be put through.

Rule #5:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #6: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

With that said, have at it!

Comments

Anglo-American Onion Powder Gravy, Tested Today

[saturns_pet]

Anglo-American Onion Powder Gravy, Tested Today

Ingredients:

2 cups decent water, preferably not chlorinated or heavy aka hard;
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour;
2 tablespoons onion powder;
about 1 tablespoon butter;
pinches of salt and sage leaf powder

Lightly toast flour in a little sauce pot on low heat until it smells a little sweeter. I've used an electric stovetop. Use the same pot you intend to make the gravy in, by the way. Add butter to the flour. Keep on low heat until it bubbles. Lift from heat. Stir, with wood or bamboo. Repeat until rawish smell of flour is gone, probably not many times. Don't brown. It ought to taste a bit like unsweetened pie crust. Mine tend get a little crumbly. Add a little water to the pot, not cold water. Make a slurry. Put back on low heat. Add remainder of water to pot, again not cold. Make the mixture bubble to thicken it into a gravy, stirring as needed. Remove from heat. Stir in onion powder bit by bit to prevent dreaded clumps. Salt and season with sage.

Put on toast, then add beans? A thrill begins...

I like the purpose affirmed by Frugal Friday. Therefore I have returned to respectfully haunt your folklore-commentariat.

saturns_pet