money, money

In between 5 different stores, I spent $250 while grocery shopping yesterday! Thankfully, I can afford to spend that much, but the amount still shocks me. When I was a teenager, and my parent's total at the cash register came up to $100, I thought *that* was a lot.

Included were 2 containers of detergent (~$20), 24 rolls of toilet paper (~$20), and a bottle of B12 vitamins ($10). But that still leaves about $200 that I spent on food; food that will last me maybe 3 to 4 weeks, although some items last longer and some shorter.

If I were short on money, there are many items I would have not gotten, or gotten cheaper substitutes for.

However, I now have 2 magnificent mangos, 2 lovely lemons, 2 awesome avocadoes, colorful rainbow chard, green collards, a large cauliflower, a beautiful butternut squash, the makings for pizza, dark-chocolate covered pistachio nuts, cinnamon-vanilla almonds, and other good stuff.

Out of sheer curiosity, I got a bottle of coconut aminos, which is made from the sap of coconut tree blossoms, and is somewhat similar to soy sauce.

Last time I was grocery shopping, I bought some raw cacao butter. I'm going to try to melt it and make vegan white chocolate from it. I'm not aware of any stores here which sell vegan white chocolate.

The snow from last week still hasn't all melted yet.

Money, Money, Money - by patriciaet colette

"Money, Money, Money" (Watch on YouTube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0xnHJEkLW8

notes to self / recycling

Do *not* try to use the Fort Jackson recycling center anymore. In spite of their web page saying that it is a "24 hour drop-off point", the gate was closed and locked today (Sunday) when I went there around 5pm.

There is *not* a recycling drop-off point behind the Woodhill Target anymore. I drove completely around the shopping center, and like the last time I was looking for it, I found nothing.

.

Supposedly, Forest Acres has a drop-off site:
5400 Robert Springs Rd.
HOURS: Monday - Saturday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
SITE COLLECTS: Cans (aluminum, steel), plastic bottles, jars and jugs (#1-#7), glass (brown, green, clear), paper (cardboard, magazines, newspaper and inserts)

That road is not listed in Google Maps, but it is shown on Yahoo Maps

(But they might ask for proof that you live within the boundaries of Forest Acres, so I don't fancy trying that one.)

Supposedly, Richland County has 24 hour unstaffed drop-off points here:

* Clemson's Sandhills Research and Education Center, 900 Clemson Road .
(Q and I drove there before, on the "special recycling day", but it was a dirt-road, and I don't recall seeing any recycling containers there).
(Update: I went there, and they *do* have recycling containers there. Yay.)

* Sonoco Recycling, 1132 Idlewilde Blvd., off Bluff Road
(I looked this one up in Google Maps Streetview, and see *no* indication of there being a public drop-off site, unless it's inside that property whose gate has a sign saying "Authorized Vehicles Only". So I don't fancy driving all the way out there.).

SITES COLLECT: Cans (aluminum, steel), paper (corrugated cardboard, newspaper and inserts, unwanted mail, paperboard), glass bottles, jars and jugs, plastic bottles, jars and jugs

white chocolate

I made a double batch of this recipe. It took much longer for my cacao butter to melt in the microwave than the recipe suggested - more like 6 minutes. In addition to the powdered sugar, I stirred in an extra pack of vanilla sugar too.

It turned out all right. Not delicious, but okay. Having watched the hard cacao butter take such a long time to melt, and then having seen it all melted and oily, and then mixed with sugar and hardened again, it makes me think it must be rather unhealthy to eat. Maybe I shouldn't eat it.

These are the ingredients. The glass bowl contains the melted cacao butter.



This is the final product.



I had planned to use the mini silicone baking molds which I had last used a year ago for making chocolate peanut-butter cups. But I discovered that a white crystalline substance (mold on my molds?) was growing on them, so decided to use a glass pan instead.



A commenter named Lynn on this page had the problem of white crystals on their silicone bakeware too. I wonder what the crystals are, and why they grow.

pretty photos of mine

Water on a glass coaster. The symbol on the coaster means "ocean".


( More Pretty Photos.... )