Friday Finds and Frugal Tips-Celery

Before we get to the business of the day, I must tell a little story on myself.  Yesterday I took some photos for today's post (see below) and for some posts to come.  I transferred the photos from my camera to my computer.  Then I decided to delete all of the photos that were in my camera since they were in my computer.  Well, you all know where this is going.  I then proceeded to open the new photo folder on my computer, didn't like the first photo, clicked on it to delete it and lost the whole folder.  Then I had No Photos in my camera and No Photos in my computer.  Oh well, off to shoot them all again.  Lesson learned--Do Not Delete Photos from Camera Until You Have Photos Just The Way You Want Stored In Computer!

On to the business of the day.  I am joining Friday Finds at Finding Joy in My Kitchen, and here are the "finds" I'm sharing this week.

Homemade Vegetable Stock

 Simple Bites

A great way to use many of those vegetable trimmings that most people just throw away, and an almost "free" food.

Mama's Potato Cakes

Southern Plate

My Mom made these, also, and I still do today.  Best use of leftover mashed potatoes in my opinion.

Sauteed Corn, Bacon, and Green Onions

Steak and Potatoes Kinda Girl

I make this all the time, and do the same with other vegetables.  I'm glad to know that there is an "official" recipe.  You can't go wrong if there is bacon in it.

Greek Seasoning

 Food for My Family

I love gyros and want to try this seasoning with some thinly sliced round steak to see if I can come close to what is served at a Greek restaurant in my town.

            

Homemade Whipped Topping aka Make Your Own Cool Whip

Eat at Home

Disclaimer here.  This is a recipe that I posted at Tiffany's blog, but she tried it and was pleased.  This is a great recipe if you want to avoid the chemicals in the commercial stuff, but don't want the fat in using real whipped cream.

Cream Soup Mix

From Grandma Loy's Kitchen

OK, double Disclaimer.  This is a recipe I posted Monday on my blog.  I think that it is such a great mix to have on hand that I just had to include it in this list.  Sorry.

Well, that concludes my "finds" for this week.  Now let's store and use some celery:

In the photo above I am showing that I keep my bunch of celery wrapped in aluminum foil.  I like heavy-duty foil, but regular will work.  I was very skeptical when I first heard this tip, but was amazed at how much longer the celery stayed crisp without getting limp.  Try it.

If your celery does go limp, you can revive it by soaking stalks up to their leaves in water with a little lemon juice added.

Make your own celery flakes  On the cutting board are celery leaves that I am drying and some already dried ones.  I snip the leaves from my celery and just put them in a pie tin or on a cookie sheet in a single layer and just leave them on the counter for a few days until they are dried.  I sort of stir them around a bit every day.  When they are dry just store them tightly covered.  If you get enough, whirl the dried leaves in a coffee grinder and make celery salt. 

I add chopped celery, onion, and red peppers to ground beef when I brown it to put it in the freezer.  I chop and freeze celery if I do have a bunch that needs to be used up.  It can be used in soups and stews.

Don't forget to save your celery trimmings in the freezer to make the vegetable broth linked above.

Tomorrow:  Steak Cubes with Butter Crumb Dumplings.

Cream Soup Mix