Instead of jet-setting, I enjoyed my low key, environmentally-friendly vacation - and I say environmentally friendly because I did not get on an airplane (the most carbon-heavy thing you can do) and the furthest destination I drove to was less than 150km away. Most of the time I cooked local foods and ate at restaurants that also featured local products.

I didn’t take many pictures, as I’d planned. This was mostly because, well, I got lazy. And getting lazy is exactly what you’re supposed to do on vacation.

Here are a few things I did:

Spent time with my parents and other family members

Went shopping in Stratford

Enjoyed meals with friends

Went to the beach

Went to the Arboretum (many times) where I went for long walks in the trees, sat and watched the different species of hummingbirds suck nectar from the flowers and enjoyed other wildlife as well

Fixed up my bike and went for a ride

Walked through the local bog

Arose at 5:30 am (on my birthday) for an early morning walk to enjoy the nature

Read books - a few times I actually stayed in my pajamas until noon or later, reading in my favourite chair

Treated myself to my favourite lunch at With the Grain in Guelph

Went thrifting and went shopping in the mall

Made homemade pizza dough, baked bread and roasted tomatoes

Borrowed some movies from the library that I’ve been meaning to watch for years but had never gotten around to

Watched my favourite shows on my laptop (episodes of Pawn Stars,  American Pickers and Top Chef - no surprise, I’m sure, that I love all of these shows)

Went to Wild Water Kingdom with friends

Ate at some fantastic restaurants

Went stargazing

Every morning was able to leisurely drink coffee on the balcony (or my parents’ balcony) which is one of my favourite things to do

I actually returned to work feeling refreshed, and - gasp - happy to be back at work! What a concept.

Even for travel junkies like myself, I would recommend a staycation at least once in a while. It truly helps to decompress and refocus yourself. I believe there is a certain wisdom that can be found in simple moments and that we don’t always have to fill up our lives with constant stimulation. Sometimes staying home in your pajamas reading a really great book is all you really need to fill your soul.

A few snapshots taken from my iphone (nothing fancy)

Enjoying my beautiful oleander tree on the balcony

The buffet rendered me too full to sample the sweets at this delicious vegetarian Indian restaurant

“The Church” restaurant in Stratford is the best! I had my birthday lunch here.

Dusk at my uncle’s place on the lake. Thanks to the quality of the photo, you can’t tell that this is actually a double rainbow.

Playing with a friends’ tiny but rambunctious orange kitten. So cute!

Would you consider staying home for your vacation some time?

I have often said how lucky I am to have such loyal, kind readers. I don’t get the kind of comments a lot of other bloggers are destined to face for baring their souls on the internet. Other frugal bloggers I know have had their parenting skills challenged, their weight mocked, their relationships criticized. I know most bloggers, at one point or another, encounter comments that reveal shameless ignorance and even hate.  I’ve seen none of this.

It’s kind of laughable that the most heat that this blog has generated has been on a few incredibly benign topics.

Two notable posts that got some people hot and bothered include the following:

1. The question of whether or not to use old, wet coffee grinds to remove cellulite. In a post titled, “What not to do with used coffee grounds,” I drew my own frugal line in the sand when I mocked the idea of scrubbing my bum with soggy coffee grinds in the shower.  Honestly, the post was meant to be humorous, and most of my readers laughed along with me, or shyly admitted that they had tried it and that it wasn’t so bad.  But a few new readers accused me of being “too pessimistic” and “too ignorant.”

2. My post titled “Jamie Oliver v/s Amy Dacyczyn: Finding a frugal balance in the search for foodie fulfillment” was met with appreciation by my regular readers, but some loyal Amy Dacyczyn fans got a little pissed off.  And I’ve really wanted to follow up on this post because, although I got some positive comments on this one, I also had a number of Amy Dacyczyn fans complain, and so I wanted to clarify. or re-emphasize, what this post was really all about.

So here goes.

First of all, it’s great seeing so many Amy Dacyczyn fans out there. I’m a fan of hers too! Amy Dacyczyn inspired me in many ways. I became inspired to make my own granola, my own pizza dough and bread, and lots of other things. Amy Dacyczyn could be credited in inspiring me to write my most recent post on community engagement, as she was an advocate for community building through sharing, borrowing, and bartering with friends and neighbours, and she was a tremendous advocate of thrift store and garage sale shopping.

My reason for writing that post on finding foodie fulfillment was not to rag on Amy Dacyczyn; in fact, the reason why I mentioned her at all was only because something she said that I disagreed with became a catalyst for a post on a point that had very little to do with her.  When I read about her leftover strategy (continually dump all dinner leftovers into one plastic bucket, keep it in the freezer, and make a soup out of it when the bucket is full), I thought about how much better we can do with leftovers.

This comment irked me, not because I think Amy Dacyczyn is a bad person or even a bad cook, but because my blog is about bursting the myths that are often associated with frugality.

The myths include:

1. People who are poor necessarily have to have poor diets

2. People who are poor must eat a lot of convenience foods

3. People who are poor might be able to eat nutritious food, but they will have to sacrifice taste and quality in doing so

I have aimed to bust open myth number one for the nearly two years I’ve been writing this blog, and I busted myth number two when I wrote “the high cost of low brow foods” - which is my favourite blog post to date.

In the Amy Dacyczyn post, I aimed to bust open myth number three.  My central thesis of this post was:

1. Eating food that tastes good and that is healthy, delicious, interesting, and adds new dimensions to the palate can significantly increase a person’s quality of life, and although it is difficult, this can be accomplished even on a very low budget.

2. Imagination is key in this process. If we are creative, if we give thought to what we have and the multitude of different options and opportunities that our resources provide us with (in this case, leftover scraps) then we can end up with a life that feels abundant and meals that appeal to our senses.

3. Eating food that is delicious is not by extension wasteful; there are ways of preserving leftovers for the benefit of taste and quality that can enhance one’s dinnertime options.

(And in this specific post, I’m simply suggesting that perhaps instead of throwing weeks’ worth of leftovers into the same pot, why not freeze them separately so that they can be then used in the best way possible, for different soups, stews, casseroles, or other dishes that best complement the ingredients and give the cook the most options.)

If you’d like examples on how to reduce waste that don’t include the leftover bucket, see “Reducing waste and Eating well for less” and “What are you wasting?”

Ultimately, creativity is key. For some people, they are happy to eat food as long as it is nutritious and cheap. In this case, the leftover bucket may work for you. But for those of you who love to cook, who love food, who want to honour food and extract maximum enjoyment from it, just know that there are options.

For the last two years, I have been aiming to emphasize that frugality does not have to be equated with deprivation. After all, the subtitle of my blog is, “loving the frugal life.”  My approach in this blog is to demonstrate my own journey towards finding a life that is meaningful, abundant, and joyful.  Great food can be a part of that joy.

I hate the phrase, “we live in a society,” but truly, most of us reading this blog live in a society that encourages ownership and discourages community engagement. We are told that ownership is a sign of success, and typically we compete with each other to see who is the most successful - who has the most stuff.  But those of us who can’t afford to own everything we want are actually blessed with a tremendous opportunity to become more engaged in our own communities.

My approach to life is to work hard at achievements that are important to me and to realize goals and dreams that are close to my heart.  But at a certain point, growing up means realizing that you can’t have everything that you want - at least not, as Gail Vaz-Oxlade says, at the same time.  And at that point, life becomes about learning how to be happy with exactly what you have.

A vibrant community offers opportunities to find happiness without owning everything you want. If you can’t afford a pet, you can volunteer at an animal shelter or offer to walk dogs or take care of the animals that belong to your friends, colleagues and nieghbours. If you can’t afford to buy new books, dvds, cds, the public library has an abundance to share. If you can’t afford to own a swimming pool, the YMCA and community recreation centres offers access to swimming pools for next to nothing. If you can’t afford to own your own car, then car shares are an easy way to gain temporary access to wheels.  If you can’t afford a house but long for a vegetable garden, you can pay as little as $30 a season for access to a huge vegetable plot at a nearby organic farm (Ignatius farm in Guelph offers this).  If, similarly, you wish for a flower garden, the Guelph Arboretum offers a space where you can sit quietly and enjoy flowers, birds and butterflies at no cost.  Parks, of course, also offer many BBQ areas and places for napping under trees or in the sun - easy and free substitutes for a patio, backyard lawn or cottage.  Most people would assume that you have to sacrifice privacy, but in my experience, these spaces are underused.

There are so many opportunities, when living in a community, to find what you need, no matter how much money you’ve got. The added bonus, though, is that when you become involved in the sharing of land and objects, you begin to feel a part of a community. You build relationships with other people. At Ignatius farm, for instance, they offer support to their gardeners and have pot-lucks and social events. The library has many free events happening, including movie showings, book clubs and craft workshops. You meet other people in your community and you support those who are working hard to bring people together.

Sharing, borrowing and renting are underrated. There is an unwritten assumption that your stuff has value, that what you own can be considered an investment. The truth is that most things we own are environmental and economic liabilities, not assets, and they add less to our lives than we  have imagined.

But regardless if we have money or we don’t, at a certain point we need to find ways of making ourselves happy in the moment. And if you don’t have everything you want, there are always ways to compromise, and to find satisfaction in the art of community engagement.

Update: If you want to read more on this subject, check out “A Transumer Manifesto” on Shareable, an interesting post discussing some similar concepts. I just discovered this thanks to World Changing Canada .

This weekend was, I think, what real long weekends should be.  Sometimes, lengthy conversations on a balcony with a bottle of wine, or staying in your pajamas all day can be perfect staycation activities, and we did a little of this. But we also did some exploring.

Noteworthy discoveries included The Arboretum.

I could not believe that this remarkable source of beauty has existed right under my nose - a 5 minute drive away - without me knowing about it. There are luscious gardens of every type and beautiful nature trails. The collection of dwarf trees made me feel like I was in Alice in Wonderland. The Japanese garden would be a perfect place for meditating, and the butterfly garden and natural bird bathing area would be an ideal spot for sitting and simply taking in nature. It was stunning and practically deserted!

Other fun trips included St. Jacobs - the market as well as the antiques warehouse. I was well acquainted with the market but never knew the antiques market was so good.  Hundreds of booths, each with their own style, and the items were always well laid-out and displayed.  My kind of antiquing!

We ate really, really well.  Amongst the delicious dishes we prepared included a feast of local produce and meats - steaks, corn, mushrooms, amazing cheeses. My favourites included my sister’s caramelized onion dip, and a ratatouille made with all sorts of fresh, local vegetables. Oh yes, and plenty of local beers and wines.

One thing we did to enhance the free, relaxed feeling of being on vacation was pool our money into a single “vacation fund” so we could freely spend without worrying about who bought what. As a result, we were able to just draw money out of the vacation fund without worrying or thinking about it , and that made it even more fun. It’s a tip I’d strongly recommend.

Staying at home meant that we didn’t have to spend time driving, and we eat and drink as much as we wanted!

There is so much amazing food, natural beauty and fun discoveries to be made right in our own cities and towns.  What did you get up to this long weekend?

In the kitchen, I let myself fail. In this blog, I post my kitchen successes.  But there are many other kitchen failures.  A few nights ago I made Aloo Ghobi. It smelled delicious, and I thought it was going to taste really good. But it was bland. I don’t know why, because I’d used more spice than what the recipe called for, and my spices are more powerful than most, because they are fresh and whole ground. Perhaps the cauliflower I used wasn’t flavourful enough because it wasn’t fresh enough - it had been sitting in my fridge for a while. Regardless, I thought I might be able to turn the leftovers into a curried cauliflower and potato soup.  I used some leftover corn water as stock.  I’m not sure where my fist mistake was made - either the vegetables cooked way too long and released too much starch - or the corn water was too starchy and I should have just used plain water - but the end result was disgusting. I pureed it and it came out way too thick and unsalvageable. It was a disappointment, because the aroma from all the spices was incredible.

If anyone has a clearer idea about where I went wrong, please let me know, because I’d like to learn from my mistakes. But I don’t obsess about my kitchen errors, no matter how I many ingredients I waste. It’s sad, yes, but I look at my kitchen experimentations as an investment. I haven’t taken cooking lessons, so the only way I’m going to learn is by trial-by-error and making mistakes.

I think a lot of people are afraid to learn how to cook, or simply just write the entire idea off by saying, “I can’t cook.” The reality is, if we give ourselves permission to fail, we can learn to do just about anything.

Good culinary skills are something that will last you your entire life and, from a financial perspective, it’s something that will save you a lot of money in the long run.  Sure, if you have to throw out a failed meal, you might think, “it would have been cheaper to go out to eat.” For that instance, maybe. But you wouldn’t have learned a valuable lesson from your Big Mac, and stopping at McDonald’s won’t make you a better chef.

So, when I tasted that soup and realized it had the texture of glue, I shrugged my shoulders and moved on. Like I said, cooking is an investment and mistakes are just part of the game.

What’s been your biggest kitchen mishap and how did you deal?

So, the weather lately has been hot, hot, hot and at times like these, you definitely don’t feel like eating hot soup. Nevertheless, a flavourful summer vegetable soup is a satisfying meal on an evening when it’s raining or when it’s just a little cooler.  A soup like this is easy to make in advance, and keep in the fridge or freezer for a rainy evening.

My soup, pictured above, is one of the tastiest vegetable soups I’ve ever made, and I credit a delicious homemade vegetable broth and plenty of fresh, summer vegetables.  The vegetables are all Ontario produce (except for the celery). They include fresh cremini mushrooms, zucchini, onion, peas, carrots, potatoes, celery, fresh herbs from my patio garden (sage and parsley) and garlic.  The broth was made from vegetable scraps, such as the leaves from the celery bunch, carrot tops and carrot peelings, pea pods and various herbs.  The broth was a dark green colour and at first I was worried it would be too strong, but it wasn’t; it was perfect.  Combined with a can of whole tomatoes (I crush the tomatoes using just my hands) this broth was delicious.  You could easily add some parmesan to the top, but I didn’t think the soup needed it; it was good just on its own.

What kind of summer soups do you enjoy?

Thank you, Gail, for your sound, practical advice, your warm and open heart, your generous spirit and you infectious laughter! We love it!

Exhibit A: Chickpea salad, with feta cheese, yellow peppers, cucumber, thinly sliced zucchini, green onions, peas, and an assortment of herbs (basil, mint, chives and parsley). Every one of these veggies was grown locally. Grated garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper make the dressing.

Exhibit B: Orzo and vegetable salad with homemade pesto, celery, carrots, cucumber and peas.

I love the orzo in this salad!  All vegetables in the salad are local, including the basil and spinach that were used in the pesto, except for the celery.  This was delicious with peas, carrots, cucumbers and celery, but I would add some tomatoes and onions next time.

If you’re wondering about the pesto, it was incredibly easy to make.  I used Martha Stewart’s recipe but I didn’t want to strip my basil plant naked, so I used about half basil and half spinach and it still worked out well; I found that it had a strong nutty flavour, however, and would increase the basil and scale back a bit on the pine nuts next time.

This is a fantastic way to use up basil.  The pesto can be used on traditional foods like pasta and pizza, of course, but I really enjoyed it in the salad above, and I also used it as a flavourful sandwich spread.

Exhibit C: Cucumber and mint dip

Similar to, but not technically tzatziki, I made this dip with cucumber, mint, sour cream and yogurt (not bothering to strain it) and grated garlic. Tasty with pita, in pita sandwiches or served with kebabs.

Exhibit D: (Not shown) Mint iced tea

I took the leaves off several branches of my mint plant, crowded the leaves into tea balls and steeped them in hot water in my tea pot.  Made two pots of this hot mint tea and then emptied the contents into a large jug.  Added some honey, let it cool, and refrigerated until cold.  Very refreshing and delicious - and healthful!

Bright, beautiful, flavourful! It feels so good to start cooking again, using local produce and herbs!

What I gave up: a view of green. But I'm finding other ways to appreciate nature around me.

“There’s something good everywhere you go.” That’s what my grandfather told me when I expressed anxiety about leaving my hometown to go to university. That has always stuck with me. It’s very true, because no matter where we  live, there is always something good to be found. Sometimes in unexpected ways and in unexpected places.

My move went well, and now I’m finally getting settled in to my new place.  I was very scared to move, partly because I was giving up so much - to name a few, I was downsizing from a large two bedroom to a small one bedroom, switching from underground to outdoor parking, and moving further away from, well, just about everything - downtown, work, yoga.  And I was trading in my beautiful balcony for a much smaller, less scenic view.  There were also sentimental reasons that made it difficult to leave.  It was where I had lived with my former partner, and walking away meant officially closing the door to my past.But I was also sad to give up the apartment because it was the place where I had become re-acquainted with myself. I was crushed after the break-up, and I put myself back together in that apartment. For a year I lived alone. I found work, found new friends, found a new sport, and found myself again. I rediscovered my independence, and found peace in simplicity and in solitude.

And so, I was afraid to give up this space where so much had happened. But I felt inspired by my readers’ comments, especially the one that said, “You will create peace in your new apartment. You are peace.” It reminded me of a quote by Robert Fulghum:

Peace is not something you wish for;

it’s something you make,

something you do,

something you are,

something you give away.

I wish to give away peace, to inspire, respect and honour other people, including myself. And moving to this new place helps me to accomplish this. I’ve found a place that is affordable but is also comfortable, which makes it sustainable, and that allows me to do the work I love to do.

My new place is simple, modern, clean, and it is me.  It has big windows and a big bathtub. And it is filled only with what I truly love. I got rid of everything I didn’t need or that didn’t make me feel good.  I donated my television sets so I am officially TV free. I donated most of the cheap, mass produced Ikea furniture that my ex left behind.  I donated a lot of things that had negative associations from my past, or even things that just pulled on my heart strings too much. I kept only what I really value, what I love, and what brings me joy or adds something to my life.

Walking into my new apartment, it feels cozy and it feels like me.  To some, it might look like failure. I don’t have a lot of expensive stuff to show off. But to many, I think, this lifestyle would be enviable. Not bogged down with extra “stuff”. Not a slave to my posessions or to my self image. Clear on what I love, and what is important to me.  I have my antiques and vintage finds, my own art, my plants and herbs, some high quality furniture, and my most important asset, Butternut. (Home, afterall, is where the cat is.)

Sometimes I compare myself to other people and I wonder if I’ve failed myself, if I haven’t raised expectations of myself high enough. But I guess my inner desire is just too strong to be ignored, the desire to live simply, to live modestly, to live meaningfully and mindfully.  I guess I don’t even need to question it; this life feels right to me. It gives me peace.

Portabello mushrooms, zucchini, rosemary, roasted garlic puree, and a blend of real parmesan and mozzarella (heavy on the parm).  Gorgerous.

Simple pizzas can taste really good, too. I recently made a pizza with my own spaghetti sauce, mozerella and lots of fresh basil.  Perfect opportunity to use the basil from my herb garden.

I noticed that my sister recently tweeted about some pizza toppings she likes, and thought I’d share them with you too, because they sound damn good:

1. Carmelized Vidalia onions, heirloom tomatoes, artisan proscuitto, fresh mozzarella, baby arugula, fresh basil & homemade sauce
2. Sauteed green garlic, wild mushrooms & sausage w fresh mozzarella and homemade tomato sauce.
3. Benedictine blue cheese, carmelized Vidalia onions, proscuitto & homemade fig jam.

Sounds great! What I love about pizzas is that you can be totally creative, often using what is sitting around in your fridge and pantry.  I love that a delicious pizza can be made out of very little, and that cheap ingredients - herbs, onions, garlic - can go so far in adding amazing flavour.

What is your favourite homemade pizza idea?