flour flavor and tax return

FLOUR FLAVOR AND TAX RETURN
Before we start today, thanks loyal minion in Germany for the gift. A first aid kit alone would be great ( and much needed after my old one was left to the elements and was largely useless ), but this one is printed all in German. It doesn't matter that I can't understand a word of it, and that's after three semesters of the language in school. It's simply cool. Okay, today we are going to cover two mundane subjects for the price of one. You see, that's just me. I'm all about other people. Always giving extra. Flavoring your flour, and my exciting tax return.
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Getting a tax return is usually the highlight of my year, financially speaking. Last year the extreme generosity of all loyal minions which enabled me to catch up from being unemployed and to buy the new computer was the highlight, but this is a new year. And I have the feeling that the financial news is simply going to go from crappy to catastrophic. So I'm going to enjoy my tax return while I can. Every year I tell you what new and exciting items you should get with your return, this being an opportunity not to be repeated for twelve months. I'm going to skip that this year because now is not the time to be fiddle friggin around. This will be the last opportunity to acquire the basics. Next year, the feds might be issuing IOU's like California is doing. Next year no guns or ammunition, perhaps? Next year, food costs will have doubled again. This year, you lose your job and will have no return to look forward to. I do not want to hear you crying to me next year if you don't immediately buy your wheat and bolt guns now. Although, honestly, will I still be posting next year? I hope things don't collapse that quick, but still...
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I was expecting to take a two hundred dollar cut this year, assuming I was going to have to pay tax on the stimulus check last summer. But I guess I didn't make enough. $17k, which included $1700 from loyal minions. Thank you all very much. If I include the Amazon commission ( which is paid by coupon which buys me books for research ) and donations I got paid $200 a month last year. Of course, the start of the year was high in ad revenue and the end high in donations, and that is before taxes of twenty percent. But still, that is awesome! I love you guys. So, anyway, I get two grand back instead of the expected $1700. Half goes to the kids for upcoming birthdays and Christmas, plus the auto insurance. The other half I get to save. Of course, the whole time that is in savings, I'll be stressing over it. Should I buy tangibles? Should I pay off most of what I owe on the one lot down the street? Should I save it for a rainy day? This kind of wealth is a headache. But a good problem to have, anyway.
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We all know it is a super duper fabulous idea to stockpile spices and condiments. As usual, I didn't heed this advice until it effected me. I kept meaning to buy a restaurant size jug of soy sauce for the hundred pounds of rice I have stockpiled. And I did do something by buying extra burrito seasoning packs for the stockpiled beans ( although the stuff is mostly salt, I would stockpile a little of it when they were three or four for a buck ). But all in all I would have been in for some dull eating. I simply didn't have enough seasonings. That changed when I started eating Something Posing As Meat ( whoever came up with that one gets my vote for cleverness ). If I couldn't smother it with beans in sauce, it had to be disguised with BBQ sauce or mustard. That got me stockpiling spices and condiments again. Still not enough, but more of a months worth than the previous weeks worth kind of thing.
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However, have you thought of flour flavoring? I eat my bland pan bread five times a week. Even cooking it after searing meat, using the grease for flavoring, did little to make it taste very good. My honey froze during a particularly vicious cold spell over two weeks and has never recovered. Margarine helps a bit, but all in all eating bread all week is not exactly a taste treat. To partially offset that, I started doing the following. Every Sunday, we treat ourselves. Instead of the usual two parts whole wheat to one part white, I reverse that for a fluffier, lighter fare. Plus, I add a seasoning to it. I started out getting blueberry muffin mix. At seven ounces, it lasted two servings. One half cup whole wheat flour, one cup white flour, half a pack of the blueberry mix, a dash of sugar and baking powder and enough water to make a stiff waffle dough. Into the pan, low heat. Fifteen minutes each side. Enough breakfast bread for two. And it tastes good. Cost is the flour plus 33 cents for the mix. Next, we started looking for more types of mix. Rather than the Wal-Mart generic mix we looked at Jiffy mix. Now we have chocolate, raspberry and blueberry mixes ( the banana walnut sounded gross ). And the pack, still seven ounces, is only fifty cents instead of 66.
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Now, at least once a week, I can look forward to eating bread. Another idea is donuts. About once a month we eat a package of pork fat. It is mostly slabs of fat with little slivers of meat still on it. Tastes like bacon, is 99 cents a pound or less and doesn't have nitrates on it. But it is overpowering if you eat too much. Almost like scooping out a handful from the lard bucket to snack on. I keep the fat in the pan overnight and in the morning I make up my bread, dry enough to need to roll out. Poke a hole it the middle after making the circles with the dough. Fries up in a minute or two, dust with sugar. A once a month fat treat, just like the pork the night before. It ain't too healthy, but its good as an occasional thing.
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