Don't you just hate it when you are ready to prepare something special for the holidays and realize that you don't have ALL the ingredients? Well, this happened to me today. I found that I was out of ground cloves to be used in special muffins that I was cooking for part of my neighbors' holiday gifts.
Our town only has Walmart and another major grocery chain and, of course, several dollar stores. Because Walmart was like a zoo, I refused to go there to see if they had ground cloves. I went to two dollar stores and called another store and was still empty handed. I went to the other grocery store and found a .62 oz container of ground cloves for the ridiculous price of $7.99! I absolutely refused to pay that amount for a tiny container and came back home. I had reconciled myself to omitting the cloves from the muffins, when I found that I had a partial container of whole cloves left over from making pickled peaches. I poured a few of the cloves into my mortar and pestle and attempted to grind them into powder. It may have worked but it would take too long.
I figured that I HAD to have something I could use to do this faster. Then it came to me, my coffee grinder! I poured the cloves that I had partially crushed along with the remaining whole cloves into the coffee grinder and within no more than 10 seconds, I had ground cloves. Problem solved and no cost to me. And that's what makes me a happy cook! I will be trying it again with some cinnamon sticks when I run out of cinnamon.
Happy holidays to all of you Thrifty Funners!
By GeorgiaBulldogsFan from Jesup, GA
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What a fantastic idea that I know I will be trying. We live 15 miles away from the nearest Walmart, grocery store chain and like you I refuse to pay high prices at convenience stores out here in the county.
Thank you for such a great idea and sharing it with us here 'your Thrifty Fun family' on line.
You can clean the grinder between spices and coffee by filling it partway with dry rice and whirring it a bit, cleans it right out, unless you want the spice taste in coffee or vice-versa.
I found a small coffee grinder at a yard sale. I am not a big coffee drinker so mine is just for my herbs and spices. I save my herbs from my garden and hang to dry, I just put in my grinder Rosemary.
That's exactly what I needed to know. I have a very good coffee grinder, in fact two of them, so I will take my whole cloves and grind them!
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