The Old Homeplace

Taking The Challenge.

Sylvia over at the Christian Homekeeper has issued a challenge that you can read about here: Christian Homekeeper.

Here is what I am doing today:

1. Made homemade laundry detergent for the first time this
    morning.

2. Plan to use leftovers for supper.
    (Not from the detergent, from supper last night!)

3. Found 2 stamps and walked to the mail box instead of driving to 
    the P.O..

4. I am mixing up an equal amount of powdered milk to mix with the
    milk in the carton, delaying a trip to the store.

5. Potting up some herb plants.

WWGD

...What Would Grandma Do?  Or maybe WDGD...What Did Grandma Do?, would be more accurate. In her younger days my Grandma lived in the country, way out in the country. She did not have a car. She did not go town every day. She rarely shopped for non-necessities. I am wandering if the key to my living more frugally in the country is to live more like grandma did?

I have been thinking this over and I've come up with a few lessons from grandma:

1. Drive less....way less!

2. Consume less...way less!

3. Waste less...way less!

What frugal things did your grandma do that you can apply to your life today?

A New Catagory!

I have decided to add a new catagory called A Penny Saved.... It will be a place for my frugal ideas, finds, and ramblings.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday!

My tip for the day:

Sort your potatoes. Usually the large bags of potatoes are a great buy but the potatoes are not nearly as uniform in size as the smaller more expensive bags. So here's what I do. I sort them into at least a couple of different sizes. I save the largest for baking and use the rest for frying or cooking. That way you get premium baking potatoes for a very cheap price!

You can find more tips here:  Tammy's Recipes

Enchiladas!!!

I made them Saturday! I have been craving them for a while. Here are the pictures:

1. The pork roast after a day in the crock-pot and a night in the refrigerator.

2. Ready to roll!

3. Ready for the oven!

4. Ready to eat!

I was trying to recreate a dish that I had in a restaurant. I just combined a lot of ideas and came up with the dish. I made the sauce and the tortillas from scratch and they both turned out pretty good.

I think I will thin down the sauce a little next time to make them even softer and easier to chew.. These were pretty soft though! 

I served them with Mexican Rice, Re-fried beans, salsa, sour cream, and a sliced avocado.

I got great tips and ideas from the ladies at the Titus 2 Christian Homekeeper's Forum.
The sauce recipe came from  Lori4SquareMom's Place.

I Have A New Favorite Jam!

I had noticed WindStone Farm Jam at the grocery store before. It has a nice label, natural ingredients, and is made in small batches here in Kentucky. It is a little on the expensive side so I had not tried it until I found some on sale at Wal-mart the other day.

Let me just say, I will be buying it again! The strawberry jam actually tastes like strawberries.

I am able to purchase it locally at several locations but it can be ordered from Wind Stone Farm.

BTW: I don't get anything in return for my endorsement-just wanted to share!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

Today's tip:

Measure accurately to save money in the kitchen. I have found that I always over estimate amounts unless I take the time to measure. With grocery prices what they are today those "little bits" add up to a "whole lot" very quickly.

I really enjoy Tammy's site and have wanted to participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesday for a couple of weeks now. I almost missed it again!

Cheesecake and Baking Day

Cheesecake:

First let me say that I love cheesecake, cheap cheesecake, expensive cheesecake, store bought cheesecake, home made cheesecake. I love cheesecake from a mix, deep fried cheesecake (yes deep fried cheesecake), even cafeteria cheesecake with canned pie filling topping. Yes, I love cheesecake! And this one is the best one I have had in a long time!

Baking Day:

I did have a few misadventures on baking day. First, I put the pound cake in the cold oven and turned the oven on as per the recipe. As it heated up smoke started coming from the oven vent. This is the same oven in which I had baked greasy meatloaf a few days before. I had to open the oven door occasionally to let the smoke escape but it did not seem to effect the taste of the cake.

Next I mixed up the cheesecake and put it in the oven. Smoke once again came from the vent. You see, I have a really cheap spring-form pan that I haven't used in quite some time. I had forgotten that it leaks and that I needed to wrap it with aluminum foil when I use it. I took the cheesecake out, wrapped the pan, cleaned up the butter mess the best I could and put the cheesecake back in the oven. My baking time was way off after all that. Luckily, Tanya included the finished temperature of the cheesecake with her recipe so I was able to tell when it was done.

Lastly I baked the bread. There was not any smoking to speak of by the time I got the bread in to bake. I did have to open the outside doors to air out the house a couple of times during the baking marathon but at least the food did not end up smoke flavored.

Now I need to clean the oven!

Reviews Are in!

On two recipes anyway. The pound cake was good but the Oatmeal Honey Whole Wheat Bread was the best bread I have made so far. My husband and I ate about half of a loaf last night!

As far as the cheesecake goes, I am following directions and letting it set in the fridge overnight before I try it. I did try the batter left in the mixing bowl and I am not one bit ashamed to tell you that I scooped out every little bit with a spatula and ate it, raw eggs and all. Man, that was delicious!!! I can't wait till supper...I think I'll make some sort of strawberry sauce to go with it.

Baking Day

The weather today is supposed to be cold with some rain or snow showers. I think it will be a good day to bake!

Here's my list:

1. Amish Half-a-Pound Cake from The Baking Circle.

2. Classic Cheesecake from Chocolatechic's Blog.

3. Oatmeal Honey Wheat Bread from The Baking Circle.

The Baking Circle is part of The King Arthur Flour web page. You have to join the forum to get access to member recipes. There is a lot of helpful information and you can save favorites to your recipe box, too.

 Chocolatechic's blog has lots of recipes and is quite fun to read!

Finally, Pictures!

Here are the bars in my cardboard box molds:

 Here are some of the cut bars:

Kitty, thanks for the tip! I did not know that. My biggest problem was getting them small enough to load on the site. I think I am getting the hang of it now. I downloaded a program called GIMP and I am learning to do a few simple things with it. I have also noticed that there are times when pictures will load faster than others.

Sorry About the Pictures.

I am still trying to figure out how to re-size and post them without having to have them hosted on another site. I don't have a lot of time to learn, but I will eventually!

Meanwhile the soap smells great! It looks good too. I was a little afraid to cut it after reading about botched batches of milk and/or honey soaps!

I Made Soap Today!!!

I made Milk And Honey Soap by Racheal Levitan. I got the recipe and lots of information from Miller's Homemade Soap Pages . I was able to do this recipe with my current kitchen scale. I was also able to find the ingredients locally, even the lye. I bought it at Lowe's. It is called Roebic Heavy Duty Chrystal Drain Opener and from what I understand it is 100% lye. (PLEASE, IF YOU DECIDE TO USE LYE, READ UP ON SOAPMIKING AND MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW THE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS!) 

If I had read about how tricky it can be to work with sugar and honey in a soap recipe before I found this one, I might have been to afraid to try it. So far, so good though. I guess I'll know more tomorrow!

My camera has dead batteries again so I don't have any pictures of the process. I will try to post some shots of the bars later. I made my own molds and I will try to take some pictures of them too.

Lessons On Watering Chickens

I thought I was being pretty smart. The chickens have a big watering container that freezes solid so I bought a $1 dishpan I could dump and fill more easily on cold days. It worked well for several days and then I had a couple of very important lessons.

Lesson1:

DO NOT slap the plastic pan full of DIRTY chicken water against the side of the building to break the ice, especially when it is 25 degrees outside. DIRTY chicken water in your face is very cold and yucky!

Lesson 2:

DO NOT bang the back of said plastic pan full of Dirty chicken water against your knee to break the ice, especially when it is 25 degrees outside. Your knee can go right through that cold, brittle plastic pan and get covered with DIRTY chicken water. Very cold but not quite as yucky as lesson 1!

I think I might look in to getting a metal pan of some sort....

Contentment

I have been reading The Rare Jewel Of Christian Contentment By Jeremiah Burroughs. This book has really helped me to see just what a dis-contented state that I am in. Even though it was printed in 1651(I think) it spoke directly to me in at least three different areas.

He spoke specifically of being concerned about the cloths and dishes we have in our houses.

You see, I bought a new set of dishes before the holidays. A set of Corelle, service for 8. This is the first set of new dishes that I remember buying. Was I satisfied? For a few minutes...then I started thinking that I really needed two sets. Now mind you that my husband and I are the only ones at home now and we rarely have over eight people eating here. But still in the back of my mind I was thinking how nice it would be to have matching plates when we have a lot of company. Here I was with a NEW set of dishes and all I could think about was how nice it would be to have two sets!

"Cloths", rather the lack thereof, is another thing that has been causing discontentment. I like to do crafts and I have really been wanting to work on a quilt. A pretty quilt. Now I don't NEED a quilt I WANT one. But the only store near me that carries fabric is Wal-mart and ours has very little now. And gas is so expensive that by the time I drive to the city and buy lunch I would not have much money left to spend at the shops. I looked on-line and found some quilt fabric that was selling for up to $12 a yard. A little too expensive AND I want to be able see and touch the fabric to get "inspired".

What to do! How am I going to make the quilt"s" that we NEED...did you notice that WANT changed to NEED and quilt changed to quilt"s"?

Not only do we have more than enough covers, but I have also been blessed with quilt fabric. I have been collecting fabric for an appliqued quilt for some time and have just about enough to start on it. I also have some quilt blocks and fabric from an on-line swap that I was privileged to participate in. But you know, somehow, I totally forgot about those. I wanted to be like "everybody" else and have a huge fabric stash! Instead of being thankful for what I have I was worried about acquiring something else.

That seems to be the way it is with me. Instead of being thankful for and enjoying what I have I am always worrying about what I don't have!

The third thing that really hit home was about having a good name. The writer implied that if you get too upset when someone damages your good name maybe you value your good name just a little too much! I had not thought about it in that way before. I needed to hear that just now.

This book has been a real blessing to me and I am thankful that these kinds of books are being made available on the internet. I found this one at:

http://www.woundedheart.org/jbcontent1.htm

I am seeking to be content in the state that I am in and I know it is not something I can do on my own. Please remember me as you pray.

Still Getting Eggs

I am still getting 2-3 eggs a day on average!

It has been really cold here. I have been keeping busy filling up the animals waterers and feeding them. I carry the horse a couple of buckets full and put the chickens some water in a tub that I can dump the ice out of instead of their regular waterer. I break the ice and fill up the cows tub as needed. Of course the cat gets her water checked and filled too! I just cannot stand the thought of them being without the necessities on these cold winter days.

I hope you all are staying warm. Count your blessings today and remember those less fortunate when you pray tonight!

Rooster/Hen Update

To be or not to be.....

Well, you see, I bought some chickens several months ago.

I thought I had six hens and a rooster.

Then they started laying eggs...three a day.

I went out and looked over my flock and decided that I must have three hens and four roosters.

Until day before yesterday...and yesterday...I got four eggs.

My husband agrees that I should not go into chicken farming full time.

Pies to warm the hands...and the heart.

Fried Dried Apple Hand Pies

For the filling you will need:

1 heaping cup of sun-dried apples
water
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
sugar

For the pastry you will need:

2 Cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. shortening
About 1 cup milk
(This is really just biscuit dough made dry enough to roll thin)

For frying you will need:

Oil, shortening, or lard

To make the Filling:

Rinse the apples, place in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Simmer with a lid on the pan until the apples are VERY tender. Drain, mash well and sweeten to taste. Add the cinnamon if so desired. Set aside while you make the pastry.

To make the pastry:

With a whisk, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the shortening. Add enough milk to make the dough just a little dryer than normal for biscuits. Kneed gently a few times on a floured surface.

To assemble and fry the pies:

Divide the dough into 1/3 cup portions. On a floured surface roll each portion into a circle about 7 inches across. This makes pies big enough for adult hands.

As you roll them out, lay the circles of dough on cookie sheets or wax paper in a single layer so they don't stick together.

It is better to only assemble 2 at a time because the filling will make the dough too moist if you make them too far ahead.

In the center of one side of the circle, place 1 heaping Tblsp. of the filling mixture. Moisten the edges of the dough with water. Fold over the dough, pressing out air bubbles as you go. Trim to a pretty half-moon shape. Seal the cut edges by pressing the tines of a fork around the cut edges.

Heat a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add 2 Tbsp. of oil (my mom used Crisco shortening and my grandma used lard). When the oil is hot enough to brown a bit of leftover dough, put two pies in the skillet and fry on one side until lightly browned. You don't want them to brown to quickly. You want to give them time for the dough to cook thoroughly and the filling to get warm. Carefully flip the pies and brown on the other side. As you remove them from the skillet, place them on a paper towel lined plate.

Repeat with remaining dough and filling, adding more oil to the skillet as needed.

This makes 7 good sized pies with a little left over dough.

You can substitute other sweet or savory fillings for the dried apple filling. Just make sure it is not too moist or it might leak through the dough.

Our Knew Favorite Chicken Recipe

I got this recipe from the Southern Living magazine's February 2007 edition. It was very good...spicy but not too spicy!

Mustard Baked Chicken

1 whole chicken

1 Tbsp. paprika

1-1/2 tsp. dry mustard

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1. Wash chicken and pat dry. Place in a large zip-top plastic freezer bag. Stir together paprika and next 5 ingredients until well blended; rub over chicken coating evenly. Seal and chill at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours, turning occasionally. Remove from marinade and discard marinade. Place chicken in a roasting pan

2. Bake at 425 degrees for 50 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted in thickest portion registers 170 degrees. Let stand, covered, 15 minutes before slicing.

They have a great site at:

 Southern Living Magazine

Recipes from Southern Living as well Cookinglight, Sunset, Coastal Living, Cottage Living, and Health magazines are available at:

My Recipes