Close up of Walnut Babies

Knitty Christmas

I love love love these knitted or crocheted wash cloths.  I use them in the kitchen all the time.  I am making them for gifts this year and giving them with a bar of my homemade soap.

They are easy to knit.  I use size 8 knitting needles.  Here's how to do it.

Waffle Knit Wash Cloth

Use 100% cotton yarn.  I like Sugar and Cream Yarn because it comes in so many pretty colors.

Directions:

Cast on 38 stitches.

Knit 3 rows for border.

Row 1: (right side): Knit.

Row 2: K 3, purl to last 3 stitches, k 3.

Row 3: K 3, (P 2, k 1) 10 times, p 2, k 3.

Row 4: K 3, (K 2, p 1) 10 times, k 5.

Repeat Row 1-4 approximately 12 times or until you reach the size you like.  Knit 4 rows for your border and bind off as usual.

Walnut Shell Babies

I love the idea of a homemade Christmas and with a much tighter budget this year we are making more than ever before. Pookie wanted to make gifts for her little friends so we did some googling and found these sweet little babies.  The hardest part of the whole project was cracking the walnuts perfectly without breaking the shells.  I found it was easier to pry them apart with a butter knife than to use a nutcracker.

A little scrap of fabric for the blanket wrapped around a cotton ball and hot glued into the walnut half made the babies body.  A small wooden bead and a little tuft of yarn for the hair and sharpie markers for the eyes and rosebud mouth.  A little bow glued on as a final tough makes this little baby a treasure for any little girl.  The package we put her in originally had cupcake liners in it.  I used a scrap of shimmery fabric to set the baby on.  This will go to Pookie's BFF for Christmas.

This little twin set was made using a cotton ball cut in half and wrapped in two different fabrics.  I used dried garbanzo beans for the baby heads.  I was out of beads and I thought the garbanzo beans looked kind of like poochie little newborn faces.  I added wooden discs and a toothpick painted black to make it look like a baby buggy.  I had lots of fun making them and I think the girls will have lots of fun playing with them.

Polenta with Turkey Sausage and Greens

This dish came out very tasty. Even the kids liked it. I was worried that the green stuff and the texture would be met with curled noses and tears. This recipe came from a Weight Watcher's cookbook that I found at a yard sale for a quarter! It is called Everybody Loves Chicken. It is a great cookbook and way worth the quarter.

Polenta with Turkey Sausage and Greens
Serves 6
1 cup of coarse ground cornmeal
4 cups of water
1/2 tsp salt

6 spicy Italian turkey sausage (I used sweet Italian because of the kids)
14oz can of mustard greens (just greens and water!)

Bring water to a boil, slowly whisk in cornmeal. Keep whisking and simmering until it is as thick as you like and smooth. It will thicken more as it sets.

Squeeze sausage out of casing into a skillet sprayed with cooking spray. Crumble and brown sausage until cooked through. Add can of mustard greens (Liquid and all! The liquid has lots of vitamins.)stir over low heat until greens are cooked through.

If counting Weight Watcher points measure out 1/2 cup of polenta into a bowl. Top with approximately 1/6 of the sausage and greens mixture. Sprinkle with 1/2 TB of parmesan cheese. 6pts.

Tastes good the next day for lunch too! Just heat it all in the microwave and chow down.

Cornmeal and canned greens are great food storage items. I buy popcorn (not microwave popcorn, the real deal!) in 50lb bags at Sam's. I grind that in my grain mill for cornmeal. Grind as needed to retain vitamins and to keep it as fresh as possible. If you grind more than you will use then freeze the rest.

This looked very pretty in the bowl. Kind of Italian Country comfort food. Unfortunetly I was too hungry to go find my camera! Instead I am posting a picture of the canned greens I buy. They are cheap and simple. No additives.

This meal is a great budget stretcher too.
Greens .59
Sausage reduced for quick sale - $2.00 (at my grocery store they ALWAYS have quick sale turkey sausage)
Cornmeal:  Pennies for 1 cup of cornmeal.

Under $3 for the entire meal or aproximately .50 per serving.

How do you make ends meet?

I never thought it could happen to us but here we are, 8 months and still unemployed. He was laid off Jan. 5th. The day he got back from Christmas vacation he was called into the office and they rang in the New Year by dissolving his department.

How do you do it? How are you making it? I get asked that a lot.

Are we making it? Yes we are! We haven't been kicked out of our house yet, we haven't had the utilities turned off yet, the phone gets turned off every other month or so but that isn't vital to our existence although sometimes it feels like it!

No matter how much we cut back we still need cash. We haven't figured out how to live without it! There are utilities, prescriptions, gas for the car that drives my man around looking for jobs, insurance, property tax, etc. So how do we do it?

Farm Girl's Amazon store and Ebay is one way. I have been going through the house and making hard choices about what we REALLY need and what is just fluff. We had a lot of fluff! I am also listing things for friends that don't really have the time or inclination to sit for hours editing photos, researching prices and creating listings. They provide the merchandise, I do the leg work and they pay me a portion of the profits.

Freshly baked bread sells well and is popular with friends and neighbors. I also make jelly, chutney and preserves. I can all summer in preparation for the November craft fair season. I take jellies, fresh baked breads, cookies, fudge, and fresh eggs. All of my items are priced under $5 so I sell a lot of them.

I sell eggs from our chickens too but after buying chicken food we pretty much break even. At least we get our eggs free and they also provide meat and nice compost!

I do a little sewing here and there and I have been asked to teach classes on canning and preserving, gardening, cooking from scratch and other homemaking skills.

We have yard sales every couple months. Anytime someone I know is getting rid of something I ask if they mind if I take it and if it is okay to put it in a yard sale. I would never sell something someone gave me without asking them first and offering them the money I receive from it. Most people just tell me to keep it. I appreciate having more 'stuff' at my yard sales because it draws more crowds. I don't mind selling for other people at my yard sales as long as they have a set price in mind so they aren't disappointed if I go too low.

I keep my eyes open for rare books when I go to yard sales, goodwill or half price books. I try to keep up to date on what books fetch a good price in home school circles and then keep my eyes peeled. I have purchased books for $1 or $2 at goodwill and turned around and sold them online for $40-$50. Doesn't happen often but when it does it's great!

I coupon when I shop but I only use coupons on items that are already on sale for a good price and I try to only use coupons on things we really need and use. A lot of coupons are for convenience foods or junk food. I cook from scratch and try to stay away from junk food. I don't mind making a cobbler or homemade cookies but that is a far cry from Twinkies or florescent colored sugary goo. I have been known to buy a box of pop tarts occasionally and some easy meal starter mix to have on hand for the kids or the man to make if I am not able to.

I used to subscribe to Grocery Game and it was great. I don't subscribe anymore because after several months I got the hang of it. It is more time consuming to do it myself instead of downloading their easy list but doing it myself saves me $20 every 12 weeks. They have a 4 week trial that costs $1 so I would say try it and learn all you can. Before you sign up for the 4 week trial collect as many coupons from the Sunday paper as you can so you have a good collection. When they provide a list with the weekly sale they tell you which coupon to use on that product and the coupon called for may be one from a few weeks before. So it helps to have several weeks worth of coupons BEFORE your 4 week clock starts ticking.

Those are just a few things I do. What do you do to make ends meet?

Check out YouTube for some thrifty videos.

DIY Powdered Laundry Detergent

This is a popular recipe found on several websites.

Powdered Laundry Detergent

2 cupsFels Naptha Soap
1 cup Washing Soda 
1 cup
Borax
* Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.
* Use 2 tablespoons per full load.

I do not like the way Zote or Fels Naptha smell. I mean I really DO NOT like them. Both have a very strong perfume smell that really bothers my sinuses so I use my homemade soap. My soap is just a plain basic bar made with lard and coconut oil. No scent, nothing special. I have also used Kirk's Castile for Hard water with good results. I found it at my local grocery store years ago but haven't seen it in a while. I have read that you can use Ivory or Sunlight bar soap too. I haven't tried them.

I have a high efficiency front loading washer and this detergent works great because it doesn't suds up. I use more than two tablespoons in my wash though. I use closer to 1/4 cup but your results may very. A lot depends on the hardness of your water and the soap you use and how dirty your clothes are!

I get a box of Oxy-clean like stuff at the Dollar Tree and mix that in with my batch of detergent for a little extra oomph. I quadruple my recipe because I figure if I am going to make I might as well make it last! I use the cheese grater attachment for my food processor to grate the soap. It is easier to grate several bars at once and store in a container you can scoop from. I use the #10 cans with lids that you might buy coffee in. I have one for grated soap, one for borax and one for washing soda. Much easier than trying to pour the borax or washing soda out of the boxes. When I quadruple it I use one box of the oxy stuff. I think it is about 2 cups.

I splurge on a big bottle of fabric softener. I didn't used to use fabric softener back when we dried our clothes in the dryer but now that I hang them I do like using the softener. The clothes come our pretty stiff on the line but it is much nicer with a little softener added to rinse. I only use about a tablespoon so the softener lasts for a long time. I have tried using the vinegar rinse instead but for line drying it just comes out too stiff. I don't use softener on whites or towels, I use vinegar. I like my towels kinda stiff, it's like a loofah! I don't use it on the white because they tough the sensitive parts and I am always worried the softener might irritate those parts.

Cost wise I figured out that it cost me about .05 a load even when using the oxy stuff from the dollar store. The HUGE of fabric softener cost $13 and has lasted me 6 months so far and is still half full. I have no idea how many loads I do in 6 months but I would say the cost is pennies a load. I have been using the homemade stuff for over a year now and it works great. I feel that the clothes are clean, they don't seem to be dingy and they seem to be wearing well.

There are recipes for liquid laundry detergent and I used to make it but the powdered is so much easier and I can whip it up in no time at all.

This one's for the ladies!

Ok guys, you have been warned.

Reusable Cloth Menstrual Pads

I'm on this quest to figure out how to do it myself or do without. This one isn't a new one for me. I had a cloth diaper making business about 10 years ago and I made diapers, nursing pads and mama pads. I have used them myself for years. They are easy to make and can be made out of old t-shirts, old flannel shirts, sheets or towels. I would guess that every woman out there could make enough for herself and any other women in the house without having to buy a thing. Ok, you do need a sewing machine. I know they could be made by hand but a machine makes the job quicker and easier.

I will draw the line at posting pictures of my own personal collection here but here is a link with great instructions on how to make your own.

Make Your Own Pads

Here is another How To

Before you say NO WAY just think about it. Add up what you spend on feminine hygiene products and multiply that by how many cycles you have a year. Now multiply that by as many as 30 years! I'm just saying...

Another thought, suppose you become that 1 in 10 on food stamps or your household is counted as one of the unemployed. Imagine your monthly income being cut in half or more. Every penny counts in order to keep the lights on and the roof over your head. Where will you cut costs?

Cherry Berry Jelly

This is a new fave for the kids. After pitting 25lbs or so of cherries I just couldn't bare to throw away all the pits with little bits of cherry still clinging to them. That was a lot of work and it seemed a shame to not make more out of what was left. I simmered the pits for about an hour until most the flesh fell off and I had a pan of dark cherry-ish liquid. I strained out the pits (and still couldn't stand to throw them away!) and poured the liquid through a Norpro Jelly Strainer and Bag I added enough berry juice to make 6 cups then followed the directions on the pectin box for making jelly. It turned out super yummy!



Oh, and the pits were dried well in the dehydrator. I will use some of them for heating pads and let the boys use the rest as sling shot ammunition.

Save those jars!

I have the jar adapter for my foodsaver so I can use mason jars but I am finding that I would rather save the mason/canning jars for actually canning. Those jars add up and are more precious than gold around here! Save your canning jars for canning and use the jars from store bought foods for vacuum sealing.

The sound starts off a little wonky on this video so turn it down if you are using headphones.

If you can't stand the heat....

Yes, I really did take a picture of my thermostat! It's too hot to much else. The kids stand in the other room and blow me hugs because we don't want any heat sources that close to our bodies! My bubba doesn't want me to hug OR kiss him because he said I feel like hot and sticky stuff. Well, I nevah!

I am trying to keep the electric bill at least lower than the national deficit. We keep it off during the day and use it at night so we can sleep better. I just couldn't do it today. I set it to 80 and I still heard it come on several times and the coolest it got in the house was 83.


I know this is South Texas and all but it just seems hotter than usual. Every spring and fall I sing songs about the joy of living in Texas and write poetry about the perfectly beautiful days. Every summer I ask WHY!?!? This summer still seems worse than past summers. Maybe it is because we have only had 3" of rain so far this year. Last year we had so much rain that my chickens thought they were ducks and started quacking! They spent so much time in puddles I feared their feet would become webbed!

This summer has been dry. Everyone keeps saying it isn't as humid this year, and that sounds like a good thing but I think it isn't. Humid means moisture, moisture comes from rain, rain makes things green. Our grass isn't green, it is a nice straw color. I have always said that I wanted to get rid of the grass to make way for a bigger garden but in this heat and drought my garden is barely hanging on.

This really used to be grass. Very green tall grass that my happy hens loved to feast on. Now they dig holes and roll in the dirt. They always make the best of an awful situation! If life gives you dirt, take a dirt bath!

In the spirit of full disclosure (I would hate to be called dramatic or an exaggerator) I will admit that there still are a few small patches of green in my yard. Little oases of life that I feel guilty mowing when most everything else is dying.

This isn't just an excuse to show off my 'mid century' vintage thermostat! I wanted a good reason to show once again how clever I am. I'm not bragging, my mom tells me I am clever all the time. If I'm going to sweat my hiney off trying to save money by not using the AC during the day then why in the world would I add more heat to the house by using the stove or oven? I usually cook 3 times a day that can make the house unbearable. So here is where the clever comes in...

First I tried baking my bread in my big nesco roaster out on the back porch. The pans fit in just right. I set them on metal racks so the bottoms wouldn't burn. Everything came out great.

With the bread made we were able to have sandwiches for lunch instead of having to cook something.

Lunch out of the way, only one meal left. I put the last of our garden potatoes in the nesco and set it baking at 400. I cut up some sausage, poured BBQ sauce over it and topped with our homegrown bell peppers (store bought onions) and set them beside the potatoes. I cooked it all until the spuds were done and the BBQ sauce was sizzling. Came out wonderful. I even made dessert in it. Cinnamon rolls made with the extra bread dough from the bread I made earlier. The desserts rarely survive long enough for me to photograph so I am guessing the gang liked it.

If You Can't Stand the Heat
Get out of the Kitchen!
and onto the back porch

Update: many asked how I do my bread, what kind of pans I use, how long it takes, etc. so here are answers to some of those questions:

I use Norpro 8 Inch Nonstick Bread Pan bread pans that measure 8"x4"x3" deep. They can also be purchased at Urban Homemaker.

I use agave as my sweetener so when I bake my bread I use a lower temperature than you would if you used regular sugar. I bake my bread between 325 and 350 for 45 min. If using regular sugar the recipe calls for cooking it at 375. Some days it seems to cook quicker than others. It probably has to do with how much dough I put in each pan. My recipe actually fills 5 of the norpro pans but only 4 fit in the roaster. I put 4 loaves in for regular bread and the fifth dough ball gets turned into cinnamon bread which I also cook in the roaster after the first batch of bread is done.

I use a metal cooling rack on the bottom of my roaster to set my baking pans on. That keeps them from burning. I take the lid off to check if it is done otherwise I leave the lid on.

I have made cobbler, cinnamon rolls, casseroles, bacon and even toast in my roaster. I try and do all my cooking outside because I don't like to heat the house.

Oh Cherries!

Cherries! Oh how I love thee,
plump and juicy, still clinging to a pip
with a perfect little green stem for holding
slightly warmed by the sun
sweet nectar
Cherries!

Okay, so poetry about food isn't really my gift! Making poetry with food is more like it. I was tickled...cherry red to take advantage of the super cherry sales this last week. I bought about 25lb of cherries. I ate about 10lbs while pitting (do the british call it pipping?) the rest. FYI don't eat 10lbs of cherries while pipping/pitting the rest unless you plan to stay real close to home the following day!

I canned cherries in white grape juice to use in cooking. I made Black Forest jam which is cherries in a chocolate amaretto sauce (see photo above) I dehydrated cherries and I ate cherries. I even saved all the pips, boiled them clean of any remaining flesh and dried them to use in a Pip Pillow that can be heated in the microwave.

I know George Washington did not chopped down a cherry tree, who would do such a thing?

When life gives you ugly oranges make marmalade!

I'm always on the look out for a way to save money and make the most out of everything. I have been keeping my eye out for people that have more produce than they can handle. I found someone on craiglist that said they had an orange tree with sour oranges and we could have all that we could pick. I didn't think about it being June and many months past orange harvesting time! I drove out to the island with Farm Boy and we picked oranges. Lots and lots of oranges.
They looked pretty bad but they smelled good. I had such plans for all these free oranges. I would dehydrate, can, candy, juice and craft with them. What I ended up doing is making marmalade. The skins were too ugly to mess with dehydrating. The inside was dry, pithy and the seeds had started to sprout from the inside of the orange.

Most of the oranges were not usable. I juiced what I could and then used some organic oranges I purchased for the zest and peel in my marmalade. I put the juice and the thinly sliced organic oranges (seeds removed) in a stock pot with about 1 quart of water and set it to simmer.



The seeds went into a small saucepan with a cup of water and boiled them for 5 minutes to extract the pectin from the seeds. The seeds were strained and the liquid was added to the big pot to simmer. I let it simmer for a good while. An hour or more. Until the peels were very soft. Once the peels were soft I lined a colander with muslin and strained all the liquid from the oranges. I picked out the pretties peels and was able to easily slice off just the zest. It was much easier than the way I have done it in the past. I set the zest aside. I measured the liquid and then added 1 cup of sugar for each cup of juice I had plus a cup of water and brought it all to a boil. I boiled it and stirred constantly until the mixture jelled when dropped on a cold plate. I would say it took about 15 minutes.















I added the zest to the boiling mixture and turned off the heat. I then poured it into prepared jars and then processed it in a BWB for 15 minutes.

In the past I treated my citrus peels by trying to scrape as much of the white off as possible then boiling in a small amount of water with a pinch of baking soda and changing the water at least once. I think this is to get rid of the bitter flavor that some citrus peels have. Lime is especially bitter. I found that I didn't have to do that with this recipe. If I were using lime I would definitely do that.

I ended up with 7 cups of juice and it made 10 half pints of marmalade. It is very good if I do say so myself! We have already gone through two jars. It is wonderful on fresh biscuits or bread right out of the oven. I am sure it would make a wonderful glaze for pork, chicken or salmon.

Re-purposed Roast Beef

In case you haven't heard, times are tough! Everything costs more and but most of us aren't getting paid more. Some of us are getting paid less and many are no longer being paid! I don't know about you but around here it is becoming even more important to reduce, reuse, recycle.

I recently heard someone say 're-purpose' and I thought that sounded better than leftovers. It still catches the kids off guard so they don't moan at the thought of leftovers. Leftover seems to conjure up feelings of dread at being served last weeks over cooked meatloaf and soggy veggies even though we loves meatloaf and I don't make soggy veggies! So after having a pressure cooked pot roast that came out delicious Tuesday I needed a way to use the remaining beef for Wednesday's dinner. I have a family of 6 and only about 2 cups of chopped roast beef. I needed away to turn that into a filling meal for all of us. So I Googled leftover roast beef.

Leftover Roast Beef Casserole Recipe

When you make your roast, save about 1/2 cup of Au Jus for this casserole.

by Chef Carole in South Florida

40 min | 10 min prep

SERVES 4

• 2 cups leftover roast beef, cubed
• 1/2 cup au jus sauce
• 1 (10 1/2 ounce) can cream of broccoli soup
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1. In a sprayed or buttered casserole dish mix the roast beef, au jus, soup, cooked rice, 1/2 cup of shredded cheese and milk.
2. melt the butter. Add the bread crumbs to the butter and mix together.
3. Spoon the topping over the roast beef mixture and add 1/2 cup of cheese over the topping.
4. Bake in 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

As anyone that knows me knows, I don't follow recipes. I use them as a suggestion, inspiration if you will. So I am including my adjustments to this recipe. Normally I don't use canned soups because they are full of all kinds of scary things I can't pronounce. We try to abide by the 5 ingredients or less on the label rules but desperate times all for desperate measures! I keep a few cans on the shelf for desperate times. Our desperate time was trying to get everyone fed and to church on time!

I used a can of cheddar cheese soup and 2c of frozen chopped broccoli. I didn't have seasoned bread crumbs so I used panko and added some Tony Chachere's seasoning to the butter when I browned the panko. I used two cups of cooked rice to stretch the meal. We had plenty and it turned out very good. Even Bubba, my picky little dude had two servings.

I will add this one to the recipe binder and next time try to make my own cream of broccoli soup with 5 ingredients or less!

Bread Day

Once a week I make lots of bread. I started out making it just for our family and I would take an extra loaf to a friend now and then. Soon I had friends showing up on my doorstep on bread day asking if maybe I had an extra loaf to spare. Soon I had a small following of bread junkies that show up with money in hand hoping to snatch up any extra loaves I have. I enjoy baking and I like that people like my bread and a little extra money for the fun jar is kinda nice too!

I make a whole wheat bread and often add goodies to it depending on my mood. I have started trying to make a good sour sourdough and while I have the sour part down but my dough always turns into a big blob when I bake it. Tasty but not pretty!

I bought my bread pans from The Urban Homemaker. I love these pans.

Easy Potato Chowder

I love coming up with easy, cheap, hearty meals for my family. Lately I have been able to buy 20lbs of potatoes for about $5. They are usually $5.49 for a 5lb bag at my local grocery store but the small health food store has had them on special. I have been experimenting with potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

I started with about 6 slices of bacon chopped and cooked in my dutch oven. I used one potato per person (6 potatoes). Peeled and chopped an tossed in with the sizzling bacon. I also chopped half a large onion and minced some garlic. Saute all of it until the potatoes start to brown and the onion starts to soften.

I like to add a boost of nutrition whenever I can. I have baggies of steamed, pureed and frozen fruits and veggies so that I can easily add it to any meal. In this recipe I added pureed sweet potato and some dehydrated celery. I also used on jar of chicken broth. I added all of that to the potatoes and onions and then covered and turned the heat to low and let it simmer until the potatoes were cooked.

After the potatoes were cooked through I slowly stirred in 2 cups of milk. The milk I used was mixed from powdered milk but fresh or canned milk works just as well.

After the milk has been added and heated you can mash it a little to get a thicker soup. We like a creamy soup with some potato chunks. At this point you can season it to taste. Salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash and whatever else sounds tasty.









After the soup is done serve it with a crusty piece of bread and sprinkle the soup with Parmesan or any good cheese. Our total cost for this soup which served 6 hungry people (two of them teenage boys!) cost less than $2 for the entire pot!

Dinner on a Dime...or 5 dimes!

I have been on a mission to see just how low I can go with my grocery budget. I have been working on creating meals that cost under $5 for all six of us. I have browsed the internet reading about depression era cooking and budget cooking.

You tube has a few clips from a lady named Clara. This is my version of her Poor Man's Meal. Here is my Bubba showing his appreciation for my culinary expertise! I am estimating that this meal cost about $2.50 for 6 big servings. That is under .50 per person. I added a handful of fresh green beans to my version and about 1/4 cup of italian dressing.

Here is Clara's version: