Easier Than I Thought

So I am slowly ridding our diets of processed foods, it is tougher than I thought it would be but I am giving it my best shot. I have heard of people making their own home made sausage and I thought no way am I even going to attempt that, it cheaper to buy my sausage. Ok so I get intimidated easily with the prospect of making stuff from scratch. Although, once I make it the first time I am usually good to go and will make it from scratch again and again. I was in the grocery store grabbing a pack of chicken and I saw they had two packs of ground pork marked down it was 1.74 per pack, which I might add is less than a pound of sausage and these packs were just over a pound. I showed them to hubby and he agreed since they were that cheap we could try our hand a making sausage. So in the buggy they went.

Last night I dug a pack out added a teaspoon of sage, a teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of pepper and 1/4 teaspoon of garlic, browned it and then made gravy. Hubby never eats more than two biscuits but last night he had three and I make BIG biscuits.

The homemade sausage got the thumbs up from hubby so now I guess I need to purchase a meat grinder. I will stock up on pork loins when they are on sale and grind a few up and make sausage.

YES! One more processed food item out of the house.

I refuse to go grocery shopping again

Today was the straw that broke the camel's back. I refuse to go grocery shopping again. Ok so I will have to go but I won't like it. I am going to really scrimp and save this next month so I can go and do a year's shopping at one time (at least for basics.) I almost fell out - $1.25 for WalMart brand cream of chicken soup. I usually make it from scratch but I do like have a few cans on hand just in case. However, that $1.24 can stayed on the shelf. When we lived in North Carolina I used to shop Aldi and I would buy a case maybe once a year. The nearest Aldi to me now is Ok City and that is over three hours away. I so have to get my larder stocked back up. Between helping two of the boys with their pantries when they got married and a move half way across the country my larder is bare. This is really depressing.

What is even more depressing is the recipes I have looked to make from scratch like lemon poppy seed bread, all the ones I have found calls for a box of cake mix. When did we start classifying store bought cake mix as making something from scratch? I am so not vogue when it comes to cooking. LOL Yep I am just a little ol' earth muffin that is out of sync with the "in crowd" Oh well at least I know what is going in my lemon poppy seed bread and my blueberry muffins and I won't have to google the ingredients to see if they are really edible.

Ok off my soap box. I am slowly in getting my feet back under me since I started back to work. Today I am making blueberry muffins, lemon poppy seed muffins, banana bread, zuchinni bread, peach cobble, mushroom quiche, asparagus quiche, mac & cheese and its all going in the freezer for the next two weeks so that I wont have to rush home from work and panic because I have no clue what is for dinner. Or when I sleep through the alarm in the mornings I can still send hubby out the door with some type of breakfast that is way better for him than Little Debbie's chocolate covered doughnuts that he would stop and get on his way to work.

LDS Starter Kit

On one the preparedness forums I am on we were discussing the LDS starter kit.
http://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category3_715839595_10557_21158_-1_N_image_0


You get 6 #10 cans of staples for $31 (plus tax if app - free shipping it broke down to 5.17 a can)

The cans were as follows:

1 hard red wheat - 5.5lbs (case of 6#10 cans $28 or 4.66 a can )
1 hard white wheat 5.5lbs (case of 6 #10 cans $30 or $5 a can)
1 pinto beans 5.2lbs (case of 6 #10 cans $40.75 or 6.79 a can)
1 quick oats 2.4lbs (case of 6 #10 cans $21.25 or 3.54 a can)
1 white flour 4.0 lbs (case of 6 #10 cans $32.00 or 5.33 a can)
1 white rice 5.4 lbs (case of 6 #10 cans $30.75 or 5.13 a can)

Hubby and I were discussing the cost tonight and have decided that it would be cheaper for us to order the 6 cans of wheat for $28 than ordering from else where. I dont' have to pay shipping. The only draw back is these are the only items you can order on line if you want to take advantage of the low prices you have to go into the canneries but the closest one is 4-5 hours away. It would have to be an overnight trip for us especially if we went there and used their facilities to can our purchaes. We are not LDS but I think I am going to order a few cases from them. It took just over a week for the order to be processed and received. It was shipped via FedEx.

Just the quick oats alone are $47.09 at Honeyville and $6.50 for a 38oz can at EE ($39 for 6 #10 cans). A superpail at EE is cheaper but to my understanding you have to order so many superpails at a time. In addition there will be shipping charges.

Just thought I would share.

What a Deal on Roma Tomatoes

This past week I caught Roma tomatoes on sale for 57 cents a pound. I bought 5 pounds so that I could make salsa and try my hand at homemade tomato paste. Note to self: wear rubber gloves next time. I forgot that if I handle a lot of tomatoes the acid will make my hands raw. It didn’t take long before I remember but by then it was too late. One or two tomatoes are ok but after the first pound I knew I was in trouble.

I remembered my mom peeling tomatoes by putting them in boiling water so I search the internet found how to do this and I was surprised I remembered correctly. You first score the skin with a knife. I used a regular table knife. You just want to pierce the skin you do not want to cut in to the meat of the tomato. Then you put them in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Once the skin starts to wrinkle lift them out with a slotted spoon and put them in ice water. The skin then just slides right off.

 Score just the skin. Remember you just want to pierce the skin.

 Next place them in boiling water.

 When the skin starts to wrinkle left them out and place them in ice water. Ok so I used my freezer stick to chill the water. Our ice maker is not hooked up right now because the pipe has a to be replaced and some one whom shall remain nameless did not refill the ice trays when he emptied them. Instead they were set to the side where I did not see them. But these worked really well. I actually think the water was colder with these than regular ice.

 The shock going from boiling water to the ice water causes the skins slide right off. And you have beautifully peeled tomatoes.

Next I deseeded them and cut them in to chunks. I used my mini food chopper and pureed them. Note to self: Next time pull out the big food process (slaps forehead). Once they were pureed I put them in a pan and cooked them. 

 

 And cooked them and

  cooked them some more.

Ok so I was using low heat and it took nearly 4 hours to cook them down in to a paste. I probably could have used a higher heat but since this was my first time and I have a gas stove I just stuck with the low heat.  I did read where others put the puree on a cookie sheet or in a pizza pan and baked it in their oven on low heat. I may try that next time.

 

While the paste was cooking down I made salsa. These were huge Roma tomatoes. They were nearly as big as a baseball. I usually use 5 tomatoes for salsa and get a quart; however, this time 5 gave me about 3 pints. Don’t worry it won’t got to waste. Hubby ate about a pint yesterday. He is addicted to chips and salsa. 

I did come to the conclusion that making you homemade tomato paste is really not cost efficient unless you grow your own tomatoes. Out of 4 pounds of tomatoes I probably got a little over a cup of paste.

I can catch organic tomato paste on sale for less than it cost to make my own tomato paste. While I am thrilled to know I can successfully make my own paste I don’t think I will stop buying it. I will just tuck this knowledge away and be content to know that I can do it.

Fake Meat???

On one of the forums I frequent there is a thread about meatless sausage and I got the bright idea to try making chicken nuggets; you know I am always looking for lunch box ideas. Well I would not say it was a smashing success or an epic failure but it did give me some other ideas. This is the video I watched and made up my own recipe.

I used:

1 cup oatmeal

2 eggs

1 teaspoon crushed Rosemary

1 tablespoon of poultry seasoning (This needs to be reduced to 2 teaspoons and may be use 2 teaspoons of powdered bullion. The poultry seasoning was overpowering.)

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon seasoning salt

½ teaspoon parsley.

Mix all of this together in a bowl. I let mine set for a few minutes and then I rolled it into a log and cut it into cubes so it would be about the size of a chicken nugget.

I then cooked it in olive oil and added 2 cups of broth. Bought it to a boil and then reduced the heat and let simmer 20 minutes. Drained the remaining broth and browned the nuggets.

In all honesty it wasn’t bad the texture was what got me. I felt like I was eating a hamburger or meat loaf. I can see how this would make a great sausage.  But as far as chicken nuggets nope it doesn’t get it for me.

Appearance on a scale of 1-10: I would have to say for a chicken nugget it would get a 3. If I was doing a hamburger or meat loaf that would easily be a 7 or 8.

Taste on a scale of 1-10: Again I would have to say 3-4 as for a nugget, but again hamburger or meat loaf that would easily be an 8 or 9

Texture on a scale of 1-10: Well you know what I am going to say in comparison to chicken it is an epic failure but again ground beef or pork and I would rate it as an 8 or 9.

I intend to keep working on this and tweaking it. This has just become a staple in my house. I plan on have fake meat nights once a week and I will serve this.

Next test will be sausage and the test subject will be hubby. I plan on making sausage and gravy and taters for dinner Monday night and I will use this recipe for the sausage. So watch for the next update.

What is in Your Medicine Bucket

So I was cleaning out the bathroom cabinet and gathering up bottles of pain relievers and returning them to the medicine bucket, I don't know about your house but in my house stuff sprouts legs and tend to play hiding and seek, so I was returning to stuff to its rightful place and noticed empty bottles. Yes I save the empty small bottles because I buy large bottles and refill the little bottles. What I didn't realize was the big bottles were empty. *SIGH* So I started going through the medicine bucket and was surprised to see what we were out of, my list is getting longer.

I encourage each of you to go through your OTC drugs and make sure your bottles are not empty and you have everything you will need for cold and flu season.

Now would also be a good time to create that emergency grab and go first aid kit too. Check out A Bowl full of Lemons she has some awesome ideals http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/2012/12/emergency-preparedness-week-3-first-aid-kit.html

Composting Toilets

I know this is not the post that I promised but I will get it up soon. The last loaf of sourdough bread didn’t last long enough for me to take pictures. It came out of the oven just as the menfolk walked in the door from a long day at work and it was devoured before pictures could be made.

So today I am asking for opinions. As you know we have recently moved and we are looking to buy land and build our dream house. We want this house to be earthly friend and pocket book friendly. I found a link to building a house using old plastic bottles. Looks awesome and I am sure I can collect enough 2 liter bottles in the next year to build a house. http://inspirationgreen.com/plastic-bottle-homes.html

We are planning a water collection system, as well as a grey water system. We are thinking we would use a composting toilet so avoid the cost of a septic system. We have been doing research on composting toilets and are not completely sold on them. We prefer to buy the system instead of building it ourselves and that is where we are not sold on them. A decent system is going to run us about $3,000. The pros out-weigh the cons right now. So far the cost is the major con the pros; however, have a strong lead. We live in a water “challenged” area…ok drought stricken area and we really want to do our part in conversing water. We have an idea for a grey water system that will allow us to use the grey water to water the garden and fruit and nut trees we plan on planting. We also plan on collecting rain water to water the garden. 

Do you use or have you used a composting toilet? If so what are your thoughts on them? Are they worth the investment? Are they hard to maintain? What are your pros and cons when it comes to composting toilets?

The Hazards of a Cross Country Move...

Unless this is your first time visiting Muffie’s place you know that we have just recently moved half way across the country. We have moved from the East coast to the Mid-West which breaks down to crossing four states and driving 1300+miles. It took three days to make the trip. Most of our family and friends don’t understand why we did it. Explaining it doesn’t make sense to them but to us on paper as in the new check stubs it makes a lot of sense. My husband is finally making enough to support us; whereas, before he was barely making just over minimum wage. So in our eyes the move was worth it even though it meant leaving two of our adult children behind but as I have to keep reminding myself they have their own lives. One is married and one is engaged. One is working and going to school the other one works for a well-known large software company.  Maybe one day they will move closer to us only the good Lord knows for sure. Until then momma will make the trip to see her babies.

Now with that said let me tell you about what it took to move. I had a three month’s supply of food; however, not all of it made the move. The freezer food went to the boys that stayed behind as well as a lot of the canned and boxed food. I brought only a few weeks’ worth of food with us. So now I am fighting down the panic feel each time I open the cabinets. My security blanket is not there. I probably have enough now to stretch for 30 days but that would mean a lot of dry beans and cornbread. And I do mean a lot of beans and cornbread. Now that the move is pretty much over, there are a few boxes left to deal with but I would say we are 99% settled; I have begun to look at rebuilding our food storage.  Before I only bought dry beans, canned goods and frozen foods.  This time I want to change it up. We left the old freezer behind so I only have the freezer in the refrigerator. I have one of the French door refrigerators with the freezer on the bottom. I love the bottom freezer; however, with the wire baskets I don’t think it holds as much or I haven’t figured out how to pack it yet; probably the later. I wanted to look at purchasing dehydrated food instead of a lot of canned and frozen food. I am sad to say I cannot justify spending that much money.  That means back to the drawing board…

Back to the drawing board? Well more like back to the internet and YouTube. I have found several how to videos on drying your own food. This is just one of them (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF1KGmT1TF8&playnext=1&list=PL40B78170773423AE&feature=results_main) all of them used store bought frozen vegetables to dehydrate. So with that in mind I am going to try my hand at dehydrating frozen vegetables. Why you ask? Well I am a big fan of Chef Tess (http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/) and I want to do her meals in a jar. Even though I am a stay at home wife there are days that I just can’t bring myself to cook. So I want some “I don’t feel like cooking meals” or “mom is sick and we are on our own meals.”  Since the only safe way to home preserve meat is to can or freeze it I will need to purchase commercially processed dehydrated or freeze dried meat. 

Also I have found a Weekly Food Storage Plan that someone made up for Y2K. It was a weekly buying plan based on spending $20 a week. Looking at it is now more like $35 week but there are some things my family just won’t eat that are on the list. Like canned spinach, we love spinach…raw and in salads but getting my guys to eat cooked spinach well I had rather face a charging bull head on that deal with serving cooked spinach. So I am making my own list of food that we do eat and I will be posting it here each week with the price and where I bought it. My goal in all of this is to get my food storage to the point that I only have shop sales and do major grocery shopping once a month.

But first things first the month of December I am stocking up on food items such as nuts, baking supplies like chocolate chips, cocoa, powdered sugar, brown sugar, canned milk, and pie fillings; you know the things that they have on sale this time of year. This year I found something really neat, cinnamon chips, I have never seen them before but my local Wal-Mart has them in the center isle with their holiday baking items.

Do you have a food storage system? If so what does your system consist of…frozen foods, canned goods, dehydrated and freeze dried foods? Do you have all your eggs in one basket? I would love to hear how your food storage system is working for you.

The Turkey is Canned...next project

The turkey is canned. I got 4 quarts well more like 3 1/2 quarts of meat and one quart of broth. I still have a turkey in the refrigerator to deal with. I will cook it tomorrow or Saturday. I couldn't pass up 57 cents a pound. I am hoping to find at great deal on hams near Christmas. I would like to get two or three and slice them up for sandwiches. Hubby works out in the field and does not have access to a microwave for lunch so I have to get creative with his lunches. Right now I am on the hunt for a Stanley thermos with the wide mouth so I can send soups with him.

We were in the store last night picking up snacks for lunches and ran across pork lions for 1.98 a pound. We picked up one and I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it there wasn't much to trim. So I feel as if I got my money's worth. It is in the crock pot now with Connie's famous 54321 sauce. Connie was my supervisor when I lived and worked in New Orleans. She was born in mainland China and she was a hoot to work with. Here is her sauce recipe, I have used this on beef, pork, chicken and Cornish hens. Oh and shrimp, we marinated shrimp in this and then grilled it...oh my stars it was delish...

5 parts soy sauce
4 parts water
3 parts sugar
2 part vinegar
1 part red wine.

Depending on what you are cooking and how much sauce you want is how big of parts you will use. For the pork roast I used an 1/8 of a cup so I had 5/8 soy sauce, 4/8 water, 3/8 sugar, 2/8 vinegar and 1/8 red wine. The guys will use the sauce over their rice. Actually they will eat rice with just the sauce. When I say they love this sauce I mean they really LOVE this sauce. Hubby wants me to figure out how to can it so all he has to do is cook rice and open a jar and dump the sauce on it.
 
Update on a previous post. My knitting looms are gems. I can't say enough how much I love them. I have completed over half of my Christmas list. I just need to get more yarn. I plan on making my mother a wrap for Christmas. Don't worry I didn't spoil the surprise she does not have a computer and does not get on the internet nor does she know about this blog. My mom is homebound and an amputee. She gets around in a wheelchair so I am hoping to make the wrap big enough she can use it around her shoulders when she is in bed and throw over her lap when she is in her chair. I wish I had found these looms years ago. Once these projects are complete I am going to break out the large loom and see what else I can make. 

Turkey Day

I can’t stand it anymore and it is taking up too much room in the refrigerator so it today is Do Something with the Turkey day. I have cut up what remains of the Thanksgiving bird and put it in a large stock pot so the meat can be cooked off the bones. I plan on canning it later today so wish me luck. Today is the first day that I try my hand at canning over 200 above sea level. Hey don’t judge me, I have not lived above 800 feet before and have never canned above 200 feet so today will be something new for me. I figured if it fails at least the jars won’t take up as much room in the refrigerator and I can always dump them in freezer bags and freeze them. I have to get in practice because I plan on having a garden this summer and canning or drying everything I grow that we don’t eat fresh.

So what are you planning on doing with the remains of your Thanksgiving bird or do you have any remains?