Baking or Buying

I recently sat down and wrote out a very strict budget and decided I would stick to it even if it killed me. Since I am writing this you know it hasn't as of yet. I budgeted $120 a week for groceries for 4 adults. This amount includes breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks. We may eat out once a week. I basically had spent my $120 for the week and I still needed a few more items. We needed bread, hamburger buns,tortillas and pizza dough. All these things take a lot of the same ingredients just different amounts. All ingredients I already had like flour, sugar, oil, yeast, salt and baking powder. I figured had I bought all these things from the bakery at out local grocery it would have been at least $20. Making them was proababy under $5 plus I did have all the ingredients already. It would have been easier to buy these items. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen kneading, rolling, mixing and baking. Not to mention all the cleaning but I saved $15. That's a total of $780 a year. Think about all the mixes and premade things that we buy. What if every time we decided to make something from scratch we put the savings in a jar. I think you would be surprised about how much that would total in a year. I think you would be happy with how much better it tasted too. This week we will be having chicken pot pies and quiche. I have my dough made and ready to go. I will probably save another $15 before I go back to the store later this week. Maybe I can get my grocery bill down even lower. Pie Crust 2 cups all purpose flour 6 Tablespoons butter, lard or coconut oil 2 teaspoons sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar 1 small egg or 1/2 if you by large eggs I have chickens and get all sizes depending on their moods) 1/4 ice cold water I put all my ingredients into the food processor except then water. I just pulse until it starts looking crumbly. Then I turn on the processor and slowly add the ice water until it forms a ball. This may not make sense but I promise it will when you try it. The dough will be sticky but it looses that when you chill it for at least 20 minutes. You may not use all the water and thats okay too. You can store dough in your fridge for 2-3 days or freeze for 3 months. This should make two 9 inch crusts.

Saturday Adventures

Through the week our normal wake up time is 6am. Which I really don't mind. It's the getting everyone our the door part that I wish could be delay. But most Saturdays no one has to be anywhere too early and we can wake up without an alarm, sip tea or coffee for the hubby and just relax. The hubby and I usually visit some sort of feed store, seed store, hardware store or make a run to a local mill where we like to buy our flour and wheat berries. I was feeling a bit ambitious this Saturday and we purchased 25 pounds of unbleached white flour, so be expecting lots of baking photos from this girl. We also pulled all our garlic up. I am so excited about growing garlic. In the fall of 2015 I purchased siberian garlic from our local farmers market. I planted 17 little cloves and all of them grew and produced lovely garlic bulbs. We saved 34 cloves and planted them in the fall of 2016 and I am happy to report that all 34 of the siberian garlic produced bulbs. We tried a few other varieties but they didn't do as well. I think we will stick with what we started with. I am undecided on which is best having my own garlic or making garlic scape pesto. With more garlic this year came more scapes and I was able to make and freeze 7 1/2 cups of pesto. I froze it in 1/2 portions to eat on pasta, meat, add in soups or stews and on fresh baked bread or crackers.

If you would like to give garlic growing a try its pretty simple. In the fall buy some organic garlic. Plant it at the end of October. Cover with leaves and just do nothing. I do water mine when I start planting other vegetables outside in the spring. You can take the leaves off if you want. Don't be worried when it starts growing in the winter if you have a few warm days. It will be fine. The leaves on the garlic look like big flat grass and they get pretty tall but then around May you will notice that there is a round grass thing growing out and that is the scape. Once the scrape curls around in a circle its time to cut it off and make pesto. You keep your garlic in the ground until the leaves start yellowing, This may all sound weird but I promise it all makes sense once you see it in action.

Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe Ingredients 1 pound garlic scapes, cut into 2-inch pieces 1 1/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese 1/2 cup sunflower seeds (you can use pine nuts or any nuts you like) 1 cup olive oil 1 tablespoon lemon juice salt and ground black pepper to taste Directions Blend the garlic scapes, sunflower seeds, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, and pepper together in a food processor until smooth. I thought I would also try to make my own saltine crackers today as well. I was super pleased with the first time batch.

Homemade Saltines 1 cup flour 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 2 Tablespoons shortening 1/3 cup milk Mix together, form into ball, roll out thin, cut out into squares, poke holes so it doesnt bubble while baking. Bake at 375 degress 6-8 minutes. I rolled mine out to about the thickness of a tortilla. I will probably try to roll mine through the pasta machine next time for a more even thickness. You really have to watch them on the oven once they start browning it goes fast. So dont start looking around Pinterest of your crackers will burn. True Story.

Good Evenings

Yesterday I decided to take advantage of the cooler weather we were having and canned 12 pints of ground beef. One of the reasons was each pint will serve three people and the cost is about 2.15 per pint. It also makes for very fast meal prep later. I am really hoping for another cool spell so I can process the 20lbs of skinless boneless chicken breast I got for $1.41lb. Anyway I was a busy bee from 6am until around 8;30pm which is when I hopped in the shower and was in bed at 9pm. I was out like a light.

Today my schedule was a bit different. I left the house at 9am and did not get back home until 2pm. We had a few appointments and I think I would have rather been canning than sitting all day. I needed something quick and easy for dinner since I would be leaving the house at 5;15 with my daughter.

1 pound grilled chicken breast
1 pound pasta your choice
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup peas
2 tablespoons butter
parmesan cheese for the top

Cook chicken, boil pasta about 5 minutes before pasta is suppose to be done add peas and carrots. Drain toss with butter or oil. Put in plates and top with chicken and cheese. This takes less than 30 minutes and with the veggies coming from my garden and they chicken on sale it was about $4 for four people.

I was back home from my evening adventures around 7pm. That gave me time to make lemonade slushies and relax with my bees. I love evenings that end like that.

Garden Therapy

This morning I am sitting out in my garden sipping tea and enjoying the birds squabbling over the feeders, the cat trying to catch the birds at the feeders and the dogs trying to catch the cat whose trying to catch the birds who are fighting at the feeders. I can not wait to see what happens when the squirrels show up. Nature can be very relaxing.

Just sitting outside in my garden where I have planted all my veggies, watered them. weeded them and watch them grow brings me peace. Gardening might not do that for you but everyone needs to find at least one thing that brings them joy and do it regularly. Something other than binge watching Netflix, pinning more things on Pinterest than you have time to do and even scrolling through Facebook posts reading about everyone's either perfect life or how terrible their life is. Sorry for the rant.

After a hectic morning I went out into the garden. My peas are almost done for the season so I picked most of them. If you didn't know peas like cooler temps so they do best in the spring and fall. I do plan on trying to trick a small patch in the shade this summer though. I also had a small beet almost on top up of the ground, a few potato plants that had turned yellow which means they were done, I use some type of onion just about every day so I grabbed one of those, snagged some carrots and the radishes had been dug up by some squirrels so I salvaged what few were big enough to eat. Here is my bounty.

This weekend we will dig up the garlic that we planted last October, I may finish planting my green beans. I planted 85 and every day count the ones that have come up, I have about 65 so I need to fill in the gaps with more seed and plant another 85.

Just like everything else in life gardening is a learning experience. You learn what works and what doesn't by trial and error. I have read so many gardening books its not funny. All the knowledge in the world does not help you without the experience. Our first crop of radishes this year did amazing, I even canned two pints already. the second crop we got three. When I plant the new ones this weekend we will squirrel proof them just like we will be doing with the tomatoes. Whatever you do to find that inner peace don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. Don't be afraid to fail and never stop learning from your mistakes.

Happy Accidents

I love happy accidents. Usually my accidents don't have happy endings. Once I tried a new cake recipe and it called for more salt then I thought it should. It came out perfect until you took a bite. Who knew that people lie on the internet? It even had good reviews.

Did you know that a ninth century Chinese alchemist was trying to make an elixir for eternal life but found out when you mix salt peter, sulfur and charcoal you don't get immortality, you get gunpowder?

Recently my hubby and son went to a car race. They came home with fun memories and a terrible sunburn. I looked online and made them some sunburn spray. It also worked as an anti itch spray for bug bites. I asked them if it helped their sunburns and they said they guess they weren't sure. I love these guys but sometimes they drive me crazy. One evening I had been out in the garden and got a few mosquito bites. After taking a shower I decided to use the spray on my arms and legs. I few minutes later I had cold chills. It definitely had a cooling sensation.  I have used the spray a few times for mild hot flashes. I am so glad that my mixing things did not end with anyone blowing up.

Cooling Spray

8 drops peppermint oil
8 drops lavender oil
4 ounces witch hazel

Shake well with each use. Can be used on sunburn, bug bites or to just cool off.

Going Paperless

For well over a year I have thought about ditching paper towels. I have saved several ideas on Pinterest and there they have sat with all my other good intentions like blogging regularly. I was pretty sneaky in how I went about it with my family. It started with me running out of paper towel. Whenever they asked where they were I would tell them that I hadnt bought any and to just use and old worn out towel for puppy accidents, the bar towels for kitchen messes, cloth napkins for dinner and the blue shop towels for outdoor things. All these things can be washed and reused. After about a month I think they caught on I was not going to buy them anymore.

My family is actually use to this kind of thing. Their tree hugging environmental, keyword mental, wife and momma has done this with lots of things.

We are never buying store bought eggs again so we got chickens

We should save the bees. My hubby said we are never getting bees. He is now a beekeeper and loves it.

We should try to grow more of our own food. So we garden and it gets bigger every year.

My husband suggested we get meat rabbits. We are on our way to having two meals a week with our own rabbits this year.

We try to use less over the counter medications. Those of us who are on doctor prescribed medication take it. We just try essential oil, herbal and more natural remedies first before popping something over the counter. Yes we still have otc medications in our home we have just cut down on using them by a lot.

We wanted to learn to can our own food and  to compost. We took classes at our local extension office.

Stop waiting for the perfect time to achieve things that you want to do. Just take a few little steps to make those dreams a reality. You are going to have setbacks and failures. Learn from them but never stop moving forward.

To make my paperless towels I used flour sack towels and cut them into fourths, I then bought marked down flannel and cut it the exact size as my flour sacks and sewed them together.