I visit this site quite a bit. It is a site for frugal meals, emergency planning for meals for lay-offs, or when things get tight. It has a few ads but it is a nice site to get some ideas from. It is http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/
I will be getting back to my blog in a few days. I am feeling a bit under the weather with quite a bit of pain in my spine and hip, so I will be thinking of some blogging tips to add in a few days when I feel a little better.
Everyone have a great rest of Labor Day off, and get ready to hit the salt mines again tomorrow.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
catching up
Well, I am trying to play catch-up. I will be freezing my peaches my neighbor gave me. I made beef patties and froze those this morning. Some of my barter beef that I barter for.
It seems from the blogs I read or follow, the weather is into play this year. My garden didn't do too well, but I am getting produce, but it is slow and somewhat strange in its growing pattern. My theory is a combo of the gulf spill dispersant's, and chemicals and the Icelandic volcano. I am not a scientist, but I am old enough and have some brains to tell me that the weather is changed and it is maybe not for the good. I also think that a possible shift in the Earth's orbit from some of these earthquakes may have shifted things around some. This morning it was 48*, which is great, but I recall last year, we had 2 30" blizzards in October and quite a bit of snow to total over 70+ inches last year alone.
From my last posted blog, I was going to touch on the stocking of the pantry for winter. I keep a full stock pantry most of the time, and I keep a tally in the pantry to replenish what I have used. I look at the sales flyer's that come out, to re-stock major things like broth, which I do keep on hand as I use it quite a bit for flavor and cooking. I like to make my own broth, and really a vegetable broth is very quick to make, and makes a nice finale to dinner. But a beef or chicken broth takes a little more, and when you plan meals, especially when cooking any meat, plan on a little extra from the pan to freeze and add to your stash of broth in the freezer.
When you stock your pantry, this is a very personal and taste driven endeavor, as it depends on what you or your family eat. I keep broths, herb salts, herb mixes that I make, rice, pasta, soup bases, tomato sauces, both home canned, and tomato paste when I run short. I keep my potatoes and carrots and cabbage for a while in the frig ( I have 2 frigs) , and then as it cools down really good at night, usually later this month, I use a ice chest with a few holes drilled into the top and sides, as a makeshift cellar. That is one thing I miss from my grandmother's day, a root cellar and vegetable storage cellar.
I eat pretty simple, potatoes, carrots, and I try to eat with the seasons, as I cannot afford too much salad from the store, and I do grow my greens if the weather holds, in cold frames, if we don't have any snow or cold, but I did get spinach til Nov then it got really cold and I did not disturb the frames until Feb as I took off the the heavy covers I had on my frames and my greens and spinach survived the -30+ below wind chills I had here.
How I stock is how I can afford things and I generally buy 2-3 extras if I can to add to the stash. I really hate shopping, as for one, it is a little hard for me to get around, and I can only afford to run the car 1-2 days a week because of gas costs for me, sometimes I utilize the handy bus that we have here, and take my little hand buggy for groceries but I can only get so much in my little buggy, so, I try to plan a monthly run for groceries to really stock, and I put extra cash away, in my jar for these extras I need. I also save on fuel and running for my green footprint.
I also make my own bread, and if I get caught not being able to make bread, I do buy the frozen loaves of wheat bread and I do those up, when I get behind, and I also make cinnamon rolls from these also, and dinner buns.
Stocking is all about just keeping things in order, and not running around like a chicken with your head cut off. And where I live, the weather can change in a New York minute and I do not like driving or running around in 30" of snow, when you can't get around at all anyway, and everyone else is running around and can't drive in the weather. Stocking is just being able to come home from work and have things ready to go, and you can throw soup or a stew, or veggies in a crock pot when you go out the door on low and dinner is ready when you get home. I am a great fan of crock pots and use several crock pots in my home during the winter.
This is where my herb mixes and dehydrated soup mixes come into play for dinner also. But again, it does take planning, and time to do these. This simple lifestyle isn't so simple when you cook from scratch. It takes some discipline on your part to do them, or again, you fall off the wagon and purchase MSG laden mixes with a ton of poison preservatives in them, it's your choice.
Well, who know what I'll talk about next. We may have a snow storm next?
Everyone, please have a great weekend, and Labor Day holiday
It seems from the blogs I read or follow, the weather is into play this year. My garden didn't do too well, but I am getting produce, but it is slow and somewhat strange in its growing pattern. My theory is a combo of the gulf spill dispersant's, and chemicals and the Icelandic volcano. I am not a scientist, but I am old enough and have some brains to tell me that the weather is changed and it is maybe not for the good. I also think that a possible shift in the Earth's orbit from some of these earthquakes may have shifted things around some. This morning it was 48*, which is great, but I recall last year, we had 2 30" blizzards in October and quite a bit of snow to total over 70+ inches last year alone.
From my last posted blog, I was going to touch on the stocking of the pantry for winter. I keep a full stock pantry most of the time, and I keep a tally in the pantry to replenish what I have used. I look at the sales flyer's that come out, to re-stock major things like broth, which I do keep on hand as I use it quite a bit for flavor and cooking. I like to make my own broth, and really a vegetable broth is very quick to make, and makes a nice finale to dinner. But a beef or chicken broth takes a little more, and when you plan meals, especially when cooking any meat, plan on a little extra from the pan to freeze and add to your stash of broth in the freezer.
When you stock your pantry, this is a very personal and taste driven endeavor, as it depends on what you or your family eat. I keep broths, herb salts, herb mixes that I make, rice, pasta, soup bases, tomato sauces, both home canned, and tomato paste when I run short. I keep my potatoes and carrots and cabbage for a while in the frig ( I have 2 frigs) , and then as it cools down really good at night, usually later this month, I use a ice chest with a few holes drilled into the top and sides, as a makeshift cellar. That is one thing I miss from my grandmother's day, a root cellar and vegetable storage cellar.
I eat pretty simple, potatoes, carrots, and I try to eat with the seasons, as I cannot afford too much salad from the store, and I do grow my greens if the weather holds, in cold frames, if we don't have any snow or cold, but I did get spinach til Nov then it got really cold and I did not disturb the frames until Feb as I took off the the heavy covers I had on my frames and my greens and spinach survived the -30+ below wind chills I had here.
How I stock is how I can afford things and I generally buy 2-3 extras if I can to add to the stash. I really hate shopping, as for one, it is a little hard for me to get around, and I can only afford to run the car 1-2 days a week because of gas costs for me, sometimes I utilize the handy bus that we have here, and take my little hand buggy for groceries but I can only get so much in my little buggy, so, I try to plan a monthly run for groceries to really stock, and I put extra cash away, in my jar for these extras I need. I also save on fuel and running for my green footprint.
I also make my own bread, and if I get caught not being able to make bread, I do buy the frozen loaves of wheat bread and I do those up, when I get behind, and I also make cinnamon rolls from these also, and dinner buns.
Stocking is all about just keeping things in order, and not running around like a chicken with your head cut off. And where I live, the weather can change in a New York minute and I do not like driving or running around in 30" of snow, when you can't get around at all anyway, and everyone else is running around and can't drive in the weather. Stocking is just being able to come home from work and have things ready to go, and you can throw soup or a stew, or veggies in a crock pot when you go out the door on low and dinner is ready when you get home. I am a great fan of crock pots and use several crock pots in my home during the winter.
This is where my herb mixes and dehydrated soup mixes come into play for dinner also. But again, it does take planning, and time to do these. This simple lifestyle isn't so simple when you cook from scratch. It takes some discipline on your part to do them, or again, you fall off the wagon and purchase MSG laden mixes with a ton of poison preservatives in them, it's your choice.
Well, who know what I'll talk about next. We may have a snow storm next?
Everyone, please have a great weekend, and Labor Day holiday
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
It's another refreshing day, guess what I'm going to do...
It's so nice this morning, cool air, and we even were greeted by a little thunder-boomer with a little lightning and a few sprinkles. I love these little boomers, its when they get big and nasty and full of lightning I don't like them, especially when they grow to become tornadoes, but I think that we are past the prairie twisters for this year.
Since it is so cool this morning, I am going to finish a batch of tomato sauce I have had in the frig for a few days. I generally process tomatoes as I get them. They are very slow to ripen, so I get a batch, and then cut them up or run them through my hand food mill to make sauce, and then cut onions, and garlic and get them done. Then if I want salsa, or sauce, I just pull a jar, and finish with the ingredients that I want. I have had a wonderful neighbor who has been sharing his tomatoes and I do not turn down free food at all. I also had another neighbor who has several small peach trees in her yard and brought me over a small basket of peaches which I was just ecstatic to get. I am going to freeze these and then vacuum seal these until I can make jam or jelly or preserves. I just can't get them all done at once.
Fresh fruit is a very hard thing for low income people to get. Even for families who have higher incomes, fruit is a luxury. I really have never been able to afford fruit, unless someone gives me fruit or I have been at the food pantry when I needed things when the going was tough, have I gotten fruit. Fruit and meat is definitly something that the lower end of us really are not afforded the benefits of. And the government tells the low income to make better choices in their food selection, well, government, look at the price and ask me if I can afford it? Even where I live, fruit is not grown hardly at all, so I am very excited about the peaches, and they are truly a gift.
I am going to give you the recipe for the vegetable bouillion I use. Really it is not a recipe, just a mix of things and you dry it.
Sometimes when I am lucky to do a roast or chicken, and I roast vegetables with it, I have leftovers of vegetables, which I usually make more of on purpose to make this bouillion. I generally freeze the leftovers and then in about a month, I have enough to make two dehydrator trays of the bouillion. I bought a dehydrator several years ago, and then earlier this year, I bought a new one listed on Craigslist, that was still in the box new, for $10 bucks, so I now have 2 which I use almost daily now.
Now, take your vegetables out, whether they are frozen or from last night's dinner, and if frozen, thaw, and then if you have a food processor, or blender, run these through, with a little of the broth, and make a puree. If you do not have a food processor, a food mill or even a potato masher will work great. Use what ever you have. I also urge you to save your broth from your chicken or meat drippings, put in the frig, and skim off the fat, and then place this in a jar in the frig, and then if you have enough to make bouillion, then place this in a ice cube tray, freeze, and then pop them out and use them in soup, stew or gravies or whereever you need flavor. Then place these in a bag or canning jar back in the freezer to keep fresh, they keep about 3 months, use up and keep a fresh supply from your leftovers.
Now, on my dehydrators, I bought extra trays, and fruit leather trays and also trays that you can dehydrate fruit to make candy with, I use the fruit leather trays, they are a solid flexible tray that you can spread your purees on and then place on the slotted trays and then start up your dehydrators to dry. I have also done this in the oven on a low oven, but this can heat up the kitchen a lot and I have burned things as you need to watch it as you cannot just leave and go off somewhere. That is why I purchased the dehydrators as they are a great tool for me in my kitchen.
I do spray the trays with a little vegetable spray to help with sticking, and then this dries down to flakes somewhat on its own, and when dry, you break this up and place in the freezer, I use glass jars, you can use plastic, but I am not a fan of plastic at all.
That is about all there is to it. If you cook a lot, you can figure this out. Really its all about experimenting with things. I did buy the book, " Drying with an attitude" by Mary T. Bell, and this is a great guide and the rest is up to you. Drying I assure you is quite habit-forming and very fun. I also dry vegetables and mix these to make a vegetable soup mix, and I grind up my vegetable puree when dry to make a powder to shake onto food for flavoring, very fun.
Now this stuff, when you do it, looks different from stuff you buy in the store, this is home made bouillion, but it doesn't have the chemicals or MSG that the stuff in the store has. So understand that it looks different when you use it.
To use, just place flakes in a little beef broth or chicken broth and let it soak up the broth. it takes about 15-30 minutes for this to do, and then pop it in your recipe. I urge you to either buy broth ready made or save your broth from your cooking, don't throw out any of this as this is a great flavor add to your cooking. I buy a broth that is made by a company that makes it without MSG or additives, and it comes in beef, chicken, vegetable or seafood. Sometimes you can get caught short, and do not have time to make broth from scratch, so it is nice to carry this in your pantry staples, for quick cooking. I also use it in cooking vegetables, and rice and making a base for gravies.
Since we are on the subject of pantries, and I am getting ready for winter here, I think that I will have a discussion on pantry stocking. Low income folks are bad about not stocking pantries, as they usually buy processed food, and do not think of meals or meal planning for the family. Pantry planning is purely based on your family's needs, and what you fix or eat in the house. Each is different. But it is nice to keep staples on hand, and you have the makings for some quick meals that you can just throw together and you are set with a healthy and filling cheap meal. So I think that I will touch on this the next post for all of you.
Now, I do want to clear up something that I do not want folks to feel that they are excluded. First, since I am a very low income earner, what I generally talk about it how to do things with less money. This does not mean that this blog is for low income folks ONLY, its not, it for all who struggle, which is most of us. I am just a advocate for the disabled or low income to handle the money they get better and eat better, as it seems that the low income do not handle money for food well, or know how to budget for food, or even cook. I want everyone to feel welcome, and take what I have learned and then take the information and run with it or help someone else. I do not want others to feel that you have to be a disabled to read this blog. You don't, but its my situation and I live it daily, but everyone is having great difficulties and it seems that we all are "disabled" in some way to make ends meet.
I hope that I have helped in someway to bring a better meal, or a new idea to the dinner table. I urge you to "play with your food" so to speak, and have fun with boring meals.
Have a great day and and up coming Labor day holiday for my US readers.
Since it is so cool this morning, I am going to finish a batch of tomato sauce I have had in the frig for a few days. I generally process tomatoes as I get them. They are very slow to ripen, so I get a batch, and then cut them up or run them through my hand food mill to make sauce, and then cut onions, and garlic and get them done. Then if I want salsa, or sauce, I just pull a jar, and finish with the ingredients that I want. I have had a wonderful neighbor who has been sharing his tomatoes and I do not turn down free food at all. I also had another neighbor who has several small peach trees in her yard and brought me over a small basket of peaches which I was just ecstatic to get. I am going to freeze these and then vacuum seal these until I can make jam or jelly or preserves. I just can't get them all done at once.
Fresh fruit is a very hard thing for low income people to get. Even for families who have higher incomes, fruit is a luxury. I really have never been able to afford fruit, unless someone gives me fruit or I have been at the food pantry when I needed things when the going was tough, have I gotten fruit. Fruit and meat is definitly something that the lower end of us really are not afforded the benefits of. And the government tells the low income to make better choices in their food selection, well, government, look at the price and ask me if I can afford it? Even where I live, fruit is not grown hardly at all, so I am very excited about the peaches, and they are truly a gift.
I am going to give you the recipe for the vegetable bouillion I use. Really it is not a recipe, just a mix of things and you dry it.
Sometimes when I am lucky to do a roast or chicken, and I roast vegetables with it, I have leftovers of vegetables, which I usually make more of on purpose to make this bouillion. I generally freeze the leftovers and then in about a month, I have enough to make two dehydrator trays of the bouillion. I bought a dehydrator several years ago, and then earlier this year, I bought a new one listed on Craigslist, that was still in the box new, for $10 bucks, so I now have 2 which I use almost daily now.
Now, take your vegetables out, whether they are frozen or from last night's dinner, and if frozen, thaw, and then if you have a food processor, or blender, run these through, with a little of the broth, and make a puree. If you do not have a food processor, a food mill or even a potato masher will work great. Use what ever you have. I also urge you to save your broth from your chicken or meat drippings, put in the frig, and skim off the fat, and then place this in a jar in the frig, and then if you have enough to make bouillion, then place this in a ice cube tray, freeze, and then pop them out and use them in soup, stew or gravies or whereever you need flavor. Then place these in a bag or canning jar back in the freezer to keep fresh, they keep about 3 months, use up and keep a fresh supply from your leftovers.
Now, on my dehydrators, I bought extra trays, and fruit leather trays and also trays that you can dehydrate fruit to make candy with, I use the fruit leather trays, they are a solid flexible tray that you can spread your purees on and then place on the slotted trays and then start up your dehydrators to dry. I have also done this in the oven on a low oven, but this can heat up the kitchen a lot and I have burned things as you need to watch it as you cannot just leave and go off somewhere. That is why I purchased the dehydrators as they are a great tool for me in my kitchen.
I do spray the trays with a little vegetable spray to help with sticking, and then this dries down to flakes somewhat on its own, and when dry, you break this up and place in the freezer, I use glass jars, you can use plastic, but I am not a fan of plastic at all.
That is about all there is to it. If you cook a lot, you can figure this out. Really its all about experimenting with things. I did buy the book, " Drying with an attitude" by Mary T. Bell, and this is a great guide and the rest is up to you. Drying I assure you is quite habit-forming and very fun. I also dry vegetables and mix these to make a vegetable soup mix, and I grind up my vegetable puree when dry to make a powder to shake onto food for flavoring, very fun.
Now this stuff, when you do it, looks different from stuff you buy in the store, this is home made bouillion, but it doesn't have the chemicals or MSG that the stuff in the store has. So understand that it looks different when you use it.
To use, just place flakes in a little beef broth or chicken broth and let it soak up the broth. it takes about 15-30 minutes for this to do, and then pop it in your recipe. I urge you to either buy broth ready made or save your broth from your cooking, don't throw out any of this as this is a great flavor add to your cooking. I buy a broth that is made by a company that makes it without MSG or additives, and it comes in beef, chicken, vegetable or seafood. Sometimes you can get caught short, and do not have time to make broth from scratch, so it is nice to carry this in your pantry staples, for quick cooking. I also use it in cooking vegetables, and rice and making a base for gravies.
Since we are on the subject of pantries, and I am getting ready for winter here, I think that I will have a discussion on pantry stocking. Low income folks are bad about not stocking pantries, as they usually buy processed food, and do not think of meals or meal planning for the family. Pantry planning is purely based on your family's needs, and what you fix or eat in the house. Each is different. But it is nice to keep staples on hand, and you have the makings for some quick meals that you can just throw together and you are set with a healthy and filling cheap meal. So I think that I will touch on this the next post for all of you.
Now, I do want to clear up something that I do not want folks to feel that they are excluded. First, since I am a very low income earner, what I generally talk about it how to do things with less money. This does not mean that this blog is for low income folks ONLY, its not, it for all who struggle, which is most of us. I am just a advocate for the disabled or low income to handle the money they get better and eat better, as it seems that the low income do not handle money for food well, or know how to budget for food, or even cook. I want everyone to feel welcome, and take what I have learned and then take the information and run with it or help someone else. I do not want others to feel that you have to be a disabled to read this blog. You don't, but its my situation and I live it daily, but everyone is having great difficulties and it seems that we all are "disabled" in some way to make ends meet.
I hope that I have helped in someway to bring a better meal, or a new idea to the dinner table. I urge you to "play with your food" so to speak, and have fun with boring meals.
Have a great day and and up coming Labor day holiday for my US readers.
Monday, August 30, 2010
another news worthy web site for you
Good afternoon everyone,
Guess it must be the weather, or my nerves. I have another web site that may be of interest to you.
I am setting a link to this site. It is called the Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ This site contains a lot a news. Take it at face value, and I am not promoting it, but it does cover things I generally do not hear in the main stream news or our local news.
This site contains tons of news pertaining to all aspects of our lives, there are many articles on food. One in particular is frankenfish.
Please go to the link, and then go to the bar that shows all of the different types of news, then click the food marker, scroll down a little ways and it shows a article on FDA approval of frankenfish, and shows a normal trout and then a huge trout on steroids (or hormones) . Please read.
I am sorry that I seem to be on a rant, but for some reason, all of the sudden, there is this and that of eggs, and fish, and who knows what else. I promise I will get back to posting recipes that a few of you wanted to see, and some other ideas I have that I would like to throw out to the masses, (not sure how many of you are reading my blog...) but as you may can tell, I am some what PO'd at all of this, and it REALLY bothers me. Must be my age or I am having a mental something.
Anyway, I will bring to a few who have asked about my vegetable puree flakes I make in the dehydrator, and I wanted to post this, as you can do a lot with this. If you do not have a dehydrator, I think that you could use the oven on low temp and a shallow pan and dry this down also.
Anyway, dearest readers, I am sorry for the rant, but I am really mad at this, and it seems to get worse each day, but maybe if all of us make a stand, maybe we can back em' down.
Take care all and I will post later.
Try to have a great day
Guess it must be the weather, or my nerves. I have another web site that may be of interest to you.
I am setting a link to this site. It is called the Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ This site contains a lot a news. Take it at face value, and I am not promoting it, but it does cover things I generally do not hear in the main stream news or our local news.
This site contains tons of news pertaining to all aspects of our lives, there are many articles on food. One in particular is frankenfish.
Please go to the link, and then go to the bar that shows all of the different types of news, then click the food marker, scroll down a little ways and it shows a article on FDA approval of frankenfish, and shows a normal trout and then a huge trout on steroids (or hormones) . Please read.
I am sorry that I seem to be on a rant, but for some reason, all of the sudden, there is this and that of eggs, and fish, and who knows what else. I promise I will get back to posting recipes that a few of you wanted to see, and some other ideas I have that I would like to throw out to the masses, (not sure how many of you are reading my blog...) but as you may can tell, I am some what PO'd at all of this, and it REALLY bothers me. Must be my age or I am having a mental something.
Anyway, I will bring to a few who have asked about my vegetable puree flakes I make in the dehydrator, and I wanted to post this, as you can do a lot with this. If you do not have a dehydrator, I think that you could use the oven on low temp and a shallow pan and dry this down also.
Anyway, dearest readers, I am sorry for the rant, but I am really mad at this, and it seems to get worse each day, but maybe if all of us make a stand, maybe we can back em' down.
Take care all and I will post later.
Try to have a great day
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Please read this
I came across this. Please read this.
I will post if time gives me a chance later this week as I would like to discuss this more.
I am having a somewhat slow day, not having any energy to do anything, and I get days like this.
Everyone, please have a blessed Sunday, and I will be back in touch later.
I will post if time gives me a chance later this week as I would like to discuss this more.
I am having a somewhat slow day, not having any energy to do anything, and I get days like this.
Everyone, please have a blessed Sunday, and I will be back in touch later.
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