One Day Until the Challenge Begins!

A New Year!

Tomorrow I begin the Pantry Challenge and the frugal in me is so excited! I want to see how our pantry serves us and what changes I may need to make. Do I have enough canned corn? Did I freeze too much zucchini? How much meat do we actually go through? I am hoping to get the answers to these questions and more during the month of January!

 

Pantry Challenge 2021

The Food Room

The Pantry/Food Room Challenge

Starting this January 2021 I am going to be joining The Three Rivers Homestead pantry challenge. Mine will be a tad modified to fit our circumstances. The goal is to eat just from your pantry and freezers for the month of January! Because we are not able to grow our greens I am going to go ahead and purchase salad greens and bananas throughout the month, but that's all! 

Some of the reasons that Jessica from three rivers homestead gave for doing this challenge were to save money, check out the status of your pantry and to clear out food from the previous year to make room for the upcoming harvest year. I love this, although because I spend so little on food already my main goal is to clean out my pantry and freezers!

A few months ago I had made up a month's worth of meals and had purchased the food needed for those meals to last for about 6 months. But I am also flexible in my menus so that I can use up the 20 or so spaghetti squash we grew, and the onions and zucchini and all of the other great foods we canned and froze. I am excited to see the results of this challenge and look forward to taking you along for the ride.

Okay family, let's see how this goes!

 

Getting things done!

It's the pictures of our family that get me through the gloomy days of winter!

It's a gray and snowy day here at home! I have an Andy Williams Christmas album playing on the stereo and soup cooking in the crockpot! 

I have finished the triplets baby quilts and need to attach the binding to Harpers and then hand finish it and it too will be done! I am working on a little jumper I started a while ago. Not sure who it will fit but I think I started it a while back for Auburn and now I believe it will go to one of the younger grand girls.  That's what happens when I put a project away thinking I'll get back to it soon! 

I am trying to think of ways to fill up our empty quart jars. I may can some of our garden potatoes and I think there's still some carrots in the basement fridge. I have also found some recipes for jarred cake mixes to keep on the shelf instead of buying boxed cake mixes. I'm going to try a couple of them and see if they're worth putting together. Every time I see an empty canning jar it makes me anxious! LOL!

I am worried about how much food prices are going up. We went to Costco this past Saturday and a bag of mini peppers were double what they used to be. I have paid about $3.49 for a 3 lb. bag and they were asking over $7.00! That's crazy. I am very grateful for the food we have stored!

I hope you all have a great week full of family and friends and strong faith!

 

Mom, when she was much younger!

That's Pattie, me, Carol and Eva!

Carol helping Mike blow out birthday candles!

Me, Eva, Mike, Carol and Pattie in Montana!

All of us in the house on Jefferson street!

I wanted to share these photos of my siblings and I in happier days! 

 

AUGUST HAS BEEN BUSY!!!

Our purple bean trellis has been awesome this summer!

Our handsome Nolan turned 14!

These two cuties started online school!

We got a new front door!

We finally got our family reunion pictures printed and hung!

And we have made the absolutely most delicious homemade ice cream this summer!

And dad patched the hole in the basement bathroom wall. Looks pretty wonderful!

As August begins to wind down these pictures remind me of just a few of the events that happened! It's been a crazy month full of birthdays, the beginning of school for some of the grandchildren and home projects. This post doesn't include the garden harvest or the out of the home activities we have been blessed to be a part of! (Empty nesters FHE and Book Club and birthday parties!) I'm feeling pretty fortunate!

 

Projects, Produce and Possibilities!

Latest Projects!

I love the produce basket that Doug made me out of scrap wood! And my first batch of sauerkraut is now canned and ready for the fall!

Although we are not growing enough fruits and vegetables in our gardens to sustain us through the year I love that we are doing 'something'! Each of us can do 'something' about filling our pantry, whether it's growing fruits and vegetables in our own gardens, renting garden plots like we do, buying from local farmers and  purchasing food storage items at the store! There is 'something' we can do!

I finished updating my months worth of meals and making a list of what is necessary to create them throughout the year. I then made a grocery list with the amounts we need through the year and what we are short of. I will buy those items in the coming months. I refuse to go into debt to get our food storage up to date!

And we also updated our list of food storage basics and purchased what we needed to make them complete. This includes flour, sugars, oils, rice, beans etc. It feels good to have them in the food storage room ready to be used.

Food storage provides a comforting feeling when you realize that should there be an emergency we would have enough for ourselves and to share!

I 

Will the Rain Ever Stop?

Thank goodness for cute grand babies to cheer us up on these dark and gloomy and extremely wet days!

We are having an unseasonably chilly and wet spring here in the Pacific Northwest! And it looks like more rain tomorrow! I'm so glad I went out early this morning for my walk! 

My bush beans must be molding underground because out of about 40 seeds I see one coming up! I'll be waiting a few days to plant again and see if I have better luck with the 3rd round! 

I can only hope that the warmth and sunshine are just around the corner and that my peppers and tomatoes can then begin to grow!

Today's money-saving activity was to hang my laundry on the indoor rack instead of using the dryer. It's the little things that make the difference.

So Excited for Emi!

I love this picture of a beautiful smile!

I have never been sorry that we needed to provide braces for 5 of our 6 children! And now as I look at their amazing adult smiles I would do it all again in a heartbeat! Emi, you are going to love the results of having braces! And I am so grateful for our children who are giving their children the opportunity to have healthy and gorgeous smiles!

I made 3 fabric masks for dad and I. Two for dad to use at work and one for me! We don't wear them often but when dad goes back to the office he will be required to wear a mask there. And I need one for my Costco runs. I found a YouTube video by Jenni Doan on how to whip up a mask in no time flat. I can make one now in less than half an hour. The side you put against your face is made of flannel and the other side is any cotton material of your choice. I actually made one for dad out of the cute car/fire truck material I used for Tyler's apron. I made another more 'adult' one for those days dad may have meetings. Although knowing your dad he will wear the car one more often! Super cheap since I used what materials I had at home.

What a Sweet Family!

It was a chilly and damp weekend, again! Our gardens really need the sun to start growing but we can't get a consistent week of sunshine at all! My poor little peppers and tomatoes cannot seem to get started. Here's hoping for sunshine and heat!

Today I am saving money by having homemade tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches for dinner. I made the soup out of our canned tomatoes awhile back, bagged it in freezer bags and now it's available whenever we need a quick meal. And the sandwiches will be made on homemade bread. I would love to be making our own cheese to go with this. Maybe one day!

Such a Beauty!

I love this sweet baby Harper!

Am I the only one who feels a need to plant as much food as I can this season? From watching many of the homestead blogs I follow I know that I am definitely not the only one! So many people are planting more, buying more animals for their own food consumption and clearing more land for even more food planting. We don't have a lot of space in our backyard that gets a decent amount of sunshine but yesterday I planted more beans and carrots in a small area that once held a sandbox. There isn't an inch of space that we haven't planted something and I love that!!!

It's just a feeling we have to plant more and more but so often those feelings turn out to be correct!

She's so pretty and joyful!

It's been a peaceful two days because I banned myself from Facebook and all news outlets. The world may be going to heck in a hand basket but I needed a break from all the ugly. I'll return but I will not allow the uglies to erase the good and the beautiful in the world! Like my granddaughter Kayla!

How did I save money today? I made and canned more chicken broth. When I learned how easy it was to make my own I became addicted to keeping my pantry stocked with this deliciousness! I learned on The Freedom Homestead vlog how to make it. Check them out on YouTube! I love her comment about how 'it looks like I'm cooking garbage'! All it took was a chicken carcass, leftover veggie scraps that I froze,  some garlic and whatever spices I have on hand with water to cover it all in a crock pot! Then I let it cook on low overnight. In the morning I drained all the healthy broth into a pot, heated it up and processed it for 20 minutes in a pressure canner! I got 7 beautiful pints and it's delicious! 

Hooray for Sunshine!

Of course 60 degrees is swimming pool weather!!!

It doesn't matter if it's 80 degrees or 90 or 60! A swimming pool means fun for kids!

My money saving tip for Monday was to use up the rice from our stir fry meal a few days ago. I had canned quart jars of soup a while back and when you cook it up you throw in some pasta or rice. I'm telling you the soup was awesome! And we didn't have to throw away the left over rice because I let it go bad. Score!

The soup is a Chicken Soup recipe out of my Amish Canning Cookbook! I highly recommend this book if you are serious about canning! I got it on Amazon!

Still Saving!

Somebody's getting big!

Harper sure enjoyed her time in the bouncer toy! Isn't she adorable? 

So how did I save on the Sabbath yesterday, since we don't shop anyways? I saved money by pulling out some frozen chopped ham out of our meat freezer to make a great Ham and Potato Bake. We had the ham for Easter dinner and I froze the leftovers in 2 cup containers to use for future meals. It's all about using our leftovers wisely and not being wasteful! It was a wonderful dinner that was also a frugal meal! And the side dish was a salad made with home grown lettuce, kale and radishes!

Ham & Potato Bake

Saute' 2 Tbls chopped onion in 1/4 cup butter. Blend in 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp dry mustard and a dash of pepper. Gradually add 1 and 1/2 cups milk; cook, stirring constantly until thickened. Add 1 and 1/2 cups cheddar cheese; stir until melted. Toss 6 cups cooked sliced potatoes and leftover ham in cheese sauce. Pour into casserole dish. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees!

Thank goodness I journal!

It's been 2 months since my last post. Life got crazy with the whole Covid-19 and lock downs and restrictions and so many changes to our lives. But now we are slowly coming out of quarantine and I am so excited for that. The above photo is a memory of spending Memorial Day in Utah with Brady and Becky's families. This short break was how I survived our quarantine. I learned for myself what 'stir crazy' truly means.

Throughout the quarantine we witnessed how fragile our food system is. Things like toilet paper, yeast and bread items flew off the shelves and while some items did make a return, with limits set upon how much you could buy, some like yeast are still hard to find. And we all learned about quick rising food prices on those commodities deemed necessary. I couldn't find yeast anywhere in town and when I looked on Amazon they had a 1 lb. bag of yeast for $16.99. This is the same amount that I would pay $3.89 at a local store! I was grateful to have a couple of pounds of yeast in my freezer to use for all the bread items I make! This whole thing is a wake up call for all of us! I know that I went through my food storage binder and checked out what I'm short on (sugar for sure) and what we're okay on (jams and jellies). Now I will start buying what we need and hopefully will keep a better eye on what we get low on.

Another thing we witnessed was the value of our freezers. At one point you couldn't find them at the stores because people were wanting to get them to start storing meat. Who would have thought? I can not get over how susceptible we all are to what happens in the world and that we need to do all we can to be better prepared in the future!

So what did I do yesterday to be better prepared? I made hot dog buns from scratch and they were delicious. I used Sarah's recipe from Living Traditions Homestead and they were ready in about an hour and a half. And while hot dog buns can be purchased for about $1.50 in our area I am grateful for this new skill and for knowing exactly what is in my food. It was worth the extra effort!

Who Needs A Grocery Store?

 Keeping Busy!

I have made aprons for all of the granddaughters using all this time I have at home. I am also preparing for a bigger garden this summer by starting my own seedlings. And the last photo is of my spring garlic that is looking great! 

With all that is going on in the world more and more people are seeing the need to become more self-sustainable! I guess those homesteaders whose vlogs that I love had it right all the time! But that doesn't mean that here in suburbia we can't do more to be more self-sufficient ourselves. Because of that huge pine tree in the park behind our back yard we don't have a great garden yield but we have discovered that garlic does well as do my herbs. And our raspberries do amazing and hopefully our strawberries will provide some jams. And the seedlings I have planted will go in the garden plots we have rented up on the bluff. And with our small greenhouse in the back yard we are hoping to lengthen our growing season. Every year we try new ways to grow our food and it's exciting to see successes and to learn from our failures.

And learning how to get along without the grocery store has been a challenge I have joyfully taken on. Shopping has never been a favorite activity for me. Quite frankly, I hate it. So learning new skills that will provide us with food is right up my alley. The other day I made homemade crackers using Kevin's recipe from Living Traditions Homestead. We had run out of Ritz crackers to snack on and I remembered watching a video of Kevin making them. Here's his recipe:

1 cup oat flour

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. sugar

4 Tbls. oil

1 cup (more or less) hot water

Mix in kitchen aid mixer for about 2-3 minutes. Divide in half. Roll out as thin as you'd like and put them on baking pans. I used my cookie sheets and rolled them out to fit. I then baked them at 425 degrees for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and spray with oil and salt. You can also add any other toppings at this point. Put back in over for at least 7 more minutes. Check after this frequently until they've reached desired crunchiness. That's really all crackers are, flour and water and your own spices. For the oat flour I ground up in my food processor about 2 cups whole oats. But you can make them out of all purpose flour or add some wheat flour. It's all up to you! And there are no preservatives! And I love them dipped in my homemade hummus.

Finally let me share that I am running out of creamed soups in the can in our pantry. You know the kind you use in casseroles and other recipes. I really don't want to buy any more so on YouTube I typed in homemade dry soup mixes and over on Whippoorwill Holler I found this recipe which I made today. 

2 c. powdered milk

1 1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup chicken bouillon powder

2 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. poultry seasoning

1/2 tsp. pepper

Mix this all up and put in a jar and store it until you need it. When you want to make up a batch just add 1/3 cup of mixture to 1 1/4 cup water, add chicken or mushroom bits and heat it up until thickened. So easy!

We can all get through this time but it will take time and trying out some new skills. I highly recommend trying these out. I think our grandchildren would love the crackers. Let me know how they come out!

Always up for learning and trying new things!

Doesn't everyone take pictures of the available spices at Winco?

The above pictures are from my hunt for Anise Seed. And of course Winco came through for me. I took pictures to remind me of what they have in the store. This is not a commonly used spice so I was excited to see it on the shelves. And why did I need the Anise Seed? 

As the title suggests I am always on the look out for a better recipe, a better way to make something that we eat a lot of and pizza happens to be something that we eat weekly, like every Friday night. And of course it's homemade. 

So while watching one of my favorite YouTubers, She's In Her Apron, she shared these amazing recipes for pizza sauce and the pizza crust. Dad and I have used the Tightwad Gazette pizza crust for decades and I have made pizza sauce from our garden but these recipes are over the top good! I had the sauce simmering for a couple of hours and kept taste testing it, couldn't help myself. And the crust was incredible! I loved it when your dad said, 'this is the best pizza I've ever eaten', and it is!

Pizza Sauce

28 ounces crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup finely chopped onions

1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil

3 Tbls brown sugar

1 tsp basil, parsley, Italian seasoning, anise seed, salt and paprika (the anise seed makes this sauce)

a dash of crushed chili pepper

1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

5 cloves minced garlic (I used garlic salt)

Mix all the ingredients and simmer for 1-2 hours (Don't be like me and taste test every 20 minutes)

Pizza Crust

Mix and stir for 30 seconds 2 cups warm water, 1/4 cup honey and 1 Tbls yeast. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

Add 5 cups flour (one cup at a time), 1 Tbls salt, 1/4 tsp onion powder, garlic powder (what a great idea to have these 2 spices in the crust!)

Mix on low until combined. Knead by hand or Kitchen Aid for 7 minutes. Add a little more flour if needed to make it come away from bowl. 

I let it rise for about 20 minutes. It makes 2 crusts and I put the other one in the freezer. When I'm ready to use it I will pull it out, let it thaw and rise. 

After making the pizza I let it cook for 10-12 minutes at 500 degrees. 

Can't begin to tell you how awesome these recipes are. I hope you try them!

WE CAN GET THROUGH WINTER, HONEST!

I am thankful for grandbaby pictures that help me through the winter blahs!

So let me ask you. What do you get your Valentine after almost 40 years? Well let me tell you! You get them a shoplight to use as a grow light for seedlings! I saw on my favorite vlog Living Traditions Homestead how they use a regular shoplight with non fluorescent bulbs and hang them from a shelf over your seedlings. I bought a shelf from Walmart and dad hung up the lamp. It's actually very economical when compared to a 60 to 70 dollar grow light! I'll have a photo for you later. I have already started some herbs and spinach to grow indoors and am excited to see how it works. Anybody else getting  Spring Fever and a yearning to plant and grow?