Homemade Graham Crackers

Yes!  She went there!  Yesterday I made homemade graham crackers.  I have to say the internet is a great tool when it comes to finding recipes or how to's.  Not a big techno geek, but I will give them that.  I found a recipe  for graham crackers.  I had tried it a week or so ago and found the recipe was much like snicker doodles, just flat.  They were good, but they weren't graham crackers.  They did, however, give me a base to make the recipe my own.  I have since tweaked the recipe more to my liking and decided to share it with you.  So here goes.

12 Tbs butter softened ( 1 1/2 sticks )
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (white wheat)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

In a small mixing bowl, place all your dry ingredients, except brown sugar, and mix well.  Set aside.  In medium mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and honey til fluffy.  Add the eggs and mix well.  Add the dry ingredients.  You may need to mix this with a large spoon or even your clean hands.  The dough will be dryer than cookie dough, but it will still stick together well.  Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.

Preheat your oven to 350.  Using about 1/8th of the dough at a time, place dough onto a well floured (use all purpose) sheet of wax paper.  Mash hard with your hand to flatten some.  Dust the top of the dough well with more flour and cover the top with wax paper.  Roll the dough between the sheets of wax paper, turning periodically to kind of square things up.
*** Note, you may need to pull the top sheet of wax paper back and dust will more flour in order to keep the dough from sticking.

Once flat ( like 1/4 of an inch at most), you can be obsessive like me and cut it with a pizza cutter into nice neat squares, or you can just cut it into pieces in whatever shape it happens to be in.  Your choice.  Either way, it needs to be "Crackers".  Brush the top of the cracker with a little water.  This will also remove some of the flour.  Then sprinkle with sugar.  Bake 6 minutes.  Cool on a wire rake.  I store ours in the freezer, using a few at a time.

Options:  You can add 1 ts cinnamon to the mix, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar for the cinnamon graham crackers.

I take two of the homemade graham squares and put good spoonful of cool whip in between.  Then freeze for some really good ice cream sandwiches.

***  If you are so industrious, you can try this recipe, but I will say that graham crackers, especially if bought at Aldi , are really cheap when it comes right down to it.  I will also say the homemade crackers make the best ice cream sandwiches.  So, again, your choice.

Tomato plants are curious things, and other ramblings

Yesterday was a glorious day and, of course, I was outside the vast majority of it.  I am about to wrap up getting every thing in.  The last thing to go in was a replant of green beans.  I've had a time getting them to germinate.  We had a warmer winter this year and, yet, I was able to get my beans in and growing a month earlier last year compared to this year.  It's a mystery.  The next try is in now so we will see.

Everything else is going gang busters.  My strawberry bed is COVERED with baby berries.  If I can keep the critters out of them, it should be a good harvest.  I'm also happy to report that the late hard freeze a month or so ago, didn't take out my entire blueberry harvest.  I found baby blue berries yesterday and still have blooms coming in.  It won't be my normal harvest, but if the blackberries and strawberries do well, it may not matter.

Funny thing, I planted a lot of corn seeds due to the lack of germination with the beans.  I wanted to make sure enough germinated.  Well they ALL did I think.  I finally got the last one transplanted into a new spot yesterday.  I try not to thin plants, but will give them a fighting chance to grow up in my garden should they choose to take it.  Ones that would normally be pulled to thin the rows, are, instead, transplanted to a new spot in the garden.  I ended up moving a lot of corn.  Final tally of corn stalks in my garden?  180.  That's a lot of corn.

Everything's getting mulched due to our current drought.  My original plan this year was to not have a garden because of the drought.  Then we started getting good amounts of rain and I thought "Okay garden time".  Now it seems we are getting a little dry again.  The gutters on my house have helped in water collection, but I have now used up my water stores.  We are supposed to get rain on Monday, so I hope that helps in replenishing them.

It was while I was mulching everything that I noticed the tomato plant I originally thought dead from wind or hail.  Apparently he was only "mostly dead" ( "Princess Bride" reference).  He was saying I'm sure "I'm not dead yet, I don't want to go in the cart!" (Monty Python "Holy Grail" reference).  He had just enough stem left in-tacked to allow him to still be kicken.  The top of the plant was lying on the ground.  Tomatoes will root  where ever the branch contacts the ground.  I covered the part of the branch at ground contact, and watered it well.  I then mulched the whole bed as planned.  We'll see what he does.  I have done all I can.  I have to give these 10 plants kudos.  They have withstood being tossed across a room, planted early, subjected to three days of temps below 40 (one night 38), high winds(very high), and hail.  They're still here.  Gotta give'em credit for perseverance.

This morning included another trip to collect cinder blocks for raised beds.  We gathered enough to finish one bed and create one more.  I have 4 blocks left, and plan to go back for more.  Thank you E and J.

After unloading the cinder blocks, Dh and I sat on the back porch steps and just enjoyed the morning for a bit before back to work.  I looked around at everything with immense satisfaction.  I have to smile to myself when I see everything and know how much I enjoy all of it.  My mom once told me of all her children I was the last one she ever thought would have a garden.  Now look at me.  I have a garden, chickens, fruit tress, fruit bushes, etc.  It makes me smile because I know the fact that I do all of this always tickled my dad.  I makes me sad because he would read about all my adventures and I want to share them with him again. Bitter sweet I guess is the term.  I like to think he still gets to see all my goings on.  I at least know he's told about them.

Sorry,didn't mean to get all sentimental. Comes with the territory I guess, but lest I leave you forlorn, here is what greeted me this morning as I woke up.

Recipe Time!

Good Morning all! Not to repeat myself from last week, as I am working on some other blog entries, but I thought to list again my frugal adventures and add a few new things.  For instance, a new recipe!  That's below at the end of my post.  I guess I will start out with the frugal stuff, but never fear, I have other things as well!

Frugal things this week

Collected Eggs - 21 for the week.  I think the ladies are starting to lay again with the longer days.  Yay!
Made bread.granola, sandwich buns, granola bars, graham crackers, brown sugar, ranch dressing, coffee creamer, and cookies
Made and listed 1 Etsy item
Sold 3 Etsy items
Cut out new scrubs for Dh
Cut out a new shirt for me
Hung out 5 loads of clothes
Created a new recipe using dried beans ( see below)
Picked spinach and lettuce out of the garden, multiple times!


Sausage and Blackeyed Peas ( would be Great at New Years!

Sausage

8 oz ground pork
1/2 tsp dried minced onion
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground sage
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp salt

I toss everything into the freezer bag the now thawed ground pork resides, but you can toss everything into a bowl.  Mix everything together well (better to use your hands, hence the reason I use a freezer bag cause I can mix it and not get it on my hands).  Let sit in the fridge a while.  You could make this in the morning and let it sit in the fridge til the beans are ready.  This would also make great breakfast sausage.  FYI

The great thing about black eyed peas is they tend to cook faster than many other dried beans.  No need to soak.  Yay!

What you need:

8 oz ground sausage (you can use store bought) or the above recipe.
1 lb black-eyed peas  covered in water and cooked with 2 1/2 tsp salt.  Once finished cooking, don't drain!
2 TBS Olive Oil
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 tsp Thyme
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 can of diced tomatoes (plain or with chilies if you like it spicy)

Saute the onion, carrots, and celery in the olive oil til the onion is soft.  Add the ground sausage and brown it along with the veggies.  Take the sausage/veggie mixture and add all of it to the un-drained cooked black-eyed peas.  Add your spices and the can of tomatoes. Simmer on low about a hour til the carrots are soft and the flavors have had time to meld. Serve with a crusty bread or cornbread.


Hope you enjoy!
Have a blessed day!

Frugal things I've done this week....

There are everyday things we all do to save money. I thought, rather than just find one thing frugal to write about, I would throw out there a list of many of the frugal things I do.  Since we all watch our pennies, I would love to hear your tips and tricks too.  Maybe, just maybe, we can save even more pennies.  I'm starting this post at the beginning of the week and listing my things as I go.  Just be aware this spans many days.

SO LET'S GET STARTED!

1)  Canned carrots I needed to use.  In my love of roasted carrots, I bought a 25 lb bag for a good deal last month.  Unfortunately these types of carrots aren't as good roasted, but are plenty good in stews.  With the warmer weather coming on, soups and stew will be rare.  So they were canned to use next winter.  Waste not, want not.  Total canned, 9 pints, but I had 4 pints worth left that I used for part of my lunch Monday and Tuesday and Dinner Monday night.

2)  I began the process of making me some new spring clothes with fabric I already have on hand.  With my weight loss, I find I have nothing to wear (the burden I bare).  Well I have nothing to wear for church anyway.  I have jeans and t shirts.  I find I lack dressy casual clothes and pajamas (no, I do not wear pajamas to church).  Yesterday I began work on a pencil skirt.  I have ideas for some other things to make as well.  I'm keeping my eye out for patterns to go on sale for .99 somewhere for other spring summer things (and pj's). *** Edited to add:  Well Joann's did have patterns on sale, but the Simplicity patterns didn't have anything I liked.  The McCalls patterns (Which were NOT on sale) had a lot of things I liked.  So I am rephrasing to say I am keeping my eye out for McCalls patterns on sale.

3)  Made Bread.  Oh and I made bread again.  We go thru bread.

4) Made Dog Biscuits:  I used some bacon grease I had on hand instead of the oil called for in the recipe.  Needless to say, Mona is thrilled.  I put them in an already existing dog biscuit box.

5) Picked Spinach, and Asparagus from the garden and collected Eggs (10 by Friday).

6)  I ordered a Reel Mower sharpening kit from Amazon rather than pay to have the blades sharpened.  In case you don't know, a reel mower is a non-motorized push mower.  The old fashioned way of grass cutting.  Cuts grass, gives workout, uses no gas.  $10 is a small investment for the return.  And yes, I've used the reel mower (this season too), so this isn't a pipe dream.  *** Edited to add:  I attempted to do the sharpening yesterday, but am having some difficulty getting the screws turned that raise and lower the cutting bar.  We will see what happens.

7) Hung out 3 loads of clothes.

8)  Weeded the garden; planted Corn, Sage, and Marigolds.

9)  Sold 7 items on Etsy this week which added some extra dollars to our budget.  A budget, I might add, I'm following like a fanatic.  The only way I would've been able to benefit from the sale at Joann's is if I sold some items on Etsy.  Aside from the patterns I'll get for me, my purchases will be mostly fabric and notions to go back into my Etsy shop.  I was also able to add a work shirt for Einstein from Goodwill for $6.

So there are my frugal things for this week.  It was our anniversary this week, so I was unfrugal yesterday and today.  Eh!  It's only once a year and after 24 years, splurge  little!

What frugal things did you do this week?

Well It's a wait and see...

It seems every year I come up with a new garden experiment.  It's the process with everyone who gardens.  At the end of each season you analyze what you need to change and set about figuring a way to do it.  Last year my experiment was green beans.  Every year I had fought to control Mexican bean beetles, but was losing the battle.  Those little buggers would strip my plants clean.  There was no chance of succession planting working.  The new set of plants would pop out of the ground only to be eaten before they had a chance to grow much.  I really try to stay away from pesticides if possible, but it seemed the only way to control them even a little was to use Sevin, a common garden pesticide.  Last year I hypothesized that maybe if I planted my beans, all of my beans, early and all at one time, maybe they would have a chance to produce before the beetles could get to them.  So I did, and they did.  My plants had a chance to produce beautiful green beans before the beetles could get them.

Just as I was pulling the plants up, I noticed a few beetles starting to arrive.  The plants were pulled and tossed into the compost pile and any beetle scragglers were rounded up.  It was my best bean harvest in years.

This year I'm addressing another common problem I have.  We have some pretty hot summers here in the Georgia area.  Once the temp get above 95 degrees, my tomato plants stop blooming (so do I quite frankly), and begin to wilt.  By the time the "Dog Days of summer" end, my plants look dead.  If I leave them there, I've found, once the temps cool a little in August, I will begin to see new growth.  By October I have lush green tomato plants with huge green tomatoes that never have a chance to ripen before the first frost.   My experiment this year is to plant larger tomato plants in the early spring and see if I get a better harvest before it gets so hot.  I started seeds the end of December 2016.  I had 50 seedlings, but you guys remember the "Great fall of 2017" where I tripped carrying them out for some sun and plants flew everywhere.  Well 10 survived that ordeal.  They are my experimental group (cause that's all I have left).  I replanted more seedlings in the normal time frame for zone 7.  They are my control group.  See how scientific I sound?  My experimental plants are about 18 inches tall right now.  in fact one plant has the beginnings of blooms.  There really was no waiting longer to put them in the ground.  They were hard enough to get in the ground at the size they are now.  Yesterday was a cloudy day with the promise of rain overnight.  No better time.  I checked the 10 day forecast and saw no really cold temps, so I took the plunge.  Now it's a wait and see if they can make it thru any weird April chills, and if they produce a better harvest. I now have cucumbers, pumpkins, and yellow squash plants in the ground, and have planted my bean, zucchini seeds, and onion sets in the ground as well.  Now we wait.

WELL!

Yes I'm still here.  Aside from the past three or four days, I've been outside "playing" in the yard.  It's been great; blissful  if one would coin a phrase.  Ah but all good things must come to an end they say.  This week our early spring became a harsh winter; a reminder, if you will, that we ain't at spring yet and things happen.  Georgia weather don't cha know.  Our low's for three straight days stayed around 22, 23 degrees.  Now, I know that isn't cold in some necks of the woods, but in ours, it most assuredly is.  Especially when your blueberry bushes are in full bloom as well as your lone peach tree.   Fortunately my apple trees haven't bloomed yet.  Amazingly, my peach tree still has about 10 living blooms on it.  Not enough to write home about, but considering the temps, admirable.  I lost a chunk of blueberries even with them close to the house.  What part of the blueberry bushes were closest to the house seemed to fare okay, but the further away from the house the branches were, the more damage was done.  I will (I hope) get some blueberries, but not the amount I was hoping for.  I'll take what I get.  There are two good things I focus on.  The first is, with the cold days, I will get blackberries, so yay!  The second thing is that when I went to uncover my strawberry beds after the freeze (they did fine by the way), I noticed two baby blueberry bushes I thought were dead.  Apparently not.  They won't produce for a while, but it's nice to see them there.

Everything else made it through fine.  I've actually been picking spinach and one asparagus spear.  The early tomato plants I started in December are chomping at the bit to get outside, but not yet....not yet.  I went ahead and replanted more tomato plants.  I was within the recommended "Start indoor" time on them, so I won't need to buy any.  I also started cucumber, yellow squash, pumpkin, and sage (a replant).  Everyone came up!  They will start their trek outside today to harden off.  No one goes into the ground until after March.  Never know if we will have another cold snap.

I am luvin being outside.  That is my spot, my element.  It keeps me active, interested, and out of the fridge. That's good for my waist line.  I can not wait til I can post a picture of my back yard this year.  The new (to us) fencing is installed.  A decent job if I do say so myself. Once all is in full swing, I'll take a pic.

New gardening season is off (not quite rolling)

Starting to get excited with the progress of the garden thus far.  The spinach is almost big enough to start picking off a few leaves.  I hope my family enjoys fresh spinach cause apparently I planted a bunch(pardon the pun).  The lettuce is also coming up nicely.  I didn't plant as much of that, but it sure looks like salads will be in our near future.  In addition it looks like all of my herbs made a return debut this season.  And finally my beets did make an appearance!  Hopefully the deer will stay out.

Out of the 50 some odd tomato plants I started in December, only 10 survived "The Great Fall of 2017".  Those 10, however, are thriving and have already been hardened off.  They'll make for a good experimental group.  I will still be buying tomato plants though.  We will see how it goes with the bigger guys this year.  The basil plants also survived, but rather than have them in pots this  year, they will go directly into the garden.

We've had a warmer than normal fall and winter and so my blueberries are blooming as well as my lone peach tree.  I'm not really that worried about my blueberries, because they're against the house on a south facing wall.  As long as we don't have a really long hard freeze, they should be fine.  My peach tree, though, is in the middle of my back yard.  It's in full bloom and even sports a few green leaves.  Tomorrow nights lows are supposed to be 33.  That's a little too close for comfort for me, but there isn't anything to do about it, but pray.  I have been diligent in spraying my fruit trees.  I really want some peaches!

Speaking of fruit trees and blueberries.  For the past week or so I've been working on more than just spraying the fruit trees.  Starting with my peach tree, I've been removing any grass from around the tree, and adding more compost and lime.  In addition, I've begun to put edging around the trees in order to plant companion plants at the base of each one.  Mint, which I have in abundance, goes well with apple trees and so I have one tree complete and the mint planted with it.  Marigolds will be my companion for the peach tree.  I have those seeds started, but can't plant them outside yet.  My blueberry beds are getting somewhat the same treatment.  They're already in a bed, but I have split up my chive plant into 4 smaller plants and  have put two in each blueberry bed in between each blueberry bush.  I may transplant my Lemon Thyme into the blueberry bushes as well.

I finished the crawl space area.  I love, love, love it!  I smile every time I open the door.  The gutters are working like gutters should.  It is an awesome thing to behold.  It's the little things in life!  So how are things on your homestead?