Frugal Updates

I’ve begun trying some recipes for homemade items and I thought I would give you a bit of an update and share what I’ve been learning.

Vinegar… I knew it worked on pee stink, but it really does clean lots of things. I used it while cleaning my bathroom and I was surprised at how well everything just wiped right off with it. I won’t like though, the smell of vinegar can get downright potent in a small bathroom, but I’ve used commercial cleaners that were even worse, so this is doable. It dissapates pretty quick and doesn’t leave a lingering unpleasant smell, so I like that.

I now have, sitting and infusing (like that word?), apple cider vinegar, a little Dawn and two oranges in a container. I love oranges, but can’t eat them, so I just chucked the entire orange in, pulpy part and all instead of just the peels. We’ll see how it goes.

Making this up tomorrow. This comes from http://heart-hands-home.blogspot.com/. If you get a chance to visit there, she has awesome recipes for food as well.

All-Purpose Cleaner

1/2 C. vinegar* (a great disinfectant)
1 tsp. borax (add water softening properties)
1 tsp. liquid soap (use castille or dish detergent)
2 tsp. baking soda (add disinfecting and odor removing)
15 drops Tea Tree essential oil (a great antibacterial-antimicrobial oil) (Or use your favorite essential oil)
warm water

I don’t have my Tea Tree yet, so I’ll make it without that, but will add it when it comes in.

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Homemade deordorant:

Ok if you’re a fella, look away or just get over it.   Menopause is not as wonderful as I had once thought it would be. Yes, I said wonderful. We have no kids and aren’t going to have kids, so that was a lot of monthly misery I could live without. Cut to two years ago when this all started and I found out that hot flashes is the most common sign, but there are MANY effects you don’t hear a lot about. I got those. (figures!)

Anyway, one of those effects is that I have yet to find a deodorant that 1) actually works for me, or 2) doesn’t make my very sensitive skin get all rashy and broke out. When you put those two things together with the fact that I now have the worst BO of my life thanks to the hormones, it can get pretty gamey around here.

So I tried one recipe I found. The recipe I tried was as follows:

5 Tbsp. coconut oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup arrowroot powder or corn starch
essential oils (optional)
Mix the ingredients together with a fork until well combined.

I did end up nuking my coconut oil first because I had it frozen, but mixed everything else very well and stuck it in the fridge to reharden, which it did just fine.

Now, near as I can tell, it was working pretty good, but I could only wear it one day at a time and only if I didn’t get hot and sweat. Good trick in summer, eh? I really don’t know what caused the problems because all of those items are pretty innocuous by themselves. I did not use an EO in it, either. But the burning! Oh my Lord…burning, itchy and rash. It was ugly and really very painful.

I’m not saying it wouldn’t work for someone else, but it definitely was not good for me. Next recipe I’m going to try is:

Witch Hazel Tea Tree Double Whammy Deodorant Spray

10 drops tea tree essential oil
1 ounce of witch hazel

I ordered 3 bottles of Tea Tree Oil, for several recipes I want to try, and am hoping this may work better. I’ll keep you posted, not that I think you want to hear about my pits, (laughs) but to let you know how my new journey to frugality is going.

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S.O.S. = Soup or Sauce

I made some of this up and will be using some this weekend. I LOVE soups and stews and always want to make just enough for me when the sweetie is away at work for 2 and 3 days rather than make a giant crockpot full. I’m hoping to adjust my big recipes down to me, myself and I sized portions.

We eat a lot of soups and stews, not just because I love them, but because they are so economical and I make a GREAT soup.   The Sweetie likes them, too, but the poor guy needs something he can rip and shred in between batches. <giggles>

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I got my Lilac/Lavender EO that a friend makes up for me yesterday! Tomorrow is soap making day, so heads up on the soap making post that will be coming, too. Taking lots of pictures for ya’ll and lots of explanations.

If any of you have any ideas or recipes or advice I’m more than happy to hear them! I have a lot to learn and many of you are absolutely brilliant at this stuff.

Maui Crockpot Chicken

 

MAUI CROCKPOT CHICKEN RECIPE
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4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 TBS. Oil
1 (14.5 oz.) can of chicken broth
1 (20 oz.) can of pineapple chunks
1/4 cup vinegar (apple cider vinegar if you have it. If not plain is ok)
2 TBS. Brown Sugar
3 tsp. soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 minced onion
1 med. bell pepper, chopped
3 TBS. cornstarch 1/4 cup water

1. Brown chicken in oil in heavy bottomed skillet

2. Place chicken into bottom of crockpot

3. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over chicken.

4. Cover; cook on low for 4-6 hours

5. Serve over hot jasmine rice or whatever rice you have on hand.

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NOTE: I made this on Aug. 26, 2012 and it was awesome. Also, I used dehydrated bell peppers and dehydrated onions (both that I made myself) and it worked just fine. I also thawed my chicken and cooked it halfway in the microwave rather than in a skillet because it was faster and it still was wonderful.

Maui Chicken and a Case of Peaches

Hungry now? muhaha!

I am eating one of the most incredible peaches that I’ve had in a lonnnng time. So good, in fact, that I bought a case of them. We have a man who sets up a van in town and he goes right to the farms to get his produce. It’s VERY fresh. Definitely way better than the stores get. Because he is the only middleman, he passes those savings on to his customers. You can’t get this stuff for this price in ANY of the markets around us.

Today we bought another dozen corn on the cob. These are a particular variety that is only grown up here apparantly. I’m telling you.. this corn is better even than sugar corn. It’s called Providence corn. Did you know that you can eat corn on the cob raw right off the cob? I didn’t!!! Oh boy was it good. It was so sweet it was as of it had sugar sprinkled on it. Hopefully we’ll be able to get more when pay day rolls around. I have a LOT of corn put up already, but I may thaw that, cut it off the cob and dehydrate it and freeze this for eating off the cob instead. Should be able to dehydrate it still, right? I don’t see why not.

Anyway, the sweetie is going to be working the next three days again. God Bless him… he is working overtime for us so we can get caught up with a couple things and so we can take our gun courses for our licenses. I have to plan out all his meals and count his carbs and stuff for each day and I’m trying a new recipe tonight. It’s called Maui Chicken. You make it in the crockpot and let me tell you. This is AWESOME!  He gets more comments about his meals from the other guys at work. hehe. The recipe is at the end of this post and I’ll add it to my Diner category as well.

Tomorrow I’ll be cutting and freezing peaches. It says to blanch them first, but honestly I don’t see why. I like the skin. I’m going to cut them in wedges and lay them on cookie sheets and lay them in the freezer so they freeze individually. Then I’ll vacuum pack them. That way I can use them for anything from smoothies to jams to cobblers by just reaching in and taking out the amount I want. Some of them will get dehydrated also. I love dried peaches in my oatmeal.

I will also be making my first batch of homemade household cleaner.    I ordered 3 bottles of Tea Tree Oil and 3 bottle of Peppermint Oil as well for a couple other things. The jury is still out on my homemade deodorant. I don’t know if that caused a little rash and burning under my pits or if it was something else. Still trying it out and will keep you all posted. (Yes, I know you are just rivetted to your seats waiting to hear how my pits are doing. <winks> )

 

MAUI CROCKPOT CHICKEN RECIPE
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4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 TBS. Oil
1 (14.5 oz.) can of chicken broth
1 (20 oz.) can of pineapple chunks
1/4 cup vinegar (apple cider vinegar if you have it. If not plain is ok)
2 TBS. Brown Sugar
3 tsp. soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 minced onion
1 med. bell pepper, chopped
3 TBS. cornstarch
1/4 cup water

1. Brown chicken in oil in heavy bottomed skillet

2. Place chicken into bottom of crockpot

3. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over chicken.

4. Cover; cook on low for 4-6 hours

5. Serve over hot jasmine rice or whatever rice you have on hand.

 

 

Cheesecake-stuffed Strawberries

Tonight I made the most wonderful snack! Cheesecake-stuffed Strawberries. How can you go wrong with that? The recipe came from The Sweets Life .  I’ll print the recipe as is, but I did mine a little differently. First the recipe.

I cheated a little. I used Jell-O brand No Bake Cheesecake. I had that, but did not have any cream cheese. I’d like to try it the original way, too, but trust me, this was still wonderful. First I hollowed out the strawberries. There has to be an easier way to do this than the way I did it. It was kinda tedious. I wonder if a melon baller would work? Hmm… have to think on that.  Anyway…

Then I made up the cheesecake mixture and put it in a ziploc bag and snipped off the corner to use like a cake bag.

Here they are all filled and topped with a sprinkle of the graham cracker crust mix. I had leftover cheesecake and crust mix so I added the butter to the crust mix and patted it into a bowl. I squeezed in the remaining cheesecake mix and topped it with cinnamon.

Here is the original recipe:

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Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries
from Nutmeg Nanny
Ingredients:
-1 lb large strawberries
-8 oz. cream cheese, softened (can use 1/3 less fat)
-3-4 tbsp powdered sugar (4 tbsp for a sweeter filling)
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-graham cracker crumbs

Directions:
1. Rinse strawberries and cut around the top of the strawberry. Remove the top and clean out with a paring knife, if necessary (some may already be hollow inside). Prep all strawberries and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Add cream cheese mix to a piping bag or ziploc with the corner snipped off. Fill strawberries with cheesecake mixture. Once strawberries are filled, dip the top in graham cracker crumbs. If not serving immediately, refrigerate until serving.

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Enjoy!

Mom’s Old-Fashioned “True” Pound Cake

This recipe is my mom’s pound cake. It’s not just any pound cake, either. This is the old-fashioned, from scratch, pound of everything pound cake. It’s lucious, addicting and not for the dieters. I thought I would share it with you. This is also my first step-by-step photo post so bear with me.

First the recipe: If you want this to be as yummmmmy as it should be, don’t substitute. I only make this twice a year. Sweetie’s BD and my BD. Today is his although he’s working so we will celebrate this weekend. So go all out and really make this decadently good. It’s worth it. This recipe also doubles very well. I did that today so the pictures you will see are very full because of being doubled.

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Mom’s Old-Fashioned “True” Pound Cake

1 3/4 cups UNsalted, sweet butter (not marg, not shortening, not salted butter)
3 cups sugar
6 eggs (all of the egg)
1 1/4 cup whole milk (only use whole milk)
2 tsp vanilla (real vanilla, not imitation)
4 cups flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
dash of Mace  (this you can fudge if you have to and use Nutmeg, but mace is much better)

Set out eggs and butter to soften and warm to room temp.

Sift flour, salt, bp and mace together 4 times. (YES! I said 4 times. Noone has to sift anymore you say? They do if they are good bakers and understand that the lighter and fluffier and more aerated your dry goods are the lighter and fluffier your cake will turn out. Don’t argue. Just DO it. <winks> )

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.Cream butter and sugar very well. Add eggs one at a time. (just do it. it helps with the incorporation of the eggs. Oh and in case you were curious… when you double it, that’s 7, count them, 7 sticks of butter. This cake is not for the faint of heart… or arterie.)

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Mix the milk and the vanilla together in a seperate bowl. (Doesn’t that look purty? lol)

Add the dry ingreds. and the milk mixture alternately, but slowly to the creamed sugar and butter.

(Ok, do it slowly unless you want to wear it. Seriously…slowly.)

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When it’s all together, turn your mixer up and whip the dickens out of it for at LEAST 2 mins. I clean up a bit when its doing this so mine might mix for 4-5 mins. I don’t care. It makes it creamier and lighter.

If you don’t have a good strong mixer and a really big bowl,  don’t double it at one time. Do two seperate batters. I’m not responsible for overflowing bowls or burned out mixer motors. I warned you. Mine is a Kitchen-Aid Pro series so it can handle it without a problem in case you were wondering what I was using.

Grease your pans.

(OK, this is up to you, BUT…I don’t use Pam or Baker’s Secret in my good baking pans. It leaves residue that I don’t care for and it does flavor the baked goods. I use the fingers God gave me to butter, yes we’re still using butter, and then flour my pans the old fashioned way. My mom and I used to have a competition on who could shimmy their flour around the walls and spill the least flour out. Still, this step I’ll let you decide.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes. (This means at 45 start testing your cake with a thin skewer. When it comes out clean, it’s done.)

Now another baking tip:
You know how when you bake a cake it rises higher in the middle and makes a dome? If you don’t want that here’s how you fix it. Take an old terrycloth towel and cut it into long 1.5 inch wide strips. Soak those in COLD water, the colder the better. Then wrap them around the outside of your cake pan and pin it in place before sliding the pan in the oven. This helps you have less of a mound in the middle of your cake. Wilton also sells insulated strips that do the same thing, but unless you find them on sale, they are a little pricey and this works just as well.

Waiting to go into the oven:

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Baked and cooling on racks:

Shipwreck!

Yep, that’s the name. It’s from the book “Chicken Foot Soup and other Recipes from the Pine Barrens.” I know the folks who put this book out, having lived in the Pine Barrens myself. Without further ado… the recipe and a little about it.

“This recipe was made by many women who lived along the Jersey seashore. When word was sent that a sea disaster had taken place, the ladies would prepare this dish and put it in the oven for about 2 hours. They then had hot food to serve to the survivors and rescuers.”

by Rai Milza, excerpted from “Chicken Foot Soup and other Recipes from the Pine Barrens.”

I can also personally attest to the fact that this went for forest fires as well. We only had volunteer fire fighters in those towns and when there was a fire, or as stated, a sea disaster, the ladies would gather at the local firehouse and start making huge trays of this. It really sticks to the ribs, its got enough zing to make it warm inside and its very nutritious.

Shipwreck

2 large onions, thinly sliced
6 med. potatoes, thinly sliced
1 1.2 lbs. raw ground beef
1/4 cup uncooked rice
1 (1 lb. can) of red kidney beans
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 (1 lb. can)  of italian plum tomatoes, cut into pieces (save the juice)
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Old Bay Seasoning
Parsley

Slice onion into a large baking dish. Place the following in layers: onions, potatoes, beef.
Then sprinkle a layer of rice, a layer of kidney beans and a layer of celery and green peppers.
Do this until all the ingredients are used up.
Sprinkle chopped tomatoes on top.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika and Old Bay. Pour the sauce all over the top of the casserole so that liquid shows around the edges. Sprinkle parsley on top of all that.
Cover pan with lid or aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours or 325 degrees for 2-2.5 hours. Serve hot.

This recipe serves 4-6. Easily doubled, tripled or get your calculator and really go to town.

Sauce:

1.5 cups ketchup, bbq sauce  or tomato juice.
1/4 cup steak sauce
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar (to taste)
Leftover juice from the plum tomatoes
Parsley

Mix ingredients in bowl. Add enough water to make the sauce a good pouring consistancy.

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(Personal notes: I rarely have steak sauce so I use worcestshire sauce in place. I also use a little tomato sauce and mostly bbq sauce for my sauce. The other thing about this recipe is that really you can put anything you want into it. I’ve made it with chick peas when I had no kidney beans. I’ve added shredded carrot if I had a lot. You can add additional veggies to it to use them up. It’s very versatile. This particular picture is from the two I made today. Usually this fills up a larger pan right to the top, but I made two of them in smaller pans so it’s a little less full than usual. I also put some carrots on top because I had extras and didn’t want them to go bad.)