Frugal Measures

It is sort of fun to keep in mind the things that I’ve done to save money.  I am enjoying the challenges of thinking outside of the box to do things differently that will help meet our needs.   Our budget is always seeming to be on a tighter and tighter crunch.  I think it shrinks all the time!  Our medical deductible will rise once again in January as will the % they skim off the top rise for the STRS for the next four years.  Our car continues to run nearing the ripe old age of 18 and child #3 is now scheduled for braces on a payment plan.  I no longer worry if I take it one day at a time while keeping an eye out on the horizon… but we are once again blessed with enough.  Besides making more laundry detergent here are some of the things I did:

As the first frost approached I went out to the garden and scavenged for the last of its production for the year.  I found some really nice green beans and a half dozen or so green tomatoes.  The beans went into the freezer to be added to soup.  The fried green tomatoes made a nice addition to an evening meal we had.

I roasted some granola using oats we bought in bulk several years ago as well as other foods bought in bulk or we stocked up on during some amazing sales.  This is probably our favorite quick breakfast these days and sometimes we even take it for lunches.  And I found myself without white flour!!!  I knew I was close but I did run out so I dug into the wheat flour that I’d purchased at $1.00 per 5 pound bag.  Knowing that wheat rises differently than my usual half and half bread I went after a recipe designed specifically for whole wheat bread in order to ensure it would rise properly.  Rise it did!!!  This slice on the right is sitting on a dinner plate!  It was ginormous!!!  Needless to say we all ate half sandwiches for the next several days.  It was really good too.

Rick’s great Aunt Eleanor passed away and we were the recipients of some of her furniture from her nearby home; a beautiful chair and china cabinet which are both Vintage.  The date on the back of the china cabinet is stamped 6/28/60.  We also received some lamps, a decorative shelf, glass items, a really neat stool and some other odds and ends that are both beautiful and useful.  We also gleaned some paper products, cleaning products and food items given to us from her home.  It felt a little strange to be taking these things but it is nice to keep these beautiful and useful things in the family.  My mother-in-law was her closest living relative which is how we came to receive these things.  Otherwise they would have been donated or sold.

We received a whole box of blue cheese containers for free because they were about to expire.  I placed them in the freezer and then pulled one small container out to make blue cheese stuffed potatoes and blue cheese dressing.  The potatoes were a great sale at $1.00 a bag and the bacon was also purchased at under $2 per pound meeting my meat price requirement.  It’s been a long time since we had bacon.  Mmmm!

Kaitlyn went on her first field trip ever to Iron’s Fruit Farm.  She got to bring home a sweet little pumpkin from the farm she visited and when asked what she would do with her pumpkin she told everyone she was going to make it into muffins and a pie.  That’s exactly what we did and we roasted its seeds along with those from our Jack-O-Lantern as well.  No waste!

We popped some popcorn for taking in lunches one day as a fun snack; a smart choice compared with the $4 bag of chips we could have bought.  Popped corn, home canned peaches, homemade jam on homemade bread… the only thing we didn’t produce from basics was peanut butter.

And the best fun frugal project of all was digging into the dress-up box in the attic and supplementing from the backs of closets for all of this years Halloween costumes.  It even enabled some of the children to be one thing for the Halloween Party we attended and something warmer for actually trick or treating.  The kids had a blast trying things on, pairing them and choosing what to be.  More on that later…
Successful month but for one thing… the OVEN!  The whole thing blew and we had to replace it.  I made food in the crock pot or microwave for the days we were without a stove or oven.  Usually we pay cash or earn a reward and pay things off right away.  With the recent car repairs we had to have done and  a promised pay check that has not come through yet we could not afford to do that this time.  But we’re getting right back on track with the budget and planning for next years challenges.
And that sums up my economics skills put to use in October.

R.I.P. (or “rest in PIZZA”) With “Heart-y” blood sauce

Each year the 4th grade does a “gross grub” luncheon instead of a Halloween Party… no sweets allowed.  So Tristan and I decided last week what our plans would be and signed up to bring this goody in.  Apparently most of his friends are pretty jealous of Tristan’s pizza lunches when he brings them in and so we thought this would be fun to add to the grub table with a Chicago style cut for everyone to enjoy.  I added the pepperoni to this after it was baked but still hot so the pepperoni would stay in place to spell RIP.

Friday night pizza with a movie started out many years ago at our house now as a cost cutter.  We wanted a break, wanted some fun, so did our kids but we were also feeling tired after a long week working and most important was the fact that we were tight on money so going out let alone paying for a babysitter was not possible.  Also, it was something for the kids and I to look forward to as they got older and for all of us when Rick was working Friday nights.  The menu for one night a week is a no brainer; nice for me, and we NEVER seem to get tired of eating pizza.  Pizza is cheap to make and fun to eat.  That’s that!  Plus if you’re feeling lazy or rich you can order out or pick up a pizza or even buy frozen and heat it up.  Pizza is pretty easy to come by.

So pizza making every Friday night which is about 104 of the pies a year (more now) has added up to virtually THOUSANDS of pizzas coming out of my oven over the years.  I’ve been making two every Friday and now sometimes I make three pizzas to have a few leftover pieces for lunches to stick in the freezer for a later date and also to satisfy some growing appetites.  In that time, nearly 1 1/2 decades, I’ve tried many different pizza crusts but this is the recipe I always fall back on now.  It’s easy to handle and is tasty as well.

Crusty Pizza Dough  (makes 2 crusts)
4 1/2 tsp. yeast (or two packages if you purchase it in the pouches), 2 cups warm water, 1 tsp. salt, 4 tsp. olive oil,  6 c. flour, cornmeal
Directions:
Add yeast to 2 cups warm water.  Let sit for 5 minutes if you have time; long enough for it to dissolve and begin to bubble.  Add salt, olive oil and flour to the yeast mixture.  Mix with dough hook until kneaded.  Divide dough in half and with cornmeal roll out into a circle to fit the pan forming a collar around the edge of the pan with your fingers.  Place on sprayed or lightly oiled pans.  You can let these unbaked crusts sit covered to rise for up to an hour if you need/want or you can immediately dress your pizzas.  It works well either way but works better with letting rise with certain pizza pans.  Add toppings as desired and bake at 450 for 14-15 minutes.
Pizza Sauce  (the BEST sauce)
I make my own pizza sauce.  At one point I was buying a huge can of pizza sauce, splitting it at home and freezing it because this made a small difference in my budget.  Sometimes it was a pain to remember to defrost the sauce in time though.  I don’t know how much it costs in the stores anymore because it’s been years since I’ve purchased any.  One time I discovered I was OUT of sauce and had absolutely no money to buy any.  (I’m rather strict with my budget because I have to be and if it’s not there it’s not there).  Not wanting anyone to be disappointed I came up with my own sauce after reading through some old classic cook books using basic ingredients I did have on hand in my pantry.  The next week I doctored it up based on my previous experience with it and I now consider it perfected.  We prefer this sauce over any we’ve purchased and it is way less expensive than store bought canned sauce.
Incidentally an improvement to this sauce came in the form of home canned tomato sauce this year.  I made 14 jars of it; enough for 28 pizzas and it is SO GOOD!!!  But store bought canned tomato sauce works fine.
Directions:
Olive oil, 8 oz. tomato sauce per pizza, 1 tsp. minced garlic or 1 clove garlic per pizza, pepper, parmesan cheese, oregano
Brush each pizza crust thinly with olive oil.  Stir 1 clove/1 tsp. garlic into each 8 oz. can of tomato sauce.  Spread garlic tomato sauce over oiled pizza crust.  Sprinkle pepper over tomato sauce.  Lightly sprinkle with parmesan cheese and then sprinkle oregano over the parmesan.  Dress with Mozzarella or a mozzarella/provolone blend.  Add desired toppings; pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers, black olives or whatever else you like.  Bake as directed above in the recipe for the crust.
(In a pinch you can use garlic powder or dried minced garlic to = 1 clove.  Tomato paste can also be played around with to make pizza sauce but the above really works well and is our favorite). 
ENJOY!

Home Economics

I love thinking of new things to make myself or new ways to make things I need and use… especially when they save money.  Like I’ve said before, it’s not being cheap but being responsible and SMART!  And it’s a fun challenge.  I received a wonderful and comforting promise from my Heavenly Father right before I was pregnant with my fifth child that we would always have “enough”.  Since then I’ve felt a burden lifted off my shoulders and while I’ve been doing some of these things for a long time I have felt more carefree to just “have fun” with figuring out new ways to do things.  Since then many times new ways of doing things or new ways of thinking, arranging the budget or finding time just sort of come to me as I problem solve.   

Here are some of my recent budget savers besides the do-it-yourself job fixing the toilet…

One jar of peaches can make two fantastic food items in the kitchen.  First, after eating the peaches out of the jar I poured the light syrup that I had made for them into popsicle molds for a peach-sicle.  They are deliciously peachy with little pieces of fruit and we all love them.  Second, I made my Mom’s peach oatmeal muffins that she sent me the recipe for.  I generally use powdered milk in my cooking if it requires milk in any quantity.  It’s not only economical but it’s the only way we use our powdered milk supply.  As I was reaching for the measuring cup to add water I suddenly had the thought to use my home canned light peach syrup in place of plain water making it “peach milk”.  The measurement of light syrup was exactly the amount that I needed and the muffins were delicious!  NO WASTE!

Generally we have a dessert on Sunday Nights.  I used home canned raspberry preserves and cream cheese blocks I’d purchased by the tens when they went on sale for a dollar to make this divine raspberry cream cheese brownie.  They were “out of this world” good.  Home made granola using oats bought in bulk and coconut bought on a fantastic sale is a wonderful thing to serve at breakfast or in lunch boxes over a scoop of yogurt.

On the left, I used all of the cores and peels cut away from the canned apple slices I preserved to include in pressing into our applesauce so there was no waste again.  On the right, not because we don’t have any meat because we do but rather for fun, I made Chicken Fried Steak with no meat!  If you have any guesses on what they’re made of I should just tell you that these are actually made from oats.  Between the spice and the gravy they taste remarkably like chicken and were quite good as well as filling.  They did receive mixed reviews from my children, however!  It was a great experiment.

Shopping is not a huge money or time consumer for me but it is still fun to have something new or different every so often.  One the left, one evening as I was getting ready to leave on a date with my husband I found this little home sewn purse from my Mom on the hook, just the right size for what I needed to carry that night.  Then I grabbed a pin of paper flowers with pearl centers that had secured a birthday package from my Aunt and stuck it on the purse to fancy it up just a little.  They matched perfectly and paired with a necklace of the same colors they added a fun element to my otherwise plain outfit.  On the right I did spend a little time one Saturday shopping in a desperate attempt to come up with cotton linens for my kitchen.  For months I’ve had my eyes open for these whenever I’ve been out in the stores and come up with nothing at a good price as more and more of my towels and washcloths have made their way to the rag pile after years of service.  And I’ve discovered a trend rendering it difficult to come up with any type of natural fiber for the kitchen so I was getting concerned.  I made a trip out to a discount home goods store figuring maybe they would have some good old fashioned cotton for my kitchen.  After searching and searching over shelves of “other” types of kitchen linens I came upon piles and piles of 100% cotton terry towels, flour sack type towels and washcloths; all marked .79 cents.  Though they are not my favorite colors they are attractive and they are most importantly 100% cotton which is the only acceptable thing to me.  Figuring I would never find cotton again for .79 and that I may never find cotton for the kitchen until current trends have run their course I would take as many of them as I could find.  Bringing them up to the counter they scanned for $2, $3 and $4 each but apparently were mismarked by the store employees.  I brought the difference between the scan and the tag to their attention and because they were ALL marked at .79 they got the manager and that is what they had to sell them to me for.   I’ll never find cotton ever again for .79!!! 

Those are my economical ideas for the month.

Kitchen Mixes

Mix recipes requested… and granted!

There are many reasons to make your own food from scratch at home.  There are health benefits to knowing what you put into the food you fix for your family.  Let’s not even get into the corn byproducts that the food industry and government are sticking into all premade and processed foods causing… no, I won’t get into it.  There are home budget benefits as well since you can actually make these “mystery” convenience foods right in your own kitchen for pennies on the dollar in most cases.  And once these mixes are made they become time savers as well as you can make delicious wholesome foods in record time.  It just takes a little bit of planning. 
Why are the foods we eat such a mystery to people?  We eat AT LEAST three times a day and yet so many feel that a homemade frosted cake is opening a box at home and then opening a can of frosting to spread.  My Mom and I were talking about this just yesterday.  Pickles are something that must grow on trees or maybe bushes; they certainly can’t be MADE.  Raspberries grow on trees and where does a potato come from?  The Ground?  In the dirt???  Gross!  (These are all true stories… from adults… and a few teenagers).  The reason food is a mystery is because we’ve made it that way. 
Salad dressings found on the grocery store shelves are an American phenomenon, as I have been led to understand, though my own traveling experiences have barely ever left American soil.  A good friend of mine that we used to picnic with often who is from South America brought one of the best tasting green salads ever to share on one of those picnics. I asked her what the dressing was and I was floored at the simplicity when she told me. It was full of flavor but made with very few ingredients.  The dressings on our American grocery store shelves are often “fat-full” and have an ingredient list a mile long of things I can hardly pronounce not to mention the good ones cost DOLLARS and the cheap ones don’t taste so good.  Then there’s eating for $3 a day per person and you can imagine I don’t want to spend DOLLARS on fattening salad dressing either.    Then I was forced to figure out a salad dressing one day as I discovered we were completely out of dressing, we were having company over for dinner AND it was Sunday which meant, among other things, that there were no purchases at the store in my future that day.
I sent in my salad dressing idea to one of my favorite “frugal living” blogs/sites when she did a piece on homemade salad dressings and I actually got a personal response from its author who is really and truly an unofficial genius at frugality.  The internet has really led me into a world of connections with people who live like me and have similar priorities though our basic reasons for lifestyle may vary.  She thought my idea on making and storing the salad dressings was fantastic and she hadn’t yet thought of it on her own.  So there it is… I must be an expert… at salad dressing!?!?  Maybe just creative thinking outside the box.  Well, it’s something! 
Here are a few of my favorite salad dressings and a couple other dry mixes too.  I store the dry ingredients in clean dry pint jars and a pint is the perfect size for mixing in the wet ingredients once you decide to make the salad dressing.  They are capped with clean pre-used canning lids and rings.  (I like to re-use as much as possible).  Once I have filled my line-up of jars with dry ingredients I label the jar with masking tape to indicate the type of dressing.  Then on a piece of masking tape I stick on the bottom of the jar I indicate the wet ingredients to be added along with their amounts.  That way, homemade salad dressing is quick as a wink to make on a busy night and easy enough to create that my older children can even whip it up easily when it is their week for "dinner prep."  Usually several kinds of dressing mixes are on my pantry shelves for the “dinner helper” to choose from.  And when they’re gone I get out all of my spices and mix up the different combinations all over again.  *Important to note; most of my spices are bought in larger quantities at Sam’s Club for further cost savings.  With as much cooking as I do for a larger family I don’t have any trouble going through these ingredients.  Most of these dressings can sit on the shelf ready and waiting for at least 6 months.
Home-Style Ranch
Dry ingredients: 1 tsp. dry parsley, 1/8 tsp. dry dill, 1/4 tsp. garlic powder, 1/4 tsp. onion powder, 1/8 tsp. black pepper, 1/4 tsp. seasoned salt, 1/8 tsp. dry mustard, optional 1 1/2 tsp. dried chives.
Wet ingredients:  1 c. mayonnaise (no substitutes), 2/3 c. buttermilk (made from 1 Tbsp. lemon juice and milk to total 2/3 c.), 1/4 tsp. white vinegar.
Whisk together.  Best results requires 4 hours chilling time before serving.
Italian Dressing
Dry ingredients: 2 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. dry mustard, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. seasoned salt,  1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper, 1/4 tsp. black pepper, 3/4 tsp. Italian seasoning.
Wet ingredients: 1/3 c. Parmesan cheese, 1 c. canola oil, 4 cloves minced garlic, 1/4 c. lemon juice, 1/4 c. white or white wine vinegar.
Whisk all together.  Store in fridge for 2 weeks.
French Dressing
Dry ingredients:  1/4 c. sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. paprika or smoked paprika (smoked gives it a bacon flavor), 1 tsp. dry mustard, 1 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/8 tsp. onion powder
Wet ingredients:  3/4 c. vegetable oil, 1/4 c. vinegar
Shake until blended.  Chill.
My sister requested a couple of other mix recipes as well.  I guess her family must have liked “dinner in the mail” that I made for them and sent over 2,000 miles. 
The following I store individually in small plastic Ziplocs and then place folded Ziplocs in Mason Jars to keep the dry ingredients fresh. You can make make as many of these packets as you think you’ll use in 6 months.
Sloppy Joe Seasoning Mix  1 Tbsp. dried minced onion, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. cornstarch, 1/2 tsp. dried minced garlic, 1/4 tsp. dry mustard, 1/4 tsp. celery seeds, 1/4 tsp. chili powder.
Brown 1 pound ground beef.  Optional; toss in a chopped green or red pepper with the beef.  Add in 1 packet of the seasoning mix with 1/2 c. water and 8 oz. tomato sauce.  Serve on hamburger buns (or make your own).  Yum!
Taco Seasoning Mix Use in any favorite mexican recipe calling for taco seasoning
2 tsp. dry minced onion, 1/2 to 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. chili powder, 1/2 tsp. cornstarch, 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (reduce for milder taste), 1/2 tsp. dried minced garlic, 1/4 tsp. dried oregano, 1/2 tsp. cumin
Brown 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef or cook beans until soft.  Add 1/2 c. water with one packet of taco seasoning mix to the beef or beans.
Enjoy!

Frugal Accomplishments

Frugality… always a challenge and always room for improvement.  I am not always the most frugal with my time or money but most of the time I make it a goal to try to do a little better with this than I did yesterday, last month or last year.  I do not consider this way of thinking to be “cheap” but prefer to think of it as “smart” whether the idea came about from the mother of necessity or not.  I proudly present my “own kind of beautiful” from the past two weeks…

I harvested the rest of my zucchini as most of the plants were shriveling (I still have a couple left) in the heat and dryness and got about 33 cups of zucchini sliced and shredded and stored in bags for the freezer AFTER I gave some to a neighbor who inquired of my zucchini and said I was the only person she knows this year who had any luck with them.  This will make quite a few pots (cauldrons) of soup and a good number of loaves of bread as well during the coming months.  The empty spots in the garden then got re-planted as I figure there is still enough warmth in the season for something more.

My husband is finally catching the spirit… (with a friendly nudge.  This must be related to garbage picking while wearing lamp shades… he usually won’t do it).  Rick did both of these shelving projects FOR FREE!!!  I love it.  Salvaging scrap wood and with a few cuts our broom closet received a total makeover with sturdy shelving from top to bottom.  Now everything has a place.  The girl’s bookcase also received new life when a scrap from the kitchen wall was nailed as a backing to this old bookcase.  I personally wouldn’t choose this as a back to a bookcase (I would choose bead board) BUT it was free and honestly you can’t even see this backing because the bookcase is so full of books.  It really serves as a means of helping support the integrity of the bookcase itself.  It’s FABULOUS!  And I told my husband so.

My son brought me his pillowcase (left pic)… not just any pillowcase but the special one that matches his quilt.  The same one he received on his very first birthday and sadly asked “Mom, can you fix this?”  Only a magician could fix this thing but I decided to become the magician.  Digging deep into the recesses of my scrap stash bin I found fabric scraps from his baby quilt and pillow (middle pic).  Then I dug out the “Wild Goose Chase” pattern fashioned out of a brown bag that I had stored with my patterns and set to work.

Iron, measure, cut, stitch and SURPRISE!  Tristan loves it BUT it is not so soft he tells me and the ruffle could not be salvaged which makes him a little sad.

My cucumber plants are maturing inside of tomato cages on the north side of the garage.  I can get more plants in this vertical space and the cucumbers like being up off the ground as they dangle and grow.  I picked some for a fresh cucumber salad for tonight’s dinner with company and the plants are promising me many, many more.  The tomatoes are limping along but we did eat a couple and I’ll be frying up the green ones that my youngest son picked.

I bought 20 ears of corn for $4; some to roast now and others to blanche and freeze for later.
I grew a pumpkin!!!  It is now completely ripe after sadly falling off the vine green.  Since it won’t make it until Jack-O-Lantern season this little spooky will become yummy muffins in my kitchen and I’m conspiring a pie for Thanksgiving with it too.

I made my own “Quick Mix”, similar to Bisquick and made a Coffee Cake for Sunday morning.  My kids arose excitedly to the smell of cinnamon this morning and are blissfully unaware of the fact that I skipped buying expensive processed ready to eat cereals this month in order to make better use of my grocery money.

I made Hershey’s Syrup for Tristan’s requested Birthday pie this past week as well as for the extra pie I stowed in the freezer.  I know it doesn’t cost me as much to make this as it does to buy the same amount of Hershey’s syrup in the plastic squeeze bottle and it IS made from Hershey Cocoa.  The best part is that this syrup tastes like the Hershey Syrup you used to by in the tin can long ago that one would open on both sides with the triangular cut of the can opener.  The recipe they use today just doesn’t taste the same.  This, too, is very simple and quick to create.

And finally I made a triple batch of homemade laundry detergent again this week.  I probably spend as much for a year’s worth of laundry detergent now as I did when I bought ready made detergent for just a month.  This is hypoallergenic detergent that smells fantastic and is a non-sudsing “he” friendly soap.  I use a cleaned out bulk size corn starch container to store half of a triple batch in so I can feel good about my environmentally friendly re-use of a container.  And why do I buy corn starch in bulk???  Because it goes into the pudding mixes from scratch.  I love making “something” out of “nothing”.
Being smart with my resources is a beautiful thing.

Peaches & Pickles

There was a break in the humidity during our 14 day stretch of temperatures soaring between 90 – 105 degrees.  Given that I have done NO canning yet this year, everything is coming in earlier because of the heat and I’m usually done with canning by mid-September I felt like it was time to get something done in this department before I lost the chance to do all I wanted to do.  So I headed to the Farm Market.  His produce is as local as possible and is as fresh as can be.  Wholesale these were about 1$ per pound.

We ran out of home canned peaches a few months ago.  After purchasing some cans of peaches at the store when they went on sale I discovered that I really really prefer home canned.  I’ve gotten spoiled but these are the best.  So we bought 3 baskets of peaches which is one more than we bought last year; each basket weighing around 25 pounds.  There wasn’t a single bad peach in the bunch and we put nearly half a basket worth of peaches into the fridge to eat fresh.  These taste wonderful and juicy.

We sorted through the peaches and washed them.  I put the softer peaches aside and blanched the crispest ones to skin them.

The peaches were so large that I was going to have trouble fitting them into regular mouth jars in quarters even so I pitted and quartered them.  I soaked them  differently this year.  Last year I used fruit fresh to keep the fruit from browning.  This year I used a method that I got from a friend of a friend’s husband’s grandmother.  (I know everyone in that relationship EXCEPT the grandmother).  My friend said she’s been following this advice for years with no problem and so I followed the advice to lightly salt the cold water and float the peaches in that before cold packing the peaches into bottles with light to medium syrup.  The salt gives the sweet peaches an extra bite, is much cheaper than the fruit fresh which I will save to use with apples and it totally works.  The peach pits collected in a pot were later dropped outside in a concealed area of the yard.  I figure some little critter would enjoy nibbling the rest of the peach bits off and maybe even want to take the pits. 

We took turns through the day with various people entering the kitchen to help or taking turns helping out of the kitchen with other needs.  If you are going to produce family sized batches of food then the family should help.  We got our little kitchen together utilizing the flexibility of a dishwasher on wheels which we used to extend the assembly line we had going on with our counter space.  Kaitlyn and Lindsay both LOVED skinning peaches.  Haley and Lindsay were both very helpful with blanching and Haley made several batches of syrup to heat.  Lindsay took a turn at halving the peaches and pitting them.  The sweet smell of peaches wafted through the house and smelled wonderful upon re-entry.  Once you’d been in the house for a while you didn’t notice though so you had to leave and come back in.

I chose to cold pack peach quarters in syrup.  The soft peaches that were set aside plus a few more were then blanched, skinned, halved, pitted and they were put on the stove with just enough water to keep the peaches sticking to the bottom and heated until tender.  I ran the tender steaming peaches through the food mill at that point.  Then in a large pot the milled fruit was combined with some of the peach juice as well as sugar and spices.  Stirring and steaming it for about 90 minutes until the concoction rounded on a spoon I was left with peach butter which I’ve never had before or even eaten before but it smells and tastes like a bit of spiced peach pie on a freshly baked biscuit.  So Good!!!  At the end of two days in a warm kitchen I was left with 37 1/2 quarts of peach quarters and 10 1/2 pints of spiced peach butter; bottles of sunshine for biscuits with steamy soup through the winter months.

And just when we thought our baskets were finally empty… they weren’t!  And side note, I priced these baskets the other day at the craft store at $7.99 a piece!  Mine are coming free with purchase of fruit and they are so useful as well as pleasant looking.                               
Now to clean a VERY sticky kitchen…

I love homemade pickles and I’m sure it’s because of the “pucker power” that my grandmother’s pickles had when she made them during my childhood.  Hers were the BEST pickles and nobody could duplicate them.  They certainly could not be bought.  Once, after we’d moved away from her I said that the only thing I wanted for Christmas was a jar of Grandma’s pickles.  I wasn’t lying but maybe her secret recipe would have been better to ask for!  She wouldn’t tell a soul.  And though I make good pickles now, they are not hers. 
On day three that week the temperature again climbed higher than forecasted which was becoming quite regular.  But my real problem; the humidity was climbing and I knew that time with open windows was limited plus my fresh cucumbers had been waiting days already… a whole bushel of cucumbers in fact that I bought at the Farm Market; wholesale for $20.

So we began washing our bushel of cucumbers for pickling.  Making pickles has got to be one of the easiest things to make and they are so yummy.  I haven’t bought pickles at the store in over a year and we went pickle-less for months just so we could open our last jar on July 4th for our backyard picnic.  Pickles, once made, have to “pickle” for no less than four weeks also so at this point we really are pickle-less… sort of.  We’re counting the weeks.  And I may get the opportunity to make some more pickles as my cucumbers out in the garden look to be taking off, but we will eat as many as we can fresh.  A few years ago I had a really great patch of cucumbers growing… out my ears in fact!!!  With my first attempt at making pickles ever I had to go on a pickle buying strike finally until those darn things were gone… they weren’t too good I have to admit but I learned from that and now we make terrific pickles.  They make a great vegetable; especially fun for eating in lunches if you aren’t too concerned with sodium.  A spear or two is fine… my older son would just keep eating them!

I washed and prepared the fragrant dill and garlic next, another farm fresh purchase.  Check out the size of the cucumbers!  There wasn’t a bad one in the bushel either.  Every single one was firm and crisp.
Pickling an extra half bushel this year required the purchase of two more cases of wide mouth quart jars.  If you want to start a conversation with anyone and everyone at the grocery store just go buy canning supplies and wheel your cart toward the checkout.  You get all sorts of people asking questions inside of those five minutes.  Most people, I find, don’t know you can actually make your own food.  Food preparation seems to be one of the more mysterious parts of life which is pretty funny considering how often we have to eat.  Kids at school have actually told my kids that pickles can’t be “made” to which my kids respond “well, someone makes them.  They don’t just grow like that”.  We’ve come a long way from the farm, for sure.

One reason I think pickles are easy is that they are washed, cut and cold packed in brine.  There is no blanching, skinning, boiling or anything.  The brine is a simple mixture of water, vinegar and canning salt (not regular, iodized salt) heated to steaming with a cheese cloth bag filled with pickling spices.  Each jar has dill, mustard seed, garlic, pickle crisp and bay leaves added before the cucumbers and brine.  And I only make dill pickles.  Nobody in my family likes any other kind of pickle so it’s simple and every body is happy.

Mostly I made dill pickle spears but I did make a few jars of dill pickle chips which we call “Izzy Style” after a favorite local restaurant we like to visit once every so often.  At the end of two more days of canning I had processed 32 1/2 quarts of pickles and made loads of crispy cucumber salad.  The humidity had really crept up and I was grateful to shower that night, close the house back up and turn on the central air.  I felt grateful that we had been able to open up the house for four days, feel the breezes, let the kids out to play and get all that good food taken care of.