Lentil and Sausage Soup Affordable Meal

 As I look for affordable meals, I came across this video by Mouse Toes. This is an affordable and quite delicious meal that my son went nuts over. Yup, it is that good and quite economical as well. Love it and even hubby was quite impressed. I'll certainly be buying more lentils in the future!

Gone For Medical Issues - But Now Back

 

There are times life gets in the way - especially as we get older. I had been not feeling "normal" and was tired, dizzy, headaches, to start, which led to not doing much around here. Cooking and cleaning were total chores. I didn't want to do them, and at times I didn't. I was turning into a couch potato and didn't know why. A fall out of the shower took me to the dr and after a ton of tests, I learned that I had suffered a few strokes, vitamin deficiencies as well as a few other things. After treatment - I'm finally back to normal. I'm cooking and cleaning and doing everything one would expect these days. I'm still not 100% but at least I'm feeling so much better. The dizziness is gone and the tiredness is so much less. 

I have been watching YouTube and saving lots of cooking videos to try. One of my favorite channels to watch is Tales From An Empty Nest. She makes a lot of homemade versions of convenience foods and mixes. Every mix or food I make at home helps save money. I have tried some of her recipes and have been quite pleased with the results. I usually do a single serving first to test and if I like it - I will do a larger batch to put on the shelf. Not only do these save money, but they are also healthier - cutting out some chemical and preservatives that are found in the convenience versions.

I'm looking forward to what I can save with my own versions. I had definitely become lax with meals and my homemade mixes while feeling under the weather. It feels so good to finally experiment with cooking again!

Life is Unpredictable

Our life went from quiet in 2022 to full of excitement in 2023. We were moving along quite well with the garden last year but for some reason I kept a close eye on my husband while he was outside doing things. It was odd of me to do that, but something just didn't seem right. Then the end of May came and I was out ready to work the front flower beds and I noticed him leaning over the wheelbarrow. I thought he was having issues with his back and I yelled up and asked him if he was ok. No answer. I walked up to him and asked again and he walked around to the side of the the wheelbarrow, said his chest and collapsed. He went into full cardiac arrest - but not from a heart attack but a birth defect that went undetected. My son has just gotten home from running errands and I yelled for him. He did CPR while I stayed on the phone with 911. Within minutes, EMS arrived and then transported him to our local hospital. A few days later he was transported to another hospital and had an aortic valve replacement. He is doing well now, but I look back and thank the good Lord that the niggle in my head that something was not right saved him. If I had gone on with my plans of working out in the front beds, he would have been alone and no longer with us.

Life has since settled back down. Hubby is now working in the garden again and seems to be doing quite well. God is good! 

This year is a year for change. We are close to retirement age and it's time to start thinking about purging things that aren't useful any longer. The kids have all grown up and have their own lives and they don't want all our treasures junk that is important only to us. It is time they need to be sorted, offered to the children and/or purged. I have stopped buying yarn and craft supplies and am now using what I have. I should have more than enough in my stash to last past this lifetime!! I had gotten into that "must buy now or it will be gone" mode. You know how crafting is - everything is a limited edition and if you don't buy it now, you're going to regret it in the future. I stopped all my subscriptions after hubby's operation and really haven't regretted it since. There are a few things I miss about them - mostly the excitement of opening the package and not knowing what is inside, but that excitement wears off quickly and the item ends up in the "someday" pile.

It is time to use what we have here. Over the past years, I've abandoned many of my make-it-from scratch ideals for the easier and more expensive prepared items. I really don't know why as the prepared items are of much lower quality. Food items taste less than delicious to absolutely unpalatable and are chemical/preservative laden plus so much is genetically modified. It was easy falling into that trap with only cooking for the two of us as it was so much easier to pull out something in a can or package instead of slaving over a hot stove! Oh how the lazies can easily creep into your life!

I'm back on the road of making from scratch. If I want it - I need to make it! Things are being cleaned off the pantry shelves and being replaced with staples that I preserved. Bread, crackers, cookies, etc. are no longer being purchased, but come fresh out of the oven. That is only the beginning. I'm pretty much making everything from the basics, including decorations, necessities, toilietries, cleaners, etc. I have found this is slowly removing the toxins, we are feeling better and saving money!

If you have made it through my long post, I thank you. I hope you will join us on our journey and I hope that you may find something useful from my journey back to being a traditional homemaker. It is amazing how much I have forgotten over the years!

Homemade - Cheaper and Better

So many times my friends and family members will comment that it's really not worth it to make things from scratch when you can purchase it from the store. My daughter always says, "Time is money" and she doesn't have the time to put into it. Yes, it is - to a point. I don't work outside the home and she does, so her time is quite valuable to her. Yet, if she is buying things that really don't take much to make, is she really getting the best for her money?

For example, let's talk about store bought Vienna Rolls. First, I had no clue that the store sold its bakery rolls by the pound! My local store sells the rolls at $4.80 a pound and this package of 6 rolls cost $4.50 for 15 ounces! (I guess you can tell that I don't buy bread or rolls much.)

When I make bread, my loaves run between 2-3 pounds and the cost of ingredients runs about 50 cents to 80 cents if I decide to make a more specialty bread. If I make a dough for a one pound loaf, roll it into balls and let it rise - my homemade rolls will cost 25 cents, plus I know exactly what is in them. The texture might be a little bit different (depending on the recipe/type of dough I make), however, everyone says they are so much better than store bought.

If one uses the kneading cycle on a bread machine or uses a mixer to mix and knead the dough, the only time spent is the time it takes to put the ingredients in the bowl or pan. The time that it takes to raise, one could be doing something else - so it's not really working on the rolls. Then there is the punching down and shaping the rolls and putting them on a pan. That takes just a few minutes. The are put aside to raise again, and again, one could be doing something else. Into the oven they go - and baking time is another amount of time that could be spend elsewhere. So really - how much time total is actually going into these rolls? There's 25 cents in ingredients, a few minutes spent putting them into a bowl and then shaping the dough. There is the cost of running the oven, but if planned correctly, one can bake something else at the same time. With 6 rolls, the savings wouldn't be so impressive if you figure minimum wage in. 15-20 minutes is about $2 of labor, however, that's counting the pay BEFORE taxes and other deductions.

If you were to double the amount of rolls baked at one time, you would have about 20-25 minutes invested, and about $3 of labor BEFORE taxes. Three dollars of labor plus 50 cents in ingredients for $9.60 worth of store bought rolls. My rolls will weigh a little more than the store bought ones, because I am using a recipe for a 2 pound dough. By making my own rolls, I've saved over $6 (not counting the energy cost of the oven since that will vary depending on what type one uses). That's about an hour of minimum wage pay AFTER taxes that you SAVED by making your own from scratch!

Is it worth making things from scratch? Yes it is, for 2 reasons...
1. I save money and
2. It tastes better!

One more interesting fact... your rolls would be considered Artisan rolls and that would up the value even more!

Cranberry Sauce Time!

Thanksgiving dinner is not complete without cranberry sauce. Don't take my word for it - ask my son! He will wipe out a whole can himself!!! He prefers my homemade, but will settle for the store bought if he has to, but no matter what kind, it HAS to be on the table.

I'm making 2 batches of sauce from 2 different recipes. I'll be doing my old standby (you can find the recipe here) and I'll be trying the one on the back of the Ocean Spray bag as well as on their website. The one on the bag has less sugar to berry ratio and also has more water and needs to be cooked to gel stage.

I heard that one doesn't need to use a Foley Mill, but can just blend the berries with a hand held stick blender. I don't know how that will work, but will be trying a batch to see. My guess is that it will make a more chunky sauce instead of a smooth one that I get from my mill, because the Foley takes out the skins.

Homemade Jellied Cranberry Sauce

3 cups Cranberries
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Water

Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil, add the cranberries, then return contents to a boil. Reduce heat. Boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

Place a Foley Mill over a medium mixing bowl. Pour contents of saucepan into mill and push through. Remove mill and stir berry mixture.

Pour into serving container or straight-sided jar. Cover and cool completely at room temperature before refrigerating.

Makes 1 cup.

Chicken Bone Broth, Bone "Meal" & Kitty Food

I've been collecting chicken bones from both legs and thighs - both after being cooked or when I debone the thighs before cooking. I have been putting them in a Ziploc in the freezer and finally got a full enough bag to make some bone broth.

I put all the bones in a crockpot and then poured enough water over them to cover. I added an onion, a couple of sticks of celery plus leaves, a couple of carrots and a few spices: garlic powder, salt, pepper, a bay leaf and a little poultry seasoning. I also added a little vinegar to draw out some of the calcium out of the bones and cooked it on low for a good 12 hours.

The house smelled so good, but the best part was straining the broth and a sample taste to make sure it was seasoned correctly. OOOOHHH! Every time I make some of this, I can't help but to think back to my grandmother's chicken soup. She made the most yummy soup with celery, onions and carrots and poured it over her homemade Lane Kluski (Polish poured noodles). I never learned how to make it the way she did, but my broth is about as close as I'm probably ever going to get.

After straining and cooling the broth, I put it to chill and will remove the fat layer that forms on the top. My broth will be quite like jello and will need to be reheated to either can or make chicken soup with. I haven't decided what to do with it yet. Everyone here is now begging for soup since it smelled so good when it was cooking.

The bones I used - especially the ones I deboned, still had some meat on, so I took all the meat scraps, a little of the carrots, celery and onion and put that in my mini food processor and ground it up, rolled it into serving sized balls and made some homemade kitty food. My cat goes NUTS over this stuff! They were flash frozen and then put in a Ziploc to store in the freezer for future use.

The bones were soft and easy to break, so they were broken up in small pieces to add to the compost - not exactly bone meal, but will easily break down since they are broken up into pieces. These will help increase the calcium and give other nutrients to the garden. The rest of the veggies that didn't go in the cat food also went into the compost. Nothing was wasted except for the skin and the fat from the raw chicken. I didn't use that but should probably look up how to use that as well so I don't waste anything from the chicken.

Chicken thighs run $0.99 a pound here. I bought a 3.81 pound package and after removing the skin, most of the fat and bone, I ended up with 2.25 pounds of chicken. I had about $1.25 of waste. By making the broth and kitty food plus the bone "meal", that waste which normally would have been thrown out, became something delicious and useful (except for the skin and fat, that is).

Homeacre Hop #109

Is Canning Worth It?

I can't tell you how many times I've been told that canning isn't worth the effort any more. One can go out and buy food cheaper than you can can it, so why put all the time and effort into it?  Why indeed!?!

Let's compare my last canning day. I made 5 pints of Chicken Corn Chowder and 2 pints of canned chicken thigh chunks. First lets look at the cost of ingredients.

chicken thighs - $4.12.
onion - 18 cents
celery - 8 cents
potatoes - 20 cents
corn - 99 cents
chicken broth - 1.99
canning jar lids - 81 cents
for a total of $8.37

If I purchase Campbell's Chunky Soup, they currently run $1.98 a can - 5 cans = $9.90. To be fair, the Chunky are in 18.6 oz cans, so we should be figuring by the ounce. 10.7 cents x 16 ounces = $1.712. That would cost $8.56 for comparison.

I then went looking for canned chicken. If I purchase Swanson Premium Light and Dark Chicken in water, I will pay $1.98 for a 9.75 ounce can. That breaks down to 20.3 cents an ounce. Unfortunately, I cannot find any dark meat only, so this is as close as I can get for comparison. 16 ounces = $3.248. 2 pints = $6.48

With that said, if I purchased the equivalent of what I canned from the store, I would have spent $15.04. My cost was $8.37 for a savings of $6.67. If I had used my own produce out of the garden as well as my own canned broth, I would have been able to save even more.

This isn't the end of the savings though, because the bones I had left from the chicken were frozen  to be used  at a later date. When I get enough, I will make a nice batch of broth to can.

So, is it worth it? In my opinion, yes. I saved money and the flavor is much better. Plus, I know exactly what went into those jars!

Canning Chicken & Chicken Corn Chowder

There was a sale on Campbell's Chunky Soups a bit ago, so I decided to stock up. My daughter takes lunch most days and thought these would be good for her to take while it was cold out. I was sooooo wrong. I haven't had these in a long time, so maybe I'm remembering them being better then, but they were AWFUL! I have a bunch in the pantry that I will eat because I purchased them but never again.
Which leaves me no choice but to put up my own soups and stews.

I haven't canned much in the way of soup - just vegetable soup, so today was my first try with chicken. I got some thighs on sale and figured they would be perfect for canning. I found a recipe for canning Chicken Corn Chowder on SBCanning.com that looked good, so I gave it a try.

I removed the skin, fat and bone from each thigh - freezing the bones to use later to make broth. I only did 10 thighs and put aside the other 6 for dinner. The 10 thighs made enough for 2 pints of chicken and 5 pints of Chicken Corn Chowder. I was surprised I ended up with so much out of ten!

The biggest time suck was the preparation, but when it came time to put everything together, it went quite quickly. Everything sealed and now I'm anxious to try a jar to see how they turned out.

It's Bean Time!

I had purchased a lot of dried Roman Beans for 50 cents a pound at one of those outlet stores a couple of months ago. I had no idea what they were, but they were dried, cheap and looked a lot like pinto beans, so they came home with me. I did some research on the net and found that these beans can be used interchangeably with kidney beans, black beans. chili beans and pinto beans. Sounds like I found a goodie!

I decided that it would be a good time to try them, so I soaked 2 pounds to can for soups, etc. and while I was at it, I thought I'd do a pound of baby limas as well. I sat down with the Ball Blue Book and found that for every quart of beans I want, I need 3/4 pound of dried beans. Hmmmm - not enough for a canner load, so I decided to try SB Summer BBQ Beans from SB Canning to make a full load.

I used Garden Gnome's recipe for Home Canned Kidney Beans & Lima Beans as she does her beans just a little different than I normally do. If you haven't been to her website called Mom's Cafe Home Cooking, you really must! She has so many great recipes posted there with a lot of guidance for both the newbie and the experienced cook alike. I love her site!

Well, it appears Ball was quite a bit off the mark on how much I needed. I ended up with 4 pints of Baby Limas, 6 pints of regular Roman Beans and 6 pints of SB Summer BBQ Beans with quite a bit left over!! My All American Pressure Canner only holds 16 pints so I decided to use the leftover in chili for dinner tonight.

The beans cooked up nicely. They were meaty and larger than normal beans and made a delicious chili!

Dinner - a nice bowl of chili on a bed of salad topped with cheddar cheese, sour cream and taco sauce. Oh man! I'm glad there were leftover beans!!!

Becky's Soap Cut - hmmmmm

Today was the unveiling of Becky's soap and it didn't turn out like I expected. My guess is either the scent or the coloring or both didn't agree with the olive oil. I used Bertoli brand olive oil and also some homemade calendula oil out of the same brand.

 As you can see, the tops turned brown and didn't look great.

I discovered little beads of oil or sweat on the top of the soap of the larger piece.

Those that came out of the cookie molds had spots on the bottom and the tops were brown.

Cutting was interesting - the soaps cuts some and also broke. Possibly these needed to set longer? Maybe it was also the issues that turned the soap brown. It's sad, because these these were an interesting pink yesterday. 

I also have decided that the smell of the Strawberry Jam wasn't for me when I took these out of the mold. However, when I was rinsing off the cleaver, I found that the smell was really quite nice. Does this mean there is still hope? Maybe as these cure they will harden and turn out to still be decent soaps. I've read that it will take longer to cure and a good olive oil soap bar will be best at about 9 months or longer. 

I'm having a lot of fun trying the soaps out - the successes and failures really make me want to try for something better or change something to make the recipe work. Lots of crumbled pieces from this soap. I've decided to collect the crumbs and will put them all in a soap down the road. Might make for an interesting bar.

Dreaming of Spring

Spring - There are times like this past week that I think it's never going to get here. The calendar says differently though, so I must have faith... :)

I've been spending quite a bit of time online looking for projects to do this year. I found some great canning ideas and even had one of those DUH moments. I was reading how one person makes her chicken broth (I can't find that blog now - must go back through history!) Anyhow, she cooks her chicken legs, etc. and the family eats their fill. She takes those bones you'd normally throw away and freezes them until she has enough for a batch of broth. She then takes the bones, covers them with water and puts in some carrots, celery, onion, and cooks them until she has a nice broth. Then she strains it, cools it, takes off the fat layer, then cans it. She also says that you can grind the bones up for bone meal - many homesteaders do that. Talk about not wasting a thing!

I made some more soap this afternoon. I followed Becky's (from Becky's Homestead) Easy Homemade Soap recipe and made a half batch of olive oil soap. I added some Strawberry Jam fragrance oil and tried Gel Tones Neon Pink to color it. I'm not crazy over the smell right now, but we'll see what happens after it cures.


I loved Becky's flower soaps, so I went to Amazon and purchased a mold for myself for under $4 shipped. It's coming from China, so it won't be here for a couple of weeks.

Not much else going on at the Cottage. Just snow and snow and snow. We do have a little sunshine this after noon, but it's supposed to snow again this weekend. Tomorrow I cut the soap, so will post the results then.

Crisco Soap Cut

I cut the Crisco Soap yesterday and am pleased at how it turned out. I did see some marbling and wonder if it is because the soap when from trace to really thick after I put in the scent. I'm guessing I didn't get the scent stirred in well enough. The scent is light and I'm wondering if it will fade more as time goes on. I'll have to add more next time, since this scent isn't an essential oil, but a fragrance oil. It still smells yummy, but I won't be able to get any more of it at the retailer I purchased it from. The fragrance was on closeout and is no longer carried. I do see other sites have it - wonder if it's the same thing?

I know my photo looks sad and doesn't do anything for the soap (soap is a light tan on tan paper in a cardboard shoe box - talk about monotone!). Heck, as far as that goes the soap cuts look sad. I used a mushroom container for the  mold and it wasn't smooth on the bottom. I am just going to have to invest into a decent mold now that I am going to continue. I'm not comfortable handling the lye yet - and it needs to stay that way to keep from having accidental burns. The one that scares me the most though, is the splash in the eyes. I've seen photos of that and it's scary!

My next adventure... Pink soap with a strawberry scent.

Soap Progress

The soap from class did set up, but not as quickly as I was told it would. At 26 hrs., it was so soft and wouldn't come away from the sides of the mold. However, today, after 48 hours, it was more set and came out of the molds with no problems. I cut it and set it aside to let cure for at least 2 weeks.

I know my cuts are sad to look at, but I thought I'd try different thicknesses to see what we'd like, plus they really need some help with being even. LOL

Then it was on to try a new recipe. I saw a soap made from Crisco on Brother's Handmade website where it used just Crisco, lye and water and a fragrance if you'd like to add one. Sounded easy enough, so I gathered everything and whipped up a batch. This one came together so quickly. Between the immersion blender and the fragrance, I went from a good trace to "mashed potatoes"!! It is now sitting wrapped in towels and curing. I can't wait to see how this one turns out. I used a fragrance called Lemon Bundt Cake and it smells divine!

Soap Making Class

So, I finally did it! I made my own soap. Was it a success? Only time will tell.

We had a nice small class, so there was lots of student/teacher interaction. That was nice. I measured out the lye, water and the fats: vegetable oil, lard, and tallow. We melted the fats, mixed the lye and water and when they were both at 100 degrees, they were mixed together.

Then came the stirring....

and stirring....

and stirring....

and about two hours later I had soap coating the sides. 

This meant that a trace should be soon to follow....

... but after another 45 minutes of stirring, still no trace, so the instructor said it probably wasn't going to.  She suggested quitting and just put it in the mold and see what happens.

She was with us through all the steps and helped us with measuring, etc, so she knew that everyone's should be right. But not all traced. Strange, eh?

She's not sure if it will set up or not, so we shall see after 24-48 hours. If not, I can remelt and try again.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

I must say it was a fascinating process and I will certainly try again. Next time, though, I use an immersion blender!!

Making the Bucket List Smaller

Every year I write a list of things I want to try or do and every year most of those items seem to gravitate to the next year's list. I was going back through my notebook of all my lists, notes on gardening, etc. when I stumbled upon a list for 2006 that had "Want to learn to make soap" at the top. I'm not sure if that's the first year I decided I wanted to try or not, but it is the first year I've found it recorded and it's moved from list to list each year.

I was going through emails and found a local class teaching soap making tomorrow. I called and found it still had an opening, so I've signed up! Tomorrow I will be able to cross off another item off my Bucket List! YAY!!!

A Great Laundry Stain Remover

I have been using a wonderful homemade laundry stain remover for almost 2 years now. It is easy to make, inexpensive and works so much better than the commercial stain removers on the market. I have saved many shirts that hubby accidentally got something on at work, things that before may have been put aside to wear as work clothes around here.

Stain Remover:

2 Parts Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2)
1 Part Original Dawn (blue)

Mix together in a spray bottle. Spray on stain - best if allowed to set for a day or two before washing. I spray it on and fold up the stained item to keep it moist. Wash as usual.

I found the recipe on Po' Papa Joe's blog along with a great homemade laundry detergent that works really well. I tried the detergent but think I grated my Fels Naptha bar a little too coarsely. Right now, I have to use boiling water to get it to dissolve. I think finer would be much better. It still works well - just a bit more fussing to use it now.

Small Batch Laundry Detergent 

1 bar Fels Naptha
1-1/3 cups washing soda
1-1/3 cups borax

Finely grate the Fels Naptha and mix with the other two ingredients in a plastic container (I used a 3 pound cottage cheese container). Use 1-2 Tablespoons per laundry load. I found that this works best for me if I dissolve the mix first in hot water, then add to my machine. I have a front loading machine and just put it in the drum then add the clothes.