Making Your Own Seasonings

 I pulled out my dehydrator that I bought a couple months ago. I've been loving making apple slices for munching on, but I stepped up my game yesterday. I had a bag of carrots and some celery that I knew were going to end up getting tossed if we didn't use them up and started slicing them and putting them in the dehydrator. I put them in air tight containers and saved them for soups and stews. Then, like I do, my brain went into hyperdrive and I thought...."Why not make my own seasonings?" I have a pretty reliable food processer and can make my own onion powder, celery salt, herbs! I'm dehydrating the onions right now. I'll post later how well they turn out. 

Spray Starch for Ironing

 A nice frugal idea for saving on spray starch. Instead of buying cans of starch that don't last long, are expensive, and are an aerosol that is bad for the environment, you can make your own. Buy or repurpose a large spray bottle and add 1/8 to 1/4 (depending on how stiff you want your clothes) of liquid starch. Fill it with water and then add about a 1/2 teaspoon of your favorite perfume or cologne to it. Make sure the perfume is alcohol based and not oil based (sorry, not essential oil) as the oil will stain your clothes. You can find 1/2 gallon bottles of liquid start in most supermarkets in the laundry section. 

Banana Bread Recipe

Banana Bread Recipe

This is my recipe that I make for my homeless guys. I have added the buttermilk, chocolate chips, and brown sugar to the original recipe. If you don't like the chocolate chips, just omit that part. You can also add 1/2 cup nuts, or raisins according to taste.
I hope you enjoy it. Super easy and pretty darned tasty!
Banana Bread Recipe

preheat oven to 350
grease one loaf pan with shortening and dust with flour

In a large mixing bowl
mix with fork
1 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

In another, smaller, bowl
mix with a fork
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cups of brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk

In a third bowl
mash 1 cup (3 medium) bananas

alternate mixing the two small bowls into the flour mixture until completely blended with a spoon. make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan and get any flour mixture that is on the bottom mixed in. add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips if desired.

Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

allow it to cool so it can be handled and remove it from loaf pan. I wrap mine in foil and refrigerate it if I don't plan to serve it right away.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies

This is the recipe I love for making peanut butter cookies. They don't use flour (good if you are looking for gluten free cookies to bake) and are super easy to make. 

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups creamy peanut butter

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

(that's it!)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Mix the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Using a teaspoon, scoop up a spoonful and roll it into a ball in your palms, then roll them in a small bowl of sugar. Set them on a foil covered cookie sheet spaced out 1 dozen to a sheet. Then using a fork, make a crisscross design on the top of each cookie. 

Bake for 10 minutes. 

Let them cool a bit before taking them off the sheet with a pancake turner or they will break apart. I usually store mine in a 1 gallon plastic bag to keep them from drying out. Yummy!

Berry Crisp Recipe

Berry Crisp Recipe

This recipe uses 2lbs of frozen mixed berries. It is baked in a 9x9 pan and if you use a 4-6lb bag, you would use a 9x13 pan.

Mixed Berry Cobbler

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Ingredients:

filling:

1 2-pound bag of mixed frozen berries, thawed.

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp ginger or nutmeg

Topping:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup butter or margarine

put all of the dried ingredients for the filling in a small bowl and mix them together, then add them to the fruit in a bowl and mix. Pour filling into a 9x9 pan that you have sprayed with cooking oil.

In a separate bowl, cut the butter or margarine into the dry topping ingredients until it is blended and crumbly. Sprinkle those evenly over the top of the fruit filling. 

Bake for 45 minutes. Let sit until cool, then refrigerate if not to be eaten right away. (best when hot with ice cream topping)

Baking Powder Biscuits

Baking Powder Biscuits

This is the recipe for my baking powder biscuits I make every week. They are super easy and yummy, especially with gravy. These are drop biscuits, but you can roll them out at about 1" thickness and cut out circles using a common water glass from your kitchen.

Baking Soda Biscuits

preheat oven to 450 degrees

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

2 1/2 tsp. of baking soda

1 tsp. of salt

1/4 cup of shorting

3/4 cup of milk

Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cut in the shortening until the mixture looks like pea sized granules. Mix in milk with a fork until the dough is sticking together well and all of the flour is mixed in. Knead it about 10 times. 

On a foil covered cookie sheet, tear the dough into 10 equal sized mounds 

Bake for about 12 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Shut Down Fun

Yup. We're one of the families that are affected by the shut down directly. My daughter is employed by the U.S.G.S. (United States Geological Survey) as an Administrative Assistant. She had just finished getting her bachelor's degree and was starting to fill out paperwork to go full time and was getting a promotion when everything was halted and she was furloughed. Her future is put on hold and, after struggling financially to get by while she was in school and finally feeling like we could start benefiting, her future is put on hold. 

Not only are we trying to find money to pay our bills and rent, but we are looking for ways to save money and spend less. I have doubled up my efforts to save money at home and am trying various ways to make things to sell to help get spending money. I haven't been very active on this blog, but will now start again and hopefully give other people ideas on how to get through the tough times that our country is dealing with.