Easy Potpie

Hello one & all...I sometimes think that there is a negative stigma attached to home cooking. Seems that a lot of people think you need to spend tons of time and have tons of ingredients on hand to have a nice, inexpensive meal. Not true...just the opposite in fact. Homey food can be fast and very easy to prepare. I have shared a recipe today (well, two really!) that show just how easy it can be to save money by cooking simple meals at home. My BIL sent a similar version of this recipe and reminded me how much my family enjoyed Easy Potpie when I used to make it. There are so many recipes that use baking mix either as a topping or an ingredient. I have included the Potpie recipe as well as an easy to prepare baking mix recipe to frugalize (Is that a word?) the use of baking mix...this also has the bonus benefit of being able to pronounce all of the ingredients!

Chicken Potpie

1-2 cups frozen veggies, thawed (mixed is very good, peas, corn, whatever you have on hand!)
1- 1 1/2 cup cooked, diced chicken
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 tsp. thyme (I use Italian seasoning, or thyme & oregano)
1 cup baking mix
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

In a bowl, combine veggies, chicken and soup. Pour into an ungreased 9" pie plate. Combine biscuit mix, milk, and egg. Pour over chicken mixture and bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes. (Until golden brown.) Serves 4-6 ***I double this for my family of 5 and use a 9x13 pan.

Baking Mix

9 cups flour
2/3 cups dry milk
3 TBSP baking powder
2 tsp. salt
1 cup shortening

Mix flour and other dry ingredients. Cut in shortening. Use a mixer set on low to save time. Store in an airtight container up to 6 months. This recipe uses a 5 pound sack of flour when doubled.

Make and enjoy!...Blessings, Eve

Last of the Tomatoes

Hello one & all...it's been so busy around here the last week or so. Had my sister, my niece and my Mom out yesterday. (As well as two extra "kid-friends.") My sister brought most the fixings for cabbage rolls (or Golumpki's as we Polish people call them...) and we whipped up 40 or so. 20 for her family and freezer and 20 for dinner last night. Mashed potatoes and fresh frozen corn off the cob...my favorite meal. While we visited before and after that mass production I made a peach struessel pie and a crumb top apple. Used frozen crust that I picked up a while back on the verge of expiring...haven't yet gotten the hang of homemade crust. It is edible but store bought is better if that tells you anything! Finished canning up the last of my tomatoes (7 quarts) and made up a batch of peach jam. ( Cannot beat the deals on seconds at the farmers market...1/4 buschel for $3...so yummy and 1/4 buschel of Cortland apples for $3!) Planning on a batch of peach/blueberry jam today and that will finish out the jams for the year...got an offer from someone to purchase some jars but after the great bake-off last weekend I am already a bit short for the year. I plan to make up some apple jelly for the first time this year and if all goes well with that I may reconsider the offer... per special request I have shared my families cabbage roll recipe. So easy and so very good...serve with mashed potatoes and corn. Rye bread and butter are an extra special touch!

Cabbage Rolls

medium to large head of green cabbage
3# ground beef or venison
3 cups cooked rice
small onion, diced and softened (I usually just microwave for a minute or two)
3 big cans tomato sauce
3 cans condensed tomato soup

Create a square cut around the core of the cabbage at least 2/3 deep into the head of cabbage. Put cabbage in a large pot of water and boil/simmer till soft enough to peel off the individual leaves without breaking. Transfer leaves to a separate bowl to drain, cook a little/ peel a little till most of the cabbage is peeled away for use. (Keep the tiny head that is left and use for soup or sauteed cabbage ...use a bit of olive oil and some salt, pepper and celery seed...Yum!) Mix meat, rice, onion and 1/2 big can of tomato sauce together in a large bowl. Fill cabbage leaves with meat mixture and roll "taco style" placing open side down in roaster pan. (If you have a bit of meat leftover simply crumble on top and it will mix with the sauce.) Mix remaining tomato sauce and condensed soup together with a whisk and pour over. Cover and cook at 350 degrees for about 2 hours.

A little crisp on top is AOK, if this bothers you spoon sauce over rolls every 45 minutes or so...so very good! Blessings, Eve

Dehydration

Hello one & all...trying something new today and I though that I would share. My freezers are full (yep, I said FREEZERS!) and deer season is quickly coming upon us. Trying to clear out inventory so I have put a "freeze" (no pun intended!) on purchasing meat or veggies until I can see the bottom of the chest freezer. That's kind of hard to do when I have 14 chickens left from our great chicken experiment...rather than freeze the last of my peppers I decided to try dehydrating them and sealing them in canning jars in the pantry for storage. Trying green peppers, sliced cherry tomatoes and parsley. The only thing that I have tried drying in the past was herbs, apples and bananas in small batches for quick consumption. All turned out well and I am excited to see how this little project turns out. Dehydration has been a trusted form of preservation for centuries...there's just something about taking a food item and closing it in a glass jar for long-term storage...no freezing, no pickling, no canning...makes me a little nervous for some reason. If you have had success drying food items, please share with us...I so want to feel a bit better about the whole storage process! Blessings, Eve

Raving Success

Hello one & all...the garage sale went well. Sold $50 worth of excess from the house and my daughter made nearly $65 on breads and jams. Spent Saturday afternoon into evening baking up a storm...zucchini-apple bread, honey wheat bread, English muffin bread, and sour-cream apple squares. Couldn't believe how much we sold! That money will certainly help out on her mystery weekend...the Lord always provides away.
Spending "nap-times" this week starting to prepare the house and garden for winter. Already picked the remainder of the pathetic green peppers i grew this year. Still have some cherry tomatoes and hot peppers out there. Lettuce will be left until the first hard frost that will wipe it out. Carrots can stay until the hubby is ready to till it under. Was hit by the blight late and, thankfully, only lost a portion of my tomatoes...so many people lost their whole crop. Have to burn all the plants from the tomatoes and the peppers to try and kill off any blight spores so they don't reinfect next year. Need to clean the internal window sills and pull down storms, vacuum out the baseboard heating to remove dust and dog hair that has built up over the summer. Before we know it there will be snow in the air...I thought of Halloween a few years back when there was a few inches of snow on the ground...that's only 5 weeks away!
Cooler weather always kicks me into cooking mode and I thought you might like to try this easy no-knead bread that seemed to cause a stir at the "bake-sale."

English Muffin Bread
6 cups flour
2 TBSP (or 2 packages)
2 tsp salt
1 TBSP sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup cornmeal (to coat the pans)

Combine 3 cups flour, yeast, salt, sugar and soda. Heat milk and water till very warm. Add dry ingredients and beat well. Stir in the rest of the flour to make as tiff batter. Grease and sprinkle loaf pans with cornmeal. Spoon batter evenly into pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. Bake at 400 for 25 minutes. Remove from pans and cool. Makes 2 loaves.

Just like English muffins only cost about 50 cents for 2 loaves! Toast and enjoy...this will not puff up very high...will be dense just like the real thing. Blessings, Eve

Busy Little Bee

Hello one & all...had quite the busy day today. Spent the day running errands and ended up at the farmer's market. Found a great deal on peaches...$5 for a half buschel of seconds. Turned out they were the sweetest peaches I have ever tasted. (The wee one thought so too...ate 4 of them today!) Needed to can them up right away as they were very ripe and soft. Never did peaches before but they were pretty easy as compared to other things I've canned. End result: 13 quarts of peaches to add to the larder and a very happy 20 month old...
Having a yard sale tomorrow at my SIL's...already found myself some bargains during set up time. Couple of new looking Pyrex bread pans to replace the cruddy metal one's I currently use when I have more than 2 of anything to bake. New with tags bath rugs...beautiful and thick. A dell printer as mine pooped out earlier this week. Bike helmet for my growing boy and a mix master standing mixer with attachments...Grand total...drum roll please...$20 plus replacing a zipper in exchange for the mixer. What a high!!!!!
Baked up some Zucchini Apple bread and prepared some shiny tomatoes and jams and relishes for my oldest to have a little stand. She will also be selling our excess eggs. Have a mystery trip coming up with Girl Scouts and the hubby and I thought that she should at least earn her own spending money. Life lessons...
Bread is out of the oven and the last of the peaches are cooling above the canner...me and my aching feet are off to bed! Blessings, Eve

A Few Tiny Tips

Hello one & all...just a few quick thoughts this morning...my MIL called me with this idea earlier in the week. If you have an excess of cherry tomatoes (now that the kids are sick of them!) and need a use for them beyond the salads- throw them in the blender or food processor and turn them into sauce. The skins are so tender that they just disappear. She has had great success with this and even preserved some. (Cannot remember if she froze or canned the extras...both would work.)
Tip #2- If you have a picky-pants that won't eat their crust (Yup, I've got one!) cut it off BEFORE you give them the sandwich. Freeze the crusts in a Ziploc or container that you keep in the freezer for that purpose. When you have enough o make it worth your while, turn them into french toast. We call them peanut butter dippers and the same kid who won't touch them on his PB&J begs for me to make them for breakfast! Eatin' 'em as we speak!!!
It's the little things that add up to big savings...rinse your Ziplocs. Not the one's from raw meat but the rest can be used at least a few times each. Better yet, use containers for snacks and sandwiches. They sell vitamin waters at my daughters school for $1 in the vending machine...they can barely keep them in stock...YIKES! We went to Wallyworld and bought dye-free vitamin drink sticks in grape and kiwi-watermelon. She takes a drink stick every day and her straw thermos full of water...15 cents. 85 cents per day savings times 20 days per month...that's $17 per month...I can think of a lot of things to spend $17 on. And they ain't water...Blessings, Eve

Frantic Fried Rice

Hello one & all...had one hectic day today. The wee one woke at 6:00 Am and decided that today was going to be a momentous day...the day that her feet did not touch the ground! No nap...tried and tried. Finally asleep...5 minutes ago...Arrrggghhh! Plus open house at my daughter's school so I needed something fast and easy for dinner. ALMOST picked up the phone and dialed 1-800-pizza but figured my husband would drive off the road or some such nonsense...that or he would figure it was a prank call as I am NEVER the one to suggest such frivolity. Once a year at most. Thank heaven's I have a brain full of quick and easy dinners to throw together or we would have been down $25 bucks...e-gads! This is one of my kids favorites and the hubby tolerates it reasonably well with enough spicy stuffs on it so it gets made quite often.

Fried Rice

3 cups leftover or fresh cooked white or brown rice
various veggies including peppers and onions (I used p & o's, zucchini, shredded carrots and 1/2 leftover tomato)
2 eggs
1 or 2 cups chopped, cooked meat (I used a leftover chicken breast and 1/2 pork chop that I had frozen together and labeled "For Stir fry")
soy sauce
salt & pepper to taste (I like a lot of salt on this dish; I leave it as is for the rest of the family)
bit of olive oil

Saute' veggies in olive oil till tender crisp. Add meat till warm. Scramble eggs and add...cook till soft set. Add in rice and soy sauce (to taste...2 TBSP or so) and heat through. That easy! Enjoy, Eve

Chili (?) Sauce...

Hello one & all...finished up the chili sauce. (I keep telling myself that it's chili sauce...) In all honesty it is a tangy, salty meat sauce. It will work on a burger, mixed with mayo, perhaps and I see it marinating more than a few chickens! Not what I envisioned, but edible.

Spent the last few minutes covering my daughter's math book. They required covers in a certain color and provided construction paper for those without the fancy store bought covers. Thing looked like it would wear though in the first month. Enter the momma who thinks that she can craft anything from flannel!!! Not bad, really. Pale green with panda bears...perfect for an 11 year old girl and it will last the whole year. PLUS it's washable!!! Crafted it just like a brown paper bag one except where the tape would go I put a very narrow seam. If you attempt this, take note that the fabric will stretch out a bit as you create the seam. So go super tight on the setup and it should fit perfectly after completed. Here's to the super power of old receiving blankets and flannel fabric in general! Blessings, Eve

Go for the TnT

Hello one and all...been spending my days "putting up" the fall harvest. Zucchini relish is in the water bath canner as we speak. Chili sauce...not so very happy with that. I tried a recipe that I found on-line as my sister-in-laws famous recipe has gone MIA...ugggh! This recipe seems to be more of a pickly meat relish...salty and vinegary. I added more brown sugar to offset the sour...took care of the vinegar but now all you taste is salt! Tossed in a peeled, raw potato to simmer for awhile. We'll see if that has the desired effect. If you have never heard of this trick give it a try the next time you accidentally over salt something. Usually works quite well but we are talking A LOT of salty here people. If nothing else, the birds will eat well tomorrow. When I think of the tomatoes, green peppers, celery and onions...not to mention the two days of cooking down. Well, I just want to cry...lesson for the day- Go for the tried and true recipe given by someone who has mastered your particular passion. Chili sauce anyone??? Blessings, Eve

Baked Tator Tot Casserole

Hello one & all...new recipe for you. This is a great one to have all the ingredients on hand for as it is SUPER easy to throw together. Add a veggie or salad and you are good to go! Been a canning fool today and wanted something family friendly and quick to put together for dinner...actually, I fried the burger and my 11 year old daughter and 6 year old niece finished up the dish. Working on Zesty Zucchini Relish and Chili Sauce. Both will be ready to actually can tomorrow. Never made the chili sauce before and am most anxious to see how it turns out...on to that recipe!

Baked Tator Tot Casserole

1 lb. hamburger
1 envelope onion soup mix (or a generous Tablespoon of minced onion and powdered beef bouillon)
2 lbs. frozen tator tots
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 pint sour cream (I use 3/4 pint)
1 cup grated yellow cheese

Brown burger, drain. Put in a greased 9 x 13 pan. Mix together onion soup mix, mushroom soup and sour cream. Spread over meat. Top with a single layer of tator tots (make them pretty!) Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Top with cheese and bake another 10 minutes...yummmy! (Not the healthiest but then that drive thru burger and fries that you would have had other wise wouldn't be either, right?!?!?)

Enjoy! Eve

Trade Anyone???

Hello one & all...I have a new love. Bartering!!! For those of you that may be unfamiliar it is the trading of goods or services. This can involve zero dollars or partial goods/services and partial monetary pay. I was put in touch with a like-minded soul that I have begun trading negotiations with. She has several things to offer...home baked bread, fresh ground wheat from local wheat berries, organic onions, perennials, even an antique apple press that she will bring to your preferred location! All of these things are available for barter...she simply has more than she, herself, can use. I am offering up free range brown eggs, organic canning tomatoes, organic cherry tomatoes and sewing skills. Think on what you have available...outgrown children's clothing, winter boots that you purchased last season but no longer have that "fuzzy love" for, extras from the garden. Maybe you went to hairdressing school in your post high school days and you and your family love homemade jam. Maybe you are an organizational freak and would like to learn how to sew. Think on what you have to offer and what you would like...I will be sending an e-mail to let everyone know that there is a new posting here. (CANNOT figure out how to have this happen on it's own...anyone have the 411?)Respond to all with your "available" list (assign each item a $$ value) and your "wanted" list. Cannot get more frugal than free!!!

Giving it a whirl...

Hello one and all...In response to many requests I have decided to give blogging a whirl! With the children back to school I will have a bit more time and hope to be able to post at least a few days each week.

My efforts this week have turned to canning and preserving as the garden is in it's "tomatoey peak." I have put up a wonderful spaghetti sauce that you bake and then can. I did not dread the process anywhere near as much as I did the original idea of cooking and canning that I attempted a few years back. That process resulted in seedy, thin sauce that did not stick to the pasta very well. Despite my efforts the dear hubby declared that he would just as soon eat bottled sauce...so be it for years. This recipe is tasty and easier. AND I can break it down into smaller segments that suit my time frame with a toddler around the house. Give it a try and see if you and your family find it to your liking! (Thanks go out to my sister-in-law Cher that shared this wonderful recipe!)

Homemade Tomato Sauce

6 quarts tomatoes, cored and quartered; leave skins on (I used 18-20 medium/large tomatoes)
3 green peppers, cleaned and cut into chunks
5-6 stalks celery, cleaned and diced (if you leave them too big you end up with long strands of celery "string"...best to chop on the smaller side)
1 or 2 onions, peeled and chunked
3 cloves garlic
3 to 4 bay leaves

Put all the vegetables in a large pot or roaster and cook in a 350 degree oven for 3 hours, stirring once each hour. Remove from oven and cool awhile. Remove bay leaves. Blenderize on high- fill blender only 1/2 to 2/3 full to avoid splatters. A towel over top helps as well. Pour all the blenderized sauce into a large pot and add:

2 to 3 cans tomato paste
2 TBSP sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 TBSP salt
pepper to taste

You can add other herbs when you heat and use the sauce later. I wash my canning jars and lids. Cover jars with boiling water for 10 minutes to sterilize and keep warm. Heat the sauce just to boiling. Heat lids in jar water, fill hot jars with hot sauce and seal. (The original recipe did not call for processing...I chose to err on the side of caution and processed my quarts for 30 minutes in a boiling water canner.) Makes approximately 6 quarts.

There are so many recipes online to help you preserve your own bounty from the garden or the wonderful bargains to be found at your local farmers market. I will be canning diced tomatoes and chili sauce later in the week. Use your "new found" extra time this week(as the children head off to school!) to prepare something for your family to enjoy this winter. You will find that the tastes and smells of summertime feed the spirit as well as the flesh when enjoyed on a wintry evening...Eve