Kitchen Tips Tuesday/Troubleshooting: Baking Bread

What happened to this bread? See this helpful troubleshooting chart for bread baking tips.

Attractive in a geode, but not in bread.

Make It From Scratch/ Homemade Hot Pockets

Meat filling:

1 pound of ground meat
1 chopped onion
A can of tomato sauce(or not)
A little garlic
Seasonings of your choice
Finely chopped cooked cabbage(optional)
A little Tabasco sauce

Cook all this in a skillet and set aside.

Crust:

2 c. warm water(not hot, or you'll kill the yeast)
2 tablespoons yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup butter
6-61/2 cups flour

Mix together all ingredients, adding the flour a little at a time. During the last cup or two of flour, you'll have to mix by hand in the bowl, kneading the flour into the dough ball. When well mixed, take the dough out, and knead for a few minutes until dough is elastic.

To knead: Push the dough out with the heels of your hands, and roll back toward you by folding the dough over. Repeat this step over and over.

Grease a bowl, place the dough in, turning once. Place towel over the top and place it somewhere warm until it doubles in size, then punch down, knead and separate into dough balls. Roll out the balls into circles, and place meat sauce in the middle, fold over and pinch sides closed. Cook for 15 minutes on a greased sheet at 350 degrees.

The crust on these was light and a little salty. It's very good crust, in fact I plan to use this crust recipe for pizza.

I didn't make this meat filling, I used leftover spaghetti sauce with meat, and threw in some leftover green beans and leftover braised cabbage. Good way to use up leftovers!

Happy Hearts Homeschooling Library

I just added a link on my sidebar to my public domain(free) homeschooling books blog. I'm just getting started, but I'll be adding free books by grade and subject.

I'll also be adding any information I gather about the logistics of using online books for homeschooling.

Free Online Homeschooling Books

Tea Party with Friends
Originally uploaded by KAlexaLott.

Kim of In Beauty And In Grace has done the legwork researching the internet for some really wonderful free online books for literature and homeschooling. She has many of the links listed on the left sidebar under A Living Education, as well in blog posts. I spent a long time there the other night looking through her beautiful and informative blog - a wonderful thrifty resource for Charlotte Mason style homeschoolers or other wise.

HT to Like Merchant's Ships


I'm going to contact her to find out how she teaches with the free online books; whether she uses an ebook reader, a laptop, or whether she prints the book out.

I'd like to start another blog with free online homeschooling literature which I can link here on my sidebar. The search engines are easy to find for free online books, but knowing which titles are useful for homeschooling is another matter. I haven't found any free online book resources which are searchable by subject, or at least if they were searchable, the categories were poorly organized.

Kim was kind enough to share these links for some free online Catholic readers:

Standard Catholic Readers – Third Year

The Ideal Catholic Readers – Fifth Year

Standard Catholic Readers – Fifth Year

Homemade Insecticidal Soap

I've had some problems with keeping down the cabbage worm population on my collard greens this year. I pick them off when I see them, but I still see carnage the next day, so I've been using a homemade insecticidal soap.










Homemade Insecticidal Soap:

1 TB. of Murphy's Oil Soap
1 gallon of water

Mix well and spray on plants when you are sure it will not rain.

It seems to have been working. I've not seen but one worm for over a week. I only sprayed once, and had to spray again today.

Janet over at Janet's Garden also uses this recipe with the addition of baking soda and mouth wash for mildew and fungus. See her before and after pictures of a sickly anemone which becomes healthy again with this spray. She also mentioned that it repelled male cats from spraying against her home. Apparently Murphy's Oil soap is a good critter repellent as well.

Gabrielle's Garden has a very helpful list of homemade garden recipes from natural gardening expert, Jerry Baker.

Kashi Pilaf Dinner Recipe

I picked up a box of Kashi Seven Whole Grain all natural pilaf at Big Lots for $1.99. Each box has three packages of pilaf. Tonight I was feeling a bit tired, so I made up a quick new dinner dish.

Pilaf Dinner

Cook a cup(or in this case one package) of pilaf in 2 cups of vegetable water(or just water)for about 35 minutes, or until tender. Add a chicken bouillon cube, a little olive oil, hot pepper flakes, garlic, seasoning salt(I use Adobo), and herbs(I used Italian).

Cook ground meat, season well, add chopped onions and frozen green beans. I seasoned with Adobo and Italian.

Mix all together and serve. Yum!

Mushrooms and other veggies would have been good as well.

I also made some yams for a little more nutritional balance with the veggies.

(picture shows unbaked casserole)

Sweet Potato Bake

A can of sweet potato, or three baked sweet potatoes with skins off. Spread sweet potato in greased casserole dish, add pumpkin pie seasoning, sprinkle with brown sugar, and pour about 1/3 cup orange juice on top. Mix a little. Add a can of pumpkin and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, mix a little and top with bananas and wheat germ. Cook for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Reusing Old Dresser Drawers

A while back I mentioned that my neighbor had put out a chest of dresser drawers for trash day. The chest was in very bad shape, but the drawers where salvageable and sturdy with dovetailed joints.

She told me to go ahead and take them, so they've been in the garage waiting for transformation.

Yesterday I finally got a little time to work on them:









I turned these drawers into planter boxes for the top of our rustic book/storage shelves in the playroom. HT to Nikki (who, BTW just a had a little boy). They are not done yet. I still need to line them with some plastic, and add soil and more plants. I just placed these in temporarily to get an idea of which plants I want in the box. I'll be taking them out of their current containers(maybe). I'm still deciding whether to keep the plants in pots, or replant them directly into the drawer.

My neighbor, who is moving next month gave me all his indoor plants. The smaller ones which trail will be replanted into the boxes.






Another idea to recycle old drawers is to add wheels, and use them as under the bed storage.





These drawers could be made even nicer with stenciling, or hot gluing items to the front. I just needed something plain, so I made them shabby looking with a light coat of creme paint.

More on recycling old dresser drawers:

HGTV: Dressing Up Drawers

HGTV: Recycled Drawers

Funky Chest Of Drawers

I'm still searching for more uses as I've got quite a few drawers left over.

Update: I added my gift plants which are a little bedraggled, but should perk up with some TLC. I lined the boxes with a heavy duty garbage bag, and tucked in the sides. A super large bag of soil filled up both boxes.









See more Make-It-From-Scratch carnival entries at Stephanie's.

Make-It-From-Scratch/Pillow Case Dress

I made this pillowcase dress for my toddler using these instructions. I used one of the vintage pillow cases from my collection. It was very easy, and took just two nights to complete. I hand stitched it because most of it included very small areas.

See more creative entries!

Free Temperament Personality Test

Just for fun...this test is a long one, over 100 questions. It's based upon the four temperaments: Choleric, Sanguine, Melancholy and Phlegmatic.

Not surprisingly, I tested Melancholy Phlegmatic, although I'm not as Eeyore as the temperament suggests...and I'm not fond of thistles.

HT to Lifeasmama

Vintage Baby Book Pages For Girls

I'm a Girl 8.jpeg
Originally uploaded by Temeculamom.

I saw these adorable scans of a vintage 1956 baby girl book on one of my flickr groups. There are more scanned pictures of this vintage baby book, great for scrap booking or collecting. Click on the image and browse the photostream to see more .

Natural Hair Detangler Recipe

Click on title

Frugal Fridays/Homemade Sausage Biscuits

We had been buying boxes of frozen sausage biscuits for my nine year old son who loves to heat these by himself in the microwave in the morning. They were easy and convenient, but a little expensive, and the ingredients where unwholesome - lots of preservatives, nitrites, etc.

So I made my own sausage biscuits from scratch to freeze, and my son likes them*.

Sausage Biscuits

Mix together into patties:

3 pounds ground pork

2 cups grits or polenta(moistened with 1 cup hot water)

1 chopped and sauteed onion

2 t. sage

1 tsp. thyme

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. fennel

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. pepper

a dash of ground cloves and nutmeg

Add a tsp. or two of milk if dry and/or an egg

Fry in oil until no pink is inside, or fry both sides and then bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees just to make sure. Freeze, and when you are ready to eat - microwave for 2 minutes with the biscuits.

Biscuits

Stir together in a bowl:

2 c. flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. shortening, butter or oil

3/4 c. milk

Knead lightly on floured surface for 20 minutes. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness, cup with floured biscuit cutter, or opening of a floured glass.

Bake on ungreased pan for 10-12 minutes. Makes about 16-18. Freeze and microwave.

* The sausage was just a very little bit dry. I'd recommend adding an egg and/or milk if you like a moister sausage. We will be trying this next time.

Click on Frugal Friday image to see more frugal tips.

Homemade Chocolate Cupcake Soap - Easy

Yesterday I made soap by rebatching Ivory soap. Although I could have made my own soap with lye, I thought I'd try working with Ivory soap first. Commercial soap is very drying because glycerin is removed to make lotions. Rebatching soap lets you add moisture back, and it's fun to add your own ingredients and shapes. I used this link for the soap recipe, but ended up combining recipes and making my own.

Chocolate Cupcake Soap:

Three bars of Ivory Soap
3/4 Cup water
5 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons glycerin
3 Tablespoon cocoa powder
3 Tablespoon honey
1/2 cup powdered milk
3 Tablespoon cinnamon

Cut soap up into smaller pieces, place in a glass Pyrex measuring bowl, add water and cook in microwave for about 2 minutes at a time, watch closely for puffing up, stop when it does this and stir, repeat until it is creamy. Add more water and a little of the oil if too dry*.

Once it's nice and creamy, add oil and remaining ingredients, stir well, adding more water and oil if too dry. I heat it up more if it's still chunky, and stir.




Grease cupcake tins with olive oil, fill and allow to dry overnight. If they don't pop out, try to push them out by hand, or freeze them for a little bit. Mine popped out well after I spun them around in the muffin tin with my finger.

For Icing:

Cook one bar of cut up Ivory soap in a clean glass bowl in the microwave with about 1/4 cup water and 1 tablespoon of glycerin. Repeat muffin cooking instructions above. When it gets nice and creamy it's ready to frost. The frosting dries pretty quickly. I waited a few hours and it was ready for use.

I sprinked sugar on a few of the cupcakes before adding the frosting. I'm experimenting with a garden soap. The sugar adds a little abrasive for extra cleaning.

I used thrift store purchased older tins and other items for this project. I won't be cooking food with them, and I'd suggest the same.

I added the frosting today. I have the cupcake soap next to the kitchen sink, and it cleans well, but is A LOT easier on my hands than regular soap. There was no greasy residue. I like it!

Next project: liquid soap. I may get brave enough to make bar soap from scratch with lye, not just rebatch Ivory soap.

*If the soap is too dry, add more water, oil or glycerin than is stated in the recipe.

Update: Some of the natural ingredients did mold after a few months in storage. I'd not store this soap for long periods of time.

Make It From Scratch Carnival: Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

This was so easy, and so flavorful. I used the condensed chicken soup recipe at Tammy's Recipes. I much prefer this to the canned, and will be using this recipe in the future. I think next time, I'll add mushrooms and fresh chopped onions instead of the instant minced which is all I had on hand. This recipe is so versatile, you could make any cream soup with it. It's a good recipe for leftover vegetables. I plan to cook it with some chicken tonight.

Join the carnival

Cooking Rice from Scratch, or Cooking Non-Instant Rice

Making non-instant rice is very inexpensive, and takes only 20-25 minutes on my stove top which has electric burners. You need a pot with a tight fitting lid. All you do is add two cups of water for every cup of rice. One cup of rice makes about three cups of fluffy rice, or four small sized servings. I add about a teaspoon of oil, and some seasoning. I use Adobo or garlic salt. Cook on medium heat for about five minutes until it boils up, then reduce to low for another 15 - 20 minutes. Resist the urge to peak into the pot because this makes the rice gummy, so does over cooking it, so you have to experiment with your stove settings to get it just right.


You can add a lot of interesting spices at the beginning to make seasoned rice. I've added turmeric, curry, fresh garlic cloves, chicken stock in lieu of water, you name it. It makes a really nice inexpensive accompaniment to any meal.

If it does come out a little gummy, you can mix it in with some cooked seasoned ground meat. You can't tell it's gummy this way, and then add some cooked veggies for a stir fry type meal.

Quilting with Vintage Handkerchiefs

I got a vintage hankie during my last visit to the thrift store, and I'm building a collection. A friend shared the prettiest idea for a quilt. She made butterfly patterns from the hankies, and stitched them to the front of a handmade quilt.




Butterfly Hankie Quilt

Here's some more wonderful ideas for hankie quilts


I've made small toddler quilts before, and I still have one to finish up. I might try one or two hankies on the toddler quilt.

Thrifty Remodeling, Our Home Before and After

I was sorting through some old photos when I came across a few of our home taken shortly after we had moved. That was seven years ago, not that long ago, but somehow it seems like an eternity, so much has changed. The house looks so different, and so do we...a few more pounds, a few more gray hairs! Ds was only a toddler, and I was still working full time. The house was great, but the kitchen and den were very dark and dated. Both the front and backyards were neglected. We are pretty frugal do-it-yourselfers, so we did much of the work ourselves with some help from a local carpenter and painter.

The kitchen was fairly easy to update. We had a long row of cabinets along one side of the wall, and a cubby hole area across from that where there was a refrigerator, a few cabinets, and a small counter area. We took the refrigerator out of the cubby, pulled all the cabinets out, and turned it into a kitchen office space with lots of nice storage purchased from IKEA.


Before:







After:











We moved the refrigerator to the end of the counter on the other side of the room. The cabinets were in good shape, but were very dark with heavy door knocker 70's style handles. We took all the hardware off the doors, and then sanded and painted the cabinets and doors with a white oil based paint. We replaced the hardware with a modern brushed silver. The countertop was removed and replaced with a laminate. The most expensive piece of the entire job was the countertop which came to around $800.00 installed. We kept the sink, and added a new faucet set, and light fixtures. We also took down the wallpaper and painted all the walls white. It really brightened up the entire room. We spent under $2,000 for the total kitchen remodel(not including the floors). The painter painted the kitchen, dinette area and brick fireplace at the other end of the kitchen, and den(off the end of the kitchen) white for us - lots of wood trim which he painted with oil based paint. We painted the cabinets, and reattached the doors and hardware. We really hate painting, so we used a painter for the big jobs. We also reinstalled the sink ourselves, installed a new faucet set, new lighting and IKEA shelving.

We replaced the floors with laminate which was rather expensive because we used a contractor to lay it down. It was a huge job; too much for us. The laminate flooring also extends into a dinette area, and the hall to the front door. I really love it, and I'm glad we spent the money on the floors rather than a nice countertop. The laminate is very easy to clean, and seems to be wearing well.

Off the kitchen/dinette area is an addition which was also very dark and dated. The paneling was painted white, and dh made these wall to wall utilitarian playroom shelves with sliding toy drawers lined with drop cloth. The curtains, which are wall to wall are also drop cloth artistically draped, and poufed over some unseen wire. This is the children's playroom, so it doesn't have to look fancy. Our formal living room has the good stuff. My mom says when the drapes are closed that it feels like they are in a Bedouin tent! The curtains even hang behind the shelves where there is a window, and seem to keep the room warmer in the winter.


The next challenge was the neglected landscaping. It was overgrown, and the front lawn was mostly crab grass and bald spots. We don't like using chemicals on the lawn, so for years we've used a mulching mower which has negated the need for chemicals. We've got a very healthy lawn with all the natural compost of grass, sticks and leaves. I widened the beds in the front using free mulch dropped off by a friendly local tree company, and added evergreen bushes, Azaleas, and a Japanese Cherry Tree which is still too little to see. I purchased my plants inexpensively from ebay and the National Arbor Day Foundation . We fertilize from time to time with free large bags of used coffee grounds from Starbucks. I saved money by purchasing smaller bushes...I just have to wait longer for them to fill out the beds, and look nice. That picture of the front yard is from 2004. The bushes have really gotten much bigger. I'll have to add another picture in the Spring.



Before:






After:










The backyard had spotty grass with lots of tree roots popping up everywhere. It took a few years, but we kept using the composting mower, and eventually the soil has gotten more healthy. We have quite a few oak trees, so getting anything to grow in heavy shade was tricky. We ended up making lots of mulch beds among the trees, and planting shade perennials. We used free concrete pieces from a neighbor's driveway demolition as a border, and the mulch was free from the tree company. The previous owner had a lot of perennials which needed dividing, so I got more use out of plants that were already there. I compost directly into the back beds with kitchen scraps(non-protein), and yard debris, turning it under the mulch. It's very fertile back there...lots of wonderful worms and black crumbly compost.


Before:








After:



Dappled shade is a blessing in the summer!










In 2003, the giant backyard deck was rotting out, and too expensive to repair and maintain, so we tore it out. It came with the house when we purchased it, and was probably about 15 years old. In place of a deck, we decided to make a path from the front driveway around to the back, ending with a large patio area. The least expensive way was to fill it in with gravel dust. My neighbors both had their driveways torn up, so we asked to take the concrete rocks for the path and patio. We used these large pieces to line the perimeter in the backyard(recycled brick in front yard), and to hold in the gravel. We also put down weed mat under the gravel dust, and rolled it up the inside of the concrete rock border. After we filled in the area with the dust, we trimmed back any weed mat that was showing. This was very inexpensive, and it's still holding up nicely. We had a little erosion near one gutter, but it stopped after we filled in the area with a few bags of inexpensive gravel.