Spontaneous Hiking Trip ~ Poor Man's Banana Tree Leaf

Due to one of the kids telling us they had a birthday party invitation today, we took a spontaneous hiking trip, following dropping her off.  It was a perfect time to hike.  There were only a few people on the trail, and the leaves were absolutely breathtaking.  I love the reds, oranges, and yellows.  I could not help but bring a few leaves home and decorate the house with them.  I picked up the 15 inch Poor Man's Banana tree leaves for the kids.  They will make wonderful back feathers for a "Tom" turkey craft.  A good coat of wax paper should hold them through the fall season indoors.

During our hike, you could hear and see the acorns dropping from the tall trees.  We picked up a few of those to decorate for Christmas ornaments too.  Maybe we'll make a few painted singing angels with them.

Sandwich Bags

I had to laugh at my eight-year-old daughter the other day.  We try to use reuseable containers in their school lunch bags, but sometimes there isn't enough room for them.  We resort to plastic sandwich bags, but only to a minimum (the goal is to do away with them).

"Mom! How to you work this thing?" she said while handing me the sandwich bag.

We switched from ziploc type bags to fold over bags to save money.  We can get 3 times the amount of sandwich bags for the same price of zip style.  She had never used this type of bag and it's the style my mother always used to pack my lunch as a child.  It never dawned on me that times have changed that much, and so fast, for even little things like sandwich bags. 

Freelance Writing On-line ~ The Cons

Anyone submitting articles for helium.com are also rating helium articles.  This means that you must take time out of your day to carefully, and honestly, rate other writers, as well as write quality articles.  The stressful part, is that not all "writers" have experience in writing, and therefore rate articles too quickly or judgmentally. Some times, I wonder if the person rating it even reads the entire article.

Many times, my articles that have been rated to a lower status of all submitted articles on one particular title, produce a higher earning for me.  And as for earnings from on-line articles, they are so much more difficult to earn and require a lot more articles to be written.

I think today, I will be ordering a few, up-to-date resources, from our library.  It's time to get serious with this freelance business.

More Tips on Stretching Meals ~ Dry Kidney Beans

Use leftover kidney beans (instead of canned kidney beans), from making red beans and rice, and make chili.  Today we are doing that.  I added fresh tomatoes from our garden.  Our garden is still yielding us Roma tomatoes.  Although the green peppers are smaller for this time of year, I diced several of those from the garden too. 

I started to clean out our garden for the season, and pulled about a dozen and a half good sized beets.  I'll roast those with onions and fresh rosemary from the garden too.  We still have some turnips and squash also.

Splitting Firewood by Hand ~ My First Cord of Wood

Start date 9-13-2010

In Progress 10-11-2010

There is more wood stacked to the left and to the right that cannot be seen.  And there are pieces that were stacked but not split also.

The stack of wood to the right, in the above photograph is about 5 1/2 feet tall by 1 1/2 feet wide by  10 feet long.  The stack to the left is also 10 feet wide, but not that tall and also 1 1/2 feet wide.  The stack to the right is older, dry wood for this season, and the stack to the left is split wood for next season.  You can see in the lower left corner, that I have a lot more wood to split, and I have successfully cut my first cord of wood.

Today, I need to purchase a new sledge hammer.  The one I was using, had a wood handle and it was pretty beaten up when I started splitting wood.  I also split wood with a maul ax and was successful with that too.  I now know how the pioneers stayed in shape.  This is very hard work.

Making it Last ~ Over 90 cookies with 1 can of crushed pineapple

Since we are completely out of canola oil, and a few other baking ingredients, I chose to make these pineapple cookies for the family.  I'm hoping they last throughout the weekend.  If you have one can of crushed pineapple (in natural juices), you'll find this recipe frugal and delicious! 

Pineapple Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup shortening, organic (no hydrogenated fats)
Mix the above three ingredients. Then add:

2 eggs, farm fresh, beat well.  Then add:


1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple (in natural juices), drained and juice reserved
1 1/2 - 2 tsp. vanilla extract

In another bowl, whisk or sift:
4 cups of flour
1 tsp. salt
1  1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Mix dry mix to wet mix, and stir until completely blended.

Drop onto lightly greased cookie sheets by teaspoon (it will spread out).  Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes, or until golden around the edges.

Mix amounts of powdered sugar to reserved pineapple juice to a consistency you prefer.  Frost cooled cookies.  Enjoy!  Makes a little over 90 cookies if you use pampered chef's smallest cookie scoop (teaspoon).

Low Provisions

I have to admit, that when we are low on pantry supplies, low on food in the freezer, accompanied by low finances, I can get depressed.  However, I love to be creative in the kitchen, and make new recipes with whatever we have on hand.  I also find inspiration from other sources.

Our family loves to watch Little House episodes, and it often reminds me to get creative.  We recently watched the episode where they are in an abandoned house in a snow storm, and are about to shoot their horse for food.  Thankfully, an Indian comes to their rescue.

This week we are out of canola oil, about out of flour, sugar, brown sugar and milk.  I decided to put some of the remaining flour into homemade biscuits, and make homemade gravy with the marked down sausage I had in the freezer.  Thanks to the chickens we'll enjoy eggs too.  Because I am aiming to get away from processed foods, I chose to make an cake from scratch, using canned fruit.  I can't wait to can pears, apples, and other fruits next year.  I will find so many ways to cook with them.

Thankfully, the good Lord urged me to buy a few extra pounds of butter when it was on sale for $1.50/lb.  Those had gone in the freezer, and have helped with baking biscuits and making lunch packings.