Apples, Apples - Read all about it!!
This is only a small amount of apples compared to what we have had around here lately! We are lucky enough to have a connection with a local Amish farm that gives us the 'seconds' from their produce stand. Seconds are basically the produce that we pass up because of its shape, size or bruising. So, I took these apples and have made homemade apple jelly, applesauce and apple butter. I have also made Apple Fritters! We also received peaches, onions, potatoes and beans. I have canned all of it except for a little bit of apples that are left - so I will make more applesauce with no cinnamon for Madelyn as she likes it plain.
Below are photos of my canning and Madelyn helping me make the first batch of apple butter.

Apple Fritters:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 T baking power

1 t nutmeg

1 t cinnamon

1 t salt

2 eggs

1.5 c milk

2 quarts oil for deep frying

4 large apples, peeled and cored

1/2 c confectioner's sugar for dusting

carmel syrup

Mix the first 8 ingredients together - this will resemble pancake batter. Wash, peel and core the apples - slice as desired.

Heat oil to 375 degrees in a fryer, or heavy bottomed pot.

Pat apples dry, dip in batter and place into oil - cook until both sides are golden brown, turning once. Drain on paper towels, dust with powdered sugar and carmel if desired.

Lastly, our GPS will be here tomorrow - I won it on Ebay for $83 - I found the same GPS priced as high as $480 - so I think we got a good deal. I can not wait to take the girls geocaching - I think this is going to be something fun that we will be able to do often!

Thanks for stopping by - this challenge has given me a change to feel acomplished!

The girls are getting excited - we have made our tradeable items for Geo-Caching. We made 14 ceramic tile magnants (for details on that go to http://www.stampingwithbettyboop.blogspot.com/). So we have 3 spots to locate - once Matt figures out the best GPS for us we are going to go on our excursion - I will be sure to take photos.

We also have started 2 more things on the list - Melaluca-nizing the home and Going Green - since these two things are the same. I purchased the Sol-u-mel all purpose cleaner, the fabric softener, diswashing detergent and Mela-gel. Let me tell you - so far so good. The fabric softener smells good, works good, and you use very little. The Sol-u-mel in full strength removes the permanant marker that has been on my kitchen table forever!! I also cleaned my bathroom with the Sol-u-mel - the sinks, counters, tub, toliet and shower - the soap scum, grime you name it - this stuff removed it! Since it is not a harsh product I did not gag the whole time while using it - no sneezing either!!! The dishwashing detergent also seems to be working well - and you use half the amount that a regular store brand. Lastly, the Mela-gel - an anticeptic gel - is AWESOME! Brooke got stung by a bee we think and she was screaming to the point of not breating - that gel was put right on the stink and she was perfect. The swelling went down in a very minimal amount of time and she didn't seem to be bothered by anyone touching the spot. That is awesome!

The quilt and camper projects have been at a standstill with all of the family events we have been doing together - the fair, air show, starting school etc. As soon we get back to these projects I should have something to update you on!

Lastly, I think we finished up with the last of the potatoes - so I wanted to share how I processed all of it for freezing:

Mashed potatoes: I decided to do homestyle potatoes because I did not have to peel them - so I washed and cut up a large pot of potatoes - boiled until ready. Once I drained the potatoes I poured them into a large bowl - I mashed the potatoes to the partly lumpy stage mainly because I made so much of them. I added milk and mixed well. Then I separated the potatoes into gallon sized ziplock bags. Smooched them flat getting as much air out as possible. I made 3 ziplock bags of potatoes and the store nicely in the freezer. To prepare to eat - I thawed the potatoes, poured into a bowl - microwaved for about 10 minutes - added seasoning,butter and milk - mixed well with a mixer and well-la yummy mashed potatoes.

French Fries/hashbrowns/potato wedges etc.: wash and peel potatoes if desired - cut into fries - blanch fries in boiling water for about 5 minutes - once they are well drained place in a single layer on a cooking sheet. I put them into the freezer for about 1-2 hours. Then I pour them into ziplock bag. Pre-freezing in a single layer allows you to take and cook what you need and they are not stuck together. If they do start to stick you are able to tap the bag on the counter to break them up. You can cook these potatoes as desired.

I have seasoned fries made up too - after they were blanched, drained I pour the seasoning over the potatoes on the cookie sheets before putting in the freezer. When ready to use - throw into the over at 350 to bake for about 20-30 minutes.

We tried a new recipe today:

Salmon with Lemon and Dill
Ingredients:
1 pound salmon fillets
1/4 cup butter, melted
5 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon dried dill weed
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
Directions:
1.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a medium baking dish.
2.
Place salmon in the baking dish. Mix the butter and lemon juice in a small bowl, and drizzle over the salmon. Season with dill, garlic powder, sea salt, and pepper.
3.
Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until salmon is easily flaked with a fork.

I liked the salmon for the most part, but not sure if I personally would make it for myself again - Matt said the spices were a little strong for him - like really strong on top and bland at the bottom. So, this recipe will not qualify as a fish recipe that the family likes :(

On Tuesday, I took my mom to the social security office - she has applied for 3 different types of SS. I am now working with her case worker at job and family services to help her with medicaid, foodstamps etc. I also got her hooked up with a free cell phone through http://www.safelink.com/ - they give her a phone and free minutes monthly. I hope this helps me stay in contact with her while we get through all of these application processes. I then took here to get breakfast and get a few basic things that she needed grocery wise - she thought I was going to restock her place. I wish I could but I too have bills and food to put onto the table. I hate telling her no, but I just can not support her. Then she wanted ciggerettes - knowing that I had to take Grace to preschool I told that I just did not have the time to run store to store. Everytime she comes to the house she acts as if she is starving - maybe she is, and she is in dire need for that 'drag'. I do not smoke and from what I recall I have no addictions (except to chipotle - but being that I work from home now it is not readily available to me) so I do not know what it is like to 'need' something nor do I ever want to experience that. But, I also feel that if you can't afford it you just shouldn't do it. She basically puts the little money she gets monthly towards prepaid cell phone minutes and ciggerettes - not rent or electric or even FOOD. I can only do so much - but in my book ciggerettes are not a need its a want. Anyway - I hope this journey with my mom helps my relationship with her, but its truely hard at times. I feel that I can not bond with her because its like talking to my 4 year old.

I finally posted on my other blog - http://www.stampingwithbettyboop.blogspot.com/ check it out. I have decided that because I am behind on posting there I will need to complete posting to the blog 143 in 1001 days for me feel that I 'techincally' completed that task. Hopefully with all of the goals that I want to complete I should have plenty to choose from.

I really appreciate all of the support I am getting through this process. At least at this point I do not feel overwhelmed with this large 'to do' list and am starting to feel accomplished with things in my life - rather than just feeling like all I do is chase 4 kids around and work. I really don't have a lot of time for the things I want to do - rather I, at times just do not make the time. In any case - I am just glad this personal challenge is going well as it makes me feel good about myself.

A quick update!

I have been pretty busy like normal. But I have my mom set up on a waiting list for low income housing and a meeting with Social Security - tomorrow I will take her to get signed up etc. I placed my first Melaluca order to start the process of Melaluca-nizing my home - I got fabric softener, dishwasher detergent and some SolUMel oh and some Mela-gel. Brooke got stung/bit by something on Saturday and that gel took the sting out right of her hand. She calmed in seconds. I also have 2 of the 3 colors cut for Grace's quilt. I am thinking at the rate that I am moving I may be able to make each girl a quilt for their birthdays. Since, they have been watching the process I am going to try to find a way to dress it up so they will still be surprised when they get them. Matt has also made a lot of progress on the camper. The entire lid to the pop up has been reframed and put back together - now he is working on the front end of it where there was some damage. Lastly, I shot a gun this past weekend. It was a small handgun - forgive me for not knowing what it was but Matt is going to teach me to use his shotgun as well. I did hit the target even got a 'kill' shot on the sheet - I promise to get some of this stuff photographed to show all of you!

Another busy weekend…but I am starting to feel that I am accomplishing some of the things that I have set out to do.

*helped Matt when possible with the camper
*spent time with my mom
*started a quilt
*made laundry soap
*planned 2 wks worth of meals for a more organized shopping trip
*use more of my potatoes
*used my over ripe bananas before they hit the trash

On Friday, I thought it was Grace’s preschool orientation – well I get there (dressed nicely and with make up on J ) to find out that orientation was this coming up Thursday! Duh – I need to pay more attention! Well – I already had plans to pick up my mom to come to my house for the weekend. I helped her apply for social security, section 8 etc. So we went and picked her up a little earlier.

On Saturday, we all swam together and the Babies and I cheered Matt through the ‘fixer upper’ part of this camper process. I also made homemade french-fries to go with our dinner Saturday night.

On Sunday, I finally got out the hambones from the freezer and made a pot of Bean and Ham soup and Ham and Potato soup. I sent the majority of the Potato soup home with my mom so she would have something to eat, as I have no clue what she actually has. I made a loaf of banana bread, planned my dinner menus for 2 wks and made laundry soap concentrate that will make 10 gallons of detergent. I also started cutting the fabric for my first quilt - I will post the photos as I make a little more progress.

I wanted to crunch the $$ value of what the savings would be to our family. We typically buy a 92 (but in theory is really about 56 loads on average) load container of tide for around $20 every month. (about 36 cents a load)

Borax 3.36
Soda 2.16
2 bars of Dove Burst soap 2.97

This equates to $3.51 per 10 gallons of detergent (160 loads) = just around 2 cents per load…So the bottom line is we went from spending $20 a month to about an average of $1.17 a month for laundry detergent for a $14.04 a year to wash our laundry based on regular usage. I think that is AWESOME!

Laundry Soap Recipe
The Dry Version: (Thanks Wendy for sending this me!)
1 bar Fels Naptha Soap, finely grated1 cup Washing Soda1 cup Borax
Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.
Use 2 tablespoons per full load

The Liquid Version:
1 bar Fels Naptha Soap, finely grated, 1 cup Washing Soda, 1 cup Borax
Grate soap into a small saucepan. Cover with hot water. Cook over medium low heat, stirring continually, until the soap completely dissolves. Put washing soda and borax in a 5 gallon bucket. Pour in the hot, melted soap mixture. Stir well, until all the powder is dissolved. Fill the bucket to the top with more hot tap water. Stir, cover securely, and let set overnight. The next morning, stir the mixture. Mix equal amounts of soap concentrate and water in a dispenser container. Shake before using. Use 1 cup per load.

**I used 2 bars of soap for the smell and suds factor - I could not find the Fels Naptha so I hope this works - from what I read it should.

Today, I decided to make homemade Salisbury Steak – something we typically buy prepackaged. It turned out wonderful! Here is the recipe:
1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed French onion soup
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

DIRECTIONS
1. In a large bowl, mix together 1/3 cup condensed French onion soup with ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, salt and black pepper. Shape into 6 oval patties.
2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown both sides of patties. Pour off excess fat.
3. In a small bowl, blend flour and remaining soup until smooth. Mix in ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce and mustard powder. Pour over meat in skillet. Cover, and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
I doubled the sauce, kept the ketchup amount the same. I also could not find this onion soup so I used dry onion soup mix and 10 oz of water (in addition to the ¼ cup water) Then I added dry beef onion soup mix to the gravy mixture. The kids loved it. After I fried them up in the pan I baked them in the over at 350 for 1 hour.

Lastly, I made the best chocolate chip cookies! I have been reading a lot about cookies to find the best combination of ingredients and I think I found it for my cookie recipe of the month! Here is the recipe:

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Thursday's are New Recipe Day - At least for now :)

I made this recipe with the peaches I had bought at the Amish market on Monday as they were starting to get really soft and we would not finish them in time. I had to tweak it a little and added a few things – I used limejuice (I was out of lemon) so I used just a splash. Then I added about a 1-½ tsp of cinnamon to the peach mixture. Lastly, after I put the dough mixture on I used brown sugar on top instead of the white and sprinkled just a little more cinnamon on top. The house sure did smell good while it was baking! And it tasted yummy! The only thing I would change is doubling the dough so it had more to go around :)

Fresh Peach Cobbler (from cooks.com)

3 lbs fresh peaches
1 T lemon juice
¼ c light brown sugar, packed
1 ½ T cornstarch
½ c water
½ c granulated sugar
½ c un-sifted all-purpose flour
½ t baking powder
¼ t salt
2 T butter
1 lg egg

Preheat over to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a 2 quart casserole. Peel and slice fresh peaches. Place in greased casserole. Stir in lemon juice. In a 1 quart saucepan stir together brown sugar and cornstarch. Gradually add water, stirring until cornstarch is dissolved.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickens, 5 minutes. Pour sauce over peaches in casserole.

To prepare topping, in medium size bowl, stir together sugar (minus 1 tsp), flour, baking powder and salt. With a wooden spoon, stir in butter and egg until a soft dough forms. Drop spoonfuls onto peach mixture (topping will spread as it bakes). Sprinkle with reserve teaspoon of sugar.

Bake cobbler 40-45 mins or until topping is golden brown and filling bubbles. Cool slightly on wire rack. Sprinkle with additional sugar if desired. Serve peach cobbler warm at room temperature.

Frugality is the practice of # acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner, and # resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services, to # achieve a longer term goal.

We try to do things to save money etc. As do many American’s I am sure. We shop at BJ’s, Aldi’s and Save A Lot for 50% of our grocery purchases. We then buy our meat from a butcher to save money as well. I make my own baby food to provide not only healthy meals to the babies, but it also saves us a lot of money.

On Monday I bought a 50 lb bag of potatoes from the Amish stand up the road from me. I buy many things in bulk with all good intentions of making it worth my while – but recently I have been finding the fresh produce going to waste before I get to it. Now that isn’t very frugal is it? Well this 50 lb bag of potatoes is not going to waste. I sorted through the bag and pulled out all of the smaller potatoes and put them in a bucket for steaming, I have another bucket of medium potatoes perfect for mashed potatoes. Then I started to peel and cut. I have 1 zip lock bag of fries, 1 of hash browns and 1 of seasoned steak fries. I still have 1/3 of the bag left so I hope to do more tomorrow. If I calculate correctly I should have 9-12 bags of frozen potatoes plus the two buckets of potatoes that I have separated.

I will watch the Amish stand’s in the near future for peppers and onions – I will precut all of that and freeze it – then use it as I need through out the winter.

Oh – I forgot to mention in last nights post! We got our camper – it was a great deal – it cost us $46 (2 clambake tickets)!!! It is an older model pop up. It needs a few structural type repairs which Matt has all the wood to fix any of the framing issues. Then he will see what types of mechanical things that need fixed. I will be updating the interior. Matt will be replacing the floors – its 1970’s brown! Ugh!! I will post photos once we start the revamp project!