Roasted Pumpkin Seeds and Yummy Puree

I went to the grocery store wanting to get a few cans of Pumpkin puree to use in some recipes.  I usually have a few cans in my pantry, but last year pumpkin was hard to find and pricey, so I didn't have any.  My jaw dropped when I saw the price.  The bigger can was over $3.00!  And, the little one was close to $3.00.  There was no way I was paying that.  It's soooo not in my grocery budget.  I went home thinking maybe I could can some myself.  And, sure shooting... you can!  But, I would need a pressure canner which I still don't have.  But, I can freeze it like I do my butternut squash.  In the end I got just under 4lbs of fresh pureed pumpkin.  I immediately made some yummy pumpkin bread with it.  It was amazing!

 

Down at the grocer store yesterday I saw some sweet pumpkin / pie pumpkins for $1.00 each.  I bought 2 and brought them home to cook em up.  What fun we had!  I wanted to use the whole pumpkin, so I decided to try making some toasted pumpkin seeds too.  I sliced up the pumpkins and took out all the seeds.  Roasted them in the oven at 400' for about 40 minutes.  As they were cooking and cooling I asked Rachel to help with the seeds.  She had so much fun getting them cleaned and ready.  After cleaned and dried they went into a 400' oven.  I cooked them a bit to long so some of them were very brown. (I was distracted by the canning of asparagus) Hubby loved those, but next time I'll watch closer.  I sprinkled them with some kosher salt and we all loved them.  Even the kids.  They were eating them by the handful.  You can bet I'll be using seeds from all my squashes from now on.

 

Butter Making In My KitchenAid

Something I thought I would never do is make butter. I do all my baking and cooking from scratch, so we use a lot of butter.  But, with the price of real butter at almost $4.00 a pound, I was kinda forced to "do something" about it.  I saw a post here and decided to give it a try.  (there are some video tutes on youtube as well)  I bought the cheapest whipping cream I could find. (hopefully next time I'll be able to get some on sale) and I put it in my KitchenAid.  Turned it on and let it go.  It took about 15 minutes total and my splash guard really helped.  The kids thought it was "awesome!"  It was very interesting to see it go from cream, to fluffy "whipped cream", to butter & buttermilk.  In the end I spend $3.25 on the carton of Whipping cream and I got 11.5 oz of butter and 2.5 cups of buttermilk.  The butter tasted amazing and the buttermilk whole wheat oat pancakes that we had that night were equally amazing.  The kids are now asking me for more!  I'll definitely be making more when I need butter and it's not on sale. 

Preparedness - SHTF – We'll Be Ready For Anything!

A few months ago I stumbled into a new obsession. Long Term Food Storage. I found it purely by accident when trying to figure out how to cook beans and how best to store them after I did so. Basically food storage is just that... you store extras of the things you use most as well as things that will store for years and years. Now I realize that this is not a “new” thing. People have been storing food forever. They stocked up during the harvest time to be prepared for the winter. For the most part people have stopped doing this because you can go to the store and buy whatever you want, whenever you want. It's nice that we don't have to worry about where our food comes from, but I also think it's very naive. In these economic times I don't think we can be to careful. Why not stock up on essentials with today’s price to use tomorrow?

My favorite website is foodstoragemadeeasy.net. I even got their ebook and have begun following some of their recipes and ideas for storing stuff. My current stock is fairly basic and not to huge. But, it's a start. Check out my pantry! With the amount of dry / canned goods I've bought I needed to completely clean out my pantry and make room. I'm even going to unearth space in my laundry room for non-food items and long term storage items.

I found these on clearance at Freddies.  They were around $1.50 each.  I wish they had more.

Here is a list of some of our current supplies:
50 lbs of Hard white wheat
20 lbs of White rice
10 lbs of Oats
4 lbs of Instant Dry Milk
3 lbs Salt
26 Cans of Soup
30 Cans Of Beans
20 lbs of Various dry beans
About 50 cans veggies, cream of soups, tuna, etc.
10 bags/boxes of Whole wheat pastas


There are other things too, but not enough of any one thing to mention. I'm going to add in some hygiene things this month as well as some meds and vitamins. I would love a suture kit and a dentist kit with those stick on cavity filler things. We are also looking for some water barrels. You won't live long without water! There are many on Craigslist right now, we just have to go get some. Other things I'm stocking up on is clothing for the kids in bigger sizes, (I bought the baby some things 50% off at Goodwill the other day is size 4T) paper products, food storage recipes, etc.

Making The Best Of My Food Storage: To make the best of all the basic goods listed above (and others that I have yet to buy) I am planning to rotate my foods. Basically you actually use your stored goods and replenish regularly. This way I'm using what I store and the family is used to eating it! Supposedly it'll lower our grocery bill and help us to eat much more healthy.

Can Rotating System... I made these with the instructions here.  I'll be making more of these!

 Little antidote: The past year I have been fighting to move our families eating into a new direction. All whole grains, fresh / frozen veggies, etc. No Pre-Prepard / Boxed Food! We have been doing really well. I think the only meal we eat out of a box anymore is Mac&Cheese. Anyways... Months ago I was grocery shopping and I ran into a friend of mine. (she calls me “Betty Crocker”) My cart was ½ filled with veggies and the rest was whole ingredients for our dinners for the next month. (I was about to do my once a month cooking). Her cart was filled with boxed everything. Now I know that she cooks healthy things and her family is very healthy. She just cooks from a box. But, it made me realize how far I've / we've come in the past year. Remembering this story makes me hope that by next year I'll look into a pantry & laundry room and see a very prepared and even healthier way of cooking.

New Equipment: Having raw ingredients like wheat makes you need new equipment. We are on currently on the prowel for a grain mill. You need a way to grind the wheat into flour! We are currently looking at the Country Living Grain Mill and the Champion Juicer with Grain attachment. They are very very different from each other, but the Juicer one is electric which is nice. I also want to get a pressure canner and learn all about canning and preserving. This next spring/summer I want to can all our fruits for next winter. (my kids hate fruit from a can) I've also learned that you can pressure can meats! It makes sense that you can do that I guess I just never really thought about it before.

Talking to the kids about why mommy has just bought 50 lbs of wheat & dry beans: My oldest is very perceptive. She took notice of the extra food stores coming into the house as well as all the chatter between hubby and I about storing food, water, and other basic supplies. We told both of the kids that it was just smart planning to have extras around for many reasons. Including power outages, big storms, natural disasters, job loss, etc. (I didn't want to go into things like food shortages and major food price increases) A few days later she “confirmed” what we had told her by asking me “So all this stuff is just in case the world ends? Like in that movie 2012?” LOL! I love that girl. I giggled and told her it was more just in case of small things like storms that knocked out power, snow, etc. This was the night of the 10th. Yeah... the next morning the kids found me glued to the TV watching about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. I think this really helped her understand why it's important.

So Much Information:  There is so much to know about food storage.  Where / how to store it, how to use it regularly, when to buy, what to buy, what not to buy, etc.  Check out the internet if you want to get started yourself.  There is sooo much info out there. Of course you can ask me questions here.  I'll answer the best I can, but I'm still learning myself.

Knitting & Sewing From Over The Holidays

The holidays are always a busy time for me. I'm not only planning and going to family gatherings, but I'm also busy making gifts. I try to make as much stuff as possible. This year with the new baby in the house I didn't get nearly enough time to make as much as I wanted. But, I did manage to do a few things. Below are some Xmas gifts that I made as well as a few things that I did after Xmas.
Little One Layete Xmas Eve jammies for Cael.
Emma nightshirt and Ottobre leggings for Ali for Xmas Eve.
Emma nightshirt and Ottobre leggings for Ray for Xmas Eve.
Action shot of the outfits on the kids.

Nola slippers for my dad for his birthday that was in November. I did finish both, but I didn't get a photo of it before I gifted it.
Nola slippers for my mother in law. She loved them. They may look "granny like" but they are sooo comfy. I'm planning on making some for myself and family.
Bright orange legwarmers for Ray. I also made a pair in bright blue for Ali, but I can't find a photo of those. Will have to take one!
Professor vest for the boy. It fits him better now as it was a bit big in the photo above.

Shawllette for my mom. This one took a while. It's made with a silk blend yarn that was sooo yummy to work with.
These were finished after the holidays. Jungle Gym overalls made with scraps of wool yarns. No buttons yet and it hasn't been blocked. There is plenty of room to grow.
Avaitrix hat. Love love Love this hat. Made it with malabrigo which is the soft wool yarn I've ever felt. I made this in November but it still fits him now.
I also made two Jayne hats (no pics but I will take some). One for my dad for Xmas and one for me. I also made two shawls on my knitting machine. I'm sure I've left something else out. But, I can't think of it now.

Yummy Christmas Mint Fudge - With Recipe!

Today I did some Christmas baking and discovered a new recipe. When making fudge I always use Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme and I follow the directions on the back for their fudge. But, tonight I didn't have any evaporated milk and I wanted to try using dark chocolate chips. Below is my improvised recipe. It turned out sooooo yummy.

Use the Fantasy Fudge recipe over at Kraft, but make the following adjustments:

- Substitute the evaporated milk for 2/3 cup of coffee creamer (seriously! I used my french vanilla coffee creamer and it is sooo yummy. I would imagine that you could use any flavor and your fudge would come out with a hint of that flavor.)
- Substitute the Semi-Sweet Chocolate for a bag of Dark Chocolate Chips
- At this point I wanted to go with a mint fudge so I substituted the vanilla for 3/4 tsp of mint extract

Follow all the rest of the directions and you'll have some really good fudge. Happy Cooking!

Perry Family Salsa Recipe

Salsa has quickly become tradition in our home. No Mexican meal would be complete without it. But, it can't be just any ol' salsa. It has to be home made salsa. This stuff is sooo tasty that our oldest who won't eat any veggies will eat this stuff by the spoonful. And, as an added bonus, the kids love to help make it.

I'm going to share our recipe with you all. Well... I guess it's not so much a recipe as it is a general idea of how to make salsa. Just a note before we get started though. All measurements are approximates. Really... just add in the ingredients until it tastes good to you. Some people like more onion, tomato, or heat. We find that we like equal amounts of onion and tomato. If the onion is really strong, then more tomato. Also, the recipe uses a food processor, but I have chopped all ingredients by hand many times and the salsa turns out just as yummy!

Perry House Salsa
1 medium yellow or white onion
8 Roma Tomatoes – this was all I had in the house when I made this batch. I would probably have added 4 more if we had them.
½ to 1 Bushel Of Cilantro
4-6 Slices of Jalapeno – we use the kind that comes sliced in a jar. It's not to hot, but has great flavor. You could use fresh, but I've never done that!
Juice of 1 Lime – or you can use 1 tbs or so of the bottled lime juice
Salt to taste
Optional – 1 tbs Garlic

Yield – This batch made 3+ cups of salsa. I usually make more than this, but we only had a few tomatoes today.
Step One – Pull off leaves of Cilantro. I had approx 2 cups. Don't worry about the stems to much. Throw it in the food processor and pulse it until it's fairly well chopped. Then scrape it out and into a bowl. It should look something like this:
Step Two – Chop off ends of onion and the outside skin. Chop into quarters and put in food processor. Chop until desired consistency. We like it a bit chunky. But, you could certainly keep chopping until smoother if you prefer that. Add to bowl.
Step Three – Chop tomatoes in half and remove insides. We do this so the salsa won't be to watery. But, if you prefer more liquid then by all means just chop the tomatoes in half and toss into food processor.
I do my tomatoes in two or three batches so they don't get to mushy. In one of the batches I add the jalapeno and garlic so they get good and mixed in. Put tomatoes in bowl.
Step Four – Mix it all up and add the lime juice and salt to taste. You may want to add more cilantro or tomatoes... Don't be afraid to add stuff if you want!
Step Five – I usually stick it in the refrigerator until dinner so the flavors can all meld together. But, you can eat it now if you want. I can't tell you how many times the salsa never makes it to the refrigerator before it's gone.

Eat and enjoy with chips, burritos, eggs... or even just in spoonfuls.

Tinkerbell & Pirates

Rachel had her friend birthday party this weekend. I can't believe she's 6! We had it at home we had a total of 11 of her friends from school. She wanted a Tinkerbell party, which was lots of fun to plan. We had both girls and boys attending, so I decided to have a treasure hunt where the boys would find pirate items and the girls would find fairy items. In the end I had enough of both for the kids to have all of the items. The "treasures" were a pirate eye, fairy crown (even some of the boys wanted these) flower wands, compass's, and jewels. It was a fun morning. After my hubby and I had most of the day to relax, clean up, and rest. It's amazing how exhausting it is planning a party. I cleaned and prepared all week long for just 1.5 hours of party. Totally worth it when we saw all those happy kids and a very very happy daughter.

*The photograph is of the cupcakes that I frosted for the party. I was so pleased with them that I had to take pictures. They looked fantastic on the table and most of the moms jaws dropped when they found out that I frosted them. I saw a technique on youtube and went for it.