Monday, August 19, 2019

Monday Message



“I wish to urge again the importance of self-reliance on the part of every individual Church member and family. None of us knows when a catastrophe might strike. Sickness, injury, unemployment may affect any of us. We have a great welfare program with facilities for such things as grain storage in various areas. It is important that we do this. But the best place to have some food set aside is within our homes, together with a little money in savings. The best welfare program is our own welfare program. Five or six cans of wheat in the home are better than a bushel in the welfare granary.” (President Gordon B. Hinckley) 

This makes me think of during the depression people would ask to hunt In people's barns for pigeons for food. They made pot pies and would give one to the owner of the barn to insure they could hunt again.

How well would you do if you had to hunt for pigeons and then cook them?

Can you make a pot pie from scratch, not those frozen ones?

https://www.familyfreshmeals.com/2016/03/best-homemade-chicken-pot-pie.html - making pot pie from scratch is very frugal.

https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/perfect-pie-crust/ - this will help you learn to make pie crust.

https://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/homemade-hamburger-helper/ - this is my favorite recipe for homemade hamburger helper. Store the ingredients so you can make them when you want. Watch for pasta sales and stock up. I put a couple of bay leaves in with the pasta, this is how I keep any bugs out of any of my grains.

I like to keep a stock of spices on hand plus dried onion and dried garlic.


It has been a good thing to keep dried onion and dried garlic, I also keep dried celery. I always store these so I can always make soup as needed.

Knowing how to cook from scratch has been a great skill that has helped me stretch my budget. I wish I had known when we first got married what I know now, life would have been smoother but then I needed to learn.


Here is the progress so far with the weird yarn, it is spinning up very nicely. I wondered if any other spinners thought to try it.  

As produce becomes available dry it or can it or freeze it.

I think if you can find a food sealer at yard sales or thrift stores you should try to get it.  


I have gotten two bags recently of white cornmeal each were five lbs. The packages had a small tear in the packaging so they were 99 cents. I vacuum sealed these in quart jars that I have clean and dry. I pour the cornmeal in the jars then I cut a piece of paper towel or a coffee filter, whatever I have on hand, and lay this over the top of the fine dry ingredients. This is a must to keep the finer particles from going into the machine and ruining it.

Vacuum sealing saves us so much because the air is taken out of the jar to keep things fresh lots longer.

I vacuum seal using a canister which means I can use any jar with a lid as long as there is rubber in the lid. So next time you use a jar of spaghetti sauce save the jar and lid, wash it well and let dry. I fill with product like dehydrated mushrooms, wipe the rim and put on the lid hand tight then back it off and place in the canister then vacuum seal it.  

So any size jar will work though I find not baby food jars, save those for nails and screws.

You can vacuum seal chocolate bars, jelly beans...they all stay fresh.

So this is my top pick: a vacuum sealer,
then canning equipment and canners, then dehydrators.







Summer is a great time to find them, these all add to my ability to do. Tis the way to save.



Don't forget jars. I asked for free canning jars around and people are excited to give them to you. These are all reusable except the lids, I get those and I pick up a box or two at the store. Once I use them in canning, I save these lids and use them for vacuum sealing. No waste!


Try first to acquire things frugally. If you are unable then when you can. Consider giving gifts in vac sealed jars.

Keep working on these things as you can.

12 comments:

  1. The vacuum sealer is on my wish list and I am keeping an eye out for one. I learned to make and roll pie crust when I was just tall enough to stand at the counter and make them. My Mom made many, many pies and I was the crust maker, especially for holidays. I am thankful for that now. I have had other women over just to teach them pie crust making. I have never had reason to ready a bird for cooking but I have a book that I could reference. Old friends of ours ate a lot of squirrel when they were first married 40 years ago. She always made them into a stew. We have plenty of squirrels in our woods if it ever came to that. My nephew is special ops in the Army and he went into our woods and said he could find food to live on just fine back there and never come out for weeks. But, he eats bugs.

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    1. Eeeeeew ok I think if it comes to that I will be a vegetarian but fortunately I have canned meat in my storage I won't have to do the pigeon pot pie that is great you know how to make pie crust and I am a huge believer in having instructional books...keep up the good work!

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  2. I use vacuum packing for both dry goods (in jars or bags) and frozen meat in bags. I did get the 3 sizes from FoodSaver for canister vacuum packing, but I've never seen a canister so large as that in your photo. Is the black canister for inserting a loaded jar, used before, as you mentioned in your recommendations above? If so, it looks like I'd be able to fit a larger jar! Do you ever vacuum pack with a screw-top lid, as opposed to the rubber lined locking(?) lid? I've dried herbs via a screened hanging arrangement, finishing in my oven on drying set up, then jarred it; maybe I should vacuum pack that as well. I so enjoy your blog, as I am retired and finally able to garden, preserve, and weave, and have been moderately frugal all my life.

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    1. You will have to tell us about your wearing. A friend gave me a hand held vac sealer and it came with this taller canister it has the mr coffee logo on it. It is just taller then a QT jar. I have a seal a meal tall canister that works on qt size jars too and they work on both machines I have. Yes I do canning jars too with the screw bands there are the white attachments to do reg lids and wide mouth lid and I do have them I usually use those on two qt jars that do not fit in the canister but the canister will do its and pints and jelly jars I save my lids when I used my home canning those kids work best in the vac sealing I wipe the rim and put on the used lid then the ring tighten it like you do in canning but then untighten the ring just a bit then seal using the canister you can use these plus jars like next time you use spaghetti sauce or snickers jelly jar or salsa wash the jar and their kids dry them well you will notice inside those lid now a days they have a bit of rubber inside the lid this makes it able to be sealed in the canister I hope that answered the question..those white attachments would not work with those odd size jars but with the canister they can be used..i have a friend who used ice cream topping I now have celery sealed in those jars if I didn't answer your question ask me again

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  3. My sister makes the best chicken pie I have ever tasted. I also love my vacuum sealer.

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  4. Becky where do you get the canisters from that you put the jars in to vacuum the air out of the jars.

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    1. You can go to the websites of food saver and seal a meal I also heard some have gotten them from bass pro shop let us know what you find

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  5. Your weird yarn is called 'roving' here in Australia. It means you can spin worsted yarn with all the fibre lying in the same direction. This gives a tighter spin. I call the roving 'fluff'. In my home I spin fluff.

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    1. It does look like roving but no animal fiber and it is meant to be yarn as it is I cannot imagine working with it as it is huge so I thought perhaps when it was marked at clearance prices I would try to see if it would spin and it does tho it is more slippery? Hard to describe but a cheap alternative as reg roving is costly I still have to finish it before I see how it turns out. Stay tuned....

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  6. I love to reuse those lids! I just made up some mixes and sealed them with a vacuum sealer. They are handy machines.



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    1. What mixes did you do??? Yes I love having them

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