Monday Message

"Let us be in a position so we are able to not only feed ourselves through the home production and storage, but others as well." (President Ezra Taft Benson)

We need to keep working on our storages and we need to keep working on skills and frugality.

If you have a yard you own, think about planting fruit trees, berry bushes, rhubarb, asparagus, strawberries, blueberries and other things that come back on their own year after year.

It will take a couple years but you will have food from these things.

And if you can't plant, it's okay! Just get your food in the store for storage, no shame in that at all.

I think prices will be continuing to rise and we need to prepare for it by learning frugal ways around the things we currently have done. These are different times but we can do it!

Today, I made bread using the sourdough discard - get the recipe HERE.

I just made the bread from the booklet and tossed in about a cup of the sourdough in the water and stirred before adding the homemade mix from the booklet.

This makes us a loaf of bread and four cinnamon rolls - works great for us! Today I did the bread in the tube pan.

I spray the tube and sprinkle cornmeal, then the bread has cornmeal all around it. 

I once had round bread toasted at the Amanas. It was so good so when I saw these tube pans at yard sales, I snatched them up.

Well spring is here and so are the storms. This was our first tornado warning for the year and it was scary! It went right over our tiny town but better over than through.

We go to the basement and put on hard hats - not fun, in case you were wondering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHOLrIhbqYM - this gal does lots of research and tells us what to expect. I don't want you to be scared but no matter where you live in the world, this is something to encourage us to prepare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHLJ1UqTHjo 

We need to find work-arounds. We can do hard things - we really can do it. Share your frugal ideas below.

Missy says do what you can to prepare for harder times, you can do it!

Tippy Longstockings says we can do hard things but then we need to REST!

Monday Message

"Those families will be fortunate who, in the last days, have an adequate supply of food because of their foresight and ability to produce their own." (Ezra Taft Benson)

Try to plant something - try to learn how to garden. It is tasty and fun to watch it grow!

One thing I have done is try to plant food in my yard that will come up on its own like rhubarb, raspberries, asparagus, apples, peaches and plums... I was shocked already that the asparagus was up.

This is my first picking this year. We love asparagus - yum!

So I encourage you, if you can, to pop some things in the ground that will give you food every year.

I got the rhubarb on Freecycle. I asked if anyone had rhubarb starts. One lady wrote me back and said she had been trying to kill one, it was in her compost and still growing. And now I divided mine last year to make more. The original is on the end of the garden, the three are its offspring. This is early and already growing fast, just wait they will be much bigger!

So give that a try and see if you can get some.

I am pretty excited to share something I tried this week...

I made homemade chocolate chips!

Chocolate Chips

5 tbsp powdered sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tbsp water

Mix well put in a baggie and snip a corner

Press them out as I did in the picture on parchment paper, let them air dry for seven hours.

At that time you can see them in a pile.

I wanted to test them so I made a batch of cookie dough and took out a bit and stirred them into it. I didn't let this fully go seven hours so I hand folded them in and it worked and then baked them - it was a win! They are not exactly the same as chocolate chips have things in them that this doesn't but the taste is definitely there. And if I want them bigger, I can just make them bigger. Now, you do the math - how much are chocolate chips? How much did this recipe cost? It speaks volumes. I also thought if you wanted to flavor them and make mint or raspberry, just put flavoring in the tablespoon of water. I thought this was a huge win!

The other thing I did was make sourdough waffles using discard from my sourdough. Go back a few weeks to find the recipe for starting your sourdough.

Crispy Sourdough Waffles

1 1/4 c. Flour

1 tbsp of cornstarch1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp powdered milk powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 c. Sourdough discard

1 c. Water

2 large eggs

1/4 c. Oil

Mix this all together and make waffles.

I cook all the waffles, cool leftover ones to just toast them in the toaster - works great! You can see, I can take just a section that fits perfectly and is wonderful. The waffle iron is in the middle of fixing them tonight - yum! Wish you were here to enjoy them.

This recipe comes originally from the Sourdough Discard Cookbook for Busy Moms by Veronica Harris - this book is fantastic! I did change up a few things like the powdered milk and the water and how I have dry ingredients together and mix wet ingredients together and then just mix all together but it is because I use powdered milk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHZpAwaPMpA - here is a clever mending idea.

The other thing I have done is rearranged my living room.

Now that the telescope is outside, I felt like moving around the living room for a change of scenery.

Missy says keep working on your storage, things look worse.

Tippy Longstockings says work on making hard copies of your things just in case.

Start putting together that binder of shelf stable food recipes.

Also, keep finding joy and being kind to others.

Monday Message

"Today, I emphasize a most basic principle: home production and storage. Have you ever paused to realize what would happen to your community or nation if transportation were paralyzed or if we had a war or depression? How would you and your neighbors obtain food? How long would the corner grocery store—or supermarket—sustain the needs of the community?" (President Ezra Taft Benson)

I don't think it is hard to imagine at this time with what is going on. We should take it seriously. I saw on the news that it said we wouldn't see this next rise in prices till the end of April (about the time you are reading this). They are so high now, I can't imagine.

I worked on the Sofie Scarf while watching general conference - https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sophie-scarf-2 My sister gifted me the pattern and the yarn was from her as well - both from a long time ago, so this week I pushed through and finished it.

In this picture, I am blocking it. The scarf will hug the neck. It wraps around twice and ties in a knot that looks like a bow. So now that this is done, I will move on to a sweater I already started.

This was a free pattern and I have made it before, but this time I want it with long sleeves. I have a dress I made this color that it will be nice with.

That and spring cleaning still (which is about tended) is what this week's projects have been.

I am following along with this series - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az_lRTZxY7s She is doing a series on milling grains.

And from another https://nchfp.uga.edu/ has information on preserving food. I would encourage you to check with the extension service in your area for accurate processing info for where you live.

Keep looking for used equipment for preserving food like dehydrators, pressure canners, jars, pick up lids and rings if you need them (I suggest picking up several each time you get groceries, this will help you have them on hand when you need them), vacuum sealer and a tall canister to go with, if you can find one. https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2017/02/monday-message_27.html - this shows how I use mine.

But keep haunting those thrift stores and marketplace areas and any other thrifty place, don't rule out Freecycle, where you can ask for what you are looking for.

https://www.ldspreparedness.com/id129.htm - this has a wealth of information. You can click on the dates to the left. I printed them off when I was a Provident Living leader and put them in a binder. There is food storage information, gardening tips, recipes, etc. Very useful information, including tips like how to sharpen sewing machine needles, how to more easily reuse a zipper, and the many uses of cattails.

This will keep you reading and learning for years and years. And it's for free! You can print them and put them in a binder so you have a hard copy - like I mentioned before, hard copies are a storage item too.

This is a site I have shared before. it is one that has lots of storage recipes - https://preparednessnibblesandbits.blogspot.com/2009/02/basic-food-storage-cookbook.html This takes you to the contents of the book, just click on whatever you want and it comes up.

But you can also click on topics in the right-hand column.

This is where the dried apple crisp recipe comes from. I like to have dried apples in my storage (this is where a dehydrator and an apple peeler come in handy)

Apple Crisp

2 cups dried apples reconstituted in 1 cup boiling water

1/3 cup flour

2/3 cup brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup oatmeal

1/3 cup melted butter

Put apples and any remaining liquid in an 8x8-inch greased pan. Mix other ingredients in a separate bowl. Sprinkle over apples. Bake 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

You cannot tell I made it from dehydrated apples -  my favorite recipe, yum!

So jump around reading these sites as a homework assignment.

Missy says keep building your storage, she is proud of you!

Tippy Longstockings says learn your skills - make a list of the ones you want to learn and then break them down into steps to achieve the goal.