Canning Peaches

Coming up I-65 from south Alabama and Florida you go through Clanton, AL in Chilton County. They are known for their peaches in that area. My dad and step mother lived in Clanton for a few years so I grew up eating peaches from Clanton. On our way home from the beach I made my husband stop. We bought a half bushel of peaches. They are so good! Today I canned part of them. I did two batches and got 14 pint jars. Hope they come out good after canning. I am thinking since you water bath cook them 20 minutes that they will not be like a fresh sliced peach. I probably will use them in cobbler, icecream, and to top porkchops. I have about 30 more peaches and think I will take a few to my neighbors. Canning is hard work! I am so tired.

And this is what awaits me at the end of that long canning session. Large bowls where I cut the peaches and held until processing. Pots of the sugar water and many drips on the counters, and icky towels that I used to wipe my hands millions of times.

Boiled Peanuts

Along the southeast boiled peanuts are a summer tradition. The small farm towns north of all the beach areas of Gulf Shores, Destin, and Panama City Beach are home to peanut farmers. Along the road you will find stands or people selling boiled peanuts from the back of their truck. They are so good and juicy. The peanuts are boiled for hours in salted water until the green (raw) peanuts are cooked through and seasoned. You put the shell in your mouth and crack it with your teeth and the juice that is inside the shell runs out into your mouth. You then use your teeth to pick the peanut out of the shell to eat. They are so good either warm from the pot or after refrigerating them. You have to refrigerate them or they will spoil. This is a messy snack, but so worth the mess!

Penguin Cupcakes

Edit: I had the idea to hide a candy fish in each of the penguin's bellies. It would be cute for the kids to find it when they bite into the cupcake. As you see the penguins are ice fishing, and each one has a fish they he or she caught under their arms. You could also put candy eggs on the male penguin's feet like in that big long documentary movie about penguins. You could put one penguin cupcake close to the edge and when a kid goes to pick that one you could mime in your best penguin voice, "Don't push me, cause I'm close to the edge." Okay, I will stop now.

Ashley went to lunch with friends and one of her friends made her these cupcakes. They are so cute. Our home school mascot is a penguin, so I will have to make these for the kids sometime.

Make cupcakes, but do not fill the pan too high. You do not want them to rise above the paper liner. The body is a mini chocolate donut. The head is a round chocolate donut hole. Use a toothpick to secure the head to the body. She heated them to get the icing to run a little so she could blend the head into the body and stick on the wings, etc. Cut a marshmallow for the white belly. The beak is half of a starburst. White icing with chocolate chips for the eyes. Half of the dark cookie part of an oreo cookie for each wing. Melt starburst and roll it thinly and cut out the feet. Each one has a candy fish under one wing.

Freezer Chicken

I hope this photo doesn't gross anyone out. The night before leaving for Spring Break I was getting food for our trip and when I walked by the freezer case I saw the sign. Split chicken breasts $.49 a lb. !!!! Well, I took a moment to figure out if I really was going to make myself put up that much chicken when I needed to clean and pack. I told myself that, yes, I needed to make myself put up that much chicken because it was a great price. So, I put 6 packages in my cart that were around 3 1/2 lbs each. Last night I boiled half of it and sealed in in packages for the freezer. Today I was going to bake some with Greek seasoning but, I had a homeschool meeting and ran by CVS so I didn't want to have to watch it in the oven. So, I am now boiling the 2nd batch and will just put it up the same way after I make some chicken salad sandwiches for lunch.

All this when I am trying to eat up every single piece of meat in my freezer and defrost it and start fresh on the meats. Oh well, it is life with a coupon/ sale shopper. There is no cure. When we find a bargain we are getting it.

Eating on $25.00 a week

An article on Smart Spending caught my eye. The Illinois food bank issued a challenge to state officials, leaders, and residents to try living off of the average food stamp amount of $25.00 PER PERSON a week. I am a bit shocked after looking at the referenced site in the Smart Spending article. The people were having a really hard time and they even give a sample menu on their site. They have macaroni and cheese with green beans two nights. It is almost as if they are purposely trying to make the menu as unappealing and pathetic looking as possible. I will say that it is a lot more difficult to purchase food for one person versus two or more. The more you have the larger the package you can buy. It is also harder to buy everything you need in one week. When you have to count the whole price for a can of salt but you only use 1/16 of it. Even on a real case where the person is living on assistance after the first week you build a stock of basic stuff that you can use for the next week.

For $25.00 a person a week that would be $175.00 a week for my family of 7. Um, that is $700.00 a month. I budget $500.00 a month, but have spent $600.00 the last two months building up a stock of supplies. I don't think the challenge even includes cleaning products or toiletries, which are included in mine. I have a LOT of toothpaste and shampoo and buddies soap and deoderant. If you stink please come see me and I can set you up.

I know this budget isn't extravogant, but I think the people who need to use the services of financial aid need to be better taught how to save money. Many come from homes where no one taught them how to cook or shop or save money. Teach them how to match coupons to sales and get better deals. Teach them how to shop the loss leaders and sales each week on meat and vegetables. Show them a better menu than the one listed, one that looks more appealing, so they have a desire to work a little to get the deals and spend time cooking. Show them how much extra they are paying for convienience items. Show them how to cook ahead and freeze meals, how to make baby food, how to use leftovers.... the list goes on and on. Anything, but hand them money for food, then expect them to know how, then try to make people feel sorry for them that they have to eat off of $25.00 a week. Can I hear an Amen?

Looking at one of the blog of the people who took on the challenge here read the first commentor. They also participated and listed their much better menu. I want to go to their house for supper.

What do you think? Could you feed your family for $25.00 a week. What would you do to stay within that amount? How much are you spending per week?

Hersheys Bliss

I got these at Rite Aid last night. They are free after rebate. They are gooood. I don't need this in the house.

Fall Back Meals

Do you have fall back meals? Today my kids went to their home school classes at the church so I ran all over town to all the CVS stores. I met my husband at Chilis for lunch. We both were not feeling well so we really didn't enjoy lunch. Man, we have only had supper at Chilis, not lunch, it was expensive. It was $17.00 before tip, and we both drank water. I got the unlimited soup and salad. It was good but I just didn't feel like eating much so didn't even eat one serving of each.

I picked up the kids from school and had just sat down on the couch and my 17 year old called to let me know that she had friends coming over. She brought home about 8 friends. They hooted and hollered for the last few hours and have all now left for something at the church. But, I have no supper ready. I put on some frozen peas, they will take an hour to cook. For those not from the south this is not English peas it is southern peas- pink eyed purple hulls. They actually taste nothing like black eyed peas, but that is the closest thing that people outside of the south understand. The only meat that I have since I have not shopped this week and I lost my coupons (see this post http://southernseven.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-cant-find-my-coupons-call-911-fast.html ) is smoked sausage and don't want that. I guess we are having peas, corn, and cornbread. This meal saved us from hunger when we were first married. My father in law would give us peas and corn that he grew. I would make cornbread and maybe some rice.

Some of our other quick fall back meals are:

ramen soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
quesadilla- throw in whatever you can find leftover
eggs, bacon/sausages, grits, and biscuits
I keep pizza dough and can sauce for pizzas or garlic/cinnamon sticks
macaroni and cheese- although not enough for hubbie
cereal
PB&J

It is a real blessing that my daughter brings home her friends. It is killing any budget because teenagers can go through food, but I feel it is worth it to have them around. Even when they are noisy and acting stupid. I was really touched one day when my daughter came home from a lunch out with all of them. When they come over I talk to them and then we will go upstairs while they watch movies and then come down after the movie is over. She said that they all started talking and everyone was talking about how they liked to come to our house best. Because we talk to them!!!!! Just when you think that you have earned the dorky parents that are talking to me award. A couple of the kids have million dollar homes with home theatres and pool tables. We don't. I thought that would be the best liked house. I did find out the dad gets his guns out and tries to intimidate the boys. My daughter also mentioned that one of the boys has a house that there is nothing out of place. I said, "See, you need to make sure that it is clean when they come over. They are going to think we are slobs." and she said, "No, I feel like I can't touch anything and am not comfortable." So see, redeeming value of not being perfect at keeping a house- they feel loved and comfortable. Do you feel the hugs?

Stockpiling

Amy at http://www.momadvice.com/blog/ is doing a series on stockpiling. Today she is talking about where to store the extra food. You may ask why to stockpile. Well, instead of buying food each week for the things you are going to make, you buy the sales each week and get your pantry stocked with the items you usually need for your meals. You keep your pantry stocked with sale items and get the best price you can. Then, you cook from what you have in your pantry. It really lowers the amount you spend on food.

I have a problem. I am able to find good deals. I buy lots of those items. I line it all up, take photos of it, then... my family goes on a spree to see how fast they can eat it. The more I buy the more they eat. Anyone else having this problem? I have two teenagers and three 8-11 year olds. We always have extra kids in the house. Every week my daughter has about 6-12 friends over. I try to monitor what they eat but it just disappears. I actually have to hide things.

I am trying to store food that would last us two to three weeks during any emergency. Stuff that we can heat on the grill or campstove or dry. I guess I need to put it all in a box and put it on a high shelf in the laundry room. Have you ever been without electricity for a long period? We lived through Hurricane Fredrick in Mobile and did not have electricity for three weeks. I was young so don't really remember much except when each neighbor took turns opening their freezer and grilling all the food and the neighbors came to eat it. Next meal, next neighbor. Now we live where there are a lot of Tornados. I would like to be prepared. We also just went through over a year of two house payments after we moved. We were scraping the barrell to find money for food. I am glad that I had food put up that we could pull from. You get really creative when you get hungry enough.

I have a lot of kitchen cabinets so I can put food in them. I have a walk in pantry under the landing of the stairs ( the door is in the kitchen) It has a low ceiling, like 5 foot, but it is lined with floor to ceiling wire shelves. I am able to put a lot in there. We have 9 foot ceilings in the laundry room so I have shelves over the washer and dryer and the opposite wall where I can put things. I am going to add shelves on the two side walls and over the door for extra space. We have a coat closet at the garage entrance and I use the shelf above the coats for storage. Right outside the door in the garage I have a bookshelf and cabinet side by side. I keep non food items there. We kept our old side by side refrigerator and I keep the freezer full. We only use the refrigerator for extra space right after shopping or for parties. I plan on buying flour and storing it there - that way bugs won't get into it. I could use the space under our bed(king size) if I needed to find more space. I store toiletries under the bath cabinets.

Egg Sandwich

I make eggs in the microwave for a quick breakfast. I don't think there is anything special about it but I have had a few people see me do it and comment on it. I like this method because it is quick and it makes a round egg to add to a sandwich or bagel. The egg is all one piece so unlike when you scramble it, it does not fall out of your sandwich.

First, I spray my bowl with a cooking spray. I crack an egg into the bowl, add salt and pepper and scramble with a fork to break the yolk and mix together.

I then put it in the microwave for one minute.

That's it. Eat and enjoy.

You are invited For Supper

Anyone want some spaghetti noodles with mold? Doesn't this just look so delicious?

Okay all you perfectly organized and frugal housewives, quit holding your nose so high up in the air, I can see things up your nose. I know how horrible that I let $.10 worth of noodles spoil without making a good ol gormet meal. How unfrugal of me. But, I am busy. I have 5 kids and I home school! That is what this is-yeah, a science experiment, that's it.

Vegetable Soup

I had planned a roast for dinner but my dad called to say they are coming tomorrow afternoon for a little while. The roast would only feed us seven so I had to make it stretch. I went ahead and cooked it in the crock pot with some carrots and potatoes,a package of onion soup mix on top, and one cup of water. I let that cook all night. This morning I took out the carrots and potatoes and refrigerated them. I took the roast juice and added water and 16 oz. of tomato sauce, a 16 oz. package of soup vegetables and about 10 oz of butter beans. I shredded the roast and put back into the soup and cooked for about an hour. We will have this tomorrow so I will put the potatoes and carrots back in then so they don't get soggy. All I need is some warm buttery bread and we have a meal.