The Long and the Short of it

 So, here's one of my yearly projects.  I'm sure many of you do the same.  By the time school is out (or even before) my kids' jeans all have holes in the knee.  It's always the right knee, I don't know why. . .

I do a very basic job.  First, I cut them off (trying to get them straight an even. . . I am not a perfectionist so  I just eyeball it).

Then I fold the ends under about a 1/2 inch and iron them so that I have some sort of line to go off of.

If I want them to be extra nice, I will fold them under twice so that they won't fray at all.  Otherwise, I just fold them under once if I am short on time and if they are just for summer play anyway.

Next I sew around the bottom.  Twice.  They seem to lay flatter and nicer when I stitch twice around.

And that's it. :)  Here are a few of my finished products:

 A pair for my 3 year-old.

A closer look at my 9 year-olds

A couple pairs for my girls 

I even did a pair for my husband

My husband also had some work jeans with smaller holes in the knees that he wanted patched.  In this pair, the hole was straight across, so I just zigzagged over it a few times.  

And this is my very first patch job.  I know it is far from perfect, but hey, they are work jeans.  I cut out a circle of some other jean scraps and zigzagged around it.  I am not a real sewer, so if I can do this, anyone can!

And here's one of my daughters modeling her new shorts. . . she wouldn't make a decent face for the picture, though. ;)  

One reason I like to cut off jeans is so I can decide the length of the shorts--especially for my girls.  I like them to come to the knee.  We aren't short shorts people.  Another reason is obviously to save money.  Many times, money is tight around the start of school (along with the rest of the year ;) so these will end up being their school shorts, too.  Once they are hemmed up, they look very nice.

Coconut Oil Cream

So, I know I've been a little MIA these passed few months, but I have been doing things and taking pictures so I can do some new posts. :)  Things with my daughter doing chemo are going well but busy and I had my baby (#5) in October.  So, it takes a lot of juggling and acrobatics to get everything done each day! 

But here is a quick and easy thing that I have fallen in love with !  Coconut oil.  I use it all the time.  I have started using it instead of lotion, face wash, mouth wash. . . wait, are we in the kitchen or the bathroom?  Ha ha!  I will give more details on how I use it as face wash and mouth wash, but here is a nice, simple way to make it more usable as a lotion or moisturizer.  

Take some coconut oil and a hand mixer and whip it.  That's all.  Coconut oil has a melting point of 76 degrees.  So, below that, it is solid.  I've been using straight out of the jar for a few months and it gets a little hard to dig it out sometimes.  Once I whipped it up, it stays nice and fluffy and is easy to scoop a little out to use on my hands, my little boy's eczema, my daughter's dry elbows, etc.  I love it.  I hope you will, too. 

How to Clean Dehydrating Trays--The EASY Way!

I don't know about you guys, but I (used to) hate to wash my dehydrating trays.  They were big and awkward and didn't fit in my sink very well, making them very hard to clean.  

Well, here is the answer: the bathtub!  I heard about this and had to try it.  

I put all of my dehydrating trays and leather sheets into the tub with some hot water and a couple drops of dish soap.  I let them soak for about a half hour and then drained the water and rinsed them off.  They were so clean and I hardly had to do anything!  Love it!   I hope this helps all of you dehydrators out there. :)  

Cherries!

For the past couple weeks I have been busy with cherries. . . and kids, chemo treatments, an MRI, swim lessons, 4th of July activites, etc. :)  Our nearby orchard was selling them for $.75/lb and I was so excited to get some!  Aren't they beautiful?  

I pitted them with my cherry stoner, cut them in half and then had some help from my 2 youngest spreading them out on my dehydrating trays.

I dehydrated them for about 24 hours.  I think they got a little too dry, but it's hard to tell sometimes until it's too late.  

I also made a ton of fruit leather (I borrowed a second dehydrator from a friend because cherries won't wait!).  I think this is cherries with some pear sauce that I canned last year.  I like to add it to fruit leather to make it more pliable.  

 I also got some apricots and mixed those with cherries for fruit leather.  It is soooo yummy!  I love the tartness that the apricots add

So far I have gone crazy with fruit leather.  I have 3 gallon bags full of rolled up fruit leather.  And it's only the beginning of the harvest!  Fruit leather is what goes the quickest in my family. :)  

Hanging Towels. . . So Much Easier

This is what my kids' bath towels used to look like. (Actually, I should have left a couple of the towels on the floor!)

I saw this fantastic idea somewhere online. . . and once I was ready to do it, I couldn't remember where it was at all.  So, I kind of made up what I thought it was.  

I got some plain white ribbon at Wal-Mart (you can use cuter. . . I just couldn't find any that would match all of the colors of towels that I have).  It is about an inch wide.

I measured it out 10 inches and cut. 

I folded and ironed down each edge about 1/4 inch.

I looped the ribbon around (like so) and pinned it to the center of the towel.  

(To find the center, I folded the towel in half and marked it with the pin)

Then, I sewed the square where the ribbon ends met together and then an X in the middle, just for fun because it looks nicer.

Ta da!  Now my kids have no excuses when there towels are on the floor instead of on their hooks! :)  

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For My Own Record

I just wanted to let you all know that I have started a blog that is a record for me and my family during this time that our daughter is going through chemotherapy.  If you are interested in reading about our experiences, here is the site:  http://www.atlastiseethelight.com/

It is starting to be quite a book, but the posts will get shorter and I'll put more pictures on.  I just wanted to get the whole story covered of our crazy beginning times.

I will still try to do new posts here when I can!  Thanks for your support!

Freeze Dried Strawberries--a lifesaver!

With my daughter doing chemotherapy, we have to be careful with the food she eats.  Her diet is really pretty normal, we just have to make sure cold foods are cold, hot foods are hot, nothing out of bulk bins, and making sure fresh foods are very fresh.  The goal is to stay away from any bacteria and mold.  So, my daughter loves strawberries, but I don't make it to the store every couple of days to get her fresh strawberries.

Well, in my food storage I have some #10 cans of freeze dried fruit.  I had the great idea to open the can of strawberries for her to eat and she loves them.  This has been a great snack for her and I don't have to be so picky about which strawberry looks good.  

I also love these pour-able containers from Wal-Mart.  My other kids tend to just reach in and grab crackers or whatever out of the box.  So, I got a few of these containers that pour really easily and we can avoid germy hands contaminating snacks.

And my the way, Kayla is doing awesome with her treatments so far.  It's going to be long, but's it's going to be do-able.  Thanks for your support and prayers on our behalf!

And then life changes

Sorry for the lack in posts lately.  My little 4 year old was really sick for most of the month of February and then seemed to get better.  This past week we found out that she has a tumor on her optic nerves that is affecting her sight and she started chemotherapy that will be once a week for a year.  So, I will do my best to keep posting things, but I am trying to get adjusted to our new way of life.  With four little ones- one extra needy and one almost 2 year old (plus #5 on the way. . . ) it's going to be a busy year for us.  Please keep looking around at past posts and ask questions all you want.  I have really enjoyed all of the interest that I've had in my blog and will try to keep things going.

Thank you!!

Storing Bread

I thought I would share how I store my bread since my last post was on making it.  When I make bread I am making 5 loaves at a time and I don't like them to go bad or dry out.  So, I store them in the freezer.  After my loaves are all cooled, I slice them up and put them in Ziploc bags (gallon freezer bags).  This way when I need to make an immediate piece of toast or a sandwich for someone's lunch, I can grab a loaf out of the freezer and not need to wait for it to thaw before cutting into it.  Anyway, maybe you all do this already, I just thought I'd share this handy tip!  

(My fifth loaf got eaten right after it came out of the oven)

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My Mama's Bread

So, I don't remember my mom making bread very often when I was growing up. (Sorry, Mom!)  I have a good friend who taught me how to make bread about 5 years ago and I have been making it ever since.  In those 5 years, I have tried several different recipes, and really liked most of them.  I have posted a few on my blog (at least 2, I think--I didn't check).  But sometime in the past year, I got my mom's bread recipe and finally tried it.  It is by far my favorite!  It takes the least amount of time (which is precious!) and turns out great each time.  Sigh. . .

Since we have been living on the BRAT diet at my house (see previous post--by the way, I think we are over it, whew) for the past week, I really needed to make some more bread.  So, I thought I would share my mom's recipe with you all.

Whole Wheat Bread

5 1/2 c warm water

1/2 c honey

1/2 c oil

*mix*

In a small bowl mix together:

1/2 c gluten flour

1 1/2 Tbsp salt

2-4 Tbsp dough enhancer ( or if you are grinding your wheat, add a couple vitamin C tablets to your wheat as it is grinding-they are a dough enhancer)

Add this mixture to the water/honey/oil and mix

Then I just leave it mixing and start adding flour  11-15 cups.  Once the dough is pulling away from the sides and bottom of your mixer, stop adding flour

THEN ADD 3 Tbsp yeast  (I have forgotten this a couple times :)

Let mix for 10 minutes and then remove, shape into loaves (by the way, this recipe makes 5 loaves and I use oil on my counter as I am shaping them), let rise and bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.  Don't forget to grease your bread pans!

It turns out great every time!  As long as I don't forget the yeast! :)  But seriously, this is so fast and easy with no waiting periods here and there that drag out the process.  Just mix, raise and bake.  I can have bread made in and hour and a half, easy.  Most of that is raising and baking time.

My kids also love to help me make bread and it is nice because they can just sit there adding flour and I tell them when to stop.  It doesn't have to be measured super accurately, just as long as you stop when the dough is pulling away from the bowl like I said earlier.

Oh-I almost forgot.  This bread recipe turns out fantastic with hard red wheat.  I know most people like hard white, but the red wheat bread turns out softer and nicer.  White wheat works great, too, but I prefer red.  Just FYI.

Anyway, happy bread making!





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Chicken Soup from Food Storage

For the past several days my family has been passing the flu around in a major way.  My almost 21 month-old started throwing up on Wednesday night at about 11PM.  (It always happens right as I'm going to bed)   I was up with him until after 6AM and when he finally went down in his crib.  On Friday night, right at about 11PM (of course) my 4 year-old came rushing out of her bedroom and unfortunately didn't make it to the toilet in time to throw up.  I'm sure you are all really enjoying this story by now. :)  So, she was up throwing up pretty often--like every 15-20 minutes until about 8:30AM.  Ahh, another restful night. Ha ha.  I thought we were good after that, but Sunday night, my 6 year-old came in my bedroom (about 11:30PM) and started throwing up.  Right about that time, I had thrown-up, too, and was not feeling well.  Anyway, my daughter was throwing up fairly often until about 7:30AM.  I had gotten up to get my 7 year-old off to school when my 4 year-old (yes the same one I spoke of earlier) started throwing up.  Sigh.  So, for most of today, me and my girls (4 and 6) were lying on the couch with bowls nearby and sippy cups of water and Powerade (I know that stuff is horrible. . . HFCS is the second ingredient--ugh. . . I had some leftover from my couponing days and they wanted some) watching movies like Enchanted, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid.  Luckily, my husband was able to stay home and chase after our 21 month-old son who is in that lovely get-into-everything stage.

So, now on to my point.  I really felt like a nice bowl of chicken noodle soup.  My husband gets after me because I never use a recipe and it always turns out different.  I was still feeling sick and didn't feel like chopping a bunch of veggies to put in my soup.  So, here's what I did:

Chicken Noodle Soup (all from my pantry)

4 cans of Swanson's low sodium chicken broth

1 can of chicken (that I canned myself here)

1 cup of dehydrated carrots (which I dehydrated and vacuum sealed myself)

1/2 cup of dehydrated celery (this came from a #10 can, but I have dehydrated it myself in the past)

1 cup of corn (I actually used corn that I had frozen last summer, but I do have some dehydrated corn on my shelf that I did here)

1/2 cup pearled barley (a great comfort food when sick)

2-3 tablespoons of my dried onion soup mix made here)

I let this cook in my digital pressure cooker (one of the greatest inventions) for 10 minutes.  Then I opened it up and added in a handful of whole grain noodles and just let them sit in there until soft.    Then I added some salt and pepper and tada!  

Sorry there are no pictures.  I wasn't thinking about posting this until about 10 minutes ago and dinner is all put away for the night .  My soup was a little thick, my husband called it chicken noodle stew, but I liked it.  It had a little different taste to it and I think that was because of using my homemade dry onion soup mix instead of just plain onions.  

So, we had a nice quick, healthy easy dinner that was great for a family still getting over the sickies!  (My husband isn't feeling to great tonight and our 7 year old is the only one to escape it so far).  

I hope you all (and me included!) have a good night's sleep tonight and maybe enjoy a nice bowl of chicken soup sometime.   

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Something new. . . No Shampoo!

I came across a very interesting post a few months ago and decided to give it a go.  Giving up shampoo.  Your first thought might be, "Ewwww!" but you should still read on. :)

If you would like to read the post that I did, click here.  I'm all for making things myself rather than buying them.  Even though I can get many things for practically free with coupons, I would rather make something (cheaply) and know that everything in it I am putting on or in my body is free from many harmful chemicals.

The way that shampoo works is that it strips your hair of it’s natural oils. So your body reacts from it’s oil shortage by making more. Then you wash it the next day and strip the oils again, which means that once again your body produces more oil, you see how the cycle works. But by not using shampoo you let the hair oil factory regulate it’s oil production levels to create a healthy balance.
http://asonomagarden.wordpress.com

So, I decided to try out using baking soda instead of shampoo.  It was a pretty risky venture since I tried in out on a Saturday night before Sunday church. :)  I don't know what I was thinking!  BUT, I was pleasantly surprised with the fabulous hair day that I had!  My hair felt totally light and soft and bouncy and it straightened and/or curled just the way I wanted it to!

Do you want to try it out now?  Here's the recipe I used--

1 cup water

1 Tblsp. baking soda

Mix and put in some kind of bottle with a squirty top. 

And that's it!  I had a larger bottle that fit about 4 cups of water and 4 tablespoons of baking soda so it is still sitting in my shower and I use it every 2 to 3 days.  An old shampoo bottle would work great.   I squirt some on top, around and underneath to cover all my hair and scrub it around like shampoo.  Now, it doesn't make  a lovely lather of scented bubbles, so if that is what you love, you might not like this, but I think the end result is worth it.  I do still use conditioner on my hair after I use the baking soda mixture.  I haven't explored the options when it comes to conditioner yet, so we'll see.   

So, just another wonderful use of this amazing stuff!  

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DELICIOUS Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

I have started to make way too many goodies for Christmas.  I try to give them away before I eat them all...:)  

Here is a super yummy recipe for Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

1 cup butter

 1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/4 cup sugar

Cream together, then add:

3 eggs (I always use powdered eggs for baking)

1 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)

2 tsp vanilla

Mix, then add:

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

Mix.  Roll into balls.  Flatten slightly.  Put Hershey's Kiss in the middle.

Bake at 325 degrees for 11-12 mintues

Just a little note...if you think the cookies don't look quite done and want to wait until they are looking slighty brown--you will bake them for too long.  (From personal experience. :)  Just bake them for the 11 to 12 minutes and take them out because they will be done.   Also. . . I usually double the recipe to make LOTS.   I either give them away or stick them in the freezer for later.

ENJOY!!

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Christmas Gifts

I downloaded a WONDERFUL eBook from a favorite website of mine,  http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/.  The book is called Gifts in a Jar and has a ton of great ideas.  Here is the link, it is a free download.  

So, today I made up the recipe for Peppermint Sugar Body Scrub.  It took literally 2 minutes to make.  Here's the recipe:

1/2 c sugar (side note...what a great thing to do with refined white sugar without eating it!)

1/4 c olive oil

10 drops peppermint oil

1 drop eucalyptus oil

Mix well and put in a jar.  

I gave one of these to my daughter's teacher and am giving them out to some friends and I am searching for more jars because it was just so fun to make!  

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The Most AMAZING Pumpkin Bar Recipe. . .

This is the most delicious recipe for pumpkin bars.  I can't stop making them.  But, then I have to give them away so I don't eat them all. :)  I used real pumpkin from my garden (take a look at my previous post, although you may use canned pumpkin).   

Pumpkin Bars

Heat oven to 325 degrees and grease a 15 x 10 pan.

2 cups sugar                                    2 cups flour

2 cups pumpkin                           2 tsp. baking powder

4 beaten eggs                                   1 tsp. soda

¾ cup melted butter                      ½ tsp. cinnamon

Pour combined ingredients in pan and bake for 25-35 minutes, cool completely and frost.

Frosting:

3 cups powdered sugar                             1 Tbsp. milk

3 oz. cream cheese                                    1 tsp. vanilla

6 Tbsp. soft butter

And here is a piece of the finished product.  I made these yesterday, and yes, they are gone. . .BUT, I did give most of them away. . . :)

I am apologizing in advance for your waistline...

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What to do with that pumpkin...

Many of you might have leftover pumpkins from Halloween, or your garden.  Well, this is what I did with mine...

I had a few smaller pumpkins, so I found it easiest to cut them in smaller pieces and then clean them out with a knife and spoon.  If anyone knows an easier way to clean out a pumpkin...please share! :)

And, here's my pan full of pumpkin...I put a little bit of water in the pan to prevent the pumpkin from sticking and burning.

We have chickens, so I took all of the seeds out to soak in salt water and then fed the rest to the chickens.  They love it. 

I baked the pumpkin for about 40 minutes on 350.  If your pumpkin is larger, you will need to cook it longer.  You can check it with a fork to make sure it is soft.

Next, I scraped out the inside of the pumpkin and put it in my blender:  I added just enough water to help it blend.

And here's the nice smooth pumpkin...

Now, I have an amazing recipe for pumpkin bars (that will be my next post) that uses 2 cups of pumpkin, so I measured out 2 cups of pumpkin and put it in a Ziploc bag to put in the freezer.  This way when I want to make them, I can just take the bag out, thaw the pumpkin and use it in my recipe.  

I haven't baked my seeds yet, they are still soaking on my counter.  When I do, I will put them on a baking sheet sprayed with oil and bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes--just until they are slightly browned. Then turn my oven off and let them sit in there while it cools.  They are absolutely delicious!!

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Potato Latkes

Each month I put together a dry pack canning project for my ward at church.  We usually can items like wheat, beans, flour, oats, etc. that the LDS Cannery offers. This month, I decided to try something different and we canned potato shreds and potato slices (dehydrated) from Winco.  It was a huge success.  We canned almost 300 cans (the big #10 ones).

Since lots of people have them now, I decided to post a yummy recipe using the potato shreds.  I made these tonight for dinner and even my SUPER picky eater thought they were pretty good.  

Here's my can (I had bought this awhile ago, it's not one we just canned)

Here's the recipe:

POTATO LATKES

 (I always forget how to pronounce them. . . )

Boil 4 cups of water (it doesn't have to be exact)

Add 1 1/2 cups dehydrated potato shreds (turn stove off0

1/4 c dehydrated onions (or you can use fresh and add in with other ingredients)

Let sit for 10-15 minutes

Drain water out 

Pour potatoes/onion into a medium sized bowl and add the following:

2 eggs (I used real, but I might try powdered next time to make it a great food storage meal)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Mix ingredients together

Scoop 1/4 cup of mixture into a frying pan with hot oil and flatten a little

Brown for a few minutes on each side

Top with sour cream and applesauce-- or I just like ketchup

Here are my re-hydrated and drained potatoes:

Here's my mixture (my daughter loves to help):

Here they are frying on the first side:

And after I flipped them:  

Place them on a paper towel to drain the excess oil.

I used an electric skillet to cook mine and I had the temperature set to 300 degrees.

And there you go!  Enjoy!

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