Hamburger Gravy

Serve over mashed potatos or slices of bread.

Add to ground beef.

Stir until well blended and thickened.

Add gravy mix to boiling water in skillet.

Mix instant gravy packet with cold water in a measuring cup, mug, small bowl, etc. Heat frozen peas up in remaining water bringing water to a boil.

Place cooked burger aside in a largish bowl.

Brown ground beef until done.

Poorman's Meal ~ Depression Era Cooking

Egg Drop Soup ~ Depression Era Cooking

Pasta with Potatos and Peas ~ Depression Era Cooking

Insulating Windows

Check out this guys idea for insulating windows - I plan to use this method for my oval window this winter: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conservation/bubblewrap.htm

Pickled Cabbage

The jar on the left has been processed and has turned a dark red violet color, the jar on the right needs processing still.

Purple cabbage jar on the right has the syrup added and has turned a lovely bright red color.

Purple cabbage ready for the syrup.

It was supposed to be Spiced Red Cabbage but I decided at the last minute I didn't want all of the spices in my cabbage. Dh wanted them but I think we'll be much happier about my choice later on, cloves tend to make me sick and the recipe called for a quarter cups worth, and we didn't have any mace which means the only spice we would have used was Allspice so what's the point.

Spiced Purple Cabbage

I'll post the remaining pics tonight as this batch is STILL in progress. I've rinsed the salted shredded cabbage leaves and spun them in the salad spinner they are now resting on paper towel lined plastic food wrap - so my countertop isn't stained purple for all eternity - and needs to drain/dry for six hours. The pickling portion will happen sometime around nine tonight; the purple looks pretty good against my koi yellow walls! We used a kraut cutter to get the cabbage this uniform.

Zojirushi Bread Machine

God bless the person who saw fit to put the instructions right on the machine! I haven't used the machine for six years now and have no idea where the manual is at.

Family Grain Mills Grain Grinder

There's Hard Winter White Wheat in the bucket waiting to be ground.

Assembly was very simple - I love those kinds of appliances! No more concerns if the power goes out I can still grind wheat to bake bread - yes I know the oven is broken but hopefully that'll be fixed next week.

My dad bought me a Family Grain Mill Grain Grinder for my birthday!!! He's telling me I need the flaker now to which I soooo agree. I've ground my first batch of wheat with it already and have pulled out the bread machine to make some bread tonight - our oven died about a month ago so now I"m using "other" appliances to get the same affect, the stove is only 45+ years old.

Potato Bins

I have twelve pototao bin shelves now, these sit on top of a palett that sits over a gravel filled dirt area in our basement floor. That's Angel our sheltie in front of the bins.

Holes were drilled in the end boards of each bin shelf to aid in air flow, we used 1 x 2 inch fencing for the bin bottoms.

Dh stapled lathe to the bottom of the bins to make them easier to pull out and push back into place much like a dresser drawer.

He used 1 8 foot 2 x 4 to make each bin.

Penny Pinching Dinners

Tonights dinner special was ramen noodles with chicken and mixed vegetables, total cost $2.81 for two people! Not bad. Now had we chosen to not add the canned chicken and the veggies and eaten just the noodles total cost would have been $0.36 I used two noodle packets but used only one of the seasoning packs - saved the other for some other day. I rinsed the vegetables three times to get rid of that salty canned flavor they always have the end result was quite tasty.

They Say...

Third Times a Charm! Well it took three plantings and YES we finally have green beans. We canned another pints today.

Non Slip Jars

These were in the bags of jars that dh's co-worker gave him, they are WAY cool!

Have You Any Canning Jars???

Yes sir, yes sir, seven bags full! And two boxes to spare as well.

Peppers Galore

But I don't know the name of what it was we planted and the tag that was next to the plant has disappeared - I'm blaming that last bit on the chipmunks that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

New Cabinet

My birthday cabinet! Normally I'd ask for a cabinet etc., for my studio this time it's for my canned goods. It is in a weird location butted up against the side of another cabinet. We had just enough space for a bit more canning storage.

This cabinet if for my jams and jellies, all of those half and quarter pint jars that take up valuable shelf space that a quart jar needs and when left in boxes go uneaten.

Brandied Pears

We made brandied pears, John is in love!!! We are making wine with the rest of our pears.

Canned Butter

We finally tried a jar of the home canned butter and it was actually pretty good. It was missing something and I'd have to say that it is the salt since I canned the unsalted butter. It was creamy just like stick butter.

I used a double boiler to melt my butter, I've heard tales of it being gritty but they didn't have a double boiler which leaves me to believe heat is the culprit. Shelf life is about 3 years, I'd say that's stretching it a bit, more like a year and a half to two years. Ours won't last that long so it's not a problem.

Christmas Pickles

The recipe made 9 pints total, just enough to get me through the witner. I'm hoping we will a larger cucumber harvest next year.

Beautiful red color! Sweet and sour and somewhat hot cinnamon flavor will be most welcomed this winter.

I forgot to take pictures of the process! Here are the cucumbers cored and soaking in lime water. Christmas pickles are very similar to Lime Pickles except you leave out the spices, except the cinnamon, and add a bag of red hots to the syrup they are soak in overnight. I will try to get a picture of the finished pickles later today.

What's that Smell!

I spent the better part of yesterday trying to find what had died in the laundry room. It started when I emptied the dehumidfier into the floor drain and persisted through the evening. I poured water down the floor drain again and every time I did so the odor got worse.

I finally found the problem - dead tree frog! No kidding. A few weeks ago I found myself trying to track down the weird sounding cricket in the laundry room, partly thinking it sounded a LOT like a tree frog. Well said tree frog must have come in with the bushels of apples because there is no other reason for a tree frog to want to come into my house! It was either looking for a way out of the house or for water, anyway it is no more poor little fella.

New Can Goods Cubbard

One of the down sides to living in a very old victorian home is the lack of storage. John built a cubbard for our canned goods, I should say the food we've been canning ourselves! There are some blank spaces but they should be filled by the end of the week.

I have peach chutney to make tomorrow, more butter that needs to be canned and more pickles than one could ever imagine having - the christmas pickles are the ones I'm most excited about very similar to lime pickles but you add red hots and cinnamon to the pickles just before you process them!