Andrea

Copied from UKGuy:

Pumpkin Pie Cake

1-( 15 ounce ) solid-pack pure pumpkin

3 eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1-( 12 ounce ) can evaporated milk

1-( 18.5 ounce ) pkg. yellow cake mix

1/2 cup ( 1 stick ) butter, melted

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, eggs, sugars,

pumpkin pie spice, and evaporated milk; mix well.

Pour into an ungreased 9" x 13" baking pan.

Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over the batter in the pan;

drizzle melted butter evenly over the top,

then sprinkle with chopped pecans.

Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Cool completely before cutting into squares.

"This is so good"! "I just loved this dessert"!

Here are somemore of my "favorite" Thanksgiving recipes,

as well as recipes to prepare with your leftover turkey.

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Oh, how cute would this be baked in a bundt pan, frosted orange, and then make a cute little frosted green "stem" out of something to put in the middle to make it into a pumpkin?!? Hmmm. I could use some of the batter to make a cupcake, turn it upside down over the hole in the center, and frost it green. DD and I are definitely going to try that! (Why yes, I do have some cake mixes in the cupboard that are about to expire . . . And no pecans, but TONS of locally grown almonds . . .) How fun!

That's a great idea Stephanie. I think you're wise, especially right now, to hold on to your cash for future bills. Yes, it is GREAT to pay off a house early, but hopefully you are locked in to a fixed rate. Get those higher rated credit cards paid off, AFTER you have an emergency cushion. Three months is the minimum you should have. For DH and I (again, everyone has their own needs) we are self-employed in a non-essential area. Because of this, we always try to keep a years worth of preps and bill $$$ accessible.

Again, RIGHT NOW, 3 months worth of bill $$$ could be quite handy. I wouldn't tie it up either, especially since you already have 3 months of preps on hand. This is the best insurance plan you could have and, the added benefit is that you will sleep better knowing that you have them! Of course, the danger with prepping and saving is that you always think that 3 months is good, but 6 months might be better . . .

But, putting preps on a credit card . . . I don't know. Since you already have 3 months worth (yes, more is definately better), I would NOT buy now and pay interest on food purchases. That just cancels out any savings you might have made by purchasing the goods this month instead of next. I would be tempted to knock meat off the menu a night or two each week and buy an extra bag (as in 20+ lbs) of rice or beans instead. Not exciting food, but filling. This way, you get to increase your preps without destroying the budget, all while you are saving up next month's expenses!

Tx_woman - DAVE RAMSEY ROCKS!!! I have a couple of his books (bought USED, of course!) and have found his insights to be invaluable. He is definitely a PREPPER!

You know, I really don't like giving this type of advice out because everyone has such a different situation. But, it does seem to me that prices keep going up and with the current situation, I don't see them coming down. It would seem to me that if you could pay off the amount that you charged this month by next month and avoid the financial charges, you would come out ahead on things that you absolutely had to buy anyway. Just thinking . . .

tweety,

Could you keep us posted on your research?

Thanks!

Well, I'm another INFJ.

Interesting that so many of us gravitate toward Mrs. S.

Well, for crying out loud! Do you know how many hours I've spent pulling that stuff out?!? Very good to know, thank you! I'm going to go eat some, and I won't have far to go!

On a similar note, I have grown sweet violets forever. I just found out that they are edible! They are rated quite high on the Plants for a Future website.

It's amazing what we have growing right under our noses.

Thank you again!

I now have 7 1/2 pints sitting on my kitchen table. They are quite attractive and tasty! (I should have had more but some of them didn't quite make it into canning jars . . .)

Ooohh, pasta salad, this brine sounds like it would be great on that. Hadn't thought of that possibility.

Do you think sliced mushrooms could be used as well if you don't pack them too densely? Then you could just dump the whole jar on the salad and be done with it. I'm so drooling. I'd better go get dinner started before I start licking the screen . . .

Thank you so much! We are going to enjoy these!

Very cool idea! I've heard about it but have never seen it displayed so simply before. For those of us who container garden, this seems like a great and economical way to go!

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/trebor57.html

You've got to love backwoodshome!

dogmom4 - Thanks for the insight into the upside down tomatoes. We also get triple digit heat and I'm a bit worried about burning the roots of the plants. Watermelons on the roof?!? How fun! We have an ugly, ugly gardening shed. ONe side is covered in raspberries and the other side I usually plant in Little Sugar pumpkins. So, we did have pumpkins on the roof last summer, but what a fun conversation piece! Hmmm. Watermelons on the roof. . . (the neighbors already think I'm a bit nuts, this could confirm it!)

sparkysarah, I made a couple of Earthboxes for my dad, since he has limited mobility. They work out well for him, especially since we've raised them up on sawhorses. For myself, I was too lazy. I just used a bunch of 18gal totes, drilled LOTS of drainage holes, put in two inches of gravel in the bottom, and then filled them with planting mix and peat moss. They've been great. Not only do I grow the jerusalem artichokes in them, but I have several more that are currently planted with chard and spinach. I'm going to start converting some of them over to tomatoes and one will have two little sugar pumkins in it, which I'll grow up a trellis onto the roof of a shed. I can't say that they are all that pretty (check out the haybale pics!) but they are highly functional and I've had great luck with them.

Haybale gardening link to bluegrassmom's post: http://www.mrssurvival.com/forums/ubbthr...ge=1#Post190554

Potatoes: I've tried the barrel method of potato planting and wasn't too thrilled with the results. Also, it gets into the triple digits here so they take a lot of water for the amount of produce grown. This is my 4th year of potato planting. Personally, I'm not convinced that this is the best use of my gardening space. Potatoes are so cheap (just bought 15lbs for $1.99) and compared to other things, they need a bit more care and they take up a lot of space. But after reading and rereading Jeavons books, I've come to understand the need for growing calorie crops in my attempt to achieve partial sustainability. And potatoes and onions are the most efficient (space wise) calorie crop to grow. I have 7 - 2'x 6'(3'high) gardening boxes. I've devoted three of them to potatoes. In the past, I've almost emptied out the planters of dirt, leaving about 8" on the bottom. I then put in my potatoes and cover them with about 4" more of dirt, then throughout the season, I keep covering them as the greenery grows. This is back breaking work. My gardening section is on the South side of the house in a very narrow, very long area. There is no gate on that side of the lot. The only way in is to enter on the other side of the lot and go around the back of the house to reach the garden. This is a LOT of trips with the little red wagon! And to be quite honest, out of each 12 square foot section, I've been lucky to get 20 lbs of potatoes. In fact, that's the most I've ever gotten out of a section. This year, I left about a foot of dirt in the bottom, threw in my seed potatoes and filled up all three with one $5.00 bale of hay (and only ONE trip with the little red wagon). WE'll see how it goes. This year I also have 3 different varieties, Kennebec, little blue ones (can't remember the name!), and the Russetts. I'll keep you posted as the season progresses. But I can tell you that straw is much lighter to work with than dirt!

Hi all, I'm going to try this YET AGAIN. This is my 3rd attempt to post a response over the last few days.

Fritz - cool link to the newspaper pots. I'm already committed to recycled six-pack plastic containers, but those look great. I printed up the directions for my FAll seedlings.

MT3B - you go girl. Containers are a great way to go for those of us with limited space. And using gray water is the perfect way to get around water restrictions.

Have any of you checked out bluegrassmom's haybale link in the gardening section? Wow. I am so inspired. I have a section of yard where tree roots prevent any in-ground planting and my gardening budget for the year has already been blown to smithereens! But haybales are $5.00 each here and they are supposed to hold up for two years, plus you don't need much soil to fill them up with. So, I'm thinking a few tomatoes out of the top and then a bunch of impatiens shoved into the sides to sort of mask the hay. Very rustic and decorative. Check out the last link provided my bluegrassmom for some really great pics.

Hello all. dogmom4 asked me to post my "jerusalem artichokes" thread that I posted in gardening over here. Instead, here is the link: http://www.mrssurvival.com/forums/ubbthr...ge=1#Post189508

I live in the Central Valley of California on 1/4 of an acre in town. So I guess I'm "urban", although our economy is agriculturally based so I guess it just feels "rural" here. I've been container gardening for several years now and I want to assure all of you with limited space that you CAN grow a significant amount of your fruits and vegetables in containers. In addition to the jerusalem artichokes, I also have an "orchard" consisting of 2 figs, 2 mandarin oranges, 6 apples, 3 apricots. All of these are dwarf variety and all are planted in containers. Except for the apples & figs, which are new this year, all trees are producing beautifully. I also have 7 - 2'x6' rectangular planters that I built out of old fence boards. They are 3 feet tall and sit on an unfortunate slab of cement on the south side of my house. Currently in these I have 2 types of chard, way too much spinach, celery, peas (don't ask me to share. they're just coming in now and I've been making a pig out of myself), lettuce, carrots, brocolli, beets, and green onions. On top of this, I have several more storage bins (like those described in the jerusalem artichoke thread) set up as well as 30+ 5 gal buckets that I've scrounged from neighbors and nurserys. All of this is on the South side of the house and come July, I'll need a machete to make my way back there!

And scattered throughout the yard in various flower beds, and corners, I've also got raspberries, blueberries, mints, herbs, rhubarb, strawberries, etc - all growing in containers. I've also taken out a flower bed and made a huge onion/garlic bed in the front yard (hey, I've got a few ornamentals dressing it up!) I also have several more citrus trees, but these are planted in the ground and form a spiky hedge between our house and the neighbors.

Self-sufficiency is not possible on this amount of land, although maybe it could provide for one person if they didn't mind the extremely limited diet! But what I try to do is grow a years worth of certain things. For example, I haven't bought salsa in years because I grow all of our tomatoes, peppers, and onions and I've just started getting enough raspberries to put up raspberry jelly this year. I'm hoping for equal amounts of strawberries and rhubarb. After reading John Jeavons books, I've also begun experimenting in calorie crops - mainly potatoes. I'm not thrilled with my results so far in this department and I'm not sure that potatoes are really such a great crop for me with my limited growing area, but the potential for most calories per square foot is greatest in spuds, so I'm prepping 3 of my larger beds for potatoes once again. Two of the beds will be started from seed potatoes I saved from last year, and one of the beds will be from a new variety that I just bought. This year will also mark my 4th year with Stevia - which we love, and which I finally feel I've mastered, so I will also be doubling my planting of this herb.

My goal two years ago (we've been in this house for 3 years now) was to be able to feed my family something out of the yard/garden every day of the year. This is a goal I finally reached this year and I'm hoping to keep improving upon it each year in the future.

Sorry for the rambling thread, but dogmom4 wanted to start a container gardening section over here for us "townies".

So what are your container stories? What has worked for you? What hasn't worked for you? And those upside down tomatoes? Great space savers but do they really work? I'm VERY curious!

And finally, what is your inspiration? Mine came from www.pathtofreedom.com and www.simpleliving.net

We haven't had nearly enough frosts this winter(no frost = no dead slugs = way too many live ones!), so come Spring, I invite you ALL to come harvest slugs out of my yard and I'll cook 'em up for you. (Notice I said "you"!)

For those few of us here that still use an electric dryer (I KNOW, I KNOW I SHOULD LINE DRY!) No guilt complex here, instead of using dryer sheets to reduce static cling, dilute fabric softner (I use 1 part liquid softener to 5 parts water) and use small sponges. I soak the sponge in the solution, wring out the excess (over the recycled cottage cheese container I store my solution in) and toss the sponge in with my load of laundry to be dried. The sponges last for about a year and sure beats the bags of "disposable" dryer sheets I ended up collecting! (Those things are good for nothing but filling up land fills! I attempted to collect enough to make pillow stuffing out of, but the sponge solution is so much simpler and definitely less wasteful!)

I just added this to Anyala's post, but I think it's a source worth repeating: Walton Feed