Stephanie

Judy, we have made campfires in the back yard and roasted hot dogs and even made Dutch Oven Dump Cake. Making Memories.

lovinit, I like the chopstick idea, very cute. And yes indeed, I get the kids involved, with 7 I have one kitchen helper each day of the week...works out nicely!

Pogo I couldn't help but think of Proverbs 17:1 after reading your post. "A dry crust eaten in peace is better than a great feast with strife."

Trish, I totally agree with the 'colors' of food influencing its appeal. It really does make a difference in how appetizing it seems to be. And Yes indeed, I am teaching my children to cook, every single one of them. However, I'm not quite ready to just turn the kitchen over without a teensy bit of supervision. Perhaps a case of 'smothering mothering'.

Radish roses.....

I was mentioning in another thread about how I have been being creative with meal preparation and presentation so as to help my kids enjoy meals that would normally be considered mundane.

I thought it would be a good thread to share what tricks of the trade we could pass around to each other.

One thing is so simple it may seem silly. Desserts!!! We can have a very plain meal of rice and beans for instance, but I'll put the dessert (whatever it is) right in the middle of the table on display. The kids are so focused on the cake or cookies or etc... they don't mind a very frugal meal.

Another is atmosphere. I might pull out the fine china, or one of our favorites is to have "High Tea" for lunch. Everyone puts on a fancy hat and we pull out cups and saucers while dining on sardines, viennas, crackers and cookies.

One thing that I have done often to make a meal into an event, is to declare a 'theme'. Tonight is mexican night!! the other night we did this and I made homemade salsa, homemade tortillas, refried beans, Nacho chips. (cheap meal but high excitement as I flipped the warm tortillas right off the grill and onto their plates).

Variety!! Most of my kids like raisins in their oatmeal so.... I don't always let them have them. It keeps them from taking having the raisins for granted. I may do cinnamon toast instead of raisins one day or another day we may have hot chocolate with the plain oatmeal (with sugar and butter ofcourse).

Okay, that's enough from me, what about you, how do you go about Making Mundane Meals Magnificent??

I don't have a rice cooker! but I sure do want one!

Necie I know that glycerin is an ingredient in a lot of beauty products, but I don't know where to get it.

I saw an article the other day (can't re-locate it) that said you could put vaseline on the combs and cackles of chickens to help protect from frost bite. I was thinking of you and the chickens feet and the slipping and sliding!

I found this page and it's great with descriptions, thought y'all might enjoy it.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~momonroe/pioneer2.htm

Here's one little snippit that I enjoyed because in this very forum I had mentioned the McGuffey Readers...

***********

Schools in the area were one room log buildings with puncheon floors. Hard long benches served as desks with no backs to them. Sometimes the school was perched upon pegs or stilts two feet or more from the ground. The studies usually consisted of three R’s, Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic, and the old blue back speller. McGuffey’s readers were full of excerpts from the classics and original stories containing a very pointed moral.

Cricket, you made me laugh!

Buffs are great layers (usually) and it's not unusual for them to start laying around 7 months I think.

This is a great thread and I'm hoping to find a mix for "hidden valley ranch dry mix".

Anyone know that one?

I found it! :woot:

Just didn't look close enough the first scan. THis stuff is in so many holiday recipes and cost like the dickens!

HIDDEN VALLEY RANCH BUTTERMILK DRESSING

15 square saltine crackers

2 c. minced dry parsley

1/2 c. dry minced onions

2 tbs. dry dill weed

1/4 c. onion salt

1/4 c. garlic salt

1/4 c. onion powder

1/4 c. garlic powder

Put crackers through blender on high speed until powdered. Add parsley, minced onion and dill weed. Blend again until powdered. Dump into bowl. Stir in onion salt, garlic salt, onion powder, and garlic powder. Put into a container with a tight fitting lid. You can store this dry mixture at roomtemperature for up to 1 year.

To mix dressing, combine 1 tbs. dry mix with 1 c. mayonnaise and 1 c. buttermilk. Whisk till smooth, chill to thicken.

You just might be .... if your children come and report to you what other people seem to have a lot of in their buggies.

"Mom, that lady just go a WHOLE bunch of bleach."

"I think we better get some more toilet paper, a bunch of people are on that aisle."

Leah!!! Those are great!!! Feminine protection indeed!!

Cecilia, I think I'm going to go with that plan...a 3 month plan I should say. Once, I've got a solid 3 months of provisions and 3 months worth of money for bills. THEN I'll focus more energies on continuing the debt reduction. I think!

Tx glad to see you joining in the discussion! I went to Dave Ramsey's sight and found it very interesting. I thought some of us might enjoy his take on things. Here's the link.

http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/fed_bailou...lc?ictid=sptlt1

Yes, Cecilia, you are exactly right. Which is why I have always done the extra. But, if my husband loses his job in the near future (God Forbid) it wouldn't help me.

What I mean is...say I sent 200 extra dollars the next three months and the mortgage is 800 dollars (fictional figures). At the end of 3 months if dh lost hi job, we'd still have to come up with the next 800 payment regardless of how much we had sent extra in the previous months. If I had put the extra 200 aside and saved it, after that same 3 months period I'd have $600 towards that next payment.

I'm not saying this is sound financial advise in normal times. I'm just saying that what use to seem wise, doesn't seem as wise in my eyes during these times of economic distress.

In other words...paying extra would help in the "long run" but I'm wondering if some of us aren't going to have to make some decisions about surviving the "short run".

This is what has me thinking too Andrea. It's like the inflation of the food will almost outweigh any interest we pay on the credit card balance.

The other thing is I'm not sure I want to pay extra on my house notes anymore. For one thing, paying extra will not keep you from being behind on your payments later down the road in a financial crisis. I'm almost thinking it would be better to put the 'extra' money away and try to accumulate an entire payment (or 2 or 3) to have on hand, in case times get really tough.

For one thing, Deb, I cannot say that I've cut back in every area. I cave in to convenience at times. Now, we've made a lot of changes and doing much better at being frugal. But, there are those times still, where I could 'if I had to', really do differently.

For instance the other day, I shopped my brains out the other day trying to save every dime I could, comparing prices, only buying the reduced me, etc. etc.. and then when it was all said and done, I was so blasted tired that I stopped by the pizza place and spent way too much on pizza to feed the nine of us.

Sometimes I feel like such a nut.

I was thinking the other day was ... what would we do if dh lost his job? And then, after a while of contemplating this I arrived at this idea. Why not just take a small portion of the money away. And get a 'taste' of what would happen if our income was suddenly decreased.

In the example I gave above, it would actually only be 1/6 of the money that we bring into the house each month. Because less than 1/2 of it is delegated to the 'running of the house' and in my household account.

I want to try, I want to make it work and then do even better. It's worth a try. I mean would I be so quick to stop for that pizza if I knew the money might be tight? And with Christmas coming up and 5 of my children having Nov/Dec birthdays...there's no better time to try than the present (pun intended).

I'm trying to implement a bold plan that I've decided upon.

I'm going to take the money that is designated to my household spending and before I do any of my normal stuff, I'm going to take 1/3 of it away. For the ease of math, I'll use the figure $900. That would mean I'd pull out $300 right away.

Then I'm going to split that amount into thirds which would be $100 in this example...and

1/3 goes to debt reduction

1/3 goes to savings

1/3 goes to preps

For now, the rest of the monies would be used as normal, making payments, buying clothes, medicines, gifts, trips, etc.

If this works, then I will try to increase it at a later time. I think there will be another advantage to this as we will grow use to living on less...I hope! That's my real goal, I want to LIVE ON LESS of the money we have coming in.

I know what you mean. I guess it's the difference between short term security and long term security. In one sense I think, well, we need to be sure we can eat! On the other hand, I know it's not wise to continue to leave a balance on the credit card.

As far as that goes, I've been wanting to pay extra towards the house note and I'm wondering now about that. Everyone says it's a good thing, but, well under the circumstances with the financial instability, I'm not sure I want to put more money into a house that I could lose one day.

Don't get me wrong, we're not behind on payments and dh's job is secure and hopefully will stay that way. It's just that this upheaval in the 'world of finances' has me second guessing things that I thought I understood.

Hi Everybuddy!

All of this financial talk and stress our nation is under has had me taking a harder look at my own Family Finances. How about you?

Someone made a comment the other day that if you still have a balance on your credit card and are paying cash for your preps, it's the same as charging your preps. I'm sorry I can't remember who said it and what thread it was in. But, that statement really made me stop and think.

We've paid off one of two vehicles, and all but one of the credit cards, which we're working on. I think we could go about 3 full months on our preps (food wise). So, how do you balance your debtreducton vs prep purchases?

I can't remember if it was on this thread or another, but ever since reading about the uses for dryer lint we've been making little fire starters by stuffing the dryer lint into empty toilet rolls.

Since I started doing that, I feel like I became an "upgraded prepper" !

That cake recipe is soooo cool! I'll bring all the ingredients, and we'll (the boys ) will test it out.

Westie, I'm sure you've already thought of this, but don't forget the great Powdered Milk Recipes you shared not long ago. They were great!

Thanks for the info, I'll be sure to check this out myself.

Hmmmm....wonder what the shelf life is on lemon juice, probably a loooonggg time.

Wow, I never knew that. What a blessing, and for her to call you, that is really great!

Vlynn I hope you don't lose your tomatoes, that sure would be a shame!

You go girl!

You can do it! And I bet it's going to be soooo good.