kappydell

I make it all the time! I have a crockpot that I keep simmering. The broth is poured into a fat-separating measuring cup (They are on sale at Wal mart right now for Christmas) for easy separation of fat. I use the broth in soups, gravies, white sauces (chicken broth) etc. I keep beef bones separate from poultry bones, pork can go in either one (for me). I put them in net bags that I make out of the netting around the turkeys this time of year, and keep them in the freezer (in a plastic bag) until I have 'enough' to fill a crockpot. Toss the net bag in, simmer away in water to cover, plus a couple TB of vinegar or lemon juice to help the calcium dissolve into the broth. When ready, remove the bone bag, pour into the fat-separating cup and use as desired. One tip I read in a civil war era army cookbook was most interesting. They advised saving all the bones cut from meats, separating them into net bags, in bunches large enough for the cookpots. Then after simmering 24 hours or so for the next days' soup, they were fished out, the bones dried, and re-used again the next day. Three days the bones were boiled for broth, then day #1 bones were thrown away, and day #4 bones added to bones from days 2 and 3. Obviously this would take at least 4 net bags of bones for the rotation to work, but it made me marvel how much use they got from those bones and I keep it in mind as a way to stretch my soup fixin's even further should the need arise. I can only imagine how many bones an army cook would have to work with!

FLUFFY FROSTING (bakery style) 1/4 c flour 3/4 c sholid shortening 1 tsp vanilla 1 c milk 1 1/4 c sugar In saucepan, mix flour and milk. Cook over med heat stirring constantly. Heat to boiling, cook and stir constantly for 5-8 min or until extremely thick. Cool completely. In medium bowl, combine Crisco, sugar and vanilla. Add thickened mixture, beat on high speed about 5 min until smooth and creamy. Spread on cooled cake – frosts & fills two 8 or 9 inch layers. Is it this one? I have always had good luck with it and I like it because it is not so overpoweringly sweet...

Yesterday 7 qts loose ground beef. Tomorrow, beef stew meat cut from chuck roasts on sale.

I chop mine, add miracle whip and raw chopped onions for a pickled beet salad. Some prefer sour cream. It does make a loverly pink salad...

the old homestead i just moved out of heated the entire 2 bedroom 2 story house from a single propane heater. When we lost electricity, it still ran and we were quite comfy. My spouse did not like the propane, afraid of gas troubles, but it served us well. I don't know how much the landlord paid for it, but it sat in the living room on a fire-proof pad right where the old timey pot-belly stove used to sit.

Yep, thats the one. Cheap and works like a charm. Dont let children handle it though, it is sharp as can be!!! Ive cut myself enough with it to know.

Ive used a sharp knife, with practice it is quite fast. And one of my favorite buys from the local thrift shop was a wood and metal kraut cutter (looks like a cutting board, with sides and several sharp blades in the middle). The blade was removable, all I did was take it out and have it sharpened. But I like my Feemster's Cutter the best - basically a blade set on a metal frame, with an adjustable guide for thickness of cut. It works fastest and was very reasonably priced. They are 7.95 at Lehman's and VERY sharp. Use them like a mandoline. Mine has been going strong for 20 years, my mothers even longer! Unfortunately I cant copy their photo of it.... www.lehmans.com/store/Kitchen___Helpers_and_Accessories... - Cached Feemster’s Famous Vegetable Slicer $7.95 In Stock SKU: 622900 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excellent for potatoes, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, more. •Calibrated to make perfectly uniform cuts from 1/8" to 1/2" thick •Great for dehydrating, scallops, potato chips, etc. •Super-sharp carbon steel blade •Mounted in a convenient steel and aluminum frame •7-1/2"L x 3"H •3-1/2"W blade •Made in India The same thing is $9.99 from Walter Drake.

I like the outside the house idea; my bird bath base is hollow, a couple pvc pipes or skinny olive jars would fit in there....and it is not too hard to get out even in dead of winter. being a retired leo i still remember some of the odder places folks stashed their dope in their vehicles, so i dont recommend leaving it in the car...even hidden...dopers would know all those places! how about putting a roll inside the metal pipe type flag pole that comes with those cheap kits with the flag & pole mount & pole included...inside your chain link fence pole (those top thingies come off you know)...a plastic bag sandwiched between that large potted plant and the saucer underneath it (works best if the drain holes are around the edge of the pot, not in the middle)...in the tube part of your porch chair's arms...or even just in a box or jar buried in your planter-box...behind a fake vent screwed onto the soffit of your shed's or garage's eaves...in the handle or body of a non-working drill or other power tool...in a jar in the bird feeder, hidden by bird seed (you would have to keep it filled up nicely though)...in the wheelbarrow tire (remove it from the rim, tape the money to the center of the rim, then re-mount and blow it up. Works in a car spare tire, too, but again, it is a dope smuggler stash location, so use with caution)...under the plastic or concrete tray that goes under the downspout (baggy, of course)...heck, even under the welcome mat...some medicine chests can be slid out of the bathroom wall and the hollow area behind accessed if you are handy - a good place for a 'safe'... i do like the hidden pockets idea, as i know how to sew and could put an amazing number of them into a plain looking outfit...esp in a jacket hanging by the door...

Not only am I guilty of most of these things, but every time I see a canner at the local thrift shop I want to buy it! I never use most of them...just want them ALL. Fortunately I know others who will buy them from me especially at the prices I paid $5 or $10! I had so many canning jars that when I moved, my brother 'confiscated' several hundred to take to his home, where they are almost impossible to find, to give to others who need them. What the heck - he moved a couple hundred others for me! I just cant pass a canning jar on sale, either. I never could explain why I wanted all those 1/2 gallon ones to suit him....

Not only am I guilty of most of these things, but every time I see a canner at the local thrift shop I want to buy it! I never use most of them...just want them ALL. Fortunately I know others who will buy them from me especially at the prices I paid $5 or $10! I had so many canning jars that when I moved, my brother 'confiscated' several hundred to take to his home, where they are almost impossible to find, to give to others who need them. What the neck - he moved a couple hundred others for me! I just cant pass a canning jar on sale, either. I never could explain why I wanted all those 1/2 gallon ones to suit him....

me neither. add gossiping. never participated in that kind of counter-productive stuff. i refuse to, there is wa-a-a-a-y to much in the world already. perhaps it is the lack of social interaction during formative years as folks connect electronically, rather than face to face, but then again, many of the participants grew up before electronic media. Perhaps they just never 'grew up'.

thats the way I do it momma! Works fine for me. I am always rescuing cast iron cookwear. Its heavy, but my oh my, it sure can cook!

My mother baked all our bread when we were growing up - 8 loaves at a time, twice a week. She used a half-bushel sized tupperware bowl. I used a stainless bowl about the same size when I baked all the family bread during our starting out years. The kneading trough makes lots of sense!

It will be hard to top my memories of that place, but Im going to try. This new place is very nice; I have my oldest friend living with me in it (my husband died over a year ago, luma, but you didn't know, its OK)for company. Us two ole broads on disability are planning some fun. She wants to go south to see my sister & brother in Fla & Tenn respectively, but finances are too tight to do it right away. So I guess we'll winter over here.

We are FINALLY done with moving. I am relieved, but in some way a little sad, too, I will miss that funky old farmhouse after 16 years. Everyone is exhausted, but I did manage to do excellent liniment back-rubs and make a good porterhouse steak & big-tater dinner (with grilled onions, natch) to reward my loyal helpers. Now on to my next major task - getting in shape for my surgery so my hip wont be a hinderance anymore. I absolutely hated not being able to do much. Guess it is up to me to change THAT!

ordered a quarter of beef and a side of pork from a trusted meat cutter. before the prices get so crazy we cant afford it. quarter of beef $400, side of pork, $100. I think that is a good deal, at least in my area.

Scraper! I save all the odd bits for soups...

[ "stinkin' thinkin" I love that expression. Right along with the ID ten-T malfunction (you know....ID10T). Im adopting both those expressions.... they crack me up!

Potatoes keep in a root cellar type set up (cool, damp, dark) for up to 6 months in my experience. They might sprout a bit toward the end, but you just cut 'em away. Potatoes weren't made to be 'pretty'.

Well, the finances have cleared up a bit - I was able to get a personal loan from my credit union to take care of the financial havoc caused by moving, and get things running smoothly again. The auction folks will come get the items that I want to sell so that is less work for my friend/family. Although I would love to keep my husbands collections, my space does not allow it. I am so happy he got to enjoy his things, and now it is someone else's turn. The auction folks say it will bring in some $$. Even that old push reel style lawn mower is a collectible(!). So the bow is coming up on this old storm-tossed tugboat, and things are looking up. Thank you for the support I needed so badly in an "what the Sam Hill am I gonna do?" moment. (Who the heck was Sam Hill? I never did ask my mom, who used that expression.) I just googled it....the things I learn around here....There is a story sometimes told (for example in Edwin Mitchell’s Encyclopedia of American Politics in 1946) that one Colonel Samuel Hill of Guilford, Connecticut, would often run for political office at some point in the early nineteenth century but always without success. Hence, “to run like Sam Hill” or “go like Sam Hill”. The problem is that nobody has found any trace of this monumentally unsuccessful candidate. On the other hand, an article in the New England Magazine in December 1889 entitled Two Centuries and a Half in Guilford Connecticut mentioned that, “Between 1727 and 1752 Mr. Sam. Hill represented Guilford in forty-three out of forty-nine sessions of the Legislature, and when he was gathered to his fathers, his son Nathaniel reigned in his stead” and a footnote queried whether this might be the source of the “popular Connecticut adjuration to ‘Give ‘em Sam Hill’?” So the tale has long legs. The expression has been known since the late 1830s. Despite the story, it seems to be no more than a personalised euphemism for “hell”.

Oh yes, hand tools! My father once told me he preferred to work with hand tools instead of all the noisy electrical ones (he was a carpenter) and I now know why - it is so much more soothing and pleasurable to make things without the racket! and have my own hand tool collection. All the hardward guys look odd when I ask if they still carry breast drills (always good for a chuckle) but I am still looking for a new one.

I was my husbands caregiver, too. Some things he expecially appreciated: a small micro and low (easier to get to) freezer so he could get out and makE snacks on his own. Room for the wheelchair so he could 'scoot' along using his feet from place to place. I am learning from experience that walkers need a wider turn radius, too. A large white board for writing and a bulletin board for a calendar (losing track of time and what day it is are common when one has no job or such to 'anchor' one's time sense)was a thing he appreciated, once I convincd him it helped organize things for me, too (he was afraid it meant he was losing his memory). I could write on it any upcoming appointments, and even "today is tuesday, remember, tomorrow is your doctor's appointment, rain is expected today and tomorrow" and such things noted on the board helped him to orient on bad days. (I liked it too, it put all the info in one place - calendar, tacked up doctor's business cards, etc.) The lowered counters also one or two work stations (counters with no cabinets below, kind of like a built in desk and wide enough for a wheelchair) and such are precious aids to independence, making it possible to do so many more things. I would have had one work station with a built-in cutting board for working with sharp things (cooking knives) or tools (screwdrivers) that might slip. If you can find a copy of a little book, "Aids to Make You Able: Self Help Devices and Ideas for the Disabled" (ww.alibris.com) or "Disabled Villge Children" by Hesperian.org (they have downloads for free) they have soooo many DIY things for making life more accessible. They were inspiring, too; many of our outdoor 'disabled par-course' items were inspired by them. (His physical therapist was amazed at what we had done.) It is wise of you to plan ahead and make things safer for your parents, and a very precious gift as well. You will always remember and treasure the extra time you have together.

sometimes, I swear, those docs cam make you crazy! But I am oddly heartened by the knowledge that it is not as bad as it could have been. That poor other woman. Im still keeping all of you in my prayers.

Now I feel better about teaching about canning in my preppers group. I was told it was the most attended meeting thay had so far, and we only covered water bath canning and rouched on pressure canning. I wanted to show them that canning was not difficult, mysterious, etc. I also brought samples of pickled cabbage and three-bean salad I had WB canned. I lost track of how many times I repeated "that is not recommended by the USDA" and referred them to the Blue Book. I got many complements though. Later I will do a class on 'easy dehydrating' stressing dehydrating of store bought foods that do not need blanching (frozen foods) and (yes) yogurt drops. I will of course include recipes for those foods' use since I am a firm believer in handouts making for a popular class. Next on the agenda after that? Some of the other women and I want to do a foraging wild foods class.

congratulations! may I call you Doc Crazy? It has a special ring....