themartianchick

After making a loaf of white bread from the Mormon cookbook (that I received for Spring Fling- thanks Pauline!) and the cinnamon rolls (from the Angel Biscuit recipe) , I started thinking about convenience foods. I would love to be able to freeze bread dough, biscuit dough, etc and have them ready to just thaw and pop in the oven. Without using all of the chemical preservatives that companies like Pillsbury use, is it possible to do this? Can any recipe be adapted to do this or would it have to be for only "certain" recipes. I think I remember freezing pizza dough as a kid... If I can do this, then I would use my bread machine to make a lot of dough on my day off and then fresh bread on a busy day would be do-able. ( I could just use the timer on my bread machine tomake fresh bread, but it comes out in such funny shapes! The loaf is EXTRA tall and is weird for making sandwiches.

Do you have anything started in your greenhouse, Michael? I have some time off coming up in a week and I am planning to put up my greenhouse then. I do have a couple of peas planted in pots on the front porch. They haven't sprouted yet. Probably a good thing since we have had snow for the past couple of days.

Bitter Melon, a Chinese vegetable can also regulate blood sugar. I grew some last year. It does taste bad, as the name implies. It was pretty easy to grow, though.

I consider myself to be quite picky... There are certain foods that I just won't eat. However, I have never been truly hungry either. My favorite item that people turn their noses up at are eggs. We have farm-fresh, organic eggs and some people think that there is something wrong with us for eating them when you can get eggs at the store. Where do they think those store bought eggs come from??!! They all fall out of a chickens butt!!! Ours just happen to be healthier because we know what kind of food our hens eat.

We used to have a bread outlet years ago, but it shut down. I didn't utilize it as much as I should have back then.

That is a good one. I have heard that UPS takes that to another level by mapping out the routes that the drivers take to eliminate (or severely reduce) left turns. The reason is that you have to wait so long to make a left turn that they've determined that it requires less gas to make a couple of rights and end up at the destination anyway.

Right now, I am getting one egg per day from an Ameracauna. At least a fish flavored egg would be an enhancement! LOL!

Selling male tilapia is sort of the industry standard. The thought process is that the females don't gain weight as quickly as the males. However, there are ways to offset that issue. At the time when I was first looking at this, most sellers wouldn't sell only a few fish to someone. Thay all wanted you to buy hundreds at a time. I just accepted the fact that we wouldn't be breeding them...just raising and eating. Since that time,several sellers have popped up on Ebay and other places who will sell and ship small quantities. One seller in particular carries the blue tilapia which are particularly cold hardy. I would want to have females under those circumstances and would have a self-sustaining school of fish. It makes sense from a self-sufficiency standpoint but also from a shipping point of view. The shipping fish is expensive! Back then, I just didn't know enough about it to understand the various options.

For the past couple of years, our family has wanted to raise tilapia in barrels in the backyard. We haven't done it yet because we would need to extend the season and provide additional warmth for the fish. Heating the tank might just be cost-prohibitive...or maybe not. I wanted to use some food grade barrels that we get for free from a local food company and add a pump and some fish. While I have no intention of adding a geodesic dome, I do think that we might be able to pull this off by putting the barrels in the greenhouse. The greenhouse that we ordered has a removable plastic cover which we'd only use in the Spring and Fall. That might help the barrels to retain heat. The other option might be to paint the barrels black, but that might make the water too hot during the summer. We'd also have to make sure that the barrels are secure enough to keep raccoons from "fishing" in them. Each year we've tried to set a monetary goal as to how much we spend on self-sufficiency infrastructure. We try to spend only $1000 per year but that doesn't include the pantry. Aquaculture kind of straddles the line between pantry and infrastructure, so I think that this is something that we will do this summer...or at least try to do. As the article states, we might end up having a bunch of fish that are only large enough to feed to the chickens, but I doubt if the chickens would mind. This is the company that I contacted a couple of years ago to see about getting some tilapia fingerlings. There website is much improved and I would guess that it is because more and more people are getting into this. http://rdaquafarms.com/index.html

But wait...There's more! We'll also send you a second EZ Cracker for no additional cost...cuz 2 cracked eggs are better than one!

That is quite a haul you got, MidnightMom!!! Congratulations!!

:pray: :pray:

Wow... Adding him to the prayers, too. I hope that he heals quickly so that he is able to support her in the treatments.

My prayers will continue for her... It is so difficult to know that someone is suffering and not be able to offer more.

Nice score, Cat!!

Praying for your sister...

We just did a little Christmas shopping today... Yep, on New Years Eve. Hubby's grandkids were out of town for Christmas so we postponed buying a few of their gifts to take advantage of some of the sales. One of the places we checked is called Ollie's Bargain Outlet. They are sort of a junk/closeout/ you-never-know-what-you're-gonna-find type of store. We purchased some organic relish, organic oatmeal, pomegranate juice, Juicy Juice, crackers, and a whole lot more. We also got a few more gifts for the grandkids. They also sell a lot of books, cleaning supplies and just about anything that you might think of, except clothes... I don't recall seeing clothes, anyway. I got this from their website: http://www.olliesbargainoutlet.com/default.aspx Ollie’s Bargain Outlet is currently located in 10 states: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

I think that I am going to serve: smoked or regular turkey (not sure which) turkey ham macaroni and cheese garlic mashed potatoes lasagna gravy potato salad stuffing pumpkin bread banana bread cornbread rolls I haven't decided which vegetables to serve yet. Our family is picky, so I always have to have quite a few things to choose from. I shouldn't have to cook again for at least 3 or 4 days afterward.

Sending a prayer of healing for your sister...

I don't know what I'm going to be canning but I WILL be canning something this weekend!! I just bought a bunch of lids and rings from Lowes (for 58 cents a box!) and will pick them up after work today. While I am there, I will also check to see what else they have left. It may not be much but if I can use it, then I will buy it!

I've only used a small scoop of it in the bathtub. I have terribly dry skin and can never apply lotion to all of my body evenly. There is always some body part that I miss. I've never heard of using for thyroid issues. I would think that it would be incredibly high in calories, though.