Bird suet cakes
It's cold here in Michigan... negative fifteen degrees as I write this! On days like this, I'm especially thankful to be a homemaker cooped up in our little nest all day. We've had a fairly mild winter so far, but I think it's finally turned cold. I spent a lot of the last week reading, writing and happily working on indoor projects.
1. Groceries: Again, we didn't spend any money on groceries. Only 10 more days until we can go shopping again! I'm making a list of "necessities" as we run out of them; cream, sour cream, carrots, eggs, red meat, etc. as we run out. There are still plenty of things in the pantry and freezer that need to be used up.
2. Cooking: I made cheese from some prepared powdered milk that was nearing expiration. I also made some new recipes to use up ingredients that I had on hand. I learned how to make microwave mac 'n' cheese in the Instant Pot (hint: you do it just like you would for regular pasta. Add 1 cup water for every 4 oz. pasta, then cook on "Manual" for four minutes). I made an apple pie for the first time in several years, and got to try out my $10.00 apple peeler. It worked great! Of course three or four of the 20 apples I peeled broke in half while peeling/coring, but I think that was user error. It's probably been at least 15 years since I used an apple peeler; something no household should be without! In addition to making a pie for fresh eating, I also froze some "pie apples" and made little mini-pies and froze them. I used my Williams Sonoma mini pie mold to make the smaller pies. At first I thought the pie mold was a piece of junk, but then again... I think it was user error. My last couple of pies turned out pretty nice-looking. Lastly, I made applesauce with the peelings and ate it for lunch.
3. Sewing: I am working on a car seat poncho for Baby. Like all of my other projects, this one seems to be taking an eternity to finish. Right now we're using it as-is... unhemmed.
4. Chicken/bird feed: I used some fat drippings, bird seed and a dab of peanut butter to make suet cakes. So far, neither the birds nor chickens are showing interest. Then again, the birds haven't shown interest in the bird feeder I just filled, either.
5. Learned new baby signs. I started doing a couple of sign language motions with Princess when she was six months old. I never saw any response from her until well after a year old, and then she only made ONE of the three signs. I thought maybe sign language wasn't worth the effort, since she had started saying real words ("bye bye", "hi there", "uh-oh", etc.). Imagine my surprise, several weeks ago, when she picked up the sign for "potty" in just a few hours! Since then I've been making more of an effort to teach her signs like "sleep", "help", and "more". My hope is that the signs will be an alternative to whining and throwing a fit when I don't know what she wants.
6. I ordered seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (four packets for $10.00) and started some sweet potato slips. The slips are from sweet potatoes I grew last year. I have plenty of seeds left from last year (and years before that) that I will use for this year's garden.
Also, you can watch my latest Youtube vlog below:
1. Groceries: Again, we didn't spend any money on groceries. Only 10 more days until we can go shopping again! I'm making a list of "necessities" as we run out of them; cream, sour cream, carrots, eggs, red meat, etc. as we run out. There are still plenty of things in the pantry and freezer that need to be used up.
2. Cooking: I made cheese from some prepared powdered milk that was nearing expiration. I also made some new recipes to use up ingredients that I had on hand. I learned how to make microwave mac 'n' cheese in the Instant Pot (hint: you do it just like you would for regular pasta. Add 1 cup water for every 4 oz. pasta, then cook on "Manual" for four minutes). I made an apple pie for the first time in several years, and got to try out my $10.00 apple peeler. It worked great! Of course three or four of the 20 apples I peeled broke in half while peeling/coring, but I think that was user error. It's probably been at least 15 years since I used an apple peeler; something no household should be without! In addition to making a pie for fresh eating, I also froze some "pie apples" and made little mini-pies and froze them. I used my Williams Sonoma mini pie mold to make the smaller pies. At first I thought the pie mold was a piece of junk, but then again... I think it was user error. My last couple of pies turned out pretty nice-looking. Lastly, I made applesauce with the peelings and ate it for lunch.
3. Sewing: I am working on a car seat poncho for Baby. Like all of my other projects, this one seems to be taking an eternity to finish. Right now we're using it as-is... unhemmed.
4. Chicken/bird feed: I used some fat drippings, bird seed and a dab of peanut butter to make suet cakes. So far, neither the birds nor chickens are showing interest. Then again, the birds haven't shown interest in the bird feeder I just filled, either.
5. Learned new baby signs. I started doing a couple of sign language motions with Princess when she was six months old. I never saw any response from her until well after a year old, and then she only made ONE of the three signs. I thought maybe sign language wasn't worth the effort, since she had started saying real words ("bye bye", "hi there", "uh-oh", etc.). Imagine my surprise, several weeks ago, when she picked up the sign for "potty" in just a few hours! Since then I've been making more of an effort to teach her signs like "sleep", "help", and "more". My hope is that the signs will be an alternative to whining and throwing a fit when I don't know what she wants.
6. I ordered seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (four packets for $10.00) and started some sweet potato slips. The slips are from sweet potatoes I grew last year. I have plenty of seeds left from last year (and years before that) that I will use for this year's garden.
Also, you can watch my latest Youtube vlog below:
I think that's about it, folks! I hope you all had a frugal week. Stay warm!
-Bethany
-Bethany
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