Archive for the ‘Homemaking’ Category

A recent contest announced at LighterSaferGreener challenged bloggers to share their top three green living tips.

The more I think about it, the more pleased I am with some of the green changes we’ve successfully adopted into our life.

For instance, as I mentioned in How Green Are We?, using cloth intead of paper throughout the house (instead of paper towels, tp, diapes, etc.) is a huge step forward for greening.

We also now faithfully making our own Better Bread. In addition to helping our insides, this helps the outside (planet) by reducing or eliminating the processing, packaging, and transportation footprint associated with store-bought bread.

My third “top tip” is one that hasn’t gotten any press on the blog yet – the ways we save gas.

We drive less, and we drive better.

• Wolf and Nick both use public transportation for their respective commutes.
• We plan and consolodate errand trips for maximum efficiency.
• By driving at reasonable speeds, avoiding fast stops and starts, etc., we stretch our gas mileage.
• The vehicle is properly maintained, including oil changes and tire pressure.

I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that the changes have crept up on us slowly.

Everyone knows that a sudden, drastic shift is “easily made, easily broken” – think New Year’s Resolutions.

But something that you grow into slowly, out of thoughtful consideration and conviction, is forever. So it is with our deepening faith, our commitment to modest and feminine dress… and our green living habits.

In addition to my sundry ramblings about our journey to home-baked bread (below), I wanted to specifically talk about the cost.

I’ve heard people wondering if, these days, you can really make bread at home any cheaper than you can buy it in the store.

I think the answer is, “Yes, and No.”

The bottom-line calculations for this would involve a lot of time, measurement, and calculation. When I looked at all the issues, I decided it wasn’t worth it to even “go there.”

A cursory online search found people’s calculations of the cost of a loaf of homemade bread, including energy, between $0.50 and $1.50 (which included beer). In an absolute sense, I suspect that my bread would come out about on par with the cheapest loaf of bread I can buy at the store (about $0.89 around here for a loaf of Publix grocery store brand white bread). If you have a bakery outlet near you, or similar opportunity, you can probably get it cheaper.

But I have absolute power over my bread.

My bread has no High Fructose Corn Syrup and no preservatives. I use baking powder that has no aluminum, and unbleached four. I use real butter, not artificial and chemical stuff. I add nonfat dry milk for extra protein, and I can switch it up by adding some whole wheat four, oatmeal, herbs, or whatever strikers my fancy.

It makes the whole house smell wonderful, tastes wonderful, and makes my family feel nurtured and happy.

…And I’m positive that my bread costs far less than the price tag of the kind of bread I prefer to buy in the store – approaching $4 per loaf!

I started out using the basic boule recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking.

It tasted nice, and would be fine as bread with soup… but there’s just no way you’re going to be using that for sandwiches.

Luckily, I was pointed towards the terrific blog Everyday Food Storage (actually part of a set of three!), and her recipe for EZ Bread (which I double).

We’ve been eating nothing but homemade bread for over a month now. Each batch we’ve tweaked the recipe just a little, as we learn more about what works, and what we like.

• I use 1 cup of rolled oats in place of 1 cup of four. I’m working on getting some wheat germ in there, too. The kind of “bitter” taste of whole wheat four is just not something the family can seem to get over, so I’m trying to find other ways to get some more nutrition in there.
• Nick and I are learning about watching the dough in the mixer “kneading,” and knowing when you need to add a bit moe flour or water. Recipe or no recipe, there are enough other factors (temperature, humidity, etc.) that this part is more art than science.
• To get the bread nicely done inside and out, we had to lower the cooking temperature and increase the time.
• On a suggestion from an online forum, I butter the top of the loaves when they come out.  Yummy!

We did decide it would be worth it to invest in some better bread pans.  The kind most people have at home (and what I had) are actually smaller than a “real” bread loaf – great for banana bread, but not so much for regular bread-making.

I chose a pair of 1 1/2 lb. Chicago Metallic Commercial Bread Pans, and have been simply delighted with the big, beautiful, evenly-cooked loaves they’ve turned out.

We’ve made our bread into monkey bread, dinner rolls, and pizza crust. My next project is to work on hamburger buns (there’s a great recipe for that on the original Homestead Blessings DVDs I reviewed on Life on the Road!).

It’s surprisingly easy, takes very little hands-on time (especially if your KitchenAid is doing the kneading), and is one of the most gratifying homemaking tasks in my day.

The Everyday Food Storage blog had another great tip for saving even more time: When you bake a batch, make up several more batches of dry ingredients in zip-top bags. Then making the next few batches is super-quick!

You can also make multiple batches on a big “baking day,” and freeze them – slice first for ease of straight-from-the-freezer use.

If you’re not making bread for your family, you’re missing out on a blessing!

The original version of this post appeared on our family blog, before we began As For My House.

I was thrilled to find preview copies of the three new Homestead Blessings DVDs in my mailbox recently. These were like a fun new “season”.

The first three DVDs took place in a cozy indoor kitchen / workspace.

These are all set outdoors. You might expect Gardening to be in the garden, of course, but even Canning is set in a lovely outdoor “summer kitchen”.

Perhaps even more than the original trio of DVDs, these are very general topic overviews.

They would be great for someone to watch who thought, “Wow, canning? I think I might like to try it, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin…”

You get an overview of the equipment and processes involved, some fun tips and anecdotes, and a bonus “music video” of a song by the lovely West Ladies (a different one on each DVD). It’s really not enough of the nitty-gritty to go out and do the activity, in most cases.

The Art of Canning

One thing I wished, after watching, was that the recipe for the pickled eggs that they made in the video had been included in the .pdf recipe files.

I know you’ll probably want to go get a canning book to really get into it, but why not put a whole bunch of recipes on here?

Having already read Canning & Preserving for Dummies when I watched this, having received a gracious Freecycle gift of a water bath canner and supplies, and finding myself blessed with a surplus of eggs in the fridge, I decided that Nick and I would jump right in and try pickled eggs.

I popped the DVD into the computer to get the recipe… And ended up popping it back in the DVD player and having Nick watch that segment again and transcribe the recipe.

But aside from that…

I was nice to watch them actually go through the process with a couple of water bath canning projects (jam, as well as the pickled eggs), a pressure canner project (green beans), and then do a few other goodies, like sauerkraut.

Their simple, open style reinforced that canning is normal, and simple to do. It was very encouraging!

The Art of Gardening

Gardening was, perhaps, the weakest link in this chain.

The ladies showed off some of their garden, and talked a little about some topics like tools and container gardening. There was even a segment on composting, which was perhaps the highlight of the DVD.

They planted some green beans and some potatoes, and had some great specific techniques for each of those (potatoes that aren’t dirty?!).

Truly, it would be hard to make a DVD about gardening that was really “comprehensive” – there are an awful lot of variables for each person’s situation (climate, soil, space, etc., etc.). But while this had a few tidbits of really interesting information, overall it left me feeling (still) that gardening was a huge undertaking and I had no idea where to start, what to plant, etc.

On a side note, my very favorite tidbit of information from this DVD was Hannah’s dress. It looks like she took a pair of baggy overalls, split the legs apart, and sewed a triangle panel into the front and back to make a long, adorable overall dress. It is SO hard for me to find long enough skirts, but clearly I could find long enough overalls on the men’s rack… and this sounds more in line with my sewing skills than trying to make something like that from scratch!

The Art of Herbs

The “Herbs” DVD had the advantage of having no preconceived notions – I had no idea what about herbs they were going to talk about.

Vicki did a fairly comprehensive overview of herb gardening.

She walks us through her garden, showing the different herbs, and explaining what type of light and food each plant prefers. She also touches on the herb’s harvesting and uses.

They had several interesting herb uses and projects, as well – vinegar tonics, herb butter, herb teas (with some interesting twists!), and drying your herbs for later use.

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Whether or not you’ve watched the first three installments of Homestead Blessings, if you’re interested in learning these homekeeping arts, you should check these out!

Until August 10th (Monday), there’s a pre-order discount directly from Franklin Springs. After that, best bet is likely to be Amazon.com with Free Super Saver Shipping.