Parchment Paper for Baked Potatoes!

Quick easy money saving tip!

Use parchment paper to wrap your potatoes!
I bought a roll from Pampered Chef about 3 months ago
after the lady saying that you can wrap your potatoes in
parchment paper and REUSE it!

I know you can just bake potatoes with nothing but we
really like how they turn out using foil. But then you
throw the foil away and it wastes ALOT when you do
10-12 potatoes at a time!

I'm excited to report that I have now used and reused the same
parchment paper for about 8 times and it shows no signs of
needing to be replaced! At this rate my roll I bought will
last years and years! (It's big)!!

So if you're interested, all I do is wrap them up just folding the ends
in and rolling. Put them on a baking sheet and bake as normal.
When you get them out unroll, stack up the papers, and put
them away until next time. I don't even see a reason to wash them
since there's never anything on them!!

Anyone do this too???
What's your secret to baked potatoes??

Making a club with pallets!

Hubby rounded up some free pallets from the area
and the kids dreamed up a club.

I'll post new pictures in a few weeks. The clubs have
already expanded. They've worked really hard and
gotten LOTS of poison ivy. YUCK!!

But the work is paying off and
they're spending a lot of time in their cool clubs!

Kite Flying!!!

I will admit I. DO. NOT. LIKE. WIND...

But it is good for one thing...
Kite Flying!!!!

My 3 yr. old thought he was big stuff!

He did keep it up but not nearly
as high as the older kids...

See I told you!

They had such a blast flying them!

So on a windy day grab your kite
and have some fun!!!

New Hair Cut!

Don't be afraid to try cutting your own kids hair!!
It can save you tons of $$$$!!

I have always cut my 3 boys hair and hubby's too.
But I've never attempted to cut
my daughter's hair until today!!

I didn't plan to, but she kept saying she wanted it cut so
I gave it a try!

Before picture...
(with wet hair)

And the after pictures...
It only took about 25 minutes.
It's not perfect, but she loves it and that's
pretty much all that matters to me!

**well that and the fact that I saved $15. **

The back view.
If you're afraid of a scissors like me,
try using a razor blade. I think it's something
new, at least I have never heard of it until my
beautician used it on me.

I didn't have a real one so I just used a household
razor blade and it worked great. (I used a scissors occasionally
to clean up an area)

You can read about the razor cut here.

Homemade Applesauce

Here's how we make Homemade Applesauce.
You can either Freeze or Can this recipe!

First you will need to know how many apples to get. You should yield about 20 quarts or 40 pints of applesauce out of 1 bushel of apples. I used 4 bushel from the trees in my yard and my MIL bought 1 bushel of apples. So altogether we did about 5 bushel of apples and it made ALOT of applesauce!!! It also took us all day and into the evening. In fact my MIL was up until 12:30 am canning them (thanks Debbie!) . If you freeze it, it is a lot quicker.

Usually you will want to stay away from the red or green delicious and get more of a baking tart apple. We have no idea what kind of apples grow on our trees but they are red, small, and kinda tart. They make excellent pink applesauce.

Around here apples are around $13-$15. per bushel to buy. I'm sure that varies around the country but gives you a starting point.

First you need to cut the apples up. All you need to do is cut them in fourths and make sure the stem is out. No peeling or coring is necessary. Some people make sure every spot is off but I don't. It makes it much faster if you don't worry about little tiny spots on the peeling.

Next you put the apples in a pot and add water. This is the trial and error part. How much water to add??? We've found that it totally depends on the kind of apple you chose. My SIL usually adds 1 cup for a big pot. But with my apples I was adding almost 2 quarts and it was still pretty thick applesauce. Just make sure you add plenty of water so you don't scorch the apples in the bottom of the pot.

Let them boil in the pot until very soft, stirring regularly. I really don't think you can do it too long as long as you have water. I think our average was around 45 minutes per big pot maybe even up to an hour.

Next is the first piece of equipment that is really almost necessary to make bulk applesauce. I found it on Amazon here for only $60.68 I used my wonderful SIL's machine who actually even came and helped! Oh and also took these pictures since I'm forgetful and forgot my camera! Thanks so much Gen!

Okay back to the machine. You hook this on the counter and it does all the work. Okay almost! All you do is take the cooked apples (do not drain) and put them in the top holder and start cranking. The yucky guts come out the side and the pure wonderful applesauce comes down the shoot in the front. Catch it in a bowl and you're all set!!!

I then take the huge bowl full and add 1 1/2 cups of sugar, mix it up and dip it into the jars or freezer containers. You can use less or more sugar. I make it pretty sweet so I doubt you'd need more. You could also add cinnamon. I forgot mine this time so I didn't bother.

If you're freezing it, you're DONE!!!
That's it slip it into the freezer and enjoy it all winter long!!!
I usually try to put it into the fridge the day or two before I need it to allow it to totally thaw.

If you're canning it you probably already know how to do this next step. My MIL handled this part since I've really never canned before. I have always put it in my freezer but my freezer is way too full this year to put this much applesauce in.

From watching her I learned you put it in the canner with a little water. Let it go until it steams and then time it for 15 minutes. Then take it off and let it cool. Take the jars out and they should be sealed. Like I said if you're doing the canning I would go by your canner's directions or find someone who knows how. It looks like it can be very dangerous if you don't do it correctly.

In the end I yielded about 65 Quarts, 20-30 pints (forgot to count), and about 15 freezer containers! My MIL got about 50 pints. It was a full day and a lot of work but I only had about $20. invested (sugar and seals) in it since my apples were FREE!!! This makes for a lot of really cheap applesauce!!

You can also see the difference in color between my MIL's and mine. That's just the difference in apples that we used!
If you make applesauce, What kind of apple's do you use???

Please feel free to give your tips if you can or freeze applesauce
or ask a question if something didn't quite make sense!!

***
It's still apple season so there's still time!!!

For more wonderful recipes and ideas visit
Blessedwithgrace - Tuesday's
In Passionate Pursuit- Tuesday's
Grocery Cart Challenge- Friday's

Homemade Drain Cleaner

I got this recipe from
Gayle at Grocery Cart Challenge
a few months ago.
I tried it this past week and LOVED IT.
***
We had a huge clog, almost complete blockage, in our bathroom sink. It would take forever for any water to go down. I used this recipe 2 times and plunged it and the sink now works as good as new! No harmful chemicals and best of all only 2 ingredients that I already stock in my panty.

Homemade Drain Cleaner
1/4 Cup Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Vinegar
**
Pour soda down then follow with vinegar
((It will bubble, kids will love it!!!))
Let it sit for 20 minutes and rinse!
Repeat if necessary.

For more wonderful recipes and ideas visit
Blessedwithgrace - Tuesday's
In Passionate Pursuit- Tuesday's
Grocery Cart Challenge- Friday's

Stretching your Strawberries!

Here's a simple way to stretch your strawberries for

Strawberry Shortcake or whatever.

Some of you might think I'm nuts but it works!

background -- My husband always told me that when he had strawberries at his Grandma's house she always had so much juice in her strawberries. The juice is the part he loves to put on his shortcake, he really doesn't care for the actual strawberry.

**

Anyway it got me thinking... Did she really have that juicy of strawberries??? Maybe, but I hardly get any juice from smashing them so I find it hard to believe that hers were that much more juicy. So I decided to try something else. Maybe she added water and then sweetened them with more sugar???

***

So I tried it... And it worked!! My hubby loved it, He said it was just like hers!!

Mystery solved! I believe that she stretched her strawberries by adding water and then more sugar to feed the whole extended family!

I could be wrong but for now it works for us!!!

****

So I simply took my strawberries, maybe a pint or so. Smashed them up in a bowl. I find using my hands and smashing each one works the best. Then I put them under the faucet and added cold water. I can't say exactly how much water I add but I'd say at least a quart maybe more. Then just add sugar as you would normally do until they are sweetened to your liking! Let them sit in the fridge for awhile, stir and you'll never know you added water!

***

Seriously, does anyone else do this???

My MIL thought I was crazy when I had her add water

to the strawberries this past weekend...

But it worked!!!

Frugal idea--Cheese Sauce

One thing I'm not stocked up on and rarely goes on sale and I never get coupons for is nacho cheese sauce. It seems to be pretty expensive. So last week when Ragu had a sale on their pasta sauce I noticed that they have a cheesy sauce. I decided to get some and try it on nachos! (sorry for the bad pic it isn't white like it looks.)

Well we tried it tonight on nachos. All the kids and I really liked it (hubby doesn't use cheese).

I had gotten it for .33 cents and we used about a 1/3 of a jar!! yay works for me.

Maybe everyone else already knows about this or doesn't like it for some reason but I was very impressed. This will be our new cheese sauce.

I read the bottle and it says to use on baked potatoes and vegetables. It also says to use for the cheese in pasta. I thought it was really easy and so good!

So have you ever used it on nachos, potatoes, or veggies??

Leave me a comment so I know if I'm the only clueless one!!