Here are some of the rolls (getting ready to rise a bit before baking) I made from the Hot Roll Mix I talked about earlier.  Notice my marble rolling pin in the background? I get teased about this from my family. Maybe because I bought it when I was about 20 years old. So that would make it 20 years old. Still looks like the day I bought it. Smooch!

Oh the rolls. Yes I halved the recipe and still had too many for my dinky family and then was one rogue roll I had to fit in between some others. But I’m loving the mix cooking. I don’t always want a thousand packages and drops of this and that on the counter. On a day when our daughter was feeling under the weather mama still punched out made from scratch yeast rolls. I really should be making the whole wheat mix but I’ll get to that later.

The bug has bitten.

I’ve felt the need the last few weeks to whip up a few freezer meals, master mixes, and spice concoctions.

I’m not sure what happened but going with the pull I got out my books Make-A-Mix and Make Your Own Groceries and decided to whip up some freezer cookie dough and some muffin batter.

If you’ve never heard of these books they are both cookbooks designed to help you spend less time in the kitchen and come up with your own healthier packaged mixes for whipping up stuff like quick breads, cookies, dinner, snacks, breakfasts and even household products (Make Your Own Groceries). It’s a wealth of information.

I like having the freezer cookies on hand not only for unexpected company but because my husband likes to make a few cookies now and then and having some easy slice and bake in the freezer lets him cook as many as he wants and the easy directions are right on the package.

I love having the dinners in the freezer for when I’m feeling lazy and I can just thaw one in the fridge and cook it up for dinner with an added salad or fresh veggie.

Next up I’m agonizing over which master mix to whip up for breads and the like. I also took some time to make a lasagne for the freezer and some german meat balls (an altered version I came up with based off of the one from The Joy of Cooking).

Someone suggested that if you have never seen the books before check them out from your library before purchasing. That is a good idea and always recommended.

It was also a good time to read Lynn’s blog post about freezer peppers from your garden and a yummy recipe to go with. I plan on growing some this year so this was good information to know.

If you’re not sure what master mixes are here’s an article from the main site.

Just what I needed. More things to eat. In this season of gastrointestinal distress through a family member I discovered these great Whoopie Pies from Trader Joe’s.  Not only that but the apparently there is no soy in the recipe so I can eat them! Oh woe is me.  I swiped one from said family member and thoroughly enjoyed it! I don’t think I’ve ever had a Whoopie pie before. There was some sad moon pie thing I ate as a child but that was store bought and preservative full.

A cakey, chocolatey, filled with cream bite of delightfulness these things have a big Maine history and is of those baking issues where each Maine grandma has her own secret recipe.

So next on the quest was to find a recipe that sounded good and didn’t use cake mix.

1. Taste of Home of course was my first stop. But I didn’t try their recipes.

2. About Southern Food had a great recipe and this is the one I ended up making.

3. You know Martha Stewart has a recipe. Her recipes tend to be very involved so I skipped on this.

4. And just in case you’re not into baking you can buy Whoopie Pies in various flavors online here, here, here, and here.

For the filling I really made do. I didn’t have marshmallow creme but I had half a bag of marshmallows. I melted those and mixed them with some buttercream frosting and used that. I had this feeling it was going to be too sweet so I filled half of them with ice cream. My husband prefers that addition.

WWhoopW

Franklin Family Springs has a new homemaking video on the horizon. Another addition to the Homestead Blessings collection this one is called The Art of Cooking. If you feel your skills in home cooking are lacking this is sure to be a great video to get your hands on.

A busy mom can find it invaluable to know how to make great meals in a short amount of time without opening a cookbook.

The Homestead Blessings ladies have come up with several easy delicious recipes for each mealtime dilemma. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

They’re taking pre-orders now which will drop the price by $3.00

You can purchase through my affiliate link here. Or go straight to the website here. The price will not change.

My daughter (who is 4) loves to cook/bake.  When getting ready for dinner I often think about what things she can do to help me cook. If I’m not organized about it it can get kind of whiny because she wants to help so bad and she say “let me do it!”

This week we had a little mini birthday party for a friend and she got to make the cupcakes. We used this great recipe from an older Betty Crocker cookbook called a Dinette cake. Supposed to be a small sized cake for a few people it’s perfect for making exactly 12 cupcakes.

The original recipe used shortening but for this recipe you use just oil. You make it with regular all purpose flour but can make it with cake flour too by just reducing the amount of flour by 1/4 cup.

I let my daughter do all the mixing and pouring into the cupcake liners. All I did was measure ingredients the and place them in the oven.

We iced them with a simple buttercream (butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla).

They were a big hit with the family and it was so fun for her to make.

The recipe was also published in a 1998 issue of Taste of Home magazine (love that magazine) and you can find it online here.

I’m getting sick of gardening. That being said I planted some chives and cabbage last week. Sigh! So maybe not that sick of it. It’s frustrating, aggravating and rewarding. The first vegetable ready to be picked makes you so giddy!

UPDATE: The tomatoes are taking FOREVER to turn red. We pulled a few in the house and let them ripen there. Black from Tulas. Very good. There are a few turning red on the vine. The Black from Tula and Amish Paste. The Golden’s are not doing so hot. The plants look horrible (I’ve been ruined by lovely gardening magazines) but they are still putting forth fruit.

Lately we’re going from temps in the 100’s to the 70’s. My garden is not happy. We’ve harvested a few cumbers too. Boothby’s Blonde. The corn is almost ready. It’s always swarming with wasps so I’m afraid to touch it. Some gardener I am.I’m not sure what is happening there.

We should be harvesting potatoes next week. My husband has been watering for me in the cool mornings. Kiss, kiss!

Anyway as we get ready to start up another school year it has come to my attention that the home arena is falling into major disorganization. I’ve been spending some time each day organizing various areas in the home.

1. Laundry
2. Filing
3. Home office in general
4. Meals

Today I’ll talk about the meals. Family dinner in particular.  My husband has been alternating his days off so he is home some days during the week. This means he really gets into the cooking and it throws my whole meal plan off. Besides after he cooks there are usually a few leftovers so cooking the next few nights is not really necessary.

Well this week things seem to have shifted a bit and I’d better get a handle on the evening meals or we’ll be eating cold cereal.

As far as pantry staples are I usually have those all together bit it’s the fresh stuff I’ve been lacking on.

My plan was to eat from the garden and we have a bit but we need teeny bit more variety.

So my husband took care of dinner last night but this morning I grabbed my Saving Dinner book and headed to the grocery store.

I’m starting with a summer menu and only using three of the five menus for the week.

We’ll have…

• Fish Romano
• Lemon Skillet Chicken with Rosemary and
• Warm Spinach Salad

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned in the past how much I like the Saving Dinner cookbook. Of all the menu plans, cookbooks etc this is the most used in our household.  I have two bookshelves full of cookbooks, a computer database and an online system I use but the Saving Dinner one is the best.

When I first purchased Saving Dinner my husband and I rated each recipe so we could know where we would want to adjust or even swap out if need be. We’ve only nixed about 3 in the whole book of 4 seasons worth of recipes.

As much as I like menu planning I can get lazy about it and having a cookbook handy without having to go the computer is great. There are four seasonal menus, 8 weeks worth of menus per season, your grocery lists and cooking tips.

AND! Leanne is revamping the book. You can preorder Amazon or Barnes and Nobles and the new version will have 4 weeks worth of freezer meals. You can also get an ebook version at Barnes and Nobles….Thanks a lot Leanne! (said sarcastically since I already have my copy).

Oh I guess this is sounding like a review….okay.

Saving Dinner YES! I love this cookbook.

The recipes are not difficult but if you are a complete novice at cooking Leanne also has Saving Dinner Basics: How to Cook Even If You Don’t Know How

I should figure out how to label these updates. I also need to post the pictures I took. I’m writing content before adding that great media but here is my exciting container garden update!!!

I know you have all been wondering and tearing your hair out for the next installment of The Container Garden – How Not To…

All kidding aside here is the update.

Carrots: I don’t know where these are. Seriously. My sister says I they come up as little tiny sprigs reminiscent of tiny chives but mine are so tiny there are almost invisible. She has bigger ones in her kitchen window. My verdict is still out on these. I have some mini tom thumb variety growing.

Corn: The corn sprouted so fast I’m a proud mama. I need to thin them now as my little Peanut and I planted 3 per hole. They have two long leaves each. These are also in the Garden Patch pot.

Cucumbers: My first two transplants died. I have another growing in my office but I’m not sure I even want to continue with him. I may put him in my rogue pot. More on that later.

Herbs: My aunt gave me one of those dollar store herb selections and I planted the whole pack in a pot. I’m not even sure what it was. It’s growing kind of. We’ve had a ton of rain so I had to move the water drain catcher thingsy from under most non-self watering pots.

Lettuce: We’ve eaten all of the transplants bought from Whole Foods…or is it Wild Oats? Oh well. My family says this was not a true  test of my gardening skills because they were already doing so well when I purchased them. My indoor flat is not doing well. I put it in more light but I think I’m going to scrap the indoor lettuce. The seeds I started in a pot (non-self watering) with some onions are doing really well. This was a mix from Seedsavers.org. I’m going to sow some more in a week or so to have continuous lettuce for a while.

Onions: These just baffle me. They are doing so well in a pot that I forgot to put the bottom on. They are big and I’m just going to leave them alone. I don’t even remember if I added fertilizer (keep notes unlike me). These were the onions I bought in a bunch at the beginning of the growing season. I put some more out a few weeks ago since they seem to like pots.

Potatoes: I am just so tickled at the potatoes. We have… well four pots actually but one is just

a very small pot I started so my daughter could really see the potatoes. We have 3 big Smart Pots on the ground and they are doing really well in there. We covered them with the next layer of peat moss/ soil mix.  We are following this method pretty much to the T. Just using Smart Pots instead of barrells.

Strawberries: These poor babies have been in a pot most of their lives. I’ve been carrying them around as we move hoping to put them in our backyard when we finally buy a home. I purchased them before I got married so they are about 12 years old now. They are in a Garden Patch pot and have several flowers on each little plant. I’m glad they didn’t give up on me.

Tomatoes: Tomaotes. So tempermental but so worth it. I have my second transplants outside permanently as of Sunday. So far so good. One did go and break in half on me so I gave that to my daughter who was making ’soup’.  My first set all turned into my version of lazy compost except one plant which had hardened up and was growing well. It actually has a flower on it. Replace the Gold Medal I lost today. I don’t know which variety it is though so this will be interesting. All the tomotoes are in Garden Patch planters.

I have one rogue Garden Patch pot where I put thinnings and odds and ends to see what will happen. I really shouldn’t be wasting a self watering container like this but my husband and I like to do things like this for surprises.

We have the potatoes out. They are in Smart Pots. I purchased 3.2 15 gallon and one 30 gallon. I’m trying German Butterball potatoes from Seed Savers. We’ll see how they do. According to the potato in a pot article I linked to earlier you start off with the soil halfway and then fill it as the plants grow. I won’t tell you how I planted potatoes the first time many years ago. It’s a wonder they grew at all and the reason I read so much.

We had a really warm day here early in the week and since my little almanac thingy says that the end of April is supposed to be a good time to plant after the last frost I went for it and transplanted my tomatoes, cucumbers and we started the corn….big mistake.

First off I was replanting a cuban oregano for my mom and I made the grave error of setting the pot on the banister right above a tomato plant. It promptly fell off and beheaded the plant.

Secondly the next day we experienced cold wet weather complete with heavy winds. Since you only plant two plants per pot about 4 of mine look like wilted lettuce. Extremely wilted lettuce.

Thank goodness a few weeks ago I had a feeling I was going to have problems with my first batch of tomato seeds so I started some more. They are growing nicely under the lamp.

Thirdly the cucumbers just died period in the wind. They couldn’t take it at all and it’s hard not to burst out laughing whenever I look at them. I’m only planted two plants and even though I wasn’t committed to them I think I’ll try again after reading a bit more about them.

The onion starts are doing well considering they are all in too shallow of pots. I’m just leaving them and I’ll see what happens. If nothing else we have some nice green onions.

The carrots have sprouted but I have some teeny round ones I would have rather planted than the Nantes that I did plant.

The strawberries continue to do well and it will be interesting to see what they produce. It’s been so long that I’ve had them I’ve forgotten what variety they are. Either June bearing or ever bearing. I think they are the ones that produce twice a year but then I think I say that every year. I have moved with them 5 times over the last 15 years and have been keeping them in a rather too small pot until they find their permanent home. They still aren’t home but I decided then needed a better pot.

My lettuce in a pot indoors has sprouted and well…we’ll see. The lettuce out doors (the ones from starts) are doing well and we had some amazing turkey with Caeser dressing sandwiches last week with them. There wasn’t enough for an all out salad yet so we just had them on some sandwiches.

The main thing is we’re having a blast. Yes it would be nice if something actually came from all this but I did not use all of my seeds so there’s always next year. Well that’s my update so far.

So the last time I bought lettuce in the grocery store my little nice bag of freshly washed lettuce went bad well before the expiry date.

I thought about buying the lettuce that is still growing in the little pod thingy but then I decided that I really wanted my own lettuce. You know from my own home. Sometime in 2007 I posted about how a serious gardening friend of mine harvested her own lettuce through the winter from her back porch so I thought I would grow my own lettuce.

Well I really didn’t know what I was doing and really didn’t read about it. Sadly my daughter and I just sowed a few seeds in a miserly fashion in a couple of pots that let us (lettuce Hahahah!) know mad they were by not really taking off.

So I sent an SOS call to my friend and she gave me a few tips on having a better harvest.

Whilst we await the new shipment of lettuce seeds I went and bought some organic lettuce starts which we transplanted this morning. You can see them below…

This is Romain and Butter Crunch. Shortly after I placed them outside it rained kind of heavy so they look flattened. I’m wishing them well and moving on.

Oh a little tid bit on my potting mixture. I’m feeling rather farmer like these days as my garage is packed with potting mix, lime, vermiculite, fertilizer etc.

So the salad greens are in a mix of potting soil, vermiculite, and peat moss with a dollop of fertilizer. I mixed like I cook and so it’s pretty much a third of each (except fertilizer) with a little less of the vermiculite.
I’ll let you know how it does. I did the same with a teeny pot of cilantro I’m messing with.

Meanwhile I also landed upon this blog post… Growing Lettuce Indoors and decided to give that a try. I had about 25 seeds of a lettuce mixture from seedsavers.org left over so I used that. Just go to the url and look up lettuce mixture. There is only one (unless you’re a member). That’s the one I used and I’m giving that a try below…

Stay tuned…

My husband and I like meals like this and it seems with the economy many people like and need meals like this.

Much like many of us tend to do with the large Thanksgiving turkey chef Jose Andres uses the slim 4 minute cooking slot on the Today show to dish up four delicious family meals from one chicken.

Starting with a yummy sauteed chicken breast dish he ends it all with the famous Spanish dish Paella.

If you’re trying to stretch your grocery budget ideas like this are valuable and timely.

Never toss a chicken carcass again!

Read the full story along with recipes here.