Mae-Ken Do Farm

Crock Pot Roast Beast

2012-01-24T12:40:00.003-05:00

We have always been big fans of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I always like to think that the Grinch found the true meaning of Christmas. Christ changed his heart as He does for all who accept Him. So in honor of the movie we have always called it roast beast in our house. This recipe is not healthy or low fat. It's just a very good, easy roast beef.

For this recipe you need to buy the cheapest beef roast that you can find, which these days isn't very cheap.
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 packet Au Jus seasoning
Salt
Garlic Pepper
Onions (I use dried onions)
1 can beef broth

Season your roast with salt & garlic pepper. Place in crock pot. Place remaining ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Add 2 soup cans of water and mix well. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Server with mashed potatoes, rice or noodles. You want believe how good this smells when you walk in the house after a long day, nor how good it taste.

Enjoy,
Mae

Christmas Prepping

2011-12-13T11:30:00.003-05:00

The last few weeks have been focused on getting ready for Christmas. Shopping, decorating, and cleaning. This weekend April is coming over for a baking session. Hopefully, we will get most of it done. We will be baking:

1. Icebox cookies
2. Rolo Turtles
3. Fudge
4. Peanut Brittle
5. Santa hats

6. S'mores on a stick
7. Sugar cookies
8. Chocolate covered cherries (maybe)

I don't think we will get all of that done, but we will give it a good try. The rest I will bake as time permits.

Here is the recipe for Rolo Trutles:

Rolo Candies

Small Pretzels

Pecan Halves

(1 Rolo + 1 Pretzel + 1 Pecan Halve = 1 Treat)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees and line a cookie sheet with foil. Place pretzels flat on the foil-lined cookie sheet. Place 1 Rolo on each pretzel. Place in oven for 4-5 minutes or until Rolos become soft. Immediately after removing pretzels from oven, place a pecan halve on each Rolo and very lightly press down to spread chocolate/caramel over pretzel. Let stand or place in refrigerator until chocolate/caramel hardens.

Goodies will keep for a good while in an air tight container.

These are so good and very addictive.

Merry Christmas!
Mae

A Christmas Tradition Passed Down

2011-11-30T13:03:00.004-05:00

When my kids were little we had a Christmas tradition that they just loved. And now my daughter is passing this tradition along to her daughter. Since the kids like it so much, I thought I'd pass it along.

Elf Candy
1. Go to the store and buy a bag of chocolate. It can be any kind of individually wrapped Christmas chocolate, but make sure it is a brand that you don't buy for any other Christmas treat. I usually used Palmer's Christmas balls.

2. Put bag of chocolate in freezer and get it frozen.

3. When the kids are in another room lay a piece of chocolate on the table or counter. Always leave it in the same spot.

4. Ring a bell really loud, then quickly hide the bell.

5. When the kids run out you explain that the elves were here and left them a chocolate treat. It's straight from the North Pole cause it is cold.

It doesn't take but one time ringing that bell and they know what it's for and where the chocolate will be. My daughter also pointed out that if you watch Christmas specials and see the elves with bells on their shoes to point that out to the kids and that is why they hear the bells. I never did that, but it is a good idea. I usually only did this once a day every day until Christmas. It really helps build up the excitement for Christmas (as if they need any help with that) and it is a lot of fun for you and the kids.

It is nice to see Christmas traditions being passed down from generation to generation. Even if it is a silly little thing. It brings excitement and fun.

Merry Christmas
Mae

Time Change Blues & Icebox Cookies

2011-11-08T16:35:00.005-05:00

I don't know why gaining an hour has made me just as tired as when I lost that hour back in the spring, but it has. It seems like I would just wake up at the old time and be ready to go. Maybe it isn't the time change at all, it could just be the season change. This time of year it just seems like a good idea to stay under the cover a little longer. But, the days march on and so must I.

Today was election day so we got up a tad earlier and went into town to a new polling place, cast our votes and were on our way.

I have still been planning for Christmas and doing a little bit of shopping and some crafting. Since we are not going to be home for Thanksgiving, I am going to start taking down the fall decorations and bringing out the Christmas decorations. Last weekend was warm so we did hang the lights on the outside of the house. Just the ones around the top of the house and the roof of the front porch. That way we don't have to worry about it being as cold as it has been in the past when we were hanging them. I plan on doing more decorating this year than have the last few years as both of the grand girls will be here for Christmas.

Here is my recipe for Icebox Cookies. We all really love them.

Icebox Cookies

1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Soften & cream butter, add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla mix well. Add dry ingredients that have been sifted together. Mix well, add nuts. Roll into rolls in wax paper & refrigerate. Slice and bake at 315 degrees for 12 minutes.

Enjoy!
Mae

Planning for the Hoildays

2011-10-26T16:44:00.003-04:00

Now that the weather is starting to cool off, I am getting excited for the Holidays. I have been purchasing some gifts all year, but now it's time to get down to business and get finished. I would like to be done by Thanksgiving so I can just enjoy the season.

It has been a really long time since I have made any handmade gifts but this year I am working on a few things. Of course I can't share them here until after I have given them to the recipients.

We are going to Georgia to spend Thanksgiving with my family and I hope to have all of my decorating done before we leave. We are thinking about going ahead and putting up our outside lights while it isn't so cold. We will not turn them on until after Thanksgiving, but it would be nice to not be freezing to death while we are putting them up, and if we spread the work over a couple of weekends, maybe it will be a little easier.

I have already started purchasing baking supplies so I have what I need on hand. I already have the makings for fudge and chocolate chip cookies. I will still look for baking supplies as they go on sale. The Holiday season is the best time to purchase most baking needs and most of them can be frozen for use throughout the year.

This is also the time of year we stock up on hams and turkeys. I usually buy at least 3 turkeys and 3-4 hams. You just can't buy meat cheaper than when turkey is $.49 a pound. I will bake one several times a year. It is a lot of meat, but there are so many ways to use it. When I bake a turkey and it's not Thanksgiving, I don't usually do the dressing and gravy and all the trimmings or that would spoil Thanksgiving. But I will make mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and rolls and other things to make it a big meal. Then we have sandwiches for lunches a few days, the carcass gets made into stock, there is usually a casserole a few days later and sometimes I make shredded turkey BBQ.

Throughout the year, when I make cornbread or biscuits, I freeze the leftovers for dressing. There is a big bag out in the freezer waiting to be made into dressing. A few more loaves of cornbread should probably be made before the Holidays.

Here is my recipe for Chicken or Turkey Casserole:

2 cups chicken, cooked & cubed
1 can cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, or cream of celery soup (I usually use 1 can cream of chicken and 1 can cream of mushroom)
1 stick of butter
1 small package Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix (I use cornbread)
2-4 cups chicken broth

Place chicken in bottom of a 9x13 pan. Mix cream of chicken soup with one can of broth (2 if you use 2 cans of soup). Pour over chicken.

Melt butter and mix with stuffing mix, add enough broth to make a moist stuffing. Spread over chicken in pan. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

This is actually better as leftovers to me than it is the first time you serve it.

There will be a couple of cookie recipes posted in the next few posts.

Happy Preparations!
Mae

Fun Times

2011-10-07T16:00:00.002-04:00

This week has been really busy at work. We have a program every other year that teaches school children about farms and this was the week for it. The schools go on a field trip to our old farmer's market parking lot where there is a big tent set up. Then they go from station to station learning about where their food comes from. They get to learn about dairy cows, beef cows, sheep & goats, pigs, corn & soybeans, hay, and a pizza garden. There are also tractors for display and tractors & hay wagons for hay rides up to the farmer's market where they learn about vegetables and fruit. This year I got to be a tour guide for a few of the groups. It is amazing how much some of the children knew and also how little some of them knew. It is a wonderful program and I am glad that I got to be part of it. It was a lot of fun!

I also, got to bring home 15 baby chicks. So we have added to our flock and I think we are now up to 31 chickens again. The batch we bought in July have now started laying and we are back in the egg business. It broke my heart to have to buy eggs from the store. Fortunately, I only had to buy them twice. I am so glad we are getting fresh eggs again!

I have picked green tomatoes and bell peppers from the garden and stored them for winter. I will check the garden again this weekend for anymore tomatoes. It's been so warm here this week I wish I had left the tomatoes out in the garden to ripen. But maybe there will be some more out there this weekend that are almost ripe.

I am beginning to think about the holidays and have already began Christmas shopping. My grocery needs are minimal at the moment so I am going to spend some of the extra money to stock up on baking supplies and other things that will be needed for the holidays. I would like to be done with every thing by the weekend before Thanksgiving. We will decorate our house that weekend and then head to Georgia for Thanksgiving the Monday before.

Have a great weekend!
Mae

Frugality

2011-09-09T16:39:00.000-04:00

In the pursuit of being more frugal, I started using coupons a long time ago. I can't even begin to imagine how much money I have saved by using coupons. My stockpile has been pretty large at times and at other times not so much. I am in the stockpile mode at the moment. I think the garden starting to come in always puts me in that frame of mind. Putting up the garden produce makes me want to get all stocked up for the winter, and makes me more conscience of waste.

One thing I have struggled with is waste. When things are gotten for free, I feel less frugal with them. I may open up a bottle of shampoo before I use up all of the bottle I already have open. Or use a little more laundry detergent in the load, just because I have 6 bottles.

My goal is to be just as frugal with the things I get for next to nothing as I would be if I had paid full price for them. Just because something is cheap or free, doesn't mean I should use it any differently than if I had paid full price for it. A big part of being frugal is simply just not wasting what you have, even seeing just how far you can stretch things. So my challenge is to see just how long I can make things last, no matter what I paid for it.

There is one persons whose blog I use to read, who would post every week about what food she threw away over the week. Americans waste 40-50% of their food every year. That's like $40 - 50 a week if your food budget is $100 a week. Multiply that by 52 and you get $2080 - 2600 a year in the trash. Astounding to think about.

That got me thinking I should pay more attention to what I am wasting. Maybe if I started taking pictures like the blogger I mentioned did, I would stop wasting so much. Now we do take leftovers in our lunches, and I do make banana bread with overripe bananas, I feed stale bread, cereal and chips to the chickens, and fruit & vegetable peelings go into the compost pile, and I don't consider any of that waste. The chickens give us eggs and it cuts down on the cost of feed. The compost gives us better garden soil.

I have decided to implement a new technique to help me do this. I am going to start writing the dates on things when I start using them. This will help in two ways. I will get a feel of how long that bottle of shampoo should last, and I will know how many bottles I need to keep on hand. After all, if I only need 2 bottles to last for 6 months, I would be wasting my time and energy to stock up on 14 bottles. I don't mind having extra on hand if it's free, but if I don't need it and am not going to donate it, then I am not being frugal with my time and energy by going to get it.

The worst part is it goes far beyond food. Time, gas, money, water, electricity, and the list can go on and on. We have become a disposable society. If something is broke we tend to not even try to repair it. Just toss it away and get a new one.

With the economy the way it is at the moment maybe we should all keep that depression era saying hanging on our fridge or somewhere we look at it frequently.

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

Mae

New Widget

2011-09-09T15:30:00.004-04:00

There is a new widget on the right hand side of my page. I am sure you haven't noticed it. It is huge and green, and will earn you some cash. I have only just started using it but it seems like you can earn cash fast. Give it a try.

Changing Season's

2011-09-09T13:29:00.002-04:00

You can definitely tell that fall is just around the corner. It has been cool and drizzley here all week. I think the sun hasn't shone here since Sunday. The change of weather has me ready to start cooking, baking and cleaning. I guess my seasonal clock is out of whack. I should have wanted to clean in the spring, but it doesn't usually hit me then. In the spring, all I seem to want to do is be outside. To heck with cleaning, I've been stuck in the house for months!

This fall, I hope to get the upstairs portion of the house de-cluttered and rearranged.

We have one room that has always been the office, one room that has 2 beds in it, and one room that has 1 bed in it. Our old house has very limited closet space in it. We have one closet under the stairs that we built when redoing the house and one closet upstairs that has no insulation or dry wall in it. It is in the room with the 2 beds and one of the beds is in front of the door to that closet.

I am going to buy a new computer desk for the office and move the twin bed into the office. Then we will move the sewing desk into the middle bedroom and the closet will be assessable. We are going to add insulation and drywall or paneling and a hanging rod then we will have a real closet upstairs. I am really excited about this. We are also thinking about building another closet in that room. It is going to require a lot of clearing out. It would be nice to have a little sitting area upstairs, as that is where you can really see the views of our property. That will take some more thought.

On the plans for this weekend is cleaning upstairs, making some apple bread and more banana bread. I think I will make a pot of soup, just haven't decided what kind, yet, and some Apple Dumplings.

Here is the recipe for Apple Dumplings: (the easy way)

Apple Dumplings

2 (8 count) cans crescent rolls
3 -4 tart apples
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 (12 ounce) can Mountain Dew soda (I used only 3/4 can)

Directions:

Spray a 13x9 baking dish or pan.

Peel and slice apples into 16 pieces.

Roll each apple slice in 1 section of crescent roll.

Place rolled slices in pan in two rows, put extras along side.

Melt butter, add sugar and cinnamon and pour over apples.

Pour can of Mountain Dew over all.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

I know this doesn't sound very good, but it is delicious and I have halved the recipe because it really does make a lot.

I got this recipe from Food.com today, but I can't remember where I got it from the first time.

I hope you try it and enjoy!

Mae

Honey Baked Ham Bone Review

2011-09-06T11:54:00.003-04:00

So I said I would check into the Honey Baked Ham bone deal and let you know about it. I bought one on Thursday and we started eating it last night (Monday). I paid $11.15 for the bone or $2.99 per pound. As you know if you've been reading my blog, I don't usually pay more than $2.00 per pound for meat, unless it's steak or something special. Considering Honey Baked Hams are usually $5.50 per pound, it's a deal.

The bone comes frozen, I thawed it, cut the biggest hunk of meat off and baked it for about an hour. I baked it because we wanted hot ham sandwiches. If I had sliced it while it was cold, with my electric knife, I am sure that I could have sliced it thinner and stretched it even more.

Here is the break down for what my $11.15 got me:

Sandwiches for 2 with lots of ham on them
Breakfast biscuits for 2, again, with lots of ham
1 large ham bone with lots of meat still on it for beans
Enough ham and drippings to make boiled potatoes and ham and probably enough to season a pot of green beans
Enough ham for one more sandwich.

I don't think for all that, it was a bad deal for Honey Baked Ham. Ham from the deli counter cost much more. But I bake a pretty good ham myself and can get a lot more meat for $1.69 a pound at the most. Still the Honey Baked Ham was very tasty and convenient. I will probably buy another to have in the freezer for when we need something quick. They do come in different sizes and you can pick one that is less meat, so it would be cheaper.

If you are a small family that really loves Honey Baked Ham, this would be the way to go.

Have a great day!
Mae

Rising Prices

2011-08-31T16:46:00.003-04:00

We are all beginning to feel the cost of higher prices. Our grocery budget use to be $100 per week for the two of us. Trying to prepare 3 meals per day for that price is getting more and more difficult to do.

Meat seems to be the most difficult thing to find at a price I want to pay these days. So I thought I would list some money saving tips.

1. Shop the sales - then stock up. We all have heard this before. My maximum price per pound of meat use to be $2 per pound. This is getting harder and harder to find. When I do find meat at a price below that I buy as much as I can afford.

2. Use it all. Bits and pieces of meats and vegetables can be made into pot pies, pocket sandwiches, and casseroles. Bones can be made into delicious broth. To make broth I add the bones, some onion tops (with the skins still on), carrots, celery, garlic, salt and pepper to a pot of water. Boil until you have a rich broth. Strain and freeze.

3. Use your freezer. If you don't have one I would suggest searching Craig's List for one. I bought one about 5 years ago for $15 and just got rid of it this summer. Freezers are great for being able to stock up and saving those little bits of leftovers. I keep a bowl in the freezer and when there is just a spoonful of vegetables leftover, I scrape it into the bowl, broth and all. When the bowl is full all I need to do is add it to some broth, some leftover meat, and maybe some tomatoes, and I have soup. Think about the frozen dinners you buy at the grocery. If they can freeze it, so can you.

4. Stretch you meat. Ground meat is easy to stretch, What you use to stretch it depends on what you are making. If you are making a meatloaf or burger, add oatmeal. It is very filling and adds fiber. You can also add shredded vegetables. We all need more vegetables, carrots make an excellent addition. Bread crumbs and rice also, make good stretchers.

6. Make it yourself. The web has a knockoff recipe for just about anything you want to make. Recipes for boxed pasta & rice dishes, meal helpers, most convenience foods can be found on the web. If you make it yourself, you can add more pasta or rice and less meat. Even if you do buy the box meal, use 1 pound of meat for 2 boxes, or 1/2 the meat called for. Or you could just add a 1/2 cup more pasta or rice than comes in the box, then add about twice as much water as you do rice or pasta. You will never be able to tell the difference.

7. Don't waste. Keep an eye on what's in your fridge so that you can use it up before it goes bad.

8. Use the web. Search for recipes on using leftovers, casseroles, soups, stews. There are recipes out there for even the pickiest eaters.

9. Shop early in the morning. Or ask the someone in the meat department of your grocery store, when they mark down meat. Managers Specials are often a really good deal. Most stores still guarantee the meat. I have had about 3 incidents when the meat was bad and got my money back every time. The most recent time was from WalMart, I didn't even take the meat back to them. I just told them it was bad and they refunded my money. I learned today that the Honey Baked ham store sells ham bones. I am going to test this out and see if it's worth it or not. They are said to still have up to 3 pounds of meat on them. I will let you know what I find out.

10. Be open minded and creative. So you have never cooked the cut of meat that's on sale, I'll bet if you try it, you'll like it.

11. Use that slow cooker. It can turn a tough cut of meat into a melt in your mouth feast.

Hope this is useful to someone. I know it helps to remind myself sometimes.

Many blessings,
Mae

Revisit Homemade Hand Soap

2011-08-26T12:39:00.003-04:00

Well, I am not as amazed with the liquid hand soap as I was upon first making it. It turned out really thin, so I made another batch using 1 quart of water and 1 bar of soap. Then I added all of the soap from the previous batch back to it. It did get much thicker. But I don't like the way that it doesn't lather and it rinses off too quickly. I don't feel like my hands are getting clean. I know that it isn't the bubbles that cleans but it just doesn't feel as if the soap stays on your hands long enough to do the job.

I will continue to use the soap I've made and try to find other uses for it. Even though it was free, I don't feel like it was worth the effort. It may be that I used Ivory soap and if I used a different kind I might have liked it better. For now I will just chalk it up to a learning experience.

I have been putting up lots of tomatoes. They have really come in with a vengeance. I can't seem to stay ahead of them. But that's okay with me. I will have lots of good tomatoes all through the winter to make soups and stews with and I am happy about that.

Have a great weekend!
Mae