Sauces, white, otherwise and gluten-free sauces

We make "white sauces" quite a lot and sometimes don't even realize that this is what we're doing.
Ever made gravy? That's a browned white sauce. Ever thickened soup with flour? Make cheese sauce? Same principle.

Sauces in general are nothing more than a fluid that has been thickened and has had some spices, for flavor. Then you can brown it or not. You can add other ingredients such as eggs, cheese, mushrooms, or other herbs.

Before I make my sauce/gravy I make sure I have what I need on hand. Yeah, ok, so that's a no brainer. But is your cheese already grated, measured out and ready to be dumped into the sauce? Are the mushrooms cleaned, sliced or chopped, cooked, measured and ready to be dumped? Are your seasonings out, lids off and ready to go? Gottcha. Once the sauce is ready to have the add-ins added in, you don't want to have to leave it to go do these things. You risk the sauce scorching on the bottom. You want to be able to stir with one hand while adding stuff with the other. That way it won't scorch and you won't get popped with hot gravy - and it DOES pop when it cooks - unless you keep stirring it, and even then sometimes you get popped.

Traditional basic sauce: (can be doubled, tripled or more)
2 Tbs Fat source - butter, margarine, rendered fat(chicken, beef, bacon, etc) or oil
2 Tbs thickener - flour, cornstarch, tapioca, arrowroot, bean flour, etc
1 cup liquid - milk, cream, water, stock, broth, liquid from drained veggies, pan drippings or a combo of these

This is made into a medium thick sauce by melting/warming the fat source over a medium low heat. If you want the sauce to stay white, you need to use milk and not let the fat brown. When the fat is melted/warmed, add the thickener to it and stir it around. The best thing to use is a wire whisk, but in the days before I owned a whisk, I used a spoon or fork.

Remove the pan from the heat and slowly add in the liquid, stirring in a bit of liquid at a time and thoroughly incorporating it into the flour before adding more. This takes a bit of patience, but it will keep lumps from forming. You want a smooth mixture.

After the liquid is completely mixed in, return the pan to the heat and keep stirring it. Truthfully, I turn the heat up to med-high and stir it constantly. It will thicken as it comes to a simmer. Turn the heat down and keep stirring it. Let it cook for about 3 minutes. You may want to keep the heat down so you don't scorch it, especially if you're using milk or cream.

Now you need to make some decisions. If you want to freeze it, this is the point to do so. Freezing changes the flavors of sauces, killing some of the taste. It's best to freeze it and then add the seasoning to it when you're ready to use it. You can divide the sauce up into portion size servings or put it into ice trays and then, when it's frozen, pop those into a zip bag. Oh, and don't freeze this if you've used cream for the liquid. If you do, the sauce breaks down upon thawing.

Season your sauce with whatever rings your chimes. Around here it's Adobo (without pepper), some salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. (Part of me will be glad when I'm only cooking for me again and can use the "real" stuff. Kids, gotta love 'em but I'm sure gonna miss 'em.) Here is where you'd add any special ingredients you'd like to use - herbs, mushrooms, cheeses, etc.


Variations:

Thinner sauce:
1 Tbs fat
1 Tbs thickener
1 to 1 1/2 cups liquid

Thicker sauce:
4 Tbs fat
4 Tbs thickener
1 cup liquid

Cheese sauce:
Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup shredded cheese, tightly packed, for each cup of sauce. That's about 1/8 to 1/4 pound of cheese. If it's too thick, thin with milk.

Mushrooms:
1 cup mushrooms, sliced or chopped to each cup of sauce
Cook in butter, bacon grease or olive oil and add to the white sauce.
To make cream of mushroom soup, use a thin white sauce and the mushrooms.

Bechamel sauce:
Reduce the flour to 1 1/2 Tbs. After making the sauce, beat either on egg or just the yolk of an egg to a froth. Stir in a 2 tbs of the hot mixture into the egg and mix that well, add another 2 Tbs and mix that well (temper the egg) and then add the egg mixture into the sauce and stir well. This will not freeze well either.

Alfredo sauce:
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated, per cup of sauce
1 Tsp garlic or garlic powder (opt)
Yep, that's all it is! Too easy for something so expensive.

Now in a total departure from "rules", this is how I make gravy. When I cook my meat, there is usually some "drippings" left in the pan. If you fry meat, stuff sticks to the bottom of the pan. Unless you've cooked the meat in a LOT of fat, you don't need to strain off the fat. We tend to not use much fat when frying. I use cast iron pans and we keep them well seasoned so that only a Tbs or so of fat is used. When the meat is done, I will add water to the pan and "deglaze" it - stirring the water around until it picks up the bits of meat and the "fried on" stuff. It adds flavor to the water and you get "free" gravy. I then use this water to make the gravy. If I want more meat flavor, I sometimes will add a bouillon or two to the water.

When I make a roast, I use the pan drippings, add water and deglaze the pan just like I would with fried meat (if anything has stuck to the bottom of the pan). When I make a turkey, I will simmer the neck, gizzard, and the heart with an onion, rib of celery, some poultry seasoning, salt and I use a 3qt pot. I add water to cover the ingredients, refilling as needed. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer, cover and let it cook while the turkey cooks. When the turkey is done, I strain out the veggies and add this to the pan drippings to make my gravy. (I remove the giblets, but you can dice them and add them back to the gravy. Again, kids) I don't use the liver in the pot as it's too strong. I cook it with the meat and either eat it or give it to the dog.

Measure out how much liquid you want to end up with. If you want 3 cups of gravy, then you need to start with 3 cups of liquid. (I know: well duhhhh)

2 cups of that liquid will go into a pan, turn the heat to med and start warming it up. Take the remaining 1 cup of liquid and add it SLOWLY, to 1/2 cup thickener (we like thick gravy), stirring after each addition, so that it makes a smooth paste. Then add just a little more liquid to it so that it will pour - you want a slurry(we're not making dumplings, lol). Slowly add the flour mixture into the pot with the warm liquid in it, stirring constantly. Bring it to a slow boil and KEEP stirring it. Let it cook for about 3 minutes on low while you add the seasonings to it. Keep stirring it frequently while you do this! Again, our personal cast of reoccurring characters are Adobo, onion and garlic powder and salt. Though I do use sage, thyme and other herbs depending on what meat I've used. I will sometimes add a tbs of bacon grease to the pot too.

Notice that I make the gravy without added fat. You don't HAVE to have fat to make gravy, any more than you HAVE to use flour to make it.

What you DON'T want to do is to try and add the thickener TO the liquid. Always add liquid to the thickener. Add a bit and stir it up, then add a little more liquid and stir that up, until you have a slurry. A slurry is thinner than a paste. This is the secret to lump-free gravy.

Oh, and if like me you fail to measure your liquid, you just eyeball it and then it turns out too thin; just add some more thickener to a cup, bowl, measuring cup, whatever will hold liquid/thickener and add enough liquid to make a slurry - just like we did before. (Great run on sentence!) If your slurry doesn't have lumps, your gravy won't have lumps, so make sure the slurry is smooth.

Ok, so now it's TOO thick - add more of your liquid to thin it out. But JUST a LITTLE at a time and stir it well!

For those that need gluten-free sauces or gravy, select the gluten-free thickeners. I believe that the list would include the cornstarch, rice starch, arrowroot, bean flour, and tapioca. Since no one I personally know needs gluten-free, I'm not positive about this list. As always, read the label on the package. Also, there may be more choices, but I don't know them.

Tamale Pie

Tamale Pie

This makes a nice meal that is VERY low cost, and for vegans, just use the veggie bouillon and forgo the sour cream or get soy "sour cream".

If you don't have access to a wheat grinder - sometimes you can get a used one for about $50, you can use a coffee grinder. I bought one at Wallyworld for $10. I use it to grind flax seeds, but before I bought the used wheat grinder, it's what I used to grind my beans and peas into a flour.

Adobo is a seasoning that is also found in most Mexican sections of the store, though my local Wallyworld doesn't carry it. Masa Harina is a type of flour found in the Mexican section of the grocery store. The masa does have a slightly different flavor than regular ground corn flour. You can make your own masa by soaking corn in lime, washing it, and cooking it, then drying the corn and powdering it. There's a little more to making masa than that, but that's the quickly typed version. If anyone's interested, I can post a how-to on it.

On to the Tamale Pie recipe.

Base:
2 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup masa harina or corn flour (not corn meal, flour is ground finer than the meal is, if corn meal is all you have, grind it in your coffee bean grinder to a finer texture.)
1/2 cup pinto bean flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp Adobo
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Gravy
2 cups warm water
2 Tbs pinto bean flour
2 Tsp masa or corn flour
2 Tbs chili powder
1 1/2 Tbs cumin
1 chicken or veggie bouillon or 1 tsp bouillon powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp Adobo powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Topping:
1 cup cheese


For each serving:
chopped green onion and tops
sour cream
lettuce
diced tomato
diced hot peppers, fresh or canned (opt)

To make the base:
In a 3 or 3 1/2 cups sauce pan, whisk together all of the base ingredients and then bring them to a boil, stirring constantly. Turn down the heat to low, cover and let cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and add 1 cup of the gravy, and place in a greased 9" x 13" pan. Let this cool about 5 minutes or so, then spread with the remaining gravy. Top with the cheese and place in 350 degree oven for about 20 mins to let the cheese melt.
Remove from oven and serve with onions, sour cream, lettuce and tomatoes.

To make the gravy:
Whisk all the dry ingredients into the water, Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. lower heat, cover pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This should freeze well, though I've never frozen it.

Make your own Jello-type gelatin

This is an easy way to use up leftover juice, juice from canned fruits, or freshly-squeezed juice.

The basic recipe is 4 cups of liquid to 2 packets of gelatin broken up this way:
1/4 to 1/2 cups cold water
2 packets of unflavored gelatin (around here, all we have is Knox brand, found near the Jello brand)
3/4 to 1 1/2 cups boiling water
2-3 cups juice, any flavors EXCEPT FRESH or FROZEN pineapple or kiwi (it won't jell), canned is fine.
1/2 - 3/4 cups sugar (OPTIONAL)
Pieces of fruit as desired.

Put the cold water into a large bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Just let it sit there for 4-6 minutes to soften, then add the boiling water and you can add the sugar if you want/need it. (how sweet is your juice? Make it to the sweetness you like and don't worry about adding sugar to the boiling water.)
Stir the mixture until the gelatin is dissolved (you don't see any crystals in the liquid on your spoon. Let it cool down a bit and then add the juice. From this point on, treat it just like you would Jello. Add fruit to it after it is partially set. Put into single serving portions, leave it in the bowl or use it in a pie (graham cracker, gelatin - let it set up with or without fruit, top with Cool Whip, maybe some nuts).

Homemade Pudding and Pie filling mixes

Sorry to say, that these do need to be cooked on the stove top or in a microwave, but they are easy to make.

Each batch of the mix will make 15 one cup servings or 5 nine inch pies.

To make each mix: Mix the ingredients together and store in a zip lock or mason jar(s) on the shelf. (These have a long shelf life, there's really nothing to spoil in it.) Write the cooking directions on a 3x5 card and tape to the zip bag or jar(s).

To make 3 cups: Measure out the amount of mix called for in each recipe - it varies, into a medium size sauce pan. A heavy pot is best. Gradually blend in 2 3/4 cups of milk over a low heat, stirring constantly. The mixture will thicken and come to a boil. Let it boil gently for 1 minute, but keep stirring it. Remove from the heat and add vanilla extract (or extract of your choice). Adding 1-3 Tbs of butter after adding the extract will give a richer taste, especially if you've used skim or powdered milk to make the pudding.

You can portion this out into six 1/2 cup portions, or store it in a bowl. When it's cooled a bit, you need to cover this pudding to keep a skin from forming. The skin won't hurt you, but it's a little tougher than the pudding underneath it. I put some plastic wrap directly on the cooled pudding. (If it LASTS that long! lol)

Basic pudding (vanilla flavored)
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt

Use 2/3 cup of mix (add 1-1 1/2 tsp vanilla to cooked pudding)

Chocolate pudding
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder, unsweetened
1 1/4 cups cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt

Use 1 cup of mix (add 1-1 1/2 tsp vanilla to cooked pudding)

Butterscotch Pudding
1 7/8 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/4 cups cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt

Use 3/4 cups plus 1 tbs of mix, plus 2-4 tbs butter (not optional if you want the correct taste)
1 - 1 1/2 Tsp vanilla to cooked pudding.

You can make any other flavor pudding by adding that flavor extract to the basic pudding (in place of the vanilla extract - or even with the vanilla).

Pie Filling
Prepare any flavor pudding to the boiling point, but don't let it boil for that minute, just take it off the stove and stir in your flavorings and opt. butter. Let cool, stirring once in a while, for 10 mins. Pour the filling into a cooled, baked 9" pie shell and chill until it's firm. You can add any bits of candy , chocolate chips, nuts, Cool Whip, fruit pieces (fresh, frozen, canned or dried), coconut or any other add-ins that you can think of. Strawberry extract with pieces of strawberry, lemon extract with mandarin orange pieces, etc.

You can also add artificial coloring to your cooked puddings if you want to, but why?

These puddings can also be made with powdered milk, but will have a limited shelf-life, unless you keep the mix in the freezer. You would have to adjust the amount of powdered mile to make 2 3/4 cups of milk and then when you go to cook it, just use that amount of water instead of milk. You would also need to divide the amount of powdered milk you used into 6 portions and add that much more to each basic flavor.

For instance, my milk calls for 1/3 cup of powder for each cup of milk you want. So I'd add 4.5 cup of powder (yes, it is a little off, but not enough to hurt anything), and add that to the dry ingredients, mixing it all together very well. Then for each recipe, I'd need to add 1 scant cup (11/12ths of a cup) more of the mix than what the recipe calls for. So for the Vanilla pudding, I'd measure out 1 2/3 cups mix and remove 1 tbs of mix.

Actually, for me and my laziness, either way I made the mix - with or without powdered milk; I'd make the mix and then immediately divide it equally into 5 packets. Each packet will make 3 cups which is six 1/2 cup servings or filling for one pie. Keep the packets all in a larger zip bag with the instructions inside it. When we want pudding, dump the packet (save bag to refill later), add the milk/water and off you go.

Oh, you find cornstarch in the baking aisle with the salt, baking powder, baking soda, etc.

Appreciating the little things in life

Things have been quite hectic and upsetting here, but seem to be settling down - at least for a bit.
As I've gone through the hard times of the last couple of months, I think I've become attuned to the little, good things that I have been blessed with.

For example:
Last Friday evening I was running some errands. On the way home, we heard a noise that sounded like my Ham Radio antenna was flopping around; something that, with a very strong magnet on it, it shouldn't be able to do. I pulled the car over and my daughter got out to see what she could see. Nothing looked wrong, so we drove on and in a minute or so, the odd noise stopped.

We got home safely. Then next day, I took her to work and went to work myself. I got home late and through the fog, safely. (Blessing one) Sunday, I took my daughter to work and headed to church and we heard that same noise again. I was able to pull over onto a deep, paved shoulder. My son looked out the door and said, "Mom, the tire is flat." (Blessing three) So he gets out the stuff and changes the tire (Blessing four) in his Sunday suit - which he didn't get messed up while doing this (blessing five). As he was working on it, a friend of ours, also on the way to our church, pulls over. Since I'd be driving on one of those "donut" tires, we stopped by the house (blessing six, we were before the turn off to our house).

Today, I was able to get two new, just slightly used tires for $10 each and put on for $12; total $32 for tires that, brand-new are over $85 each - and that's before adding balancing, mounting, etc. (Blessing seven)

Then I was able to get someone to help with something that I've needed help with for years. (Blessing eight)

I was able to go to work today and a friend pitched in and took my daughter to work for me (blessing nine).

And finally, the new Young Men's president loves music and is locally famous. He's giving my son private voice and piano lessons for free. I didn't ask, he offered to work with both my son and the other young man that attend our church (Blessing ten). All I have to do is send our keyboard, some paper and find my old piano books from when I tried to take piano in Jr. College. (and failed! lol)

So, all-in-all, I've had a really great few days.
Sometimes ya just gotta do what the song says, "Count your many blessings..."

Oven meatballs and saving money

I answered another person's question on one of my elists. The topic was making meatballs in the oven and the person posting wanted to know "do they splatter and cause a mess in the oven?"

Here is my expanded reply:

I put my meatballs on a stainless steel cooling rack and put the rack on my cookie sheet (Technically, it's a jelly roll pan - it has the lip on it), it took about 7 minutes to cook them. I undercook mine a bit so that when they are reheated they aren't dried out and overdone. I cooked them at 350 degrees.

I also do my chicken - whole or parts, this way. Next time I make this recipe into meatloaf, I'm going to use the rack instead of my cast iron pan or a loaf pan. I will make a round "patty" out of the meat mixture and set it on top of the cooling rack. I'll grease the rack with either a baking spray or some shortening. (I've tried several times to make a homemade "sprayer" out of some oil in a spray bottle, but they don't seem to spray very well at all.) I've never noticed a problem with meat spattering. It may be that because the food is up on a rack, there's no interaction with the fat that is draining off.

I also cook bacon (usually frozen, lol) on my cookie sheet in the oven, I just now thought about trying it on a rack. But I've never noticed it splattering either.

To cook the bacon in the oven, I open the package, dump the meat on the cookie sheet, put the sheet in the oven, and then turned the oven on. I bake it for 15 mins at 350-375. I use thick-sliced bacon, so the timing might be off for regular bacon when it's stuck back into the oven the second time to finish cooking.

After the 15 mins, the bacon is usually thawed and partially cooked. I take my tongs and pull the slices apart and lay them on the sheet. Usually they'll all fit tightly side to side, with the last two pieces going at the bottom of the pan. If you have to overlap a couple of slices, no big deal. In another 5 mins, you can fit them all side by side. Anyway, I after I lay the slices out, I put it back into the oven for another 15 mins. Like I said, my slices are the thick ones. And I like mine crispy, so I end up cooking it another 5 mins. My kids, however say it's burned. So theirs comes out sooner. lol

I could freeze the bacon at any point along the way. That is, I could if we didn't EAT it all. lol It's cheaper to bake most foods in a large batch and put them into the freezer, taking out the number of servings you want and reheating them than it is to just bake up fresh everyday - remember it costs to reheat the oven as it takes about 10-15 mins to preheat. (And you only have to clean up one big mess.) I'm learning that I prefer to just slightly under cook what I want to freeze. That way, when I reheat it, it finishes cooking that little bit and isn't overdone.

My recipe - of sorts - for meatballs/meatloaf is with ground whatever is on sale, Italian bread crumbs, an egg, onion and garlic powder (kids, sigh), Adobo without pepper, a little salt, some dried parsley and a bit of ketchup. Used a mini-scoop - the kind you'd use for cookie dough, for portion control and rolled the meat into mini balls. (About 1-2 TBS)

Sorry, there's no portions on this. I make meatballs/meatloaf by the seat of my pants and just know when it looks right to me. Mix what looks right to you, then cook 1/2 tsp and taste it - that's what some of the chefs do. I'm guessing here but I think that to about 2 lbs of ground whatever, add 1-2 eggs, 1-2 tsp each: onion powder, garlic powder and Adobo, 1/2-1 tsp salt, 1-2 TBS dried parsley and 2-3 TBS of ketchup (opt). If it were just me, I'd add real garlic and onions. We don't like pepper, so there isn't any in it, but you can add about 1/2-1 tsp and it would be about right.

When the meatballs are done, I put them in serving size portions in a zip bag, suck the air out and then put all the bags in a gallon zip bag and suck the air out of it(with a straw). They go into the freezer. I've only kept mine about 6 months, because we use them up pretty quickly.

You could also freeze them before you bake them. Put them on a cookie sheet with some space between them and stick into the freezer for a couple of hours. Then put them into a zip bag, get the air out and pop back into the freezer. (This is called "flash freezing" and it keeps things from sticking together into one ice block. I've also frozen this recipe as meatloaf. I normally cook mine all at once so that I don't have to keep reheating my oven. I tend to preslice the loaves so that we can just eat them, but I have frozen the whole loaf. You can let it thaw or pop it into the oven frozen or into the microwave. It will just take a bit longer for it to cook, if it's frozen. The last time I made meatloaf, I didn't undercook it and it was a bit dry.

I also found that if I want to make up a large amount of meatloaf/meatballs, that it's better to do it in smaller batches. For me, more than about 3 lbs of meat was too hard to get everything mixed well into it. You don't want to over handle the ground meat, it makes a paste. If you're a person that measures things, measure out all of your spices for the number of batches your going to make. All the onion powder, garlic powder, etc. Each batch can have it's own bowl, so if your making 3 batches, you only dirty 3 bowls. You're only measuring each ingredient 3 times in a row, instead of opening and closing bottles. It's like, one for you and one for you and one for you. lol Since I don't measure, I just leave the tops off the bottles, only putting them back on when I'm done with that ingredient for the last time. (you can break all your eggs at one time too, then you only have one egg mess to clean up. Dump the egg(s) in a bowl and put the spices on top. (that way, the spices don't get glued to the bottom of the bowl, but will slide off with the eggs.)

I found that making meatballs takes longer than cooking them does. So my suggestion is to line up anyone from about 3-4 years old (yes, that's 3 to 4, not 34. lol) on up, get the kiddies' hands washed and line them up around the kitchen table. Using what ever it is you use for portion control, scoop up your portion and plop it into their palms and show them how to "roll" the mixture. (It's the same way you do it to make balls of dough for baking.) They do NOT have to be "perfect", only sort of round - they don't stay perfectly round unless you cook them in something round. Next time I do it, I'm not even going to do anything but scoop them up, level off the top of the scoop on the side of the bowl and plop it onto the rack! That way will take a LOT less time to make them. I seem to remember getting 48 on a rack on the cookie sheet.

When all the meat mixture has been dealt with, line up the kids, (youngest worker to oldest - or from the one most likely to eat, touch something to the one most likely NOT to do so. lol) and one at a time, squirt about a dime's worth of dish washing liquid (that hasn't been diluted) into their palms. Don't wet their hands first, just apply the soap and have them rub it around on their hands and between their fingers. Then turn on warm water, wet their hands a little and have them make a lather. Rinse well and usually their hands are clean. On rare occasions, I've had to rewash, but it's a "normal" washing of my hands. This trick works well for ALL types of grease - auto as well as household.

I've also found that squirting dish soap on a grease stain, rub it in and launder it, usually (not always, especially if it's been on the clothing for a period of time and/or dried in the dryer) gets rid of a grease spot from clothing too. I've never had it fade or discolor any of our clothing, from 100% cotton down to poly and rayon. YMMV.

My comment about diluting dish soap refers to my habit of add some water to my soap. My kids have been really bad about squirting too much detergent into the water. I've tried to get them to use the cap as a measure or using a spoon as a measure, but they don't. Add to that, now a days, detergent is super concentrated. Also, for us, Dawn seems to work best. It is more expensive than the dollar store brands are, but I get more clean for the buck - unless people just squirt a lot of it into the sink.

What I do is this. I keep a couple of my old bottles. When I bring the new bottle home, I pour about 1/2 to 2/3 a bottle of water into one of the old bottles, then remove the cap from the new bottle and gently pour enough soap into the water to not quite fill it - you need headroom to mix it, about 1" worth. Recap both bottles and HIDE the new stuff. Gently turn the other bottle in a top to bottom direction to mix the soap and water, but not so hard that you make a foam "head" on it. It will take some gentle agitation, but it does mix well and you don't know it's been mixed.

Another thing I have done is bought one of those "pump" bottles (on sale of course), used the contents and then refilled them. Yup, you can do that. Place about 1 1/2" -2" of soap into the bottle and gently fill it with water to the fill mark on the side of the bottle. (You need to leave room for the pump piece. If you over fill it, it leaks). Again, gently agitate the bottle. You're tipping, NOT shaking. If you need some soap to wash several dishes, you've got it without running a sink full, nor wasting a lot of soap. This pump soap usually works for greasy hands too. But for auto grease, I stick with the undiluted soap.

The last thing I did happened by accident. When I used up a bottle of liquid I had, I refilled the bottle 1/2 way with water and agitated it a bit. It was great for washing hands or glasses with. Just enough soap to do the job (unless it's grease!) and not so much you're wasting soap. This was free soap. It's what would have been thrown away with the "empty" (and I tip mine on their tops to get all the soap to drain to the bottom and hold it there for a few minutes). I was really surprised that it worked so well. (If it hadn't, I would have just add back a little bit of soap until it did.)

Thinking Outside of the Box With a Garden

Someone wrote into one of my lists and asked about raising chickens and doing a garden. She had had a friend back hoe her yard a couple of years earlier. They found rocks and she was left with a big hole that she had an excavator level last year. She was wanting to have chickens and a garden, but money is short. Her final comment was on how she was going to need some expensive lumber to do these projects.
This was my reply to her.

NO THEY DON'T (need expensive lumber)!
They require you to think out of the box and to recycle what you have!
I don't know where you live, but if you have any kind of newspaper or other place that gets stuff on pallets, go ask them if you may have the pallets. Take them home, break them apart and use the wood.
Been there, done that and it works just fine! Made square foot gardening blocks and housing for my chickens with them.

Later, after I bought 5 acres and later married, my (now ex) husband worked across the street from a concrete place. He noticed that they had a pile of broken concrete blocks - cinder blocks. The kind that are rectangular, have two flat sides and two open sides, split down the middle so there were two sections in each block. He asked if he could recycle the broken blocks and they said yes. So every evening he would put about 4 blocks in the back of our small truck (don't carry too many. They're heavy and you don't want to damage the truck with too heavy a load.)

I measured out some 4x4' square and set the blocks up so that the holes faced up. That gave me extra planting spaces. I stacked the blocks two high for support. When I had about 6 squares, I called the local "dirt" company and bought some top soil/mushroom compost (from a local mushroom place). (If they don't have any "compost" type dirt, just buy the top soil and find someone with a stable. Then learn how to compost.) A dump truck load cost me $5. I'm positive it would cost more now! But still, even if it's $35, it's worth it. They deliver it and put it in one spot, so pick a spot before they come out. Make sure the truck can access that spot and that you can stand looking at where it's located for a while. Do this AFTER you have your squares built. Also remember a new garden doesn't do as well it's first year.


Why in the world would someone use a BACK HOE to dig up a garden??? Not having any gardening experience, you didn't know any better, but the back hoe operator certainly should have! That's like trying to kill a fly with a cannon ball and did as much damage. People use a roto-tiller to dig up a garden. It only digs down 6-24 INCHES. A shovel works too, just a lot more work.

Let's suppose that there are no brick places, no pallets or other types of "free" wood to build with. Then start asking construction sites if you can haul off their lumber - when they're done with it. lol. If that doesn't work, use your old milk jugs, juice bottles, etc. Cut drain holes in them, add some top soil and then refer to a Square foot book, website, etc. (any intensive gardening site will work.) You can put 1 tomato plant, 2 green pepper or hot pepper plants, 4 small herbs, or about 36 carrots in a one gal. milk jug - if I'm remembering correctly.

Wait until you've got a garden going well before you buy the chickens. (you can go to the feed store in spring and buy a sack of starter feed and they'll give you 6-12 chickens. At least around here they do.) Last time I bought a sack of starter, it cost $7, but that's been several years ago, it's more now. But why should you wait?

If you're having to buy all their food, you're not saving any money. It will cost more in feed than you save with the eggs. Oh, by the way, home grown chicken tastes REALLY different from store bought. Enough that you may not care for the taste. Before you go buying 100 broiler chickens "for meat". Raise, kill and eat one. Make sure you and the rest of the family will EAT the home grown meat. Both because of the taste and because of killing it yourself, you may find rebellion in the ranks. You could also raise rabbits for meat too. But the same thing. Raise and eat one before you go into it wholesale. (After the first time one lay's your arm or stomach open with it's hind feet, you won't have any trouble eating it.) Getting scratched handling rabbits is like getting stung raising bees. It's all part of the fun. (Yes, I did handle them when they were babies and it didn't make a difference. If they're preggers, most of they don't like you.)

Also wait until you've got the gardening down before you add another job. Make sure you can put up the food you grow, or it's wasted. A smaller garden to start with is better than a big one that you throw food away or let spoil because you couldn't handle the preserving of it.

For me, Square Foot Gardening has been a blessing. Minimal weeding, watering and care. Nice amount of food. I'm not having to weed and water the spaces where I walk. I don't have to over-plant and then thin to the proper spacing - saves seeds and my time (we homeschool too). (Or fail to thin - who likes to kill all those baby plants, and have a poor crop because they're so over-planted that nothing can grow properly.) Gardening this way requires no special tools - no shovels (unless you're moving dirt into the squares to start with.) no rakes, hoes, hoses, etc. I do mine with a tablespoon, a sharpened pencil (to poke tiny holes), small scissors and a watering can (recycled metal or plastic can that I used a nail and hammer to poke holes into) and seeds. (I've kept mine in the fridge, in zipper bags and they've sprouted for years after the "good" date.)

Remember, the food from the garden helps with the feed bill on the critters. Start now with a "composting" bucket on the counter. Each time you peel veggies/fruits, scrape plates, toss left-overs, etc teach yourself to put them in the "compost" bucket. Lean what can go into the bucket (no meat, fats, and a couple of other things.) Each evening, go dig a spot in your yard or garden and "plant" the bucket contents. Or make a regular compost pile. When I had chickens and rabbits, I used the scraps to feed the animals with. Just make sure you empty the bucket each evening and clean it out. That way you won't encourage bugs or mice. Also, put a lid on it during the day helps too.

I did these thing when I lived in Florida. Now in North GA, I can't have a garden. Well, no. The rules are that I can't dig up the yard. I can plant stuff in my 55gal drums that I had cut in half and filled with topsoil. I can put stuff in containers on my porch. I can dig up the area under the eves, next to the house. See what I mean by outside of the box?

I just wanted you to know that you don't have to do bells and whistles to have your dreams. It only requires thinking outside of the box. Look at what is needed and then at what you can use to substitute with what you have on hand.

Then DO IT. Get the kiddies to help. You're teaching them a life skill as well as the interesting fact that kids tend to "like" and eat what they've planted. Mine would eat stuff out of the garden, raw. I never cared that they had peas and carrots for breakfast. Straight from the bush to their mouths. (I didn't use chemicals on my plants, and was on 5 acres, so there was no chance of contamination from a neighbor.)

Only you can make your dreams come true. But don't sabotage yourself by thinking you need expensive things to work with or a lot of money to start these kinds of projects. The Pioneers didn't have stores to go to, yet they were able to raise gardens and feed their families. You can too. Recycle, reuse, repurpose, thrift store, out of the box thinking will get you where you want to go. Make a game of it. Teach this game to your kids. (I have a 2'x2' box, what kinds of things could we do with this box. I need plant starter pots, what kinds of things could I use to make them. Then make a list of everything you can think of. These are REALLY good exercise for you and them. They will expand your creativity!)

Carrots, Eggs and Coffee plus the Last Lecture

I had two really inspirational items come across in my emails this week. I thought I'd include them both for your enjoyment. The first is called Carrots, eggs and coffee. I don't know who wrote it, so I can't give credit to them. Just know that it's not my own.

The second is a link to a website with a video that is 11 minutes long. It's well worth the viewing time. It's called the Last Lecture.

Carrots, Eggs and Coffee:

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as soon as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, 'Tell me what you see.' 'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,'
she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, 'What does it mean, mother?'

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the
water.

'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain & adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain.. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

May we all be COFFEE

The Last Lecture:

http://www.sonnyradio.com/lastlecture.html

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, things have just gotten incredibly crazy again.

One day I may do a blog on court. Not fun, but the end result was the my ex was found in contempt of court on both child support and custody. I'm not sure when he's going to have to return her, but he's supposed to have to do so. We'll see what happens.

It was sad, he brought her into court to testify against me and she was willing to go along with his lies. He claimed that she always wore rags, that he was always buying them clothes, sending them home and I'd throw them away. Unfortunately, for him, I have pictures over the years of the kids at play and they are nicely dressed and not many of them are with the kids in clothes that he bought, because he never bought them many clothes. The only time the clothes were tossed, were when they were ripped past repair. If they outgrew them, I passed them on to another family.

Then he declared that I never taught her anything, etc. and she was willing to lie about that too. I've done my best to keep the kids out of his and my disagreements, but he's dragging her into it and so twisted everything that was ever said or done that she doesn't want to speak to me. I finally got the DA to mention that if I never taught the child anything, then how did she, never having been to school, get A's in 6th grade, placed in 7th when school restarted from Christmas break and she's still making A's. It set the judge back on his heels a little and he thought about that one for a few minutes.

I've had to go to a moderated blog. They have my blog address and messages are being left that aren't nice ones.

On to a happier note. It's getting to be that time of year again. Time to be planning our gardens for the coming planting season(s). Here in the South, we really have 3 seasons. We have the first plantings of winter veggies in Feb/Mar. Then in April we do our spring planting. Then in Aug or so, we start our second winter veggie planting.

I rent and am not allowed to dig up any of the yard for a garden. So I have several 55gal plastic food drums that were cut in half that I plant in. I was looking for a way to plant without going out and buying more stuff - seedling pots, or plants ready to transplant. I found two really great sites for making your own seedling pots from newspaper.

This one is an origami style one, you only need newspaper to make it:
http://www.geocities.com/newspaperpots/

This one is a video that just rolls the paper up around a drinking glass:
http://www.ehow.com/video_1745_create-seed-starting.html

For a great many of us, it's time to start getting those little seeds into containers to be ready for transplanting in the next month or two. So collect your newspaper and start folding/rolling pots.

Remember, if you want to grow organic veggies, don't use potting soil with added fertilizer or pesticides.

A friend has some questions on a 6 year old with a negative attitude and whiny disposition who doesn't want to go to bed at night. Been there, done that. And while it's rather normal for this age group, it's not a behavior that will get them where they need to be in this life.

Well, I have had to change kids' schedules around. But to do that I also had to change mine around. I too am a night owl and so are my kids. The problem is that we live in a day time world and need to be on a daytime schedule.

The trick to getting them in bed a sooner is to get them up earlier.

My first dd was 9 weeks premature. When she was 22 days old, I took a 4lb 3oz baby home. On the way out the door, the nurse quipped; "oh, you're going to LOVE us."

At midnight, 3 days later, I understood what she meant. The night shift has the fun job of giving the babies their baths. Most of the kids are too sick to play with. But my dd was very portable, just a little too tiny to send home - even to a former paramedic with NICU training. (That training is how I sprung a baby that was under 5 lbs from the hospital.)

Anyway, my dd would wake up at 11pm and didn't want to sleep until about 2 or 3 am. When I figured out what was going on, mom did a rotten thing. She started waking that poor baby up. Yup! I'd wake her up. Now what does feeding have to do with sleeping?

Two things. First, if people are hungry, they won't sleep. In fact, that's what wakes infants up at night, crying. They're hungry. When they're full, they sleep (just like we'd like to do). I found that if I fed her first and THEN played with her, when she started to get sleepy, I could just put her in her crib. She wasn't nursing herself to sleep or taking a bottle to bed. I wasn't creating a habit she and I would only need to break later. Both are usually HARD habits to break.

Also, if they don't get enough to eat during the day, they will be wanting to eat at night. (By the way, as we get older, eating, winds the body up, we get a second wind and off we go. So if kids are eating into the evening, they're refueling - and that's NOT conducive to sleeping. It takes a couple of hours for our bodies to wind back down. If you want them in bed at 8 or 9, I'd suggest not to eat dinner any later than 6, have any dessert then and not letting them keep snacking until bedtime.)

With my dd, in order for our family to function, I realized that I need her to eat at 10, so that she would be in bed for the night at about 10:30 or 11pm, so that meant that I backed up all her feedings until I was close to the times I wanted to feed her. Then I awakened her to eat at the times I wanted her to start eating. It took me 3 days to get her completely changed over. Once she wasn't sleeping all day, she quit staying up when I needed to sleep. She still needed nighttime feedings at 10, 2 (and 6am - which is when I had to get up anyway.) But since she was eating more often in the daytime, she was able to sleep the extra hour at the 3 night feedings and still gain weight and be happy. I never made her wait or cry until the next "feeding time". By having her eat earlier than she was used to, she wasn't waking up crying to eat and then having to wait until it was "time". Rather I was awakening her TO eat and in this way, she was never upset by the schedule change. She was used to being fed every 3 hrs in the hospital. All I did was change the timing backwards a bit. And after eating, it was play time - well in a newborn, it was diaper change, snuggle and sing time, but she was awake and interacting.

(I know some people would have just put the baby on the breast and gotten into bed with them. We had a full motion waterbed. There was no WAY I allowed her into/onto that bed, the way it was setup made it too dangerous. So keeping her in bed with me wasn't an option. I just got up to nurse her.)

Anyway, back to the 6 year old. Don't try to get him in bed earlier, instead get him up earlier and feeding him earlier. Then set a loose schedule with him. Talk to him and give him choices about when he'd like to do things and what he'd like to do. Don't be a slave to the "schedule" and DON'T schedule every moment. Make sure he has blocks of free time. Tweak it as needed - schedules are never set up once and then forgotten. As life changes, the schedule will change.

Some people think of unschooling as no rules, no schedule, do as you please. Perhaps that works for some families. In my family, we do have rules that ALL family members live by. We all do chores, we all learn new things each day. I had/have a schedule, but it's not engraved in stone. I made sure there was free time for exploring, I made sure there was family time, chore time, fun time and (unknown to the kids) school time. Yup, I snuck (and STILL sneak) it in there. I read extensively to them. Not just nursery rhymes, but the children's classics as well as current popular books. We also read the scriptures together. When they were younger it was a picture book type scriptures. As they got to preschool and knew the stories better, I'd read from the regular scriptures. I kept it SHORT.

When they're little, we probably ought not to make all their lessons any longer than the kids are tall. lol Not quite, but 1,2, 3 and 4 year olds are not predisposed to sitting for long periods of time. Break up "lessons" and use a lot of visual aids. Have them "teach" you.

Now that mine are older, we read the regular "classics". We have extensive discussions of history, civics, social studies, morals, ethics, science, , etiquette, life skills (how to find a job, apartment, register to vote, open a bank account, manage money, cook, sew, iron, mow a lawn, etc - both male and female). English is taught by gentle speech correction when they are learning to talk, correcting (gently) misconjugations as they mature as well as games, videos, cds, etc. We do use math books for the math, but we have also used videos, Cds and games to teach math concepts, as well as manipulatives to demonstrate math principles. Reading was taught as they showed interest and I tried a variety of phonic programs, none of which the children or I cared for. I do wish I had found the program I have now, which is a spelling, writing and reading program for dyslexic kids. I'm using it with my older kids - even though they can already read and spell. It will make better spellers out of them. I also have my eye on a program that teaches essay and creative writing in a positive way. The public school textbooks that I have are really dry and don't walk the kids through in a way that they can use - which is why so many of us who were public schooled hated to write, but yet we like to blog.

The thing is, if you don't have some type of plan, then you have a harder time helping them fill their days with interesting things. Familiarize yourself with what areas of life there are to learn about. History, civics, social studies, language arts, regular arts, biology, earth sciences, physics and chemistry. When they are younger, use children's "experiment" books. Have fun with baking soda and vinegar, baking (yup, some of the best chemistry there is!). As they get older, go to the library and check out college age text books. Read them yourself first or even with your teens. Have them learn the forumlas. It's easier than it sounds - if you've made learning a joy instead of killed that joy with extensive dead tree work. (note: I have one that loves dead tree work. Go figure.) As Ms Frizzle of the Magic School Bus says: "

Bottom line, if they see you (and dad, if he's involved with his kids) learning and studying, they will too. If you have a "let's see what we can learn today" attitude they will pick it up. But if you're grumbling about having to learn something, I guarantee you, they will pick that up too.

Make sure in the early evening he gets some large motor exercise - run him around the block, up and down the sidewalk. Play catch with him, whatever you can do to tire him out some. Get a bath, a glass of milk - if he's not allergic to it. And then a story, prayers if you say them in your family, and bed. Set up a chart with stickers - even if it's just a dollar package of stars. He gets one for each of the tasks he completes. The bed star he does not get until in the morning IF he has gone to bed on time and another if he's stayed in bed.

I use a program called "Homeschool Tracker". I have a chore section set up. Good behavior and chores/school done earn points. Bad behavior and whining, negativity or any undesired behavior cause points to be docked. (You could spray paint some tiny pebbles gold and use a cup for the same effect. Which is something to give and take according to behavior.) Or a Chart for stickers or smiley faces. Then set up goals WITH him for him to reach. When he has earned XX number of points, rocks, stars, etc. he can do..., or have ... or play... (fill in the blank.) Mostly, kids enjoy time spent with parents over things. Ask him what he'd like to do for a reward. Perhaps bowling, a special picnic with dad, a walk with mom or a grandparent, aunt or uncle. You don't have to spend money. I've never had it to spend. I do know some families that have a Mom Store. Mom prints her own money (from a web site) and then the kids earn points. (or lose them) At the end of the week, the points were changed for "Mom" money. They could save the money for a larger purchase, or shop at her store right then. She got stuff from yard sales, thrift stores, dollar stores and ordered from some of the oriental trading companies where she could get a lot of little things that didn't cost much. ( I also didn't have the house space that they had and it would have been clutter for my house.)

You want to REALLY praise the good and almost ignore the bad. Actively look for him TRYING to do what you want. Offer praise and points, star, rock, whatever. If the behavior is starting to disintegrate, then simply take a point, star, rock, etc. Don't yell, don't argue, don't threaten - as in "If you don't quit that, I'm taking (rock, point, etc) from you." As Yoda told Luke; "Do or don't do. There is no try." Either use a reward system or let him run along as he has been doing, but setting one up and then only threatening to dock points does no good. In fact, it's worse than not doing anything, because you put yourself in the position of rewarding BAD behavior. You're giving the bad behavior attention with the threats and teaching that mom won't follow through, she whines! Yup, I never realized that when I scolded and threatened, I was whining. I needed to just go and quietly DO. If I want my kids to just go and do, then I need to go and do - not sit and complain (in the form of threats to them). Ouch!

And....my kids could "take points" from ME too. And there were days I got on a roll and didn't realize it. And it helped them understand that even grownups can have bad days. But it was probably more important that they saw how I conducted MYSELF when they took MY points. (We'd all usually end up laughing hysterically, but I would also apologize to them for MY bad behavior.) Surprisingly, they didn't take my points in retaliation. They tended to be quite honest at those times when I was being a bear - it wasn't often, but it did/does happen.

Get his help in setting up this chart. Talk to him about how we need a good attitude to be successful in life. Give him some chores to do. He's old enough to empty the house waste baskets into the main house trash can (he's probably still too short to get the trash bag out of the trash can).

Make him "Chef's Assistant". Let him help you cook. Notice that help isn't in quotation marks.
He is old enough to really cook. Because of problem pregnancies, I had to teach my little ones how to fix easy things. Tortillas with presliced/preshredded cheese, popcorn, Cheese "toast" (all in the microwave) peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, presliced cheese. Milk either on a low shelf in a small container that a child can handle or prepoured milk in sippy/straw cups. (ones that are either closed or don't spill easily.)

At 6, he can do a lot in the kitchen that does not involve sharp knives, hot ovens (they're still a bit too uncoordinated) or stoves (not tall enough without a chair - which is too dangerous). He can use a plastic knife or table knife to cut tender veggies, spread butter, peanut butter, jelly, etc. He can peel boiled eggs. He can hand you ingredients and you can let him help measure ingredients - show him how to level a cup and then watch as he does it. (teaches fractions and as he gets older, have him double, triple, halve or quarter, etc. a recipe.) He can also help mix by hand any recipe. Personally, he's still a little young to use a hand mixer. He needs more heighth and dexterity before it's safe to do that, even with you right there holding his hand. They're too quick to stick a finger into the beater or bowl.

He can also set and clear the table. Help put any food away - he can get you the container to put the food in. He can wash the plastic bowls and the silverware. He can probably dry all but sharps and heavy things. Work with him on how to safely dry glass items and then don't be upset with him if something gets broken. If it's that important to you just tell him it's one of your treasures and you would be upset if anything happened to it, so you don't want to put him in the position of possibly breaking it. If you break it, you will be mad at you. If he breaks it, you might be mad at him and it's not fair to him. Sorting silverware is a great premath skill!

He could also help clean the bathroom. He can clean the tub and the sink. Until he's a little older, I'd not let him do the toilet.

He can help put away groceries when you come home from shopping. He can feed and water any pets. He can fold towels, wash cloths, dish cloths and match socks - other great math skills. There are many more of these type activities that he can do.

Now several things about this list:
One, he's not doing them all by himself. You're there working with him, first teaching him how to do what you want and then letting him do it so he's actually being a help to you, while you're doing the rest of that particular job. Remember to thank him and praise him for his efforts. And NO REDOING his work!! (And don't redo what you husband has done either. It tells them you don't value their efforts. And if you're going to redo it or complain, why should they even bother doing it?)

Two, even when he's old enough to do all his chores without help, don't overload him. I have 3 teens and we have a schedule set up so that we all have about an hour of chores a day. Except for the person who is the cook. That person has about 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hrs to do, depending on what they fix. We rotate the chore lists among us. When there was 4 of us here, we had a "Cook's list", a Dish washer's list", a "Dish dryer's list" and a "Table setter's list". Now that there's 3 of us, we split up the "Table setter's list" among the other 3 lists.

The best thing to do is to talk with kids and take them everywhere with you. Explain what you're doing and why you're doing it. Read out loud to them. Let them see you reading. Give them time to read - and they can't do that if they're running from one activity to the next.
Let them see you studying and express how much you like to learn new things. Talk about how you research things you want to know.

We live in an age where it's no longer possible to know "everything". But if we can read well, write well and know how to research what we don't know, then we will be able to compete in this world. Toss in the ability to do ordinary "consumer" math and they will be in good shape. They will be in a position to understand higher math. There are discalculate kids - they have a learning difference in math that makes it very hard to do math. It's harder than dyslexia to overcome and they struggle until they are quite a bit older to "get" a lot of math concepts. Teach them to use a calculator. Yes, we DO need to do math in our heads, but some CAN'T, or they can't do it in stressful situations - teach them how to cope, but also to keep trying to learn it. Bit by bit they will learn it. I'm 54 and Algebra is finally making sense. I now "get it". Never thought I'd see the day that I would.

As with anything, work on being consistent. We have to train ourselves as well as our children. Be patient with them AND ourselves, but never give up.

Things to come and another something for nothing quilting

I'm working on several new projects.
I have been wanting to start an internet business for a couple of years now. I've racked my brain as to how I can do this and until lately, NOTHING has presented itself as the solution to my quest.

Lately, things seem to be coming together on this point. I'm working for a friend whom owns an internet business, doing her data entry. So I'm learning a lot about how the data is stored and used on the website and what programs she uses to make it happen. I've acquired a CD on how to start an internet business. Then this past week, my daughter found Virtual University. We both signed up for courses. You may take up to 3 courses for $18 - total! Few of the classes require buying a textbook. Almost everything is on line.

I'm taking HTML - used to construct web pages (free to use); Perl - a language used to create hit counters and other little programs (free to use); and Corel's Paint Shop Pro - I'm learning how to use this program (that some one gave me!) to work with integrating pictures, graphics and text. I also am in contact with someone whom mentors people starting new internet businesses - the author of the CD.

Hopefully, these tools and resources are building within me the skills I'll need to finally get a business launched.

When I posted last, I forgot another great way to get a quilt. It's a rather old fashioned way. I've seen quilts that were just large remnants of fabric that were sewn together for the top and sometimes the bottom. You know all those pieces of cloth that you bought to make whatever (and now you don't even remember what it was you were going to do with it)? This is a great way to use them. You don't need to bother to cut them into smaller pieces. Just use several pieces to make the top as large as you want it.

I had a friend who was quite poor and she wanted to give me something for a wedding present. She didn't have any money, but she had access to large squares of cloth (about 36"x36") that were being thrown away. So she hand-stitched these pieces of fabric together and made me a quilt top. She told me that to finish it, I could take an old sheet and use it for the back. I could either not use anything for the batting or to take an old blanket (or several old receiving blankets) and use that for the batting. Then I was to lay the fabric either on my bed or on the floor and roll the edges towards the middle, until I had a small square left open, with all the edges rolled towards it. I could then start in the center and make a small stitch there. Then go outward making small stitches in the corners near the rolled edges - about every 4". Then I could unroll the edges once and stitch where I had just unrolled. Keep doing that until I got to
about 2" from the edge. I could then either fold the bottom edge over the top, tucking the raw edge of the bottom piece inside about 1/2" - 3/4" as I sewed. That makes it so that the bottom piece of fabric will show on the top side and it will have a finished edge. I could also fold all the raw edges to the inside and sew the edge closed, making sure I had folded the material inward by 1/2"-3/4" so that I could make a smooth edge on all 3 layers. I would be looking at a seam that when you looked at it sideways, all three layers would be showing a little. Or I could have used bias binding, in which case, the binding would be showing on top and bottom.

To do this on a machine, I would roll up my edges until I had about an 8" square. Then I would use a safety pin or spring-type clothes pin to hold my edges rolled. I'd slide one edge under the foot and sew the center of the square in what ever design I'd like - or I could just tack it like I would be doing if I hand sewed it. When the center part was sewn, I'd unroll each side one time, re-pin or clip it to keep the rest of that roll tight and sew that larger square. Keep doing this until you get 2" from the edge. Finish as above.

Either way, you have something useful for nothing.

Something from nothing

My son brought me a pair of his flannel pj's. Seems that both of the legs are ripped from hem to waistband. I've fixed this pair of pj's a couple of time. So now they're MINE.

The tears weren't "evenly" in the middle, but close enough. I went ahead and cut the pants apart, down the front through the crotch area and up the back, giving me 2 separate "legs".
I then opened the pant legs up by finishing the tear - cutting through the portion of the hem and waist band that were holding the pants together. I then cut the side seams apart on both sides. This left me with 6 pieces of fabric. Two large pieces from the backs of the legs and 4 smaller pieces from the torn front. The smaller pieces were just the right width for some cloth squares and I simply cut across the fabric to make the other side of the square. Well actually some were a little more rectangular. Then with the back pieces, I continued cutting squares by folding the leg in half so that I had one long piece of fabric, doubled over on itself. I cut this apart and proceeded to cut squares from that by folding the pant legs in half and then in thirds.

I ended up with about 30 squares that were roughly 8x8. I added them to my bathroom stash. They get used for anything you would use TP for. From wiping to blowing the nose to wetting and wiping off the sink. The used pieces get put into a special container and washed in hot water, hand 1/2 cup vinegar added to the rinse cycle and dried in a hot dryer (it's very rainy here in the south during the winter. If it's sunny where you are, line drying them will also kill any bacteria that might have escaped the soap and hot water.) There's no smell or stains left on them after laundering them and they're as clean as your underwear or any other item that you throw into the wash with the general clothing.

So I now have some useful items from nothing - trash that normally is discarded. It's kept that fabric out of the landfill and made a reusable item that keeps even more items out of the dump.

So what can be done with old clothes that are too shabby, stained, holey, etc to give to the thrift store, but you don't want to throw them into the trash?

Here are my ideas, feel free to add you own!

Old sweaters or sweats:
New sweater/sweats: Take it apart and make a child's sweater or sweat set out of it, and yes, you can take a knit sweater apart at the seams, cut it down and then sew it. I'd use a small zig-zag stitch along the edge to keep it from unraveling.
Mittens: Have the person that will be using them place their hand, palm down on a piece of paper. Have the slightly splay their fingers and trace around the hand, mitten like to make a pattern. Use the bottom edge of the sweater/sweats sleeve as the cuff of the mitten and place the pattern on the fabric. Cut around it, and sew it together. Hint: don't cut the folded section - it's already together for you.
Slippers: use the body of the sweater for the material. There are patterns on the net for fleece slippers that you can use the sweater material for. Just do a small zig-zag stitch around the edge, about 1/8 inch in from the edge then sew like normal. Here's one that I found just by Googling "Free fleece slipper pattern". http://216.25.11.234/familyphotos/sewing/info/fleecebooties/index.html
I would use the ribbed section of the sweater for the upper part of the bootie and not bother with the rubber "grippy" material. Instead, after I made them, I would use my fabric paints - the ones in those little bottles, and dot the bottom of the sweater fabric with that. That's what I do with regular slippers that I knit. Make some good size dots and let it dry completely before using. And if it should wear off, you can just reapply it.

Any item made of cloth:
Any cloth can be cut up for towels, napkins, wipes, rags, etc. Cut them into 10x10 squares with a pair of pinking shears or heck, sometimes I just start a tear and then tear them into the size I want. And I'm not wasting fabric by measuring things out. I just eyeball it. I fold the material to see how to get it to look about the size I want. Then I cut through the folded layers with my pinking shears. And unless your really bothered by loose threads, don't bother to hem them. After the first wash or two, they quit raveling. (I will say the first wash with the never been washed flannel was a mess to untangle. But after that, no problems with it tangling. And since this fabric has been washed before, it shouldn't shrink or fray a lot.)
Stack in an old diaper-stacker, an "Glad type" disposable 8x8 pan, make a hanger for them - anything to neatly store them where they will be handy. Use them for anything you'd use a paper towel or paper napkin for. Rhonda Jean in her blog "down-to-earth" (link below) has a pattern and some ideas of her own on using her rag stash.
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/

Sheets, bedspreads and other large pieces of fabric:
Remember my furoshiki post from the other day? Well....Cut a sheet down to the sizes you want and use those to wrap items furoshiki style. You can do a wrap and have grocery bags faster than the bagger can fill them - or go in with cloth premade into bags and no sewing is necessary. Or use the material to sew bags for the groceries. Make a matching towel, potholder, apron, placemats, hot pads and/or napkins from a set of sheets.

Old quilt:
DO NOT throw it away. It's still got some life left in it. Make a vest from it. Make potholders, placemats, hot pads, crib bumper pads, or baby quilt out of the sections that are still good. Make (or get) some bias tape to sew around the edges. There's even a web site that tells how to make your own bias tape. So use some of the above materials instead of buying the tape.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2150592_make-bias-tape.html
and how to use bias tape:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2096166_apply-bias-tape.html

Old jeans/pants:
cut off legs and make purses from the left-over body. I once made a quilt top out of my then husband's old work jeans - the ones with the knees and bum out of them. I simply cut off the jean legs above and below the tears and used the material that was still good for "squares", but don't you know, I didn't bother with those tiny 4x4 pieces. I left them in good size chunks. I actually opened the inside seam and left the French seam that was on the out leg stay. I then matched up pieces of leg and stitched them together to form an odd size, large piece of fabric. Square it off, use an old blanket, quilt or batting for the inside and then either make another jean fabric for the back or simply don't use batting and use the sheet, blanket or quilt for the other side. Mark a line 4"down across the fabric, then 4" across the fabric to make a grid and then do a tied quilt instead of "quilting" it with regular fabric. Actually, since you wouldn't be using the yarn to hold down the insides of the quilt, you could easily make it 8x8 or even 10x10 squares.

How to tie a quilt:
http://www.instructables.com/id/SU7HS3XF0ZSTFTJ/
You don't have to have the "traditional small squares" quilt - that's what I'm talking about making when you use tailor's chalk and a yardstick to measure off your squares. And I've used yarn instead of embroidery floss/thread to tie a quilt.

Here's a 2 hr quilt idea that I found. Only, don't go to the store, use what you have at home. A quilt does NOT need to have an "insides" of anything. It does make them heavier/warmer, but you can do the same thing with layers of quilts.
http://www.instructables.com/id/6---2-hour-Quilt/

Either way you choose to make a quilt, you can either finish it the way the last link shows or you can just use bias tape to enclose the loose edges. You don't need a machine for either choice. Use the same floss/yarn that you tied the top to sew up the edges.

From any material you can make a braided rug:
http://www.craftown.com/instruction/rugs.htm