Always trying new things..

Homemade peanut butter!

I'd like to share with you one of the reasons I think homemaking is such a blast. I treat my kitchen as a "lab" and my family as "the rats" and everything is just one big "experiment".

I hardly ever make anything the same twice. All food is a "raw ingredient" in which to create something "fabulous" (or not!) Either way, the sheer satisfaction of making concoctions in the kitchen, the sewing room, the organizing venue, or the school curriculum is what makes life "fun" for me. I enjoy the "hunt" if you will, of finding the latest, greatest, strangest, most colorful, most frugal, repurposed "stuff" to make things out of.

I like to read about those who take risks. I like cookbooks that question the norm. I school techniques that produce great results without having kids sit at desks, and I like sewing "outside the box". Traditionalists run and hide from me. They warn people about me and my weirdness.

But the blog world has brought me closer to others who are always trying new things also. So, nothing I say here will be odd for you, will it?

So what's the latest thing? Coconut oil!

I am slowly learning the benefits of coconut oil and trying it in recipes. The results have been very good. As far as purchasing coconut oil cheaply, I have not found a good source yet. The Lou Anna brand is the cheapest, which is about $6.00 for a quart. I think when the rage settles down, the prices should go down a little.

So, this week's experiment was homemade peanut butter.

I used the recipe from Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions

2 cups crispy nuts

3/4 cup coconut oil

2 Tablespoons raw honey

1 t. sea salt (on p. 516)

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Here is what I did based on that recipe:

2 cups of salted organic peanuts (that I shelled)

1/2 cup coconut oil

5 T regular honey

1 t. sea salt

Ground it all in the food processor...

How it turned out: SALTY! but very good. Because the nuts were already salted, I probably should have omitted the sea salt. It had a great flavor and was very filling. So, I'll make it again. The coconut oil I found had a yellow coloring added to it, so my peanut butter had a nice golden color. At this point, I doubt it is cheaper to make your own peanut butter, if you do it the way I described. If you can find a good source for cheap coconut oil and peanuts, it could potentially be cheaper. The good news is that it really tastes good! (I was never fond of that dried out stuff that claimed to be "natural" yuck!)

So this is what makes my home sing. Join us at Moms the Word for more like this.

Pie Crust recipe

Pie crusts.. do you make them or buy them? It's a toss for me, but recently I've been trying to avoid buying the pre-made to cut down on trans-fats (crisco/ vegetable shortening). So, if you think that making your own pie crust is over the top--maybe this method will be worth trying.

And you should know this about me, I never do anything small. Every recipe is huge, including this one.

9 cups of white flour (or ground pastry flour)

1 t. salt

3/4 cup of coconut oil

3/4 cup butter [one and a half sticks]

With a pastry cutter or your hands, combine everything together. They call it "cutting" the shortening in. As you work it in, the flour and fat will combine and become like a coarse mealy texture.

If you grab a hand full of it and squeeze, it should temporarily hold together like this:

And if you jiggle your hand again, it will easily fall back into a crumb texture. What you want to do is work the mixture until there are no obvious lumps of butter or coconut oil floating around. Once your have reached this consistency, you can start adding ice water in small amounts. To be honest, I'm not sure I've ever been able to measure exactly how much ice water is required. I would guess it was about 1 cup or more. Once the water is in the mix, you do not want to overmix or knead it. This is not bread, OK? In bread, you WANT to develop the gluten. In pie crust, if you handle it too much, it will get tough.

Separate this dough into balls or clumps of about 1/2 cup each. I get 8 from this recipe. Don't worry if the dough isn't completely clumping together. This is where most people get discouraged. How do I get this thing that barely holds together to actually turn into a pie crust??

Let's try this! Get a one gallon ziploc bag and dust it with more flour. Put the little dough blob in there and seal the bag. Get the excess air out just before the final zip.

Roll the dough mixture while it is IN THE BAG. Don't be afraid to add some pressure! Take the dough all the way to the ends of the bags, and make everything even. This is quite fun at this point!

At this point, you can put whatever crusts you aren't using in the freezer. They will be ready for you when you want to make a pot pie, a pasty or just a regular pie!

Or you could slide the crust out of the bag and fit it to the size of your pie pan right now.
And you can just go ahead and proceed with your recipe!

If you are needing the roll the crust out more than the plastic bag allows, dust the surface of the counter with flour and it should be pretty easy for you. Happy homemade baking, you suzy homemakers!!

Blitz-It Friday # 34: new shoes

Have you guys ever noticed how hard it is to "do stuff" in bad shoes? I was trying to "run" this past weekend, and I couldn't even make it 25 yards without my shins hurting. And then I realized... I need new shoes!

Oh bummer! That would mean I would have to spend money and go into a retail store where thousands of things would be tempting me to buy them. Armed and ready for a "war in my mind" I stepped into the Shopko (in Belvidere,IL) and was instantly tempted by all things I am normally tempted by (pretty colors, cool designs.. etc in the form of clothing, linens and dishes). But I needed shoes. So, I got to the "Women's Running" section and found these: Avia on clearance for only $22.00! Yippee!!

So, I bought them AND a package of beef jerky. Why beef jerky? I was starving and needed to get home and eat lunch. (you had to know that, didn't you?) But the exciting thing is: I did not come home with ANYTHING else! No pretty sweater, no cool dishes, nothing, nada, nope.

And whilst I am humbling myself and telling the WORLD how hard it is for me to even be in retail stores, I can honestly say it is probably the only thing that has "saved us" this semester from going into debt. God promises to provide for our needs, but he doesn't always allow for a bunch of "extras". And it is this mindset that has forced my creativity to combine itself with frugality to produce the cool slippers, hats, and other stuff out of recycled things that we bought very cheaply or already had on hand.

Am I saying that YOU should not go into retail stores? No. Go! Especially if you can afford it, go. Our economy needs help. But if you really can't, then stay home and make stuff out of recycled sweaters, OK? Being financially stressed out is not having an organized mind. Then you have to PUT IT ALL AWAY when you get home and FIND NEW PLACES for everything, and that does not lend itself to being uncluttered either.

And you'll have less to BLITZ when you have less stuff. Which reminds me, are you enjoying the blitz posts? I mean really.. just kind of skip these if they are LAME and you do not want someone to tell you to clean up your house each week, OK? My feelings are not going to be hurt. But, if you want to keep at it for another week, I think I will also.

For the weekend, I plan to:

1) do the laundry and put it away

2) iron 10 things (or more)

3) make homemade peanut butter

4) work on slippers for gifts

5) clean up the craft room (again)

Do you have a plan for the weekend? If so, would you like to share it with us, link up. You can link up a plan or the result of a plan or both. I'm flexible.

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If you are new to blitzing, here are some other links on the topic:

Basically, blitzing is forcing ourselves to focus for a set period of time on hands-on tasks.

Read about the: one hour blitz and staying focused.

Hope you can join us this week!

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If you are new to blitzing, here are some other links on the topic:

Basically, blitzing is forcing ourselves to focus for a set period of time on hands-on tasks.

Read about the: one hour blitz and staying focused.

Also, blitzing with kids is a blast if you are an airchair general.

Glad you could join us! Now you have MANY choices about using the blitz. You are welcome to do/ try any or all of them.... and so many photos to choose from!

And for you guys who like to move slowly, try plodding.