Showing posts from October, 2020
How to make a pumpkin white hot chocolate. This makes two servings, but it can easily be adapted to make in a slow cooker for a crowd. This is an easy recipe, and it's absolutely delicious. I've found my new favorite drink! A pumpkin white hot chocolate. This is the perfect fall drink for kids or adults. It's crazy delicious and crazy easy to make. I adapted the recipe so you can make it for two servings, but you can also double it or even quadruple it to make in a slow cooker for a crowd. If you're serving it to adults, you can make it a boozy pumpkin white hot chocolate with Kahlua or bourbon. Like all of my coffee and drink recipes, this can be sugar free or keto. You can even make it with a nondairy milk like oat milk or almond milk if you are dairy free.
Learn how to make an adorable DIY Dollar Tree fall decor sign with a pizza pan from the dollar store. This is a really cute craft that costs just $4 to make. You know you live in a small town when you're excited that there's a new Dollar Tree! There's a Dollar Tree in the bigger city, but ours is bigger with some really cool stuff. Last week, I left the kids at home and headed to Dollar Tree. It's right beside a good thrift store, and I was on a mission. I was on the hunt for Halloween costume pieces and something to decorate over my mantel. I like farmhouse signs for that space, so that's what I was looking for. I had some wood at home, but I lucked out and found (almost) everything at Dollar Tree. I couldn't find flowers I liked, but I did find those at Dollar General for $1 as well.
How to can food for beginners. If you're new to canning, learn about the terms used for canning, which supplies you need, and everything you need to get started preserving your own food. As more and more families delve into the great culinary process of canning, it becomes increasingly important to know what you are doing before you do it. In order to get the most out of your recipes, as well as your wallet, you will need to do a bit of research before you jump straight in. My grandparents canned, but my parents didn't. My dad and stepmom do can a lot now though, and we share jars of food and recipes. My husband and I used to can a lot, but we had been slacking in the last few years. After last spring when the stores shelves were bare, we decided to can more this year. We planted a garden, and we have a nice orchard with a lot of fruit. We spent about two weeks canning this year, making jars of fruit, pie fillings, and more. I feel a lot better knowing that we have food
Learn how to dehydrate apples with a dehydrator to preserve them for later. Use them as apple chips, or use them in other foods or even crafting. This year, we had a lot of apples! I'd picked up a food dehydrator a few years ago, but we had never used it. My husband really wanted some apple chips. I'm not a fan of apple chips (or so I thought), but we made a full dehydrator full of them. I was wrong. I am a fan of apple chips when they are homemade. We made both plain dehydrated apple chips and cinnamon apple chips. Both were amazing, and they were so easy to make. In fact, as soon as we tasted the first batch, we immediately started a second batch!
Learn how to make a cute canning ring wreath with used canning rings. This adorable wreath is easy and inexpensive, and you can make it for any season. This year, like many rural Americans, I spent weeks canning food. When I went looking for my boxes of supplies in the basement, I found a box of old rusty rings. I probably put them in a box hoping to make a craft with them, but I never got around to it. I kept the box on the counter and walked past it several times before an idea came to me. I decided to make a canning ring wreath with my used canning rings. I needed something for above the fireplace when it's time to take down my Dollar Tree Halloween sugar skull wreath, so I made this in a fall theme. Since I'm cheap and didn't want to drive all the way into the bigger town to a craft store, I hit up Dollar Tree for supplies. Other than the rings, everything is from Dollar Tree, so I'm calling this a Dollar Tree craft.
Enjoy an easy vanilla chai tea latte recipe with tea bag in about 15 minutes. This recipe is so easy and quick, and you'll save a lot of calories. Fancy coffee house drinks are a bit of a weakness for me. A few years ago, I would get a cup one or more times a week when I was out. If I was out without kids, you could almost guarantee that I'd be stopping at the locally owned coffee shop in town before I headed to the store. As much as I love my drinks, I couldn't keep buying them. They are expensive, and they are full of calories and sugar. I've been making my own skinny versions at home, and the taste is amazing. You guys loved the pumpkin spice latte without coffee recipe that I posted last month, so today I'm bringing you this skinny vanilla chai tea latte recipe. I wanted a recipe that was fairly easy, quick, and didn't require any special equipment (like a milk frother). After playing with the ingredients for a little bit, I think I've found j
How to make canned apple pie filling and how to use it. This is a delicious apple pie that makes quick and easy apple pies throughout the year. When the apples are in season, the first thing we make is apple pie filling. This year, I made 21 quarts. That may seem like a lot, but I give some to my dad and to a few friends to trade for some jars of things we don't can. This canned apple pie filling recipe makes a delicious apple pie or apple crisp. When you want a homemade pie, just make your crust (or buy one, I won't judge) and dump the quart jar into the crust. Add a crust on top, and you're done. So making this apple pie filling may take a while now, but you'll save a lot of time later. Besides, you'll have delicious apple pie filling that tastes better than anything on the shelf at the store!
Learn how to make an apple bird feeder. This is an easy DIY for kids, and they will love watching the bird come to the feeder to eat. It's officially fall, which means apple season. We still have one more box of apples to process. After making our food, I admit that I got sick of looking at apples. I thought why not let the bird enjoy an apple or two? So we made these easy apple bird feeders. My kids are all teens, but this is so easy that even littles can make them with a little bit of help cutting. We hung them in a tree outside of the picture window in the living room. There's a nice big tree there, and the birds really love to eat there because it's fairly secluded. Not only did the kids and I get to watch the birds, but the cats quickly found out that the birds were coming around. The picture window is definitely big enough to accommodate two cats, but that didn't stop a fight for the best spot. Eventually, they learned that they can share the window and
How to make an easy homemade catnip toy. This uses a toddler sock, which you can get from Dollar Tree, and makes a cute toy that your cat will love . My kitties are so spoiled. They used to like catnip from any store until I got them bulk catnip from the bulk store. Now they will only have the bulk organic catnip, thank you very much. As I said, spoiled. We have two cats. Carly was a side of the road rescue. Her momma didn't make it, so we took her in. We couldn't find her litter mates, so hopefully they had already been rescued. She was separated from her mother too early, so she's an antisocial cat. She prefers to perch on the back of the chair or high on the cat tower and glare at us, silently judging. Chloe is my son's Siamese mix. She has a fun personality. She's always playing and doing crazy cat things. She's pretty laid back. Chloe will play with a piece of string, a bottle cap, or anything that moves. She loves these homemade catnip toys, a
Learn how to make applesauce with a Victorio food strainer and how to can it or freeze it. Using a food strainer, sometimes called a food mill, makes quick work of making delicious homemade applesauce from fresh apples. I've spent the last two weeks canning, and I still have a box of apples left to can. We made apple juice, applesauce, apple pie filling, and cinnamon apples. That's just the apples. We also processed pears, tomatoes, and grape juice this year. I made some grape jelly, but the rest is canned and ready to make more jelly later. My grandmother made homemade applesauce every year. She had a Victorio food strainer and sauce maker. When she stopped making sauces, she sold it to a family friend. One of the first things we bought when we started preserving food was a Victorio food strainer. They make quick work of making applesauce, pumpkin puree, and other foods for preserving.
How to make delicious and easy semi-homemade apple donut holes in an air fryer. This uses canned apple pie filling and crescent rolls for a quick and easy dessert or snack. We've been up to our eyeballs in apples. We have a large orchard with several types of apples, so I canned sliced cinnamon apples, apple pie filling, and applesauce. Dakota made a delicious apple pie, and we've been eating applesauce almost every day. The kids also love this air fryer apple donut holes recipe. This is a semi-homemade recipe. It's easy enough for my kids to make by themselves. I love that it's air fried, so it has less fat than deep frying. We do have a deep fryer, but it's kind of a pain to get out and then let cool and clean up the grease splatters. I didn't think we'd use the air fryer that often, but we really love it.
