It is possible to make your own yeast cakes at home. These yeast cakes can be used in place of store bought yeast. Making your own yeast not only saves money, but will insure you always have enough yeast on hand to keep your family in fresh baked bread.
To make a yeast cake, start with a loaf of freshly risen bread dough. Homemade bread dough is best but you can use frozen bread dough you have allowed to rise if necessary. Remove a piece of the bread dough that is equal to the size of your fist.
Put the dough into a dish. Add enough warm, not hot, water to produce a thin batter. Once you have a thin batter made, add enough flour to turn the batter into a very stiff dough. If you prefer, you can add in a mixture of flour, cornmeal or artisian flours such as rice or potato flour.
The approximate amount of dry ingredients will be close to fifty percent of the wet ingredients.
When the dough is stiff, use a rolling pin to make a flat dough that is approximately three-quarters of an inch thick. Immediately cut the dough into squares that are two and a half inches on all sides.
Place the squares in a dark place where they can dry. Once dry, the squares can be cut in half or you can cut them as you use them. Each two and a half inch square will make two loaves of bread. Simply use the bread squares in place of regular yeast in your recipe.
Filed under Homemade Baking Essentials by on Dec 26th, 2009. Comment. 
Everyone eats different foods and different amounts of various foods. Knowing how much to store depends on many things including the space you have to store food in and what foods your family eats. Before stocking up consider how you will store the extra food you buy. Do you have plenty of freezer room and a back-up plan in case the electricity goes out? Will you be canning all the food you store? Maybe you will dehydrate your extra food or use a root cellar. Whatever method you choose, make sure it works for your situation. After all storing food is useless if you will not use the items you store.
There are some general guidelines from the FDA to help get you started, but the reality is you will have to do your homework. Some things you may not use at all and others you may use more of. Some things you will need to buy and some you can grow. Anyone can stock up, even if you live in an apartment.
There are different times of the year when it is best to stock up on certain things because they can be found on sale. Here are some yearly averages according to the FDA. These are based on one adult, so multiply this by the number of people in your family to get a better idea of what you will need.
Meat – 200 pounds per year per person.
Flour – 300 pounds per year per person.
Sugar, honey or other sweeteners – 60 pounds per year per person.
Fats or oils – 60 pounds per year per person.
Salt – 5 pounds per year per person.
Powdered milk – 75 pounds per year per person.
Water – 375 gallons per year per person.
Vegetables and fruits – 700 pounds per year per person.
While this is not an end all of what you need, it is a starting point. It is a way to get you thinking about what you may need and a way for you to save some green at the grocery store. How you ask? By buying in bulk when food is in season or by growing your own. Let’s say you grew 50 pounds of green beans this summer. Well, subtract 50 pounds from the estimated 700 pounds of fruits and vegetables if you canned them all. If you bought that 50 pounds of green beans canned you would have spent between $25 and $50 depending on the brand you bought.
While the initial investment to get set up preserving and storing your own food may seem like it doesn’t save anything, in the end, you will come out ahead and best of all, be prepared for almost any emergency that comes your way from being snowed in to being short on cash.
Filed under Food Storage Chart, Tips For Stocking Up by on Dec 27th, 2009. Comment.
The first week of the year you should look for nuts. Look at the after Christmas sales. The nuts may be 50% or more off. The dry roasted ones store best, but you can freeze nuts as long as you put them into a freezer bag and keep them for a long time. Try to buy at least two pounds per person.
The second week of the year is the best time to look for cleaning supplies. An average is one gallon of bleach per person. The average person does 156 loads of laundry per year, so stock up on enough laundry soap to get by for the year. Also look for other types of cleansers at this time unless you make your own. If you do, take time this week to stock up on supplies you need to make your own cleansers for the upcoming year.
Week 3: This is a good time to stock up on needed supplies such as feminine products, Pepto Bismal, Vicks, cough drops and syrup, Tylenol, Calamine Lotion, Kaopectate, Ipecac, and sunscreen. Dispose of all outdated medications in your medicine chest. If you make any of your own salves, creams, etc. take this week to stock up on supplies you will need over the coming year.
Week 4: Is a good time to continue to stock the medicine chest with products such as Band-Aids, antibiotic ointments, Ace Bandages, steri-strips and other first aid needs.
Week 5: Is the time to stock up on personal products such as soap, deodorant, toilet paper, shampoo, lotion, hand soap, etc. An average on hand soap is fifteen bars per person. Again, if you make your own, use this week to stock up on supplies you will need.
Week 6: The only thing you need to stock up on this week is peanut butter. Buy ten pounds per person. Peanut butter has a long shelf life, so if you overbuy, it will keep.
Week 7: Stock up on oils, remember the FDA says 60 pounds per person per year. Solid shortening are less expensive than oils. Keep your oils and shortenings rotated so the ones that expire first are used first. These products have a long shelf life and will generally last several years especially if they are kept in a cool, dark place.
Week 8: This is a good time to look for 100% pure juice. Do not buy watered down versions. Go for the gold and get 100% pure lemon, orange, pineapple, whatever flavors you like. If you can your own juice, this may be a good week to look for canning supplies instead as fruit this time of year can be expensive. If you do find a good sale, by all means, stock up. You can juice fruit any time of the year.
Filed under Smart Shopping, Tips For Stocking Up by on Dec 27th, 2009. Comment.
This homemade BBQ sauce can be made when tomotoes are in season or it can be made from canned or store bought tomato paste. Keep in mind you may need a bit of tomato juice if the sauce is too thick for your liking.
Here is how you go about making homemade BBQ sauce with fresh tomatoes.
To make a really thick BBQ sauce you need to remove the tomato juice from the tomato paste. The easiest way to do this is to use a steamer juicer such as the Mehu-Liisa, although this is not the only way.
When the steamer is finished extracting the juice, bottle it and can it. This is tomato juice in its purest form. You can also squeeze the juice from the tomatoes, set the tomato pulp aside and can the juice.
The tomato pulp that is left in the top of the steamer juicer is what you want to use. If you removed the juice by hand, then you will still use the tomato pulp. You can remove the seeds or simply blend the mixture until it is smooth, whichever you prefer.
Begin by putting 20 cups of fresh chopped tomatoes into your steamer juicer or into a foley mill or chessecloth.
When the tomatoes are juiced, remove the pulp and put the pulp in a stainless steel sauce pan. Add:
1 ½ cups brown sugar
1 tablespoon hot pepper flakes
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoon salt
1 ½ tablespoon ground mace
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ cup of honey - optional, used to thicken the sauce
Stir well, bring to a boil and cook for thirty minutes. Taste it to see if you prefer to add other ingredients such as fresh ground black pepper.
When the sauce is the consistency of store bought sauce, ladle it into hot, sterilized pint canning jars. Wipe the jar rims, lid and band until fingertip tight. Place the cans in a cold pack canner and process for twenty minutes. Remove the lid, let the jars sit for five minutes, then remove and let cool.
When the jars are completely cooled, check to make sure they are sealed. If not, use immediately or put on a new lid and reseal.
Feel free to spice the BBQ sauce to your personal taste. The ingredients listed above are only a starting point. Homemade BBQ sauce is different in consistency than store bought. Using pure tomato paste will give you a thick sauce. To thin it down, add tomato juice.
When the BBQ sauce is opened, store the extra in the refrigerator.
Filed under Canning, Food Preservation by on Dec 31st, 2009. 1 Comment.
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