Frugal Eating #4: Thinking Long Term

Plant some fruit trees. If you live in a house you own plant some fruit trees now! It will take up to 3 years for your tree to bear fruit. But once it does your family will be able to eat in abundance. We have a peach, apple, plum & fig. ?You don't have to be a homesteader to have fruit trees. If you live in the suburbs plant a beautiful fruit tree or two in the front and back yards. If you live in an apartment get a big pot and buy a miniature tree! Just make sure they are not too big for the space you can provide.We buy our trees from Producers co-op (the local farm supply store) for about $20 per tree. We hope to get 4-5 more this year!

How much do you spend on fruit each time you go to the grocery store? I know I tend to spend at least $10-20 on fruit. That's $260-$520 per year on fruit!!! In about two years I should have enough fruit for my family and some to sell (She sees that her trading is profitable, Proverbs 31:18) & give (extends her hands to the needy.Proverbs 31:20).

She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. Proverbs 31:14

Proverbs 31ing it,

on Rooster Hill

Happy Birthday Parker!

In lieu of Menu Madness we bring you this family update.....

My sweet little Parker is 5 today. My miracle birth because nothing in my uterus works correctly my Doctor was shocked (Jaw literally dropped open!!)I was able to get pregnant. Not only did I get pregnant I made a Parker a bright little personality packed, seeking the Lord country girl! Ben & Ashley's wedding was wonderful yet sad...our girls are growing up and we can only hope they find God fearing men in the future (I think Parker might need a Caleb though!) . As we prepare them to be Christian wives and moms I try to hold each day in my heart like Mary and praise God for my little miracles.

We love you Parkie-pine!

Pa & Ma

Mustang Grapes or Muscadine Grapes

22

I am an undercover canner! Earlier this year we canned black berries and today I want to can some Mustang Grapes. Every year we go and pick grapes off of our friend Oudia's Crepe Myrtle affectionately called a "Grape Myrtle". This year we got to pick grapes with Ms. Rachel Altman who also gave us some of her Mother's canning supplies!

Now, I have canned Mustang grapes before but this time I also want to make fruit leather for the kids. The problem is that mustang grapes burn your hands and I am sure your mouth. Additionally, they are not sweet. So as I am researching this the first thing I have found is that Mustang & Muscadine are not the same type of grape. They are a Native American grape found in Kansas, most of eastern Oklahoma and Texas, through to western Arkansas and Louisiana. They are acrid..though I do not know what that means so I'll translate it as it will burn your mouth and taste nasty!

After some research I think I am going to Simply Recipes, I've had good result with her recipes before. Fruit leather is just processed fruit with or without a sweetener added. Clearly for these grapes we will be adding a sweetener and I think I am going to use honey. Then left in a warm oven for at least 8 hours.

I hope this works well because in a few weeks we will be picking some free pears! It would be fabulous to have enough homemade blackberry, grape & pear fruit roll ups for the kids for the next year or so.

I can't wait for my fruit trees to really start bearing and don't worry I'll be sharing just like God taught me through Barney!!

Menu Madness at Rooster Hill

Sunday- Split Pea Soup

Monday - Paula Deen's Chicken Georgia, mashed potatoes, veggie & homemade bread
Tuesday - Spaghetti & Amy Landry's Meatballs (From LHBC Cookbook the best meatballs ever!)

Wednesday -Beans Rice & Cornbread

Thursday - Curry Chicken with brown rice & veggie

Friday- Hoagie sandwich (on homemade sour dough bread) , chips, fruit

Saturday- Kieth's Favorite Casserole with peas

A lot of times I just say "veggie" because I buy a bunch of veggies and let the kids pick as much as possible. I have to cook a lot of food because my girls especially itty bitty Peyton eat like little Clydesdale's so we cover as many food groups as possible. Also we have desserts at least 2-3 per week just to keep them guessing.

If you are coming for dinner the meal may change to the meal that I have that provides the most vitals! The picture is of Parker age 3 when we lived in the suburbs!

Happy Eating!

RH

Frugal Eating #3: More Meaty Matters

All summer long Brisket will go on sale for between 1.29-.79/#. I start buying at .99/#.

BTW Brisket ,if you are not from Texas, is beef shoulder.

When it hits these low prices it's time to buy your stew meat. Buy this meat and cut it into stew meat chunks. This will save you at least $1.59/# off the cost of stew meat! Beef rarely sales for less than $1.99/# so this meat is a great deal for the conscientious homemaker.

Be sure to buy enough so your dear husband can BBQ or slow roast it also. Use your leftovers for black bean soup or pulled BBQ Beef sandwiches...yummy.

A Trip to Houston

Wayne has a friend (Josh surrounded by McGirls) whose Dad is a Vet and we have a dog who needed to be fixed! So down to Houston we went with our dog Houston in tow. We stayed at Josh's dads house who has a POOL! Yes a pool with out scantily clad women and teens. A pool with lots of fun gadgets. A pool owned by generous sweet wonderful people that love my husband and my kids! We had a wonderful time and took us to dinner at super duper tasty Babin's Seafood House , meet Josh's brother Shannon and his sweet sister Amy and her children. Brenan is the little boxing with Pearson. Well our dog's bar is a little higher and we all had a great time living it up in Houston with some new friends. ...Now that's a vet!

A friend loves at all timesProverbs 17:17a

Menu Madness at Rooster Hill

I was looking at Mrs. Bacak menu listing and feeling kind of guilty I was sticking to just the facts so here is a more detailed menu announcement.

Monday - We will have Chicken Georgia (a Paula Deen Recipe), veggie & Bread. Tonight Ms. Julie Burnham (TAMU class of 08) will grace us with her sweet presence for dinner and bring us a surprise dessert.

Tuesday- Beef & Broccoli with rice. This is a very easy and tasty Chinese food recipe to serve to your family for your Chinese food fix. I am very sad I forgot to include the ingredients for my homemade egg rolls (recipe: go to store buy a box and make them at your home!).

Wednesday- Spaghetti and meatballs with whatever our guests bring. :) The best meatball recipe I have found is in the LHBC cookbook it is Amy Landry's (Ashely Garratt's friend) recipe for meatballs. This are outstanding! Even Julie who does not like meatballs thought these were excellent. Hosting any interested members of the CS Coregroup. Our church starting a new church.

Thursday- Beans, rice & cornbread. This week I am making my own cornbread I'm doing away with my jiffy cornbread due to gas prices and my desire even to save a penny!

Friday- Stuffed Shells with sauteed sliced carrots. This is Lynsey Kramer's recipe and it should be a sin it is so stinking good! It's in the LHBC cookbook I may post it on a Tuesday because the world needs to know about this one.

Saturday- We are going to a wedding in San Antonio, I will probably eat a little extra, make sure the kids and hubby pack it in and see what I can pack into Pearson's Baby bag for the trip back.

Sunday - Taco Soup with sour cream, cheese and onion topping. Yummy quick and simple I can make it in minutes since I pre-brown my ground meat.

Most of these recipes are from the www.hillbillyhousewife.com she has some great economical recipes on her site. Since the site passed hands from Maggie to Suzanne it has lost a lot of its cuteness and added a lot of ads but I still use that as a main resource for cooking from scratch.

May you have a blessed week providing abundantly for your families.
Kyle

Ducks on Rooster Hill

We have Good and Bad news to report.

First the bad news...

Parker's rooster 'Tiny' was literaly pecked to death by the hens, we will miss his little morning crows. I was very worried about Parker when I realized he was dead because she really did raise him and the hens. But upon realizing he was departed she asked me "Mama are we gonna eat him?" Well, she is aparently officially a country girl!

Now the good news...

#1: We have ducks and duck eggs on the hill. The Bricker's gave us a couple of the ducks from the school science project and we have so loved watching them and hearing them "quack". We have a hen and a drake aren't they beautiful! Wayne is really enjoying his huge duck eggs. They are about 2X the size of a chicken egg and they are very tasty, plus I can feed Wayne with 2 duck eggs versus 4 chicken eggs...now that's a win-win situation! #2: We have 15 adorable baby chicks! We have 11 Production Reds which produce brown eggs and 3 Amerucanas which produce blue/green eggs. New chicks are so adorable and cut the kids love to play with the little gals! We have 1 rooster in the group, hopefully he'll do better then Tiny. We may be making a trip to Yonderway to get us a rooster to get our man hating hens in check!
Well, that's the good and the bad from Rooster Hill!

See you again soon,

RH

Sad PS since this was written our female duck was killed by a predator. The drake stayed by her side refusing to leave the pen without her. We love ducks and will be getting some more in the future after we correct mistakes we made to their accomodations.

Berry Picking at Barneys

While we were having dinner with friends Barney stopped by and told us to come berry picking and get as much as we could. So we went berry picking at Barney's (this man is a faithful servant) we go to church with him and he has a blackberry patch, 2 fish pond (catfish & trout I think) and basically a great spread (that's Texan for place). We had such a great time and were greatly blessed by his offer. My one suggestion to anyone who has never picked berries before ...wear gloves! We never have blackberries because they are so expensive but my kids love fruit. So when we went to Barney's we picked 33# of blackberries. We have enjoyed blackberry muffins, cobbler, and I am thinking of cold black berry soup. We will be eating his delicious blackberries for at least 1 if not the next 2 years. The Lord provides so abundantly for us I am embarrassed to think how concerned I've been about food prices. I'm worried and God's is just showing up and showing out as he provided several hundred dollars worth of berries.

I will bless her with abundant provisions; her poor will I satisfy with food.

Psalm 132:15

Cleaning House

I am in a frenzy...I feel like the house has never really been settled since we move in. There are too many projects too many unfinished corner and now it's just a big mess. So this week when we are out of the house on Tuesday & Thursday we are having a house cleaning palooza! Sorry if I don't answer the phone I'm cleaning the pot, tub and everything else.

Now panic is setting in because I just realized that We will be out of the house Tuesday - Thursday for some or all of the day...OH no.....

What extras do I need to do:

• I need to make sour dough bread (a gift for a friend)
• I need to make regular bread
• catch up laundry from our mini vacation

What's just laying around:

1. Piles of items to return to other families...(The Short's winter gear, Benavides Baby items....)


2. Piles of library books


3. pile of items to go to the resale store


4. Misc. items to go to church from meals I received "Only the Lord knows when!"


5. box of shoes to sort for the next sizes needed


6. boxes to go into storage

My kids are afraid if they stand still they will get mopped, dusted or put into storage. Oh and of course I have to make like 5 cups of butter cream frosting in 4 different colors for cake class & Sour dough bread. Where is my third arm! Oh and don't you just love that picture....

Her happy little face reminds me to focus on Jesus and to be thankful always...

Menu Madness at Rooster Hill

Monday - Split Pea Soup

Tuesday - Bean & Cheese Burrito, Rice & green beans (made with homemade refried beans from the left over beans from last Thursday Meal)

Wednesday - Turkey, garden butternut squash & rolls

Thursday - Beans, Rice & cornbread (This is my families favorite meal!!)

Friday - Chicken Kabobs with roasted veggies over rice

Saturday - King Ranch chicken (well ...it's gonna be turkey leftover from Wednesday and all of my pulled chicken casseroles will be made from the Turkey from last Wednesday for about 3 months!)

Sunday - Chicken Tortilla Soup (This recipe is coming off of the back of my tortilla chip bag. I've had a lot of luck with these kinds of recipes because they really work hard to find something so tasty that you just have to buy more and more of their products!...it's gonna be turkey leftover from Wednesday ) I try to cook easy meals I can throw together the night before so I can truly rest on Sunday too, some days it works better then others.

When I plan my meals I try to take advantage of the leftovers from other meals. I love turning leftovers into a totally new and different meal unrecognizable from its former form.

Kind of like a Christan should become unrecognizable once we turn to Christ.... :)

Happy Planning and great eating!

RH

Happy 4th of July

Ever since 9/11 the 4th of July has taken on greater meaning.
I really want my kids to understand they are Christian Americans! I want them to proud of their country and humbled by men who choose to serve in the military men.

Enjoy the Star Spangled Banner by Francis Key Scott, 1814

Thank you to everyone who defends our freedom! May God bless you all and keep you always!

Happy 4th of July!
RH

Frugal Eating #2: Meaty Matters

Turkey...right now if you live in BCS area walk do not run to Albertson's and pick up a frozen turkey. They are .29#. You can substitute turkey meat in all of your casseroles. The cheapest chicken you can get is at Wal-Mart at .49#, that is a 59% savings!Pick all the meat off of the bird after having a nice turkey dinner. Bag it up in individual bags so you can just grab some when you are cooking and need cooked chicken or turkey. Last year I cooked an extra Turkey (a friend had a turkey she was going to throw away) after Thanksgiving and did not run out of cooked meat in March! Additionally, after I cooked the turkey I used the bones to make ultra healthy and tasty broth. If you do not live in the BCS area or you do and you are unable to get an Albertson's turkey. Remember that at Thanksgiving & Christmas Turkeys can be found for as low as .10# we will be buying at least 3-4 of these birds!

Eating Tasty food cheap at Rooster Hill!