Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Start Making Homemade Vanilla for Christmas!

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About a year ago, I told you about my vodka buying adventures. Fun times. It’s always neat to be carded when you’re in your 30’s. I was so honored. And also embarrassed. Hey, I was buying an entire gallon of vodka at one time. I looked like I was going a little overboard. Like a crazy lady who took her four children to the store with her at nine o’clock in the morning to buy a gallon of booze.

Well anyway, it was well worth it as I handed out nice bottles of homemade vanilla for Christmas last year. And as I continue to pull out bottles of homemade vanilla for our own use. Mmmmmm…it’s so delicious!

I know it’s a little bit early to be thinking about Christmas. Never mind – it’s never to early to be thinking about Christmas gifts. Starting now and planning ahead can save a lot of money. That’s why I’m writing this little post.

It takes six months to make good, strong homemade vanilla. If you’d like to give homemade vanilla to family and friends this Christmas…you’ll need to purchase vanilla beans and start making your vanilla soon! If you get all of your supplies in order now and get the vanilla started in June, you’ll be all set for Christmas!

Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Read this post about how to make homemade vanilla. (By the way, making vanilla is so completely easy!)
  2. Order Vanilla Beans (You’ll find details on the amount of beans you need here.)  If you order vanilla beans through Olive Nation you will receive free shipping, PLUS if you use the code home you will receive 10% off your order! I’ve been very pleased with the beans I ordered through Olive Nation!
  3. Buy some cheap vodka. (You’re on your own with this one. Best wishes.)
  4. Get ahold of a big jar to make your vanilla.
  5. Get your vanilla beans and put into your vodka (as directed here) to start extracting.

Then…in the next few months, you can

  1. Start thinking about purchasing small bottles for your vanilla gifts.
  2. Look into these fun Vanilla Recipe Cards to add to your gifts.
  3. Check out these pretty labels! They are customizable, and come in a variety of designs.
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One Pig, One Puppy, One Goat…and a Cowboy?

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I’m not sure if you sensed all my stress with coming up with costumes for my four boys for The Three Little Pigs musical they were in last week. (The people living near me did!)  I felt absolutely confident about planning for all of the refreshment for after the musical…and absolutely NOT confident about creating costumes for a musical. Thankfully, we had an awesome director and I had some awesome friends who helped me out. 

All of the characters were a different kind of animal. All the kids (except for the three little pigs and the very adorable big bad wolf) were able to chose which animal they wanted to be.

Elias decided to be a doggy. My friend Kim enlisted the help of her mom on this one. 

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It seems that she took a fuzzy gray zip up jacket with a hood…cut the arms to fit and created some ears. Then, we just put him in black pants and black gloves. Ooh, and we used some black sticky felt for spots. Ta-da! We have a doggy.

Look out, now he looks hungry! (What’s new?)

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Asa chose to be a goat, which was such a fun choice for an almost 13 year old! He was the fella who sold bricks to the third little pig.

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We put him in old farmer clothes and found some junky suspenders at Goodwill. The director added horns to an old hat and created a goat-ee out of yarn. He was a hoot!

Justus was the third little pig. He was to play the “smart pig” who kept a notebook and pencil in his pocket so that he could stay organized. :)

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In order to look the part of the smart, sophisticated pig…Justus wore dress pants, a dress shirt and suspenders. His director made his ears out of the corners of an old pillowcase. Adorable!

Oh, and take a look at the tail the director made…

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Not to be outdone…even though he decided he just didn’t want to be in the performance this year…Malachi dressed for the occasion in his usual cowboy garb. After all, you never know when it might come in handy to have a cowboy around when a big bad wolf comes to blow down your house.

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You’ve gotta love a cowboy in a soccer shirt.

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And here they are all together. Yep, they’re characters alright!

Once the costumes all came together, I had to wonder why I was so worried. Everything always comes together when people work together!

It’s a concept I would do well to remember…

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Make Your Own Frozen Hashbrowns

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It’s remarkably easy to make your own frozen hashbrowns!

Homemade_Frozen_Hashbrowns

Yum

I’ve always had a hard time making good homemade hashbrowns. When my friend Brenda shared this little trick with me…I gave it a try and it WORKS!

Not only does this make delicious homemade hashbrowns, it is a great way to use up an abundance of potatoes before they start sprouting. Remember how I got 50 pounds for such a good price last week? I plan on putting up several pounds of them into the freezer in hashbrown form. That way, I’ve preserved some of my good organic potatoes, plus I’ve got EASY hashbrowns ready to pull out and cook up for breakfast or dinner anytime I need them!

Oh, and can you say “inexpensive”? Yes, I thought you could. These hashbrowns are so inexpensive, especially when you’ve taken advantage of a good deal on potatoes. So let’s get started, shall we?

How to Make Frozen Hashbrowns

First, scrub your potatoes…as many as you want.

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Bake the potatoes. I avoid using aluminum foil if at all possible in baking, so I always just place my scrubbed potatoes into a covered dish and bake them for about 1 1/2 hours at 350°. Be sure to stab each potato with a knife before baking so you don’t have a massive potato explosion in your oven. Unless you want a massive potato explosion in your oven. Then feel free to leave them unstabbed.

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Allow your baked potatoes to cool. Peel the potatoes.

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Shred your potatoes with a cheese grater. They shred very easily because they are soft after baking.

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See how lovely?

At this point, you can either cook them, or freeze them. To freeze them, lay them flat on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet into the freezer for a couple of hours or until the potatoes are frozen, then transfer them into freezer bags to cook up when you’re ready. Oh so convenient!

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I usually cook my hashbrowns in my electric skillet or in a cast iron skillet on the stove.
I use a generous amount of butter, because I love the flavor butter gives my taters.
I also use quite a bit of sea salt or onion salt.

If the hashbrowns are frozen, you can cook them the same way as if they were not frozen…it will just take a few more minutes.

Cook them on one side for 4-5 minutes, then turn. Try not to turn them too much so they don’t get mushy. Cook until the potatoes are golden brown and slightly crispy.

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Yum, yum, yum! Ever since I discovered this hashbrown making trick…we have the most delicious hashbrowns. Before, I had simply shredded a raw potato, then tried to fry it. I always ended up with a mushy mess. Blech.  The trick:  Bake the potatoes first. It works so well! PLUS, the baked potato does not turn brown and ugly like a raw potato does once you shred it.

You can use this same trick to make and freeze diced potatoes or potato chunks. Fry those up in butter and you’ve got some wonderful fried potatoes!

 

 

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Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

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I’m not sure if you are a chocolate lover like I am, but any recipe that has the words chocolate and chocolate written side by side makes me very happy and excited.

Chocolate_Chocolate_Chip_Muffins

My biggest hint on this recipe is to use sour cream instead of milk. (The recipe lists either one.) Sour cream makes these super moist.

This recipe is a definite family favorite. They taste amazing with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip MuffinsYum

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sucanat
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup melted coconut oil or butter
2/3 cup milk or sour cream
1 egg
1/4 cup chocolate chips (I recommend these organic chips without soy lecithin)

Stir together dry ingredients. Mix in coconut oil, milk and egg. Fold in chocolate chips. Scoop into 9-12 paper lined muffin tins. Bake at 400° for 20  minutes. Makes about 9 muffins. (I double the recipe for my family of six.)

5.0 from 1 reviews
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
 
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Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 9 muffins
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour
  • ⅓ cup sucanat
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ cup melted coconut oil or butter
  • ⅔ cup milk or sour cream
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Stir together dry ingredients.
  2. Mix in coconut oil, milk and egg.
  3. Fold in chocolate chips.
  4. Scoop into 9-12 paper lined muffin tins.
  5. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes.

If you have some good quality coconut oil, I highly recommend using it in this recipe. The coconut flavor with the chocolate is SO GOOD.

How about Chocolate Chip Bread?

Don’t mind if I do. Indeed, you can also make this recipe into a quick bread instead of muffins. Just spread the batter into a buttered loaf pan and bake at 350° for 50 minutes! Get all the details here.

chocolate_pumpkin_bread_2

 

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Which Ice Cream Maker?

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Since posting about The Ice Cream Experiment, I’ve had all kinds of comments and emails asking which Ice Cream Maker I would recommend. Thought I’d pop on real quickly and tell you about my favorite!

A couple of years ago when Matt and I were dabbling in the Shaved Ice and Homemade Ice Cream business, a friend told us that the BEST ice cream maker was the White Mountain Electric Ice Cream Maker.

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UPDATE!!

This post was written in 2010 and indeed, we did love our White Mountain Electric Ice Cream Maker. But today is July 2024 and I have better news – a new favorite. A friend gifted us with a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and oh my. It’s a million times easier to use, completely mess-free, and there’s no rock salt/ice involved.

Truly, get this one instead. It’s way cheaper too – bonus!

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We weren’t sure at first, mostly because the White Mountain Electric Ice Cream Maker is quite pricey compared to others we’d looked at (you know, like at Wal-mart).

But after checking into the White Mountain Electric Ice Cream Maker and seeing what a high quality machine it was, we decided to order it. Almost two years later, we couldn’t be more pleased with our purchase. This ice cream maker is like none other we’d ever used. We’d already gone through three cheap ice cream makers (the $25 makers you can get at the store). But our White Mountain? This baby is made to last, making it well worth the investment.

Our favorite part is that the can that you use to make the ice cream in is made of stainless steel. All others we’ve had were made of aluminum (which we now avoid, especially for dairy products). And…the motor/gear piece that turns the ice cream? It’s made of cast iron.

Yeah, the White Mountain is one heavy contraption. Did I mention the big tub is made of pine? It’s awesome.

The White Mountain people aren’t paying me to tell you all of this. I just love their product. Our ice cream is usually finished churning and ready to eat in about 25 minutes.

And now seriously, I am SO hungry for ice cream. I have GOT to get my hands on some cream.

I’d love for you all to let us know what your favorite ice cream maker is! Any great recommendations for us?

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Homemade Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafers

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We have become a household of the “eat it while you can because it won’t be around long, hurry they’re almost gone already” sort. That’s definitely how it was the day I first made homemade vanilla wafers. Now I double the recipe when I make these.

Homemade Whole Wheat Vanilla WafersYum

5.0 from 1 reviews
Homemade Whole Wheat Vanilla Wafers
 
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Ingredients
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup sucanat or brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (this is a great recipe to use with your homemade vanilla extract!!)
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground whole wheat flour made from hard white wheat)
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
  1. Cream butter and sucanat together. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder.
  2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scrape the dough into a pastry bag with a large, plain piping tip.
  3. Pipe nickel sized amounts of dough onto the parchment paper. (If you don't have the tools you need to "pipe" these onto your cookie sheet...I think just plopping tiny plops down with a spoon will work okay too.)
  4. If, after you are done piping dough, you have a big pan full of ugly, weird shaped blobs, you have done very, very well.
  5. Bake at 325° for five to fifteen minutes. (This is a broad range of time, but each oven is different. Check them after five minutes to see how they're doing!)
  6. Turn off the oven and let the cookies sit inside for a half hour or so to crisp up.

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See? The ugly blobs spread out while they bake and make nice circle shaped Vanilla Wafers that your children will devour before their daddy comes home.

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And two days later when their daddy hears about the homemade vanilla wafers he will say to you, “What? Vanilla wafers? You made vanilla wafers? I never saw any vanilla wafers.”

Or something like that.

I have got to remember to set some of these aside next time.
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Other snacks you might be interested in making:  Homemade Graham Crackers; Crispy Cheese Crackers; Chewy Granola Bars

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Making Homemade Chocolate Chips…In Detail

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I posted about making homemade chocolate chips a long time ago. Since that time, I’ve received several emails asking for more help and detail about how this works. It seems that many of you who tried the recipe are having trouble getting everything to melt and dissolve and mix like it should.

In light of your chocolate chip frustration…I decided to do a more thorough tutorial about how I make chocolate chips. The words Chocolate and frustration should never be in the same sentence together. Ever.

You can use coconut oil or butter to make your chips. I used butter this time because I’m almost out of coconut oil. Butter doesn’t quite work as well as coconut oil. They tend to be softer with butter…but still oh so good. Especially when you put them in these Chocolate Chip Brownies.

Here again is the recipe:

Homemade Chocolate ChipsYum

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup rapadura or sucanat (you can use white sugar if you want)
1 cup coconut oil or butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract  (homemade vanilla extract if you have it!)

Begin by placing the cocoa, sucanat and butter (or coconut oil) into a quart sized jar. 

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Fill a small saucepan with two or three inches of water. Place the jar into the saucepan/water. Turn the heat on medium/high to begin melting the butter.

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Stir often. After five minutes, my mixture looked like this:

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After ten minutes, my mixture looked like this:

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It took a total of thirteen minutes for the butter to completely melt. I then pulled it out of the water, added the vanilla and stirred well.

The mixture in my jar looked and smelled SO GOOD that I wanted to drink it. But I didn’t.  That would have made quite a mustache. 

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Pour the mixture into a 9×13 inch pan covered with parchment paper. Spread it as evenly as you can. 

As you can hopefully tell from the following picture, I still have a little sucanat that refused to completely dissove. Can you see the bits of chunkyness? That’s been one of the questions I’ve received from several of you. But…the little bits of chunkyness don’t hurt anything. My chocolate chips tasted just fine!

You like how the ceiling fan is reflecting in the chocolate? 
I’m just trying to show off my terrible photography skills.

Place your pan into the refrigerator for 1-2 hours so that the chocolate can harden. Remove it from the parchment paper and break it into chunks. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container (unless you and your family eat them all first).

Just a note:  These chocolate chips taste wonderful in Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies, but keep in mind that they are very pure and therefore tend to melt and get runny while baking. Chocolate Chip Cookies with homemade chocolate chips taste wonderful, but might look a little bit funny. No matter, ugly cookies taste good too. :)  I recommend eating these chocolate chips plain, mixed with peanuts or in trail mix, in Chocolate Chip Brownies or in Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins.

And now, I do believe I need to use my freshly made chocolate chips to bake brownies. After I eat some green beans and broccoli of course…

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Totally Tortillas Ebook

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totallytortillascover

Learn to make your very own homemade tortillas! Easy to make and even easier to eat with this e-book full of ways to serve your homemade tortillas. With so many great ideas for lunches and snacks, you’ll find you make these tortillas over and over!

Includes recipes such as:

  • Whole Wheat Tortilla recipe
  • Chicken or Steak Fajitas
  • Homemade Pizza Rolls
  • Tacos
  • Beef and Cheese Burritos
  • Dessert Tortillas
  • Tostadas
  • Homemade Tortilla Chips
  • Bean Dip
  • Calico Salsa with Chips
  • Taquitos
  • Quesadillas
  • Chicken Salad Wrap
  • Tuna Salad Wrap

Recipe DOES NOT require use of a tortilla press. A good old fashioned rolling pin (along with a little muscle) is all you need!

[wp_eStore_fancy1 id=15]

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High Five Recipes: Crispy Cheese Crackers

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High Five Recipes 2

Move over little gold fish. There’s a new cheese in town.

Heidi emailed me a couple of months ago asking if I had a good cheese cracker recipe. Well no, I said, but I sure do love me a recipe challenge! It took a bit of trial and error, but I finally figured out a recipe that not only tastes good, but is SO easy.

Who knew a cheese cracker recipe that would qualify as a High Five Recipe!! (Oh, but psst…we’re not counting the tablespoon of water in this recipe as an ingredient…because that would mean there are technically six ingredients in this cracker. I really wanted to make this a High Five Recipe and it just would not work without a bit of water. Just sprinkle it in and look the other way.)

Crispy Cheese CrackersYum

¼  cup butter, softened
¼ t. sea salt
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, room temperature
1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ t. baking powder
1 T. cold water

Use beaters or food processor to mix butter and salt until creamy. Add cheese. Mix well. Gradually add flour, baking powder and water, mixing until dough begins to form a ball. Form dough into a ball with hands.

Roll the dough into 1/8 inch thickness onto a cookie sheet. (I find that placing the dough between two pieces of parchment paper helps me to roll them out more easily.)  Cut the rolled out dough into 1 ½ inch squares. Bake 15 minutes at 350° or until lightly browned. Turn off the oven and leave the crackers inside to crisp up. Store tightly covered.

That’s all there is to it! I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that my kids will eat the entire pan of these (before Matt and I get some) in one ten minute time frame. They LOVE these! So much for trying to make a snack to “have on hand”. Guess I oughta double the recipe, huh?

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Awesome Easy Tomato Soup

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Homemade Tomato Soup

It’s almost that time of year again… The time when we can warm up at lunch with a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup!

I LOVE this recipe that was given to me by my friend Anne…who got it from her friend Anne. (Yeah, like that’s not ever confusing.)  Along with canning lots of tomato sauce and tomato juice and salsa, I love canning several jars of Anne’s tomato soup for the winter! (Wait, which Anne is that?)

Most of the tomato soup you’ll find at the store will have high fructose corn syrup or sugar in it…

This recipe has no sugar…which is amazing because it tastes so yummy and sweet! Once when Matt was eating some, he asked at least three times, “This really doesn’t have any sugar in it?” :)

Homemade Tomato SoupYum

5 pounds chopped tomatoes
1 cup chopped onion
3 Tablespoon butter
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Put everything in a big pot and cook it for about 3 hours. Then, put it into your blender and blend until smooth. Freeze it, or can it following these canning methods (25 minutes in the water bath).

I love having recipes like this that are so simple to make and healthy for my family!

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