Katie’s Sweet Corn Bread

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I have never really been a fan of corn bread. Growing up I didn’t get what the big deal was about cornbread. It was ok, but not wonderful.

Until I met this Corn Bread

and I feel deeply, deeply in love.

I got this recipe from my good friend Katie, she has a blog, but it is private. So I am taking it upon myself to share this wonderful recipe (I hope it isn’t a family secret…).

It is seriously the best stuff, it will change your life, make your kids behave and your husband pick up his socks.

Yes, it is that good!

Here is our cast of characters:

1 cup cornmeal
2 cup flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup melted butter
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla


Mix all the dry ingredients, and give them a stir in the bowl.


Melt the butter and mix it with the wet ingredients.
Whisk it well.

Pour the wet into the dry


and stir it well

Pour it into a greased 9×13 pan

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

Check for doness (is that a word?) by sticking it with a fork or toothpick, it will come out clean if it is fully cooked.

Serve hot with butter and honey….good enough to be a dessert.


If I am feeling particularly frugal I will freeze half of it. It freezes really well.

You can also make muffins, this batter will make 24 muffins. I keep them in the freezer and put them in lunches or use them for after school snacks.

Cleaning products

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My friend Jen recently left this comment on my post about cutting back.

YOU GO GIRL! You are becoming a popular subject in my circle of close friends!! Love ya! I want recipes for your bread (please) and also for the cleaning supplies. Do you use the ones from familyhomestead.com or different! I don’t know if I can stray from Tide b/c of the hubby’s construction clothes- my homemade detergent didn’t do the trick- any ideas?!!!

I am very new at this making-my-own-cleaner thing. There are a few things I have been doing for a while that I am happy. I make my own scouring powder. I use it for tons of thing. I scrub my toilets and bath tubs and sinks with it.

I make my own carpet refresher and deodorizer. I put a few drops of essential oil in some Baking soda and sprinkle it over my carpets.

I use vinegar for many things. I put about a cup of white vinegar in to a sink full of hot water and some essential oils and that is what I use to clean my bathrooms and kitchen with and mop my floors. I got a big squirt bottle and filled it about half way with vinegar and the rest of the way with water and some drops of essential oil and that is what the kids use to clean the bathrooms with. They just spray the counter tops and toilet and wipe it off. No harsh chemicals, no fake fragrances or dyes, and if the baby get the bottle and decides to sample it…no worries!

I do this for hand soap.

The next few things I am going to be working on is: laundry soap, dish soap and glass cleaner. I finally ran out of glass cleaner this week, so when I do my shopping I will be picking up some rubbing alcohol so I can make this recipe.

I have been experimenting with dish soap. So far this is what I do: Sprinkle some borax and washing soda in a sink full of hot water, then add some flakes of my bar soap. (Yes I make my own soap…that is another post). I use that for the dishes that don’t go in the dishwasher, and to wipe off the counter tops after dinner. So far I have been loving the results. I am going to try melting down the soap and adding the borax and washing soda to the hot soap, then I am going to put it in an old dish soap bottle and use it that way….we will see….like I said I am still experimenting.

Laundry soap, haven’t tried that yet but I will be soon. I have read a lot of recipes and mostly they seem to be a mixture of borax, washing soda and soap. My friend Mrs Mordecai, has a good recipe here.

Soap for my dishwasher….I have been trying a few things and I am not happy with anything. I have this obsession with sparkling glass and I have been very unsatisfied with everything I have tried.

When I buy cleaning supplies I purchase only a few things: Borax, Washing Soda, Vinegar, Rubbing Alcohol and bleach. I don’t have 50 different bottles for 50 different things. There are no harsh dangerous chemicals (excepting the bleach, and it is used sparingly) I don’t have to worry about the kids helping me clean and everything is so cheap!

Please, if any of you have any other idea share them with us!

Garlic

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Yesterday afternoon was cool and cloudy
a perfect day for planting
Garlic

Dadzoo made this nice little planter box for me a couple of weeks ago, and I filled it with a mix of peat moss and some home grown compost.

Last spring I planted chives in a pot and sat it on my back porch, so I decided to re-plant them in the box with my garlic, I am hoping to have enough chives to dry next spring.


I punched little holes in the soil about 2 inches apart

I then pulled my garlic bulbs apart.
Planting garlic is really cheap, I just bought them at the grocery store.

I plunked those cloves in the holes and covered them up

As I was walking back into the house after planting my garlic I noticed the sky.
I was really hoping that my laundry would dry before the storm rolled in.

(At about 9:30 that night I did bring the laundry in before it started to rain, when it is only 60 degrees outside and cloudy all day the laundry doesn’t dry as quickly…I am thankful for my good ‘ol electric dryer!)

More Cutting

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Thank you all for your input and suggestions. I do a lot of what was suggested, and what I don’t do I will be soon!

This weekend Dadzoo and I have talked at length about ways to cut back. We are getting super serious, I am even considering (drum roll please) cutting off the DISH! This is a big thing for me, and it isn’t like we can just jump to an antenna, 7 years ago when we moved here you could even pick up local stations on the big fancy antenna we bought. So we just might be no TV. Which really wouldn’t be that bad. (Gulp)

I am quiting WW, that will save some pennies.

I am turning down the thermostat. We have plenty of blankets to huddle under at nights, and sweaters for the day. Unfortunately, we are on the yearly plan with out gas company, and that savings we won’t see until next year…I just have to keep the big picture in mind.

We are more mindful of our electricity use. Our yearly plan just adjusted, and it is 50$ more a month than last year! Ouch! I am turing off the lights, and so are the kids, we are making it a game of sorts. We just might need to get use to that more anyway, electricity may become a problem in the next few years. A few candle lit dinners and evenings might be fun.

I am going to go to a cash only system. When Dadzoo gets paid he is going to get cash for household expenses, that is what I will use for everything. When it is gone, it is gone. If there is extra left over it will go back into savings.

I am going to cut back (again) on groceries. I will be making all my cleaning products (much cheaper and healthier) and baking from scratch almost everything. That creates more work for me, but I am a home economist, that is what I do.

I hope this works out, I am praying that we can make this work and by this time next year we will have some significant debt paid off and will be on the way to our goal of self sufficiency.

Cutting Back

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Part of living a more self sufficient life is cutting back where one can. This is an area that I haven’t been so good on.

I can always find a really good reason to buy whatever it is I feel like I need at the time.

The problem with this is that in the 10 years I have been married I have spent more than my husband had brought in. I have not been a good home economist, or a good steward of the blessing we have been given. It is a burden, especially for my husband, and I feel so bad for my poor use of the things he had provided.

Looking at our finances I have come to the conclusion that we will be paying someone for the next 50 years (not including our house) at the rate we have been going, and that is just not going to work! How can we be self sufficient if all our extra money is going to pay for so many things, things that I can’t even tell you what they were in the first place!


I recently read an article that said the only true way to recession (or depression) proof yourself was to have some land that you can provide your own food and have no debt.

If my husband were to lose his job we would be in financial ruin in the space of 4 weeks. We have little savings and much debt. Not very recession proof.

Staring in January we are cutting back, way, way back. We need to bang out some debt. I don’t know all the ways we are going to do this, and I know it will mean a lot more work for me, but I am up to it. My husband makes a really good living and it saddens me that we can’t live the way we would like to because of it. I blame myself.

What things do you do to save on money?