Random Reuse: Tomato Can Stilts

As I've said on this blog before, I am HUGE fan of easy crafts. I guess that seems like a sort of obvious statement -- who doesn't like easy crafts?  In any case, I appreciate simple ideas that create simple fun.  This Random Reuse does just that.

A while back, I got an email from Ellen, one of the lovely readers of this blog, who told me about a simple craft of turning empty cans into kid-sized stilts. (By the way, if you ever have any great ideas you want to send my way, email me! My address is over in the sidebar.). This past week, I made some pasta sauce from a couple 28-oz. cans of tomatoes and just as I was about to toss them into the recycle bin, I remembered Ellen's idea.  So I washed them out and saved them.

The first step, of course, is to paint the cans. Granted, this isn't completely necessary, but it makes them more interesting (and it keeps kids busy for a little while).

Once the paint has dried, put a hole in each side of the can. At first, I was using a nail and a hammer to make the hole, but when that was taking longer than I wanted, I thought of using the end of a can opener (like when you poke holes in cans of evaporated or condensed milk) to make the holes. Super easy -- it only took a few seconds!

{In case you're wondering, belts on overalls isn't a new fashion trend.

The belt was purely out of necessity: it's kind of tricky to keep a lightsaber at the ready  without a belt to hold it!}

Thread some thick yarn, string, or twine through the holes and you're good to go! Max has gotten pretty good at (in his words) "walking like a Frankenstein" on them. A cheap and easy way to mix things up on a sunny afternoon!

{This post is linked to Your Green Resource -- check it out!}

In the Backyard: My Milk Jug Mini-Greenhouses

A little over a month ago I mentioned how I was cleaning and saving my family's empty milk and vinegar gallon-sized jugs for a seed-starting experiment. I was introduced to the idea of winter-sowing through the blog A Garden for the House, where he claimed that you didn't need to do much to start seeds. No special lights, no seed-starting kits required -- you didn't even need to keep them inside! Since I don't really have a space in my house to devote to seed starting (I guess there's one space that would have worked, but that spot had a chick brooder up until a couple weeks ago), I was instantly interested in trying this method out.

I'm so excited to be starting my own seeds, especially my tomato seeds. I've grown lots of things from seed but never tomatoes. I always just cop-out and buy the transplants after the last frost date. Even though the results are great and totally worth the expense ((mmmmm....homegrown tomatoes. Is there anything better? I'm dreaming about this recipe already.), it's not the most frugal way to grow a garden. For the same price as a single tomato plant at the nursery, I can get a packet of seeds and grow waaaay more tomatoes.  It's pretty much a frugal no-brainer. So why is this first year I'm actually starting my seeds? Simple answer: intimidation. Again, I thought I'd need all sorts of special equipment and fluorescent lighting rigged up.

Nope. To start seeds, you just need some seeds (obviously), some potting soil, duct tape and some gallon-size jugs. 

Although I highly suggest reading all about winter-sowing on the blog I mentioned previously, I'll just quickly run through how I went about creating my mini-greenhouses.

To start, I cut all the clean, empty jugs almost completely in half around the middle of the jug, only leaving a one-inch section uncut. This way the jug is still connected but also opens for easy access. The uncut part sort of acts like a hinge.

Next, I made about 15 holes in the bottom of the jug and a couple holes on each side of the jug (about an inch or so above the base).  This allows for proper drainage and ventilation. Speaking of ventilation, remove the caps from whatever jug you're going to be using.

Next, fill each mini-greenhouse with a few inches of potting soil, wet the soil thoroughly, and then plant the seeds. It's important to keep in mind the calendar when you're deciding what to plant. For instance, I wouldn't start tomato plants in these mini-greenhouses in February. That would be way too early. Instead, I waited until April (as you can see labeled on the jugs) to plant them. For a complete list of what to winter-sow and when, click here.

Once your seeds are planted, close the jug and seal it shut with some duct tape. Since it's windy where I live, I put my greenhouses in a plastic storage container to keep them from blowing away. Once the greenhouses are sealed, be sure to label what you've planted and when they were planted.

Then you wait. Occasionally check to see if the soil is too wet or dry. Sometimes I'll spray some water over the top of the greenhouses with the hose. Since you're keeping these outside, you'll also get moisture from rain and snow.

A few weeks after I planted the greenhouses, I was feeling pretty frustrated. The insides of each greenhouse showed no progress. Not even a single little sprout. I was so discouraged. The method had come so highly recommended! I was getting ready to plant again but then I saw them...

They were in my tomatillo greenhouse first: tiny little sprouts, as cute as can be, growing away despite the chilly nights outside.  Then the slicing tomato seeds started to sprout and then the San Marzano paste tomatoes. I was so excited! It actually worked!

It's been about a week or so since I took this picture. The sprouts have grown so much since then! They're actually starting to look like the transplants I used to buy at the store!  Every time I check them, there are more and more little plants emerging.

Our last frost date where I live is around Mother's Day, so I'm going to be putting them into the ground soon. I'm not going to lie -- I'm pretty nervous about transplanting my cute little seedlings.  At the same time, I still feel excited and optimistic about it, especially since, according to the blog I keep referencing, winter-sown plants are said to be more hardy than ones started indoors.  We shall see.

Hooray for experiments that actually work -- especially if they produce delicious and juicy tomatoes!

A Crumby Post about Two Crummy Loaves of Bread (or, Homemade Breadcrumb How-to)

Talking on the phone and putting a couple loaves of bread into the oven (while keeping a busy one-year-old away from said hot oven) at the same time doesn't work. At least not for me. Those two lovely loaves of bread that rose to the near-perfect height slipped from my hands and went crashing onto the open oven door.

The result were two loaves of weird-looking, very compact bread. I contemplated just throwing the loaves in the trash, a sort of cathartic act for my already frustrating day. Instead, I left them on the countertop, mashed and broken until the end of the day when I was ready to deal with them again.

When life gives you crummy bread, make breadcrumbs.

It seems a sort of postmodern thing to explain how to make breadcrumbs. No doubt my great-grandmother would have laughed at the idea of people buying pre-made breadcrumbs at the store. But I used to buy them. Regularly, in fact.

Making breadcrumbs yourself, though, is really the way to go. And you don't have to have full loaves of crappy-looking bread to make them. My mom taught me an easy tip that she has always used to homemade breadcrumbs: whenever she has bread that has gone stale (like old hamburger or hot dog buns) or whenever only the ends of the bread are left (my husband is the only person I know who actually likes eating a sandwich made from the ends of the bread), she keeps it in a bag in the freezer. Once she's got a good amount, she turns them into crumbs.

Here's how to do it:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Chop the bread into workable chunks -- not too big, but not too small (no need to dice them or anything). This step should only take like a minute or so. If you're using slices of bread or old buns, skip the chopping part and just rip them in half (or quarters, depending on the size).

Put the bread into a food processor and pulse until the crumbs are the size and uniformity you prefer. Some people use the grater attachment, but I prefer using the blade.

Spread the crumbs on an ungreased baking sheet (it doesn't have to be a single layer). I used two baking sheets, putting about a loaf's worth of crumbs on each.

Bake the breadcrumbs 20-25 minutes, checking on them every so often (like every 5-10 minutes). When you check, give them a quick stir around the baking sheet. The breadcrumbs are done baking when they're browned and dried. After I've taken them out of the oven, I like to run my hands over the breadcrumbs to check if they've all dried -- if you come across parts that still feel soft, pop the sheet back into the oven for a few minutes and keep an eye on it.

That's it: breadcrumbs for all your cooking/baking needs! If you want your crumbs to be even finer or more uniform (as you can see, mine vary in size), just run them through the food processor again. You can also season them at this point, too, if you like. I keep mine plain so they're more versatile.

I store mine (once they've cooled) in a plastic zipper bag in the freezer. They'll keep for a while in there, around six months or so.

And, with that, the frustration of failed loaves of bread are forgotten. All's well that ends well.

{This post is linked to Your Green Resource}

A Bee-utiful Way to Spend an Evening: My First Beekeeping Experience

Since I mentioned my joint beekeeping endeavor with my parents a few times on here, I thought I would share how our hive installation went!

After reviewing the notes from my beekeeping classes, reading the installation part of Keeping Bees a few times, and watching a bunch of YouTube bee installation videos (this one was the most helpful, in my opinion), my husband and I were ready to suit up and put our six-pounds of Italian honeybees into their hives.

Working with thousands of buzzing bees was quite the experience, definitely unlike anything I've ever done before. I actually documented the whole experience on my personal blog, but here are some tidbits.

"That's a lot of bees. If you look at the picture above (click on it to see better), you can see how I've got bees just hanging out on me. At point, my dad said, "You've got bees all over your pants!" (I'd worn black pants. I know. Smart. But if you watch the videos, lots of the bee experts just wear regular clothes and don't even wear gloves, so...yeah...I'm getting some light colored pants). Sure enough, I looked down and saw like ten bees (at least) on each of my legs. Of course, my first instinct was to start running around like a crazy person to get them off, but instead I made myself brush them off calmly. The weirdest was when they would buzz around my head. I had to remind myself not to swat them. A few landed right on the veil, right in front of my eyes and nose. Again, it was pretty strange to just let them buzz in my face like that. I just kept chiding them, saying "It's okay. I'm on your side, girls!"  (FYI: most bees you encounter are girls. They're the worker bees. The boy bees -- called drones -- don't even have a stinger.) I'm happy to report that neither one of us were stung (apparently, Italian bees are the most docile). Part of me wants to get stung so I can stop worrying about that first sting, you know?"

 And some thoughts about being a new beekeeper (a new-bee? ha ha).

"It's weird to feel this sense of ownership...no, that's not the right word...I guess responsibility for thousands of insects. In fact, I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and asked Kevin, in a half-awake stupor, if we'd put the queen's box in the right direction (we did). We're going back up to my parents' house today for my brother's birthday (happy birthday, Matt!) and I'm excited to check on them. I still feel a little nervous about the inspections (it's one thing to install them at their most docile, another to open up a busy hive that they'll want to protect), but I'm mostly just excited about it all. And the honey! I know it's only our first season and we'll probably not get as much, but it's going to be so cool to use honey from our hives and think of the small part we played in getting it."

To read my bee installation post in its entirety, check it out here.

Since I'm mentioning all of this on this blog, the question must be asked: Is beekeeping frugal? Only time will tell. There are definitely some start-up costs to this new endeavor. But honey at the store isn't cheap.  I imagine the honey we harvest will eventually make the hives pay for themselves. It all depends on how much honey we get. I'll keep you posted. Plus, from what I've heard, store-bought honey has nothing on the honey from your own hives. I can't wait to find out.

How I Reuse Dryer Lint for Camping, Emergency Preparedness, and Beekeeping

Yep, you read that right -- I reuse dryer lint.

It may be the most random reuse I've written about yet. It seems weird and even a little gross, I know. (I wonder what it is about dryer lint that's kind of gross. I mean, it's just little bits of our clothes, right?)  But don't worry, this reuse is nothing really outlandish, I promise. (Speaking of weird reuses, I couldn't help but think of this book, especially since there is a bit of cat hair in the dryer lint pictured above...)

As you probably know, dryer lint is really flammable, hence the need for regular cleaning of the lint catcher and dryer exhaust vent. Why not use that flammability to your advantage and make a fire-starter?

I first learned about this from a woman at church, who was teaching a class about emergency preparedness (it was the same class where we learned to make these emergency heaters). Too bad she moved out of our neighborhood -- she had so many useful ideas. Anyway, she showed us how to make fire-starters with dryer lint, a cardboard egg carton, and some melted wax.

To make the fire-starters, fill an egg carton with dryer lint, really packing the lint into each egg compartment.  Next, melt some wax. When we made these, we melted down nearly used-up candles in an old stockpot (all those scented candles created a pretty interesting combination) and also used some new, unscented wax from a craft store (nothing fancy, of course. It's for coating dryer lint, after all). Pour the wax all over the lint in each compartment, making sure the lint gets covered completely. The wax will soak through to the cardboard bottoms, so put something underneath it. Let the wax cool and harden. When you're ready to use one, simply tear off one of the egg compartments.

Here's the reason behind these fire-starters: they hold a flame while you're adding fuel to a fire. Often when building a fire, you'll go through a bunch of matches lighting and relighting the kindling in your fire as you wait to for the actual firewood to catch the flame. A gust of wind will often put out a fledgling flame, or too much firewood will smother it, or something like that. That's where the fire-starters come into play.

These fire-starters, once lit, will burn for several minutes, keeping your flame going strong until the fire starts burning the firewood. Using these dryer lint starters make building a good fire easier and less wasteful, making it great for camping and backpacking. In an emergency situation I imagine they would be not only good for the aforementioned reasons, but also as a way to conserve matches.

But what about beekeeping?

This Saturday we're getting two packages of bees for the hives we just purchased! It's a joint venture with my parents since we split the start-up costs and hives will be in their yard. In preparation for the installing of the packages and future inspections, Kevin and I decided to practice lighting and using the smoker beforehand. (PS -- Pay no attention to my horrible looking picnic table. It's getting a paint job soon!)

We decided to try one of the fire-starters in it. As intended, the fire-starter held the flame right away. We added some dry leaves, too, but not much.

It worked so well! Not only did it produce a bunch of smoke, but it was the cool, white smoke that is ideal for beekeeping, too. Using the lint starter alone might not give enough smoke depending on how long your inspection lasts, but it definitely seemed to work better than using paper or dry grass/leaves. When we use it our smoker, we'll probably use the fire-starter and then some fuel like burlap or green weeds. When I took my beekeeping class, the instructor said, half-jokingly, that lighting your smoker and getting it going can take longer than the inspection itself. With the lint starters, we had our smoker going full-force in less than a minute!

So, yeah, even dryer lint has a reuse. Keep an empty egg carton in your laundry room. Who knows? You might be glad you saved the stuff someday.

{This post is linked to Homestead Barn Hop and Your Green Resource}

Meatless Monday: Broccoli Calzones

It's been a while since I've done a Meatless Monday post. It's not because I ran out of recipes. The real reason is that, as silly as it sounds, I can never get good photos around dinnertime in the winter months. The days are just too short for natural light photography in the evening then. So, with the warmer weather, longer days, and the loveliness that is spring (my lilacs are starting to bloom!) comes the return of the Meatless Monday posts.

I thought a great way to bring it back would be with an old stand-by from our vegetarian days: broccoli calzones. I used to make these a lot, but I sort of stopped when my first child was nursing -- something about broccoli in my diet made him really gassy. So I just shelved the recipe and forgot about it. A couple weeks ago, I rediscovered it as I was organizing my recipes into a new binder. Soon after I found it, I made a batch of these for dinner and everyone in the family loved them. The old stand-by is definitely back in our dinner rotation!

The recipe for these calzones is adapted from yet another torn-out page of a magazine, this time from Everyday Food, probably from a 2004 or 2005 issue. I wish I could be more specific, but I can't tell from the ripped out pages. That's how I did things before Pinterest -- tore pages from magazines and stuck them in binders.

Anyway, on to the recipe!

Broccoli Calzones {Adapted from Everyday Food magazine}
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 package (around 10 ounces) frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 lb. of pizza dough (You can use any recipe or the store-bought dough, but the recipe I use for dough is beyond easy and fast. More on that later.)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Prepared pasta sauce (For serving. Not required, but definitely recommended.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

When I made these calzones years ago, I always used store-bought pizza dough because I didn't want to take the time to make it myself.  Now I make my own dough whenever pizza dough is called for in a recipe. The recipe I use is simple and so fast -- click here for the details and recipe.  I just made one batch of my homemade dough and that was all that I needed for this recipe.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it gets soft, just a few minutes. Add the broccoli, minced garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally for about five minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl to cool.

Next, you want to divide your pizza dough into equal pieces and then stretch them (and roll them out, if necessary) into ovals. I divided this batch into four pieces and then stretched and rolled them out into 6"x8" ovals which made some pretty big calzones (one is big enough to feed a hungry adult; half was enough for me). You can make these calzones as big or small as you want to fit your family's needs and appetites. You could use the 6"x8" dimensions as a starting point and experiment from the there. It's pretty versatile.

Once the broccoli mixture has cooled a bit, stir the three cheeses into the mix. Season with a generous amount of salt and pepper.

On each round, scoop the filling on one half of the oval and spread it a little. The amount to put on each oval varies depending on how big you have made your ovals. For these calzones, I did about a 1/2 cup of filling on each oval.

Take the side without the filling and fold it over. Pinch the edges together to seal the calzone shut. Cut a slit or two on top of each calzone and transfer the calzones to a lined baking sheet.

Bake them for about 25 minutes until they are golden-brown.

Serve with a side of pasta sauce for dipping. Both of my boys skipped the forks and ate their calzone halves out of their hands. Or you can do what I do and smother the whole top of it with the spaghetti sauce. So filling and so delicious (plus it's a good serving of broccoli) -- you won't even miss the meat in this meal!

Our New (and Healthier) Waffle Recipe

So I just splurged on got a new waffle iron (it's a Calphalon one -- fancy!) since my other one finally bit the dust. We had a good run, that old waffle iron and I, ever since I got it for Christmas during my freshman year of college back in 2000. (Yikes. Has it really been twelve years since then?). I made lots of waffles with it -- first for roommates, then for my husband, and then for my two kids. Farewell, trusty Sunbeam waffle maker. You served me well.

In any case, I'm loving my new waffle iron and I really like the recipe I've been using with it lately. Don't get me wrong, I still love my go-to recipe for buttermilk waffles, but I thought that a more health-conscious recipe might be better for weekday mornings. You know, one that doesn't have an entire stick of butter in it. Mmmmm....butter...

The recipe is adapted from a torn-out page from Taste of Home Healthy Cooking magazine.  I wasn't sure what month or issue to reference since I clipped it years ago, but I was able to find a link to the recipe on the magazine's site. Have to give credit where it's deserved, after all. So, here it is, the latest recipe in our breakfast repertoire:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 Tbsp. flaxseed meal
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs, separated
2 cups milk (I've  used1% and 2% with equally good results. The other day I added a little leftover buttermilk from my homemade butter. Yum!)
3 Tbsp. canola oil (I often use melted coconut oil instead.)
3 Tbsp. unsweetened applesauce

In a large bowl, mix the flours, flaxseed meal, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, combine the egg yolks, milk, oil, and applesauce. Mix into dry ingredients until just moistened.

Next, beat the eggs whites until stiff peaks form. In other words, here is your morning arm workout! 

It takes a little while to get those eggs stiff enough. You want to be able to lift a dollop of the whites out of the bowl and have it stick out at the end of the whisk, as pictured above. I've also used my KitchenAid for this step with the whisk attachment.

I always get a little nervous imparting kitchen terminology to you, so I consulted my cooking textbook, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking...

Yep. Stiff peaks achieved. I have not led you astray.

Fold the egg whites into the batter. The egg whites give the batter a nice airy texture, so don't stir too much.

Bake the waffles in a preheated waffle iron and follow the instructions in the owner's manual for the amount to pour and for the cooking duration. Cook them until they are golden brown.

Ahhhh...homemade waffles, complete with real maple syrup and butter. And they're healthy! But will the kids go for them?

Here's your proof. Both of my boys gobble them up!

Extra bonus?

They freeze just as well as my other waffle recipe. Just pop a couple frozen waffles in the toaster and they're ready to go for breakfast!

Enjoying a stack of waffles is a great way to start the day -- especially if they're healthy ones.

Note: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. 

{Linked to Your Green Resource}

The Chicken Tractor That Kevin Built

Boy, did I marry a good sport or what?

My husband, Kevin, has always been supportive (albeit a tad skeptical at times but always supportive) of all my frugal/homemaking/homesteading endeavors, but when I mentioned a couple years ago that I think it'd be so nice to have our own little flock of backyard chickens, he put on the brakes.  For a period of his childhood, his family had several chickens. Turns out, he kind of told himself at the time that when he grew up, he would never get chickens. To him, they were messy and not worth the trouble. I can just see in my mind's eye my husband as a cute, spunky kid, cleaning up chicken poop and making a secret vow that things would be different when he was grown-up, feeling some sort of justice in that knowledge. I think it's kind of a cute thought. That thought also makes me feel a little guilty since I talked him into breaking that vow.  

But don't worry -- we made a deal. If he built our chicken tractor (basically a mobile house and run), I would do all the chicken chores (which is cool with me -- that was my plan all along). Oh, and I have to play an entire video game by myself (my husband just happens to be a video game artist by day and a video game enthusiast 24/7). It's probably going to be Portal 2 or one of the Uncharted games. 

Anyway, our little chicks have turned into awkward teenagers and it's about time for them to upgrade to their bigger home outside. The chicken tractor turned out marvelously, so I thought I'd share how it went.

We looked at a bunch of different ideas for a chicken coop online and decided that we wanted to go with a mobile coop and run instead of a permanent coop. We looked at various designs and plans, even some prefabricated coops and runs, but we just kept coming back to the chicken tractor (complete with detailed building plans) in Ashley English's Keeping Chickens. 

So one weeknight Kevin and the boys headed to the Home Depot with the supply list, and the building began the following Saturday. The supply list is great because it tells you, down the last little washer and screw, exactly what you need and what it is used for in the project. We found everything at our local hardware stores (Kevin went to Home Depot one day, I went to Lowe's another to pick up a few more items).  

I'm no builder. I mean, I feel proud when I put something from IKEA together. So, glancing at the plans didn't really mean much to me. However, as Kevin read and worked through the instructions, he kept commenting on how they were easy to follow.  Our son, Max, was also inspired by the plans and made his own set to follow.

Here are a few snapshots of the building process, spread over a couple Saturdays...

This is the interior of the hen house, complete with a perch for roosting and a nesting box. Also, that's me making a cameo in the top-right corner, working on the mini-greenhouses I mentioned a couple posts ago (I SO hope they work...).

Almost finished -- just needs some paint and roofing.

Kevin decided on spray paint for this project -- and in my favorite color, no less!  A couple days later, he did the roof with some leftover shingles we had (that we bought a few years ago after a wind storm ripped a few of ours off).

And...

It was ready for the chickens!

We put the girls in their new place and almost immediately they started looking around and scratching in the grass.

And the pecking order squabbles began shortly thereafter. So silly.

I couldn't be more pleased with the way the chicken tractor turned out. The plans alone are worth buying the book for, especially since some plans for similar tractors cost more than the whole book! (That said, the book is totally worth getting whether you make the tractor or not --  it's such a wonderful guide.) I love the mobile housing for our little flock because the chickens will also fertilize the lawn.  It's been a lot of fun watching them busily scratch and search through the grass already and I think they're going to be a great addition to our backyard! Now we just have to wait a few months to start collecting those eggs.

Looks like I've got some video gaming to do now.

Note: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. 

- This post is linked up with Homestead Barn Hop. Check it out -- lots of great ideas!--