Midgilist

It is a little known secret that at work, my nickname is Midge.  It is an inside joke because I had a vendor call me from another country and ask for “Midgin.”  Lucky for me, it was one of the sales reps that took the call and the nickname has stuck ever since. (Please note the sarcasm.)

My coworkers think I am absolutely crazy for all of the things we do in our family.  I have been told by a friend that he is creating a new term for people like me and it is called Midgilists.  What kind of person is a Midgilist?  Someone who goes above and beyond to find ways to do everyday tasks for little or no money.  He is pretty much telling me that I’m cheaper than cheap.

I asked him why he felt this way, and he fired back with about a dozen of the following things I have done over the years.  When I thought about it, I added to his list just to give you an idea what a Midgilist does:

• Raise chickens for eggs
• Raise chickens for meat
• Going no ‘poo
• Researching (and still considering) bamboo as a renewable heat source
• Research solar panels and windmills (and ways to make them ourselves for less!)
• Grow a garden
• Cut our own hair
• I touch up my roots using hydrogen peroxide (for pennies a month)
• Plant perennial fruits, vegetables and herbs
• Crochet some of my own sweaters
• Create a chicken garden to help cut the costs of chicken feed
• Breed mealworms as a food source for our chickens
• Harvest mealworm poop to fertilize the garden areas (a new infatuation of mine)
• Make homemade vanilla
• Brew our own beer/wine
• Can the overabundance of apples
• Make homemade jams
• Freeze vegetables to consume throughout the winter
• Make our own soap
• Convert our vehicle (Kia Rondo) into a mini-camper
• Do our own oil changes and car maintenance
• Home improvements using recycled materials
• Cancelling the satellite and installing an antenna instead (we get over 30 channels now, by the way!)
• Homemade laundry detergent (a new recipe for our HE )
• Homemade dishwasher detergent (another new recipe)

…and the list keeps going on and on.  Until I sat down and thought about all of these things, I completely forgot we do most of them!  We do these tasks on such a regular basis that it is second-nature to us and we don’t feel it is really out of the ordinary.

There are some people who are preppers and others are survivalists…but I’m a Midgilist and I’m OK with that.  I am proud to be thrifty and willing to put some elbow-grease into whatever we do to help save money and become self-sufficient.  There is much more we could do to improve on our Midgilism in the upcoming years.

Until then, may the Midgilists unite!

(I know there are a few of you out there. J)

This post is lined to the Farm Girl Blog Fest.

 

Christmas is Around the Corner!

Christmas is just around the corner, and the little elves have been working quite a bit around here to prepare for the upcoming holiday.  This is what they have completed:

62 bottles of homemade wine (2 different flavors)

13 large bottles of homemade strawberry margaritas

52 bottles of homemade microbrew beer

Jars of applesauce & applie pie in a jar

Coming up in production:

Jam

Apple Butter
Crafts

How are you preparing for the Holidays?

Recipe: Apple Cake

This recipe is one that I got from a dear friend of mine.  With apples in season, this cake is a no-brainer.  It is so easy to make yet so delicious.
Apple Cake

Ingredients:
1 3/4 Cup sugar
3/4 Cup vegetable oil (or applesauce)
4 eggs
2 Cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
4-6 apples peeled & sliced

Directions:
Mix sugar, oil and eggs.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.
Stir in apples. (I put so many apples that there is barely any batter, and it turns out great every time!)

Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Recipe: Apple Crisp

I got this recipe last year from Feathers in Our Nest last year and I've made it at least 10 times!  Everyone seems to like it when I make it, so I thought I'd share the recipe.

Ingredients:

4-6 apples
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp bakeing powder
2 Tbsp butter
1 egg
Cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Core/Peel 4-6 apples and spread out in an greased baking dish

Mix together sugar, flour and baking powder

Cut in the butter and add the beaten egg

Mix well

Spread over the apples

Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmet (optional)

Bake for 30-40 minutes

 It really is that simple!  And it tastes so good!!

This post is linked up with Mama Dani's Flutter By Blog Hop, the Barnyard Blog Hop and Homemaker By Choice's Week Long Blog Hop.

Recipe: Crockpot Applesauce

Last year was the first time I ever tried to make homemade applesauce.  I found a recipe online and couldnt believe how simple it was to make!  I will be making many many batches of this applesauce for our own consumption as well as to give away as gifts for the holidays. I will also be making apple butter using the applesauce made from this recipe.

Prepare your crockpot

Core and peel 10-20 apples (this is 20 apples)

Place apples into crockpot

Add 1 cup water, 1/2 cup or 1 cup sugar and cinnamon (optional)
(I used 1/2 cup sugar)

Let simmer all day and come home to this

Stir it up and you get chunky applesauce!

If the applesauce is too runny for your liking, let it simmer for an hour or two with the lid off and it will thicken up.

This post is linked up with Homemaker By Choice's Weeklong Blog Hop.

Apples Galore!

Around this time last year, Todd and I found an awesome vineyard and orchard in North East, PA that sold “deer apples” at $4.00 for a little more than a bushel.  Deer apples are apples that have fallen from the tree, but they aren’t necessarily bad.  Actually, the majority of the apples are perfectly fine, many without any blemishes at all!  When we got home, I was just dieing to find out how much the box of apples weighed, and they were 53 lbs.  Now that’s a good price on apples ($0.08/lb!)  I gave some away, made several batches of applesauce, apple pie filling, apple bread, apple dumplings, and we just ate the apples too.

This weekend, Todd and I made a special 2 hour road trip to pick up deer apples, take in the beautiful fall colors of changing leaves and explore the area a little bit.  I called the orchard ahead of time to make sure they had the apples available and to confirm the pricing.  The deer apples went up $1/box, but at $5/box, they are still a great deal!  We ended up picking up 3 cases.

When we got home, we weighed them as we did the year before, and this year, we have 135 lbs of apples.  You didn’t read that wrong.  One hundred thirty five pounds of apples!  This equates to $0.11/lb for apples this year.

This is what 135 lbs of apples looks like!

Over the next several weeks, I will be posting a lot of apple recipes that I am making as I peel and core the apples.  (Hopefully I will have time to post considering I have to get these apples peeled, cored and prepared before we leave for vacation in two weeks! Eek!)  I am looking forward to making several batches of crockpot applesauce (to give as gifts), apple butter (gift), apple cake, apple pie filling (gifts), apple crisp, apple chips, apple everything!

Around November 15^th of last year, I mentioned to Todd that I never wanted to see another apple again.  I had peeled and cored over 40 lbs of apples by hand.  This year, I have an applecorer and peeler that my mom got me for Christmas.  This should make it easier on me this year to be able to get these apples cored and peeled in “no time” (meaning a few weeks!)

The apple corer/peeler my mom got for me last Christmas.

If you have any awesome apple recipes, I’d love to try them out!  Please email me at sparingchange@gmail.com .