I received an email from Jim, a reader who had purchased a Bosch Universal Plus. He had questions about my Whole Wheat Bread Recipe. He asked what type of yeast I use and where I purchase dough enhancer. I thought these questions might be of interest to others.
The most economical place in our area to purchase yeast is Sam’s Club. It is the Fleischmann’s Instant Yeast and costs $4.68 for 2 – 16oz bags. Once opened, I transfer the yeast from the bag to an airtight container and place it in the refrigerator. It lasts for a long time!
While you may purchase dough enhancer, the most economical is the following homemade recipe:
Dough Enhancer
3/4c. lecithin powder or granules (available from health food stores)
3 Tbsp. pure vitamin C powder
2 Tbsp. ground ginger
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container.
Use 3 Tbsp. of dough enhancer for a 4 loaf recipe. Adjust the amount when making more or less loaves.
In Good Girls don’t have to Dress Bad, Shari Braendel gives a style guide for every woman. Shari helps you determine important issues from your body type and dressing accordingly, to the colors which best compliment your skin, hair and eye colors.
What does it matter how I dress? As Christians, we should make sure our dress reflects who we are – a child of God, created in His image. The way we dress our temple says something about our character. Certainly, our inner beauty and character are the result of our relationship with the Lord, but He even addresses outward attire. The Proverbs 31 woman is clothed in fine linen and purple. It boils down to the fact that we are the Lord’s representatives on this earth. There is definitely a balance here. To quote from Shari,
“If your idea of beauty is based upon what we put on, rather than our relationship with the Creator of beauty, we’ve got a problem …. When we feel precious , redeemed and loved by our Saviour, we won’t need to impress with ostentatious clothing, jewelry or handbags. Instead, we’ll find an appropriate way to dress to reflect what’s going on inside us.”
Does your appearance reflect who you are on the inside? Shari offers a free color analysis to help determine which colors enhance your natural beauty. She also has a wardrobe plan list to help you build your wardrobe with mix and match items. The goal is to have your wardrobe filled with only the items that you like, which fit you well and in colors flattering to you.
I am not a clothes horse (and NO, you may not ask my husband’s opinion on this!) ) but I am a sucker for a “deal”. Therefore, I, and I suspect many of you, have a lot of clothes that you neither like nor feel good in. So, even though many of my clothes have been good deals, they really are not, because, they sit in my closet.
Good Girls don’t have to Dress Bad is a book every Christian woman should read. Shari is both encouraging spiritually and practically. I am having my daughters read it and we are discussing it chapter by chapter. After all, it is a mother’s responsibility to teach their daughters how to dress modestly and in a way which is becoming.
How does this book help you financially? Now, you will shop with a purpose. You can go shopping with the wardrobe plan list as an inventory of what you have and what you need. Armed with your most flattering colors (you may purchase color swatches after taking the color analysis) and knowledge of the styles best suited for your body type. You do not need to make impulsive, unnecessary purchases!
Shari is part of the Proverbs 31 ministry and has become one of the most sought-after Christian speakers across the nation. A fabulously fun fashionista, she is the host of the popular What to Wear Christian Women’s Conference and conducts fashion shows on modesty for teen girls. She also has an encouraging blog, A Beautiful Place, which I encourage you to visit.
I am in no way affiliated with Shari Braendel. She does know who I am because we have emailed – she is such an encourager! You may purchase Good Girls don’t have to Dress Bad online or at your local bookstore. I purchased mine through amazon using Swagbucks, so, there was no money out of pocket!
I just love having fresh flowers on our dining table. What I don’t love? The price!
Roses and especially yellow ones are my absolute favorite. When living in Alabama, I had several rose bushes including yellow ones. Unfortunately, the humidity made spraying for insects and mildews mandatory. I was not always consistent with spraying, so, while we had some roses, I finally decided they were too much trouble.
My answer: Zinnias.
Zinnias are a flower which grow with very little care and the more you cut the blooms, the more they bloom. And, they will keep blooming until the freeze kills them. What more could you ask for in a flower? They also come in many colors including yellow, red and orange. I have found that the seeds from Wal-mart grow just as well as those from more expensive nurseries.
If you like fresh flowers and do not have a green thumb, give zinnias a try. They really are an underrated flower.
My birthday is right around the corner, so, when my husband asked me what I wanted, I was not sure. Later for supper, I was scrambling eggs and thought that I would really like a big cast iron skillet. My largest skillet, which once had been a Teflon coated one, was now quickly becoming a tefl-off pan! When I mentioned it, he suggested that I check online for sizes and prices.
Now, when we have scrambled eggs, I use at least 20 eggs and a cup of milk not to mention the onions, peppers and whatever else strikes my fancy. I need a big skillet! It did not take long to find my dream! A 17″ beauty with loop handles. It is made by Lodge Logic and is pre-seasoned. Now taking out my ruler, I checked our stove to make sure it could handle such a skillet. It could!
The drawback was the skillet cost $69.00. Then, I had a revelation – why not check amazon.com, after all, I had redeemed my Swagbucks for amazon giftcards. What else would I use them for? Sure enough, they had it and it qualified for free shipping. I could get the skillet I wanted, without having to pay any money out of pocket. I ordered it and it was in in my greedy hands in 2 days!
Needless to say, I started using it immediately and love it! This may seem funny to some, to get so excited about a skillet I mean. But, after all, it is the little things in life isn’t it?
Well, I have my skillet. Now, I wonder what John is going to get me for my birthday?
While many people have been harvesting from their gardens for a while now, ours is just beginning. Yes, I have missed fresh squash, tomatoes, beans and … But, with all the vineyard work, I am thankful to have a “late” garden!
We have harvested enough zucchini and yellow squash for vegetable enchiladas – Mmmm! The beans and peas are just about ready to pick. We have bell peppers that I used in scrambled eggs yesterday. The tomatoes, well, they are growing and in addition to a couple of tiny tomatoes, have quite a lot of blooms. We put up a trellis fence for the tomatoes and as they grow we will tape them (with the vineyard tapers) to the fence. There is just nothing like fresh garden produce!
I fertilized yesterday and thankfully we got a rain shower last night! John used seven dust on the corn which is just beginning to tassel. Have you ever shucked wormy corn? If so, you will appreciate the value of seven dust.
Since I desire every area of our lives to feel and look homey, I even decorated the garden. Look closely and you can see my pink flamingos – I think every garden should have at least two! I must confess, I had been coveting them at a local store. Since finances were tight, I did not think it prudent to spend money on them. Besides, how would I explain their appearance? I did not think anyone here would buy the lie that they flew in – they are pretty smart and everyone knows that pink flamingos don’t normally fly through the west Texas area!
Do you know where pink flamingos live? Well, I did not so I had to look them up on Wikipedia. The four American flamingo species live in the Caribbean, South America and the Galapagos islands (off the west coast of South America). Other species live in Asia, India, S. Europe. But, my pair is an American variety made of plastic. A sister-in-law saved me from my coveting- she visited and as her gift, she brought a pair. Thank you, Joan!
You know the saying, “All work and no play makes Jack (in this case, John) a dull boy.”
Well, I can’t have that! So, below is the picture of a very happy man. Why? – you might wonder. Not only is he making his own beer, but he is making it using the rye that we grew and had a neighbor harvest! In “Harvesting Rye” I posted pictures and gave details of the planting and harvesting.
He has just made homemade beer even more economical – that is why he is so smiley! (He calculates it to cost less than $14 for the ingredients needed for a 10 gal. batch. Add < $1 for cleaning, propane and water and it is still less than 15 ¢/ 12 oz bottle – his time is free.)
Their are several ways to make your own beer. The easiest is to start by peeling the label off a bottle from the store and call it your own, and it would be, unless you stole it! Otherwise, you can get a kit online or at a local beer/wine making shop. These kits can be simply just mixing and bottling or actually cooking some of ingredients. John’s favorite way now is to start with the malt and grain. Sometimes he roasts the barley malt (to enhance the caramel flavor) and then grinds it by hand (with the help of the younger fellows). The malt is slowly cooked (mashed) to convert the insoluble starch to sugars. The liquid is filtered off and then sanitized by boiling (this also cooks off some bad flavors). The cooled liquid, now called wort, is transferred to glass carboys (on the counter with the blue funnel) where yeast is added. (Up to here usually only takes him 1/2 a day.) The yeast will ferment some of the sugar to alcohol over the next few weeks. Finally, the green beer (translate “young” – it is not literally green!) is decanted from the yeast cake and bottled with a little more corn sugar added to generate carbonation in the bottle. (The proceeding explanation was written by my ghost writer, former chemist husband.)
I did not acquire the taste for beer until we lived in Germany. “Das Schwartze” was a dark German beer that appealed to me. John was not making beer at that time and it was not until we moved back to Alabama that he began. He has made some very good ones. My personal favorite is a type of Belgian Wheat which has orange peel and coriander in it. It is always a waiting game to see how it tastes once bottled and allowed to sit for the carbonation to develop.
I love freebies with coupons but making money with them is even better! My first stop was Target.
I spent $4.44 for everything pictured and saved $95.98!
I purchased:
39 – Tide 2x Ultra Travel Size (1 Load) $0.97
54 - Olay Body Bar Single Travel Size $0.97
14 – Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate or Fudge Brownie Mix $0.77
Coupons used were:
39 – Tide $1/1 coupon from the 7/4 PG (exp. 7-31-10) **Did not exclude travel size.
54 – Olay $1/1 coupon from the 7/4 PG (exp. 7-31-10) **Did not exclude travel size.
7 - Betty Crocker Brownie Mix $0.75/2 coupon exp. (8/21/10)
Unlike WalMart, Target does not give overage on coupons. So the $1/1 coupons were reduced to $0.97. I was pleased to find out that their registers now do this automatically. I visited two different Target to find everything.
My next stop was Office Depot. This was a moneymaker!
I spent $17.94 and purchased:
1 – Swingline Light Touch stapler $13.99 (Mail in Rebate $13.99)
2 – Office Depot Multi Purpose Paper $6.29 each (Mail in Rebate $5.29 each in Visa prepaid cards)
I will submit for the MIR on the stapler and paper, plus, Office Depot emailed me a $10/$25 coupon which I used. So after spending $17.94, I will receive $24.57 back – this was a $6.63 moneymaker!
My last stop was CVS. 
Here I purchased: 2 – Complete Multi Purpose Solution (12 oz) $7.99 = $7.99 ECB
2 – Biotrue Multi Purpose Solution (2 oz) $2.99 = $2.99 ECB
I paid for these with ECB’s I had earned on a previous trip so my out of pocket expense was $0.00! If you are not familiar with the Extra Care Bucks (ECB) program at CVS, you might want to check it out HERE – I have saved a bundle with it!
Save 80% Off Restaurant.com $25 Gift Cert
Use code: FLAG
Pay $2
Valid 5/31/10.
Restaurant.com offers deep discounts by partnering with many restaurants across the country. These are certificates to help your dollars go farther! Just like stores, restaurants want your business.
I have bought them and they really are legitimate deals!
So, if you have a favorite restaurant or there is a new one you have been wanting to try, now may be the time! Just click on the link above, type in your zip code to see the participating restaurants in your area and purchase the desired certificates. Once purchased you are able to print and use immediately!
***These are great for a date night!***
The garden is officially planted and it was definitely a family affair! It took us several hours on Sunday afternoon to complete but I am so excited to have it finished.
The garden spot is in the middle of the rye which has been planted as a cover crop – to hold the soil from blowing and to prevent the soil from washing. A while back, John laid irrigation drip tape (underground) where we wanted the rows to be. Last week a friend shredded the rye for us so, all that was left was to prepare the rows. First, using a tractor, John broke the rows which are 200 ft long.
We then smoothed the rows with rakes and made furrows. For the beans, peas and corn, we planted double rows – one on either side of the drip tape.
The tomatoes, squashes (summer yellow, zucchini, butternut and pumpkins) peppers (bell and jalapeños), cucumbers, watermelons and cantaloupes were planted in single rows. I will be adding some more tomato plants as well as some zinnias (they make such pretty cut flowers for the table and are so easy to grow!).
We have had a lot of rain this year so far and the ground is still quite moist. To help the seeds get started, we placed a soaker hose in the row to add more water. Now, we pray, wait and watch!
Below is a picture of the finished garden. You might wonder why we have all the buckets and milk cartons out in the garden. They are used to protect young plants from the west Texas wind! The buckets are protecting the peppers and eggplants. They will be left on for the duration of the summer. The milk cartons (blue) are protecting the tomato plants. Once we put up the trellising and the plants reach it and are taped to it for support, we will remove the cartons. 
Irregular Apron Sale – $12.99, while supplies last .
No one is perfect. Sometimes people make mistakes. Now, while supplies last, you can benefit from Flirty Aprons irregulars!
Flirty aprons go through rigorous quality inspection – most flaws are minimal and difficult to notice. Some common irregularities include: restitching, loose seams & pockets, and minor print flaws.
Hurry! – $12.99, while supplies last.
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Grab My Dime! 
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About Me 
God has amazingly blessed me, Dina-Marie, with a wonderful husband and 10 beautiful children. Moving from our "secure" life in Alabama to the "exciting" life of starting a vineyard in west Texas has been challenging to say the least. I have had the opportunity to take a crash course in frugal living and become a real farm girl - complete with milk cow and chickens. I have learned the importance of health from the inside out, "traditional" cooking and cod liver oil!
I hope to encourage you to make the most of where you are and what you have. |
