Savings, Silk Moths and Miniature Gingerbread Houses

I mentioned a while back that I was putting aside all the 20 cent pieces that came across my way.  I filled up a tin with all those 20 cent pieces, and it came to $50.  To impress my children, I stacked them in dollar piles so they could see just how much it looks like.  Pretty awesome!

At the beginning of December we had silk moths hatching.  They're so pretty after they have dried out.  This is a male moth.  They're slimmer than the females (who can hardly move because they're so full of eggs).  Silk moths don't have mouths, and therefore don't eat anything.  They have one thing on their mind, and that's to create more fertile eggs.  They have also been so inbred that there are no silk moths in the world that can actually fly.  They just flap their wings around a little and make lots of noise.

This was a week later.  More silk moths had hatched.  You can see the big female ones on the bottom of the container, and the male moths clinging more to the sides.  The little yellow 'dots' are the eggs when they are first laid.  If they are fertile, they turn black as the little silk worms start to grow inside them. 

It has been a very mild summer, so the eggs are now overdue to hatch.  I wanted to let this lot cycle through one more time, then when they started laying, I'll put the eggs in a snap lock bag and into the door of my freezer.  It freezes over in Japan (where they originate from), and so it seems like home to the silk worms.  I bring them out as soon as the buds appear on my mulberry tree.  *Fingers crossed* that this lot of eggs will actually hatch!

And how more random can you get in this post, but to include a miniature Gingerbread House :D  It's not exactly a masterpiece, but I think it's cute enough.  This was one the family got to demolish.  I have a sweet gingerbread men recipe that I use, and one year I printed out the instructions to a gingerbread house, decided not to enlarge it but create it as is by tracing out the layout onto baking paper.  It works well enough for me.

We also made one for my son's teacher.  They do make very cute gifts, placed on a silver board and wrapped in cellophane.

Week 50 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 Plan
Store 4 cans corn and/or peas

$20 Plan
Store 8 cans corn and/or peas

You could store just corn, or just peas, or I think you can get a combination of the two.  I mostly store corn (due to my dislike of the gross little green things), but I will store some for the rest of my family who do actually eat them.

You can add them to savoury mince, heat and serve with carrots, cook them in fritters, use them up in chicken and corn soup or ham and pea soup.  There are endless possibilities.

If you don't like storing these veggies, store something else that you could eat.  If you are worried about using canned products, hunt around and see if you can get product in glass jars.

December Monthly Challenge

Have you got spare buttons, thread and enough cloth to make some simple cloths if necessary?  Teach your children how to sew on a button.

And just on the funny side of buttons - my Grandfather calls a button a "buttoff" if it has fallen off, and needs to be resewn.  Oh he is hilarious!

Week 49 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

Hmmm so my Blog seems to have a mind of its own.  When I set posts to be published at a certain time, it likes to be precious.  Dear Blog...just behave, will you! *winks*

Anyways, here's the details for Week 49:-

$10 Challenge
Store 2 large cans baked beans

$20 Challenge
Store 4 large cans baked beans

The bigger the can, the better for these challenges.  You can use the opened and rinsed out can as a camp cooker.  They're quite handy!

Of course if you don't like baked beans (I'm a disliker ;D), you can always store something else.

I'd prefer spaghetti, so I store that, but I have a husband and son who will quite happily eat baked beans.  Typical.

Garden goings on

What kind of things are you growing in your garden?  I'm not a brilliant gardener, but I'm learning on the job ;D.

 This is a zucchini I picked last week.  I had to self pollinate, which involved picking the petals off a male flower "He loves me, he loves me not..." (hehehe), and using the stamen as a paintbrush on a female flower.  So much easier than having to use a cotton bud.  This zucchini only took a week to grow.  It was used in a zucchini slice we devoured.

 Mushrooms on special at Aldi for 99 cents a tub.  My children love mushroom chips.  I spray the mushrooms slices with oil, then do a very light sprinkling of salt.  Dry until they are crispy.  You don't have to add the salt, but it tastes great and is a healthier alternative to deep fried potato chips.  I did 6 trays of dried mushrooms and used up two tubs.

 Purple climbing beans thriving.  These are amazing beans that turn green when you cook them.  I picked a dozen of them to use in Shepherd's Pie last night.  Yum!  My tomato plant is a giant one with cherry tomatoes all over it.  I was silly and put straw on the dirt to slow down the slugs, but I don't think the tomato plant appreciated the gesture.  It is still hanging in there though.

Some shallots I pulled up this morning.  They're now in the sun drying out until the roots go crunchy.  I'm planning on using them soon rather than storing them for a length of time, so they don't have to dry out very much.  If I wanted to be all fancy I could braid them all together and hang them up to dry, but this is the first time I have successfully grown them to this point :D

Week 48 of the 2011 Food Storage Challenge

$10 Challenge
Store 4 cans soup and 1 can spaghetti

$20 Challenge
Store 8 cans soup and 2 cans spaghetti


Soup

I know a lot of you are clever enough to make your own soup, and I personally love the taste of my home-made chicken soup, but when you don't have the resources (financially or food-wise) to be able to make your own soup, the canned variety is great! 

Spend your extra energy making bread (or better yet, put the kids to work on that;D )

Not to deter anyone from this challenge, but there also needs to be moderation in all things.  I came across this article today on elevated BPA levels in a study of some people who ate canned soup for 5 days straight: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/11/23/High-BPA-levels-linked-to-canned-soup/UPI-26961322067158/

I just have to add though that I have my food storage there as an emergency.  I don't eat from cans every day but when I have had to rely on my food storage, boy have I needed it!  Not even all of that was canned either.  Rotate with pasta and sauce (bottled sauce, not canned) and frozen foods if you can.

Spaghetti

Canned spaghetti on toast is cheap and easy.  It can be eaten cold straight out of the tin if it's a desperate situation.

You can add extra things to it to make it more of a meal, like frozen peas and corn, bacon and tomato, even fresh herbs.

Christmas Countdown with stories

I recently pulled out 24 Christmas Stories I printed out many years ago.  I love to read these to my children in the lead up to Christmas, and will do so again this year.  The stories are gorgeous, and include 'The Little Match GIrl', 'Angel on a Doorstep' and 'The Cobbler and his Guest'.  Tissues may be required for some ;D

They can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/43003269/A-Story-a-Day-Until-Christmas

I do a lolly countdown too in an Advent Calendar my Mother-in-Law made, but the stories help to remind my children what Christmas is really about.

What do you do with your family at Christmas time?