Tammy's Recipes

From Coleen:

I've never frozen cheese. Can you freeze all types of cheeses? Is the texture the same? Do you leave it in the original wrapper? Any and all info would be VERY helpful.

Hi, Coleen!

I have frozen blocks of cheese like cheddar, mozzarella, pepperjack, colby, swiss, etc. I do freeze the blocks in their original wrappers.

The main difference I have noticed is that cheese that has been frozen tends to crumble when sliced or shredded. Different brands vary slightly, but in general the cheddar and mozzarella cheese seems quite crumbly after freezing.

For casseroles, pizza, or anything else requiring shredded cheese, the crumbles work great! For slicing or cubes, it doesn't work as well. :)

I'd love some more reader input on this one! What types of cheese have you frozen, and what were the results? :)

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

(Italian beef and beans over pasta)

Joy wrote to me with this question:

I was wondering how you defrost something if you do not have a microwave. Ours just recently kicked the bucket after many years and we aren't in a hurry to get another one just yet. I only have one problem though: reheating leftovers (we eat quiet a few of them) and defrosting leftovers that I have frozen.

I defrost most things in the fridge, including leftovers. That method does involve planning ahead, but like anything, it's something a person adjusts to doing. :)

In a pinch, we thaw things in the sink or in a bowl of cold water. That method is not recommended for things that spoil easily -- like meats -- but it's safe for cheese or other things that can be at room temperature for several hours without harm. (The outside of the food will be warm while the inside finishes thawing.)

We do thaw chicken breast in a bowl of cold water sometimes, and it does not get too warm since on those occasions we are watching it and as soon as it is fully thawed (or even almost fully thawed!) we are using it. :) But, again, it is not recommended and therefore I cannot recommend that you do it. :)

For heating leftovers, we use either a small pan on the stove or the oven. With pans, I've learned from experimenting with which foods need lids, or a little water in the bottom, etc. Usually a lower heat and a slightly longer heating time is better than a hotter and fast heating time. :)

The oven is useful for things that were baked the first time around, like lasagna. I just put the leftover lasagna into a smaller oven dish and it's ready to be warmed back up! Usually 350 degrees, covered (so the food doesn't dry out) for about 30 minutes works for me.

We warm leftover pizza by placing the slices on a pizza pan, putting it in the oven, and then turning the oven on to 375 degrees. In 10 minutes, the pizza is perfect. At least, that's what works with our oven. :) I've also heard that you can warm leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet with a lid.

Does anyone else have any defrosting and reheating tips for Joy? Please share! :)

Roxanne asked:

I really expected to see a freezer in one of your pictures. You always post about having pizza crusts, meat, muffins, and all sorts of things in your freezer. I wonder how you have room for all that if you don't have a stand alone freezer?

Hi, Roxanne!

First, remember that we are a small family (2 adults and 2 children eating!) so a "month's supply" of meatballs, pepperoni, etc. is less for our family than for a larger family, or a family with more adult eaters. :)

My freezer (on top of the fridge) is usually quite full. I keep it well-organized and stocked with things we will actually use/eat, so no space is wasted. :)

Our beef is all cooked and vacuum sealed (like taco meat, meatballs, meat for casseroles, etc.) which saves a lot of space. :) I also have cooked cubed chicken meat which is vacuum sealed (leftover meat from roasted chickens).

I can't usually fit more than 1 or 2 whole chickens in the freezer, so when I buy a new one, I take one out and put it in the fridge to thaw. :)

I do like to have some baked goods like cookies, muffins or banana bread in the freezer for Joshua's lunches. I stack the food neatly into bags and suck out the extra air. I still don't usually have more than a 2-week supply of that sort of thing in the freezer though. :)

The pizza crusts -- well, a couple of years ago we used this pizza recipe that involved a pre-baked crust, and I would keep 1 or 2 of those in the freezer. Then, we discovered this easy pizza method, and have been doing that ever since! It's still pretty quick, and we like the crust better. :)

Frozen pie dough, chicken broth, cooked (from dried) beans, and things like that are not regular staples of my freezer, but when I have extras of those things, I freeze them until I need them -- they don't all take up space in there simultaneously though. :)

In my freezer I also keep some nuts, 1 small tray of ice (we don't use much ice at all, as we almost always drink plain water that is at room temperature!), some dry yeast, and blocks of cheese from recent sales (blocks of cheese stack better than bags of shredded!). I also fit in as many frozen peas and other vegetables as possible.

When I said my freezer was well-organized and packed, I meant it... when taken out, the food is a huge pile on our kitchen table!! I have learned how to make the most of every inch.

And yes... at the grocery store we do sometimes choose to buy chicken or veggies and not the ice cream since we wouldn't have room for it. I think having a relatively small amount of freezer space makes me prioritize (veggies over ice cream) and think creatively (I try to dehydrate or can things when possible rather than freezing), and so far, it's been great. :) Perhaps someday with a huge garden and lots of mouths to feed, I will need a larger freezer -- but until it will save me money, I'll wait. :)

I store my cheese in the door of the freezer. I have quite a stockpile right now from the last time Kroger's had a sale. We bought a Kroger gift card because they were running a special promotion -- we paid $300 for the card, and it had $330 put on it to use. That very same day, we bought about $100 of beef that was on sale (to put in the freezer).

Here's a good kitchen tip: Don't buy Teflon/non-stick bakeware. It's not healthy and it wears out quickly! Okay, so some of you might disagree with me about that...

When we got married, I followed all of the directions regarding my non-stick bakeware, but it still wore out within 2 years' time. I vowed to replace my bakeware with stainless steel or glass as each piece wore out -- and if we couldn't afford stainless steel or glass at the time, I'd make do until we could!

I have, however, saved a couple of the worn-out baking sheets. They make a great drip pan in the oven... under roasted chickens, under pies, under a cake that's overflowing into a disastrous mess... you get the idea. :)

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

(homemade wheat bread)

Sheila wrote with a question about slicing fresh bread:

Whenever I have made fresh bread, which has been a while, I have never been able to slice it well. It always comes out crooked or in big chunks.

My husband is going to install our old Chambers stove out on the back deck so I can cook/bake without heating up the house. (We live in Texas where it can hit 100 degrees by mid morning!)

I would like to start baking bread again, but was wondering how you slice your bread. Is there a special trick to it?

Hi, Sheila!

I have an electric knife, which is the easiest way for me to slice loaves of bread. The knife was a wedding gift, but I think they are fairly inexpensive ($10 perhaps?).

If I'm just slicing a fresh loaf for with dinner, any sharp, thin serrated knife works pretty well, also. If I have two or more loaves (or a huge loaf of garlic bread!) I get out the electric knife and use that. With practice, the electric knife can produce picture-perfect thick or thin slices of bread -- and it's faster, too.

When the bread is really fresh (cooled or slightly cooled, but not yet bagged) the crust tends to produce more crumbs during slicing.

If you don't need the loaf immediately, you can put the (cool) loaf into a bag, tie it shut, and slice it later. This will mean fewer crumbs since the crust will have softened up.

Here is my current fresh-out-of-the-oven routine:

1. Remove pans of bread from the oven and place pans on cooling racks.

2. Immediately grease or butter the tops of the bread (still in pans).

3. Cover bread with a clean towel (or two).

4. After about 5-7 minutes, remove loaves from the pans (Waiting makes the crust softer, a tip I learned from Tanya's blog!).

5. Cover loaves with the towels until completely cool.

6. Slice bread and place loaves into bags and tie shut.

If you're not using any dough conditioners and you made several loaves of bread, you can put loaves into the freezer as soon as they're cool and sliced. Thaw loaves in the bag (sealed, to keep out condensation) on the counter several hours before using.

What's your fresh-from-the-oven bread routine? I'd love to hear! :)

It seems like I've been on the topic of pantries and food storage for weeks now, and I guess I really have. I've got one last post on the topic: pictures of my "pantry", as requested by a reader(s?).

My "pantry" is our enclosed porch, and it's nothing extra special... but it's SPACE... wonderful space which I didn't have when we lived in a 600-sq.ft. apartment. :)

(Click here to see the photos... they're rather large)

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

I've posted about using jars in the pantry, using buckets for food storage (and here), long-term food storage (and more on that here!), so I guess I'll stick with the "pantry theme" and share some pictures from when we bucketed our wheat a few weeks ago! Maybe next week, I'll actually have pictures of my "pantry"! :)

We filled our buckets and sealed them using the method described in this video (link to YouTube); there are also more detailed instructions outlined on this page.

We didn't start taking pictures until we were actually almost done putting our wheat into buckets. It was quite a job, actually! It took Joshua and me the whole morning almost!

We were filling 10 buckets -- a few 6-gallon buckets and the rest 5-gallon buckets.

This is what the Mylar bag looked like: Silvery on the outside (aluminum, I think) and white on the inside (some sort of plastic; I'm real scientific, I know).

I ordered ours from Sorbent Systems, which was the best price I could find. (Go to this page and scroll down to the bag that says "5 or 6 gallon pail liner" which are $1.35 each.) Aside from a slightly confusing shopping cart (I ended up doing the manual order form), their service was excellent. They were out of stock for the bags I ordered and offered a higher-quality replacement bag of similar dimensions, which I accepted. Our order arrived a week later.

I ordered oxygen absorbers from the same company. I got the 2000cc absorbers, so I got one for each bucket I was planning to do.

The video I linked to above described how to use a Food Saver (instead of a clothes iron) to seal the Mylar bags, by sealing each corner, cutting off extra bag, and then sealing the top. We found it worked best to seal the corners first, then fill the bag, and just seal the top last.

Some of our finished buckets! We filled the bags, stuck one oxygen absorber (2000cc) down inside, and then sealed the tops. The oxygen absorber made the bag shrink down around the grain so that it looked like it was vacuum-sealed. Then we tucked the bag down and snapped the lids on the buckets.

I labeled each bucket and then Joshua used his strong muscles to carry all 10 heavy buckets up to our bedroom for storage. (We have some other wheat which isn't sealed up which we are using first. The sealed buckets are for longer-term storage -- wheat we won't be using in the next 6 months or more.)

It was more work than we expected! In the end we were very glad that we had only decided to tackle 10 buckets to begin with. We plan to do 10 more buckets in the future, but not just wheat. Any suggestions? We're thinking sugar, quinoa, beans, corn, and rice.

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

Someone recently asked me for pictures of my pantry. With the addition of my wonderful new grain mill (and a bulk order of wheat!), my "pantry" is still in the midst of being organized again. I say "pantry" since I store food in my kitchen cupboards, on our enclosed porch, and in our bedroom!

I will take pictures soon, though. But for starters, here is a handy tip for storing food: Glass jars.

I love the quart- and pint-sized glass jars for smaller storage. Salt, sugar, rice, beans, poppy seeds, xylitol, vanilla extract, popcorn, etc.

The canning lid and ring keeps the jar air-tight. Sometimes you can find white plastic lids that will fit these jars, which is perhaps more convenient than dealing with a lid and ring (though probably lightly less air-tight).

I love the see-through aspect of using jars, and I think glass looks much prettier than plastic! Most foods do store better away from sunlight, however, so it's better to keep glass jars behind cupboard doors (or in a dark basement -- ours is too icky though!).

For larger-volume items, gallon-sized glass jars are wonderful! I have wheat berries, cream of wheat cereal, quinoa, bulgur wheat, and barley in gallon-sized jars. I'm on the lookout for more of the gallon-size jars, as they are SO convenient!

Glass gallon jars don't always have air-tight lids, but if you fold a couple of layers of waxed paper or plastic and place it between the jar and the lid (and then screw the lid on) it will make a tighter seal. :)

When you frequent garage sales or thrift stores, extra measuring cups can be found quite inexpensively. Leaving a half-cup scoop in the jar saves time and dishes! :)

More perks: Glass is easier to clean and sterilize than plastic, and won't leach chemicals into your food. Glass jars (at least, the quart-size) are very inexpensive and can often be found for free! :)

I'm not the only one who likes glass jars. See Laura's beautiful pantry here, and read Lindsay's post about using jars to store food! :)

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

I got this email from Hannah:

I am so new to all of this healthful cooking and baking! I'm sort of getting overwhelmed by all of the information that I don't know where to start...

It really isn't in our budget to buy an electric grain mill right now. But I was wondering if it would be okay to just buy one of the manual ones. Do you think it would be too time consuming and difficult? I have 5 kids, ages 6 and under, including a set of toddler twins. I am really trying to change our eating habits and be more frugal... I'm just not sure if I should just save my money for an electric one or go ahead with the manual one. What do you think?

Hannah, thanks for writing!

First, let me assure you that you're not the only one who feels new to "all of this healthful cooking and baking"! I'm a newbie too. ;)

Five years ago, grain mills were the last thing on my mind. Sometimes when I start feeling overwhelmed about all of my goals and desires, I remember where I was 5 years ago and realize how we've grown, little by little. I think it's the best way, really... we can't have everything we want immediately!

So remember... I'm just sharing parts of our life as we go along... and most of the time I'm learning from and right along with YOU! :)

Now, about the grain mills. I really wanted to get a non-electric grain mill, and from my study it seemed that there were a couple of good quality, highly-rated manual grain mills in the ~$300 range, reportedly the fastest hand-crank mills. But from what I read, they were still slow. The smaller, cheaper hand-crank grain mills are even slower.

I honestly felt that if it would take me 30 minutes to grind wheat for a couple of loaves of bread, I would be less inclined to make bread. My children are old enough to help, but I don't think I can expect them to grind all of my flour yet. I do not have 30 minutes in my day that I could use to grind wheat, unless there was truly no other option. :)

There are drawbacks to having an electric micronizer mill like what we got -- namely, it can only make flour, not cereals or cracked grains. However, it is fast. Very fast. For us, I decided it was worth the investment to have the convenience.

We do still plan to purchase a less-expensive manual grain mill to have as a back-up in the even of a power outage. We're still scoping out our options. Since it would be a back-up, we need to keep the price affordable, but we also don't want something that's just going to break or something! Any suggestions as far as a good type of non-electric mill to get? :)

This page has some Q&A about grain mills, which I found to be interesting and helpful. :)

And, I encourage you to pray about it, do more reading about the different mills, and maybe even wait a little bit and do some more saving! :)

We found in our research that there were so many options, and no clear "best answer", as they all had great perks and some drawbacks as well... which had to be somehow compared with the price differences. I have a difficult time making decisions like that, especially without seeing all of the appliances right in front of me with live demos -- wouldn't that be lovely?! :) 

Joshua originally wrote this as a comment, but I think it's worthy of being its own post! :) Joshua has done a lot of research on dough conditioners for homemade bread, and here is some of what he's learned! :)

I admit I have a love for chemistry as well as an aversion to crumbly homemade bread. A couple years back I set out to find out the difference between homemade bread and store bought bread and see if I couldn't doctor up homemade bread to have a similar consistency to the store stuff while retaining the taste and nutritional value of homemade bread.

Long story short is that I have "discovered" a number of natural, and healthy, ingredients you can add to bread to alter the texture. Bread is one part science, one part art, and all living organism. Bread is really a giant yeast culture and your goal is to create a healthy environment for the yeast and to create a dough that compliments such as well as produces the results you want (which can vary depending on what bread you are making).

The neat thing about dough enhancers is that almost anyone who has ever made a loaf of bread has used some of some sorts. Bread of the yeast variety is just flour, water, and yeast. Everything else is a conditioner. Sugar is a dough enhancer as it is yeast food. Fats, like butter and vegetable oil, aid in elasticity and the moisture of the loaf. Eggs, among other things, contain a lot of lecithin. So if you feel a little awkward adding new ingredients to bread just remind yourself that almost everything in a loaf of homemade bread is in there to enhance the core ingredients to begin with.

(Read the rest of this entry)

After months of wishful thinking, hours of reading and researching, and days spent anxiously waiting, our grain mill arrived!!

We got a WonderMill, and I love it! It's so easy to use. It's small, about as big around as my tea kettle, but a little taller of course. :) It mills flour very quickly -- just a few minutes of operation yields enough flour for several loaves of bread. :)

Although the WonderMill is reportedly the quiestest of any impact/micronizer mills, I knew it would still be loud. Thankfully, it's not quite as bad as I expected. Before the grain is added, it sounds like our blender. While it's grinding the grain, it's quieter than a blender. I still don't like noise, but at least it's a useful sort of noise, unlike loud toys or tv. ;)

We had fun trying out the mill, and our first loaf of 100% whole wheat bread turned out fabulous. We used Prairie Gold hard white wheat, which I had bought in a 50-lb bag in anticipation of getting a grain mill.

Joshua, my science-loving husband, added some dough conditioners for me, since he's done all the research on that end. ;)

Our loaf of bread was so soft... seriously, the texture was just like bread from the store. I like my bread a little more "homemade-like", but the "store-like" kind will be perfect for sandwiches in Joshua's lunch. I sliced the bread 6 minutes after taking it out of the oven, and it didn't tear or crumble a bit. It had a great texture! (I say "had" because it's gone now... 5 hours later.)

I'll update the recipe with notes about making the 100% whole wheat loaf we made, since the recipe originally calls for 1/2 all-purpose flour.

I'm so thrilled about having our own flour mill! This mill was an anniversary gift to me from Joshua (our 6th anniversary was in March) and I know I will put it to good use! :) Thank you, Joshua!! :)

For anyone interested, we ordered our mill through the Urban Homemaker, a Christian-owned company with lots of high-quality baking and cooking supplies. :) I have these jelly roll pans (gift from my parents a few years ago) and love them. (FYI: If you order $50 or more from them and tell them I referred you, they'll send me a $10 gift certificate.)

However, I do want to also mention that Marmee Dear, another Christian-owned company, also carries the WonderMill and many of the same stainless steel bakeware that makes me drool, and her prices on the bakeware are slightly cheaper. :)

Okay, I'm not an expert at making omelets (I actually taught myself through a lot of experimentation!) but here's how I do mine:

1. Lightly beat some eggs. I usually figure at least 2 eggs per omelet so that it's thick enough to not fall apart. I sometimes add some kefir or milk to the eggs, but not always. The important thing is to not over-beat the eggs, or they will be so tender that they tear easily. (As if eggs don't already tear easily enough!)

2. Pre-heat a griddle or large skillet. I pre-heat over medium heat. Coat the cooking surface with oil so the omelet doesn't stick.

3. When the griddle is hot, pour the egg on in a thin layer, using a pancake turner/spatula to spread the egg evenly. Turn heat down after a minute or so, so that the bottom of the egg doesn't get too browned.

4. When the bottom of the egg is cooked and the top is only slightly runny, flip the whole thing over and immediately turn the heat down even lower. (This is what works best for my stove as far as temperature -- you may have to experiment a little!)

5. As soon as the egg is flipped, sprinkle chopped veggies (we saute our peppers and onions first, but you can use raw if you like), cheese, bits of cooked meat, etc.

6. When bottom of the egg is cooked, gently roll or fold the egg to enclose the filling. Transfer to a plate and enjoy! :)

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

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A question on my post about long-term food storage:

Do you use this stockpile method for economic reasons, or because of the chance of problems in the world (famine, shortages, war)?

I've just recently started making my own rolls and biscuits; someone like me would be in trouble. It's something to think about. What does everyone else think of this?

While buying food in bulk definitely has economic advantages, it definitely goes beyond mere "saving money" for me.

Many Americans are guilty of assuming that the grocery store will always have enough on the shelves, or that it will always be easy to get there every week and purchase food. Going to the grocery store and buying food (or even having the money to buy food!) is not a guarantee -- even if we've been able to do it all of our lives and can't imagine something different.

Let's think about our basic needs as humans:

Food and water. Clothing. Shelter.

We're talking about what people need to stay alive. Food and clean drinking water are both absolutely essential to staying alive... so why would anyone not want to keep some stored ahead?! Are we willing to rely on the grocery store so heavily that if they're out of food, we starve?

I'm not suggesting that a person go overboard, stockpiling more than they could ever use. Obviously, food storage needs to be researched (to be done correctly, avoiding insect infestations, moisture, etc.) and then diligently cared for by rotating stock (using the oldest first). Spending money on something that you won't eat and/or will spoil before you're ready to use it certainly isn't worth the time and money!

I'm not ready to make any predictions about possible future events like food shortages, but to me, it just makes good sense to be a little more prepared -- especially when it means I can buy in bulk and save money, too! :)

I'd love to have some more reader input on this topic! Like I mentioned in my other post, our previous long-term (more than 12 months' storage time) food storage items were given to us -- so I got started without having to decide to. ;) Only recently, as some of our supplies have gotten low, have I decided to research and prepare a little more.

In some ways, having extras on hand (even of food!) is a challenge for me. We live in a relatively small house. I do keep the clutter/STUFF under control, but I also like to have neat and tidy shelves, not-over-crowded cupboards, etc... which can be difficult to maintain with a lot of food to store. Buckets really make it easier to store the bulk grains like oats and wheat! :)

Last week, I posted about using buckets for food storage. During the past few weeks, one of the things I've been researching has been long(er)-term food storage.

Several years ago, we were blessed with some Y2K wheat from some friends who were moving. The wheat was wonderfully preserved in buckets, and we have been enjoying it! The last bucket we used was dated February of 1999 -- 9 years ago now -- and tasted great!!

By now, our supply is completely used, and I'm just now figuring out what I want to do to replenish it! After a lot of research and thought, Joshua and I ordered some wheat through our local co-op. I've been researching exactly how to store it, since spending money on food is only resourceful if the food doesn't go bad before it's used!

Shelby mentioned not knowing how much a hundred pounds of wheat even looked like. In our experience, 100 pounds of wheat fills three 6-gallon buckets. A 4.5 gallon buckets will hold 25 pounds, if your buckets happen to be that smaller size.

Here are some helpful links about long-term food storage:

The shelf like of various foods at various temperatures (to help you figure out what to store!)

Storing food in buckets -- a picture tutorial

More details on long-term bucket storage

A YouTube video about bucket-packing grains (part 1 of 2) Sometimes seeing instead of just reading is fun! There are more videos on YouTube about food storage, if you do a little searching. :)

Prudent Food Storage FAQ (click on the link by the same title)

Provident Living website (a Mormon site with lot of helpful ideas for stocking short-term and long-term pantry items)

Frugal Squirrels -- This is a website with a store and a great forum. You have to be registered and approved before you can read the forums, but there is a wealth of information on there!

Mrs. Survival -- More forums with good info!

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

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Questions regarding my post about storing food in buckets:

Where do you store all of the buckets?

I store the buckets on our enclosed porch, or stacked in the kitchen. They can be stored anywhere where it doesn't get too hot (unless you have a bucket of honey -- then you'd want to store it where it wouldn't get too cold!). :) And also, 5 gallon buckets of grain are very heavy, so they shouldn't be stacked more than 3 high. :)

When I tried using icing buckets, they still smelled like icing even after washing thoroughly with detergent and bleach and drying well. Any tips?

Sprinkle baking soda in the bucket, put the lid on, and leave it for a day or two. Then wash the soda out, of course. ;) I've also heard (but never tried) that crumpled newspaper can get rid of smells, too.

The baking soda should work. I recently got something plastic at a garage sale and later realized that it smelled VERY strongly of moth balls. Sprinkling with soda and leaving for 24 hours almost completely got rid of the smell, and a second application of baking soda did the final magic! :)

Although I have a pantry, I also use big buckets to store my bulk ingredients. It's great, except for one thing. My rice went bad in it (after quite a while of being in it), and now my brown flour has developed a smell as well. How do you avoid that problem? Do you leave your ingredients in their bag and just place it inside the bucket, or do you pour the ingredient into the bucket?

Brown rice won't keep as long as white rice, since it has more oils... whole wheat flour is supposed to be refrigerated or frozen after grinding, or at the very least, stored in a cool place... so is could be age + temperature + moisture + oxygen, etc... :)

Whether I put the food directly in the bucket, or leave it in bags in the bucket, depends on what I'm storing. I leave sugar in the bags in the bucket. Whole grains go directly in the bucket. Very long-term storage (1-10 years, for me) requires extra care to be sure the food stays fresh.

Here is some great info about food storage. There is a whole lot more out there (via Google) about long-term food storage, and I plan to blog about the topic with pictures and links, soon. :)

These large white buckets are great for food storage! I've never had a "real" pantry with shelves and all that, but these buckets can be filled and stacked, keeping light, moisture, and rodents away. :)

Where to buy

You can buy these buckets new for about $5 each, but it's more economical to get them from a local deli or bakery. Some places might give them to you for free, but I paid $1 each for these. Just ask if they have any large white icing buckets with lids! :) Lids with an o-ring in the rim seal the tightest. You'll have to wash them if you get used ones, and be sure to let them air dry for a few days before filling! :)

What to put in them

I store things like spices (bought in bulk), dehydrated foods (bananas, bell peppers), rolled and quick oats (bought in 50-lb bags and put into buckets for fresh-keeping), wheat (again, bought in bulk), bags of chocolate chips (on sale), coconut (bulk, again), pasta, etc.

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays Participants

I don't really have a kitchen tip for today, but here's something I'm trying.

On our kitchen table, I have a white tablecloth covered with a big piece of clear plastic (available in the craft section of Wal-mart; ours is the thickest they sold and has lasted 6+ years so far!).

The children always manage to mess up the tablecloth/plastic, and so I had gotten 4 picnic tablecloth clips (to hold a tablecloth on a picnic table outdoors in the wind).

The clips worked pretty well, but started getting lost. I'm not sure HOW they got lost, because I have searched everywhere! We're down to only one clip now, and it hasn't been doing the job well enough for me.

Last night, I actually taped the plastic tablecloth to the bottom of our table. Yes, I was that frustrated with a constantly-dirty-AND-lopsided tablecloth. And thankfully our kitchen table isn't nice enough to deter me from using some tape on it.

Here's my problem:

I like having a white tablecloth on the table for photography purposes, plus it lights up the kitchen a little more than a dark table top.

To keep the white cloth clean, I have it covered with clear plastic.

Having little children means that the tablecloth never stays in place, unless it's the middle of the night. ;)

How else can I keep it secured? Any ideas for me? What do you do with your kitchen table??

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays Participants

You can use your freezer for good-as-fresh homemade bread!

One of the keys is to freeze the bread as soon as it has completely cooled. When you're ready to use your bread, pull the frozen loaf out of the freezer and allow it to thaw (still enclosed in the air-tight bag) on the counter for a few hours.

My mom has been doing this for years. I was reminded of this tip at her house recently, when I commented that her homemade bread was really soft, and that she must have just made it. Actually, she had just thawed it! :)

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays Participants

Ever notice how grapes first start going bad where they're attached to the stem? Joshua mentioned this to me one time, and ever since then I always feel compelled to look at where the grape was attached to the stem, to see just how good it really is.

And sometimes the grape doesn't look so good there at the top. But it's easily remedied by a sharp knife (I prefer serrated): just cut off the very top of the grape and eat/serve as normal. :)

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays Participants

We're seriously looking into purchasing a grain mill. Since a grain mill is a significant purchase, I've been waiting to make sure I really want one badly enough. (I hesitate to call a grain mill a "need" since we currently live without one!)

I'd love some advice on grain mills! Please share your experience and recommendations! Things like brand comparisons, how fine the flour is, how long it takes to grind enough flour for a couple of loaves of bread (6-8 cups), how noisy/dusty your mill is, and how much of a taste difference you notice between freshly-milled flour and flour that's been sitting around for a while -- I want to hear it!! :)