One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1562 of 2143 - I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Sweet Cherry Cobbler

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By Mavis Butterfield on June 11, 2013 · 4 Comments

Last night I made a sweet cherry cobbler for dessert using some of those free cherries I picked up from Mr. Produce Guy the other day and it turned out delicious. This sweet cherry cobbler was so good, next time I think I’ll serve it for dinner. Ha!

Here is the recipe, I hope you like it.

Ingredients for the filling

6 cups sweet cherries, pitted
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Ingredients for the Topping

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1⁄4 tsp. salt
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 eggs
2⁄3 cup milk {I used 2% milk}

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place all the ingredients for the filling in a medium sized bowl and toss to make sure the cherries are coated evenly. Pour filling mixture in to a buttered 9×12 baking dish and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and, using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture all at once and stir until a sticky dough forms.

Using a 3 tablespoon cookie scoop {or a large spoon} drop spoonfuls of dough on top of the cherry filling until the top of the pan is covered with dough. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes then cover with foil. Cook an additional 15 minutes or until the cherries are bubbling.

Serve with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream.

Looking for a cherry pitter? I use the Progressive International Cherry-It Multiple Cherry Pitter. It rocks!

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Mavis Mail – Lindsey from Texas Sends in Cinder Block Garden Photos

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By Mavis Butterfield on June 11, 2013 · 2 Comments

Wow! Check out this uber cute cinder block garden Lindsey from Texas sent in.

This is Cindy’s second year using cinder blocks for her raised beds and she absolutely loves them.

Here is what she had to say about her garden:

Our cinder block raised beds hold potatoes, green beans, strawberries, tomatoes, cilantro, hot and sweet peppers, onions, carrots, lettuce, marigolds, ranunculus, sweet peas, sage and mint. We also have a plot of land dedicated to watermelons, cucumbers, cantaloupe, honeydew and corn, and a second plot that I’m about to plant our pumpkins in.

We have a three year old and a one year old that love to help out in the garden – they love looking for strawberries to eat while I’m out there weeding and watering. In addition to the all of the veggies that I’ve planted, we also have dewberry vines that grow wild on our land, so we now have our freezer full of berries – at least the ones the girls didn’t gobble down. We have also canned two batches of dewberry jelly and one batch of salsa this year already.

Last September we got our mixed flock of six chickens – Nugget, Cuckoo, Weezy, Doodlebug, Pepper and Ginger.My husband, father, and father-in-law built an amazing coop for them which I still need to paint! Our plans are to eventually move our raised beds within the chicken run (fenced in from the chickens of course) so the chickens can keep a bug patrol around the perimeter of the vegetable garden.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other peoples pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!

~Mavis

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so, show me some picture of how you are going about it.
Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.

Go HERE for the official rules.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Blueberry Jam with Mint

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By Mavis Butterfield on June 11, 2013 · 9 Comments

I spotted this recipe for blueberry jam with mint last winter and have been waiting until I had enough blueberries to make a batch. Well yesterday was my lucky day!!!

This jam is the kind of thing you’d find in a specialty food store {like Oakville Grocery in Napa, California} for $15 a jar. Yumm a licous does not even begin to describe it.

Ingredients

2 pounds fresh blueberries
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 6-inch sprigs of mint

Directions

Bring a boiling-water canner, 3/4 full with water, to simmer. Wash jars {I used wide mouth pint jars} and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.

Combine the blueberries and water in a 5-quart nonreactive pan. Cover and bring to a boil then reduce the heat a fast simmer and cook uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Stir in the lemon juice and sugar. Bring the mixture to a slow boil and let it cook for about 5 to 8 minutes, or until the mixture coats the back of a metal spoon.

Now for the exciting part! Pour the berry mixture into a 2-quart, heat-resistant, glass bowl {I used a giant mixing bowl}. Tie the mint sprigs together with bakers twine and place them in the jam. Slowly submerge the mint and and gently crush it along the sides of the container of the glass bowl to release the oils. Let the crushed mint steep for about 5 minutes.

Remove and throw away the mint, and then ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands on. Place jars on elevated rack in a canner. Lower rack into canner. {Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if necessary.}

Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 10 min. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. After the jars have cooled, check the seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary. Yields 3 pints or 6 1/2 pints.

See More of my Canning Recipes HERE

Looking for a few more awesome canning recipes? Check out Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Amazon has it currently in stock and ready to ship.

Need a canner? I used the Granite Ware 11-1/2 Quart Covered Preserving Canner with Rack. And if you need a tool kit, I use one similar to this one.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

How to Freeze Fruits and Vegetables

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By Mavis Butterfield on June 11, 2013 · 12 Comments

Freezing fruits and vegetables is super simple, as long as you take a few steps to make sure you don’t have gray mushy produce. For both fruits and vegetables, make sure you get heavy duty freezer bags. It’s an extra cost you won’t regret. Also, make sure you remove as much of the air as possible when you zip or seal the bags up. Freezing fruits and vegetables now to enjoy later in the year is a great way to cut costs in your grocery budget.

When it comes to freezing, fruits are easiest–and by easiest, I mean quickest. Wash and dry all of the fruit. For delicate fruits, like raspberries and strawberries, lay them out flat on a cookie sheet and freeze them {I like to do this with most fruits, just because I find they don’t stick in one big clump in the freezer bag that way}. Then, when they are individually frozen, move them to a freezer bag.

For fruits that brown easily, like peaches or apples, use an ascorbic acid powder. You can also use crushed up vitamin c tablets or use a water and lemon juice bath. Just slice the fruit, treat the slices per the instructions on the ascorbic acid, and then go about the freezing process.

Vegetables require a little more effort. To maintain their color and texture, most veggies need to be blanched first {though you can skip this step on some veggies, see the chart below for which ones}. Blanching is basically giving them a quick dip in boiling water. The blanching time for each vegetable is important, because the goal is NOT to cook them. Cooked, frozen veggies equals mushy paste in your mouth. After you blanch your vegetables, you want to immediately plunge them into an ice water bath.

Vegetables continue cooking after you remove them from the boiling water, the ice water bath will stop the cooking process. This whole process is called blanching and shocking. After the ice bath, lay veggies flat on a kitchen towel and gently pat them dry. Again, I like to freeze the vegetables on a cookie sheet before I put them in bags to prevent clumpage, but it’s up to you. Also, it’s best to go ahead and freeze the veggie exactly how you plan to eat it, i.e. sliced, diced, shredded, etc.

Here’s a handy dandy little chart to guide you with your blanching times:

Vegetable	Blanching Time {minutes}	Can Be Frozen Without Blanching
Artichoke Hearts	7	No
Artichoke – Jerusalem	3-5	No
Asparagus	2-4	No
Beans – Snap, Green, Wax	3	Yes
Beans – Lima, Butter, Pinto	2-4	No
Beets	Cook Completely	No
Broccoli	3	Yes
Brussels Sprouts	3-5	No
Cabbage or Chinese Cabbage {shredded}	1 1/2	Yes
Carrots {diced or sliced}	2	No
Cauliflower	3	No
Celery	3	No
Corn off the Cob	4	No
Corn on the Cob	7-11	Yes
Eggplant	4	No
Greens	2-3	No
Onions {Rings}	10-15 seconds	Yes
Peas – Edible Pod	1 1/2-3	No
Peas – Green	1 1/2	No
Peppers {strips or rings}	2	Yes
Pumpkin	Cook Completely	No
Rutabagas	3	No
Soybeans	5	No
Summer Squash	3	Yes
Winter Squash	Cook Completely	No
Sweet Potatoes	Cook Completely	No
Turnips or Parsnips {cubed}	2	No

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.