One Hundred Dollars a Month - Page 1883 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.

Can You Bring a Pie on an Airplane?

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 25, 2012 · 16 Comments

I’m headed to Boise, Idaho this afternoon to visit my friend Amberlina and to participate in the Boise Dirty Dash tomorrow. Yesterday, I was trying to decided whether or not to make blackberry ice cream or a blackberry pie and my friend posted this on facebook…

“Make a blackberry pie & bring it with you when you come tomorrow. A little pre-race fuel if you will.”

And my reply was “Can I take a pie through security?”

Amberlina “Hmmm. Doubtful. They will assume there is a bomb in it probably.”

Then I found this on the TSA website-

So YES, you can bring a pie on an airplane, BUT pies are subject to additional screening. Hmmm. What does that mean? What are they going to do to my pie?

Will the TSA taste the pie? Will they scan it?

Will they make ME taste the pie?

What DO YOU think?

I have no idea, but I’m packing a few forks just in case.

To Be Continued…

Go HERE for the UPDATE.

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Mavis Garden Blog – What Causes Mutant Carrots?

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 25, 2012 · 16 Comments

Have you ever grown a really weird carrot and wondered why it looked that way?

Me too. Anyone know the answer?

~ Mavis

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Mavis Garden Blog – Pulling Up Summer Carrots and Planting Broccoli For Fall

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 25, 2012 · 3 Comments

Out with the old and in with the new, right?

Early this morning I pulled up the bush beans and remaining carrots from the raised garden beds.

The beans had run their course, and although the carrots could have stayed longer had I wanted them to, time is of the essence. If I am going to be able to reach my goal of growing 2,000 pounds of vegetables this year, I need to get ~~moving~~ growing.

So I decided to go ahead and plant some broccoli plants I had started from seed. If you live in an area that has a frost date around late October, now is the perfect time to head to the nursery and snatch up some cold weather starts like broccoli, Brussels spouts, kale and cabbage. It’s too late to start them from seed {with the exception of the kale} but you should have pretty good luck if you purchase some starts.

Unless of course there is a major frost. Then we are all screwed.

Basically, you pretty much can’t mess up separating seedlings/starts.

There are really only 3 rules.

Go SLOW. Be super careful when you separate the plants. Try not to disturb the roots too much
Place the plant in the ground and bring the soil up and around the base of the plant {see above photo}
Add water

Follow those simple rules, and you should be fine. Wahooo. Fall is on it’s way. Can you believe it? Pretty soon it will be time to break out the black sweaters. I can’t wait!

Are you excited for fall? Are you going to attempt a fall garden this year, or are you just super cool and already plant one every year anyway?

Mavis wants to know!

Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre By Brett L. Markham $10.85 ~ Amazon

Mini Farming describes a holistic approach to small-area farming that will show you how to produce 85 percent of an average family’s food on just a quarter acre—and earn $10,000 in cash annually while spending less than half the time that an ordinary job would require.

Even if you have never been a farmer or a gardener, this book covers everything you need to know to get started: buying and saving seeds, starting seedlings, establishing raised beds, soil fertility practices, composting, dealing with pest and disease problems, crop rotation, farm planning, and much more. ~ Amazon

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Recipe – How to Make a Crust for a Blackberry Pie

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By Mavis Butterfield on August 24, 2012 · 9 Comments

The Girl and I went blackberry picking this morning and came home with baskets full of warm, juicy berries. I couldn’t decide if I should make blackberry ice cream or a blackberry pie, so I decided to ask everyone on facebook and go from there.

Clearly, people would much rather eat a blackberry pie than a scoop of blackberry ice cream.

Interesting!

So {obviously} I made a pie.

And snapped a few pictures.

So you could drool over it.

Because I’m cruel like that.

I don’t know about you, but I like a nice thick crust when I’m eating a berry pie. I want to be able to soak up the berry juice with left over bits of golden, flaky goodness. And you need a thick crust to do that.

I like to make my crusts with Crisco shortening. I’d like to think my people {the Pilgrims} would have used it had they had it readily available to them in Colonial America.

In my book, Crisco is freakin’ awesome. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Here’s the recipe –

Pie Filling

6 cups blackberries
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup all- purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, chopped into bits
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup vegetable shorting
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold water

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees

Combine pie crust ingredients together, divide in half, roll into a ball, use the palm of your hand to flatten crust to about 1 inch. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Roll out 1 crust and line a pie plate with it.

Combine filling ingredients in a large bowl and toss to coat. Pour filling into crust lined pie plate and add second {flattened} crust. Crimp edges of pie crust together and brush with egg wash.

Place on a lined cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes or until juices are bubbling.

Cool. Serve with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream or whipping cream.

Looking for a few more delicious pie recipes? Check out the book Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie by Ken Haedrich. Basically, the book is awesome. Enough said.

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.