Jessica emailed me with this question:

Do you have any tips for cleaning off the sticky yellow buildup (Pam spray, oil, etc.) that accumulates on the handles and edges of glass bakeware? Soap and scrubbing isn't doing the job for me, and I hate that I can't seem to get my glass baking dishes really clean.

I have found that steel wool scrubbing pads (like Brillo or SOS) will take the baked oil off of glass bakeware, but that solution won't work for something non-stick. I also prefer not to use steel wool on my stainless steel bakeware since it does scratch the surface as it cleans.

My solution has just been to grease my baking dishes with butter (you can use shortening, also) instead of using vegetable oils or sprays. It's a little extra bother, but won't leave brown grease spots on your pans afterwards. :)

I've also noticed that some frozen foods (like tater tots) will leave build-up on pans. So, for the rare occasion that we eat something frozen that's greasy, I have one particular baking sheet that I use. It's non-stick, and I'll probably never get that grease off of it without damaging the surface...

Does anyone have any good tips for cleaning baked-on oil off of different kinds of bakeware? Please share!! :)

I'm not sure how original this tip really is, but here's something I've been doing for years, whenever I make scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast!

My husband loves scrambled eggs with melted cheese on top, and warm buttery toast.

When I make scrambled eggs, I cook them until they're almost completely done, and then turn the burner very low (you can turn it off if you have an electric stove, since the element stays hot for a bit yet!). I sprinkle shredded cheese on top, and then set a plate (not plastic!) over the skillet/pan as a lid.

While I am making the eggs, I put some bread in the toaster, and when it pops up, I butter it and put it on the plate.

A few minutes later, I have a hot plate, still-warm toast, and some scrambled eggs with hot melted cheese on top. :)

There's something so... luxurious about eating from a hot plate! :)

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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I got this email from Christy:

You have mentioned in some of your posts that you compost. I was wondering if you could give the basics of how you do it and maybe post a picture sometime. What do you need to get started and how to do it frugally would be some of my questions. I have researched online, but didn't grow up doing it so it seems pretty foreign.

Hi, Christy!

Thanks for writing! I am not a composting expert -- honestly, to me it's just a good use for waste, not a special science! :) But, I do the "slow and easy" method described on this page.

Do any of you have good composting tips for Christy? If you do composting, how do you do it -- super simple, or rocket science? :) You can also vote in my poll about whether or not you compost! :)

Last week, I sat down and made some lists of things I want to do before our new baby is born. I survived the first several months of pregnancy with just doing the minimum, and while I still wouldn't say that I usually feel the greatest, I have been pushing myself to tackle some larger projects which were so helpful to have done before the birth of our last child! :)

Ground beef was on sale at a local grocery store, so I bought enough to make meatballs for the freezer. I'm down to just one or two packages of meatballs from the last time I made them, and it really is so handy to have them already done and in the freezer! I cook some pasta and use my home-canned spaghetti sauce for a quick meal of spaghetti and meatballs. :)Â

First, I got my ingredients ready. I had 9 pounds of meat, and was using this recipe. I actually used the food processor for all the onions and garlic, since it's easier to make meatballs when the onion is chopped very finely. And, when making such a large amount of something, it's more worth the time to wash the food processor afterwards. :)

Next, I started mixing. I used a spoon as long as I could, but I did use my hands at the end. The meat wasn't too cold, thankfully! ;)

Now, for the rolling. I rolled lots of meatballs. Let's just say that after about the 200th meatball, I was pretty glad I had decided to "only" do 9 pounds of meat!

I put my meatballs on lightly-greased cookie sheets, and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. They turn out great, and it's so much easier than trying to cook them on the stovetop.

I drain the baked meatballs on cooling racks and/or on paper towels. I was limited on counter space that day (lots of canned pumpkin still sitting around!) so I just stacked up the meatballs.

When the meatballs were cool enough, I started filling my Food Saver bags for the freezer. Here you can see the difference in size between an open bag and a vacuum-sealed bag! :) The amount shown in the bags above is enough for two full meals for us. I did a few bags with smaller amounts, as well.

Last step: labeling and dating each package. These all stacked neatly into my freezer, and I'm guessing I now have about a year's supply of meatballs. That might sound like a long time, but the vacuum-sealed bags keep the food really well, and we've actually found that certain foods (meatballs and pepperoni, for example) taste even better when they've been frozen for a few months! :)

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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Somehow, this week has turned incredibly busy. It's all good, and I love the accomplished feeling at the end of a long day, but, it's still work. :)

I canned 8 quarts of pumpkin last week, but still hadn't taken the time to post the photos I took while working on it! :)

This morning at 9:15, my mom called, asking if I wanted to do more pumpkin today. I had a headache and felt like just laying on the couch. But when do I ever feel like saying, "Sure! I'd just love a 4-5 hour project for the day! I was so bored, anyway..."? Never. So I said, "Sure!" (Read more about canning pumpkin...)

This weekend, the first hard frost was predicted for our area, and so everything left in the garden needed to be picked. My mom picked two heaping banana boxes full of green bell peppers! (Anyone local need some?!)

Besides giving some away, we chopped up a bunch for me to put into our dehydrator. I think I dried about 4 gallons of diced peppers, which didn't even come close to filling a gallon bag after they were dry. I'll use these dried ones in soups or taco meat. They'll last several years.

Now, pumpkin. I think that's the last thing to finish for the year. It'll be nice to have all my jars full... and start enjoying the fruits of our hard work! :)

Well, I'm starting to think about all of the many things that I did to prepare for the weeks following the birth of my last child and boy... have I got a lot to do in the next few months!! I know all the extra work now will be much appreciated while we're adjusting to having three children.

Last Friday, I made a big batch of granola (though that will certainly be gone by the time our baby is born!) and made up some cornbread mixes. It's so handy to pull soup from the freezer, and then make a quick pan of cornbread to go along with it. Here is how I made my mixes!

I use this recipe for cornbread. It's my mom's recipe, and it's really good! :)

1. I measure the dry ingredients into each bag. For example, I put 3/4 cup of flour into each bag, 1/4 cup sugar into each bag, etc. This makes the process go pretty quickly. :)

2. I seal each bag and label them as cornbread, with the date. On a separate index card (which I keep in my kitchen binder) I have written down the three wet ingredients that need to be added to make the cornbread batter.

3. When I want to make cornbread, all I do is put the dry ingredients into a bowl, add two eggs, some milk, and some oil, and stir. I pour it into a greased pan and bake it.

It's so easy, and this is how I manage from-scratch cooking during busy times. Or even times when I just want to be able to take it easy. And I know I'll want to be able to relax a little after giving birth! ;)

What are your favorite things to make mixes for? What saves you time in the kitchen? Join in with a tip of your own! :)

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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My mom brought over some salami for us a few days ago. What a tasty snack! :)

I got this email from Linsey:

I am making the homemade salami and pepperoni recipes that you have on your site and I was wondering if you slice it and then freeze it, or if you freeze it whole then slice it after you thaw it. I would like to freeze it in 1 lb. quantities for ease of thawing. Also, about how long do they stay good with just refrigeration?

I always slice my pepperoni before freezing, since that's just one less thing that needs to be done when I'm making pizza. :) I have tried freezing the pepperoni in a quart-sized ziplock freezer bag, and then just breaking off a chunk to thaw for our pizza. That works okay, but after some months, there is frost in the bag. (The pepperoni still tastes great, though!) Next time I make pepperoni, I am planning to use my food saver and vacuum seal it in meal-sized portions. :)

Now, about refrigerating pepperoni and salami -- I have always just "guessed" at approximately a week or two in the fridge, and since I don't use a lot of these meats, I usually just freeze any extras right away.

This chart from the FDA has some cold storage times for various foods. For pepperoni or summer sausage, they say 2-3 weeks in cold storage. Since these are cured meats, they will keep longer than fresh or just plain cooked meats. :)

From my inbox:

I love making bread and I have never had problems before (just standard ones you have when trying new recipes) but my old favorites are affected by this problem as well now.

The tops are so dry looking and they don't brown -- they are white like this morning's french bread loaf. I made 2 loaves of white bread this weekend and they were doing the same thing. I even buttered them before baking and they were still dry and white.

I am wondering if it is the flour. The one I was using when this started felt heavy and thick and maybe even humid. So I switched to another brand and it is the same way. I am wondering if the flour is humid and heavy since we live in Mississippi and it is humid here. Maybe I should sift it first and store it in an airtight container instead of what I have now? Or could it be to much oil when I oil the bowl for it to rise? Or could it be I am baking them too high in the oven? -- Erika

The only bread I regularly make that doesn't get browned (and has a dry crust) is my Italian bread, which has no oil or sugar -- just flour, water, salt, and yeast. But it's supposed to be that way!

Reading about Erika's dilemma reminded me of our first couple years of marriage, when we lived in Missouri. I had made lots of homemade bread before moving to Missouri (from Ohio), but for some reason, I had the most difficult time making homemade bread that had a good texture when we lived in Missouri.

We traveled to Ohio a few times during those years, and I made bread at my mom's house, with perfect results. When we moved here to Ohio ourselves, my bread was excellent. I never did figure out what my problem was with making homemade bread while living in SW Missouri...

But anyway, does anyone have any ideas for Erika? It's confusing when the same recipe/ingredients/technique start producing strange results!

I love caramel. I know, I know. It's pure sugar. I still love it. In fact, for our anniversary earlier this year, Joshua made a chocolate cheesecake topped with almonds and caramel. Remember?

Well, it's the time of year when all the stores around here have big displays of apples and caramels, and people actually buy expensive bags of little caramels, unwrap them all, and melt them down for dipping apples.

So, my tip for this week is to direct you to our recipe for homemade caramel -- perfect for dipping apple slices or drizzling over chocolate cheesecake. ;)

I haven't worked out the expense ratio yet, but I think making homemade caramel is at least as fast as unwrapping a bunch of little ones from the store. Well, you might end up with a few extra dishes. But still, it's easy and fun and yummy!

My only regret is that the recipe calls for a can of sweetened condensed milk. That almost makes it not really homemade, you know?

I'm out of apples right now, but I'll be going to Aldi's tomorrow. I'm looking forward to enjoying the caramel I made tonight at 10:00 pm! How's that for a craving? I was getting ready to type up the recipe, and just had to go down to the kitchen and make some. :P

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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