Pizza Sauce

I like making homemade pizza, but my sauce was always too runny or too thick.  Recently I discovered the perfect consistency and the perfect amount of sauce for my pizza is to combined one can of tomato sauce with one can of tomato paste.

Now if I can just get the seasonings to perfection, then I'd have a full recipe to post on here.

Food Storage

Where I live we have what is called Case Lot Sales.  Around here people love to store food and case lot sales are a way to buy several months worth of canned goods at a discount price.  I love having food on hand, it's great when needing a quick meal, when you can't just run to the store every day (nearest one from me is 20 miles), or for security in an emergency.  When my husband didn't find a permanent job right after graduating college, it was good to know that at least we would not starve.  Between that and a financial reserve we were able to save ourselves a lot of stress and worry.

I realize most places don't have case lots, but canned goods and other frequently used items do go on sale.  I have a list of things we go through quickly- chocolate chips anyone? When they go one sale, we buy. We also store hygiene and other commonly used products.  Seriously, toilet paper is one thing I want to have plenty of!

Whether you buy food storage slowly as things come on sale or stock up at the once or twice a year sales, things we use everyday are always good to have extra of.  I recommend stocking up on at least a three month supply of items you use regularly and rotating your stock so it does not go bad.


What if you don't have the space???

Be creative.  Some people use long term food storage as a base for a bed. I use all my storage, even the wheat, so I keep it in a more accessible place...our closet.  We also have our cupboards full and an extra shelf in our kitchen. I look forward to when baby comes all we'll need to run to the store for is the perishable items- milk, eggs, cheese, fruit/veggies.

Happy Savings!

Syrup

I love my thick buttermilk syrup, but I also wanted something for those morning when I just wanted pancakes from the freezer and no cooking involved.  My problem was my syrup is best fresh and other syrups I've tried have been runny.

Here is a common recipe on the internet

1 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp maple flavoring.

Boil for 5 mins. Stir constantly

I added about a 1/2 cup corn syrup to make it thicker and boiled it for just a bit longer.  I was satisfied that it was thicker than sugary water and similar to a store bought version. (Although store bought isn't all that good.)

I will be experimenting more with syrups later.  It is always surprising how much sugar (or fat) goes into many of the things we eat without much thought.  Making things from scratch makes you more aware of that- and me more conscious of my syrup consumption.

Confession: I Buy Brand Name Products

There are those brand named foods that until I get around to experimenting with making them myself I will continue to stock up on when they are on sale.  In my opinion, Bull's Eye BBQ sauce is the best and no knock off version has ever come close to its tasty goodness. However, I wait until a sale before stocking up.

My husband likes a certain kind of soap, okay, I'll get it.  Keeping husband happy is way more important than a few pennies saved.

I have also found certain brands just work better than others.  A good brand of dish soap last us much longer than a cheap brand. Ironically, the name brand stuff ends up saving us money in the long run.  Once again sales and coupons can often be found for these products.

Cinnamon And Sugar

I once saw in the spiced section of a store a premixed cinnamon and sugar.  That was almost as laughable to me as jelly and peanut butter in the same jar.

I have heard a ratio of 4:1 sugar to cinnamon but I like a lot of cinnamon.  I probably do 1/4 cup sugar to 1 1/2 TBSP cinnamon.

Simply put the mix a container with lid, cover, and shake.  Tada!

And MORE Date Ideas

Can you tell I think proper dating is important? Sure hope this gives my brother and other single siblings plenty of ideas... not that they check my blog ever.

Anyways...

Perhaps, like most of us, you don't live in the middle of nowhere, here are a few more date ideas that can be done if you actually live in civilization. Also, check around your local town for ideas. 

• Be a tourist in your own town, go to sites and events unique to where you live.
• Go to the library and read children's books
• Feed ducks!
• Corn maze
• Hay ride
• Take a community class together
• Candy store! OR cupcake shop
• Go to a high school play
• The $100,000 date- go to the mall, furniture store, or local toy store, bring a notebook and record all of your “purchases” No car lots allowed.  You'd be surprised how hard it can be to spend that much in a night. Afterwards pick up pizza or other cheap dinner.
• Comedy club
• Go window shopping- old book stores, antique shops, or a specialized hobby store.
• Go-karts
• Miniature golf or bowling - clique dates
• Snowshoeing
• Racquetball- or any kind of sport
• Badminton
• Shooting range
• Archery range
• Laser Tag
• I can't recommend paintballing, it hurts!
• Visit an Arcade
• Zoo
• Aquarium
• Aviary
• Wildlife refuge
• Local sports event- little league baseball?
• Roller skating
• Carnival
• Fun centers in my area have inflatable bounce toys- giant slides and what not, some have a room full of trampolines
• Obstacle course
• Fishing
• Canoeing or other water activities

Any more ideas???

More Date Ideas

What if you live in the middle of nowhere??? Can you still date?

First off, I sure hope you're not single if you live somewhere like pictured above, it's hard to find a spouse in a barren wasteland.  Of course, it can be done, and I believe married couples, regardless of where they live, should continue to date.  Here is a list of ideas that, depending on the season, can be done almost anywhere:

Some of these may repeat from last (or next) post but they are fun to do again!

Check what is allowed in your area- for example I know sledding/ice blocking are ban in some parks.

• Hiking
• Sledding
• Ice blocking
• Frisbee or other appropriate activities for the park- just going to swing in fun.
• Picnics
• Card/board games- you can learn a lot from playing Curses.
• Cabbage Bowling!- let me explain: 10 cans of soda are the bowling pins, and I bet you can guess what you use as a bowling ball. Just make sure you don't stand too close when the pins get hit. (And have extra pins, just in case.)
• Roast marshmallows or starburst
• Feed ducks!... wait, we don't have any of those where I live, sigh.
• Fly kites
• Make homemade ice-cream
• Pumpkin carving
• Dying eggs
• Making and decorating gingerbread cookies
• Build santa's workshop with graham crackers, frosting and a wide variety of sweet treats
• Make a meal together
• Never done it but I like the idea of getting two cheap remote cars and racing them against each other.
• Origami- or paper airplanes
• Play darts
• Get out the crayons and coloring books
• Fingerpainting or pudding Pictionary
• Bike ride
• Bake cookies together
• Snowshoeing
• Design dream house
• Star gazing

Okay, I'm sure others of you out in internet land have better ideas.  Feel free to comment.