Cooking With Food Storage: Cranberry Bread

I am a serious cranberry lover. Unfortunately, this is one crop that I cannot grow myself here in the south. My husband always buys me at least 10 bags of cranberries in November so I have enough to make it through the holiday season. Berries not eaten by January get dehydrated so I can eat them at my leisure for the rest of the winter. 

One of my favorite recipes for cranberries is cranberry bread. I make this bread all winter long! It is delicious with dried cranberries as well as fresh. The other day I found a bag of cranberries in the back of the freezer that I overlooked when drying all the rest. I knew exactly what I was going to do with it!

Unless you have an orange tree, (they do grow well in pots in a south facing window) you will need some fresh ingredients for this bread. While all the instructions listed are for one loaf, I doubled all the ingredients and made two loaves. 

Cranberry Bread
2 cups flour (I grind my own flour. I used 1 cup hard white wheat, 1/2 cup soft white wheat, and 1/2 cup spelt.)
1 cup sugar (One cup sugar really isn't necessary, I used 1/2 cup.)
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup cranberries (As I mentioned above, dried cranberries work very well in this recipe.)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts.)
1TBS orange zest (I didn't have any orange zest, I used lemon.)
1 egg (I used 2 TBS powdered eggs, reconstituted with 3 TBS water.)
2 TBS vegetable oil (I used olive oil.)
3/4 cup orange juice (I never purchase fresh orange juice. I used a can of frozen concentrate leftover from Christmas - it was for a holiday punch that I didn't make. 1 TBS of concentrate in 3/4 cup water works well.)

Start by combining all the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the cranberries and nuts.

You want the flour mixture to coat all the pieces so mix them in well. In a separate bowl, combine the egg powder, vegetable oil, orange concentrate, and water. I added the water all at once. First, I measured the 3/4 cup needed for the orange juice liquid. To that I added 3 TBS more for the egg liquid. Mix well. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. 

Try not to overmix this. It will make the bread dry and crumbly. Mix until everything is moist and then stop. Pour into a greased pan. I used PAM olive oil spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

My goal was to bake one in the kitchen oven and bake one in the Sun Oven then take a picture of them side by side. While it was very cold outside, it was also very sunny. When I was setting up the Sun Oven, I put the first loaf in the kitchen oven and forgot to take a picture!

It took a long time for the Sun Oven to get hot. I made this bread fairly early in the morning and the outside temperature was 39 degrees. The Sun Oven only got to 300 degrees. Not what I wanted but doable. I knew it would probably need to bake about 1 hour and 45 minutes before I even tested to see if it was done. The loaf was in the Sun Oven for about 25 minutes when my husband suggested we take Molly for a long walk. I said yes! So, I took the loaf out of the Sun Oven and put it in the kitchen oven to finish baking while I got ready. 

That is when I remembered to take a picture! So, here is my loaf pan out of the Sun Oven, ready to go into the kitchen oven to finish baking. 

I baked it 38 minutes in the kitchen oven. This is what it looked liked when it came out.

Let it cool for at least 10 minutes before you try to take it out of the pan. I let mine completely cool in the pan because as soon as it came out of the oven, we left for our walk. It came out perfect! As soon as we got back home, we each had a slice.

I always double this recipe and make two at a time. The extra loaf freezes very well! That way, you can have one on hand to bring to work or take to a party whenever you need it! YUM!

No Vacuum, No Problem!

9 Month Update

As many of you may know, my vacuum died about 9 months ago. I decided to go without one for one year to try to understand just how my great-great-grandmothers managed to keep their houses clean.

Although it has only been 9 months, I almost feel like I have never had a vacuum! I don't even miss it! All I can say is, it really is possible to have wall to wall carpet and not have a vacuum. I never would have believed it if I didn't experience it myself.

Still, winter cleaning is different than summer cleaning. Since winter arrived, I haven't been outside much to beat the rugs. It has been way too cold! I can't stand cold weather, so I make do by gently shaking the rugs on the floor. (The rugs on the wall to wall carpet are also gently shaken on the hardwood floor.) It does make just a bit more dust in the room I use to do this, but not enough to be a problem. What I have noticed is the rugs are not quite as clean as they were in the summer when I was beating them. They seem to gather dirt faster than they did in the summer. While I do notice it, it isn't a big enough issue to get me to go outside and beat them in the cold! I will continue this 'indoor cleaning' practice until the weather warms up!

This year, we have the additional problem of lots of heavy winter rain. All the rain brings mud into the house, so the rugs have mud on them as well as normal dirt. When mud is ground in, even vacuuming won't remove it, so I don't think my lack of a vacuum is contributing to this problem. My solution has been to wash the rugs more often than was needed during the summer. This is quite a bit of effort, (I am not thrilled with this chore) but it gets the rugs clean. I wait until I truly can't stand the rug any longer and then wash it. In the warmer weather, I was washing the rugs about every 3 months. Now, I am washing them monthly. The rugs at the entryways are washed more frequently than that.

To make this solution work, it is critical that you have washable rugs! Many of mine are from the big box stores. (The rest I made myself.) I like the fact that you can get rugs inexpensively at the big box stores! They have lots of colors and styles to match any decor.  If washing the rugs wears them out, I can easily replace them. (So far, so good on that point - my rugs are holding up well for now!)

I truly believe the key to not having a vacuum is a good broom. Don't skimp here! Purchase a really good one, the best you can afford. You will be glad that you did later! It will get a daily workout. Another 'must have' item is my carpet sweeper. I know I have said this in previous posts, but this journey/experiment would not be possible without my Hoky PR3000.

It will even lift the nap of the wall to wall carpeting! The strokes it leaves look just like a vacuum did it! My carpets look great! 

While I am managing well by washing the rugs more often to keep the mud out of the house, I will admit, all this rain has created one problem that needs special attention. Even though I wipe Molly's feet off when she comes inside, I have mud on the carpet in my master bedroom  (This is the only room with carpet that she enters frequently.)  I can tell because I have white carpet and now a large spot at the foot of the bed has a slightly red hue. I can even feel it when I walk on the carpet. I have two solutions to this problem and I think I will incorporate both. First, I am going to have to shampoo the carpet. I am not sure if I will rent a carpet cleaner or just use a mop with some Resolve cleaner. Once I do that, I will place an area rug over the 'problem' area to avoid this in the future. 

I expect I will have to rearrange all the rugs in the house to find a suitable match for the ones needed in the master bedroom. I want to avoid the purchase of any new rugs for this purpose, if at all possible. 

I will let you know how it all turns out at the next update! In the meantime, the experiment will continue!


I can not say enough good things about this carpet sweeper. Even if you have a vacuum, I believe this sweeper should be on the 'must have' list! It will save you from having to bring out the big vacuum for everyday clean up!

If you like this post, you may also like:

• No Vacuum? No Problem! (So Far)
• No Vacuum? No Problem! (6 Month Update)

More Treats for Man's Best Friend

Over the holidays, I happen to have an overripe banana left over from a bunch my husband bought. Probably, most people would throw out an overripe banana, after all it was only one and a small one at that. Not me! I had to find a use for it. An Internet search brought up lots of different choices. I modified the one I picked, and also made it gluten free. These treats do best stored in the refrigerator.

Banana Blueberry Treats
1 1/2 cup gluten free flour (I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour. However, if you have garbanzo beans in your food storage, you could grind them up and use that.)
One medium banana smashed (You could use 1/4 cup dehydrated bananas, reconstituted.)
1/8 cup honey (You can use a bit less if you would like, the fruit is sweet enough.)
1 TBS ground flax seed (I added two tablespoons. Flax seed oil is excellent for a dog's coat. Molly eats it as part of her regular diet.)
2 TBS water
1/2 cup blueberries (I used dehydrated blueberries, reconstituted.)

Start by reconstituting the blueberries and bananas, if necessary. If using fresh, smash the banana.

Add all the other ingredients except the blueberries and mix well.

When everything is incorporated, fold in the blueberries.

This dough is quite sticky, so I decided to drop them on a cookie sheet. Use a teaspoon, these should be small treats. If your dog doesn't eat fruit regularly (mine does) you don't want to give them too much at one time. If you want to use cookie cutters, dust the work area liberally with flour.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. You will have a happy dog!

Spend Just a Few Dollars and Never Clean Your Shower Again!

Well, almost never! I have been using this trick for about a year or so and it works great!  What is it? 

A squeegee! I am serious about how little you will need to clean your shower if you use one. The process is simple, the last person to take a shower in the morning uses the squeegee. At my house, that person is usually me. On occasion, it is my husband.  I will admit, he was not a fan of the idea when I started. However, over the course of the past year, he has seen how clean the shower stays when the squeegee is used on a daily basis. So he has started to squeegee too! (You may find it a bit harder to get the kids to use it on a regular basis.)

I can hear you saying now, "I don't have time to squeegee after every shower!" I understand. If you are late for work, the last thing you want to do is spend time squeegeeing. (Is that a word?) Since I have been doing this for slightly over a year now, I have a much better handle on exactly what it takes to keep the shower clean.

Let's start with a picture of my shower. It isn't huge, but it isn't small either. It can hold two people. It is 100% white tile with white grout. It hasn't been the easiest shower to keep clean these past 13 years.

When I first started, it took an extra ten minutes to squeegee the door, walls and floor. Way too long when I was in a hurry! However, I have since learned that the idea isn't to remove every drop of water, all you need to do is remove the majority of it. I timed myself this past week and it took 3 minutes from start to finish. Really! 

Large fast strokes work well. Your goal is to remove the soap residue and any standing water that may start mold growing. (Here in the south, mold grows on everything - inside the house and out. It is critical to remove any standing water in the shower to keep the mold at bay.) There isn't any need to wipe down the squeegee between strokes. If the squeegee is wet, it is no big deal. Remember, you are not looking to get every drop of water, just the big stuff.

Now, the question is: "How often do I clean the shower if I squeegee it every day?" Well, on average, I clean the floor of the shower every 4 to 6 weeks. If for some reason we go through a period where the shower doesn't get squeegeed every day, then it is closer to every 3 weeks. No one in the house has had any athlete's foot or other fungus problems. The walls of the shower have been cleaned with soap twice this year. That's it: twice! The soap I use to clean the shower is a combination of Dawn dishwashing soap and vinegar. You can see that recipe here.

I officially declare my experiment a success! There is no way I will ever be without a squeegee again!

New Goals for a New Year!

This time of year, I plan goals that I want to accomplish during the year. This year, I have a few personal and business goals in addition to self-reliance goals that move me along my journey to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. Some of them are on this goal cloud that I got from The Mormon Channel!

For the past five years or so, I have done a really good job of accomplishing most everything I set a goal for. Well, that streak ended this year! I didn't accomplish very many of the goals I set for 2013. I start again this year and try to increase my chances of success by creating a better plan of how I am going to accomplish them. 

So, here are the self reliant goals I want to accomplish this year. Some of them are goals I didn't get to accomplish last year, others are new ones:

• Grow my own popping corn. This is a self-reliant goal of mine because we eat a lot of popcorn at our house! I don't want to have to purchase it at the store anymore! Although I bought the seed in time for planting popcorn last spring, it never happened. Looking back now, it was a good thing that I didn't plant them. I am sure I would not have managed to keep them alive. With all the rain we had last summer, I am sure I would have lost them to fungus diseases. With the new raised bed I added this past fall, I have plenty of room to plant popcorn this year. In addition, the spot I want to put them will give the plants plenty of sun exposure to combat any potential disease threats I may have this coming year.
• Make soap from wood ashes. This is also a goal I had from last year. Although I have been making soap for over 20 years, I have never made soap with wood ashes. I didn't accomplish this goal last year because after researching what was needed, I realized I didn't have enough ashes saved up from the winter! This year, with the cold winter we are expecting, I should burn enough wood in my fireplace to get a sufficient amount of ashes. Hopefully, it will be enough to attempt to make soap. We shall see!
• Make more of my own cheese. I have been making cheese for a few years now. This past year, I didn't get the time to make very much of it. So unfortunately, we ended up purchasing more cheese from the store than I made. This year, I want to reverse that! I hope to make the majority of the cheese we eat. I also plan to do more research into making my own vegetable rennet so I no longer need to purchase it.

I did manage to move forward in my journey to all non-electric appliances last year! Two of the goals I met were in getting non-electric appliances.

• A hand crank blender. Over the past two months, I have grown to like my hand crank blender. (I have not grown to love it- it still has flaws!) Still, I am glad that I have it. (You can see my review of the blender here.) I do use it often.
• A carpet sweeper. This appliance became a critical tool for me to help keep my house clean this year. You may recall that my vacuum cleaner broke back in early spring! When it broke, I set a new goal to go without purchasing a new vacuum cleaner for one year. So far - so good, with that goal! It was only possible because of this tool. (I promise an update on my year without a vacuum soon!) 

I also have a non-electrical appliance goal that I did not meet. That one was to fix up my treadle sewing machine and use it to make most of my clothes in 2013. I am sorry to say that it didn't even make it on the radar screen! The only dress I made last year was my pioneer dress for The Trek. (You can read about that here.) For the coat I am currently working on, I am using a 13 year old computerized sewing machine and my 23 year old serger. I still have some patterns for dresses and blouses from the 19th Century I hope to make this year. I would like to try to do that on the treadle machine. So, I will add fixing up the treadle machine to this year's goal list.

With all these goals, it promises to be a very busy year! My plan is to add one or two 'to do's' to my personal calendar each month so I stay on track to get them all accomplished.

I will post updates on my accomplishments as I work on each one throughout this year!