Dear Mothers,

Ya know homemade noodles are so easy to make. And they are just flour and eggs salt and pepper. So if you have just these few ingredients and some meat and vegetables, you can make a meal. I used to make the noodles and add spaghetti sauce and hamburger to it. I have also made my own lasagna noodles. Once you learn to make these noodles, you will have a ball with them and they taste so much better than store bought.

So to start out with, just get a big pan of salted water to boil on the stove while you are making your noodles. OK, get out your mixing bowl and put in about 2 cups of flour. Then add enough eggs to get a dough goin’. Add a tsp of salt and some pepper. So the dough is just flour and eggs, no other liquid. So just play with this dough until it is like Play Dough. It should be that dry so you can roll it out on a floured surface. Roll this dough very thin. Now if you are having trouble getting it rolled out, just take smaller hunks of dough and roll it out. Then take a pizza cutter or knife and slice up strips. I do mine a handful at a time and put them in the already boiling water. This way the noodles have plenty of room to cook. And then cut another handful and throw them in. They will sorta float around in there. Stir them gently as to not break the strip up. Cook them for at least 45 minutes. After all the noodles are cut and in the boiling water, just turn them down and let them simmer a while.

Now you can dry these to use for later if you have too many. This is how to dry them. After they are cut, not cooked yet, just leave them on your cutting board in strips and let them dry a few days. You have to turn them over and get them really dry. After they are dried you can put them in a jar to use in a few weeks. Don’t seal the jar but put the lid on lightly. Or just make a lid out of cloth and put a canning lid around it. This way the noodles continue to dry. Also you can freeze the raw noodles in packages. And here is another noodle idea. When making the noodles, add a little tomato sauce and make the noodles red. Then I add herbs to these like basil or any Italian seasonings.

The lasagna noodles are just made by cutting the noodles in the size of the lasagna from the store and then make your dish as usual. Of course, boil them as I described the noodles in boiling salt water. When making the vegetable soups or stews, I used to add the noodles to the bubbling soup/stew. Your liquids have to always be boiling before you put the noodles in.

But hey, Happy Housewives, just try to learn these homemaking skills as it will save so much on your grocery bills. Also it will keep your families much more healthy and happy knowing their meals are homemade! Learn to make good cornbread, pies, muffins and cakes. Try your hand at making everything from scratch. Learn the feel of biscuit dough and how it is different then pie dough. Learn to be confident in your work place the kitchen.

Love,
Connie

Dear Mothers,

Boy am I prayin’ about bein’ on the radio! There are some obstacles that I am prayin’ about. I am just casting my cares upon Jesus. Oh, mercy, I want so much to be able to go into the home of mothers with a live message. I want Mothers at home to hear me say, “You can make it. It’s OK. All is well!”

I think my greatest burden is for the children. I know what it’s like to have heartbroken children who cry for their Daddy to come home. I taught my children to pray at the table, “Thank You, Jesus, for bringin’ my Daddy home.” I know what it is like to be broken hearted for my husband. And I know what it is like to have people who were supposed to be Christians say horrid things to me, adding insults to injuries. And it should never have been that way. And the Lord gave me victory. He gave me double blessings for all I suffered.

We as believers should be the counselor to the broken in heart. So many need a counselor in this age. My heart goes especially to young families. Oh, for them to be able to turn on the radio and hear an older mother say, “It’s OK. Jesus came to bind up the broken in heart and to set the captive free.”

The mourning and grieving that so many Mothers face alone is not the will of God. I used to cry bitter tears when I was alone and forsaken. I would pray, “Lord, you have called the older woman to encourage me — where is she?” Yes, the Lord has called the older Titus mother but she refuses to come. That isn’t Gods fault that so many of you young moms are forsaken.

As a child, when my brother and I would come home from school as children, we always called, “Mother? Mother?” when we came in the door. And we knew that Mother was there and ready to listen to our stories about school. And we knew that in a few hours a hot supper would be on the table. It’s not like that now in our country. And so many of our children’s souls are almost silent, having cried out into darkness for so long and no one answered.

We need multitudes of young mothers to come back home to the family. We need a multitude of older Mothers to call them back. And I am not the only one tryin’ to get on the radio. I bet there are many older moms who have heard this call of the Lord. But it has to be in the Lord’s time and I am waiting on Him. I am not going to worry over it. And I don’t want anyone else to worry over it, either. It will all gel and come together.

The Greatest Deception

Ya know women preachers are such a deception. They tell the truth for the most part. A deception is never a deception without truth. Because no one would be deceived by a person who told only lies. So these women stand up and preach the Word except for the Word concerning Keepers at home. How much heart does it take for a woman to preach and forget the children? The children are to be protected, loved and cared for. That is one of the main jobs of the wife and mother. How can any woman preacher preach and forget the children?

When Cain killed his brother Abel, the blood of Abel cried out to God. Think of the blood of 1.5 million babies a year who are right now crying out to God. And do you think God is standing there like a deaf man watching TV? And why do the lady preachers get away with all this deception and your money? Because the older woman has blasphemed the Word of God. She has hidden herself away to seek her own comfort. She has allowed lady preacher to take over and to be the voice of authority. And it is killing the heart of the young mothers, not to mention their children. Abortion thinking began in the church. I have heard of churches that made it mandatory for the young adult members to get fixed after a couple children.

Our world is not overpopulated. It’s just that no one wants to move to where there is no electricity or roads. So many are after the almighty $$$$$$ and they refuse to rough it. But any family with a pioneer spirit could have plenty of land to build a house on. Who needs electricity, anyway. As long as a person is warm and has food and water and a roof over their heads, then that is all they need.

I often wonder how many prophets of God and handmaidens of the Lord are dead at the dump because their mother and dad didn’t want them. Our population is getting so old. My own mother at 83 has the best of health care. Medicare and health insurance from my Dad’s pension. He had a good factory job. These jobs used to be pretty easy to come by. But now our nation takes the best of care of our old folks and kills the unborn, the new blood. But the older women in our day seem to have a window of opportunity here that they may not have coming up. We are, for the most part, safe at least and can teach the young mom what we know.

I was a stay at home mother. But I never expected to have my own car or cell phone or computer. Jim paid off the house so I can stay home now and care for children. I hope to cause the devil some damage as I stay here and do my work. And I don’t care how I do it. On the radio, on TV, or just through my email machine. But I do plan on causing some damage.

I am already in the soup and the furnace has been turned up three times hotter. In the middle of the night last night, reality hit me, that what I was asking for was my own radio show? My heart started to pound and I thought of all the reasons I couldn’t do it. Like Sanbalit asked Nehemiah, “Who do you think you are?” And the Syrian King stands around me telling me as he told Hezekiah’s people, “You will never get it done. Bigger guns than you have tired and I took them over and I will take you down.” But God delivered Nehemiah and Hezekiah. And trust me, I ain’t goin’ out to fight the King or the unbelievers in any way. I am waiting on God. And if He puts me over and gets me on the radio, it will be His doings.

I ain’t gonna cry to you all for a million dollars and then give you a free pen with my name on it? No, I ain’t gonna play that game. But I am saying that had the older Titus 2 mother been on the job, these lady preachers would never have gotten so far. For hundreds of years the lady preachers were not allowed to preach as the Mothers at home outshone them. Mother at home taught her daughters to stay home and run the homestead. And back then we didn’t have divorce and birth control as we do today.

Simple Meals

And ya know what? We live in dangerous times. Some of you Mothers who get to stay home don’t know how to cook and bake basic things. You all need to know how to make biscuits and gravy. I mean some of you would starve to death with a bit of meat and flour in front of ya. And ya know I threw out a lot of my biscuits to the birds as they were so hard no one wanted them. But I actually got good at it later on. But practice, Dear Heart, and you will become a good biscuit maker.

Get some self-rising flour. It costs a bit more them regular flour. Put 2 cups of flour in your bowl and add a fourth cup of shortening or lard, whatever. Rub the shortening into the flour with your fingers until the mixture looks like tiny peas. Make sure all the shortening is rubbed into the flour. Then add some milk about 1 cup. And stir this up and make a dough. Then flatten the dough on a floured surface. Don’t roll it with a rolling pin. Just pat it with your hands. It should be about an inch thick. Then cut the dough out with a table glass or the rim of a tin can. Bake in a hot oven for about 15 minutes. Be sure to preheat the oven to 450 degrees. This is a quick bread and needs to be baked quick and hot.

You can even take this dough and roll it out thin and put butter and sugar and cinnamon on it and slice it and bake it like cinnamon rolls. You could put nuts in this or raisins. Once you learn to make a biscuit dough, you can make a lot of things. Dumplings are made like plain biscuits that you can drop into a bubbling stew and they bake under the liquid. But do learn to make homemade noodles and from scratch pies and cakes. No, everything won’t turn out perfect but just keep practicing.

Happy Homemaking.

Love,
Connie

Ya know I see so many people using store bought chicken broth on these cooking shows … seems sorta silly to me. My friend Jill used to jar up quarts and quarts of all kinds of broth to use in recipes. Jill, if you are reading this, would you please tell about all that broth you used to make and can? Anyway, this is how ya make chicken broth.

I would make it if we were having baked whole chicken. Then I would just take the leftover baked chicken and the bones with the meat on it and just put it in a pan and cook the meat off. But you can use any chicken parts. I do make mine a little different then most people. I put the chicken carcass in a roasting pan and bake it for about 3 or 4 hours on low, about 300 degrees. I leave the lid off and it sorta thickens. So, anyway, you add enough water to cover the carcass. Then add more water as it cooks down. And then I put in a few carrots and a few stalks of celery to season it and lots of onions and garlic. Salt and black pepper and herbs. Sage is good. Well, anyway, you bake all of this in the oven. Most women cook it on top of the stove. Then when it is done, you strain it. Put a big bowl or pan in the sink and put your colander or drainer in the bowl. Then pour the hot broth through to strain out all of the bones fat, etc. and the carrots and celery, etc. So then you have a clean broth to use in any recipe. Take the good meat chunks and put them back into the broth, or just save them for a casserole. Also to strain out the fat, you can set your pan of broth out on the porch if it’s cold or in the fridge. The fat will rise and coat the top of the broth. When it is hard, just skim it off and use the fat to make biscuits or to fry potatoes in with some oil.

Now this sounds like a lot of work. But ya know in the old days, depending on the season, the Mothers were in the kitchen, anyway. So it was natural to just have something in the oven all the time, anyway. As Mother was putting away the leftover baked chicken dinner and doin’ the dishes, it was normal to just add water to the roasting pan and stick it back in the oven to make broth for another meal. As she thought of it, she added herbs, etc. Maybe she had a relish plate on the table and had odds and ends celery and carrots left over. She just threw them in her broth.

Anyway, after the broth is done, just put it in jars or plastic containers. Put in like 2 cups to use in place of 2 cups of store bought. Jill canned hers and I froze mine. Or like Cindy was saying, just make a chicken soup out of it right after you eat the baked chicken. But I just wrote my recipe down to let you know that you can make the chicken broth very easily.

When all my children were home, I would feed them a lot of homemade pancakes for breakfast. Then if I had some leftover batter, I put it in my yeast bread to have for supper. One meal was usually incorporated into the next meal. Leftover mashed potatoes always made potato soup for the next day. Often I would make extra mashed potatoes to use for potato pancakes for the next day. You just add an egg to the mashed potatoes, stir them up good, and then fry them in a hot skillet. I do cheat on mashed potatoes. I use the fresh potatoes but if I think I need more, I add instant. The family doesn’t know the difference. Those poor souls have eaten things they have sworn they have never eaten. Well, if it looks good and has plenty of salt in it, they like it.

Dear Mothers,

Johnny stopped by for a minute yesterday. He and David made it back from NYC almost in one piece. John told me, “Well, Dan broke my rib.” I know Chrissy was waiting for John to tell me that. Those wild and crazy brothers wrestle all the time. After Dan did that, John took Dan’s head and rubbed it on the carpet until he got a big rug burn on his forehead. I bet Dan looks perty. I asked Christine (John’s wfe) what she thought. She just looks at John in silence and shakes her head. I think it’s just one rib. PTL. I told John to put a wrap around his chest but I don’t know if he will or not. But now I know why Chrissy was calling the brothers barbarians.

Chrissy Joy had a lovely wedding. The theme was the 1950s. They had out an old record player with 45 records playing 50s songs. Her wedding gown was 1950s. A very light pink with buttercream lace. Each of the bridesmaids wore a 50s outfit. Christian sang to me on the phone one of the songs that was her favorite from the 1940s. The first part goes, “I don’t want to set the world on fire. I just want to put a flame in your heart.” Oh, I love it. I sang the first part to MaryL, age 78, on the phone, and she recognised it and sang the whole song to me. She said she used to sing that in the 40s.

Joy (Chrissy) got married at a lovely home in upstate NY. In the back of the house were woods and they had a bonfire and just sat around it. Joy said it was very relaxing. Hmmmm, a fire? I am surpised Dan didn’t jump in it and scream “Goodness Gracious. Great Baaaaaaaalllls of Fire!”

Well, anyway, it was a lovely, relaxing wedding. A lot of people wanted to come, as Joy is rather popular in NY. But she was very adamant about just having close friends and family. I think she said she just had 70 guests. This was close and personal as she wanted it. A group of her girlfriends got her and Jason a tandem bike. (Bike built for 2 riders.) Also a group of (groom) Jason’s friends are getting them plane tickets to Bali Indonesia. But I am gonna try to talk her out of that. I think that is tooo dangerous.

Well, it really sounds like they had a lovely wedding. I was hoping Danny would have come back home with them. But, actually, it would be less dangerous for Dan to live in NY. (Just kidding.) I know they all had a great time.

John’s family was coming this morning to help with mowing the lawn but it is raining. Well, it’s just 7:00 am. So maybe it will quit raining and dry up by mid morning. I am fixing Sloppy Joes and will have sliced tomatoes and corn on the cob, and sliced cucumbers. We will pick apples and tomatoes and cukes for them to take home.

I didn’t do very good with the garden this year. Too much to deal with this year. But the Lord kept it and I am getting a lot of tomatoes, anyway. I know I have basil in that weed patch out there, too, and green peppers. Well, I will have to find them. Next year, I hope I will be doing better and be more on the ball.

As I write, I turn around and look at my dining room and living room. I am tellin’ ya, it is so peaceful. It reminds me of when I went to visit my aunt and uncle’s farm in the summer. I know the angels attend me night and day.

Laying Mary at the Cross

Oh, last night, I laid in my bed and prayed for Mary. The Lord spoke to my heart. In essence, He said, “Ya know, Connie, I don’t plan on letting ya go on this. The further that evil rubber band swings back, the further it is gonna shoot forward.” I am really surprised the devil wants to play this game with me. I am assured of winning.

Brandon was in the paper for forgery. I mean, this plot thickens. But it’s good, as now more people will pray for him. He comes from a long line of Christians. All of his relatives live around here and are good stock. They are gonna pray for him and I am certainly praying. His folks range from Pentecostal to Baptist. But I know they won’t eat their own but will put a medicine of prayer on his wounds. He has been a wild cat lately. Mary couldn’t keep up with him and bailed out. But I know if he will straighten up and go back to work, she would take him back.

I am believing that August won’t end without Mary and Brandon back together. Those two were a house of cards that fell little by little. But one thing that I really prayed about is what Toot said the other night. She said, “Connie, we have to look to Jesus and see what He wants to do in us personally.” The Lord showed me that have to come to Jesus alone. And then we have to follow Jesus. Not shadowed with a child but alone we must come to Jesus. I mean, the Lord had hardly heard from me that I wasn’t bringing Mary to Him. But I am also His daughter. The Lord showed me that as I put Mary and Brandon aside and follow His leading, this will turn the kids around. All I have done is wait in prayer for God to do something. But I must go on and hope my little lambs will follow me.

Ya know how, when the kids are little and they don’t want to leave Grandma’s house, and you say, “Well, I am going out to the car.” Pretty soon they will follow ya. But if ya just stand there and complain, the child thinks he has more time to play. Well, the Lord showed me that I have been like this and I need to go on to the car. So I prayed and asked the Lord where He was taking ME? And the Lord gave me a picture in my mind of four angels beside me. Each angel was calling me to a different job — each job contradicted the other one. I knew which way I was supposed to go. It was a no-brainer. But ya know? Knowing something is right and doing it is sometimes hard. But the Lord showed me that, through only having my eyes on the kids, I was running against the road the Lord wanted me on. Like God’s people in the wilderness, I am going in circles. We have to fix our eyes upon the Lord and go with Him. We have to be led of the Holy Spirit and not by the trouble in our families. By faith we take our eyes off the problem and put our eyes upon the Lord. We have to be about our Father’s business.

Satan may know that eventually we will get onto the right path. But he wants to interrupt us as much as he can. We think it is people calling us to do this and that. But the spiritual realm is calling us. The Spirit comes first and then people hear the Spirit — evil or good — and they begin to react to it. But it all starts in the spirit realm. And if Satan thinks he can use our kids to take us away from the call of God upon our lives, then he will do that. He will set us up for that.

Satan wants to be glorified and magnified to be like God. He wants the attention to be upon him. And when we mothers give him attention, then he wants some more. And the fear we have in our hearts is what he rides on. But we must lay our Issacs down. Because some of us make gods of our children. I humbly bow! “Forgive me, please, sweet Jesus.”

Actually, as we fear over our kids, we make them worse. And as long as Satan can use our kids to get us to go in the wrong direction, he will continue to make our kids worse. I am a bigger gun at this point then Mary is. And the devil wants to break me down.

Titus 2 Mother

I was prayin’ and I told the Lord, “Oh, Lord, I have been sending my writing out for 9 years now and I haven’t really accomplished much.” The Lord told me that I should look at it like this. I have hung on for 9 years and didn’t lose the ministry, which is a miracle. All I have been through in the past 9 years and still writing? It’s a miracle! Only Jesus kept me. When I first began writing, the house nearly burned down. And then you all know most of the rest. Right after we had remodeled, we had another smoke fire. Jim had put up white wall paper and had to do it all over again. I was responsible for both fires. I could barely forgive myself. But I kept writing.

I had begged the Lord for an older Titus Mother to rescue me the whole time I was raising my children. Then, when I became 50, the Lord told me I was the older Titus 2 Mother. I am like, “Didn’t we skip something here, Lord”? But at age 50, I just became who I had prayed for. Widowhood is nothing I expected, for sure! I mean, if the Titus 2 Mother loses her husband, what more is there? Well, I have truly lost almost everything. Poor Annie, I know this writing isn’t getting you out from under the bed. But, Annie, God has a perfect plan for each of us. Just because I lose so much, it doesn’t mean you will.

I need ladies who are whole and complete around me. Like Miss Violet who spoke of being organized in the Titus 2 Ministry. Oh, mercy, I could never be accused of being organized. No, I will always be the wind in some of your sails but organization is not in my blood. But, Annie, you are very organized and some of you on the group know what the heck you are doin’. No one could ever think I knew what I was doin’.

My Mother is a perfectionist and I drive her nuts. She said I am the strangest child she has ever heard of, and to think I am her daughter. But some of us have to ride on the wind. We have been pushed off the earth through many trials. And this world is no longer our home. We live somewhere between heaven and earth. If we didn’t live that way, we wouldn’t live at all. We put confidence in the holy clouds of heaven — just holy air. Because we have found out the hard way that this world has nothing to hang onto. The Spiritual becomes more real to us then the physical. The angels become our friends. And we live in a heavenly kingdom. And this physical world will pass away. But heaven will be our homes forever and ever.

This is all true, whether you live in the physical or in the spiritual on this earth. And the heavenlies are very busy lately. Things are going on in the Spirit realm. The Lord knows we are living in DANGEROUS times. And He is sending angels to us all the time to protect us. Angels come down out of heaven as God calls them and they come for a reason. I feel such a peace here at home as the rain gently plays upon my windows. The cool air comes to me from my side screen door just about six feet away. But I know it is the peace that passeth understanding. It is a peace from God. But our earth and the heavenlies are not at peace. Violence is in heaven (Matthew 11:12) and the violent take it by force. What we loose in heaven is loosed on earth.

And, ya know, please, ladies, pray for me and Annie, especially. She is a young mom who has so much responsibility with her own family. Running (or trying to run) with me has got to be hard. We need folks to pray for this group. I am so glad for Artie, Kelly’s husband, that seems to have a heart for us and what we are trying to do. I sure welcome the husbands to cover us spiritually in prayer. I have always asked that all of you who are on the group to really submit to your husbands. I try to submit to Jim’s memory and to not go outside of where I think he would want me to go. I use his memory as a guide to keep myself under submission to the Lord.

But we live in hard times. We need to be doing our canning, freezing, etc.

Bread and Butter Pickles

These pickles are just housewife pickles that don’t take much thinkin’ but Jim just loved them. As I prepare to make them, I feel like I am takin’ a step in faith to re-enter my life of homemaking again. I hear the cloud of witnesses cheering me on. The angels are smiling. Oh, I have done the regular stuff like vacuuming and cooking and stuff. But nothing back to the land where my heart touches Jim’s. I used to make barrels of these pickles but I will just make a crock full for the fridge this year.

I have about 7 big cukes. So I will slice these up with the peeling on them. Also add onion slices and green peppers, and about a fourth cup of salt. So you let these sit in a bowl for a few hours with water over them. Put a plate on top to keep the cuke mixture under water. Most recipes say overnight. Then drain them and rinse them with cold water. So then make a syrup for them on a stove in a pan. I will use my big spaghetti pan.

For just these few cukes, I will make my brine with just 2 cups of white vinegar and 2 cups of sugar, then the spices. Just bring this brine to a boil and turn it off and add the cukes mixture. Push the cukes all under the brine. The spices I will use (put them in when you add the sugar) are turmeric, about a fourth tsp. And about 2 tbs of mustard seed. Some garlic and about a Tbs celery seed. Some folks add cloves and cinnamon sticks, etc. but I don’t. And they cook the pickles longer but I want mine crisp. I like mine about half cooked.

One year I ran out of cukes and used zucchini to make these pickles. Jill used to use zucchini for everything. I made an apple pie once with zucchini and gave some to Aunt Toot and she never knew the difference. Poor Aunt Toot!

Love,
Connie

Yesterday I wrote a second part to my writing about Farmers Cheese. Well, my email machine got stuck when I was sending it out. So I had to unplug it and I lost my writing. So I am going to write about Farmers Cheese again.

Farmers cheese is a homestead cheese to make at home. Other cheeses are hard to make at home. But Cottage cheese and Farmers Cheese traditionally were made at home in the old days. These cheeses got their names from the words home. Cottage meaning home or Farmers cheese meaning on the farm and not made in a factory. And most cheese starts out as cottage cheese or Farmers cheese. I mean you could make Colby cheese and Swiss cheese and all at home. But traditionally most folks didn’t, as they were too hard to make. I have never tried to make any kind except the easier kinds.

You can make cheese from cows milk or goat milk. After you make your cottage cheese, you just drain it and put it in a colander or potato strainer lined with a white thin dish towel. Then pour the cottage cheese in. And if you want an herbed cheese, then put the salt and herbs in when it is still cottage cheese. Then take the towel and swoop it up around the cheese, making a sack out of it. Squeeze the water out of it by wringing the top and squeezing the cottage cheese to get the liquid or whey out. Squeeze it out good. And then, if it is a cool day, you can clamp your sack of cheese with a big safety pin or a small rope. Make it tight and secure. Then go out and hang the sack on the clothes line for the day. If ya got cool weather, just leave it out there a few days. Not freezing weather but just a bit warmer. Then bring it in and, if it is still kinda wet, then put it back in the colander and lay a clean brick on the top for overnight in the fridge. This will squeeze the rest of the water out and it will drain good. Be sure to keep this cheese cool as you are waiting to get the water out.

I made a cheese once that nearly killed me. But I didn’t keep it cool. I left it hanging in my kitchen a few weeks. Oh! My gosh, I am alive to tell it? It tasted like kerosene cheese?

Well, anyway, this Farmers Cheese will get hard and you can slice it. You can even make a rind for it out of paraffin. Just pour the warm paraffin over the cheese and it will make a rind and it will last longer. If you had a lot of milk and wanted to make a lot of cheese that wouldn’t be eaten right away, I would do the paraffin thing to keep it sealed and fresh. Still keep it in a cool place. But if you are just making one batch for the family, then I wouldn’t use the paraffin.

Now there are, I am sure, websites that will tell you how to make Cottage Cheese and Farmers Cheese. I would tell you how I make cottage cheese but you wouldn’t believe me, anyway. The recipes out there are way to complicated for my blood. They put in buttermilk and do this and that. And they cut the curd in nice squares and all. I don’t do any of that.

But ya know, now is the time to gather knowledge and experiment with making cheeses. I always, as a young wife, just wanted to know how to do all of this stuff. I wanted to make cheese enough to be able to say I knew how. And I sure learned how NOT to make it. I think we need confidence as Christian Homemakers. That if our family was to fall on hard times, we would have the confidence to know we could make it, anyway.

One thing I would sure recommend for this spring is to make a perennial garden. This means to plant stuff that will come up each year without you planting it. About half of my garden is for perennials. I have rhubarb and horseradish. A strawberry patch and raspberry bushes. All of this comes up every year right on time. We also have a wild plum tree that I make jam with and other things too. Well, the Christmas Cordial. We have 2 dwarf apple trees, too. This spring, Jim and the boys will plant some grape vines.

Also I want to get some asparagus to plant and this comes up every year, too.

It’s nice to get some perennials, as they are no work hardly at all. I mean you have to thin out the berry bushes and all, but ya know, that ain’t much work. And also if you know of someone who has a big garden with the perennials, they will be thinning them out and just ask them if you can have some. I know I hate to throw my plants away. And if I had a neighbor who needed them, I would give it to her. Ya know, this is how the Country Mothers always got their perennial gardens started. One neighbor would be thinning out the strawberry patch and would save some of the roots to give away.

I also plant a lot of flower bulbs like lilies. These come up every year and you don’t have to plant them. Black Eyed Susans are fun to have. I want to plant them this year. Do they come back each year? I think they do. And, of course, all of my herbs are perennials except the basil and a few others. But like tomatoes and all the peppers, you have to plant them each year.

I am looking forward this spring to teaching John and Christine about all of the herbs in my yard and what they are used for. How to make teas out of them, etc. My little yard is like a wild life preserve. Not with animals, I hope. But I let the herbs grow wild where they please.

I especially love the herbs. I guess one of my favorites is basil. And there are many kinds of basil and I like to grow as many kinds as I can afford.

I love my roses, too, and they come up each year. My favorite is the old fashioned 7 Sister roses that bloom just outside this window I am writing by. Then after them, I guess my second favorite is my Rose Hip Bushes right outside my side door that is behind me as I write.

I love my old black screen door. I told Jim that I would never move from here. Our home is a landmark of faith. It continues to be as the devil tries to run me off from it. “Give up on your family,” he tells me. But I am stayin’ here. This old house has a story to tell and I am gonna tell it on this two bit e-machine.

As Jim and me sat in discouragement yesterday, I told Wild Man, “Ya know, years ago, as I rocked our babies in that rockin’ chair, I said, ‘Lord, are ya sure this is all I am to do?’ And He said, ‘Yes, Connie, just rock the baby and don’t go anywhere. I will publish you and tell your story all over the world.’ I said, ‘You mean the city, right?’” I never knew he really meant the world. So, yeah, I am still stayin’ here. I guess He will take care of me as He always has. And my fine brood of kids.

Oh, those kids. Lord help me. But the Lord has taken care of us even if we are stinkers.

And I want to tell this story on A. before I go — hope I have room. Oh, boy, was she a stinker when we started this group. As I said before, the ladies would email me privately or call me long distance crying that A. took ‘em off the Response group for not writing. Oh, ho, they would get so insulted. I got mad at them and, for spite, gave the whole group to A. to let her run it as she pleased. And she has done a Bang up good job, too. I couldn’t have made it this far or gone as far as I have without her. And B., too, and each of you regulars play such a part in keeping this circus running. I am only a writer. Not an organizer at all. Not computer minded at all. And I know out of this group is coming some very fine writers and teachers. My girls are the best. And one of these days, Mary and Christian Joy will be helping me run this thing. The Lord is good and knows what He is doin’. All is well.

Good Morning Kitchen Saints,

I am up early makin’ coffee and planning my day. Papa bought me whole quart of cream for my coffee and to make yogurt with. I still have about 2 cups of yogurt left from my last batch. I may just make bread with it.

I a really anxious to make the yogurt again using the cream. Jim got the cream marked down to just 2 bucks for the quart because it was almost out dated. But yogurt made with cream is heavenly. My yogurt maker is just grand and makes the very best yogurt. It turns out very thick, even thicker than store bought. And, of course, it tastes so much better — it doesn’t taste so acid-y. It’s more mellow and rich. The last batch I made, I used regular milk and a can of evaporated milk.

Now this summer when the raspberries are plentiful, and the strawberries, this yogurt will work so wonderfully. The juice from the fruits won’t make this yogurt that thin as it is so thick.

I know this yogurt sounds so fattening. I learned to make yogurt when my children were home and they were very thin and loved this stuff. It’s so good for the children.

Also you can take your yogurt and make cream cheese with it. Just take a colander drainer? And put a thin white dish towel down in it? And then pour the yogurt into the towel and put it in the fridge to drain with a plate under it. Don’t cover it. It should be cream cheese in a day or so. As you drain all of the water out of it, it gets thick. Then just use it like you would any cream cheese.

You can use plain yogurt in place of sour cream. And if you make the yogurt and it doesn’t get thick, then you can use it like buttermilk in about any recipe. To make a nice table cheese, just let the cream cheese harden up more. Also when you make the cream cheese, you can add fresh herbs and salt to it. Or if you want it for bagels or muffins, you could just add sugar and some nice thick peach jam, or strawberry.

This cream cheese is so much more mellow and full bodied than store bought.

You need a big gallon jar to make this mix. Or just make it in a big bowl or a sack* and then distribute it into other containers. But this mix will last a big family the whole winter, well past Christmas.

Ok, put in your bowl:
7 and a half cups of instant milk.
Add:
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of cocoa
one fourth teaspoon of salt.
Now mix this up really good and you got it, Darlin’. Use a third cup of mix for a mug of hot water.

Now, of course you could add less instant milk and add a container of the instant dry cream. Or add brown sugar instead of white, or use powdered sugar. You could add a can of Herseys Cocoa Mix to this, too. But, if you are poor, you can just make it simple like my recipe.

And it’s ok to be poor. It ain’t a sin — it’s just uncomfortable. You won’t have the same kick in your cocoa as your rich friends but you will be thinner, and for this, you can smile smugly. And, actually, you could laugh out loud when no one else is around.

But you must never, ever complain that you don’t have the money to buy the dry cream or the Herseys Cocoa Mix. Never let the rich ladies see you sweat … as they don’t know that you have to make your Christmas Cocoa Mix with just cocoa and instant milk and plain table sugar with a pinch of salt. Of course you can’t afford a vanilla bean that costs 3 dollars! But add instant vanilla pudding and fake it, and smile big like you have a vanilla bean in your Cocoa Mix but some how it just dissolved. Hhmmph!!! Never let the devil see ya sweat. Or Jezabel, who couldn’t make a biscuit if her life depended on it.

Ya know, Dixie used to tell me a story. It was about this husband who was always drunk. At one point, he got full of whiskey and shot up the town with his shot gun. His wife was a saint and prayin’ for her wayward husband. When someone asked her about her husband shooting all the street lights out, she said, “Well, he is a pretty good shot for being so drunk.” This woman never let the devil see her sweat. And ya know what? That woman’s husband got saved because his wife wouldn’t give up prayin’ for him. And that’s all it takes, simply, is prayer.

We ain’t supernatural. We can’t make things happen. But we can stand with our arms raised up like Moses so that God can defeat the army against us. Just stand, dear saints, with arms lifted to Jesus, for in Him comes your help. Stand up in His glory. Having done all to stand “Stand.” Stand in Him and, when your arms feel tired, let the saints come along and help you hold up your arms of faith. But don’t put ‘em down, dear Mothers and wives. If ya don’t give up, you will see His glory.

*Put 2 paper grocery sacks together to make it strong. Then roll down the top of the sack to make a bowl. Roll about half way down.

I am going to give you a recipe for a Baking Mix. I used to use this mix a lot around Christmas, as it is so quick and easy to use. You can use it for pancakes or muffins or quick breads. I used mine mainly for pancakes and biscuits.

Here is the mix. First off, you may have to go to the Buck Store and buy a big plastic dish pan to mix all of this in. Or use a big turkey roaster. Or, possibly, use a big paper grocery sack? I mean, put 2 paper sacks together to make it strong. Then roll down the top of the sack to make a bowl. Roll about half way down.

Here is the Recipe.

Take a five pound bag of flour. You could use half whole wheat. Anyway, pour this in the bowl.

Add to this 3 cups of instant milk.

Add a cup of baking powder and 1 cup of sugar.
3 tablespoons of salt.

Mix this all up with your hands.

Then throw in 2 pounds of shortening or lard. Now roll up your sleeves and work this shortening into the dry mix. Just mess with it and play with it. Squeeze it in your hands and rub the lard into the flour until you have all of the lard mixed into the flour mix. Now, there is no perfect way to do this. Just be a kid again and mix it all up and have fun.. And that will take you about a half an hour?

When you have this all done, then put the mix in some containers, like coffee cans or whatever. Keep one sack of it in the kitchen in a cool place to make biscuits, and keep the rest in the fridge. When it gets steadily cold here in Iowa, I store things on my closed in front porch.

To make biscuits with your mix, just put 2 cups of mix in your bowl, add a half cup of water, and stir to make a dough.

To make muffins, just put 2 cups of mix in your bowl and add a couple tablespoons of sugar, brown or white. Add a large egg and 2 thirds cup of water and stir up your muffins … the dough will be clunky. Don’t over stir it. Bake in a hot oven. You can add a cup of fruit to this, like apples or raisins, and add cinnamon to taste. Just experiment.

For pancakes, you add more water than the muffins or biscuits. Just put in a few cups of mix and an egg, and add water until the pancakes look right. The pancake batter should look like school glue, or that consistency.

I am hell at recipes. God help us. I just cook and bake by inspiration. I do go by a recipe, as far as the mix goes, but from then on, I go by hook and by crook.

But, Good Night, ya got enough mix here to kill an elephant, so if ya make a mistake making something, you can try it a half a hundred more times until ya get it right. And if ya goof this up, throw it outside to a crow.

Ok, I guess I have done all the damage I can do on this baking mix. I better write down the Cocoa Mix and keep on keepin’ on.

Dear Wise Christmas Sisters,

Yesterday, Papa and me went to the Dollar Store, and I got so many cute things. I put way more in my shopping basket than what I need. Then, just before I got to the check out, I put a bunch of stuff back. I will say about candy and crackers, “Oh, I don’t need them I can make them.” And I will look over my cart and think of what I can make at home and not buy.

I used to make crackers out of left over bread dough. Just roll out the bread dough really thin and then cut it in squares with a pizza cutter. Then prick holes in the squares and salt them or put parmesan cheeese over the top, and bake them like cookies. You could put garlic and pepper on them. But the old time Mothers never bought crackers … they made them.

And I used to make bread sticks a lot to use with soup. Just take your bread dough and flatten it on a pan and let it rise about 15 minutes … not long. Then just cut strips with your pizza cutter. I would fix these plain and then, when they came out of the oven, I would butter them and put Parmesan cheese on ‘em. Our children would eat these as they played outside on winter evenings after supper. They would run in the house, “Mom, can I bring out bread sticks for Nathan and Tiffany?” (neighbor children.) I would say “Sure, I have plenty.” And my bread sticks were big and fat and, when you ate one, you got filled up.

Anytime I made bread, I made a lot of dough and made bread rolls, cinnamon rolls, and a few loaves of bread. At Christmas, I would take my bread dough and make 3 long strands of bread. I would sugar and spice the long ropes with cinnamon and brown sugar and butter. Then I would braid the pieces. Sometimes, I would put the braided dough on a long cookie sheet and then flatten it so it would be wide, then let it rise and bake it. After it was done, I would decorate the bread. Sometimes, I would sprinkle on homemade green sugar. But then sometimes, I would put some butter frosting on it and color this green. Then I would take the marachino cherries, slice them in half, and put them on the bread. And then put pecans on it, like every other one. Pecan and then cherry, etc., down the center of the loaf. If ya just used a package of pecans sparingly, and the cherries, you can make a lot of Christmas bread with them. Then sometimes I would make the cinnamon braid and I would put it in a circle and bake it like that, in a round pan. Or make a circle with the dough and put it on a large cookie sheet and it will turn out like a Christmas wreath. And then just decorate it like a Christmas Wreath.

You could even use the frozen bread dough for some of this until you felt sure enough of yourself to make your own. But a bread machime, I think, would interrupt my creativity. But, ya know, with a big family I would just make up a big bunch of bread dough and make things for Christmas. And we always give Christmas bread to the neighbors. To use the frozen bread dough, just put your loaf out on the cupboard and let it soften, and then slice it length wise in thirds. Then butter it and put the cinnamon on it and the brown or white sugar. Then braid it up tight and put it in a loaf pan and let it rise, and bake it. When it is done and cooled, you could frost it with butter frosting. White frosting with colored sugar on the top looks “Christmasy.” Or stick nuts and cherries on the top of the bread, down in the frosting, so it will stick good.

Butter Frosting: Just take a stick of butter, put it in your sauce pan, and melt it. Put in about a fourth cup of milk. Then, just add as much powdered sugar as ya need to make a thick frosting. (I have never used a recipe for this — sorry.) But then, at the end, just put in vanilla. There were years, back raising the children, that I would run out of powdered sugar. So I would use half powdered sugar and half flour. I really like it better with using half flour. Ya have to keep stirring when ya use the flour and let it thicken.

And, ya know, I couldn’t afford all the sugars when we had all the kids home. Often, I would make the powdered sugar with putting plain table sugar in my blender with a bit of white flour, and then just blend it up. This makes a nice powdered sugar, and often I would add molasses to my white sugar to make brown sugar. Heck, if I got white sugar and plenty of it for baking, I was cookin’ on all 4 burners, huh?

But I always just made up my mind that my children would not have lean Christmases, as long as I could buy flour and lard and sugar. I mean, I would not confess negative over my Home Christmas. If the children would ask to invite the neighbor children in for cocoa and treats, then I made the children welcome. My children were proud of Mama, that she made such good holiday treats. And, of course, many of the neighbor children had never tasted a homemade cookie, and they loved my baked goods. But I would just try to be gracious and kind hearted and enjoy the children.

Often, we didn’t have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of … just kidding. But, ya know, I would just get busy and make a Christmas. Papa would haul in a big 50 pound bag of white flour on his shoulder and I would make Christmas out of it. Papa would carry it in at Christmas and slam it on the table like it was fresh meat, and he would say, “There ya go, woman … ya got flour.” And with some meat and some potatoes and vegetables, we raised 6 children, and always had a Merry Christmas.

And I never started baking for Christmas unless I had a pot of homemade soup bubbling on the stove. Even if I started early morning, I had to have soup on the stove. Because once I got going on the baking, I didn’t want to stop and make dinner. So the older kids could serve their own soup and fix some for the little ones while I baked. It is a common sight to see spilled soup on my table, mixed with flour. Because I never baked without making soup first And then I would make the bread dough as the soup simmered. Then the first part of the dough I would make pan rolls. I would just take the dough before it rose and put it on my baking sheet and cut it like a cake? Then I just had this to rise once and I baked it, and it was ready for the family for lunch … just pan rolls.

But I was not a stingy mother who was always yelling out, “Don’t eat that! We wont have enough.” My children were all thin, and still are, but I always made sure that my children were well fed. I didn’t want them to get sick, as we couldn’t afford a doctor. So they had plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, and much homemade vegetable soups and stews. I didn’t think about vitamins; I thought about having a wholesome homemade home to raise my babies in. I thought of their souls and their comfort.

I always had the coffee on for Papa … he needed it … it was a comfort to him, and especially at Christmas, with a piece of cherry pie. A cup of coffee is very comforting to a man, and a hot supper.

A wise Mother builds her house, and especially at Christmas time.

Make a homemade Christmas for your dear Families … don’t think about going to the store first. Go through the pantry cupboards and look at what you have. Do you have some hamburger, and some potatoes and vegetables? Fry up some meat with some onions and fresh pepper and salt. This is the smell of home and family. After the meat has cooked, just throw in some tomato soup and start adding vegetables. Add water to cover the vegetables. Let this cook slowly on the stove, or bake it in a slow oven for a few hours.

Then, if you have no flour or sugar, at least you have lunch started, and you can make a quick trip to the store. But if you have flour and sugar, just stay home and start making Christmas.

If you have to go out, here is a list of things you may need.

1. Well, first off make sure you have plenty of flour and sugar, and shortening or lard.
2. I always have cocoa in my cupboard.
3. Do you have cinnamon? For winter, I often fix a shaker of cinnamon and sugar for the table or to put next to the stove to cook with.
4. And, even now, as the children are grown, I still have a huge box of instant milk that I cook with. Baby Rose drinks a lot of fresh whole milk, so I sometimes run out of milk and the instant milk is very handy to have to cook and bake with. And God knows I NEVER measure instant milk. To make gravy or to bake with, just throw some dry milk in, and add water until it looks right. If I had to measure stuff all the time, I would be as crazy as a Loon. Not to mention, I wouldn’t get anything else done.
5. Well, ya need eggs …do ya have some? No? Well, write it down on your list.
6. Ya got chocolate chips? If you can afford them, be sure to get some for the Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies. And, heck, you don’t need to put a whole package in your recipe. Just use a fourth of a bag per recipe. JillR, if she ran out, would just put one chocolate chip on each cookie. Her kids couldn’t wait to eat to the middle of the cookie to get the chocolate chip. She could make a package of chocolate chips last for months. If the cookies had just one chocolate chip in them, they were “Chocolate Chip Cookies,” by golly, and no one complained. If you are poor, its legal to B.S. your kids. (That’s the law, I think.) But, ya know, if Mama is ok, then all is well at the house.
7. Hey, and don’t forget to buy coffee at the store for Papa and the neighbors who stop by for a Christmas visit.
8. And, ya know, if ya plan to make Cocoa Mix for the holidays, don’t forget the instant milk. I used to make ours with just the instant milk and sugar and cocoa. I mean, if you have the money, it’s nice to buy the instant coffee cream to put in it, or a can of the cocoa drink powder, but ya don’t need it. The kids won’t know the difference, anyway. Be sure to put your cocoa mix in a big fancy jar, or even a coffee can, decorated with old-fashioned Christmas paper and a brown string. Put a third cup measureing cup down in the mix, so the kids know how much to use. And, if you are rich, buy a vanilla bean to stick down in the dry mix. But, if ya ain’t rich, buy a few packages of instant vanilla puddng mix to put in the Cocoa Mix. That makes it MMMM Good.

These are simple things to make, and it will keep you from running to the store all the time. Just fill your pantry with as much as you can so that you can feel free to make a homemade Christmas, and many pots of soups and stews.

My ketchup recipe is so fun to make, and I can’t wait to do it myself. We are waiting for our tomatoes to turn red.

You take, like, 8 pounds of tomatoes and a few onions and peppers, clean them up, cut the seeds out of the peppers. But just core the tomatoes and you can keep the skins on. Then have 3 cups of white vinegar ready. You need a blender for this. Just put some vinegar in your blender and start blending tomatoes, etc. and pouring it into a big roaster. Pour some in the roaster and leave some in the blender to keep blending until all of the vegetables are ground up.

Now add to the tomato mixture in the roaster:
3 cups of sugar
3 tablespoons of salt
1 and a half teaspoons of allspice
a fourth teaspoon of cloves
1 and a half teaspoons of cinnamon

Well, that’s how the recipe goes, anyway. I follow the recipe up to the spices, pretty much. But I add garlic and black coarsely ground pepper. If I had a mildly hot pepper, I may add that. Well, the recipe here says you can add a fourth teaspoon of hot pepper. But I will add fresh garlic, chives, basil and marjoram from my garden. I will put the herbs in when I am blending the tomatoes. But you don’t need all these herbs. Oh, I hate to follow recipes … it makes me crazy. Anway, you do need to have the right amount of vinegar and sugar and salt. But then I am on my own.

So, anyway, you take your blended mixture and put it in the oven and let it cook all day on a low temperature, uncovered … no lid. My recipe says 325 for 4 hours, or until it is reduced to half the liquid. But I think that is too high of a temperature. I would put it at about 300 for the day. You gotta check it often. And I leave mine in the oven after it is cooked down for the day. And then the next day, I put it in pint jars … it makes like about 5 pints. But I leave it to rest in the oven so that more liquid will evaporate and it will get thicker. You want it rich and thick.

It’s so much fun to make! On the day I make ketchup, I plan to stay home all day, of course. And imagine the Home Sweet Home smell of the house. I have had folks drop by when I am making this and they say, “What is that you are cooking in the oven? It smells so good.” Then I open my oven and show them and they ask all about it. Papa loves it, as his mom always made it at home. I am sure she didn’t have a blender. But she probably just peeled all the tomatoes and then cooked them and smashed them up with a potato masher, or she may have used her meat grinder for all the onions and peppers.

The old time Mothers chopped vegetables finely with just a sharp knife. The old Italian Mothers made a lot of spagetti sauce in the summer. They would cook down the tomatoes and spices all day in their big pots on the stove … can’t you just imagine the smell of the tomatoes and garlic and onions and peppers? The fresh garden herbs like basil and parsley. Well, anyway, after they cooked this down, they would put the sauce on big boards with sides? And they would put this in the sun and let it dry in big sheets. Then after these big slabs were dry? They would roll this dried sauce up and store it in vats of olive oil. Then in the winter they would hack off a piece of this and use it for spaghetti sauce. They would add water to it and cook it.

If I had a lot of fresh tomatoes, that would be fun to do. I would never do this with store tomatoes. All of that poison they spray with — and you can’t get that spray off — and then to preserve your sauce in poison? I don’t think so. But if you can grow your own fresh produce, you know it hasn’t been sprayed. I do not spray anything I grow. Because I have herbs that grow wild in my yard. And I have herbs that grow everywhere. Like unruly children, they get out of the garden and run all over like wild Indians. I like it like that.