Category: General

This video done to the tune of the William Tell Overture is a must listen to if you need a laugh!
Click Here to listen to the William Tell Mom Sayings

Love it!

Marilyn Moll
urbanhomemaker.com

October 4, 2007

I want to invite you to a Child Training and Character Building Seminar with Pam Forster of Doorposts, tonight! It’s free.

Pam and her family started Doorposts 1990, with the If-Then and Blessing Charts. They were originally designed for their own family’s use, but friends kept telling them that they needed to share them with others!

Pam and I will be talking about the importance of establishing a scriptural foundation for developing the character in your children, and explaining how to use many of the tools she has created.

We also will be taking time to answer your questions about character development and child training. You can email your questions to me ahead of time at marilyn@urbanhomemaker.com.

I hope you will join us for an evening of encouragement, information, and insight this Thursday Night.

The contact information is below.

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For Instructions in Righteousness By Pam Forster Combo Offer
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Purchase For Instructions and Righteousness, The If-Then Chart and Blessing Chart and receive a Complimentary copy of Fast and Healthy Menus for Busy Moms Spiral Bound Cookbook, a $12.95 value!

Hurry, this is a limited time offer and will expire Tuesday, October 9, 2007. Both books and charts make great gifts!

Phone Seminar Contact Information:

Date: Thursday, October 4, 2007

Scheduled Start Time: 9:00 PM EDT, 8:00 CDT, 7:00 PM MDT, 6:00 PDT (Adjust for your time zone, please.

Dial-in Number: 1-605-475-4150

Participant Access Code: 754074

If you have never participated in a phone seminar before, here is how it works:

1. You dial in the phone number below to the seminar. (You pay only for the phone call.)
2. Key in the seminar access code.
3. Introduce yourself, it you wish.
4. Bring a notebook to take notes, a cup of tea, and have your questions ready.
5. Don’t worry about background noise, we will mute that out!

Think of the phone seminars as “continuing education” for moms! Here is what one listener wrote:

It is always so nice to sit down at the end of a busy day with a cup of hot tea and indulge myself with a free seminar. It’s like a mini-vacation and conference all in one! Thanks so much for ministering to us moms that are trying to, in turn, minister to our families.

Fondly,

Marilyn Moll
The Urban Homemaker

October 4, 2007

On a discussion list I follow, many posters have been saying they have replaced
their microwaves with small toaster ovens that also have a convection feature.
The people sound quite delighted.

I had a gas/convection combo oven at one house and didn’t really find it advantageous for baking bread.

However, I received this email today from someone inquiring about convection ovens:

“I am looking at ways to be able to have good home cooked
meals. During the spring (our busiest season) we will be working 12-14 hour days and we live 15-20 minutes from our business.

My family enjoys ‘some’ crockpot meals. I have been looking at the roaster ovens for making casseroles and then cooking them at the greenhouse while we are there to have them ready. I was wondering about the convection ovens (I found one on sale).”

What has been your experience with convection ovens and what would you suggest?

Marilyn

Last week, I noticed the bread I occasionally buy when I run out of my yummy homemade, had gone up 50 cents a loaf, a whopping 25% increase on bread since August! In my most recent newsletter, I wrote about how my wheat supplier had had to raise prices about 25% recently.

Yesterday, another grain supplier wrote to us saying:

“Wheat prices are very unstable and are climbing daily. We have no choice but to raise our prices. This also affects the price of flour-which in a few weeks will affect the price of our baking mixes. It’s is a merry-go-round. “

If ever there was a good time to start baking your own bread, now is the time. The cost of the grain is only a small portion of the cost of bread and baked goods purchased in the store.

Commercial bread and baked items include the cost of the plastic disposable packaging, the bakery’s overhead for producing the bread, the transportation costs to ship the bread from the bakery to the store, the bakery manager’s salary, and other costs of purchasing ready-made breads.

If you are able to save just $10.00 a week on commercial breads and baked goods by making them yourself, you will have a $520.00 nest egg, more than enough to justify an investment in a grain mill.

How are you handling these large price increases on bread and cereal products?

I won second place in a pie baking contest this week-end during our Mountain Harvest Festival.
This recipe is so easy and delicious you really should try it if you need a quick dessert.

3 egg yolks (no white)
1 – 14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 Cup Key Lime Juice
1 – 9″ Graham Cracker Crumb Pie Shell (commercial or homemade)
Whipped Cream or 1 Cup heavy whipping cream

Stir the egg yolks and lime juice into the sweetened condenses milk in a medium sized mixing
bowl. Pour the mixture into a prepared graham cracker crust. Bake at 350°F oven for 15 minutes.
Cool for 10 minutes. Refrigerate to chill.

When ready to serve make whipped cream with 1 cup heavy whipping cream, sweeten slightly with
powdered sugar if desired and top the Pie. Garnish with lime slices if desired.

Serve. Makes eight servings.

This is really easy and I have received MANY compliments for this easy recipe. Try it!

Last Friday morning I went grocery shopping as I was expecting my two out-of-town sisters for the week end. Have you noticed that in the last couple weeks that the costs of milk and dairy items, grain products such as bread and cereal, and related baked goods are shooting through the roof?

For example, my favorite whole milk yogurt just went up about 50 cents for one quart! I calculate that as about a 20% increase.

My wheat supplier said that grain prices are going up about 25% any day, fortunately, my grain sale customers bought grain just in time! Can you imagine what a 25% increase in grain prices will do to the cost of bread and bakery items?

I don’t know about you, but my grocery budget just can’t withstand an overnight increase of 20% or so. Now, I know tthat not everything has gone up that much in just a few weeks, but huge price spikes in basic foods reminds me that the best protection from rapidly increasing grocery prices is learning to buy in bulk and making your own.

If you have ever wished you could significantly cut your grocery bill but had no idea where to start I have a simple, economical solution.

My friend, Crystal Paine, is the queen of frugality and has taught dozens of moms how to save hundreds of dollars on groceries each month.

She has managed with about $35.00 a week for her small family for quite some time.

About 15 years ago, one of the most popular books I sold was The $30 a Week Grocery Budget written by a mom of four feeding a family of six. I learned a lot from her, but that book is now out-of-print.

However, after many requests, Crystal just released a very helpful step-by-step online course detailing how to reduce your grocery spending without sacrificing quality to do so. Her exhaustive course, Supermarket Savings 101

, includes a large course handbook, six audio lessons, access to a private members-only message forum, and six money-saving ebooks.

For the next 48 hours only, she is offering a very special deal to all of us that I am sure you would want to know about if you are serious about saving money in the grocery store. You can get her entire course at the incredible deal of only $8.97!

It’s a no-brainer. Buy the course while you can at this steal-of-a-deal price and your wallet will thank you for the rest of your life!

This course has a money back guarantee!

Click Here to order it today:

Remember, the special price of $8.97 is only good for 48 hours. Don’t miss out!

We nearly had a frost two nights ago, there was snow at the higher elevations. We took precautions this year, covered the tomatoes and they were fine. Last year we had an early, unexpected frost and that was it! I was out of town Monday night and my husband picked all the tomatoes and even started drying them for me!!! The tomatoes are in the middle, dying corn in behind, cucumbers etc in front. We use raised beds made of cinderblocks. We have had our best luck with this type of garden.

The back row in the picture below is our grape arbor that we inherited with this property. They will be ready to harvest soon. I usually make about 40 quarts using a steam extraction method, saves so much time!

Making a Fall Centerpiece is very easy and inexpensive. My talented friend, Sandy Tuin has taken an inexpensive cloth napkin with Fall colors. On top she has used two small silk pumpkins (real ones are fine) that she bought last year at 90% off at Hobby Lobby. Combined with a few pieces of mini-Indian corn (her’s is from the garden) and two or three picks in Fall colors. This basic plan could be changed seasonally for Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, etc with a little creativity. Sandy says it is quite easy and can be VERY economical if you plan ahead.Here is how I adapted Sandy’s basic centerpiece with stuff I had sitting in storage from years past:

How have you decorated your table for Fall?

One topic I talk a lot about is buy fruits and vegetables locally and seasonally.

When we visited Oregon last month we enjoyed shopping at a family farm. This sign

posted at the end of the parking lot caught my eye.

Here is a picture of the old packing shed where we bought some fresh fruits locally in the Hood Oregon
region.

I loved the old-fashioned atmosphere of this fruit stand and meeting the owner!

Have you heard of or shopped at the “Fruit Loop” of family owned fruit farms and orchards in the Hood River, Oregon area? Tell me about your local orchards, farmer’s markets and homegrown vegetable stands! I will publish pictures at my website if you want to share.

How would you answer this question?

<<<Could you please tell me what type of oil I should use in making my bread. I normally use canola oil but was reading that it is very bad for one. Olive oil would have a strong taste. What do you use, sesame oil? If you could help me with this I would greatly appreciate it. >>>

Here is my answer:

<<<You could use coconut oil, or safflower oil if it is expeller pressed. I think the sesame oil as long as it is refined (not strongly flavored) but expeller pressed or you could even use butter.>>>

What healthy oil do you use?