11-4-12

9:15am

They are calling for sunny to mostly sunny the next three days

with high temps 48 to 55 degrees.

They've been saying mostly sunny for the past three days.

I've been hoping to get my solar panel charged up

so the fan will start running but these past couple

of days have been nothing but cloudy.

I just got done making another homemade

batch of rigatoni pasta.  I made two batches

yesterday and wasn't sure if that would

be enough for supper today.

9:40am

I need caramels to make 

caramel apple cupcakes for Thanksgiving.

Well when you are broke you cannot

afford a bag of caramels!

So what do you do?  You make your own caramel sauce!

Awhile back I had picked up several

cans of sweetened condensed milk

marked down at Kroger for .50 cents a can.

So that's how much my caramel sauce

will cost to make!

You will need a 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk,

a canning jar 14 ounces or larger, a crock pot and water.

 Pour sweetened condensed milk into canning jar

and screw lid on.

Next place the canning jar into your crock pot

and fill crock pot to a couple inches above

where the sweetened condensed milk sits in the jar.

Put lid on crock pot.  If the lid doesn't fit

well with the canning jar in there then

cover it completely with aluminum foil.

Set crock on low and let it cook for 6-8 hours.

Allow jar to cool in crock pot til it is able

to be handled.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

10:45am


Working on lunch.
Hopefully this will make a big ole pot of stuff.
Just stuff I had and threw together.

1 smoked sausage cut up ($1.00)
1 small onion chopped up (.20 cents)
1 can diced tomatoes with juice (.59 cents)
about 1/2 cup water (free)
powdered chicken boullion (free)
all purpose seasoning (free)
maple syrup (.05 cents)

Boil everything in skillet.

In a big pot add water (free), a little vegetable oil(free) 
and some chicken boullion (free).  Bring to a boil.
Add in your homemade rigatoni pasta.
The only cost to make pasta was the eggs (.45 cents).

Drain pasta.
Add a little butter to keep it from sticking together (.10 cents).
Add in a can of spaghetti sauce.
I have about 3/4ths of a can leftover (.45 cents)
Add in you sausage and tomato mix.

TOTAL COST FOR LUNCH 
$2.84
Serves 5 with some extras leftover for seconds.



11:30pm


Time to eat!
Either this stuff is really good or I'm really hungry.
Got a thumbs up from everyone.
Served with a slice of bread & butter.
They love when I make homemade noodles.
I also got a couple of gallon of kool aid
and country time lemon aid made.
I got canisters of these awhile back
for either free or .25 cents.
So that's what we are having since I can't afford pop.

1:00pm


Got laundry started.
Still awaiting these mostly sunny skies
the weather channel talks about as it's
been cloudy most of the day so far.
While waiting on laundry to be changed over
I decided to put some color on my hair
to lighten it up.
I used something like ultra light sunny blonde
on brown hair.  I have a driver's license photo
coming up soon and I don't want brown
hair on my license for the next four years
or else I'd just leave my hair as is.
FYI, I have a stockpile of hair color
that I got for cheap or free.
It would not have been something I would
have been able to afford had I not had these!
Ok, got 45 minutes to keep this hair coloring
on.  Better go down and change my
laundry over while waiting.
Got 2 loads color and 1 load whites today.



2:30pm


Hair's all colored and cakes are in the oven.
I still have enough batter to make one more cake.
I might stack two cakes for Thanksgiving
to look like a pumpkin and put a maple
cream cheese glaze down the sides tinted in orange.
These Butterscotch Pumpkin Pudding Cakes
are made a little differently as they
are baked at only 250 degrees.
Oh, and not only did I spray my pans
I dusted them with flour as well
before putting the batter into them.
It will help to remove them from the pans better.

Here is my sweetened condensed milk
in the crock.  Don't want to remove lid
because I'll lose heat that has built up in there.
But it does seem to be changing a caramel color.
Still has another 2.5 hours to go.

Gotta go change laundry over
while the cakes are baking.
Hubby's outside mowing the yard,
or mulching up some neighbor's leaves that have visited
our yard by running them over with the mower.
We still have trees that have yet to drop their leaves.
Usually around mid November that will start for us.



3:30pm

Two cakes are done.
One to go.
The one on the left is a test cake with the leftover
batter I had.  The one one the right will be pared with
another one of equal size and be flipped over and put
on the bottom to make a pumpkin shape.
Once cool I'll put the larger cakes in the freezer
til a couple days before Thanksgiving
when I'll thaw them and give them their cream cheese glaze.


4:10pm


WOO HOOO!
My friend called from just down the street to say
she had some glass for me knowing
I was making solar can heaters.
She just bought her house not long ago
and it came with a greenhouse attached to
a shed.  Well they are tearing the glass out of
the greenhouse to enclose it with wood
to extend the shed space.
You know if it's greenhouse glass it should
work VERY well for a solar can heater
considering the purpose of the glass on a greenhouse
is to warm the space inside it.
Another plus is it is safety glass and not 
glass like a window pane.
THANK YOU KENDRA!!!! THESE ARE PERFECT!!!!

The one glass is single paned now due to
the other half breaking before I arrive
to get it.  The second piece underneath
is double paned and will need take apart.
So in all reality I could make 3 solar can heaters
from these pieces of glass.
Two for my house and one for mom.
One heater at a time though as I still need supplies
to build them and I'm not sure when I can afford them.
  Mom may not get one til next year.

5:00pm


All cakes are done now and it's time to sample one of them.
YUMMY!
I did something the recipe didn't say,
I coated the whole cake with maple syrup
and let it soak in.  Then I used powdered sugar
mixed with milk to put a glaze over the top.
I'm not wasting the cream cheese for glaze on the sample cake. 
The cake was very moist!

6:20pm


Holy guacamole that glass is freaking heavy.
Me and Tony just got them out of the truck
because it was taking up my backseat which
I need tomorrow to take kids to and from the bus stop.
That double pane of glass is heavy as hell!!
If my shoulders don't hurt after that it will be a miracle. 
I'm storing them in the area where at
least one will be used that way I don't
have to travel far with that glass.
Plus imagine the weight after adding a
plywood backing and wooden sides.
I don't think this sucker will budge in the
strongest winds that we get.
I measured the glass and they each
are 39" wide by 7 feet tall.
I'm sure greenhouse glass is much lighter now a days
compared to when that one was built.

Well gotta go.
One more load of laundry in the dryer.
Got a migraine going with blurred vision, how nice!