Homemade!

This post is dedicated to my niece, Bethany, the newest domestic goddess on the block.  She inspired me to revisit some old projects and continue my quest to reduce the size of our monthly grocery bill. 

I give you.....

Homemade ketchup. 

This met with resounding approval. I cooked it in the crockpot and canned six quarts. 

Success. 

The next project was homemade mustard. Easy to make. Not very pretty. Tastes just like the store bought stuff. No one really cared about this one. I only use it when cooking, not as a condiment. 

Success number two. 

Mayonnaise/ miracle whip were next on the list.  Mayo was pretty easy. The miracle whip took a bit of trial and error to get the taste right. 

Once I had mayo, I moved right on to ranch dressing. This too received the family blessing of good taste. 

The successes keep on coming!

My latest crazy project?

Last night I canned this. 

Overnight it changed into this. 

This, my friends, was my first attempt to render lard. Not having done it before, I am not sure what rendered lard should look like, but I think I got it right. 

Thanks to the magic crockpot, I cooked down three pounds of leaf lard and got just shy of three pints of rendered lard plus a tasty snack of cracklings. THAT was a trip down memory lane. I haven't had those in years!

I can't wait to make a pie crust with my new lard. 

Next up on my homemade to do list?

Grinding our own flour. It's happening people. I'm just waiting on a place to mount the flour mill. 

And no. 

We are not living Amish. I don't wear dresses and David doesn't have a straw hat hanging on a peg by the bed. 

I love my air conditioning and Internet too much to ever convert. I think I'll just work on eating like the Amish. Not a bad goal. 

Thanks Bethany for the sharing of ideas and inspiration. You make this adventure a lot more fun. 

Bonus points for saving a whole bunch on our grocery bill!

Let's eat!