Almanac for Homemakers

Why Not Make Your Own Plastic Bags? "Plastic bags are a great convenience for the homemaker these days." Plastics are great right?! You can freeze food in plastic zip bags. Put books in plastic bags on rainy days. Pack a picnic lunch. Put away leftover food. But, let us get to the title of this almanac post which suggests that we can just simply make our own plastic bags. May I introduce to you the Vintage Bagmaker & Sealer! Make a plastic bag any size and seal up plastic bags to store and protect your stuffs. Now I guess we moved away from sealers as the popularity of other plastics came about. What convenience! What innovation!  Stop the presses! For 1970 this was a big deal. However, as we matured as a civilization, we became a little more eco-conscious. We started to see how badly trash, especially from plastics, harm our environment. Just refresh your memory on the impacts of this from my Marc...

Think About Noise if You Must Move "Because of job transfers and other reasons, Americans move frequently to new homes. If you must do so , consider the problem of noise pollution in choosing your new house or apartment." I have been very fortunate to have lived in small communities for the past few years. Every town we moved to or from has been less than 20,000 people. There isn't a lot of noise pollution where I am. In fact, if I go in my back yard right now, I can clearly hear the Pacific Ocean. It is truly wonderful. There is some scientific evidence that noise levels can effect us physically and psychologically. Physical Effects can include higher blood pressure, hypertension, and in sever cases hearing loss. Psychological Effects include elevated stress levels, depression, and anxiety. The Clean Air Act was passed in 1972. Amendments to this act were added in 1990 to include noise pollution. The Environmental Protection A...

Know the Forms of Canned and Frozen Vegetables "Both canned and frozen vegetables are sold in many styles." But who cares. I just wrote about this subject in February  Click here for this post (You also still have time to submit your opinion to the USDA) ... It's 2018 and its Friday the 13th! So lets talk about the origin of this infamous day. The number 13 might actually have gotten its bad reputation from Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus plus His 12 disciples equals 13, who were all present for the Last Supper on the 13th day of Nisan or Holy Thursday. The night before His crucifixion. Thus giving some bad mojo for the number 13. Norse mythology also tells a tale about a dinner party for 12 of the Norse gods. A 13th uninvited guest arrived. That guest was the god of mischief Loki. He got one god to kill another god and totally ruined the dinner party. So that event led to the number 13 being particularly unlucky for our Nordic...

How to Save Money and Energy in Oven Use "Efficient use of the kitchen oven can save a lot of electricity or gas, and thereby reduce your utility bills." Our Almanac post today is all about saving energy while you cook. After reading our 1970's version, I decided to get on that Google and see how we can save money in 2018. Really what I saw is a lot of common sense. There isn't a magical way to save money and energy when you cook. So here are some tips you might already be doing. Defrost You can defrost what you need before cooking. What a great idea. I had never considered this.... Cooking Use the correct size cooking pan or pot. Also use the correct kind of cooking surfaces. Not all are made the same. Be Clean Clean cooking surfaces. Remove grease and other soil from your pots and pans to help them cook evenly. Prep Have your meal prepping done and a plan made to more efficiently prepare a meal. ... Savi...

Day Lilies - Cooked or in Salads "In some parts of the country clumps of day lilies grow wild along roadsides and provide bright spots of orange color in July." Day lilies grow in clumps and start out budding yellow flowers that will turn orange in the summer. It is suggested that you can take the unopened yellow flower buds and cook them in some butter. Season with some salt and pepper if you like and enjoy. There are some other recipes out there for cooking the tubes of the plant. It is said that eating these plants originated in some Asian countries were the plant was regularly cultivated for food. The pedals would be used in soup, fried, or cooked simply and sold in markets. Never ever would I have thought that I could just start picking from my neighbors garden for dinner. Let me grab some shears. BRB JK That would be too cray. I swear what is with us people? I can imagine that this came from a famine. We had to ...

Facts about Gingham for Homemakers "Gingham is made by dyeing yarn rather than the cloth. Most Gingham is woven from cotton yarn." In case you needed a refresher on what this is let me add some pictures for your viewing pleasure. Noticing a certain 'pattern' here? Gingham fabric is dyed before the cotton is woven.  The checkered pattern is from taking the dyed yarn and weaving it against non dyed yard. This pattern is all over the 1970's Now that you are thinking about it, some faint memories of your grandma's table start to appear. Gingham has actually been around for a long long time. It was first exported to Europe from India in the 17th century. In Indonesia the pattern is a symbol of the battle between good and evil In Japan the patten has spiritual significance. Italy and France both like to say Gingham originated in their country. So there you go! You just thought you were going to decorate for S...

How to Clean and Dress Fish "Most fish sold in markets are cleaned and dressed. But sometimes you will have to do this yourself." You know, I'm just going to get this out of the way now. NO Nope Not gonna happen This isn't a pleasant thing to do. I have done it. It is Stinky, Sticky, and Scaly. One wrong move and you ruined dinner. But here is how our Almanac suggests you prepare your fish: Scaling Here is a video showing how easy it is! You know, for guys complaining about glitter from lady crafts, fish scales are like the glitter of fishermen. You basically take your knife and carefully scrape from the tail to the head of the fish and scales just pop off. They fly everywhere. Cleaning Prepare to just gag now. Cut open the fish from the vent to the head and take out the insides. Then cut out all the fins. Filleting Here is a guid to what is described below. You basically cut down the backbone of the fis...