Onions Frugal Onions

We use tons of onions and today bought a 50 lb bag for 7.89 at Cash and Carry. Makes it 15.8 cents a lb. Now what do we do with all those onions ? I chop and freeze one half and the rest become dinner. ONION COOKERY Cooks over much of the world would be lost without the onion. These pungent bulbs are prized and often referred to as "lilies of the kitchen."

ONION RINGS

1 cup flour

1 cup beer

(the brand of your choice since there will be some left to cool you during the cooking!)

3-4 cups shortening for frying purposes

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

seasoning salt (optional).

Combine flour and beer in a large bowl, blending thoroughly. Cover and allow batter to sit at room temperature for at least 3 hours. Afterwards gently stir in the sugar and salt. Cut onions into one-fourth inch or larger (depending upon preference) slices. Separate slices into rings. Heat shorting to 375 degrees F. (You can determine this temperature by dropping a sample ring into the hot grease -- it should begin to immediately sizzle and quickly rise to the top or a one inch square piece of bread will brown in one minute in 375 degree oil.) Dry sliced rings and roll in flour. Then dip onion rings into batter and fry until delicate golden brown. The batter can be made thicker by adding more flour or thinner by adding more beer. .

Popsicle sticks From Hjvagar at HGTV

Now at the beginning of this I will tell you - these are the directions from the book. I did make a few adjustments because it just didn't seem right to me. My adjustments did not make my life any easier lol. Take 2 double pages of newspaper. Cut or rip them in 1/2 so you have 4 pages. Stack them on top of each other. Mark 4" down from the top and 3" in from one side and cut. Once it's all cut fold the papers in 1/2 bringing the top 1/2 to the bottom edge. Fold the papers in 1/2 again the same way - top to bottom. Fold the papers in 1/2 a 3rd time but this time bring the left side to the right side of the papers. Take a pencil or a bone folder and crease this fold. This crease will be the center of the popsicle. Open up the last fold and roll one side toward the crease in the middle. Use a clip to hold it in place. Then roll the other side in and clip it. Take masking tape and put it down the crease between the two rolls, around the bottom and up the back between the two rolls. Take off the clips. You can add your hanger now if you want. It said to put your sticks in now but I will add here - up to this point they can be flattened kind of easy so I added more newspaper like paper mache. Once it was dry I made a slit on both sides of the bottom. Then I started putting hot glue inside and shoved the sticks in. Another thing I will add - try to get them as smooth as you can. You end up using more of the diamond dust to hide all those blemishes if you don't. In the book it said to use another layer of colored tissue paper over the newspaper. I didn't have any (just white) so I went ahead and painted them. Let it dry completely. Then I took some glue, put it in a dish with some water (not much, just enough to water it down so it's easy to brush on), brushed it on one side at a time and sprinkled the diamond dust on while it was still wet. Voila - popsicles. I want to make more in different colors. In the book it had them in green, red, yellow and purple. I thought the red and purple looked the best but that's probably because those are my fav flavors lol. Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Mythical Origins of Jack O'Lantern

An Irish tale tells us where the origins of the name Jack o'lantern came from. There once was a man named Jack who liked to play tricks on people. He lived a long, mischievous life. One day he tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved the image of a Holy Cross in the trunk of the tree. This trapped the Devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the Devil that: he would let the Devil down the tree, if the Devil promised to never tempt him again. After Jack died, he was not permitted into Heaven because of his evil ways. He was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the Devil. The devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the freezing blackness. This flame was put inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing. As Jack walked his neverending journey as punishment for his trickery, he carried a burning coal inside a turnip to help him see along the roads everywhere he traveled. Soon he was known as "Jack of the lantern" or Jack O'Lantern. In Ireland, turnips were used as their Jack's lanterns originally. However, immigrants to America, found pumpkins more plentiful than turnips. The Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.

Get Organized for the fall Season

The Fall Cleaning Chore Checklist Farmers Almanac 1. Add leaves and grass clippings to your compost pile. 2. Dig and harvest all vegetables before frost. Place green tomatoes on shelves in a cool area so they can ripen slowly. Parsnips, turnips, and carrots may be left in the ground. Some gardeners say this improves their flavor. 3. Mulch strawberry beds, roses, tender perennials, and plants with peat moss or straw to help prevent winter damage. 4. Do an over seeding where lawns are sparse. Fall is nature’s seeding time so a little help now will help eliminate bare or thin spots later. 5. Apply wilt-proof sprays to tender, broad-leaved evergreens to help reduce the drying effects of winter winds, especially on newly-planted shrubs. 6. Stake any newly-planted trees to help them get through their first winter. 7. If bagworms or late insects attack, physically remove and destroy them. Check trees and shrubs for scales and other pests. If you find any, plan an early dormant oil spray before flowers or leaves appear on fruit trees. 8. Pull up annuals and prune perennials as a good cleanup practice. 9. Begin fertilizing plan for houseplants. As home heat goes on, it stimulates plant growth which means you will need to pay more attention to fertilizing and watering. 10. Do final mowing raking and make notes of lawn care projects for the spring. 11. If you have wet spring weather, plan to dig or till your vegetables garden in the fall so you can get an early start next spring. 12. Remove old fruiting canes of berry bushes. Prune grape and blueberries.

tincat cards

Black Russian Cake

INGREDIENTS 1 (18 1/4-ounce) box Devil's Food Cake mix, without pudding

1 (4-ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix

4 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup strong brewed coffee, at room temperature

3/4 cup coffee liqueur

3/4 cup crème de cacao

1/2 cup oil GLAZE 1 cup sifted powdered sugar

2 tablespoons strong brewed coffee

3 tablespoons coffee liqueur

2 tablespoons crème de cacao

Additional powdered sugar Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan. Mix first 7 ingredients together and pour into the pan.

Bake 45 minutes or until inserted tester comes out clean.

Let cool in pan 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients (except additional powdered sugar).

Put cake on platter, pierce top with a fork and spoon on the glaze.

Cool completely. Dust with additional sugar.