Bread Crumb Cookie Recipe

This recipe comes from The Tightwad Gazette. It is on page 130 in my book and contributed by Ruth Palmer of Utah.

I had a variety of crumbs in my fridge last week. Some pound cake crumbs, muffin crumbs and banana bread that was going stale.  I thought it would be a good time to try this recipe for Bread Crumb Cookies.

Various Crumbs

Bread Crumb Cookies

1 1/4 cups flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

2/3 cup melted shortening (I substituted 1/3 cup melted butter and 1/3 cup oil)

2 cups bread crumbs

Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the milk, egg, and shortening. Stir in the crumbs.

Drop by spoonfuls on baking sheets. Bake at 350° F. for 15 minutes. Cool on rack. Yield 25-30 cookies.
 

Ruth Palmer adds that she has had good success substituting applesauce for 1/2 the shortening in this recipe.

My family enjoyed these cookies. When I asked Mr. In The Mid-west how he liked them he said, "They're good. They don't taste recycled." Haha! 

This is a recipe that reminds me of my grandma Jan. One year she brought us a bunch of frozen logs of cookie dough that she had made. Whenever we baked a batch of these cookies it was always a surprise. If she had bits of coffee cake or other interesting crumbs, into the cookie dough they went! We never knew what to expect! They did taste pretty good, though. :) I would describe my grandma, with affection, as a true tightwad. I could tell many such stories, and maybe someday I will.

Flannel Tissues For My Family

 My "tissue" rag basket has been needing attention for quite some time. We have used cloths in place of paper kleenex for several years. Most of our tissue cloths were literally rags, pieces of old cut up shirts. When I read Lessons From Madame Chic by Laura Scott earlier this year I was "convicted" of the condition of my kleenex rags. (She talks of always being presentable and using nice things everyday instead of saving them for a special occasion.)

This week I was cutting out and serging a bunch of nice flannel tissues for other people. As I was looking through my flannel stash I came across this lightweight plaid. I decided that I should put effort into something nice for my own family.

I made a stack of 20 new flannel tissues for us. 

Here is a Before picture,

And an After picture.

Much better! 

You can see most of the old rags were badly stained. They are headed out to the shop to be used as grease rags now.

It feels really good to put some care towards making something nice for my own family. Do you know what I mean? Are there special things you do for your family to show your love and care? I am sure there are more than you can list. As a stay-at-home wife isn't that practically the definition of the job? Sometimes I get into a routine and do chores out of habit instead of love. My work is so much more rewarding, though, when I do it out of love. Love for the Lord and love for my family. 

1 Corinthians 13:3 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Pattern Review Website Recommendation

I have been wanting, for a long time, to sew a shirt dress (to be honest, a whole wardrobe of shirt dresses) for myself.

I was contemplating the Simplicity 8014 or the McCall's 6696. Both are really cute! I fell down a rabbit whole on the web as I went from blog to blog reading reviews on these patterns. There were even video reviews on YouTube!

https://sewing.patternreview.com/

I discovered this pattern review website. It is nice to be able to see how a particular pattern turns out for others, as well as, hear what other seamstresses liked or didn't like about the construction techniques. 

I used to think of myself as a pretty good seamstress. Coming across this community of pattern reviewer's has humbled me. I am an amateur next to these ladies. It is very exciting for me to learn that there is so much room for growth and improvement of my own skills. 

If you have ever been interested in buying a sewing pattern I highly recommend you read some reviews on this site. Sewing patterns can be expensive. It is nice to know more about the pattern you're interested in buying. The more information you have ahead of time, the more likely you are to be satisfied with your purchase. 

Another really helpful thing to do is search the pattern brand and number with a search engine online. There are a lot of blogs dedicated to sewing and reviewing patterns. They can be very informative!

Paricutin!

Job 37:5 

God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.

Less than 80 years ago there lived a farmer in the small village of Paricutin, Mexico. He had a problem area in his field where the earth was dipped down and crops never grew well. He had tried to fill in the soil at that place, but it always sunk down. On February 20, 1943 a crack opened up there and fire-y ash and cinders started spitting out of the ground! A volcano was born! The man and his wife fled the field in fear. They and the people of the village watched that day and through the night as the explosive out bursts of lava and burning particles built a mountain before their very eyes! In the first 24 hours the volcano grew to 50 meters high. At the end of a week there was a 100 meter volcano in Paricutin. What did they name the volcano? Paricutin! 

My five year old son is interested in learning about volcanoes. This is a picture he drew of the Earth with lava flowing to the volcanos on Earth's surface. :)

I was fascinated by this story when I read about it earlier this year in February. I was reading a childrens picture book about volcanoes. One page in the book mentioned Paricutin. It basically said that a farmer noticed a crack in his field in 1943 and now a mountain is there. I was amazed! How could a mountain grow that fast, and so recently, and I never had been told about it? I looked on the internet for information. I found a blog post with a lot of neat pictures and other information about Paricutin. You can read it HERE. (Be warned there is some millions of years garbage on that page, but there are also a lot of links for further reading on the subject.) The pictures are unreal! The mountain looks so out of place that it almost looks fake!

I watched a short, black and white video with some actual footage of Paricutin when it was active.

This is the one I saw:

https://youtu.be/I2r7RTQ6SNk

Paricutin was active for around 10 years. Reaching it's final hight of 425 meters (about 1394 feet) in 1952.

I don't understand very much about plate tectonics. This story has spurred me to learn more on the subject. I am finding it to be very interesting! I am still not sure what circumstances made the Paricutin volcano erupt like it did. I thought it was a really neat story, though, and wanted to tell my readers about it.  

Have you heard about Paricutin before? Are you amazed by the story like I am? I hope you enjoyed reading this post!

Book Review: Tightwad Gazette

 

The Tightwad Gazette: Promoting Thrift As Viable Alternative by Amy Dacyczyn

I read The Tightwad Gazette book recently. I really liked it. Amy Dacyczyn actually wrote a news letter by that title in the early '90's. Her news letter was hugely popular. In response to popular demand she compiled the news letter into a book. The book I read is only the first two years of the news letter. Amy Dacyczyn dislikes dry boring books and she made her book the opposite. It is very funny, with humor on every page! 

I considered myself pretty thrifty to begin with, but reading The Tightwad Gazette made me take a second look at areas I could get "tighter." I already save plastic zip top bags and rewash them for multiple uses. (My Mom taught me this, along with washing and folding tin foil for multiple uses.) After reading The Tightwad Gazette I realized that I didn't have to throw away trash bags every time either. I just take my trash bin to the big trash can that goes to the curb, and dump all the garbage into the big trash can. The liner (bag) stays in the kitchen trash can for another use. Now, I recognize this is not a viable option for everyone. Our garbage service issues us a big garbage can for the curb. This special garbage can is compatible with a mechanical arm on the garbage truck that dumps the can into the truck. Because of this mechanism our garbage man doesn't have to lift bags out of garbage cans, and I don't have to use bags in my garbage can.

After reading The Tightwad Gazette I have been asking myself, "Do I have to throw this away?" and, "Do I have to buy this?" and, "Can I repurpose this?" about things that I had never questioned before. 

Amy Dacyczyn has helpful tips, as well, as articles on deeper subjects, like, contentment. When it comes to birthday presents(or Christmas), she says, you need to know the sweet spot for how many/what kind of gifts to give for the maximum enjoyment. At a certain point opening gifts just becomes about opening gifts. You lose the joy of what's inside the package if you are just looking for the next package. Before Christmas was about all the commercials you are bombarded with on TV and the internet, only children were given gifts, and they were very simple gifts at that, an orange, a coin, a piece of candy. These simple things used to satisfy the recipient. And I think their level of satisfaction was greater to that of their modern counterpart, even though the number of gifts have grown and gotten bigger, fancier, and more exciting. Spending money does not bring joy.

Amy is very practical, too. She points out that your time is valuable. Don't do things to save money that cost you more time than the savings are worth. Repurpose items that will save you money. Don't save trash just to keep from throwing things away. Save things from the garbage if those things will save you money. Your cabinets don't need to be packed with salvaged sour cream and margarine tubs. Do you know what I mean? :)

There are a lot of tips and tricks in The Tightwad Gazette for saving money in all areas of life. Some of the information is out dated. She writes a lot about saving money on your phone bill. For instance she says writing a four page letter is going to be a more effective and cheaper way of communication than a long distance phone call. But, stamps aren't ¢35 anymore and I don't pay any long distance fees with my cell phone.

I really enjoyed this book and the format. It is laid out like a news letter. It is entertaining and informative. It helped me evaluate some of my spending habits and I learned some things. I will probably be sharing some of recipes for things like homemade bubble solution and hot cocoa mix, etc. Or other handy ideas I try because I was inspired by The Tightwad Gazette.