This is the sort of DIY project Grandma could have really gotten into.

1. It’s free
2. It uses up things that would otherwise be thrown away
3. It’s useful
4. It’s easy and only takes a few minutes

For this project, all you need is an empty salt carton, a mason canning jar with a screw band, and a sharp knife.

Take an empty salt carton. The Damsel won’t judge if she finds out you dumped the salt into something else just so you could do this project.

CAREFULLY cut around the top of the carton by inserting a sharp knife straight down and moving around the top. Hold the carton firmly.

The cut doesn’t need to be perfect and smooth…just do the best you can without drawing blood. PLEASE. The Old School doesn’t have a school nurse.

Fill a canning jar with some dry, pourable substance like sugar. Fit the cut piece on its top and then screw on the band. The serendipity of this project is that cutting a salt carton around its edge EXACTLY fits a wide-mouth canning jar. Neat, huh?

If you want to use a regular-mouth canning jar, use its lid (not the screwband) to trace a cutting circle onto the top of the salt carton.

The Damsel is pretty excited about using this, since she keeps her sugar in a huge bin in the pantry. (Even though the seven sprogs don’t all live at home, she can’t seem to stop her mega-cooking ways.) This way, she can measure out a little sugar quickly and easily, without having to open the big bin. This would also be a great place to put baking soda, if you’re one of those who succumbed to the call of the Giant Costco Baking Soda Bag.

The Damsel would love to hear any other great uses her students come up with.

In light of the recent E. coli outbreak in Germany, we thought we would take this opportunity to remind you of the basics of sprouting. Sprouts are tasty and extremely wholesome but, like any raw food, safety precautions should be taken. Below are some helpful and specific instructions so you can sprout safely!

Basic Safety Steps:

1. The first step is to ensure that your supplies are clean; water, sprouting vessel and seeds. The quality of water you use should be just as sanitary as the quality of water you drink. As far as your sprouting vessel is concerned, you’ll want to wash it after each use, just like washing dishes after a meal. It is possible that the seeds could also be contaminated and there are a few basic steps to ensure that even your seeds are free from bacteria (for more detailed information, please click on the pdf below).
2. As you sprout the seeds, straightforward procedures such as washing your hands, washing the sprouts and properly drying the sprouts before storage can greatly mitigate any bacterial risks. Most of all, use common sense. If something doesn’t smell right or look right don’t eat it!
3. For more specific safety information, please click on the Mountain Valley Seed Co Sprout Safety pdf!

Thanks and happy sprouting!

As for drying sprouts, one possible way of doing it would be to place the sprouts in a paper-towel-lined salad spinner. A refrigerator is naturally drying, so sprouts could be spread out on a plate or what-have-you and set, uncovered, in the fridge for a few hours or until dry. Don’t forget them, though! Sprouts should be juicy, not crispy.

What do you do when your jeans have worn through the knees, and summer is right around the corner?

Make cut-offs.

It’s so easy! The first step is to lay the jeans out so the legs are very flat, next to each other so you can eyeball where to cut.

If you’re Daisy Mae or have a part on Dukes of Hazzard, it’s easy. You just cut the jeans right under the pockets. If you’re a ten year old boy, cut them just above where the denim has worn thin, for maximum length.

With very sharp scissors, carefully cut through both layers at the same time, straight across. If your scissors aren’t up to it, you can cut one layer at a time, but you’ll have to be really careful to get them straight.

Now continue on to the other leg and repeat.

If you’re obsessive (the Damsel freely admits she is obsessive about some things, like chocolate raisins. But some things are worth obsessing over) you could measure up from the hems of each leg and mark a cutting line, to make sure they are exactly the same. But we’re talking about cut-offs.

Cut-offs are correctly worn frayed along the cut line. A few washings will get the fray goodness going. The Damsel’s ten year old sprog favors a rolled look. You just fold a couple of inches up, and then fold the same amount again. (You’ll have to refold after each washing)

Another sprog feels this entire post is heretical because the holeyness of the pictured pair of jeans has only begun to approach perfection, and won’t be truly wearable until giant hunks of his leg shows through the hole.

The Damsel has also had sprog that asked her to hem cut-offs, showing that although her sprog are genetically similar, they aren’t a bit alike.

Hemming crosses the project over into making denim shorts, leaving the land of cut-offs behind. To do this you would do the roll mentioned above, except folding up only 1/2″ each time, and then top-stitching through the folds. This requires a sewing machine with a stiff upper lip and a very slow pace when you cross the seams, but it only takes a few minutes.

Whatever you do, DON’T throw away the cut off legs. Save them for patches or other denim projects.

Does this mean we should avoid organic food? Absolutely not. The fact that the sprouts were grown organically didn’t have anything  to do with them being contaminated with e. coli.

But it just so happens that the Damsel has been preparing a post on growing your own sprouts. Very timely, eh? This is one more example of how self-reliance can be a blessing. When you grow your own, you know what you’re getting…or not getting.

Growing your own sprouts is easy and requires no fancy equipment. In fact, you can do it with just a quart jar and an old nylon stocking. And seeds, of course.

The benefits of sprouting seeds are many. They’re quite good for you, and depending on the seeds you store, can make all the difference if you had to live off your food storage for a length of time. Alfalfa sprouts, for example, are a good source of vitamin C. If you had no access to any fresh veggies, they would be a welcome item indeed.

Nutritionally, sprouted seeds go through an amazing transformation. Look what happens to mung beans:

source

Truly amazing! Consider adding seeds for sprouting to your preparedness stash. (Buy seeds packaged for this purpose rather than farmer-seed, unless you’re sure they haven’t been sprayed with nasty chemicals.)

You can buy sprouters if you like, but really, all you need is a container and some way to rinse the seeds. Stretching a piece of CLEAN nylon stocking over the top of a quart jar and then securing it with the screw band creates a cheap and perfectly serviceable sprouter.

You can sprout most any seeds, but let’s do some alfalfa to begin with. At the Damsel’s house, we like to refer to this as “hay.” Well, it is.

The Damsel inherited a strainer-thingy that fits on the top of a quart jar, so she used that. No possibility of toe-jam flavored sprouts here.

Put 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of alfalfa seed in a quart jar and cover with lukewarm water. Put the top on, whether it be a nylon or what-have-you, and slosh them around a bit. Drain the water out, and replace with fresh water, enough to cover them by a few inches. Let them sit overnight.

For the next couple of days, rinse and drain the seeds every few hours, as often as you can remember. In between, put the jar in a dark corner or cupboard, because light will make the sprouts taste bitter.

See the sprouts starting to grow?

When sprouts start to peep out, after rinsing, hold the jar sideways and shake the seeds gently so they spread out along the side of the jar. Don’t fuss. They will be clumpy. Nothing bad will happen.

Continue rinsing, draining, and shaking them so they lie along the side of the jar until the sprouts look long enough to look appropriate on a turkey and avocado sandwich. They’ll look pale, but taste fine.

If you want to green them up now that they’re grownups, you can put them in the sun for a few hours without harming their fresh, sweet taste. The Damsel’s continue to get a bit greener even while they’re sitting in the fridge.

The Damsel stores her sprouts in a ziploc bag that isn’t zipped shut, but is lightly closed. They stay good for two weeks this way.

Mmm, hay!

The three main types of oatmeal available in the typical market are: old-fashioned (rolled), quick and instant. Guess which one the Damsel prefers? Old-fashioned are less processed (quick oats are cooked and then dried) and have a nicer texture when cooked. Of course, that’s a matter of personal preference, but in the Damsel’s world, this is the case. Then there’s instant oatmeal, or in other words, flavored glue. Expensive flavored glue, compared to buying a sack of nice, natural, rolled oats.

Can you substitute old fashioned oats for quick oats in a baking recipe? Absolutely yes. The Damsel has done it about a billion times.

As a matter of fact, the Damsel can find no reason that quick or instant oats should exist in her house.

What about a hasty breakfast? Maybe you don’t want to mess around with cooking, getting pans dirty, etc.?  Check this out:

Take yer bowl. The one you want to eat oatmeal out of. Yes, that one. Measure 1/2 cup of rolled oats, 1 cup of water, and a few shakes of salt. Put the bowl in the microwave and nuke it for three minutes. Take it out, stir well. Add goodies and eat.

Quick enough for you?

It’s easy to adjust the amount, too. Just use double the amount of water vs. oats, like when cooking rice. You know the little saying? “When cooking rice, water’s twice.”

Rice . . . oatmeal . . . two of life’s little starchy pleasures.

Squash…a good thing to fall in love with. Grandma would have approved. After all, they are cheap, easy to grow, they store well, nutritious, low carb (if you care about that sort of thing) and good grief, they are easy to cook. Especially spaghetti squash.

They look like this. Not ridiculously large, like some banana squash. A regular, run-of-the-mill, non-weightlifting mama can easily pick one up. And, you will be surprised when you hear how you cook these. The Damsel is already bracing herself for the protestations of “No! That cannot be how you do it.” But dear students, you must learn to trust the Damsel.

Preheat your oven to 375.

Pierce the squash a few times with a sharp object. A knife, or even a skewer will do.

Put the squash in a baking dish if it makes you feel better about things. But you could just put the squash in the oven naked. You could.

Bake for one hour. Carefully (because it’s hot) cut it in half. (Yours may or may not get browned like this.)

Scoop out the seeds and the weird blobby stuff in the middle.

Take a fork and pull it across the flesh, which will separate into spaghetti-like strands. Transfer into a dish. You can scrape pretty darn close to the outer shell. It’s all good.

Now, you can eat this any way that seemeth you best. It tastes very mild, so it’s often eaten with a sauce. Yes, marinara works quite nicely. But many other sauces, Italian or otherwise, would be delicious. So is butter, salt and pepper, and snipped fresh herbs like basil, sage, and chives. There is no right or wrong, so don’t fret. Just eat your squash.

The Damsel has heard of other ways of fooling with spaghetti squash. She’s heard of people cutting it up first and then baking it. She’s heard of boiling it. Or nuking it. But although she grants people their right to cook squash in freedom, she’s not sure why you would do it hard when you can do it easy.

Febreeze works by binding the stink molecules to itself, rendering them unsmellable. It also adds a scent of its own. It doesn’t remove the stink–it’s simply bound up and covered over. Still, it is different than just spraying a scent on top of a stink.

So you have to ask yourself: Do I want to do this, or do I want to eliminate the thing that made the stink? For some people, the answer is made even more simple, because they are sensitive to scented products. Febreeze=misery.

So what did Grandma do about stinky stuff? She really only had two tricks up her sleeve. Air flow (opening windows, turning on fans, etc.) or using vinegar and/or baking soda. Both of these things seem to “absorb” odors. For example, if you make a big stink in your kitchen, set out a bowl of vinegar overnight. Things will smell better in the morning. And who doesn’t know about the box of baking soda in the fridge? (by the way, the Damsel doesn’t partake in this habit. She forces herself to find out what’s making the stink in the fridge. Ew.)

So for fabrics, some folks put a little fabric softener in a spray bottle filled with water, and spray that around as you would Febreeze. It sort of works…it smells nice, anyway. But don’t use it heavily, because just as you would suspect, the stuff will build up and get gunky. Some have added vinegar to this mixture, and if you like the odor of the combo, it certainly couldn’t hurt.

Amounts: try a fabric-softener-capful, plus an equal amount of vinegar (if used) in a spray bottle of water.

If you try this, shake before each use, so the fabric softener will stay dispersed and be less likely to stain.

The Damsel doesn’t like shelling out loads of money for razors, and she really doesn’t want to buy a stockpile of them. There are a lot more fun things to do with money. But she’s not willing to go rugged, either. Not yet. So when she saw this video, she really hoped it would work.

The Damsel confesses, she didn’t believe it could be that easy. So she tried it. And she was happily surprised. It really did work! Your mileage may vary.

Another guy suggests the same thing except running the razor backwards over a pair of jeans. Okay, but your arm is right there with you in the shower, so ???

The Damsel would like to thank this nice gentleman for going shirtless on YouTube in order to instruct us all on sharpening razors. Bonus points for teaching us Old School words such as “strop.”

Hair conditioner works really well as a leg shaving cream. And if you do it this way, it’s pretty much free if you normally use conditioner on your hair anyway.

1. Wash you hair as usual.
2. Put conditioner on your hair, but don’t rinse.
3. While your hands still are all conditioner-y, rub them on one leg and shave.
4. Rub your hands in your hair again, recoating them with conditioner. Rub on your other leg and shave.
5. Rinse your hair.

Bonus: Your conditioner sits in your hair a little longer, like the bottle says, but you rarely take the time to do.

The only way this could be cheaper is to shave your legs the European way. In other words, just go rugged.

The Damsel has heard about these arrangements for years but was sad because there didn’t seem to be any co-ops operating near the Cottage by the Mountains. But that’s changed! Happiness!

It’s actually a very old-fashioned idea. Grandma was no stranger to co-ops. People relied on each other for many things in the old days, from helping each other harvest, quilting, construction and child care to out-and-out purchasing co-ops. They were completely common–in the U.S. and Europe as well. The Damsel likes the cozy sound of it all.

So in the modern version, co-op organizers negotiate to buy directly from food brokers who normally only sell to grocery stores. You buy a “share” of the total, and often you volunteer to keep things running–helping divvy the food up, clean up, etc. In return you get a nice bushel or two of fresh food–often produce, but some co-ops extend to meat, bakery items, and more. It’s cheaper and usually better quality.

The Damsel ADORES her local co-op and becomes quite cranky if she can’t participate every week as is her habit. She never knows exactly what will be in the offering, but that’s part of the fun. It’s been great to try produce she normally wouldn’t buy. And hello, the family is EATING VEGETABLES. How is this not good? And she doesn’t mean to sound like there is a whole lot of bizarre stuff. Nearly everything is “normal” food like potatoes, carrots, bananas, apples, lettuce, etc.

Here’s a photo of one of the weekly produce baskets the Damsel acquired. There were apples, bananas, a pineapple, potatoes, blackberries, mushrooms, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, carrots, grape tomatoes, and broccoli. THIS COST $15.

The Damsel can only say, “I know!”

But her purpose is not to make you jealous. It is the Damsel’s wish that you partake. If you live in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, Washington, or Texas, go to Bountiful Baskets and see if there is a location handy enough for you. Another option for Utah folks is The Community Food Co-op of Utah. In other areas, a Google search may lead you to Produce Nirvana.

The Damsel has heard of co-ops where a person actually buys a percentage of a farmer’s crop. (sometimes called CSA’s, or Community Supported Agriculture) With this type, you know what produce you are getting because you know what he plants. You also participate in the risks and uncertainties of farming, right along with the farmer. The Damsel doesn’t know of this sort of co-op in her area, but perhaps one of you dear students does.

The spirit of the co-op is worth preserving.