What? Perky Coffee Custard?

What you you doing this fine snowy day? I am making warm coffee custard.

The cool thing about custard is the recipe is so basic:
2 cups milk 
2 eggs (I store mine with coconut oil)
1/2 sugar
VIA ( I use Italian blend coffee)  (associates link)
You may also add DIY vanilla extract. I like it both ways. 
Then you just multiply that times how much you wish to make. 
First you scald the milk by putting the milk in saucepan on the stove at medium heat. Stir as the milk heats up & when small bubbles from around the edge of the pan it is scalded. At this point whisk in one package of VIA ( I use Italian blend coffee)  (associates link) for each 2 cups I am making. Remove from heat. Allow to cool a little. But you could just make a cup of extra strong coffee to add. 

While cooking the milk crack your eggs and whisk together and add your sugar.
Whisk the egg/sugar mixture together with the milk. Add about 1 T. vanilla at this point.

Pour in to a buttered baking dish. For a smoother custard, strain mixture as you pour it into the pan. I find that cooking the custard in a water bath makes a very smooth custard. To do that place the cooking dish into a larger dish (I then place it in the oven) and add water to the larger dish, about half way up.

                          

Now recipes say cook at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes. I actually do a lower heat (my oven runs hot) and the test if it is done is to insert a knife into the center and it comes out clean (not milky).

 I will learn not to eat it late at night.

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Perky Gramma's Biscuits Recipe

Butter biscuits is one of the first things I ever baked. This is my recipe from a children's cookbook I got when I was about 4 or 5. At that point I lived in the great state of New Mexico. I got my beloved cookbook for free by sending in the Pure Sugar label on a postcard, as you can see in the video commercial I've posted below.
Living out in the country now, is a happy journey of focusing on cooking more meals at home. What a great way to save money too! I try to make sure I always have everything on hand in my pantry, since a "quick" drive to the grocery store doesn't exist anymore. While I am showing my vintage tools that I was using, I also have back up tools also, just in case.
We didn't have the Food Network when I was a child, my little cookbook is still a treasure and is over 50 years old. Pretty amazing to me.

Flaky Butter Biscuits
 2 C. sifted flour
4 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1/4 C. soft butter
2/3 C. milk
1. Turn on the oven and set at 425 degrees.
2. Sift the flour, add baking powder and salt and sift again into a mixing bowl.
3. Add the butter to the flour mixture. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender of two knives. Continue blending until mixture looks like course crumbs.
4. When well-mixed, add the milk all at once. Stir with a fork just til the dough follows the fork around the bowl. Don't stir too much as it will make the biscuits tough.
5. Sprinkle a little flour on a board and rolling pin. Dust hands with flour and knead the dough about 10 times.

6. Roll out the dough until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter, or a glass or I actually used a ring from my canning jars.

7. Place biscuits on a lightly greased baking sheet.
8. Bake at 425 degrees for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.


Here is that commercial.

What I do here is simply share our journey of becoming debt free, teach vintage skills and living a new life on our farmette. We would love it if your joined our Perky Gramma Teaches community on Facebook, comment or share. Plus it would just make my day.

Your order is so very appreciated, because anything ordered through my Amazon Associate links helps me to be able to stay home and write for you.

Perky Gramma Teaches is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Chicken Tails...

What a great week in the coop. Believe it or not my girls are increasing their egg production! Not what I expected. Usually egg production decreases as the sunlight decreases. My girlfriend and I were chatting and she admitted she has "egg envy" & I confessed I had "egg basket envy". I am adding an egg basket to my cart, but not getting it until after Christmas just in case...you know...Santa may bring me one. I really am enjoying my chicken journey. Truth be told I am fighting becoming that crazy chicken lady. I have started looking at chicken paraphernalia, but thankfully I am still picky about what stuff I like. 

DIY Cute "Hennie" Gifts - Plus Canned Chicken

There isn't a crafty bone in my body, so this DIY Cute "Hennie" chicken gifts is probably skill level zero.
First what is a "Hennie"? "Hennies are sweet chickens with gentle dispositions, fresh from the brooder, and eagerly awaiting you to adopt" & they were hatched (created) by a wonderfully creative mom from Born Imaginative. She hand makes these cuties and sells them on etsy. I've been watching and thinking about these little peeps.
One of my biggest dreams is to have my grandbabies become excited about farm life with us. Passing on skills for their future; having them revel in the good life.

There are two types of Hennies and several different characters, plus she does other really cute handmade toys to spark the imagination. 
On the left is an original Hennie. Each comes with one hen (approx. Height 3 in, Width 1 3/4 in Depth 4 in.), an upcycled origami nesting box (from paper bags), wool hay and a wooden egg. They also come with a birth certificate detailing their date of birth, their breed and the unique and special details specific to their breed. All for $10 They are SUPER cute!

Then on the right is the Hennie Ornament. She doesn't have the extra stuff, so she runs $7.50.

 

For Easter I made super simple DIY little chicken coops or as I like to say "canned chicken" for my grandchildren. You could easily adapt this to a Christmas or holiday project.

For Christmas I am going to give each of the grandbabies the Hennie ornament. I got little wooden craft crates at Michael's for $1, raffia and small wooden eggs. I just looped the raffia through the crate to create a hanger and look how cute they turned out.

If you are a little craftier, you could get an original Hennie and use the paper nest to create a patterns for folding your own nest in holiday paper.

                   

I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.

DIY Cute Little Chicken Coops or "Canning Chicken"

This is "Spirit" & she is a "Hennie"
"Hennies are sweet chickens with gentle dispositions, fresh from the brooder, and eagerly awaiting you to adopt" & they were hatched (created) by a wonderfully creative mom from Born Imaginative. She hand makes these cuties and sells them on etsy. I've been watching and thinking about these little peeps.
One of my biggest dreams is to have my grandbabies become excited about farm life with us. Passing on skills for their future; having them revel in the good life. So, I hatched this little gift idea to present to them on Easter. This could easily be adapted for Christmas and any holiday.

I got three little hennies, which come with "origami nesting box (from paper bags), wool hay and a wooden egg. They also come with a birth certificate detailing their date of birth, their breed and the unique and special details specific to their breed. " from Jackie's Esty site.

I picked up some edible grass & jelly bellies from Target. But for Christmas I am making some with raffia.

I made a little nest from the edible grass, tucked in some jelly beans, the wooden egg & their birth certificates into a canning jar. Then I nested each little hennie inside and added a lid and ring to finish off their new coop.

On Easter each child will receive their hennie & coop, plus the original origami nesting box and an additional certificate that will entitled them to each name one of the chickens on gramma's farm!

I did have to adjust the peeps to face the other way. Here are "Spunk & Cheer".

                             

Very Important Tip: Make sure you don't put the lids on too tightly, because the hennies need to be able to breathe. It would even be advisable to poke few air holes in the lid. (1127)

I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.

12 Days of Christmas for Singles and other single like people...

Now for my single friends out there please note that you don't need a significant other to "complete" yourself - you are awesome with or without a partner. My strangest Christmas was when I was single and serving in the military. I had to work on Christmas day and I missed the meal at the mess hall. At the end of my shift I went to the only place open (Panama Canal Zone) which was a bar and had a hotdog.

That was years ago, I only wish someone had given me suggestions to help celebrate as a single person.

1. Buy yourself flowers or a box of ammo

According to a survey from eBates, 4 percent of people plan to send themselves flowers this year. Trust me you don't have to have a significant other to buy flowers. Get what you like and have fun making an arrangement.
If you get a box of ammo, go to the range and shoot the whole box. Or you could do both and shoot the flower arrangement when it croaks.

2. Keep your eyes open I noticed at Thanksgiving @LC Culpeper someone offered to host anyone to their home to share in the meal. Maybe this will happen again at Christmas (hint, hint to the married peeps). Take them up on the offer. They mean it, they want you to come and visit.

3. Play your favorite Christmas song on a loop all dayNo one can be annoyed. You could even dance...

4. Serve

Get involved in one of LC's outreach projects. Be a ding-a-ling and ring-a-ling the bell for the Salvation Army at Walmart. There is still time to sign up.

5. Write yourself a message on the bathroom mirror

Seriously, tell yourself you are beautiful/handsome, you are special, talented...

6. Pick out an ornament for yourself

I love the vast array of ornaments at Walmart.

7. Pizza

Buy the pizza you like and you don't have to share! In the words of the honorable Bill Murray, "Every pizza is a personal pizza if you try hard and believe in yourself."

8. Send a note to another single friend

9. Do something silly

Wear a clown nose in public, carry a green balloon (TWD reference) and if someone asks why you have a balloon, hand it to them and say “It's for you!”

10. Friend me on FacebookPersonally I like having single friends, since my hubbie isn't Christian I like to connect with singles, and other single/married people. For me I hang out with females only. We along with single parents have a unique place in the community.

11. Find another single friend, get together and wrap presents.
This works especially well if you are a single parent.

12. Whatever the Heck You Want

Hello, you're a single adult and don't have anyone to answer to for how you spend your money or your time! Even though overspending is the top quality people don't want in a romantic partner, right now that's not your problem. So go ahead, and treat yourself with a little extra somethin' somethin' this Christmas.

Vacuum Sealing A - Z (Tips and Tricks)

The FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer is one of my top five favorite kitchen tools. I use it many times a week. Just last week I vacuum sealed 40 lbs. of Zaycon Chicken (referral link) for my freezer & vacuum sealed some cereal for storage.
I thought I would consolidate all the various posts I have on the vacuum sealer in one place. 

TIPS TIPS TIPS TIPS TIPS 

TIP 1: I find that if you leave extra bag space on the top before sealing, you later can open up the package using the slicer on your FoodSaver creating a clean straight cut. Then when you get out what you need, you are able to reseal the same package. This comes in handy. This week I had a lot of mushrooms I bought on sale and planned to use them several times. One bag, multiply times used and resealed. 

TIP 2: Sometime you may have sloppy leftovers. I have found it easy to freeze the leftover in a pan of some sort, then vacuum seal the frozen block. This helps keep your machine cleaner. When you want that meal for dinner, you drop the package in a pot of boiling water. The bags are sturdy enough to withstand the heat. Cut open the bag then serve.

TIP 3: Occasionally you will have a bag that all the air is not vacuumed out (on the left). If that happens I just put that in the front of the rest of the packages and use it first. To prevent it from happening, it helps to sort of push the food into the middle to create unobstructed channels on each side (on the right). That helps prevent air getting locked at the bottom and sides.

TIP 4: I mentioned above, since the bags are so strong, you can simply drop the bag into a pot of boiling water & cook. Even this raw chicken will cook completely and is very juicy because the package is sealed. It will even create a little broth.                 Posts on How to Use the FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer, 

                                                 Plus More TIPS.

How to Vacuum Seal Dry Goods

Step - By - Step: How To Vacuum Seal Meats

 

How to Clean Your FoodSaver 

Items that I've used in these posts:

          

What I do here is simply share our journey. We would love it if your joined our Perky Gramma Teaches community on Facebook. I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.