Over 100 School Lunch Suggestions and Apple Butter – HBHW Newsletter

August 18th, 2010

Editorial

Hello again and welcome to another edition of the Hillbilly Housewife Newsletter.

Since I’ve dropped my sister and her fiance off at the airport, it appears that summer vacation is officially over.  My focus now is on back-to-school with all the busy preparation that entails.

Last week’s article was filled with specifics about how to plan, pack, and keep a lunch hot or cold.  This week’s article actually contains suggestions – a lot of suggestions! – about what exactly to pack for lunch.   Take a look at this week’s featured article if your child, or you, are brown-bagging your lunch.

The inspirational quote and story I’ve chosen this week are about living the life you dream about.  It’s a good lesson to share with our children as they head off for school this year.

Those are my thoughts this week. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions. Feel free to email me at susanne@hillbillyhousewife.com

Warm Regards,

Susanne – The Hillbilly Housewife

Inspirational Quote

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
~Henry David Thoreau~

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News From The HBHW Club

If you haven’t heard about the Hillbilly Housewife Club, it’s a members only forum packed full of great information, resources, and friendly chit chat about the things we are all interested in – fun, frugal living. Come Join Us And See What All The Chatter Is About!

I look forward to chatting with you in the member area. Click the following link and try the HBHW Club for only $1.
http://www.hillbillyhousewifeclub.com/special.html

Our friends at the Club have been discussing getting ready for back to school time, getting ready for the final harvest of their garden and canning, saving money, getting out of debt, getting fit, and cooking healthy foods from scratch.  Along with the discussions, we’ve been sharing recipes. Here is a recipe I posted at the Club that I’d like to share with you:

Canned Autumn Apple Butter

3 1/2 cups of apple cider
8 large sweet apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/4 tsp pickling salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 (3 in.) cinnamon stick

Pour the apple cider into a 5 quart sauce pot, place on high heat and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to medium, add the apple slices and simmer for 45 minutes.
Stir the apples every 10 minutes or so to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Add the remaining ingredient and reduce the heat to medium low.
Simmer the mixture, stirring intermittently, for 25 minutes or until the sauce thickens to the consistency of applesauce.
Remove the cinnamon stick and throw it away.
Prepare the canning jars and two piece lids according the manufacturer’s instructions keeping them hot.
Spoon the fruit into the jars leaving a 1/4 inch head space.
Release any air bubbles and add more fruit if necessary to retain the 1/4 inch head space.
Process the jars in a water bath for 15 minutes from the point of boiling.
Cool in a draft free area the check to be sure all the lids sealed correctly.
Any jars that did not seal correctly can be refrigerated and used within two months.

Makes 6 half pints.

For the very best apple butter, use REAL apple cider, not the processed and filtered stuff.  The closer you get to natural cider, the more intense and flavorful the apple butter will be.

Go ahead and add a few tart apples in with your sweet apples for another layer of flavor to the apple butter.

Listed here is a sampling of recent recipes added, making a total of more than 400 recipes currently available to our Club members.

• Simple Farm-Style Apple Pie Filling
  
• Sensational Sweet Potatoes
  
• Canned Fresh Tart Apples
  
• Tender Canned Summer Squash
  

We welcome recipe submissions from our friends at the Club and are always happy to see what’s cooking in your kitchen. Our aim is to have six recipes posted each week. That’s a lot of recipes!

Featured Article

Many of us are in the back-to-school mode right now; buying school supplies, clothes, and planning lunches.  Your child’s lunch box may be the most difficult part of getting back in gear for school; possibly because it’s something you have to plan every single day.  This article has not only general tips for planning lunch, but real honest-to-goodness suggestions for what to put in a lunch box;  so many, in fact, that your child will never get bored with lunch.

When your mind is whirling with everything you have to do each day, a simple list of foods to put in a lunch box can be a big help!  Check out this fun article:
Suggestions For School Lunches

Healthy Hillbilly Housewife

Here’s what’s new on the healthy hillbilly housewife section. You can also go straight to http://www.healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com

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Frugal Tips

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Do you have a tip to share? Fill out the submit a frugal tip form and I’ll be glad to add it to the site and share your tip in an upcoming edition of the newsletter.

Recipes

Here are some of the most recent recipes that have been added to the HBHW site. Enjoy!

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Do you have a recipe you would like to share? Click here to send it to me and I’ll be happy to add it to the website.

I’m Looking For:

This section is all about you. If you are looking for a particular recipe or a tip on how to do something, submit it here and I will post it in an upcoming newsletter. I’ll give you my input and other readers of the newsletter will have the opportunity to share their recipes and tips as well. So take a moment to post your questions and of course if you have a tip or idea for any question posted in this section feel free to leave a comment under the appropriate post.

I’m Looking For Requests
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I’m Looking For Responses
Below you will find some of the recent responses to the “I’m Looking For” Requests. You may also want to go directly to this section and browse through all the recent submissions and replies. To do so, click on “I’m Looking for” here, and start looking through them.
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Inspirational Story

Chicken or Eagle?
~author unknown~

Once upon a time, there was a large mountainside, where an eagle’s nest rested. The eagle’s nest contained four large eagle eggs. One day an earthquake rocked the mountain causing one of the eggs to roll down the mountain, to a chicken farm, located in the valley below. The chickens knew that they must protect and care for the eagle’s egg, so an old hen volunteered to nurture and raise the large egg.

One day, the egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born. Sadly, however, the eagle was raised to be a chicken. Soon, the eagle believed he was nothing more than a chicken. The eagle loved his home and family, but his spirit cried out for more. While playing a game on the farm one day, the eagle looked to the skies above and noticed a group of mighty eagles soaring in the skies. “Oh,” the eagle cried, “I wish I could soar like those birds.” The chickens roared with laughter, “You cannot soar with those birds. You are a chicken and chickens do not soar.”

The eagle continued staring, at his real family up above, dreaming that he could be with them. Each time the eagle would let his dreams be known, he was told it couldn’t be done. That is what the eagle learned to believe. The eagle, after time, stopped dreaming and continued to live his life like a chicken. Finally, after a long life as a chicken, the eagle passed away.

The moral of the story: You become what you believe you are; so if you ever dream to become an eagle follow your dreams, not the words of a chicken.

Final Thought

That’s it for this edition of the Hillbilly Housewife Newsletter. I hope you’ve had as much fun reading it as I had creating it for you. I also hope that you have found the information helpful and useful. And by all means feel free to forward the newsletter to family and friends or even better, encourage them to subscribe to it.

Do you have a question, a tip, a recipe or a story you’d like to share with us? Email it to me and I’ll include it in a future issue. Can’t wait to see what you have to say.

Warm Wishes,

Susanne – The Hillbilly Housewife