How to Make Refrigerator Pickles

 

Recipe: Refrigerator Pickles
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Refrigerator Pickles are crazy easy to make.  They are a great first pickle to experiment making.

They are made with few ingredients, don’t require fancy equipment, and are simple to put together.

Besides all of that, they taste great.

Just about anyone can make them and it is pretty easy to keep a batch of refrigerator pickles developing in the fridge on a constant basis.

Once you make them you  can turn them into koolicles if you want but even without fruit punch flavor these pickles are hard to beat.

How to Make Refrigerator Pickles:

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 6 cups sliced cucumbers
  • 1 cup sliced onions
  • sliced peppers (if desired)
  • tablespoon pickling spice (if desired – omit if peppers are added)

Procedure:

  • First, Bring vinegar, salt and sugar to a boil using a medium saucepan over medium heat,
  • Next, boil until the sugar has dissolved, about 10 minutes.
  • Then, place the cucumbers, onions and green bell peppers/pickling spice in a large bowl.
  • Pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables.
  • Finally, transfer to sterile containers and store in the refrigerator.

Pickles are ready in about 2 days.

How To Make Freezer Breakfast Burritos

 

Recipe: Make Ahead Breakfast Burritos
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I am not going to add a recipe to this post on make ahead breakfast burritos.  The beauty of the breakfast burrito is you can add anything you want in whatever quantities and ratios you desire as long as you can wrap a flour tortilla around it.

I love these Make Ahead Breakfast Burritos  I can make a bunch of them on the weekend, freeze them individually as I did here with orange slices, and then pack them in a freezer bag.

In the morning I can microwave one and eat it as I sit in traffic.  This is a cheaper alternative to fast food breakfast, and it is very easy.

One thing I like to do with mine (which makes my wife upset with me) is that I also like to fry mine a little to make the shell stay together.

I feel this makes the burrito taste better, but it does make it a little greasier so make sure you take a paper towel or a beeswax cotton wrap with you on your road trip so you don’t get oil stains on your work clothes.

Recipe: Cheesy Bread

Recipe: Cheesy Bread
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This wonderful recipe sets the lie to the idea that you can pick any two cheap, fast, and good.  My cheesy bread is fast, good, and cheap.

Making Cheesy Bread is simple:

  • Simply take a loaf of bread (I like the dollar loves from the bakery) and score it halfway through in 1/2 inch cross hatching.
  • Next pull the cuts apart and fill with cubed cheese.  Add Lardon (thickly chopped bacon) to the cheese.
  • Lastly I like to lightly spread chopped chives or green onion to the top of my cheesy bread.
  • To cook, just throw it in a preheated oven – I use around 425 and bake the bread for 10 minutes or so until the bread lightly toasts and the cheese melts.

Once this comes out of the oven the boy and I tear it apart.  The cheese and bacon tastes wonderful and the bread soaks it all in.

As I write this, I want to go make me a dose of this cheesy bread right now.

I used this once in a casting video for a show.  It helped get me into consideration, but in the end I lost out.  I am not too disappointed because I would have had to quit my job to be on a yearlong show that only lasted 2 months.

How to Frugally Stretch Ground Beef

 

Kitchen DIY: Gound Beef Stretcher
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I try very hard to be frugal, as a matter of fact one reason I put in the work into these videos and articles is so the ad revenue can partially pay for the materials in the projects – otherwise I could not afford to make all the stuff I do. (so please pardon the ads – I prefer them to asking for subscriptions)

One way I can be frugal is to use meat as a flavoring and not a main ingredient – to do so I like to add “taste neutral” things to stretch the meat by cooking them with the meat and letting them absorb the fat and flavor.

My friend and partner in Dual Homestead, James Burnette told me that when he watched this video he was screaming “NO DAVE!” because he is Paleo and thinks adding grains to meat is blasphemous.  However, he did tell me he also uses food as a ground beef stretcher so he is not all bad…

Lots of Options to Stretch Ground Beef

I like to add oats, rice, or sometimes breadcrumbs to my meat when making things like meatloaf or hamburgers – I also do it when making spaghetti (but I don’t use breadcrumbs when I am making something with broken up ground beef – its too mushy).

Depending on how I am feeling – normally that depends on how long till payday – I use 1/3 to 1/2 rice or oatmeal in the meat.

However, when using oatmeal as a ground beef stretcher it can change the texture and make it more dense.  (The way I deal with that is to let the meat sit with a little salt and make a loaf – I then call it Gyro meat – and people think I made it dense on purpose)…

That reminds me that gyro meat is on my list of articles and I really should get around to posting how I do that.

By the way, if you are interested how the paleo punk stretches his ground meat I will share that he uses cabbage.

Recipe: Waffle Cone S’Mores

Recipe: Waffle Cone S'Mores
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This Waffle Cone S’Mores recipe was put in one of my books so I am not going to add the recipe (I have done this before and both my publisher and reviewers got made at me for selling books with content that could be found for free on this site).

however,

i still want to share because it is a really fun recipe for camping (or just in your home oven).

I really like doing this recipe with kids.  Letting your child make their own waffle cone lets them be creative as well as allow them to make choices with little consequence.

These S’Mores are a pretty fun family activity.  Additionally they are a very tasty and kid friendly recipe.

Making this video was a win-win scenario.  I enjoyed making this video, and my son really enjoyed eating the desserts.  Unfortunately, Genny is still on her diet, so I don’t get to make these very much, she says I only cook desserts when I want to tempt her.

I am not the kind of guy to tempt a hungry mamma with melted chocolate.  I take risks, but I am not suicidal.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy this video and take some time to cook with your kids.