I was asked a few questions tonight on The 21st Century Homekeeper and didn’t get to answer them so here are my answers!

Q.What should a young couple with a baby be doing to prepare?

A. Don’t think that because you may not have much money you can’t prepare. It only takes $5 or $10 a week to prepare well.  Some of the things you can do are:

Learn to garden, even container garden.
Buy cloth diapers and pins and store them for the future
Learn to put up your own food by canning, smoking, salting, fermenting and dehydrating, learn how to use your home-preserved food.
Buy store canned food when you find a sale.
Buy frozen foods on sale and dehydrate them. Use them frequently so you’ll know how.
Buy small amounts of silver when you can. A silver dollar costs about $32 right now. Save up and buy one every now and then. When you need extra money, you can sell one. Try to sell them at a higher price than you bought them of course, but they are a good savings method.

Q.What are some ideas for home made gifts?
A. I make after shave and shaving cream most every year, they are well received every year. I’ll try to get my recipes up. Also, try having a cookie exchange, its easy and lots of fun, plus you get a lot of different cookies you can freeze or give away. I plan on putting my cookie exchange post up closer to Christmas this year, so come back here and you’ll find it.

Everyone likes good homemade food. I suggest you find a couple of recipes that you are really good at making and plan to make those recipes in bulk to give away.

Cinnamon ornaments are fun to make and smell great. They make nice gifts in sets or you can use single ornaments as a gift tag.  Here is how I make them:

Applesauce Cinnamon Ornaments

These little ornaments will last for years if you take care of them. Refresh the cinnamon fragrance with drop of fragrance oil every ear. Use them to decorate the tree and even gifts.

❖1 cup cinnamon

❖1 tbsp. ground cloves

❖1 tbsp. nutmeg

❖1 tbsp. allspice

❖1 tbsp ginger

❖3/4 c. applesauce

In medium bowl, combine cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger & nutmeg. Add applesauce, stir to combine. Work mixture with hands 2 to 3 minutes or until dough is smooth and ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

You may want to cover your counter before putting the cinnamon dough on it to roll out. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on the

counter top. Using a little cinnamon to dust the counter and rolling pin, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness.

Cut dough with cookie cutters. Use a straw or pencil and make a small hole in top of ornament.

Bake on an un-greased cookie sheet at 150 degrees F for 1 hour. Remove from the cookie sheet and bake an additional hour and a half on the oven rack.