7 Pantry Staples You’ll Never Want to Buy Again!

Make your own pantry staples from scratch! These easy, budget-friendly recipes will help you stock your kitchen with homemade basics that taste better and save money. #pantrystaples #homemaderecipe #budgetfriendlyrecipe #farmcooking

Belgian Waffles

Ingredients:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, separated
• ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions:
1. Preheat and lightly grease your waffle maker.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the melted butter, milk, and vanilla until smooth.
5. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined. Do not overmix.
6. Carefully fold in the beaten egg whites, keeping the batter light and fluffy (avoid stirring).
7. Scoop about ⅓ cup of batter into the waffle maker and cook until golden brown.

Cinnamon Crunch Bread – https://youtube.com/shorts/D7cd9vLOT6Q?si=SJXmIBE1euYHs24J

Homemade English Muffins – https://youtube.com/shorts/qHlP43xl2Jg?si=c8_33W-iEhBVSk9T

Homemade Tea Bombs

Ingredients (base idea):
• 1 bag (16 oz) frozen fruit, thawed
• 2 generous spoonfuls of honey
• 2 inches fresh ginger root, shredded
• Juice of 1 whole lemon
• A handful of fresh herbs (mint, raspberry leaves, lemon balm, etc.)

Instructions:
1. Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Pour mixture into silicone ice molds.
3. Freeze until solid.
4. To serve: drop a tea bomb into a mug, pour over hot water, and enjoy!

Tip: This recipe is fully customizable — mix and match fruits and herbs to make it your own.

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

Ingredients:
• 500 g self-raising flour (about 4 cups)
• 300 g pistachios (about 2 cups)
• 100 g dried cranberries (about ¾ cup)
• 200 g sugar (1 cup)
• 4 eggs
• 100 g unsalted butter, melted (about 7 tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar (or extra 1 tsp vanilla extract + 1 tsp sugar)
• Zest of 1 orange

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until light. Add melted butter, vanilla, vanilla sugar, and orange zest. Mix well.
3. Stir in cranberries, pistachios, and flour until a soft dough forms.
4. On a floured surface, divide the dough into 4 portions. Roll each into a log. Place logs on prepared tray and gently flatten.
5. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove and let cool slightly (important so they don’t break).
6. Reduce oven to 150°C (300°F). Slice logs into biscotti pieces and place cut side up on the tray.
7. Bake another 20–30 minutes, flipping halfway, until golden and crisp.
8. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Goldfish Crackers – https://youtu.be/D-cAi_Cc1Ng?si=lFWut-CaI7VpAMXH

Pear/Apple Sauce

Crockpot Pear (or Apple) Sauce

Ingredients:
• 8–10 pears or apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
• ¼ cup sugar (adjust to taste)
• ½ cup water
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions:
1. Add fruit, sugar, water, lemon juice, and cinnamon (if using) to crockpot.
2. Cook on low 6–8 hrs or high 3–4 hrs, until soft.
3. Mash for chunky sauce or blend for smooth.
4. Taste and adjust sweetness if needed.

Now that the weather is cooling off, I’ve been in the kitchen more baking and trying out cozy recipes. In this video, I’m sharing the cinnamon crunch bread that was my Farmers Market bestseller. A crunchy cookie that’s perfect with coffee and even a simple tea bomb for chili mornings. I’ll also show you a few everyday staples. homemade English muffin, a pear sauce that’s just like applesauce, and yes, even a snack recipe that didn’t quite work out. It’s a little mix of cozy wins and honest flops straight from my kitchen. I’m tired, y’all. Before starting on the recipes that require for the dough to rise, I wanted to tackle breakfast first. My kids love waffles for breakfast, especially the hotel type of waffles. I have tried quite a few recipes for waffles, but a lot of them turned out very dense and hard and just not very tasty. And so what we were looking for is light and crispy and buttery. And I finally found the recipe and it is for Belgium waffles. To make it easier on myself, I premix my waffle mix. So, I add all the dry ingredients, put it in a little Ziploc bag, and then when I’m ready to make waffles for break breakfast, all I have to do is just measure out two cups of waffle mix and all my ingredients at that point, I just have to add the wet ingredients, and it makes breakfast time and streamlining that so much easier. The dry ingredients in my waffle mix are flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. So, when I’m ready to make waffles for breakfast, I take two cups of my waffle mix. Set it aside. I take two eggs and I separate egg whites and egg yolks. My egg yolks get mixed with milk, melted butter, and vanilla. I then beat my egg whites separate in a mixer until stiff picss are formed. This is a very important step because this is what will give your waffles this light texture is the whipped up egg whites. Once the egg whites have been whipped to stiff peaks, gently fold them into the liquid mixture just until combined. You do not want to overm mix it because you do not want your batter to be deflated. Before making waffles, we realized that we did not have maple syrup in the fridge. So, we kind of improvised and used frozen berries and made syrup from them. Don’t be like me. Don’t spill your beans on your shirt. Keep them in your work crockot. It’s what? It’s white. What does that mean? You think it’s ready? Yeah. So, a waffle maker is pretty old. I picked it up, I believe, at Goodwill for like $3. So, to begin with, it makes very flat waffles. There’s not much room for rising. So, these waffles will be much better in one of those waffle makers where you just kind of flipped almost like a smaller version of the hotel waffle maker. You know what I mean? So, I told the kids during Thanksgiving, we’ll be on the lookout for a newer waffle maker that will allow our waffles not only be light, but also will be more tall instead of flat. This cinnamon crunch bread has a very special place in my heart. I sold it very quickly at the farmers market back in the days when I used to sell at the farmers market. And so I cannot wait to share with you how to make it. It’s so easy yet so delicious. As a newlywed back in the days, I used to stay away from any recipe that called for yeast. Then one day I decided to conquer my fear. And so today I want to share with you quick tips on how to make sure that your yeast bread or yeast any recipe that uses yeast is successful. When you add active dry yeast to your liquid, you want that liquid to be lukewarm, not cold, lukewarm. So, I usually zip it up in a microwave for about 5 seconds. Then, I put my finger in and if it is hot, it will kill your yeast and you just wasted your time. So, you want the finger when you put your finger in the liquid for it to be lukewarm. I add about a teaspoon of sugar to my liquid mixture after I already add my yeast. Mix it up, cover with saran wrap, and let it sit. You will see in about 10 minutes your yeast will be activated and you can then use it for your recipe. So this part is very important when you make any kind of dough recipes and sometimes I find recipes confusing when they don’t specify how long do you have to mix the dough. Sometimes you have to mix upwards of 10 minutes if the dough requires a lot of gluten development. So that way when you stretch the dough, it does not tear and you can we call it um I call it a stretch test. Um but in this case you don’t have to do it. In this case you just mix the dough until it comes nicely together. And you can see it does not stick to my hands. And I’m going to put it in a bowl. I’m going to cover it and then put it in a warm place to do its first r. And let me tell you, if if you ever taste this dough, I mean this dough. If you ever taste this bread, you’ll never want to taste another cinnamon bread before. I used to sell this bread at a farmers market. There was two types of bread. This cinnamon crunch bread and um croissant love bread. None of them. They were both yeast, not the sourdough. And let me tell you, I’ve had people come to the farmers market to buy this bread for me. After the dough has doubled in size, it’s time to shape it. And this is where another problem that some people may encounter when actually making these breads, it’s not allowing enough time for the dough to rise. Because if my usually in the summer months, my kitchen is cooler. So, it takes much longer to rise. Some recipe can take upwards of two two and a half hours to rise. Whereas um in some cases when it’s winter and we have heat going, it may take just an hour for my dough to rise. So make sure that you will you will noticeably see that your dough has doubled at least doubled in size. After you divided your dough into three section and rolled them out, it’s time to coat them with cinnamon and butter goodness. So, you want to dip each strand in butter first and then cover it in a uh cinnamon sugar mixture. Once all three rolls are covered in butter and sugar, it’s time to actually shape your cinnamon crunch bread. And the way I do it is I braid it as if you braid a child’s hair. To make sure that my braid does not fall apart during baking, I tuck in the ends of the braid under my braid. So that way to ensure that they will not separate once the dough started to rise and bake. [Music] [Music] It’s best to bake this bread in a two pound loaf bread, but I didn’t have it with me in our farmhouse. It’s in our rental house in North Carolina. So, I used what I had and it just will make it for a taller bread. This is where you just have to exercise a lot of patience because once this bread starts baking, the smell that it will fill your house of divine cinnamon and sugar and just the sweetness, it’s something that you just can’t wait for the bread to come out and actually enjoy it. And I didn’t talk much about the cinnamon crunch on top. It’s something I made ahead. Keep it in the fridge and just sprinkle it on top. And let me tell you, if you like Panera Bread, Cinnamon Crunch bagels, this will be the best bread you’ll ever have. When we come to the farm, my husband usually spends all his time outside fixing something that’s broken again. So, I often receive text messages asking me to go to the store to pick up another part that he needs. So now we’re back kids and I stop by a little yard sale that our town had and I picked up a few items that if you interested I will share with you later on in this video. Stay tuned for that. When we got home it was back to work in my kitchen and this next recipe is my favorite and I believe once I share with you it’ll become your favorite too. Have you heard of tea bombs before? The way I make my tea bombs is I use a bag of frozen fruit. Now, you can use fresh fruit if you have it available, but for it to be cost effective for my budget, I use frozen fruit. I add juice from a whole lemon. And then I add about 2 in of ginger root. I then add two generous spoons of honey. I had manuka honey that I picked up from Aldi on hand, so that’s what I use. And then I go outside and pick up whatever herbs I have available. I picked up mint. I picked up lemon balm. And I also picked up a few leaves of young uh raspberry plants. And I also found a few raspberries that kids missed when they were picking up harvest. The beauty of this recipe is that you can let your imagination go wild. You can add beets. You can add turmeric. You can add any kind of herbs that’s growing. You can also use leaves from your berry bushes. The only important thing to keep in mind is you want to use young leaves. Older leaves are usually tend to be a little bitter and tougher. So, make sure you use leaves. Blend everything together with a blender. Put it in your favorite ice molds and then stick it in the freezer for a few hours. Friends, have you ever had homemade English muffins? If you haven’t, I am here to teach you how to make them. They’re so easy to make and so delicious. It will take your breakfast sandwich to the next level. Unlike a previous recipe for bread, this recipe requires a little bit more mixing. So, we want to really develop that gluten and mix it until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl, but it will still be sticky when you actually touch it. So, it took me it takes me approximately 10 to 15 minutes to really mix well the dough for this recipe. After your dough has risen, you want to generously sprinkle your pan with cornmeal. This is where your English muffins will go after you shape them, and this is where they will have their second rise on. I use a biscuit cutter for my English muffins, but honestly, if you don’t have one, you can use a cup. Just make sure that once you press it, you press it hard. There will be a little bit still sticky. So, I want to make sure the surface is also sprinkled with lots of flour where you initially putting your dough on to cut the shapes of the English muffins. Whatever the dough scraps that I have, I just put them back together and cut the rest of the English muffins. They might not look quite as pretty on the surface, but they will taste just as good. [Music] Cover the English muffins with saran wrap and just leave them in a warm place to rise for about 30 to 40 minutes. When I have a cooking bacon day, I always dread passing by my sink because it’s always full of dishes. So, I usually try to find a time in my day where I can just pause what I’m doing, get the dishes done, put them in a dishwasher, and then whatever doesn’t fit, I usually try to get by hand, and that way I don’t get stressed by just looking at them. When it’s time to cook your English muffin, let me share with you a trick that works for me. I do not add any cornmeal initially when I put my English muffin on the pan because if I do, it will burn quite quickly. Instead, I make sure that the bacon pan where I put initially my English muffins to rise is very well covered with cornmeal. Then before flipping my muffins, I sprinkle them with cornmeal generously and then flip it. So that way it does not stick to the pan because you do not use any kind of oil, any kind of butter on the pan. You’re cooking it on a just a regular pan with nothing on it. Also, make sure to cover the pan with the lid so that way your English muffin cooks all the way through. I love English muffins with jelly. My husband loves it with sausage and egg, and my kids love it plain. Honestly, you cannot compare homemade English muffins to store-bought muffins because they just don’t even, I feel like, taste the same. They’re so soft, so tender, where storebought is more dense and hard. I mean, just give it a shot. It’s so easy to make and very cost effective as well. Next on my to-do list was to make something sweet to go with my tea bombs for breakfast. Italian biscatis just seemed like a perfect choice for that. And have I mentioned that there is so easy to make? Essentially, all you do is mix all your ingredients together. You do not even have to have a mixer for that. You can do it by hand. First you add all your wet ingredients, mix it up. Then you add all your dry ingredients. Mix it up. And after that, it’s really just deciding what do you want to add to your biscati. I had cranberries and very little pecans, so I decided to add white chocolate chips as well. What I did not have on hand was orange. Adding orange zest definitely elevates your biscati because it adds this citrus flavor. And then I fill all the other add-ons, like in my case was white chocolate chips, a little bit of pecans and cranberries. Just kind of pulls it all together. At this point, my time was ticking, so I did not want to go back out again just to get an orange. So I decided to just improvise and do without. You then want to use your hand and kind of just mix everything together until the dough forms. Flour the surface of the table well and then divide your dough into four pieces. You then want to take each section of the dough and shape it into a log. And then flatten it off a little bit. [Music] [Music] Put it in the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Then once you take it out, you want to let your dough completely cool because if you try to cut it while it’s warm, it’s all going to be crumbly. So let it exercise your patience because it again it smells divine and then let it completely cool and cut it into pieces. You flip each piece on its side and when you complete cutting all of it you put it back in the oven and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes. Halfway through you want to flip it on the other side. Take your cookie and flip it on the other flat side and cook for additional 10 to 15 minutes. The end result is unbelievably delicious cookie. I enjoy it with a cup of hot tea. My kids love dipping it in milk. It’s the perfect pick me up in an afternoon treat in my household. Next on our to-do list was to pick up all the pairs before deer gets to it. Our boys were still gone with my husband fixing stuff on the farm, cleaning. I mean, there’s always something to do. So, the girls and I decided to take matters into our own hands and go get all the pairs we could. It’s already started to get dark outside, so my body also started to signal that it was ready to quit for the day. But I wanted to push through and just make one last recipe for the night. My kids have been asking me to make homemade goldfish, but I forgot to take the mold with us. So, I told them, “What if we use the same recipe, but try to make Cheezits with it?” Have you heard of a saying when you are too tired to do it once, you’ll end up doing it twice? Well, that is exactly what happened to me. To make goldfish, all you do is add all the ingredients in the food processor and then voila, let the dough cool in the fridge a little bit, roll it out, stamp it out, bake it out, and then enjoy. In my case, I let it mix for way too long, and I knew in my gut that I messed it up. But at this point, I did not have brain capacity to redo this recipe. So I just said whatever happened happens. I just put it in a fridge overnight and decided to see what would happen in the morning. I had two more recipe to conquer the next day. So I called it quit, cleaned up the kitchen and decided to go to bed. [Music] To get my day started on the right foot, I decided to make myself a cup of tea with biscati. And boy oh boy, I’m so glad that I did it. I mixed my tea bombs with just some hot water. Mixed it all up until my tea bombs dissolved and it created this beautiful dark deep red color. Then I decided to go outside on the porch and clearly my kids decided to follow me as well. My little man wanted to know what I was drinking, but instead decided to just take biscotti and walk away. Then my youngest daughter came in and joined me on the rocking chair and also had biscotti and we just enjoy a little quiet time together. Before heading to church, I wanted to put a crock pot on and fill it up with the pears we picked up the night before. And it’s really easy how to make pear butter. Or in this case, you can just if you have apples or buy it from the grocery store, make applesauce the same way. You peel your fruit. You then add a little bit of water. So that way your fruit does not stick initially to the bottom of the crock pot. I think I added about maybe 1/4 cup of sugar. And that’s it. You put it in the crock pot and I let it sit and it cooked for about four to five hours. While my pears were simmering in a crock pot, I decided that I have plenty of time before church to go ahead and make my crackers. I took the dough out of the fridge, then rolled it out and cut it into pieces to resemble the little square crackers. My kids then came along and poked all the holes in it. And they all wanted to contribute and help making those crackers. I was very thankful that my kids came alongside and wanted to help me. And I think it’s so good for children to help with cooking because then I feel like they appreciate it so much more when they enjoying it. [Music] When the crackers came out of the oven, they looked a little rougher on the edges, but according to my kids, they still tasted delicious. So, lesson learned. When you’re tired, mistakes sneak in. And it’s better to rest up and come back with energy than waste ingredients. and effort on the flop. Thankfully, kids still found these crackers delicious. When we came back from church, I checked on the pears and they looked soft and ready to be blended. But I’ve noticed that they did produce a lot of liquid. So, I decided to strain the liquid first and then add them to the blender cuz I didn’t want to have like a soupy liquidy um you know, pear sauce. I want it to be like firm like you would buy it at the grocery store. It all came together beautifully. And honestly, kids and I talked about it that we could have omitted sugar all together. It really didn’t need it, but it was so delicious and it would be a perfect healthy snack for us to enjoy when we crave something sweet. I told you guys that I will show you what I picked up from our community yard sale. It’s something that our town has every Saturday at the same place. And I generally don’t stop by because I don’t have time. But Saturday the kids ask me, we’re passing by if we can stop by and look at it. So, we just kind of browsed around and that one seller had some jewelry. It didn’t look anything like too extraordinary, but a few pieces stood out to me. Um, I do not wear jewelry. It’s very ironic. I wear the same earrings that belong to my mom’s grandmother. No, my mom’s It’s my grandmother. My mom’s mom gave it to her and then my mom gave it to me. This and then this ring. And uh so anyways, but I love vintage jewelry. I don’t know why they just speak to me so well. My husband was stationed in Missouri. I started to pick up some vintage jewelry from a little local thrift store that sold jewelry jars for like $4.99 and they would be gone. So if you like see it, you want to get them all because they would be gone within like probably an hour. And so my girls would pick out jewelry to play with. And then I realized that they had some amazing pieces that worth a good bit of money. And so I started to pick up from there. And then when I would go dig at like Goodwill outlet, I would find baggies of vintage jewelry, vintage earrings. And then there was an elder older gentleman who would sell me like bags of vintage jewelry for like 20 $30. So I accumulated a lot. And although my intention originally was to start selling it, I decided to kind of hold on for right now to see if my girls when they get older, if they want any of this jewelry or if they want to start their own business and resell online. So, I’m going to show you what all I have. But anyway, so these pieces that I’m going to show you in a second is what I picked up at the little yard sale. Nothing crazy, but some of them are pretty cute. [Music] And just like that, another weekend on the farm has come to an end. What’s next? Well, that’s a story for the next page in the diary. [Music]