Making bread without an oven + recipes!

In true "off-grid homestead" fashion, I made bread Saturday without the aid of an oven for baking or even for letting it rise. (I usually set the oven to it's lowest setting and prop the door open for the rise.) I mixed the dough by hand instead of in the bread machine, let it rise, kneaded it, let it rise again, then baked it in my dutch oven.

It's not the camp style dutch oven. It's just a 4 or 5 quart cast iron pot with a handle and a lid. It still worked, though, for baking the bread. I will tweak my baking method a bit for better results, but the bread I made is still very good and can be used for sandwiches or as a side to a meal.

I'll share my basic bread recipe here as well as my dinner roll recipe. I did use the bread machine to make the dough for the dinner rolls while I was working on the off grid bread recipe. And, I used the oven as usual for the rise and the bake of the dinner rolls.

I use instant yeast so I didn't proof it before adding it to the recipes. I also didn't use the parchment paper as indicated in my written recipe down below, but that was probably a mistake. I used a cake pan as a liner for the dutch oven, and it was quite difficult to manage when it came time to flip the bread over.

Off Grid Bread Recipe
1 cup warm water
1 ½ tsp. Salt
3 tbsp. Sugar
3 tbsp. Oil or fat of your choice
3 cups flour
2 ¼ tsp. Yeast
Mix all together well and knead about 10 minutes. Place in oiled bowl, cover with plastic, and let rise till double. Knead again just till cohesive. Form into a round loaf. Place loaf on parchment paper in a skillet. Cover with plastic and let rise until almost doubled. Uncover, remove from skillet using the parchment to lift it out, and place paper and risen dough in preheated dutch oven. I used a medium low setting on the stove. Allow to bake till sides are brown and top is dry. Remove from dutch oven, flip it over in the paper, and let it bake another 10 minutes or so till the top is also browned. Remove, cool, and serve.


Dinner Rolls (bread machine)
1 cup warm water
1 egg
4 tbsp. Sugar
3 tbsp. Butter
1 ½ tsp. Salt
3 cups flour
2 ¼ tsp. Yeast

Put into bread machine pan in the order given. Set for “Dough”. When done, remove from bread machine pan and lightly knead on a floured surface. Cut into desired roll shapes. Place in a greased oblong cake pan and cover with plastic. Let rise one hour. Remove plastic and bake in oven until golden brown, about 25 minutes at 350 F.

Dinner Rolls

Off Grid Bread

The cabin

This is similar to the cabin we're getting. Remember, ours will be a white roof and off-white sides, and longer than the one shown. However, this is the style we're getting.

This portable cabin will be home sweet home for a long time, so we want to be sure we do it right from the get-go. The one pictured is 16 feet long, so using your imagination, you can visualize it being 4 feet longer. Only 200 square feet for the main part but by the time we're done, the loft should bring in another 160 square feet of useful space. Right now, the loft is 80 square feet so we'll be doubling that. We'll wind up with a grand total of 360 square feet! Still tiny and about half the square footage where we are now (yes, this house we're in is only 600 square feet) but doable if we severely purge!



We will put a small deck on the front, build up some flower beds, and basically try to make it as cute as possible.

It's ours - a new homestead for us

Yesterday I did the scariest thing I've ever done, aside from signing to buy a car. I signed to buy 3 acres of land, then I signed to buy a 10 X 20 foot portable barn to turn into a tiny home/cabin on the same day. I honestly was just about ill from thinking about the commitment, especially on the land. It's a very long 30 year note and, unless I pay it off really early, I will probably never see the deed if I don't.

So, my plan is to pay it off early! The cabin pays off in 3 years which means I can then use that money to put on the land and pay it down much faster.

We've been using quadrille graph paper to work out how we want to deal with the inside of the cabin. Fortunately, this cabin has a 4 foot loft at each end so that gives more storage space at one end and a sleeping loft for my son in the other end. The seller said we can do what we want with the cabin as long as we don't tear out a side or end wall, or the floor.

First thing we need to do is insulate the walls and ceiling so that staying cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter is less of an issue. We are going to extend one of the lofts so there's just a place between them where a ladder or attic stairs can access them both.

We chose a white metal roof and off-white metal siding so help reflect sunlight, since there aren't really any trees around where it will be placed. We also opted for one more window, in the center of the rear wall, so it's across from the two front windows and the double front door. We plan to only actually use one of the barn-style doors and can place furniture in front of the other one.

We'll need to get the water going and the sewer connected to the septic tank. Bought a toilet yesterday for really cheap ($40) so we'll install that. Still working out how to get a shower stall in there that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Thinking of using a small livestock watering tub and fashioning a drain in that to also go into the septic.

Everything will run on solar power or be manually operated to completely eliminate an electric bill. That gives me a few extra bucks each month to get a new battery or expand the solar array. For example, we're thinking we'll put one 85 watt solar panel (which we already have) on top of the well house, add a battery inside the well house along with a small charge controller, and use that mainly for pumping the water. I found a suitable 12v pump on eBay for a reasonable price.

So, as I go along, there'll be lots of updates concerning this new adventure! Stay tuned!

Land change of plans

In order to be able to get on a new piece of land faster and get a cabin put on it, we've decided to buy a smaller spot that already has a well and septic tank on it. Over the long term it will cost a little more but there's really no way I'd have the money to install septic, even though we could figure out the water situation by using rain catchment, food grade barrels, and in-line water filters and pool shock pucks in the filters. (We still might do that.) I'll share a video at the end of where I saw this particular idea, and the shock pucks will treat 10,000 gallons of water!

Where we live, if perc tests show septic to be viable then you must use that. If not, you can use off grid plans ,such as a composting toilet, but it has to be one of a couple of approved brands, and they are very expensive. I have located a house-type toilet for only $40, so we'll go that route. I should be able to use straight rainwater from the roof, via gutters, downspouts, and a 275 gallon IBC tote, to run the toilet. It doesn't have to be potable water. It just has to flush.

 Gray water must be diverted into it, as well, though I might still put the kitchen gray water into a barrel out back to use for watering the garden. I just need to figure out a filtration system for that.

In order to get a potty, shower, and point-of-use hot water unit in, I need the extra money I'll save from the down payment cost. I have 205 watts of solar panels now, and a couple of batteries. I've been shopping online for a whole list of things we'll need in the cabin pretty quickly. And, I normally allow about $100 a month for needs such as these anyway, so there's that money to add to what I have.

• Insulation
• Water management (12v 50w solar submersible pump)
• Propane tank (small ones)
• Toilet
• Sewer pipe
• Water pipe (we may have enough PVC on hand to cover that. Need joints and elbows.)
• Staples (for the heavy stapler to put insulation in with)
• Shower (thinking a watering tub from Tractor Supply, with a drain made into one end of the bottom would probably work.)

Everything we need to start with also needs plumbing to operate, so we're really going to be learning a lot with this new adventure. 

I have all these thoughts spinning in my head, and a lot of them written in a notebook. I've been sketching the inside layout of the cabin to get optimal use of space. Already started packing the limited number of dishes we need on a daily basis. Others will be stored in rubbermaid totes.

No pictures or videos to share today. There will be some coming soon as we go about taking on this new task.

Potential homestead land!

I really shouldn't get my hopes up, I know, but I came across a parcel of land on Craigslist and the land isn't far from where I live now. It is 5 acres with pond, some fencing (probably barbed wire - no good for goats), and a seasonal creek. Open areas and some woods.

I heard back by email from the man who's selling it as owner financed. The terms are well within my budget. I'm hoping we can go take an in-person look at it in just a day or two. If it really does seem right, then I'll sign for it and we can get started soon on setting up our new homestead. This time it's all ours!

Please pray I'll have discernment where this is concerned, and that if it's not right, I'll know. If this is "our" place on this earth, then we've really got a lot of work to do to get ready to move, including tearing down fences here and putting them up there, selecting a spot for our tiny house, solar panels, barn, chicken coop, and whatever else we'll be needing before winter comes. I'm sure it will be a summer-long job to get ready for winter!

Here's an edited picture of the Craigslist ad, so no one's info is revealed.

Looking for land

We did go to meet up with a guy that has small parcels of land for sale. I'm thinking they are about the same distance from town as we are now, and supposedly good for going off-grid. He said some even have springs on them. That would be great for an off-grid water source.

So, we went to meet up with him and got there pretty early. Early enough to go by the McDonald's next door and get lunch, and had time to eat it. Since we were early, we knew we'd have to wait. Our appointment with him was at 3:30 pm and we were done eating around 3 pm. So we waited.

It got to be 3:30 and he called, apologizing and saying he'd gotten tied up with another appoinment, and that he'd be 10 or 15 minutes late. Ok. We'd wait.

Then it got to be after 4 pm and no further word from him, so we texted him and headed back to our town. When we got nearly halfway home, he called saying he was at the meet up spot and did we want to come back? Well, no. We had a few other things to do then we needed to come home and feed before dark. He was pretty insistent, but so was I. I told him I'd get back with him later in the week when maybe it would be more convenient for him. I was nice, but firm.

I figure if someone makes an appointment for a meeting, they should either cancel it if they really can't make it, not schedule too many things for the same day, or just wait to make an appointment on a day less busy. I'll talk to him in a few days.

Tomorrow, though, we plan to visit another real estate office, closer to home, to inquire about tracts of land from him. He also does in-house financing which is what I need. I don't have bad credit. I don't have ANY credit, good or bad!

I'm thinking this other guy has maps of various tracts and parcels of land that we can follow and go take a look at them as we want, without him hanging on our every word as we discuss things. It would be nice to have some services - a septic tank and a well. I still plan to be off-grid which means needing a way to pull water out of a well, having enough solar to run a few small things, and keeping the generator in good running order for times when we need to plug in a larger load, like the little washing machine or a very small AC on the worst of days.

We also looked at some yard barns and cabins we can turn into a house. Might get one larger one and one smaller one, which will equal less payment than the rent I've been paying the last few years. In fact, it should be low enough that, by going off-grid and combining no longer having an electric bill plus former rent, I can actually afford payments on both the land and the cabins. And, I should also be able to beef up the solar array and batteries as time goes by.

Just to give you an idea of the kind of land we are looking for, I'll leave you with this picture taken at my current location.

The Homestead Cheapskate - Part 2 Food preservation

In the midst of everything else that's going on (see my previous post), I still need to take care of the everyday things. One of those things is food preservation. And my favorite method of preserving food is canning. Next, is dehydrating, but for this part of The Homestead Cheapskate, I'm dealing with canning, and doing it safely.

Because of the need to get the freezers emptied before we have to move, I am "binge canning" now. Today, I canned ground beef.

Now I'm going to tell you right from the get-go: I only use the safe tested methods from the USDA, Ball, Bernardin, and several university extension services that do the food safety testing. I don't play fast and loose with our health and canned foods can be extremely dangerous if you aren't following tested procedures and methods.

We did get one freezer emptied (and yes, there were some freezer burned things in there. Bad homesteader!), and I found things that could be canned up to further empty the other freezer. One of those things was a 10 pound chub of ground beef. I also have some beef patties that I'll be canning very soon, plus several packages of fruit that I'll can in light syrup in a few days.

The meats I'm canning were bought when a local store was having crazy low meat prices. I don't buy meat until they have those kinds of prices. I'm not a "weekly shopper" kind of person. I ONLY shop for groceries that are deeply discounted, on sale, or in season at very low prices. We are likely to bring home 30 pounds of chicken because it was on sale, but we might not get any other meat. I don't necessarily have a plan for the on-sale meat, but I know we'll use it. The 30 pounds of chicken? I got it for $1.99 for 10 pounds! I canned most of it. We ate a meal or two out of it. And I left out some chicken legs to put in the freezer for frying. 30 pounds of chicken will probably give us 40 meals. I build my meal plans around the things I have.

The 10 pounds of ground beef I canned today produced 13 pints, which translates into 13 meals for us. How will I use it? I'll use it in any recipe that calls for a pound of ground beef, I'll put it in soups or casseroles, I'll make tacos or burritos with it...lots of ways.

How did I can it? I followed the USDA recommendations for Canning Chopped or Ground Meat. It turns out perfectly, as you'll see in the video I made while canning it.