Have you ever got ready to make supper and realized you don’t have the sausage you thought you had? I have and it can ruin a supper plan, especially if you’re on a short timeline.
Sausage herbs & sausage
But thankfully it’s really easy to make homemade sausage. It’s a simple recipe and it tastes fabulous.
I’ve used this recipe with deer, beef and pork and they were all good. The flavor is just like store bought sausage. I know you’re going to love it.
A Breakfast Style Sausage
This is a sage-type recipe, not a sweet maple style. It makes a great breakfast sausage out of any of the meats mentioned above. It can be used in any recipe you want to use it in.
Mixing herb miix with ground pork.
The ingredients are simple and ordinary, mostly things you probably have in your spice cabinet.
Ground pork from our local meat locker.
This recipe is for 2 pounds of meat. It’s easy to divide or add, however you need.
Sausage Recipe
2 tsp of sage
2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of ground black pepper
1/4 tsp of dried marjorum
1 TBL brown sugar
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
1 pinch ground clove
Mix your spices together in a small bowl.
Cooking sausage seasoned pork
Add it to your 2 pounds of your choice of thawed meat.
Using your Homemade Sausage
From here you can crumble and cook so you can add to any dinner or breakfast dish like a frittata, or other breakfast casserole.
Cooked ground sausage.
Or you can make it into patties for a side of eggs or even as a part of a supper mix.
This recipe taste just like a sage breakfast sausage you can get at the grocery store.
Cooked sausage, pasta, a white sauce and your choice of a green.
It’s great used in several kinds of meals. This homemade sausage can be used in everything from pizza to breakfast. Using white sauce or red sauce.
Ground sausage and red sauce made from home grown tomatoes.
It’s simple and it’s really easy. Enjoy!! Give it a try. Let us know what you think, how you used it and if you feel inclined share your awesome recipe. I’m sure we’d all appreciate it.
Thanks for following along. Let me know what you’d like me to try and share. I’d really love to know what you would like to see.
Homemade bug spray is easy to make. Your homemade bug spray can be as organic as you want it to be, there are no chemicals and best of all it works.
Homemade bug spray is not going to be near as long lasting as the store bought stuff. I don’t know what they use to make it stick to you so long, but this homemade bug spray doesn’t have it.
My batch of bug spray. Sorry for that crooked picture.
What we buy in the stores has so many ingredients in it we can’t pronounce that I’m just not willing to use on me and mine, if I can at all help it. And like so many things we buy these days we just don’t know where that stuff came from or how it was made.
I use this homemade spray on my grandkids, my furbabies, and myself so I want it to be as natural and safe as it can be.
Like most homemade stuff, it doesn’t have the staying power the industrial stuff you buy from a store does. You have to remember to reapply it every few hours especially if you are sweating badly or getting wet. But that’s okay because it smells good and it’s all natural so it can’t hurt you.
What Attracts Mosquitoes
There are several things that attract mosquitoes to the human body. Here’s a short list of the primary ones.
Carbon dioxide. This is the gas that we expel when we breath. This is what lets them know there is a food supply nearby.
Body Odor. If you sweat, make sure you wash off regularly to help prevent the growth of bacteria. The bacteria that grows from sweating is what creates the odor that attracts mosquitoes to you.
Secretors. Sounds terrible doesn’t it? Apparently about 80% of the human population are what’s considered to be “secretors”. These people secrete saccarides (a sugar based chemical) and antigens. These antigens indicate your blood type and mosquitoes like type “O” blood most and type “A” blood least. Who knew?
Lactic acid. We emit lactic acid through our skin through activity and by eating certain foods. So the more activity, the more lactic acid you will emit. Foods like soured milks, kefir, yogurt and some cottage cheeses contain the lactic acid your body emits.
The above items are all related to scent which is the primary attraction for mosquitoes. Some other things that attract them are heat, moisture, movement and color.
I found out that pregnant women are shown to exhale 21% more carbon dioxide and tend to be warmer in the belly area. So any pregnant ladies may want to wear light weight long sleeves and pants to avoid as much exposure as possible.
I also found out they like dark colors. I’m kind of fond of wearing dark colors too, so that’s a problem for me. I might have to change up what I wear when I’m home in the evening.
Most things you buy for any kind of bug control either contains or at least smells like citronella. And there’s a good reason for that.
Citronella
From what I read in researching for this post citronella works because it helps mask the carbon dioxide from our breathing and the lactic acid that we emit through our skin.
Lavender
My lavender plant with the cute ceramic chicken.
I use lavender because I like the smell and for all the other reasons I mentioned in my previous post here. But I also found out that mosquitoes just flat don’t like the smell. I actually read they they will avoid it “at all costs”.
From what I’ve read, mosquitoes don’t like several of the heavily scented plants and herbs like geraniums, basil, several types of mints, and rosemary, just to name a few. You know, all those herbs that you can run your hands through and then smell the oils on them.
I like the smell of citronella and lavender, so that’s the mixture I’ve gone with. You can use the mix that you like best using the essential oils mentioned above. You can research other herbs too to find those that you might like that I haven’t named.
My Basil plant.
Homemade Bug Spray Recipe
This recipe is so easy. It consist of water and essential oils. The only caveat is that you use real essential oils, not the synthetic equivalents. They won’t have the same potency that the real essential oils have.
You can choose the potency you like best, but this is how I mix it.
About 1-1/2 to 2 Cups of water in a spray bottle.
I added about 100 drops of essential oils. 50 of Citronella and 50 of lavender.
Remember you’ll have to shake your spray bottle every time you use it. Oil and water don’t mix, so you need to help that along every time you use it.
There are several places you can get your essential oils. Most of the organic stores in your area will sell essential oils. I get my oils from doTERRA. I actually became a doTERRA consultant for the discounts because I found I used essential oils for so many things. You can see what all they have here, if you like.
Several different essential oils you can use.
There are several places to get your spray bottles. Depending on what was in it, you could reuse an old spray bottle. You’d want to make sure it never any anything kind of toxic or harmful liquids in it previously. Make sure you clean it thoroughly before using, including the sprayer nozzle.
I hope you enjoy this recipe. Experiment with different scents to find the one you like best. You could actually make specific scents for specific people. Play with it and have fun. Let me know what you come up with by leaving a comment below. I really would like to know.
I know people ask why should I DIY? It’s so much easier to just go to the store. There are more and more organic choices all the time and there’s so many more farms these days where you can buy fresh garden vegetables and even meats, milk and eggs.
So, why do I DIY?
Farm fresh milk.
In my opinion, there are a ton of reasons to DIY, but here are my top 10 reasons to DIY.
1. Taste!! Nothing taste better than homemade. You can use fresher ingredients and it’s not set on a truck for days or weeks on end going from factory to the store shelf.
2. Knowing what’s in my food, lotions and cleaners makes me feel better about eating or using them. Have you ever read some of those labels? You can’t even pronounce most of it. When I make these things myself, I know every ingredient that’s in it and I never have to wonder what those unpronounceables are.
Know where your ingredients come from.
3. I can adjust a DIY recipe to suit me and my family perfectly. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error, but I can adjust foods, body products and cleaners to suit my own tastes, smells and needs. I can personalize anything.
4. There’s no unnecessary chemicals, preservatives, or coloring in your DIY stuff. I hate all the extra stuff they put in the stuff you buy.
5. When I attempt a new DIY, I’m learning something new. I love learning new things, it just feels good.
6. Some DIY skills I’m learning are becoming lost or forgotten skills in our new modern world. I like the idea of keeping these skills alive to teach to my grandkids. You never know, someday some of these may come in handy again.
7. You get to choose where your ingredients come from. While they don’t always have to be organic, you still want to know where they come from. You can research the companies you buy from or maybe you can source them locally, near where you live.
In any case, whatever you are making, you have the choice from where you would like to purchase the ingredients to make whatever it is you are making.
8. When I make a new food item like butter or sauerkraut or breads, I always have such a sense of accomplishment. I figured it out, I was able to do it and it tasted good. I like that feeling.
9. When I make something, whatever that might be, I tend to appreciate it a bit more. I know the work and thought that’s gone into it.
Likewise, if I know someone else has put that same kind of work and thought into a product that I buy locally, I will appreciate that product just a little more than something I would pick off the shelf at a grocery store.
10. Last but not least, every time I make something new, I build a bit more confidence in what I can do. Even if a project doesn’t work exactly as I wanted it to, I learned from it and will try again. The next time I’m one step closer to where I want to be.
It was Thomas Edison that said something like, “I didn’t fail, I just found 10,000 ways it didn’t work.” I don’t know if I have that kind of patience, but I agree with his sentiment. You got to try or you’ll not get anywhere.
When I DIY, Making Mistakes Means Learning Lessons
I told my grand daughter when she was very young and just learning to color and draw pictures, that I didn’t like perfect. The imperfections of what we do is what makes them unique to us. That’s what makes them special. She remembers that, and to this day will remind me of that if a project we make doesn’t come out just right. Because her imperfections are perfect for some, especially me.
I know sometimes it’s easier to go to the store and just buy the things I like to make and post about here. And sometimes I do that, but when I have the chance and the supplies to make what I need, I will try every time to make it. But if I can’t then that’s okay too.
In my opinion, if you can do it yourself, know what’s in it or how it’s built and potentially make it to your particular liking, then why not?
Why do you DIY? I’d love to hear what makes you want to make it yourself instead of buying at the store. Let me know in the comments below, what you’re working on.
Thanks for dropping by.
Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey
