Laundry-Blogger Therapy

I have to start this post off by thanking Jillee over at One Good Thing by Jillee. My family recently suffered the loss of a loved one and I have just been in a funk over it. I am still emotional and sad at times. Around the time that all of that happened I discovered Pinterest and from there Jillee's website. It was there that I learned you can make your own laundry detergent....wait, what? You can make detergent? Yes, and a whole lot of other stuff too. So, since I was bored and depressed and we are really strapped for cash right now, I decided to try out some of her recipes. I will be posting some of them in articles to come, along with my results and experiences. But today, I am going to post about my all new laundry lineup. I also have to say that Jillee inspired me to start blogging again, which is why I have actually been posting pretty regularly the last few weeks. I feel like I did when I discovered Jesus all over again and I just want everyone to know how awesome this is!!!! I have a dream that everyone will learn the benefits of homemade laundry detergent, cleaning goods, etc. and stick it to the big corporations selling us expensive crap! Okay, I'll get down off of my recycled soap box now. Seriously, I did the math, my favorite recipe for laundry detergent comes out to about 25 cents a gallon and one gallon washes 16 large loads at the least. That's just over a penny a load!!!! Not only am I saving money, but the eczema that both my son and daughter have been experiencing is starting to clear up and our laundry is brighter and smells better than it did with my really expensive name brand detergent. I can't say enough how excited I am about this. So my new homemade laundry regimen consists of Detergent, fabric softener (yeah, that's right) and stain remover.

 You will notice the downy unstopables (yes, it's spelled with one P. you grammar nazi!) pictured as well. I go ahead and splurge on the scent booster since I am saving SO MUCH on the other stuff. You really only need a Tablespoon to get a fantastic scent, as a matter of fact the whole house smells like it on laundry day. It makes me smile. So, the purple bottle is my fabric softener, I also have some in a gallon jug. The milk jug is detergent (I know it looks like water, but it's powerful).  The green spray bottle and mason jar are my homemade stain remover. It's works really well, I have 3 kids who don't stain their clothes as much as I stain my own and it is fantastic for mine. It has even removed a few old stains that I thought would never come out! So without further ado, here we go (with pictures!)

For Laundry Detergent you will need:

3 TBS Borax

3 TBS Washing Soda (not to be confused with baking soda)

2 TBS Dawn dish detergent

You will find the borax and washing soda in the laundry aisle at you're local grocery store. It was on the bottom shelf at my local Kroger and I really had to look for it.  Put all of your ingredients in whatever gallon jug is appropriate. I make it up in this milk jug and then transfer it to the name brand detergent container that I already have that is equipped with a handy dandy dispenser.

Run about a cup or so of hot tap water and pour that into your jug and swirl it around to dissolve everything. Don't shake it because you will get a lot of foam.  

When everything is dissolved put the jug in your sink and fill it with tap water. I pour it rather than let the faucet fill it to avoid foam. Some bubbles will spill over, but that's okay, you're soap will still be AWESOME!

That's it, you're done!!!! You will need to use about a cup of detergent for a large load. 

For Fabric Softener you will need:

15 - 16 oz bottle of cheap hair conditioner, whatever scent you like is fine.

6 cups water

3 cups white vinegar

Dump the conditioner in a really big bowl.

I am SUPER cheap, so I poured my water into the empty bottle and shook it to make sure I got every stinking last drop all of the conditioner out of the bottle.

Add Vinegar and whisk together. You will want to stir this instead of pouring it all in the jug and shaking so it will not foam up.

Then pour it into your containers. I know, it's unbelievably easy! I like to do a double whammy with my fabric softener. I use the jug just like I would use downy. I pour the same amount as I would with commercial softener into my downy ball and drop it into the washer. Then, when I put the clothes into the dryer I add a few squirts from the spray bottle and start it. The laundry comes out so soft and it smells like whatever scent conditioner you chose. Mine is the V05 Shea butter and vanilla.

Lastly, I didn't take pictures when I made my stain remover, but I will give you the recipe to try out.

You will need:

2/3 cup dawn dish soap (It's great stuff!)

2/3 cup ammonia

6 TBS baking soda

2 cups warm water

Mix all the ingredients and pour it into a spray bottle. Just spritz it on the stains, rub it in and toss the garment in the washer. Easy as pie! Hope this helps someone out and let me know what you think! I welcome comments below.

Potato chips...in the microwave?!?!?!

Okay, I have to start by saying that while I am not a HUGE fan of potato chips, I really do enjoy some salt and vinegar chips once in awhile. My mom buys snack packs of chips for my kids to take to school for snack time because I am a slacker don't buy all that crappy, snacky type of stuff for them. Also, I usually forget to buy anything at all for them to take for snack, but they accept me with all my faults and love me....most of the time. Today, my middle child (we will call her ray bear) came home eating her snack. I'm not sure why she didn't eat it at school, but when I saw that bag of salt and vinegar chips I started wanting some.

Coincidentally, I read a post today (at my new favorite blog here) about how you can make chips in your microwave. I wondered if I could make salt and vinegar chips though. After spending a bit of time with my boyfriend, Señor Google, I discovered that yes, you CAN! I decided to try it right then and there. After reading a few recipes and deciding what I thought would work best, here are the results! You should note that you can eat them a whole lot faster than you can make them and I dare you to wait until you are finished making them to actually eat them. Go on, I dare you!

You will need vinegar, salt, a couple of potatoes and some spray oil. I am sure you can use Pam or something like that, but I have a reusable oil spritzer with olive oil in it. First you will want to slice the potatoes very thin , like maybe 1/8th of an inch. I used a mandolin which made it quick and the slices were all very uniform. If you don't have one, just use a very sharp knife and get them as thin as you can. BTW, I should also let you know that I did not peel the potatoes, but you can if you want. Next you need to soak them in vinegar, I started with 15 minutes, but couldn't really taste it. I would recommend an hour or longer if you can wait that long.

After they have soaked for awhile, get a regular dinner plate and spray it with oil then sprinkle a bit of salt on top. You really don't need much at all, seriously, trust me, and then lay the slices out on the plate in a single layer. Make sure they are not touching because they will stick together. Don't put any salt on top, I sprinkled a bit on top of the first batch and they were WAY salty.

Stick them in the microwave for five minutes. Dance a little jig in front of the microwave while you wait. Who knew five minutes was soooo looong!

Then take them out and flip them. Be careful, the plate will be hot. I also rearranged them because the middle ones didn't seem to be as done as the outside ones.

Last, stick them in the microwave for about 1 -3 minutes longer. Be sure to keep an eye on them because they will go from done to burnt very quickly.

When you take them out, let them cool for a minute or two so you don't burn your mouth. They will also get crispier as they cool. We had a really hard time waiting long enough to get a bowl full so I could take a picture. They were THAT GOOD! 

About 5 seconds after this picture the bowl was empty. I did two potatoes and it took me about 5 plates to get them all done. By the last round my microwave must have gotten so hot that they got burned before the first 5 minutes was up and the hood fan turned on automatically. That's probably not a good thing. We still ate the last batch though. I am so excited about this that I just HAD to share. I love that this is a much healthier way to enjoy potato chips. Now, go and make potato chips, you know you want to!

How do ya like them apples?

Happy OCTOBER!!! It's apple time and as you may have seen in a previous post, I recently went to Jaemor Farms and bought a lot of apples. I have a recipe for peach cobbler that is so delicious and I make it when peaches are in season, but today, I decided I should try it with apples and here are the results.

It looks so yummy and trust me, it was fantastic!

Ingredients

Filling

4 cups sliced and peeled apples (any fruit would probably work)

1 1/2 cups sugar

cinnamon to taste (optional)

Batter

1 cup butter

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

2 cups milk

You want to start my peeling, coring and thinly slicing your apples. I have one of those combo units from pampered chef that I decided to use. It doesn't always work the way it should, check it out:

The cinematography is thanks to my youngest child, Stinkerboo, and yes, I always speak to my ingredients in funny voices. That's what they mean when they tell you it's made with love. When you are done loving cutting your apples you will then want to mix them with the 1 1/2 cups sugar and cinnamon and just let that sit for about 20 minutes stirring occasionally, this is what it will look like at the end of that time.

Meanwhile preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Put your butter in a 2.5 qt baking dish or larger and place it in the oven to melt. This was my first time baking this cobbler in stoneware and It turned out really well. This is my deep covered baker from pampered chef and I highly recommend it. If you get one be sure to ask your consultant to email you the free cookbook that comes with it.

Keep an eye on the butter to make sure it doesn't burn in the oven and take it out as soon as it is melted, but in the meantime you can go ahead and mix up your batter. Sift together the flour, sugar and baking powder and then whisk in the milk, lumps will remain. (BTW, do you like my frankenstein nail polish?)

Pour the batter into the dish on top of the butter. I know this seems backwards, but trust me, the batter cooks up around the fruit and the butter rises to the top to create a nice crust. It's magic! 

Once the fruit has been in the sugar for 20 minutes you can go ahead and pour it on top. Don't STIR!!!! Just spread it out on top and let it be.

You'll need to bake it around 45 minutes to an hour depending on your stove and what type of baking dish you use. It's done when you can insert a cake tester or knife in the center and it comes out clean. This is a great dish to take to a covered dish or just to have at home. I hope you'll give it a go and let me know how you like it in the comments below!

Marriage is not a romance novel; Love is a verb.

Hello readers! Today's post is going to be a bit different than my usual fare. I have been reading a new blog lately and it has really changed my outlook on my marriage and I want to share! So, thanks to Pinterest I stumbled upon this blog series called 29 days to great sex over at To Love, Honor and Vacuum. Trust me, had I realized the series was about Sex I would not have clicked....really, I'm a prude and I'm pretty sure christians NEVER talk about the "S" word. Plus, I guess I'm a bit vain, but I thought everything was fine in that area for Señor Caliente and myself.

Before I really begin, I guess I should give a bit of background. Señor Caliente and I have had a very passionate relationship from the beginning, it has either been passionately good or passionately bad. We love and fight with passion. You see, without going into too much detail today I will tell you that I didn't understand Christ's love for me as a young woman and I was desperately searching for love. I had intended to save myself for marriage, but I really let myself get swept away by my romance novel idea of love for Señor Caliente. Long story short, I ended up pregnant with our oldest son and after he was born we eventually got married and had 2 more children. We did not live happily ever after. As a matter of fact we have lost count of the number of times that we have been separated. The last time we separated was almost exactly 3 years ago. He begged me to come back and I told him that counseling was a must and that if I had to leave again I would never come back.

We went to healing grace ministries which I had learned about from my pastor and I expected them to fix The hubster so that we could be happy (are you laughing yet?). First off, I had to sign a contract that I wouldn't talk to anyone outside of my marriage about my marriage besides the counselors. That was when I figured out my first big mistake, by talking to my friends and hearing them tell me how badly he treated me I began to feel justified and even more negative. I wasn't venting, I was making myself more angry. I had been talking to everyone but God about how horrible my marriage was! So, I made a change in myself by praying about my hubby instead of "venting" to my friends and things began to change for us. As the last 3 years have passed, I think I have changed more than he has and as I have allowed God to fix me, I have seen our marriage improve. It's still not a romance novel by any means, but God has taught me that Love is a verb. It's a choice, something you do rather than something you feel. By making that choice, we have managed to hold it together while many of our friends' marriages disintegrated  Please don't think I am judging anyone, I'm not. I don't know your circumstances, so I can't. What I CAN do is tell you what things worked for me.

Anyhow, that brings me to the present and stumbling upon this series. I know that we are far from average in the bedroom. Señor Caliente is good at his job in that respect, however we still had a huge bone of contention here. He felt that I didn't love him and wasn't affectionate enough and I couldn't understand why he always wanted sex and just wouldn't leave me alone. He was always grabbing and touching and it made me mad. Really mad! So then, I would stop talking to him and he would stop talking to me and we would spend days angry at each other. That changed when I read this series of articles and began to understand a few things. First off, sex is what makes my husband feel loved and God wants us to enjoy sex and use it to become closer and more intimate. Secondly, If I am close minded and just decide I am too tired or whatever then I am not going to enjoy it and in turn he will not enjoy it and will feel unloved. Lastly, when I go in wholehearted and enjoy myself, he enjoys himself, we feel more connected and then he is able to show me love in the way I need it. I am really not able to go into detail about how it all works. But, I would encourage each of you to take an adventure with your hubby and explore the 29 days to great sex series. It's not just about sex, it's about how God intended for married christian couples to enjoy each other and how to make your marriage even better. The best part is, that my hubby is starting to resemble my romantic hero more every day. If there's hope for us, there's hope for everyone! Let me know if I can pray for you & your husband or your marriage and please, before you go talk to people about your marriage, talk to God. Trust me, He's a great listener and He will give you peace about whatever trials you face with your spouse.

Adventures in canning!

Hello Blogosphere! Well at the end of my last post I promised to post about my Adventures in Canning. Last week was such a busy week! I spent almost every day at my Mom's helping my Mom and Grandma to put up veggies to get us through the next year. The main things we can and freeze are Grandpa's pepper relish, green beans, tomatoes and various forms of pickles. Last week we made Grandpa's relish.

 Doesn't it look so colorful and yummy?

 This is the finished product! Sadly, my Mom said I can't blog the recipe for the "Best Relish EVAH!!!" because it's a secret family recipe. Sorry to tantalize you with a glimpse of this wonderful stuff that is so good on beans, hot dogs, and of course Grandpa's famous relish ham. Since I couldn't give you the recipe I thought I would do a short tutorial on how to freeze green beans. We used to can them until mom got a ginormous chest freezer and we figured out how much easier it is to freeze them. 

First of all you have to wash the beans. They are very dirty and if you get them from a large farm rather than growing them yourself there is no telling what chemicals could be on them. Usually we move them from sink to sink until the water is clear. I suppose you could also soak them in a vinegar bath to kill any bacteria.

Next you will need to string and break them,

My Mom was kind enough to do a video on how to string and snap beans just in case you are a dummy city girl, like me.

After you get the beans cleaned, strung and broken you will want to blanch them. Don't worry, it's easy! Just bring them to a boil and let them boil until the color changes just slightly. Then, take them out of the boiling water and put them in cold water so they stop cooking. Let them dry on a towel and then you can bag them. We usually bag them in quart size freezer bags and stick them in the freezer. That's it, you're done! We bagged around 52 quarts of green beans and that should take us into next year when we plant our gardens again. 

Do you prefer canning or freezing? Tell me about it in the comments, also let me know if you would like a tutorial on canning tomatoes! Don't forget to follow my blog. I will be blogging about all kinds of housewifey stuff and my futile attempts to become the next Martha.

Not your Mama's Apple Pie.

So, I got to go to Jaemor farms today to buy some farm fresh produce. It's about an hour away but well worth the trip. I only go there once or twice a year, usually in the fall to get apples and the elusive pink pumpkin (aka Warsaw Buff Pumpkin). It is my favorite pumpkin to bake with. However, that's not what I'm blogging about! Today I bought a peck of Apples for $10.00. I don't remember what kind they were, but they are yellowy green with a bit of red on them. They are a nice blend of tart and sweet, just perfect for an apple pie. So, since I was making apple pie, I thought I would share my recipe with you.

Ingredients:

Crust (Pate Brise)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 sticks of cold butter cut into pieces

1/4-1/2 cup ice cold water

Filling

7 apples cored, peeled and thinly sliced

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 tsp cinnamon

nutmeg to taste

3 tbs butter sliced

First you need to start with the pie crust since it will need to be refrigerated for one hour before you can roll it out. It is fine to make it in the morning or even a day or two ahead of time. You will need a food processor to make it this way so if you don't have one then you can buy or make your own crust. I do have to tell you that this crust is the BEST and it's my fave...mostly because it has two sticks of butter in it. So combine the first three ingredients in the food processor and pulse until mixed. Then add your butter pieces all spread out like so:

Then mix that until it resembles a corn meal like consistency. Next, with the food processor on high, pour the icy cold water in through the tube veeeeerrrryyyy slooooowly.....

.....until the dough holds together and forms a ball. You may not use all of the water, but I generally do.

Scrape the dough out onto a piece a plastic wrap, press into a disk, wrap and refrigerate for one hour. Meanwhile, go ahead and peel, core and thinly slice your apples. Put them in a fairly large bowl, I had to pour them into a larger bowl a bit later on, and add the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. 

This is also a great moment to have your helper Sous Chef add some ingredients.

After you have added all of the dry ingredients stir to coat and let it sit while your crust refrigerates. Give it a stir every now and then while you wait.

Once your crust is ready to come out of fridge, break it in half and roll out half of it. Be sure to roll it pretty thin because pie crust is best when it's thin. Here's a neat trick I learned from my grandmother, If you don't have a plastic sheet for rolling out dough, you can do what we do. Find an old pillowcase that you don't use anymore (make sure it's clean), flour it really well and roll your crust out on it. Afterwards you can just shake the excess flour into the trash can and toss the pillowcase in the wash. After it's washed I usually just fold it in half and roll it around my rolling pin for the next time.

The pillowcase is also great for helping me flip my pie crust into the pan without breaking it. I just put my hands under the pillowcase in the middle of the dough, put the pan on upside down and then flip the whole thing. Once its flipped I arrange the crust and press it into the edges of the pie dish.

Pour in those nicely coated apples....

...then top with the 3 tbsp of butter.

Normally at this point I would roll out the other half of the dough cut some slits and flip it onto the pie, but my Sous Chef insisted that we make a lattice pie. So, since I don't have a fancy schmancy wavy cutter I just used my pizza cutter to cut the dough into not very even strips.

Then I used my very best elementary school weaving skills. I don't think I could explain this if I tried. So here's the best picture I could come up with.

Next, you will need a fork to crimp the edges.

And then cut off the excess dough and pop that baby in your 450 degree preheated oven (oh yeah, did I forget to mention that earlier??? oops!)

This is what it looks like after it's baked. We couldn't wait for it to cool to eat it, so now we can't taste anything with our burnt tongues. 

This is what it looks like after your family of five has gone at it. YUMMMM!

Thanks for reading!!! I promise to blog again soon, when we will find out about my adventures in canning!!!! YAY!

Love ya peeps,

Kasey

Update!!!! Chicken Taco Soup recipe revisited with an easier method.

Hello Again!

I wanted to repost an old blog from a couple of years ago because I can feel fall in the air! It is time to break out my favorite fall/winter foods and this recipe is one of them. I am proud because it is the only recipe that I ever made up. Plus I have an awesome update to the recipe that makes it SOOOO much easier! Hopefully you have a Kitchenaid mixer, because if you don't, you are missing out. Go! Go get one now, or ask for it for Christmas like I did (It was the only gift I got that year because my WHOLE family teamed up to buy it for me) It is sooooo worth the money. You can't have mine because my family has been instructed to bury me with it when I die. Here is the original post with updates added in red, hope you like it:

Hey all!

Guess I need to update more often, but while at times the stories come back to back, sometimes they are spaced out.....as am I. So on to the story. My dear sweet 8 year old (now 11 yo) girl, Ray bear, told me about a month ago that she feels sad for cows when she eats hamburgers (Maybe she's not mine after all, I never feel guilt over a good burger or steak..YUM!). So she wants to become a vegetarian....I am going to try to support her, tofu and all (Yeah, that didn't last long, mostly because I decided that cooking two meals was too much work). I have checked out some books and am studying up on vegetarianism and I told her that after a visit to the doctor we can start on that. Now her sweet little almost 7 year old (now 10 yo) sister, Stinkerboo, wants to be JUST like Ray bear, so she said the other day that she wanted to be a vegetarian too. Last night we had a non vegetarian meal for dinner, it was my made up recipe that I like to call Chicken Taco Soup (recipe to follow). It has black beans in it and it is mighty tasty. Stinkerboo said she hated beans and wouldn't eat it....I told her that vegetarians have to eat lots of beans. She froze and stared at me looking horrified, then she said "Nevermind....I don't want to be like Ray bear!" It was pretty cute. So as promised here is the recipe.

Chicken Taco Soup

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless Chicken breasts

2 cans of chicken broth (or homemade if you have it)

1 pkg of Taco Seasoning (or make it yourself if you know how)

2 cans of rotel

2 cans of black beans (Drained and rinsed)

Salsa

Sour Cream

Cheese

Tostadas

Cook the Chicken in the crockpot until done. (No, I am not sure how long that is, but I ususally cook on High for a 3 hours or sometimes I use the handy little meat thermometer that comes with my crockpot and cook until the temp is 180.

Then take the chicken out of the crockpot and shred it with 2 forks using your kitchenaid mixer, if you have one. It's simple to do, just put the paddle attachment on (pictured below), 

 drop the cooked chicken in and turn the mixer on for about a minute or so and voila!! perfectly shredded chicken (you can thank me for this awesome tip in the comments section). 

You can leave the juices from the chicken in the crock pot and then throw the chicken back in. Add in the broth and taco seasoning and stir, 

 then add the beans and rotel and stir again. Cook it on Low til it is all warm and bubbly or until you are ready to eat...it is hard to ruin and the longer it sits the better it gets.

 Serve topped with salsa, sour cream and cheese and you can crumble the tostadas on top like Ramon does or break and dip them into the soup like I do, either way is YUMMYLICIOUS! ENJOY! And don't forget that beans are good for you!

   

P.S. The leftovers are EVEN BETTER!