I am back....

Alrighty... I am back! My last post was weeks before my silly body decided to have a stroke. Yep! I am ok! It was a mild stroke, but a full stroke nonetheless. So... I have been doing MUCH more "old school" type stuff in my life... basics! You know... like learning to walk, talk, write, and run. Kind of important no? (bwahahahaha)

I am excited to get back in the saddle again and continue my journey! *GRIN*

Thought I would post an update of sorts:
* Still LOVING our homemade dishwasher soap. Half homemade/Half Cascade. Pennies a wash. Excellent results.
* Almost out of bottled beef... watching for sales!
* Completely out of bottle chicken and butter! Next time butter drops below $3 again (Can you even believe it???) I will stock back up!
* We gave our chickens away. They started to eat their own eggs (*shudder*) We tried all the "remedies" and decided 1 egg a week not cracked open and eaten was not worth it. I was not strong enough to slaughter (dang... maybe next time! ;) ) so we gave them away. We have 8 new chickens and are anxiously awaiting our first egg.
* We are moving (long story) in the next few weeks, so I am trying out my vegetable  garden in pots. So far so good. I will post pics shortly.
* I have refinished a patio table that Suzie gave me. It looks LOVELY and all brand new! I just wish I had remembered before and after photos! dern.
* I will also be refinishing my kitchen table and a piano we were given in the next few months! Also I have more recipes to try and share!

And so! I am back! Let's keep exploring together!! *wink*

Homemade Dishwasher Soap

Now... how many of you are disgusted as of late with how your dishwashers have been cleaning your dishes?

Say "aye!" Common... it's ok. You can admit it.

That is because here in Utah (and quickly lots of other places too) they are removing the environmentally damaging phosphorus out of the soap. And so... we no longer get clean dishes anymore unless we wash them... before we wash them! LOL

Many have tried adding vinegar to their dishwasher and run it a few times that way. That is only a fix for a few loads and then you are back to re-washing! Not so fun...

Well...I have been busy creating a Ward Cookbook (so fun!) and was pleased to add to it a recipe for homemade dishwasher soap! I was feeling desperate at that time... my dishes looked terrible... and it was dirt cheap to make! So I tried it. And guess what??? IT WORKS AWESOME!!!

So, without further ado, here is the recipe and my successes with this homemade marvel.

HOMEMADE DISHWASHER SOAP
1 cup salt
1 cup Borax (found on the laundry isle at the grocery store)
2 cups baking soda

Mix all together and put in an airtight container. (Keep out of the reach of children, just as with any other soap)

TO USE: Add 1 T. in each soap compartment and wash normally. (you can add more or less depending on how well your dishwasher cleans)

Here are a few of the things I noticed:
1st - My spotty/hard water stained glasses were almost immediately improved. My stoneware as well!
2nd - Just like other dish soaps, it makes tin type pans turn a little darker in color (muffin tins and the sort) so I just keep hand washing them because I like them pretty!
3rd - it cleaned out my dishwasher and made it have no smell anymore at all! sweet!
4th - it cleans *really* well, however plastics tend to have a cloudy film on them, so, since I often wash a lot of plastic kid dishes with my other dishes, I improvised:

I use 1 T. of the homemade soap in the first washing compartment, and then use my old standby demoted Cascade in the other. It is as if I still had my awesome friend Cascade with Shine in my washer! I LOVE it! You would never know the phosphorous' are gone!

And so my friends... don't call the dishwasher repair man! Make you some SUPER cheap soap (Each batch costs about $1.50 to make and makes 4 cups of soap!) and never have to wash your dishes before you wash your dishes again! :)

Recycle and Make it new!

This little piece of furniture was listed on Freecycle.com... headed to the junk yard if no one wanted it. I brought it home and got to work!
I wish I had remembered to take a before photo! This is a mid-way photo. It was really dinged up and drawn all over. I took some wood putty and filled all the holes and sanded it smooth. I taped off the inside that was beat up and trashed and spray painted it white.

This must have been a highschool woodshop project because it had a name and room number written on it. We had to re-allign the doors and drawers, but it wasn't too hard to do. I decided to paint it a shiny black. It didn't look as nice as I had hoped and so I began to sand the shine off to add a flat to it when I realized it looked AWESOME! I left the sanded edges look - you could see some of the burgandy stain on the corners and such! After about 6 hours of effort - and a few more waiting for paint to dry... we added some new hardware and...

TA DA!!! I LOVE IT!

One man's trash is another man's treasure - after some effort and a little love! ;)

TOTAL COST:

Stand - Free

Paint - Free (leftovers in the garage)

Sandpaper - Free (ditto)

Hardward - $10

New TV Stand that hides the games, remotes etc? PRICELESS!

Peaches & Grandma's Preserves

My good friend Maria brought me 3 boxes of peaches last weekend. I have been bottling and drying peaches like a mad woman! LOL Here are some of our favorite ways to use up them peaches! ;)

I blanche them (place in boiling water for about a minute then straight into cold water - it makes their skins slide right off!) and pit them and put them in a bowl full of Dole's Pineapple Strawberry Frozen juice concentrate - made up as if I was going to drink it. It helps to keep them from going brown.

I then put them on my food dehydrator and dry them until they are almost completely dry. My family loves to snack on dehydrated fruits! (and I say the less candy the better! *wink*)
This time while doing peaches, strawberries were on sale at the local market. $6.99 for a full flat! I took half peaches and half strawberries and put them in the blender. We poured the mixture on my drying trays and WALLA! Strawberry Peach fruit leather! YUM! No sugar added! ;)

Grandma's Spiced Peach Preserves

10 cups of peaches

7 1/2 cups of sugar

1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1 1/2 t. ground cloves

Blanche peaches, remove skins and pits and cut into quarters (I always blanche them a few minutes longer and then I can do all of the above almost in one quick movement! *grin*). In a large pot mash peaches with potato masher. (it's better chunky) Add sugar and spices. Cook on low heat until desired consistency (about 60-90 minutes).

Fill into hot sterilized jars, wipe rim and place hot lid and secure with ring. Tip upside down on kitchen towel to cool and seal (I leave them overnight).

According to extension guidelines it is good to process them in a water bath for 10 minutes - but that is to sterilize - so I just do it how Grandma said to and we have never had a problem! :)Tastes great on sandwiches, sugar cookies and warmed up over vanilla icecream! YUM!

We have made 4 batches of this stuff! LOL! We also made Peach Nectar... To use later it is YUMMY added half and half with orange juice!

Peach Nectar

Blanche, peel, pit and put in blender peaches - make a puree.

For every 2 quarts of Peach puree add:

1 T. lemon juice

1 cup boiling water

1 T. sugar

Pour into large pot and heat on low until sugar is dissolved. Laddle into hot jars, wipe rims and top with hot lids and secure with a ring. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes. Cool on a kitchen towel over night.

I am a tired girl! We also canned tomato juice, pear honey, bottled peaches & strawberry jam & strawberry kiwi jam! It has been a long week! *grin*

Chickens

This year we have done something that my husband has wanted to do ever since we got married... We are raising our own chickens! He built this AWESOME chicken coop... from plans he created and used out of his own head! It is so cool! We also used almost ALL recycled materials from job site dumpsters or donations. We spent less than $100 on it and we have found similar coops online for $2k! Go sweetheart!

We LOVE our chickens! They are much like pets! The kids hold them and talk to them... they eat all my compost materials (fabulous!) and just last week...

TA-DA! Our 1st egg!! We will be selling eggs to neighbors that would like some as soon as production picks up... and we can not wait for the fresh omlets and homemade mayo try-outs!

Bottled Chicken & Beef

Tried something new (beef) a few weeks ago... and something old (chicken)! :)
My friend Amy was moving to the next state, so we needed to reduce her freezer supply. We took a couple of beef roast, trimmed some of the large portions of fat, and bottled it! Here's how:

Cut meat into jar length chunks.

We seared it (browned the meat) on all sides to add extra flavor (doesn't have to be cooked through) Then we packed the hot meat into hot jars.

Add 1/2 t. salt for Pints & 1 t. salt for Quarts

Covered with a broth that we made from adding water to the drippings in bottom of the fry pan and boiling for a few minutes. (It sure smelled yummy at my house!) Shake slightly to remove any air bubbles. Leave 1" headspace and wipe off the tops of your bottles.

Place hot lid (have lids boiling in water while packing meat) and then a ring to bottles.

We then followed the guidelines in the Kerr Blue Book for processing beef for our area.
We pressure cooked it for 1 hr 45 minutes at 15 lbs of pressure for Pints.

Doesn't that look tasty??

BOTTLED CHICKEN

This is one of my FAVORITE old school activities! So quick, so easy, and SO yummy!

Pack trimmed chicken breasts or tenders into hot jars, leaving 1" headspace.

Add 1/2 t. salt for Pints or 1 t. salt for Quarts. Do NOT add liquid.

Wipe rim of jar, add hot lid and a ring.

Process in Pressure Canner
Pints - 1 hour 25 minutes @ 15 lbs pressure
Quarts - 1 hour 35 minutes @ 15 lbs pressure.

Remove and allow to cool on towel overnight. Store in a cool dry place.

** We LOVE having this on hand! We make chicken salad, enchilada's, chili, etc! Anything that calls for cooked/shreaded chicken we use our bottled meat! It saves TONS of time! (And freezer space!

It looks slightly "science experiment-ish" but you can't beat the flavor! TONS better than store bought!

Making Bread

Jess' Mom gave me the best recipe for bread! It is SO quick, easy and so little "hands on" - which for someone with sensory (read:slimy stuff touching my hands!) issues it is PERFECT! *wink*

Johanne's Whole Wheat Bread

(Which tastes more like half & half)

2 3/4 cup steaming hot water

1 1/4 T. yeast

1 1/2 *heaping* T. Dough enhancer

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup honey (if you do the oil first the honey comes right out of the measuring cup *grin*)

3/4 T. salt

Start adding fresh ground Whole Wheat Four (Start with 6 cups)

Continue adding flour in 1/2 cup increments until dough pulls away from sides. (up to 10-12 cups of flour)

Knead in mixer with dough hook for 10 minutes.

While kneading turn oven on to 170. After kneading completes, turn oven off.

Shape dough into 2 loaves and place in greased loaf pans (turning over once to grease tops). Place in warm oven (do not turn back on yet) for 30 minutes.

Turn oven back on after 30 minutes to 350 (leaving loaves in oven) and Bake for 30 minutes.

Tip out of pans to cool on racks.

Freezes beautifully. YUM! Bread in an hour! YEA!!

Monthly Laundry Whitener Extrodinaire

Hi! I have done much that I need to post about... but thought I would quickly throw this one out here... it's a favorite trick!

Whiter Whites without bleach!

Fill your washer with hot water.
Add about 3/4-1 cup powered Cascade Dishwasher soap while filling.
Add whites.
Run agtation for wash cycle, but STOP before draining.

Let soak overnight.... or even just a few hours.

In the morning let cycle finish it's draining and rinsing etc.
Add your favorite laundry soap and wash one more time, full cycle.

If you have a front loader, you can soak them in your bath tub... you just need to be sure the soap is fully dissolved as it may eat holes in fabric if it is not.

I do this to my white ninja's (*grin*) and other whites once a month or so. It really brings back the white!!

Bottled Butter

The instructions are adapted from this article and from http://greenappleorchard.blogspot.com/2008/09/bottled-butter.html (thankyou!)

1. Use any butter that is on sale. Lesser quality butter requires more shaking (see #6 below), but the results are the same as with the expensive brands. (I used Western Family Brand - no name)

2. Heat pint jars (I used 13 half-pint jars) in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes, without rings or seals. One pound of butter fills slightly more than one pint jar, so if you melt 11 pounds of butter, heat 12 pint jars. (I melted 6 pounds and used 13 half-pint jars.) A cookie sheet works well for holding the pint jars while in the oven.

3. While the jars are heating, melt butter slowly until it comes to a slow boil. Using a large spatula, stir the bottom of the pot often to keep the butter from scorching. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes at least: a good simmer time will lessen the amount of shaking required (see #6 below) and it will be frothy and yummy.

4. Place the lids in a small pot of water and bring to a boil, leaving the lids in simmering water until needed.

5. Stirring the melted butter from the bottom to the top with a soup ladle, pour the melted butter carefully into heated jars through a canning jar funnel. Leave 1/2" of head space in the jar, which allows room for the shaking process.

6. Carefully wipe off the top of the jars, then get a hot lid from the simmering water, add the lid and ring and tighten securely. Lids will seal as they cool.

Once a few lids "ping," shake while the jars are still warm, but cool enough to handle easily, because the butter will separate and become foamy on top and white on the bottom if you don't. In a few minutes, shake again, and repeat until the butter retains the same consistency throughout the jar.

7. At this point, while still slightly warm, put the jars in the fridge, if desired. While cooling and hardening, shake again, and the melted butter will then look like butter and become firm. This final shaking is very important! Check every 15 minutes and give the jars a little shake until they are hardened in the jar! Leave in the refrigerator for an hour. (I just let them harden on the counter top - less shaking but longer set up)

8. Canned butter should store for 3-5 years or longer on a cool, dark shelf. It does last a long time. Canned butter does not "melt" again when opened, so it does not need to be refrigerated upon opening, provided it is used within a reasonable length of time.

Just a note: You can cook and bake with this butter! It is already soft, so it's perfect for cookies and other recipes that require softened butter. It's also great on bread or vegetables! (We take it camping - less in the cooler & no need to refridgerate *grin*)

Welcome!!

HI! Welcome to my place to "play"! Here is a little background & the reasoning for this blog...

Just in the last 6 months I have been being led, so to speak, to researching and finding new ways to take care of my family without relying so much on outside sources. This began, to be honest, with one of my DS's (darling son) who needed more than he was getting at school. Without going into too much detail, I began a journey that led me to eventually bringing all my kids home for school.

This opened a whole new realm in my existence of empowerment and excitement in the realization that I was not as dependant upon others as I thought I should be. I realized how much more actively *I* could be living my life. One friend suggested trying homemade laundry soap (loved it), another suggested discovering bottling my own meats (bottled chicken is to die for!) and the yet another wonderful person in my life gave me an article on bottling butter (What? really?)... and well... the rest is history. I have other friends that I will be adding to the author list... as they too have experiences to share! Any and all we can bless with our blazing this trail in our lives we are happy to do it!

I am not a fanatic. I am not an expert. I am learning as I go. And I am sharing this journey for all of you to see! Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions. This is a learning process for me... and I am loving all the different angles there are out there to look at life and the world around me!

I know my Father in Heaven meant for me to care for my family... and I am finding great joy in learning and expanding the different ways I can meet their needs! Join me! Comment! Enjoy!