Make It From Scratch Day!

I started this event on the Facebook page with great results! So now, I'm going to add  it here, too. Here's the information:

This is a challenge! On this day, make your entire meal from scratch. No store-bought sauces, breads, spice mixes, frozen veggies, etc. Make your dinner just like they would have 100 years ago, but with modern utensils and equipment. Give it a shot and see how it goes. 

I promise that it's not nearly as hard as you might think, but it does require some pre-planning and a little bit of time. Feel free to post suggestions, problems, and recipes. We'll help you through this challenge. :)

This is going to be a recurring challenge for the last Sunday of every month. Make your family something completely healthy with fresh ingredients while you stretch your culinary skills!

 Post your menu here, as well as any problems or things that you've learned here. I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

DIY Lip Balm

• 1 cup vaseline (or other non-petroleum vaseline-like substance*)
• 2 packets unsweetened cherry Kool-Aid (r)
• 2 single-serving packets Stevia (r)

In a glass 2-cup measuring cup, heat vaseline in one-minute increments in the microwave, stirring between each minute. When it's fully melted, add Kool-Aid and Stevia, stirring until thoroughly dissolved. (If the vaseline starts to thicken, put back in the microwave for 30 seconds or so until well-melted again.) When the Kool-Aid is completely dissolved, pour into individual containers.

You can use any flavor of Kool-Aid that you want to achieve the color you want. Mix and match until you get the right hue, and the more you add to the vaseline, the deeper the color will be.

I would love to see pictures of some of you wearing your new lip balm! I plan to make some for my daughter and will post pics when I convince her to try it.

A friend of mine passed this recipe on to me today at work. (Thanks, TheVillageBeader!) It sounds incredibly simple and fun to do, so I thought I'd pass this on to all of you. She's planning to make it as gifts, which is brilliant! With the end-of-year stuff at school, this might not be a bad idea to add to gift bags for the female teachers.

* A quick, non-petroleum vaseline is to melt 2-3 ounces of beeswax then combine with 1 cup of vegetable oil. Mix well and let cool to make sure it's the right consistency. If too thin, add more beeswax. If too thick, add more oil.

Whole Cardamon Seeds? Now What Do I Do?

A day or so ago, I stopped by the local tea shop to pick up some herbs for pickling. I had searched high and low at the local grocery store for what I thought were whole cardamon seeds for my regular pickling spice. Unfortunately - fortunately? - they'd had none, and so I'd popped into the Walnut Street Tea Co., as they regularly have what no one else has, and usually at a better price than expected. And per the norm, they did. In fact, they had a beautiful, gallon-sized jar full of the desired herb.

Digging in with gusto, I bought about 1/3 of a pound of the herb to the tune of $9. A bit heftier than I usually spend on spices - especially there - and the herbs looked a lot different than I remembered, but I bought them quickly and raced home so that I could get dinner started.

Some time later, as I pulled out my pickling spice recipe, I realized that I'd made a huge mistake. It wasn't CARDAMON seeds that I needed, but rather whole CORIANDER seeds! Doh! I have no idea how I mixed the two up, but somehow, in my over-burdened little mommy mind, I'd managed to do just that. So, now, I have $9 worth of an herb I have never used before, and none of the herb that I actually need. Brilliant, Roana, absolutely brilliant.

The good news is that Walnut Street Tea Co. also has whole coriander seeds, and while I haven't had time to grab some yet, I can do so easily enough. That leaves me, however, with the problem of what to do with the Cardamon. I've heard that it's often used in Indian food, but I've not seen it in the very few recipes that I've picked up over the years. It's a very potent-smelling herb, I must say, so whatever it goes in, it will be noticed.

As any good computer user in the year 2012, I will be Google-ing it for possible recipes, but I thought I'd throw it out there for those of you who read this blog before I do. Have you ever used this herb? If so, how and in what? Any recipes that you have would be greatly appreciated, and to show my thanks, I'll happily bundle off one half of my cardamon stash and send it along to the person who comments with the first recipe.

I look forward to hearing from people soon. In the meantime, off to The Ultimate Search Engine, glass of chardonnay in hand. Have a great night!

Homemade Breakfast Sausage Gravy

Some time ago, I started playing around with making breakfast sausage. I liked what was out there, but I didn't love it. Inevitably, I ended up spicing it more when I made my sausage gravy anyway, so I decided to see how hard it was to make my own. Guess what? It's not hard at all. The following is the recipe that my family loves, but don't be afraid to play around with the spices to make it what you want.

Sausage

• 2 lbs ground pork
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons ground sage
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Thyme
• 3/4 cup ice-cold water

Combine all of the ingredients together well. Put in a large zip-lock bag and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. 

Brown meat and drain, keeping drippings.

Gravy

• Drippings
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups whole milk

Heat drippings to boiling. Add flour, whisking well to avoid lumps. When thoroughly incorporated, add a small amount of milk, whisking briskly. When thoroughly incorporated and heated through, add more milk, again whisking briskly. Continue slowly adding milk, whisking, and heating through until gravy is the right consistency. Once the gravy is just right, add drained sausage and stir well, heating through. 

I admit that I rarely make my own biscuits, mostly because no one in the family really likes breakfast biscuits. Instead, we serve the sausage gravy over roasted potatoes. 

Pickled and Beeted Hard-Boiled Eggs

When I was little, my dad used to make the best pickled and beeted hard-boiled eggs around. These brilliant purple eggs have a delicious balance of sour and sweet, and they're gorgeous to look at, too. Dad died before I could get his recipe, but I took a stab at making them based on what Mom remembered. Between Mom's memory, a handful of pickling recipes I found online, and my own tastes, I managed to come pretty close to what Dad used to make. I think mine are a little sweeter, though less sweet than most of the recipes I found online. Anyway, my recipe is as follows:

• 2 doz. hard-boiled eggs, peeled
• 4 cans sliced beets, reserving liquid
• 2 large yellow onions, sliced
• 4 cups white vinegar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 cups water
• 3 T pickling spices of your choice (I make my own up; I'll post that recipe later)

Layer eggs, beets, and onion slices in a one-gallon jar. Combine the rest of the ingredients and reserved beet juice in a large sauce pan. Heat until sugar dissolves. Let cool to about 100F, then pour into one-gallon jar. Add cool water until liquid covers the eggs completely. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 24 hours before eating. 

These eggs give beautiful color to a salad, but I prefer to eat them straight out of the jar. 

Hay Fever Tea

It's that time of year again, and I'm weepy, worn out, and headachy as hell because of it. Yes, I'm talking about Hay Fever Season. *a-choo* *sniffle* Living in the Chicago area, I never had to deal with this, but the last six Springs have found me an absolute mess since I moved to Champaign. I blame the corn fields that surround us, but whatever the reason, it's a cure that I had to find. The typical pharmaceutics didn't work, and I'm fairly certain that I tried them all. Then I read about Nettle Leaf on mountainroseherbs.com. I ordered some leaves, and set to work on finding the right recipe to help eliminate my sneezes. This is what I found:

Hay Fever Tea

• 2 teaspoons Nettle Leaf
• 2 teaspoons Peppermint Leaf
• 1 teaspoon Licorice Root

Steep the above in hot - not boiling - water for 15 minutes. Add a teaspoon of honey to flavor, and drink up! 

I usually have several cups of tea throughout the day, which helps a lot. It took a lot of tweaking to find the right mix that worked for me, but it was worth the effort. 

To borrow from Mountain Rose Herbs: For educational purposes only This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Natural Weed Killer

Just saw this recipe at www.buildinghomegarden.com and thought I would pass it along. I'm going to try it on my brick patio tonight to get rid of the weeds before my darling husband's birthday party on Saturday.

Natural Weed Killer

I use a natural weed killer on my brick walkway. It effectively prevents weeds from growing between the bricks. This safe weed killer is cheap and easy to make at home. What's not to like?

The recipe for natural weed killer is simple. Combine 1 gallon of white vinegar with 1 cup of salt and a tablespoon of liquid dish soap. The soap is a wetting agent that helps the vinegar and salt mix. Stir it all up and pour or spray on the weeds.

Use this and you won't have weeds for 3 to 6 months. Don't get this natural weed killer on any plants you want to keep because it's actually a soil sterilizer. It isn't selective and could harm shrubs.

I've also seen another recipe for a natural weed killer. This one mixes one gallon of 10% vinegar with an ounce of orange oil and a teaspoon of liquid soap. Spray or pour it on the weeds on a hot an sunny day. I haven't tried this one but it sounds good.

Special thanks to Mindy at Brooks Hobby Farm for bringing this up. She'd tried pure vinegar, something I'd heard of before, with no luck. One of her Facebook friends linked the above. I'll let you know how it works once I give it a shot myself.

Cheap and Easy Finger Paints

Yesterday, I was talking to my son, JM, about the stuff we used to do when he and his brothers were little. It reminded me of the fun they used to have in the bathtub playing with finger paints. Of course, we almost always ran out of the expensive paints before the boys were tired of the game, which made me improvise a little one day.

It occurred to me that what we needed was something that smeared easily, was colorful, and non-toxic (mostly). So, I ran to the kitchen and looked around. A quick peak into the fridge gave me an idea. I grabbed the large containers of ketchup and yellow mustard and brought it back to the bathroom. The boys LOVED it! They emptied both containers (killing about $2.50 in ketchup and mustard compared to the much smaller amount of finger paints to the tune of $10), and covered each other and the tub surround completely.

When they were done, I just stood them up and turned on the shower. We had a handle sprayer that let me take it down and completely rinse them - and the shower - fairly easily. The best thing was that I found out that the vinegar in the ketchup and mustard did a fabulous job of cleaning the hard-water stains on the tile!

We did have to have a fairly involved conversation about how ketchup and mustard was only to eat on their food unless they were in the bathtub sans clothes - preferably with Mom nearby - but it was a fun, affordable way to be creative that had the added bonus of helping clean the bathroom.

Be creative with the things you let your kids play with. It doesn't have to cost a lot to be fun and exciting for little ones. A few other options for fun in the tub are:

• Shaving Cream - it's just foamy soap! No matter how messy they get, it cleans right up.
• Corn Starch - a box of corn starch in the bottom of a 13x9 pan with 3 cups of water = endless textile fun. When you're done with it, just drain the water down the tub drain and scoop the corn starch into the garbage. (NOTE: use this in an empty tub, and do not let the corn starch go down the drain unless you and Draino(tm) are already on a first-name basis.)
• Cheap sponges cut into letters - you can buy them at any dollar store, and they're great for sticking to the wall during bathtime. I'm fairly certain that JM learned his letters by playing with these.
• Mixing cups, funnels, and plastic bowls - BEST bathtime toys EVER! 
• Shipping popcorn - they float, they move in the waves easily, and they're generally free. 

It's up to us as parents to help our kids develop their creativity, and the best way to do so is to use our own. Look around your house for things that are safe that your kids can use in fun ways, then let them get messy. 

Homemade Laundry Soap

I've had a ton of requests for this, so I thought I should get it put up as quickly as possible. It's a variation on the recipe that my friend Terra Vail gave me. I added an extra bar of soap because it's just easier to remember 2/2/2 for the recipe, so you could get away with only using one bar.


Laundry detergent

1 quart Water (boiling)
2 cups Bar soap (your preference of brand, grated)
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda

• Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. Careful! It WILL boil over if the flame is too high. Best to keep it on low heat until soap is melted.
• Pour the soapy water into a clean 5-gallon pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved. (I use a wand mixer to make sure it's well and truly combined. It also helps the mixture gel up faster this way.)
• Add 4 gallons of warm water, and stir again until well mixed.
• Cover pail or recycle old laundry soap containers by filling them with your homemade soap. Use 1/2 cup for each load of laundry. Stir the soap each time you use it (it will gel).

Ted & Liz's Spinach Lasagna

A long time ago, when I was in college, a couple of friends of mine taught me how to make the best spinach lasagna that I've ever had. Part of what made it so amazing was how simple and clean the flavors were, and how easy it was to make. Since then, I've made a few changes, but not many. Most of the time I make my own sauce rather than relying on store-bought (I don't like how sweet they usually are), and occasionally I'll mix browned ground pork into the sauce, too.

YIELD 8      ACTIVE TIME 20      TOTAL TIME 1:50

INGREDIENTS
1 box Lasagna noodles
1 lg jar Spaghetti sauce
1 lb spinach, fresh, cleaned and trimmed
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

INSTRUCTIONS
Coat the bottom of a deep 9" x 13" pan with 1/2 cup sauce. Layer uncooked lasagna noodles on bottom to cover, overlapping slightly. Pour 1/3 of remaining sauce over noodles. Layer half of spinach, half of mushrooms, 1/3 mozzarella cheese, 1/3 ricotta, and 1/3 Parmesan cheese, in that order. Top with another layer of noodles. Add 1/3 of sauce over noodles. Layer the rest of the spinach and mushrooms, 1/3 mozzarella cheese, 1/3 ricotta, and 1/3 Parmesan. Add another layer of noodles and remaining sauce and cheeses. Cover with foil and bake in a 350F oven for 50 minutes. Remove foil and bake at 450F for another 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly.

Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes before cutting into. Best served with a salad and garlic bread.

NOTES
A deep dish is essential, but if you only have a regular cake pan, be sure to place an old cookie sheet on the bottom of the oven to catch any sauce that bubbles over. Always use the freshest ingredients you can find.

The Natural World

I grew up in a place and time that combined modern conveniences with old-world hard work. We had an automatic washing machine, and a clothes line. Our bread came from the store, but the tortillas were homemade every Sunday. Things have changed a lot since then.

Now, I'm tied to my family every moment of every day through some form of electronic device, and if I'm not, I better have a good reason for it. Anything and everything can be bought - and discarded. The waste inherent in this kind of world saddens me immensely, and it inspires me to do what I can to relieve some of it.

There are so many ways that a person can make changes in their lives that help eliminate waste, rid themselves of unnecessary chemicals, and overall make their world more natural and safe. Because of this, I've taken to making more and more of my household cleaners, or using what I have on hand rather than running to the store for specialized cleaners.

Some of the things that I do take a little bit of extra time, others take less time than a trip to the store. All of them make me feel just a little bit better about my place in the world.

Just a few tips for those of you who wish to make small, simple changes in your life that could have big changes for the environment... and your coin purse:

• Vinegar is the best window cleaner you can find. It also polishes stainless steel beautifully, and when sprayed onto hard water and left to soak for about 10 minutes, will make scrubbing the tub much easier.
• A tablespoon of bleach in a gallon of water does exactly the same job of killing germs as the antibiotic soaps bought in the stores at a much lower price. Plus, it doesn't leave a residue. 
• Super Washing Soda, available in most hardware and grocery stores, makes a fantastic stain-remover for whites. Dampen the fabric, add a small amount of soap, and rub well. Add a little more water, rub well again, and then let sit for about 30 minutes before throwing into the wash.
• Salt is an amazing soft abrasive for regular household cleaning. I use it to scrub burnt-on food on my enamel stove top completely clean. 

We've been trained to believe that we need specialized cleaners for different areas in our houses, but the truth is that we need just four things to get the house clean: a soap, an abrasive (salt), an acid (vinegar) and a base (bleach). These four things will clean your house just as well and just as thoroughly as the huge variety of cleaners at the store, and sometimes better. All the while, saving you hundreds of dollars a year.

My challenge to you is to try these tips for one month, keeping a close eye on how much it costs. Let me know what you think, and whether or not you think the changes are worth it for you.