Homemade Laundry Soap...Time to Make a Mess

Hey guys, it's been a bit since I did a post.  I've had a few people ask me how I make the homemade laundry soap that I use, so this one will be focused on making this money saving stuff.


So without further adieu, and including breaks every sentence to finish dinner here we go!
 There are only up to five ingredients that you use when making your own laundry soap. The fifth ingredient is up you to decide on. This soap is about as close as you can get to chemical free, it doesn't leave behind  any fragrance other than one that could be described as..."clean". That is unless you add the essential oils.


I have made the soap a couple of times now, today was my third time in alittle over a year. I have not bought regular laundry soap in that long! There are a few things you will need water, certain bar soap, arm and hammer washing soda, borax, essential oil. (Wow, I was sort of joking about writing a sentence and then working on dinner, but it's actually worked out that way.) Now break for dinner...this is taking forEVER to write! 



Ok, back now. Got a bit side tracked there for a moment. I know, I know it was for awhile. I have tried three different recipes to find the one that works the best. The last time I made it super concentrated in the hopes of not having to use as much. For some reason...it didn't seem to work better, but worked just the same as the diluted one. I could be that I used different soap or something.


I will now talk about the soap to use. You want to stay with the soaps that have the least ingredients and fragrances in them. Part of the reason for making my own laundry soap was to save money and the other reason was to limit the exposure of chemicals to the family.  After doing a lot of reading it seems the soaps to use are as follows: Fels-Naptha, Zote, Kirk's Original Coco Castile, Ivory Soap, and Sunlight bar soap. I haven't used the Ivory, or been able to find the Sunlight yet. The others can sometimes be picked up at the local hardware store, grocery store, and I even found the Kirk's Castile in a three pack at the dollar store. You know the store where it actually cost a dollar for everything? Just about fell over on that one.



Here is a little advise. You will be grating the bar of soap. It's a pain in the ass. You should really, really use the finest grater you have. I used the food processor...didn't care for that mess. The reason for getting it grated as small as possible is for the dissolve time. OMG! I so didn't know about this the first time. I stood at the stove stirring forever waiting for that stuff  to dissolve. (I never got it all dissolved either. I was there for over an hour.)  Big pieces bad, little pieces very good! So for the first time that I made it I used 2 cups of the Fels-Naptha bar soap (found it at my local grocery store down the street in the laundry isle)  with 1 quart of water. It was nice to work with, and left the "clean" scent. Oh yeah, stir, stir, stir.



I then put 2 cups of Borax in my bucket. You can usually find Borax in the laundry isle, bottom shelf at any store. I happened to get mine from Walmart. 



I had a hard time finding the next item. Every store I went too they didn't have it. I think I might have read that some stores keep it in the backroom, and you have to ask for it. Anyhow I added 2 cups of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda. Notice I wrote Washing Soda. This is what you need, and it can't be substituted with Baking Soda. Washing Soda is Sodium Carbonate,  while Baking Soda is Sodium Bicarbonate. Don't screw it up now. I have no idea what will or wont happen if you use Baking Soda, but let's not find out. K? Good, moving on. Oops, I forgot. I found this stuff at my local Ace Hardware. It is something the chain carries, so if your store doesn't carry it...tell them nicely to please order it. Then again I don't know if you have an Ace Hardware by you, but they do have online shopping.


You will need a five gallon bucket with a tight fitting lid to mix this slop all up and let it set. I just bought one of Ace's buckets since I didn't have one. You take your nice and clean bucket and pour in the hot liquid soap you just made. You then add the Borax, and Washing Soda. Start stirring again people. You want those powders to dissolve completely. You can add 2 gallons of hot, hot water in at anytime, and keep stirring until everything is all dissolved and mixed thoroughly.


Pop that cover on it, and set it in a warm spot somewhere out of the way. Trust me on this, as we tripped over it constantly. (My kitchen is tiny peoples) Don't touch it for 24hrs. Yes you must wait 24hrs for it to do it's thing.
Once your 24hrs has passed, (do you get the drift that you must wait 24hrs? Thought so.) take that top off and prepare to be grossed out. Yep you now have some slime, gel, goopy stuff. Well actually first you must break up the slime. Reach those hands in there and just start squeezing clumps and breaking them up, and then once again stir, stir, stir. I found that using my electric hand blender worked well on the clumps and I never had to give it a shake to break them up before pouring the soap. During this time you can add your essential oils if you choose to use them. I haven't used them yet, but what everyone seems to agree on is 10-15 drops per every 2 gallons. Stir them up good


With this laundry soap you will need to give the bottle a couple of shakes before pouring and you use 1/4 cup of soap per large load. Adjust quantity as needed until you find your perfect amount.  Holy buckets that took along time to write. I am including the last  two recipes that I tried making. They are both made the same as described here with the exception of #3 where I added hot water to the top of the bucket.  I noticed that whenever I use this soap I never have static cling with my clothes no matter what the season or how long they have been drying in the dryer. So I have saved a bundle on dryer sheets too.


Place soap in old laundry soap containers. You don't really have to clean them out unless they somehow got dirt or something in them. I think maybe, possibly that I got 12-14 various sized containers filled out of this batch.

#1
2 Cups Fels-Naptha  finely grated (about half a bar)
1 quart water
2 cups Borax
2 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
2 gallons hot water
5 gallon bucket with top
essential oils-optional




#2
1 quart water
About 1/2 bar Fels-Naptha bar soap finely grated
1/2 bar Zote bar soap finely grated
2 cups Borox
2 cups Washing soda
3 gallons hot water


#3 one I tried today
1 quart water
1/2 Zote bar soap
1/2 Kirk's Castile bar soap (this clogged up my grater big time)
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cups Borax
Filled the bucket to the top with hot tap water. 


Please note that all the bars of soap are different sizes so to compare them that way wouldn't work out. You would have to do it by a different measurement system than half a bar to know the exact amount that you are using.

The Missing Meat Loaf Recipe.

Awhile back, I don't know like some years ago, I was on the quest to find a Meat Loaf recipe. I had never made Meat Loaf, but only ate it. 

So I went to my go to place for just about everything in my life. The great internet. I looked high and I looked low. I studied the recipes, pictured how the ingredients would taste together, went back and forth, finally I had it narrowed down to two. Close enough, I could work with that.

So I tried the first one, not very impressed. Don't get me wrong, it made a good loaf, but it sure wasn't like mom used to make. So the next time I tried recipe number two. Even farther off the mark with that one. Was wishing I just had my mom's recipes.

Let's fast forward three years to the present. I was digging through mom's recipe boxes, and what did I find? Not one, but two of mom's Meat Loaf recipes! I had the little buggers all along! Three years ago I never thought to dig through the recipe boxes. Sigh...

So of course I made them, well I made one of them, and it was just like mom used to make! (don't figure since it was her recipe) 

My mom loved to cook. Thing is, unless she was following a recipe to the T, it usually wasn't very good. I, as her guinea pig can attest to that. She collected most of her recipes from friends, books, and who knows where else. I'm not sure if there is any in those boxes that she actually came up with, but the ones I do have are one's I grew up on. I loved most of them, and I enjoy making them for my family so they can have a bit of grandma even though she has passed. 

So today I bring you:

Mom's Sour Cream Meat Loaf

For the filling:

1/2 c. chopped onions

1 c. mushrooms

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine

1/3 c. sour cream

For the loaf:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef

2/3 c. oatmeal

1 egg

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. salt 

1tsp Worcestershire sauce

2/3 c. milk

Ok here goes the directions, this could get a bit hairy carry. 

Filling:

Take the onions and mushrooms and brown them in the butter or margarine. 

When done, add sour cream. 

Set aside

Loaf:

Mix the beef, oatmeal, egg, salt, pepper, Worcestershire, and milk together well. Will be very moist.

Place half of meat mixture in your pan

Add the filling to the top of meat mixture.

Place remaining meat mixture over the filling.

Seal pan with tin foil.

Bake in pre-heated 350 oven for 1 hour.

Let stand 5 minutes before slicing. 

Well holy crap, hope that sounds right for you alls. If you have any questions let me know, I'll try to help you the best I can. 

ME, ME,ME

     Man I hurt today. My whole body is killing me right now. I guess it wouldn't be so bad except the fact that no doctor seems to know why this happens to me. You see, for some reason all my joints and especially the joints that receive pressure while I'm sleeping will all of a sudden become painful. This of course leads to a horrible nights sleep, while I'm tossing and turning around trying to find a position that isn't painful. You all know a horrible nights sleep leads to a very tired, cranky, totally out of it mom. I will have to give the kids a heads up, if they see me...run the other way because I am no longer mommy, I'm the head biting monster of your dreams. Oh, wow. Light bulb just turned on. Could I really be the monster in Superman's dreams? Have to tackle that one another day, today is all about me. Me,me,me,me.

     So back to me...so usually when this muscle thing happens I usually end up with a headache the size of a mountain. I currently have one that is only the size of a small hill, so far so good. Like I said, this happens all of a sudden. I have actually enjoyed a couple of months with very little flair up, so I really cant complain. Unfortunately when these flair-ups do happen it pretty much reduces me to a pile of "I don't do anything" blob. So a blob I shall be, and I shall make my family do my bidding. I am after all the Queen here.

     If I have the energy I will be making this recipe later for dinner, if not they can fend for themselves. I found this in mom's recipe box. I have never tried it out, so here goes nothing.

Ham and Swiss Casserole

Ingredients:

3 cups egg noodles, uncooked

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups chopped onion

1 1/2 (6 oz) cans mushrooms, drained ( will not be using these)

1 1/2 cups dice cooked ham

1 1/2 cups dice Swiss cheese ( I only have shredded)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoon pepper

3 eggs

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons milk

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Bring large pot of water to boil, add egg noodles and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente: drain

Pre-heat oven to 400F

Toss drained noodles with 2 teaspoons oil.

Heat remaining oil in a skillet and saute onion over medium heat until soft.

Combine noodles, mushrooms, ham, Swiss cheese, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Transfer to a greased 3 quart casserole dish.

In a bowl mix together egg and milk: pour over noodle mixture.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese

Bake for 30 minutes.

serves 6

     If I make this I will post the pictures later, but in the off chance I don't get this made today I will certainly post the pics when I do make it.

Update: I spaced out taking the pictures...again. One of these days I'll get it together with the pictures. 

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Adventure of the Stuffed Pork Chops

     I get in these fazes where I like to try new recipes. Sometimes it's a hit, sometimes it's a far miss. My poor family. Sunday I was looking through the good ole mom recipe boxes and I came across one that sounded good. Well I made it last night, but didn't think to take pictures. Sorry my bad...forgive me? Next time I make these, and there will be a next time, I will take pictures and post them on here.

     This was a chancy recipe for me to try, since it had one ingredient that most of the family doesn't really care for...Blue Cheese. I love it, DH will eat it, Superman loves the dressing, Jokester and Princess hate it. But it had a redeeming ingredient that we all love...bacon. Yes a recipe with pork in pork. You just have to love that.

     I have never used a recipe with Butterfly cuts of meat before, and when I went shopping I looked at the price and found them to be out of the price range. So I instead I looked for the thickest regular cut pork chops I could find. This was going to be interesting, but in the long run I'm glad I didn't get the butterfly cut.

     So last night I got all the ingredients together and started on this adventure. The recipe says it makes 4 servings but the pack of chops I bought had six in it. What the hell I'll make it work. First I made up the stuffing which consisted of the Blue Cheese, cooked and crumbled bacon, and chopped chives. I then grabbed a chop and for the first time in my life I did a butterfly cut. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I'll take any accomplishment I make.

     It was when I tried to "stuff" the stuffing in the beautifully cut chop that I realized the cut wasn't the best for doing this. It was somewhat difficult to keep the stuffing in the chop. So I used a trusty toothpick to keep it shut. The next chop I cut I just cut half way through and used the tip of the knife to form a pocket in the remaining half. Perfect! Stuffing, stuffed right in there and I was able to really stuff it in there good. I still used a toothpick to keep it shut, as I didn't want all the goodness to escape while cooking.

     Got all the chops stuffed, and sprinkled with pepper, and garlic powder. I highly recommend not using garlic salt or any salt on these. Between the Blue Cheese and bacon they are pretty salty on their own. I did see a note on the bottom of the recipe to use 1/2 Blue Cheese and 1/2 Feta Cheese. Thinking this might cut down on some of the salt flavor and the intensity of the Blue Cheese. I couldn't afford the Feta so it was Blue all the way.

     Popped these bad boys in a 325 degree pre-heated oven, and set the timer for 20 minutes according to the recipe. They must have used really thin chops because mine were no where near done after 20 minutes. I ended up baking for an extra 15 minutes. I would still start with the 20 minutes you can always cook more if needed.

The only thing I would do different would be to sear the chops before baking to give a little extra flavor and to seal in the juices better.

     Oh man these things smelled good while they were cooking! I could hardly wait for them to be done. I was almost drooling. Put me out with the dogs! Anyhow when they were done I served them up, and to my surprise Jokester and Princess loved them. Score!

Superman however did not. I'm thinking it wasn't the taste so much as all the chewing he had to do because he did eventually finish them after he ground them up to look like dog food. I know...lets not go there k. DH loved them too when I gave him his supper when he got home from work later that night. So all in all this adventure ended great. Full tummies with smiles on the faces. Live is good.

Stuffed Pork Chops

Ingredients:

4 boneless pork loin chops, butterflied or as I did above

1/2 lb crumbled Blue Cheese or 1/4lb Blue Cheese and 1/4 lb Feta Cheese

4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

1/4 c. chopped chives

garlic powder and pepper to taste

chopped fresh parsley for garnish (I didn't use, this my meals don't have to be fancy)

Directions:

preheat oven to 325 degrees F 

Grease a shallow baking pan ( I used cooking spray)

In a small bowl, mix together cheese(s), bacon, and chives. Divide equally into loose balls.

Stuff balls into pork chops close and secure with toothpicks.

Season each pork chop with garlic powder and pepper to your liking.

Sear  pork chops if you prefer, and place in baking pan.

Bake for 20 minutes or until stuffing is hot and meat is cooked.

Garnish with parsley and serve. 

 

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The Big Freeze Baby

     I am a freeze baby! I will admit it. Here in Minnesota it is almost 40 degrees out and as they say misting. Now for here at this time of year, this is a heat wave, but yet I am freezing. I have two pairs of socks on, two shirts, and seriously thinking about putting on some long johns under my jeans. Furnace is set at 72 degrees, so what seems to be the problem here? I have no idea, but it's driving me crazy.  My poor hands can barely move because they are so cold!

     Now I would make me a nice fire in the fireplace and snuggle up under some blankets, that is IF I had a fireplace. So I will resort to taking a nice pipping hot shower to unfreeze these old bones of mine, and do alittle baking. Thinking of making something I pulled out of my moms recipe boxes that I received when she died. Now I don't remember her ever making this particular recipe, but then again I've made a few recipes that I don't remember her ever making. This one is called E+Z Bars. Not sure where she got it from as the writing on the card is not hers.

     First you take a stick of margarine or butter (I only use butter) and place it in a 9"x13" baking pan. I cut my stick up in pieces to help it melt better. Place it in oven while it heats up to 350 degrees until the butter is melted. Then add the cup of crushed graham crackers. I had to crush a bit more as one cup didn't quite cover the bottom of the pan.

     Now pat the graham crackers in to make a crust.

 

 Next we get to add the chocolaty goodness!

Two more steps until we can put this in the oven people!

Next we are going to add the chopped nuts. I used walnuts for this.

 Now we add the can of sweetened condensed milk for the topping. Just drizzle that good stuff all over.

  Oh my goodness these things smell wonderful as their baking. By the way I'm multi-tasking here. Blogging and baking at the same time! Some times I really surprise myself.

Anyhow here is the final step before we can chow down on these babies.

Stick the pan in the by now 350 degree pre-heated oven, and bake for 25 minutes. Hopefully they should turn out like this...

      Now the hard part...waiting until they are cool enough to cut and eat. Enjoy!

E+Z Bars

Ingredients:

1 Stick of margarine or butter

1 12oz. bag chocolate chips

1 cup crushed graham crackers

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

Melt stick of butter in pan in the oven

Add cup of crushed graham crackers and pat like for a crust

Add the chocolate chips

Add the chopped nuts

Drizzle with the sweetened condensed milk

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

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