Liquid Laundry Detergent
Makes  5 gal concentrated Price $2.00 Estimated loads:  1000

This is a really simple recipe. I also used it on pet stains and it brought it right up. The next batch i am going to try and use a homemade soap. You can also put essential oils in to give it a different smell.

Ingredients 
I bar of Fels-Naptha soap or homemade soap.
1 cup of washing soda
½ cup of Borax
1. Grade the soap into a pot that is half full with water. Heat up until the soap is dissolved. Be careful, it will   want to foam up on you. Just take it off the heat when this happens.
2. Fill a five gallon bucket with hot water and add the washing soda and borax. Stir until all is dissolved.
3. Add the dissolved soap to the bucket and finish filling to the top with water.
4. Let set up overnight.
It will become a gel like substance. Stir it up and break up the gel.

How to use: fill your desired detergent bottle halfway with the concentrated soap. Fill the rest of the way with water. Shake well. Use 1/4c per load.

Im over stuffed with stuffed animals

I have to tell you.. My daughter has all these stuffed animals and they drive me nuts. So because she wouldn't throw them away I made her bag them up and take them to her dads. In the mean time I am crocheting a chess set for my son and realized I didn't have stuffing. So what did I do? I took a stuffed animal that would have gone into the trashed and recycled it. I pulled the stuffing out to stuff the new toys. This saves money and waste. I have also had a brain fart of trying to do something with the skin of these stuffed animals. Haven't figured out anything but I am sure there is something out there for it. One thing that just came to mind is a memory blanket. My aunt made these blankets that had fur and old clothes cut up on the other side. So why not cut the fur into squares and make a quilt. Until later

Ketchup by Jamie Oliver

I love this guy. He helped inspire my gardens and cooking whole. Here is a recipe from his show.

Homemade Tomato Ketchup

Recipe Excerpted from JAMIE AT HOME by Jamie Oliver. Copyright (c) 2008. Published in the U.S. by Hyperion. All Rights Reserved. Available wherever books are sold. www.jamieoliver.com

Prep Time:

1 hr 0 min

Inactive Prep Time:

--

Cook Time:

45 min

Level:

Difficult

Serves:

about 1 pint

Directions

Bizarrely enough for a chef, I really do take my hat off to Heinz, who have become the global brand of quality in the ketchup world. It's such an everyday cupboard product that you've probably never thought to make your own. But if you're growingtomatoes in the garden, or you catch sight of some really beautiful ones at the market in summer, just think how much of a treat it would be to offer your family or guests homemade ketchup. It's great fun to make. And you can make different colors of ketchup using just yellow, orange or green tomatoes - simply exchange thecherry and canned tomatoes for the same amount of your chosen colored ones.

Ingredients

• 1 large red onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1/2 bulb fennel, trimmed and roughly chopped
• 1 stick celery, trimmed and roughly chopped
• Olive oil
• Thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 a fresh red chili, deseeded and finely chopped
• Bunch fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks chopped
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 2 cloves
• Sea salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound amazing cherry or plum tomatoes, halved plus 1 pound canned plum tomatoes, chopped or 2 pounds yellow, orange or green tomatoes, chopped
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup soft brown sugar

Place all the vegetables in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan with a big splash of olive oil and the ginger, garlic, chili, basil stalks, coriander seeds and cloves. Season with the pepper and a good pinch of salt.

Cook gently over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes until softened, stirring every so often. Add all the tomatoes and 1 1/2 cups of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the sauce reduces by half.

Add the basil leaves, then whiz the sauce in a food processor or with a hand blender and push it through asieve twice, to make it smooth and shiny. Put the sauce into a clean pan and add the vinegar and the sugar. Place the sauce on the heat and simmer until it reduces and thickens to the consistency of tomato ketchup. At this point, correct the seasoning to taste.

Spoon the ketchup through a sterilized funnel into sterilized bottles, then seal tightly and place in a cool dark place or the refrigerator until needed - it should keep for 6 months.

"Our agreement with the producers of "Jamie at Home" only permit us to make 2 recipes per episode available online. Food Network regrets the inconvenience to our viewers and foodnetwork.com users"

* Sterilizing Jars

Properly handled sterilized equipment will keep canned foods in good condition for years. Sterilizing jars is the first step of preserving foods.

Sterilizing Tips:

Jars should be made from glass and free of any chips or cracks. Preserving or canning jars are topped with a glass, plastic or metal lid, which has a rubber seal. Two piece lids are best for canning, as they vacuum seal when processed.

Before filling with jams, pickles or preserves, wash jars and lids with hot, soapy water. Rinse well and arrange jars and lids open sides up, without touching, on a tray. Leave in a preheated 175 degree F oven for 25 minutes. Or boil the jars and lids in a large saucepan, covered with water, for 15 minutes.

Use tongs when handling hot sterilized jars, to move them from either boiling water or the oven. Be sure tongs are sterilized too, by dipping the ends in boiling water for a few minutes.

As a rule, hot preserves go into hot jars and cold preserves go into cold jars. All items used in the process of making jams, jellies and preserves must be clean. This includes any towels used, and especially your hands.

After the jars are sterilized, you can preserve the food. It is important to follow any canning and processing instructions included in the recipe and refer to USDA guidelines about the sterilization of canned products.

What all you can really make at home.

When you think of homemade you think of bread or dinners. Does it ever cross ones mind that almost everything you use can be made at home. I go around my kitchen thinking about how I can replace things with what I can make at home. I did the bread thing yeah but without a machine that is a lot of bread making when your family goes through a loaf a day. SO what else can I do to replace stuff and when you start making things from scratch not only are they healthier for you but cheaper in most sense. If you have a garden they are practically free. Lets take ketchup. My family goes through this stuff like it is water so how can I make this at home to make it cheaper. One way is my tomato plants. When I put tomatoes up I can put some aside for ketchup making. Not only does it not have all the added sugar into it but you can put spices in it as well. But you can do this with almost anything. Or replace something you cant make with something you can. Getting back to simplicity is my goal and dream. In the process like with the bread I might find somethings take up way to much time when I can be doing a million other things. But to try and strive for that will be my goal and to share with you guys on this blog. Manly so I don't drive my mother nuts with all my rambling. So as I go through this blog here I will post random stuff but hopefully it will help someone,somewhere over the rainbow.  
So because I seem to always go off subject weather it be here or in conversation I guess I need to give some ideas about what we can make from scratch at home.
1. ketchup
2. mayo
3. bread
4. noodles
5. tomato sauce
6. salad dressing
7. flour
8. muffins
9. pickles
10. hot sauce
11. salsa
12. pesto
13. BBQ sauce
14. Stocks . chicken, vegg, and beef
15. biscuits
16. tortillas
17. Refried beans
These are the list of some common stuff people use. More like the condiments. If you grow a garden, grow what you eat and grow enough to can them and put them up for the winter. If you don't get dries beans because they take to long to soak then cook. Do it ahead of time and can those suckers so all is needed to do is open and pour. So much cheaper. If you can have chickens for your eggs. Chicken feed is cheep. Oh potato, onion and garlic do well in a cool place for the winter. All this you can do living in suburbia. Now if you are like me who just tries to grab the moon, I want the whole homestead with the animals and garden. Total self sufficiency. I dream big always, no harm in that right.

So anyhow with the list above I will find recipes or make up my own and post them on here so that they are all in one spot. Don't worry I will give credit where credit is due.

Thank you for listing or reading my little rant session and Until next time, Reach for the stars

Cabbage Rolls

I first cooked these some time back but like everything else I never write it down and it is never the same twice. Friends come for spaghetti and  it is always different. I have always been that way though no matter what it is. I cant repeat it or it gets boring. I have tried to do weekly meals to make a budget for food but the though of having the same thing on the same night makes me want to cringe. I just cant do it. Anyhow I have started to write down what i do with what so that maybe I can make it again. I also can never follow the recipie to the T. It always gets change somehow. Well I am going to write down what I make tonight because its just yummy.

What you need:

1 pk Hot Italian sausage links (you can do mild or sweet instead)

1 zucchini 

1 head of cabbage

4 cups of spaghetti sauce of your choice.( mine was homemade)

2 c. brown basmati rice (cooked it would be 4)

1. Cook rice according to the package. While that is going you can cut the cabbage in half and put into a pot of boiling water. This will help the leave fall off and roll them better.

2. In a fry pan brown up the sausage. (if its links take out of the skin) when that is brown set aside in a bowl and add in your zucchini and saute that up. Pour that into your sauage bowl. With the other half of your cabbage chop it up real small and saute that up also and put into the bowl. When you have done all this the rice should be done. 

3 Mix half the rice with the other mix and pull the cabbage out of the water and let it drain.

4 When the cabbage is drained pull the leaves apart and fill with the mixture. Roll them up and put into a casserole pan. Pour the sauce over it and put in the oven at 350 for 30 mins or until hot through out.

Serve with Parmesan cheese and a side salad.

Animal ears.

Like I said in the last blog that I was going to post some animal ears for you guys if you wanted to take advantage of it.

Here is what you need
cheap headband (you can get them from dollar store, I think they come 3 for a dollar)
felt, construction paper or fabric. how ever you choose to make them.
scissors
glue
Pipe cleaners

1. Print out or make your own template
2. Cut 4 of the biggest part of the ear out
3. Cut 2 of the smallest part of the ear.
4. Fold the flaps up. This will give you something to glue onto the headband.
5. Glue the biggest part of the ear together (make sure you do not glue the flaps)w/ 1 pipe cleaner in the middle shaped to the ear and 1/4 of a piece bent like a L to go in the back. This will help hold up the ears.
6. Now glue the little piece inside the big piece.
7. Glue in the desired spots on the headband.

Now this is just a very simple pattern. You can go to the limits with this. Use glitter and ribbon. Punch holes and put make sift earrings in them. Where ever your imagination takes you. Have the kids help or just have them do it. This would be fun for them to have a little more control over their own costume. I can post some noses too if you want. Just let me know. Oh and if you think of any other kind of ear you would like just message me and I will draw it up and post it. Like elephant ears or something lol.. Oh brain fart.. You can do a elephant and save your toilet paper and paper towel rolls to use as a trunk.

Have fun

Halloween Costumes on a dime

 Remember how I was talking about the thrift store and how wonderful it can be. I mean come on I got a 300 dollar kitchen aid mixer for only $100. But sometimes the trick is to go to thrift stores that are located in a more upscale part of town. Well anyways I was in a small town and went to their thrift store and was able to get the kids costumes for very cheap. I scored here because I found an old dance costume and wings and just kinda went from there.

For this dead little dancing girl here is what I did.
The night before I ragged rolled her hair so that it would be super curlie.. I wanted big hair. I found the wings and dress at a thrift store for a few bucks. I got a tupe of white face makeup which was cheap also. I made her face looked washed out by putting the white liquid make up on like lotion. I did her lips in eyeliner. Put a little blush on her face and wall la.

If you use your imagination a little you can save yourself tons of money for Halloween. Sometimes I get things so that they can continue to wear them as regular clothes or just play things around the house. My son still run around in his capes. So multi-functional if a big plus specially when you are on a budget. Some times the biggest part of the costume is the make-up.

Some ideas:

Jelly beans: 
Get a pack of water balloons and blow them all up. Put you child in something warm or cool whatever your season is like in your area. (Here is freezing.) then pin all the balloons on your child and paint their face with circles of color.

Vampire:
 Well nowadays vampires don't dress in capes but you can find those cheap too. Have you child dress in whatever you think is appropriated and then give them teeth. Made be with a little blood. I believe you can make this homemade also at this site. http://www.halloween-website.com/fake_blood.htm. If you want twilght Vamps just throw a little glitter on their faces. Tussle their hair and there you go. Or with the girls make them look like little beauty queens with the glitter.

Werewolves:
 Twilight wolves- Go around topless with a tattoo on the arm.
Teeth and a little make up with some old cloths from the thrift store ripped up. Tussle the hair with gel to give the messy look and wallah.

Princess.
  Find a old flower girl dress at the thrift store. I believe if you look good enough you can find a little crown also. Curl her hair and put on a little make-up. Slip on some little ballet flats and your done.

Fairy
Make the wings that I have posted. Combine the princess and the fairy if you want or you can find another little dress to add to the costume. Glitter!! Must have glitter. Do her/ his hair messy or neat. Different fairies like different things. If you want a more rustic fairy then when you get the little dress ripe the hem off to give that messy look. Rat the hair and put it up in pig tails or leave it down. Just so long as its messy. Put some leaves in their hair instead of a crown.

I have tons more ideas but it would take me all day to post but for now here are a couple. If you have a certain kind of costume you want just message me and maybe I can give you some ideas. I hope what I gave you helped a little.
Until we meet again


Bunny:
 Pink P.Js with Easter bunny ears. Paint the face. Or what ever color bunny you wanna be just pick those kinds of P.Js

Black Cat:
 Black clothes with ears and a tail. Paint the face to look like a cat.

Mouse: 
Gray or white PJs with a long tail and ears.

I am going to post on how to make ears for your costumes made out of headbands and felt. Along with the tail.