Cocoa Nib Pecan Cookies

Do you know what cocoa nibs are? If you do, I hope you've found a lot of good ways to use them and will discover another below. If you don't, let me explain: simply put, cocoa nibs are pieces of cocoa bean. Eating them is pretty much like eating a nut made out of unsweetened chocolate. They can be used in salads, sauces, and baking. You can find them at Whole Foods or other specialty stores.

This recipe pairs them with toasted pecans in a shortbread cookie. It's super yummy! I prefer them plain, while my husband loves them dipped in dark chocolate.

If you're looking for a last-minute recipe for a dinner party or something, don't pick this one! You toast the pecans and let them cool before you make the dough. And because the flavor of the cocoa beans develops and infuses the cookies over time, it is strongly recommended that you make the dough a day before baking, and bake the cookies at least 24 hours before serving them (longer is even better). That may seem like a lot of planning for cookies, but they're worth it! (It's also possible to freeze the dough - or the cookies - if you want to be able to have some on hand more quickly.)

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Two options are included for baking these: “slice and bake” or “roll and cut”. The first option is much easier and less time consuming, but the cookies will be less uniform in shape. The second option allows you to cut the dough into shapes (hearts, flowers, etc.) if desired.

Cocoa Nib Pecan Cookies (from Bittersweet, by Alice Medrich)

(makes about 4 dozen two-inch cookies)

1 c (3.5 oz) pecan halves

½ lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened

¾ c sugar

¼ t salt

1½ t pure vanilla extract

1/3 c cocoa nibs

2 c all purpose flour

Toast the Pecans:

Preheat the oven to 325°. Spread the pecans on a cookie sheet.

 Toast them in the oven for 7 to 8 minutes, or until fragrant and lightly colored. Let cool completely, then chop coarsely.

Make the dough:

Assemble the ingredients.

Combine the butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a medium bowl and beat until smooth and creamy but not fluffy (about one minute with a mixer).

Stir or beat in the pecans and cocoa nibs.

Add all the flour at once. Beat on low speed just until the flour is fully incorporated. One of the best tricks I learned about baking is a way to prevent flour from flying all over the kitchen when I turn my mixer on. Even when the mixer's on its lowest setting, I still used to get clouds everywhere. Not anymore! I simply place a kitchen towel over the whole mixer and hold it down around the bowl as the mixer goes. After about the first 20 seconds the flour is usually incorporated enough to not be flying around anymore - and one towel is a lot easier to clean up than the whole kitchen!

Mix until your dough looks like lots of small crumbs. (Don't worry, those crumbs will come together in a cohesive dough once you start shaping it!)

For slice and bake cookies: Form the dough into a 12” log, about 2” thick.

For roll and cut cookies: Divide the dough in half and form into two flat patties.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. (Or freeze for up to 3 months.)

Bake the cookies:

Position the rack in the lower third of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350°.

Cut the cookies:

To slice and bake: use a sharp knife to cut the cold dough log into ¼ –inch-thick slices. Place the cookies at least 1½ inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

To roll and cut cookies: Remove one patty from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature until supple enough to roll but still quite firm – it will continue to soften as you work. Roll the dough out between two pieces of wax paper to a thickness of ¼ inch.

Turn the dough over once or twice while you are rolling it out to check for deep wrinkles. Peel off the top sheet of paper and place it in front of you. Invert the dough onto the paper and peel off the second sheet. One of my teachers from culinary school would say “pastry chefs are laughing!” She was adamantly opposed using wax paper to roll out dough under any circumstances. But this dough is so crumbly to begin with, and becomes so soft as you roll it out, that using this method is definitely worth it. Besides, the clean up afterward is a breeze!

Cut out cookies as close together as possible to minimize scraps, dipping the edges of cookie cutters in flour as necessary to prevent sticking.

Transfer cookies, using a narrow metal spatula, to ungreased cookie sheets, placing the cookies at least 1½ inches apart. (if the dough gets too soft at any time while you are working, slide a cookie sheet underneath the wax paper and refrigerate the dough for a few minutes until it firms up again.) Repeat with the second piece of dough. Press all of the dough scraps together gently (don’t overwork them with too much kneading), reroll, and cut out more cookies.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the cookies are light golden brown at the edges. (Bake only one cookie sheet at a time.) Let the cookies firm up on the pans for 1 minute before transferring the to a rack with a metal spatula. Let cool completely. For best flavor and texture, store the cookies in an airtight container for at least 24 hours before serving. (They can be stored airtight for at least 1 month.)

Dip the Cookies:

To make them extra special, you can dip these cookies in chocolate! If you use tempered chocolate or melt-and-molds, the cookies can stay at room temperature. If you just melt plain chocolate (like chocolate chips) to dip them in, plan on keeping them in the fridge.

Cloth Napkins from a Pillowcase

Last summer when I visited my parents back east, I was inspired: my mom uses cloth napkins for every meal! She has a whole drawer full, so it doesn't even matter how many people are over for dinner. And if the napkin is mostly clean it stays at your place on the table for multiple meals – kind of like reusing a bath towel. I had already been thinking about how many paper napkins (OK, paper towels) I used at every meal, and wishing there was some way to lessen the number. Voila: cloth napkins!

My mom let me bring home four of hers, and we use them faithfully. I thought four would be plenty for three people, but I was wrong. One “spare” isn't enough. My mom sent me some additional ones at Christmas time, but they got lost in the mail! So I needed a solution.  I am by no means an expert sewer, but I figured, "hey, it's just a square with a hem around it," and thought I could probably do it.

I did just a little research on making cloth napkins (there are many tutorials available! I used this one, with a few modifications). It's really not difficult at all if you have any sewing ability at all – you need to be able to cut a square, iron, pin, and sew a relatively straight seam. (I have some great square-cutting tools because at one time I thought I might start to quilt, and back then I had the money to indulge my hobby. If you don't have a cutting mat and wheel, you can always cut a square pattern to follow, or just use your scissors as you measure. Napkins don't have to be perfect anyway!)

A huge amount of fabric presented itself this week when I got new sheets. The old ones are in fairly good shape (just a little worn in places), and as a bonus they're one of my favorite colors! And I get bonus “green” points for be able to reuse them as napkins, right?

The pillowcases looked especially promising because they're almost the right size for a napkin to start with.

Here's what I did:

(Please note: I didn't take very many pictures, and the ones I took aren't overly clear. If you're having trouble following or are looking for a really good tutorial, please use the link above instead!)

Iron pillowcase to remove any large wrinkles. Lay out on a cutting mat (or other surface to cut on).

 

Cut off finished edge and side seam.

Cut out two squares at least 18” x18”. (With a pillowcase, it's really easy to do two at once because the layers match up so neatly!)

 

Working with one square at a time, turn over the edge ½” and press. Turn over again so you have a finished edge and press. Repeat on each side.  (I didn't measure.  I just eyeballed it.  And so my napkins have a little more character than they would if I bought them.  If you want to use a ruler with yours, go right ahead!)

Once you've pressed all four sides, use the lines you've ironed in to pin the seam closed. At the corners, you can trim a little fabric to reduce bulk if you want to. (if this part doesn't make sense, see that tutorial!) 

Sew all the way around, staying close to the inside edge. (In the tutorial I was following she sewed along each edge separately. Since the backstitch doesn't work on my machine, I just did one big square, turning at the corners and overlapping at the ends.)

Finish off strings – I like to do this by pulling them all to one side (in this case the side I sewed on), tying the corresponding ends together in a couple tiny knots so they're less likely to come unraveled, and cutting them very close to the fabric – do whatever seems good to you.

Fold and use

There you go. In about two hours I had used both pillowcases to make four napkins. Then I cut the rest of the sheets up too! After taking away the worn bits, I got 25 more napkins cut out! That's 29 cloth napkins for free! I either have enough to give some as presents or to use when I have a massive dinner party.

So go...find some scrap fabric or an old pillowcase.  And have some fun!

 

Totally Awesome Green Smoothies

Ahh, the amazing little green drink. It will make your energy soar, give your immune system a boost, keep your waist line trim while still keeping you full, you can grab and go and as moms we all know how important that is. Miracles do happen in the kitchen people. You just need a blender.



So since I get asked about these All. The. Time. I thought I should probably sit down and share with you how crazy easy it is to mix up one of these. Right along with my normal style of cooking this really is a "throw-anything-and-everything-in-the-blender" kind of things. But I'll at least show you what I throw in on any given day and a few tricks that might help. The things you must have to make this work are:

-Blender, bullet, anything with a blade that turns solids to liquids
-Greens: Pretty much any kind, spinach and kale are my favorite. Try to stay away from ones that are spicy like mustard greens. Or if you do use those pair it with something like apple and lemon.
-Liquid: If you're really staying trim just use water. If you're wanting to create something creamy use a milk base like almond or coconut or regular milk. Try to stay away from most juices. You'll be adding fruit anyway and it's better to keep your sugar levels low.
-Fruit: I mean you can go all green but you might want something to sweeten the deal. Also if you're taking a meal on the go you can get extra potassium, fiber, vitamins and all those other added benefits that you would normally get if you had time to sit down and eat a bowl of fruit. A great fruit to add are frozen bananas, once they get a little ripe just peel, break into chunks and toss in a freezer bag so when you're ready for your smoothie just toss a few chunks in. Apples are great to add, but I will warn you sometimes they will leave your smoothie less smooth and with more "texture" unless you have a blender that totally pulverizes. Other fruits you can't go wrong with are citrus, I usually avoid milk with those, just seems weird to me. Berries of any kind for a great extra boost of antioxidants on top of what your spinach is giving you. Although I will warn you, berries will turn your smoothie less emerald and more... brown. Just put it in a solid color cup. Pears are awesome. Avocado to make it nice and creamy, just remember the fat content here and maybe only put in a quarter to a half of one. Oh the list goes on, you get the point.
-Grains, seeds, nuts: These are totally optional but if you're making this as a meal why not add a little protein to make it complete? Either add some peanut butter, almond butter, a few raw cashews, chia seeds or flax seeds, or even a small handful of uncooked rolled oats just to bulk it up some. If you're trying to up your caloric intake due to being pregnant or nursing you can even add a tablespoon or so of coconut oil.

So should we start mixing?

The first thing you always want to do is mix your greens and liquid. Here we have kale and a little coconut milk.

I fill my blender with greens and then add a little liquid. Just enough to get them combined.

Start pulsing to get the greens moving down.

Eventually you can just let it blend. But you might need to stop it and push the greens down a little bit.

You know you're done when all your greens are blended. Don't worry if you still have a few bigger pieces, those will get blended once you add everything else.

For this one I added an apple. You know me and my inability to peel an apple. Just core and roughly chop.

Toss that in along with anything else you're adding. As you can see I used apple, homemade almond butter, chia seeds and milled flax seeds...

Then I added a small palmful of raw cashews and flaked coconut. Just because.

Then blend baby blend!! If you add a juicy fruit you probably won't need to add any more liquid. But if you're adding frozen banana you might want to add some more milk or water.

Then pour and enjoy!

You can see what I mean about a little "texture" from the apple, cashews and coconut. But if texture bothers you just stick to creamy fruits and leave out whole nuts.

Don't forget to share! The amount I made above is enough to share with baby man. He drinks an entire cup of it and LOVES it!

And just so you don't come get mad at me later here's a little warning for you. If you're not used to consuming this many greens and fruits it *might* get things moving more than you're used to. If you don't know what I'm referring to just google the benefits of fiber. It's a good thing, just might catch you off guard.

Some of my other favorite fruit combinations right now are pear and a little avocado and frozen banana. Mango, pineapple, banana. Banana, coconut, peanut butter. Canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix) frozen banana, teensy bit of maple syrup, pumpkin pie spice. Kiwi, strawberry, banana. Orange, lime, mango. Oh and when you need a special treat try fresh mint in with your greens, dark chocolate chips and a spoonful of cocoa powder, mint extract, and frozen avocado. Top with a small dollop of greek yogurt. Um hello deliciously healthy mint chocolate chip smoothie. If you ever want exact amounts on these just ask, but usually I just toss whatever I have in. Shocking, I know.

Also here's a link to the longest, most amazing list of green smoothies. Try a new one every day! You'll never get bored!

Here's a bonus smoothie for you, this time without greens. I know, I know. Technically you can add them. But I really wanted ice cream for lunch and I was planning on a big salad for dinner. See how I rationalize things? Totally justifiable.

So I threw a frozen banana, a little less than half of an avocado (the baby man ate the other part for lunch) some homemade almond coconut butter, chia seeds, and coconut milk. Yum.

 

It turned into this decadent, creamy, almost soft serve consistency delicious treat. So yes, you can totally have ice cream for lunch.

Oh, here's one more bonus. Buy the biggest bag of spinach and fill your blender like you normally would but just use water. Blend until it combines then toss in some more spinach. Keep blending. You'll have a thick, beautifully green straight spinach smoothie. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze for later use. When I'm making a smoothie and either don't have any frozen fruit to add or don't have any greens I'll pop a few of these in the blender.

So get blending people! After all, it is Earth Day and I can't think of a better way to celebrate!



Dishwasher Detergent

Have you made your laundry soap yet? If you haven't you have one more fantastic excuse to run to the store and grab the ingredients since this calls for pretty much the same thing.

So all you need is:
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1/4 cup Kosher salt
2 packets Lemonade mix. (The little sugar free packets that are like $.25) Or you can use 1/4 cup of citric acid if you have some left over from making your laundry detergent.

You won't believe how easy this is. You don't even have to grate soap this time. I feel guilty even giving this steps but alas, it shows just how easy this is. Ok ready? Don't blink.

1. Pour all of the above into a container. As you can see I use a super duper fancy coffee container. (Don't judge. I like recycling. And it fits.)

2. Mix

3. (And because I feel like I need to give it another step...) RUN THE DISHWASHER! :) Just use 1 TBS of detergent per load. I usually toss half a TBS in the pre-wash just for good riddance when it's a nasty load. I also use white vinegar in the rinse compartment.

 

 

So just ignore what the can says, I've changed things up a bit but still use the same can. I just felt a post needed a picture, so there you go.

 

Obviously you can double, triple, or whatever this formula but this is a small batch to make sure you like it. If you have a really grimy load you can add just THREE drops of dish soap.

 

And that's it! Happy dish washing!

 

 

Coasters and Next Week

Alison had a really fun craft for us today! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of peoples coasters that they painted but they were AWESOME! I am going to use mine to assign everyone their cup for the day. That way we don't go through a bazillion cups.

I announced today that we will be playing the game Masterpiece next week. I thought that I would write the rules out on here that way you guys can prepare yourselves for the awesomeness that will be going down.

Introduction

"Your favorite Van Gogh in on the auction block and you are bidding for it against an array of eccentric art collectors and speculators.
You want that Van Gogh painting. Should you up the bid to $5 million? $10 million? But what if it's a worthless forgery? You'll never know what it's really worth unless you outbid the competition. Keen observation, steady nerves, and a little luck make the difference in Masterpiece, an always exciting, sometimes risky excursion into the elite world of an international art auction."

Object

To be the team who who has acquired the largest fortune in paintings and cash at the end of the game when all the bank's paintings have been sold (or until we run out of time). 

Setup

- I (Courtney) will be the banker. I will give each team $15 million and keep the remaining cash with me.

- Each team will start out with one painting and one value card for that painting

Gameplay

- Table one will go first and we will continue to go in numerical order. 

- When it is your teams turn you will spin the wheel and follow the directions for the space on which you landed. 

Game board spaces and explanations 

Bank Auction: Courtney will take the top painting from the pile and prop it on the easel. Your team and each of the other teams may, but are not required to, bid on it. The actual value of the painting will not be known except to the highest bidder, who takes possession of the painting, and can then check the value on the the back of the painting. The highest bidder must pay the bank what they bid no matter what the actual value of the painting is. 

Private Auction: Any of the other teams may, but are not required to, bid on one of your teams paintings. If you have more than one painting, the painting to be auctioned will be chosen by the team before you. Hand the painting chosen to Courtney to be auctioned off. Your team may not enter the bidding. The new owner pays the amount of the highest bid. 

Collect 3,000,000 or a value card: Your team may collect the money from the bank or draw the top value card and add it to any one of your teams paintings. There are no limit to the number of value cards you can add to one painting; the value of any painting is the sum of all the value cards in the envelope. If you do not have a painting in front of you, you may not draw a value card; take the money instead. 

If you draw a forgery it MUST be assigned to a painting and it CANCELS the value of that painting. Once a fake, always a fake! 

Once a value card is assigned to a painting, it must stay with that painting and not be removed from it. 

May buy a painting from the bank for $x dollars: Your team, if you desire, can pay the bank the amount specified, and take the top painting together with the top value card. If you do not want to buy the painting the play automatically becomes a bank auction. If your team refuses the painting you may not participate in the auction. 

May sell any painting to the bank: Your team has the opportunity, but are not required, to sell any one painting to the bank. The value is determined by it's value card(s). You will do well to sell your most expensive painting, since you might be forced to sell it at a loss at a private auction. When you cash in a painting, display the value card(s) for all to see, then give them to Courtney along with the painting. They are out of play for the rest of the game. 

May buy a painting from any team for $3,500,000: Your team has the opportunity, but are are not required, to purchase any one painting of your choice (with it's value card) from any team for $3,500,000. The team who owns the desired painting MUST sell it if the buyer has the ready cash. 

Inherit a painting from the bank: You receive free and clear the top painting from the pile on the board along with the top value card. 

Sell a painting to the bank for $3,500,000: Your team MUST sell one of your paintings to the bank, which pays you $3,500,000-regardless of the value on the value card(s). You will do well to sell your least valuable painting (particularly a forgery if you have one), but you are required to sell, even if your least valuable card is worth more than $3,500,000. When you turn in your painting to Courtney, the other players will get to see what the painting was worth. If you don't own any paintings you don't do anything this turn. 

Auction Rules

1. The opening bid must be at least $1,000,000

2. Succeeding bids must be in increments of non less than $500,000

3. Any team must start the bidding. Thereafter bidding is at random with no regard to the order of play. 

4. If your team is ever caught bidding higher than what you have you must pay the bank $1,000,000. If you have less than $1,000,000 than you lose your next turn. There is no penalty for bidding over the amount you have on hand if a higher bid is accepted. If a team is caught bidding higher than the amount the have on hand the auction will be re-run. 

5. In the event that two team simultaneously bid the same amount and there is no higher bid, the auction is cancelled. 

6. Borrowing cash from another team or from the bank is NEVER allowed. 

Winning the Game!

The game ends when the last painting has been sold (or until we run out of time). Teams will then add up their cash and the value cards on the back of the paintings. Whoever has the most money wins! 

P.S. The only prize will the victory you feel because your team WON! 

If you are feeling ambitious you can create your artwork ahead of time and bring it with you next week. Just make sure you only use a half of a poster-board. On the back you will need to write: Your name, The name of your masterpiece, and a description of your painting (the description is optional). 

Looking forward to seeing you all next week! 

Coffee Toffee Almond Cookies

I'll be honest - coffee's really not my thing. So I can't say from personal experience that these cookies are scrumptious. BUT I've been told that they are – and the recipe's been requested from me more than once. They're pretty much a souped-up, gourmet chocolate chip cookie.

Some notes on ingredients:

The original recipe calls for 1/2 half cup butter and 1/2 half cup shortening. I use 1 cup butter, because I prefer to. But if you want to use the shortening, go right ahead. Your cookie will probably be fluffier than mine and spread less.

The recipe calls for “English toffee candy bars” - you can use Heath bars or Skor bars or any other toffee candy bar you find. Because of expense, I prefer to make my own toffee and use that. (It's not difficult, although it is a bit meticulous. If you want me to do a toffee tutorial, let me know in the comments to this post.)

I find chocolate covered coffee beans in the bulk food section at Winco.

If you're not a fan of almonds, you can substitute any other nut with equally good results.

Coffee Toffee Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

1 c butter, softened

¾ c sugar

¾ c firmly packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 t vanilla extract

2 ¼ c all-purpose flour

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

½ t ground cinnamon

1 c chopped almonds

3 (2-oz) packages chocolate-covered coffee beans (1 cup)

4 (1.4 oz) English toffee candy bars, chopped (about 1 cup)

Directions:

Assemble Ingredients. Preheat oven to 350° (unless you're going to chill your dough for a while).

I had a limited amount of time to make these cookies, and I didn't have time to wait for the butter to soften. Instead of using the microwave to soften it (I always end up melting it!), I grated the butter with a cheese grater. All those tiny little pieces soften in no time!

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl; add to the butter mixture, cover your mixer with a towel so the flour doesn't fly everywhere, and beat well.

Stir in chopped almonds, chocolate-covered coffee beans, and chopped toffee.

At this point, if you have time, you can cover and chill the dough. This will allow the flavors to meld more fully, and will lessen the spread of your cookies as they bake. Chilling is not necessary, however.

Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets (I like to use a stone).

Bake at 350° for 10 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool 1 minute on baking sheets; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

Happy Baking!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Barbara got everyone all excited about putting up a line for line drying this spring and summer.
So of course you need some homemade laundry detergent to go along with it right?

Guys, if you haven't done this yet you need to. It's SO easy. I like to refer to this as the gateway drug to green living. Most people I've talked to about homemade laundry detergent, whether they're a total crunchy nut job like myself or otherwise normal, have all said they would love to save on laundry detergent by making it themselves if it really was as easy as everyone says it is. Then they try it and just like that they're hooked and want to know what else they can do that's that easy. Now, just like anything things can go wrong but that's why Barbara and I are here to help you. We've both tried (and failed) at laundry detergent and are here to share our experiences with you.

Let's start with the most basic of basics. There are two types of homemade laundry detergent. Liquid and powder. In the days of buying detergent I always, always used liquid. So of course when I first decided to try to make my own I did liquid and so did Barbara. The hard part about liquid is it will never be the consistency of regular detergent, it's more like a snot consistency. (Sorry, just being honest) You will always have to shake it to combine the snot part, clumpy part, and watery part which is both kind of gross and kind of annoying. It also takes a day to "set" so you don't have the instant gratification of immediately doing a load of laundry. Now, after saying all this, if none of those things bother you then by all means make it and use it, because it WORKS. I used my liquid variety for over a year and was overall very pleased with how well it cleaned my clothes, just not overly thrilled with the usage aspect of it. The biggest fear of using powder is that it won't dissolve in cold water. I put my powder in the detergent compartment of my top loading HE machine and have never had a problem with it.

Now down to the ingredients. Honestly, it's hard to mess this stuff up, and there are a TON of formulas out there for you to try. The most basic laundry detergents consist of three basic ingredients.

-Borax
-Washing Soda (not baking soda, although you can use that too)
-Fels Naptha laundry soap

Borax, washing soda and fels naptha can all be found in your laundry aisle. I have found them at Walmart, Winco, regular grocery stores and Amazon. However the best prices are at Winco.

Other additions include Citric Acid, in the LemiShine version you should find with dish detergent and the straight citric acid will be with your canning supplies. You can also add Oxyclean if you like.

You can do any of these three, or make swaps along the way. You can make swaps or additions in yours depending on what you're using it for. I have made two different laundry detergents for different uses and I and am just as pleased with the results of both. I know someone who uses a cup of baking soda in her wash and during the rinse cycle adds a cup of vinegar. (Obviously you want to wait to add this otherwise you'll get quite a bubbly mess) She's been doing it for year on everything including her cloth diapers and it works for her. So if you don't really care for any of these formulas feel free to Google other recipes or find some on Pinterest and I'm sure you'll find something that will work for your needs.

So let's get down to making it shall we? For any formula, liquid or otherwise, the only real "step" is to grate your bar of soap. I highly, highly recommend using a food processor. It makes it a lot easier and makes the soap bits even smaller. You will want to avoid standing above it thought otherwise you might get engulfed in the cloud of soap dust.

 

Once you're done it should look like this...

 

 

And then all you do is mix everything together. I told you it was easy right? Depending on the size of the formula you're using you may want to use a 5 gallon bucket. Makes things a lot easier to really get it mixed up well. 

 

Here are some formulas we have used and recommend you try.

 

Basic Laundry Detergent:

1-box Borax

1-box Washing Soda

2-bars fels naptha soap

Use 1-2 TBS per load, in both standard and HE machines

 

Barbara's Laundry Detergent:

1-box Borax

1-box Washing Soda

1-container citric acid

1-bar fels naptha soap

1-bar peppermint castile soap

Use 1-2 TBS per load, in both standard and HE machines

 

Amanda's Cloth Diaper Laundry Detergent:

The main difference in this detergent is not using borax and fels naptha soap. Borax can be a little too harsh for cloth diapers since they get so much use and washing. Fels naptha can cause build up over time and can cause stink issues. The addition of baking soda helps with deep cleaning and citric acid eliminates ammonia.

1-cup washing soda

1-cup baking soda

1/2-cup citric acid

5-drops Tea Tree Oil

Use 1TBS per load

 

Liquid Laundry Detergent:

This is by far my favorite. By whipping it creates a mayonnaise like consistency and is much better than the snotty consistency of others. But honestly, I just found my dry mix sooooo much easier so I have been sticking to that for now.

2-bars Fels Naptha

2-cups Borax

2-cups Washing Soda

6-cups hot water

Here is a link with full instructions.

 

You'll find that keeping a 5 gallon bucket of laundry detergent isn't really the easiest thing to use on a daily basis so just transfer some to a smaller container to use on a daily basis.

 

 

 

I just keep mine in an old mason jar and keep a spoon next to it for easy use.

 

Ok, one more little tip and trick since we're talking about laundry. If you're going to be line drying, chances are you might want to use a little fabric softener in your wash load to help your clothes from getting stiff. The easiest thing to do is use white vinegar in your fabric softener tray. I promise, your clothes will NOT smell like vinegar! Or you can make your own liquid fabric softener. I've been making this liquid fabric softener for a few years now and love it. I generally only use it on my white load and occasionally my blue jean load. I just use vinegar in my towel load to make sure they don't have a problem repelling water.

 

Liquid Fabric Softener:

6 cups HOT water

3 cups white vinegar

2 cups conditioner (I use Suave Apple in the 16oz container so it's already measured for me. Cheap and smells great!) 

Just mix your conditioner with your water until they are fully incorporated.  I bring my water to a full boil first, just to make sure I've killed anything living in it. Then mix in your white vinegar. Let it cool then pour into a washed and dried empty fabric softener bottle or other jar. I keep mine in an empty white vinegar bottle and a smaller amount in a jar. Just use as you would regularly use fabric softener.

 

You can also add some of your fabric softener to a spray bottle and do a 1:4 ration of softener to water and give your blue jeans a light misting while their line drying if you don't want to put softener in your entire load. Or you can just mist your clothes down with a 1:4 ratio of white vinegar to water and it will do the same thing.

 

I know it seems like a lot of information, I just wanted to make sure you had plenty of resources and I may add more in time. If you haven't already tried to make your own homemade laundry detergent I hope this will help you take that leap and try something new! If you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to ask Barbara or myself.

Happy washing!

 

Coming soon..... homemade dish washer detergent!

 

 

(And Barbara too!)