The Best Darn Curry Powder You've Ever Tasted!

I'm not usually a huge fan of curry. I like it. I don't necessarily love it.
At least, not until I started making my own curry. In Indian and Southeast Asian cuisine, each region, and sometimes family, had their own recipe for curry. It's about as diverse and varied as your Uncle Jim's bbq rub he swears is the best.
Same with curry. Every region/family made

Switching the Swiffer Scent

I am a rag mop girl. Really. I prefer the old time rag mops to anything on the market today. I just feel they do a better job. Yes, you get your hands wet. It's not the end of the world. But ever since moving into a new place,  I've struggled with keeping the 'engineered wood flooring' clean without stripping it of its protective surface.

I broke down the other day and bought a knock-off Swiffer and wet mopping floor cloths. For two reasons- 1) my kitchen is small and 2) the rag mop doesn't get into the corners well without me having to rag-in- hand-and-knee them clean. Pain in the arse. Or lower back. You choose.

Mad Scientist

I've spent a considerable amount of time in my kitchen lately.  While that is nothing new, what is new is the reason I'm in the kitchen. Yes, I am still making great foodstuffs. (And I think up several more each day!)
No, what has been keeping me in the kitchen is Christmas Gifts.

Still working on adjusting the oil, and sugar and scents, but it's a start.

Yeah, strange. I know most people like making cookies or breads to exchange at Christmastime. Not me. Nosirree! I like to make fun, smelly, luxurious stuff. And last weekend was no exception.

Buttermilk Ranch Powder

I have searched and searched for a ranch powder recipe that tastes as good as the store bought kind and I think I've found it!

Read on for the recipe...

Ketchup Catsup Catch Up

I'm a little late in posting this, but last week I made homemade ketchup.
I know, awesome, right? And you're thinking, 'I didn't know you could make ketchup at home!'
Well, you can. And it is so crazy easy, you'll wonder why you haven't been doing it all along.

I didn't make up the recipe. I borrowed it from here.  One day I will actually make my own recipe to suit my own preferences, but for now, this recipe is pretty good.
Recipe below the fold...

Color My Fire

A few years ago, I found a story about salt-saturated pine cones that give off different colored flames when burned. I was so fascinated with them, I decided to make a few. Of course, I didn't have a fireplace, but my parents did and that was good enough for me!

So I set out gathering and making a couple dozen 'firedancers' as they were called. A few different types of salt alters the color rendered with each pine cone.

Syrup 101

I love making syrup. Of course, I tend to only make a couple different varieties, but who's counting? Really. I make what I like. LOL. And I *love* vanilla!

I should really make cranberry syrup....now that I think about it....that would be awesome!

People have asked me how to make homemade syrup. And it really is simple. The hardest part is waiting for it to cool.
The ratio is pretty much the same for all syrups. And if you know how to make simple syrup, you've got this thing beat. Seriously you do.

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli

Holy Moly! It's not hard to make homemade tomato paste, but it is definitely time consuming!
You see, Grau wants to make homemade spaghetti sauce, from scratch. Which means SCRATCH. After all, he started making his own mozzarella and he's branching out into other cheeses....why not go all out Italian?

Nope. There's not a lick of Italian in either of us. So just chalk this up to one of the top 10 crazy things we've decided to do. I mean, really. I think it ranks right up there with....okay, so maybe there's nothing higher than deciding to make tomato paste from scratch.

DIY Laundry Soap

Did I mention that I made my own laundry soap? I found many recipes around the net, but this one seemed to be the easiest. It works in HE washers, and front loaders, too.

You need three ingredients:

I found the Fels Naptha at the grocery store (or use Zote). The washing soda and Borax also at the grocery store (or Wally World if you prefer). Usually, Walmart is your best bet. None of them were particularly expensive. I think I spent $10 max on all three together and it makes more than one batch.

Now, the DIY part-

Use your handy dandy grater and grate the fels-naptha (or Zote).

To that grated fels-naptha, add

1 Cup borax and

1 Cup washing soda.

Mix well and you're done.

Yup. Done.

To use it- you use 1 Tablespoon per load of clothes. I've been using this for a week and have seen no difference between my homemade version and the expensive store-bought laundry soap.

Okay- one difference. Mine is cheaper.

I think out of the Borax and Washing Soda, I can get probably 5 batches of DIY Laundry soap. I just have to purchase a new Fels-Naptha for each batch. That's it.

Go me!

UPDATE 8/10/2011:

I did some research on OxiClean and guess what? It seems that OxiClean is made up of sodium percarbonate and some cute little secret ingredient blue granules. (Think, 'Color Safe Bleach.)

Now, what is sodium percarbonate, you ask? Simple, it's granulated hydrogen peroxide. When mixed with water, it turns into oxygen, water and soda ash. 

What is Washing Soda? soda ash. One common source of washing soda is the ashes of plants- for this reason it is called soda ash.

So what is this DIY laundry soap? It's a better version of OxiClean for two reasons-

1- Borax is better at cleaning laundry and keeping whites white, and

2- you know exactly what you are getting, unlike the OxiClean which had something 'secret' in it.

A third reason would be it is MUCH cheaper to make your own laundry soap!

With the DIY laundry soap recipe above, you are using Borax (a cleaner and whitener) with Washing Soda (a stain remover and cleaner) along with Fels-Naptha (a laundry soap bar helpful in treating stains).

So feel free to make your own laundry soap! You'll be glad you did!

UPDATE 11/17/2014: I've been using the 'liquid' (or rather, gel form) of the same laundry soap and it works just as well, and better on stains when you rub it directly into the stain. My fiancee works in manufacturing and comes home covered in machine grease. This works like a charm!
The original positing is HERE for the wet version of the same laundry soap- but the basic  recipe is like this:
Grate 2 bars Fels Naptha (or Zote) and dissolve in 6 cups hot water (not boiling), remove from heat.
Add 2 cups Borax and 2 cups Washing Soda. Mix well.
Let sit until top is solidified. Using a hand blender, mix well, adding in little bits of water to make end result smooth. Spoon into jars.
1 Tablespoon per load. Works great on stains. It's the only thing my mother uses now that I gave her some!

DIY Liquid Hand Soap

First off, this recipe is compliments of Savvy Housekeeping.

I love doing some DIY, crafty, save money endeavors! This one did not disappoint.

Usually when you buy liquid hand soap, you're paying $2 for the cheap stuff and up to $6 for the good stuff. And that's usually the small sizes!

With this do-it-yourself version- you need water (got it!), bar soap (yeah, think I can come up with some of that, too) and glycerin (Okay, not usually on my shelf, but not hard to find at a pharmacy or discount store).

That's it, folks.

How easy is it? Three steps. Three steps easy. Here ya go:

10 cups water (use a liquid measuring cup)

1 cup shaved soap (use a dry measuring cup)

1 T glycerin.

Take your bar of soap- any kind you want (different bars render different results, so you'll have to play around) and your handy-dandy grater and grate your soap. As you can see, I grate my soap and then put it into a mason jar for later use in some other project.

Then, use a large pot and put in 10 cups of water, 1 dry cup of grated soap, and 1 Tablespoon glycerin. The mixture doesn't necessarily have to boil. You just want to heat it long enough that all the soap melts.

Then I turned off the stove and walked away.

Yup. That's it. I went out and ran some errands and had lunch and enjoyed my day.

When I got home, I checked the pot. The soap was now cold, and gelling (gel-ing? is that a word?).

I went ahead and added some essential oil at this point. About 10 drops of my favorite scent and stirred it through. Once mixed thoroughly, put into your existing, empty, liquid soap bottles. You will have some left over, depending on how many empty soap bottles you have. I just store my excess liquid soap in a 2-liter soda bottle under the sink. It's ready whenever I need to refill.

This goes a long way! You can get probably 5 or 6 bottles of soap out of this, depending on the size of your soap bottle.

Trust me when I say that you might need to play around a bit. Different soaps react differently. For example, if the soap you buy is a moisturizing soap, it may not gel properly, or if it does, it may not make bubbles when you wash your hands. If you do not use enough glycerin (the magic ingredient) it may not gel at all.

Some bar soaps are really lathery...that is, the type of oils used in making the bar soap is directly related to how much it lathers when used.

Other factors affecting the lather or bubble-ness of soap could be salt or sugar amounts in your brand. A third factor affecting the amount of bubbles soap produces is the water itself- hard water (water that contains lots of minerals) will not lather as much, no matter the brand of soap used. Whereas soft water will bubble a lot.

Again, play around with your circumstances. Maybe add a 1/2 t salt or find soft water if you are experiencing a non-lathering soap.

But, no matter what, the soap will clean without the bubbles. :)