The laundry detergent had been on my list to try for a while, especially now that we are cloth diapering. You can't use "free and clear" detergent on CDs because it leaves some sort of residue...and a few weeks before we started with the cloth I had just bought free and clear detergent. I had researched making detergent at home several months ago, but never got around to doing it. I bought the ingredients on Friday: a bar of soap, Borax, and washing soda.
It was really simple, and the cost is less than a nickel per load! First, I chopped up the bar of soap:
I had read that many people used Fels-Naptha soap, so that's what I bought. I've heard that any kind works, even those small bars you get in hotels...now that would be some cheap laundry detergent! My bar of soap was $1.19.
Then I put the chopped up soap, 1/2 cup of Borax, and 1/2 cup of washing soda in my food processor. I have a mini one, but it was the perfect size for one batch of detergent. I also read that putting a damp tea towel over the food processor keeps dust from poofing into the room. That worked well.
Volia! My laundry detergent. It only took about 5 minutes to make!
I bought the Borax and washing soda at the grocery store, right in the laundry section. You only need a tablespoon of this powder per load (or 2 T. if the clothes are especially dirty). I have a HE washer, and this homemade stuff is actually really good for those types of washers because it doesn't bubble up as much as store-bought.
Pretty slick and pretty easy.
The banana bread turned out better than usual, and unfortunately I'm not quite sure why. I use a recipe from a church cookbook that Oma gave me. The amount of sugar is not given in the ingredients, so I guesstimate when I make it. Apparently I guessed well yesterday because Martin paid me the Supreme Compliment (and not a bases loaded intentional walk). He said my banana bread was better than the banana bread from the Dining Hall at Washington College. Normally, telling someone their cooking is better than the DH is NOT AT ALL a compliment...but the one things WAC could make was banana bread. They would always give us loaves to take for away games for softball, and teammates would hide banana bread from each other - no joke! So wow, better than WAC banana bread...that's a big deal!
The banana bread turned out better than usual, and unfortunately I'm not quite sure why. I use a recipe from a church cookbook that Oma gave me. The amount of sugar is not given in the ingredients, so I guesstimate when I make it. Apparently I guessed well yesterday because Martin paid me the Supreme Compliment (and not a bases loaded intentional walk). He said my banana bread was better than the banana bread from the Dining Hall at Washington College. Normally, telling someone their cooking is better than the DH is NOT AT ALL a compliment...but the one things WAC could make was banana bread. They would always give us loaves to take for away games for softball, and teammates would hide banana bread from each other - no joke! So wow, better than WAC banana bread...that's a big deal!
For dinner we had homemade deep dish pizza recommended by The Frugal Girl. It is a-maz-ing! (like better than you can buy in a restaurant amazing) And the secret ingredient: potatoes! I've also had it made with tater tots :-) This is some good pizza. I doubled the recipe, so we have dough for 2 more pizzas in the freezer. It took me a while to make this time since it was new, but I think next time I will be able to do it without looking back at the recipe every 5 minutes! The recipe is here, complete with instructional pictures!
(his and hers pizzas!)
2 comments:
Oh, I'm so glad your pizzas turned out well!
Kristen(from The Frugal Girl)
I am very impressed!
Post a Comment