Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've had several requests for our homemade laundry detergent recipe.

Powdered Laundry Detergent

1 Cup Grated Fels Naptha Soap
1/2 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Borax

For light load, use 1 tablespoon.
For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 tablespoons.

Here is where I found the recipe. There are a few others to try as well on that site. Happy savings!!!

Buckeye Balls

Jen over at The Sloan Chronicles hosted an online cookie exchange on Saturday. I'm posting a cookie recipe to add to the list over on her blog. So head over there to see all the other great recipes.

I'm really horrible at sharing recipes, because I eyeball everything. All of these measurements are estimates. You'll be able to tell what's needed since there's only 4 ingredients!

They look like buckeye nuts, that's where they got their name. If you're from Ohio, you know what these are I'm sure. This recipe is technically not the 'real deal' since I don't dip them in the cocoa. That takes entirely too much time, but that's the only difference.

Buckeye Balls

16 oz powered sugar
1/2 stick butter
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
mix together
roll into 3/4 inch balls, place in mini muffin cups
chill

melt cocoa squares with crisco or butter
pour cocoa over balls

chill

eat.

They are that simple. I promise. But, they are wonderful!

When I get around to it, I'll even add some pictures. We just made them this past weekend for a cookie exchange.

Hope you all are enjoying your Christmas season. We sure are.

Yay For Fall

This cooler weather has just been wonderful. I love fall! I love getting all bundled up and being outside. I especially love that the mosquitoes are dying off. Samuel and I have had enough mosquito bites this summer to last us a lifetime!

I think I'm the most excited about this fall though because we have an amazing fireplace in our back yard. I envision many get togethers around it in the next few months. It sat there so neglected all summer, I know it's just dying to have some company!

And of course, I am very excited to get back into baking my pumpkin recipes. This year I'm going to try and use fresh pumpkins. I've never done it before. If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them! And recipes too. I would love to hear some of your fall recipes! Please, share away friends :)

I have a huge list of links to recipes online that I just have saved in a folder on my computer and I was thinking about starting a blog to just copy and paste them all into it so they will be made available to others as well. Would anyone be interested in this?

I can't envision when I'll find the time to do it, but just like any organizational task, once it's done it's done and you're so glad it is. I definitely think it would be worth the work. Let me know if you would be interested.

Muffins That You'd Pay $2.75 For At Startbucks

Thanks to a $4.56 purchase, I was able to make my husband's week with blueberry streusel muffins. He has had the request in for quite some time for huge homemade muffins 'like the ones you pay $2.75 for in Starbucks.' I'm use to making the small ones, but I'm also use to them being gone in 2 days because he'll eat 3 or so per sitting, 3 times a day. He saw some mini bundt cake pans and he thought they looked perfect for the size muffins he was dreaming of. So, here they are! The recipe I made says it will make 12 muffins, but with these, I was lucky to pull off with 5! They are well worth it for him, though. Making a snack practically a meal.

So, go buy yourself a mini bundt cakes pan, and test out these babies, they are well worth it! I'll even post the recipe here.

They don't have a hollow center like the big bundt cakes, they practically are flat on the bottom. So, who knows why they are actually called mini bundt cakes, but they were a hit in my house no matter what they were called.

Pumpkin This and Pumpkin That

Every Autumn I forget how much I love it. Last year I was too wrapped up in our new bundle of joy to realize the beauty that Fall brings. This year, I have a toddler who is just as eager to get outside and enjoy the cool weather as I am.

On top of the weather comes the food! Oh yes, pumpkin this and pumpkin that! I started with the apples and am all appled-out. Now, I'm dreaming of all of the things I can do with pumpkins.

So far we've made some excellent pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin smoothies and last night we had gingerbread waffles made with lots of pumpkin! They were yummy!

I still have a pumpkin loaf recipe that I need to try. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

*******

And, oh, by the way. The pumpkin picture was taken by yours truly. There is ALWAYS a reason for why I take pictures like that. It's our family in pumpkin representation form! Dada is the far right. I'm next to him, then there's Samuel and Joseph the smaller pumpkins, then there's Gamba the second to the left gourd, and then BJ, the green gourd. Gamba and BJ are gourds because they are not humans. BJ is green because he's the most unlike any of the rest of us. We are all mammals, and of course, BJ, is a bird! So, there you have it. And they are all staying close to Mama because, well, she's the mother pumpkin :)

Homemade Soft Prezels

Andy and I have been wanting to try to make some soft pretzels lately and last night was the night. I found a great recipe and they turned out wonderful. Here's the recipe if you want to try them out. They are super easy and very yummy!


1 1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp yeast
2 TB brown sugar
1 TB oil
4 1/2 cup flour

Combine water, yeast, salt brown sugar, and oil, then add flour and knead like bread dough. Let rise till double then roll into strips, if desired shape into pretzels. Dip pretzels into water/soda mixture*, place on greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake at 450, just till a little brown, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and dip in melted butter.

*For dipping, prepare 1 cup warm water mixed with 2 tsp soda.

You can serve with mustard, cheese sauce, caramel dip, cinnamon sugar, garlic powder, parmesan cheese, or sesame seeds. Or you can even go the Amish way and wrap the dough around a hot dog before baking.

We tried one with parmesan cheese and spaghetti sauce and then another with dijon mustard. We loved both. You'll never look at the mall pretzels the same.