Homemade Yellow Cake Mix

I love the blog "My Kitchen Cafe" and I follow it religiously. Alot of my favorite recipes/ideas come from this super blog. So today,I opened up the blog to find a post for homemade yellow cake mix! I am so excited to try it...today is the day! After work, I am gonna bake a cake! And then I will post the picture of it.....should I use the Mango jam in it or should I do the Tres Leche cake with the coconut cream and sweetened condensed milk....so many choices.

Here is the link: http://www.melskitchencafe.com

Homemade Laundry Soap

I got a recipe from a friend, April, for homemade liquid laundry soap a few months back. I decided to try it yesterday....it only takes about 10 minutes to make 5 gallons of the liquid concentrate!

Liquid Laundry Soap

You will need:
A clean 5 gallon bucket with a lid
4 c. hot water
1 bar of Fels Naptha, Ivory or Zote soap-grated with a cheese grater
1 c. washing soda
1/2 c. borax

Put the grated soap and hot water in saucepan. Heat on Med. heat until the soap melts.
Fill your 5 Gallon bucket 1/2 full with hot water. Add the melted soap and stir. Add the washing soda and borax. Mix until all is dissolved. Fill the bucket almost to the top with hot water and stir again. (I filled mine to about 2 inches from the top.) Cover with a lid and let cool overnight. The soap will gel when it is done.

At this point you could add some essential oils, like lavendar or Tea tree. I left mine plain. 10-15 drops per 2 gallons of soap concentrate.

To Use: Use an empty liquid laundry detergent bottle...rinse it out well. Fill the container 1/2 full of laundry gel and then top it off with water. Voila~liquid laundry soap.
Shake the container before you use it.

This soap is safe for HE washers...it is low-suds and that is what you want. Use 1/4 c. per load for HE washers.
Top-loaders use just over 1/2 c. per load.

Use white vinegar in your fabric softener dispenser for a natural softener. It works great!

Try it! You'll Love it!

Change is difficult!

Today our Ward boundaries changed. A part of our Ward has been re-assigned to another ward. We knew last Sunday that something was on the horizon....but it just seems so final now. We have been in this ward for quite a few years. I will miss seeing those who are in First Ward....you are my friends and I love you! But we have not died and will have to make the effort to see each other.
We also gained some families from Salmon Creek Ward...and that is a good thing too! I hope their transition is easy...I will try my hardest to "make it so". (I love Jean Luc Picard)

Come What May and Love it! We will try for sure!

Rhubarb Crumble

Today was a warm and cloudy day. My little rhubarb plant has been sending out rhubarb pretty well. I made a rhubarb strawberry pie last week and it was yummy....but....no one eats the crust but me..and the dog! So...when they asked me to make a pie again I thought...nope! I'm not gonna do it! I made rhubarb crumble instead and it turned out great. I made this up...so my measurements are probably not exact enough for some.

Rhubarb Crumble

Strawberries-washed and cut into chunks. (I used 2 of the plastic clamshells from Winco)

Rhubarb-5 good sized stalks of rhubarb. I peeled the skin and strings off.

1 1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. Minute tapioca

1/2 t. salt

Mix that all well and let it sit for 30-40 minutes to juice up and start getting the tapioca plumped up.

Pour into a pie dish and top with the following crumble.

1 1/2 c. flour

1 c. sugar

3/4 c. butter

1 t. salt

Mix dry in food processor and mix till blended. Add butter and pulse until it make crumbly stuff.

Put on pie and bake @ 350 degrees for about 35-40 minutes or till the pie bubbles and makes a mess in the oven!

Book GIVEAWAY!

Book GIVEAWAY!

I love the book, I Can't Believe It's Food Storage and she's having a book give-away!
This is the greatest little book for newbies and veteran food storage lovers alike. Information about and recipes for food storage items! I recommend it 100% and I love it. If you need a food storage guide..this is it!

OMGsh! I think I am gonna try it again!

Well.....I decided last night in that place between wakefulness and blissful slumber...you know when you are trying to get your mind organized before you sleep, that I would try and ride my bike around "the Loop. In my mind it didn't really seem that far....heck it only takes a couple of minutes in the car! So I got up this morning, got Brennan to his Scout activity @ 8AM. On the way home I went around the loop in the car to see how many miles it would be....maybe 2 or 3. WRONG !!! 4.1 miles. OK...So i came in the house, put on semi-warm clothes; i figured I would have a hot-flash or something on the road. Keys? check. Cellphone? check. Helmet...nope, don't have one....living on the edge, I tell ya! Get out bike....cuss because it is pushed between 2 motorcycles, tangled in brake cables and unable to move because of a bucket of pipe fittings. GRRR! Untangled, moved and Who put the gross, oily rag on my seat? READY!!! Nope....I need gloves and they are in the locked house. OK! Gloves? check! Go..around the corner...this is gonna be a piece of....OMGsh....did you know that it is basically uphill to Wilding Park....downhill a little...uphill till past the church....and then it was pretty good sailing, or pedaling as it were, until that little short, semi-steep hill @ Costco. My legs were like jell-o and I had to get off the bike.....to...push...it..up..! Heavenly Father hears the pleas of His children....even the out-of shape ones. All I could think of were 2 things. 1. Please don't let me fall off my bike and 2. please don't let me faint and fall off in front of a bunch of cars! I was a little lightheaded....but I have been called dizzy before..no big! No cars were around, so I got off, huffed and puffed my way up the hill all the time smelling delectable Costco muffins baking. Got to the top...waited to catch what breath I had left and rode down the wonderful little hill towards home. I got home and couldn't get off my bike! HA HA HA I was too close to the car and basically peeled myself off. A Lucille Ball moment for sure.
I was able to think between gasps for oxygen. Maybe this will be when I receive inspiration from the Lord instead of when I dry my hair. I don't know...I was breathing pretty loud!
I saw lots of birds, a creepy cat, 3 little pygmy goats, a really mangy lookin Llama, all kinds of flowers and BTW...it was raining a little when I left, but the sun was shining when I got home! The Lord knows I hate rain! I feel pretty good....and tomorrow is another day!

Sucanat!

Still trying to be "unrefined" sugar free. It is a challenge to say the least. Weekends are difficult because I am "off" schedule. I have been eating more protein, which is good. I have also been researching unrefined sugars...like Sucanat. Sucanat is dehydrated sugar cane juice. It is sugar cane crushed daily, juice heated to a thick syrup. The syrup is stirred by hand to create the granules. It is a nice brown color and the granules remind me of yeast. The sugar cane's molasses is locked in....very yummy taste. It can be used cup-for-cup the same as refined sugar.

I made Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sucanat and they were good. Just darker in color than those made with white sugar. I also used Spectrum Non-hydrogenated shortening instead of Crisco....a healthier alternative to the chemically processed fat!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. Spectrum or shortening

1 1/2 c. Sucanat

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla extract

1 T. water

Cream together. It doesn't cream like refined sugar. Not as fluffy! That is normal.

Combine together and add to creamed mixture:

2 1/4 c. soft white wheat flour-I grind my own....pastry flour...good for cookies etc. that don't need the structure that gluten gives.

1 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

Mix well. Add:

1 pkg. chocolate chips

Bake @ 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

They will be really dark brown and a very soft cookie. Yum!