For all you do-it-yourself types, here are some things that may interest you.
In this blog you will discover how to make –
Laundry Detergent
Fabric Softener
Graham Cracker Pie Crust or Vanilla Wafer Pie Crust
Croutons
Bread Crumbs
Dehydrated Sweet Potatoes
Canning Butter
Save all Glass Jars and Bottles (No BPA)
Dehydrated Pineapple
Recipes for
Pineapple-Strawberry Jelly-Jam
Pineapple Jam
Laundry Detergent
As inflation continues, one of the things we hate spending money on is Laundry Detergent and Fabric Softener. You know Borax is all natural and has been around for a long time and Arm & Hammer is well known for its qualities. The Zote and Fels-Naptha bar soap have excellent stain removing qualities. Combined, the three together make an excellent laundry detergent. Also, in certain disaster situations, you could use this as a Barter Item.
Ingredients
½ cup borax
1 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 bar of Zote or FELS-NAPTHA (Heavy Duty Laundry Bar Soap)
Mix
Hand grate 1 bar of soap in a pot of water & heat on stove to melt. Do not boil.
Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full with water
(Purchase at Lowe's or Home Depot w/ Gamma 'screw on' Lid)
Pour melted soap into bucket
Add borax
Add Arm & Hammer
Stir well
Fill bucket with water, stir and let sit overnight
Next day
It becomes a gelatinous goo. Mix well
Usage
Fill your laundry container (bottle) half full with concentrated detergent and fill
with water. Shake well.
Use 2/3 cup in a top load machine
Use ¼ cup on a high efficiency machine
Note: A 5 gallon bucket of concentrated detergent should last about 1 year.
The box of Borax and the Arm & Hammer will probably last 10 + years.
Add up the savings on that.
Fabric Softener
1 gallon of white vinegar (Sam’s Club, Costco, Grocery Store)
½ oz bottle of fragrance oil (Purchase at Wal-mart in the Candle Making section)
Pour the bottle of fragrance into the bottle of vinegar. Shake well.
Use as you would the regular fabric softener you buy in the store.
When used in your laundry you can smell only the fragrance and not the vinegar. It also removes static from your clothes.
Note: If you don’t like a fragrance in your clothes then just use the vinegar.
Your clothes will not have a vinegar smell.
Also, if you do an Internet search on the uses of White Vinegar, you will find
a ton of useful information for uses of vinegar.
Graham Cracker Pie Crust or Vanilla Wafer Pie Crust
Have you ever bought a Graham Cracker Pie Crust or a Vanilla Pie Crust at the store? It's Pretty expensive.
We watch for sales on Graham Crackers and Vanilla Wafers and buy as many as we can. Off brands are cheaper and work just as well. Check with your discount grocery. We put them in our blender and pulverize them. Then we put them in a quart or ½ gallon Ball jar and vacuum pack it. When you need either a graham cracker or a vanilla pie crust, remove the amount you need for the crust and re-vacuum the jar.
Croutons
I hope you never throw bread away. We do this with our homemade bread but you can use store bought bread also.
When you think bread is no longer useful for sandwiches but it is not yet moldy, cut it into squares, place on a baking sheet, sprinkle with olive oil and your favorite seasonings and bake on low for about 10 – 12 minutes until dry.
Put your dry croutons in a jar and vacuum pack.
Bread Crumbs
When your bread is no longer useful for sandwiches, break it apart, throw it into your blender and pulverize it into bread crumbs.
Spread the bread crumbs out on a cookie sheet and bake on low for 10 -12 minutes stirring occasionally with a spatula.
Put your bread crumbs in a Ball jar and vacuum pack.
Dehydrated Sweet Potatoes
Boil the sweet potatoes until fully cooked. Cool, peel and mash. Spread the mashed sweet potatoes about an 1/8 of an inch on wax paper and dehydrate until completely dry. Break apart, put in your blender and pulverize. You’ll be amazed at how many sweet potatoes you can get into a ½ gallon jar. Vacuum pack.
To re-hydrate, remove the amount of sweet potatoes you think you need. Add water a little at a time until you get the consistency you like. Add butter, cinnamon or nutmeg and enjoy.
Re-vacuum pack your jar.
We usually do this during the sweet potato harvest so we can buy in bulk.
Canning Butter
Recently in Norway they had a shortage of butter. A pound of butter cost $32.00
Did you hear the one about the U.S. is suffering a drought, corn and grain prices are exploding and cattle herds are being reduced. Don’t think for a minute that the problem in Norway could not happen here.
So, here is our hedge against high butter prices.
We buy butter anytime we can find it on sale. Especially at Sam’s Club and Costco. We buy equal amounts of salted and un-salted.
Process
Wash your jars, half pint or pint, and place in the oven heated to 225 degrees.
Place your lids in a pot of water and heat but do not boil.
Melt the butter but do not boil it. The ghee (foam) should float to the top.
Spoon off the ghee and save for putting on toast of other uses.
Ladle the clarified butter into your heated jar, wipe off the jar rim with a paper towel damp with vinegar, place a hot lid on top and tighten with a screw lid.
The top should seal as the jar cools.
You will notice a separation of the butter fats and liquid in the jar.
After the top seals and the jar is cool enough to handle, give the jar a good shake to combine the contents. Shake the jar about every 15 minutes until it sets up.
You’re done.
This butter does not have to be refrigerated. Simply store the jars of butter in your climatized prepper room.
Enjoy.
Save all Glass Jars and Bottles (No BPA)
Because of the BPA issue, we save all of our glass jars for food storage. We do not use plastic containers unless they are BPA Free. BPA is also in every canned product. So, we do our own canning of vegetables, fruits and meat.
Dehydrated Pineapple and Pineapple Jelly
We were in Big Lots one day and noticed that a can of Libby’s Pineapple was on sale for $1.00 each. It normally sells for around $1.69 per can. So, we bought every can of Pineapple.
We drained and reserved the juice and spread the pineapple out on our dehydrator trays (we have an Excalibur 9 tray Dehydrator). The pineapple is dehydrated until dry and then stored in a Ball jar and vacuum packed. Did I mention we have a Food Saver vacuum packer.
We use the reserved pineapple juice to make jelly. Recipes follow.
Pineapple-Strawberry Jam
1 ½ c. Whole Strawberries
1 (12 oz) can unsweetened pineapple juice
3 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tbsp butter to minimize foaming
1 box powdered Fruit Pectin
4 c. Sugar
Wash, hull and quarter strawberries – measure 2 cups.
Mix berries, juices, butter and pectin in a flat bottom pot.
Place over high heat and stir until mixture comes to a full boil.
Stir in the sugar and return to a rolling boil.
Boil vigorously for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Skim and discard the foam from surface.
Ladle jam into hot sterilized jars.
Seal with hot lids and rings. Makes about 6 (8 ounce) jars of jam.
Pineapple Jam
Ingredients
2 cans of crushed pineapple with juice and enough water to make 6 ½ cups
6 cups sugar
2 envelopes (boxes) of dry pectin
1 tbl butter reduces foaming
Directions
Pineapple in stock pot
Sprinkle pectin over pineapple
Stir well
Bring to a full rolling boil
Add sugar and stir to a full rolling boil
Boil for 1 minute to activate pectin
Ladle into jars
Wipe rims
Finger tighten tops
Place in hot water bath canner and turn up heat
Place lid on canner and set timer for 10 minutes (5 minutes to begin boiling & 5 minutes
to boil)
Makes 9 half pint jars
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