Easy & Fast Pancakes from Scratch

One of the favorite around here at breakfast time is pancakes. Blueberry, chocolate chip, banana, no matter what variety I'm serving up they consume them at a very fast rate! (Which I'm sure is nothing they will be able to consume as teenagers!) I love the convenience of buying the pre-mix pancake mix at Aldi's. I also have found a super simple recipe that allows me whip up pancakes almost as fast as "Just Add Water". Seriously it's that easy and super cheap to make from stratch. This version I'm giving you is a double batch. I haven't acutally counted the number of pancakes I get (because even if I did everyone is  a different size) but it makes enough to feed 6 at breakfast with maybe 1 or 2 left over.

Pancake Mix

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 TBSP brown sugar

2 TBSP of baking powder

2 pinches of salt

2 large eggs

2 cups milk

2 TBSP melted butter

I add in 2 tsp of cinnamon & ginger just for fun

If you want the "just add water" feel to it you can always make up a few dry mixes and store them and just add the few wet ingredients when you want to make them.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

I've been making my own homemade powder laundry detergent for over a year now...maybe longer I really can't remember. I liked the idea that I could make my own for a fraction of the cost of a leading detergent, yet I could get the same cleaning power. The powder version is very quick to make and only requires purchasing three ingredients. I've always had in my head that the liquid version would require so much more time....and it seemed scary, I worried I would mess it all up! I'm laughing now as I type this because it seriously couldn't be further from the truth. The liquid version that still only requires the same three ingredients...4 if you include water...took only about 5 extra minutes! Want to know the recipe and the steps to take to make your own? It's really is easy peasy...give it a try.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

safe for HE washers

4 cups of tap water

1 bar of Fels-Naptha Soap- grated

1 cup of Washing Soda

1/2 Cup of Borax

Step One: Pour 4 cups of tap water into a sauce pan, Grate soap and add to pan. On medium heat, melt the soap, stir slowly until it's melted. (takes 5 minutes or less)

Step Two: Add Washing soda and Borax to pan. Stir slowly until mixed in. (takes about 1-2 min)

Step Three: Fill up a HALF of a 5 gallon bucket with HOT tap water, pour pan mixture into bucket, and stir again to be sure your contents are all mixed and melted.

STEP FOUR: Fill the remaining 5 gallon bucket with more tap water. Cover and let it set up over night. In the morning it should have a nice gel consistency. 

It should look something like this.

Depending on the water quality, actual usage amounts vary. As a guide start here:

Top Load Washer: Heaping 1/2 cup

HE Front Load Washer: 1/4 cup

HINTS:

**If you prefer a scent in your soap you can essential oils at the very end and stir the contents well.

**If your wondering where you can get a 5 gallon bucket with a lid, You can #1 call around and see if a local restaurant has any you can have for free or #2 buy one at your local hardware store.

A Couple of My New Favorite Recipes!

I tried TWO new recipes this week and LOVED them both!! This was a pleasant surprise....it's not the normal outcome when I try something new. Usually I get all excited, put all the time, money, and effort into a new recipe......and every hates it or it doesn't "wow me" like I was hoping. I had the total opposite experience this week...Yahoo! Here is the first one.....(both recipes are compliments of the new All You magazine)

 CLASSIC MINESTRONE SOUP

For my crock pot and family size I doubled everything in this recipe except the tomatoes.

2 carrots, diced

2 celery sticks, sliced

4 C of chicken broth

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1-28oz can of crushed tomatoes

1/2 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of pepper

1tsp of Italian seasoning

1 C of shells or macaroni

1-15 oz can of navy or northern white beans, drained

Put all the ingredients in the crock pot on low for 4-6 hours. 30 minutes before serving add in the shells, then cook on high for 30 minutes.

 Top with grated Parmesan if you wish.

Peaches & Cream French Toast

1-8oz. loaf of French bread, sliced or torn into pieces

8 large eggs

2 C whole milk

1/4 C sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2-15 oz can of peaches, drained

1/2 C packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 heavy cream

Butter/spray a 9X13 pan. Line the pan with French bread. In a large bowl whisk eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla until blended. Pour that mixture over bread. Arrange peaches on top and sprinkle with the brown sugar. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Take out 30 min. before baking. Preheat oven to 350. Pour cream into a small pan bring cream to boil and cook down about 10 min, or until cooked down by half. Drizzle that over pan. Bake 45-55 minutes until casserole is lightly browned on cooked through. Let is stand for 10 min. then serve.

FYI: I did not use whole milk, I used 2% instead. I also didn't realize the sugar went on the night before and added it just before baking. It still turned out so incredibly yummy! The French loaf I bought was 16oz so you actually can get two casserole from one loaf...BONUS! I was excited to get to use some of my own canned peaches, farm fresh eggs, and vanilla. I have a feeling this will be a staple at our house from now on! So easy and SO GOOD!!

Making Apple Pie Filling.....

My girlfriend and her hubby were sweet enough to bring me two boxes of mixed apple varieties to make some yummy pie filling. I had never made or canned pie filling before and I was shocked at how super easy it was!

Since I feeling a bit unsure of the whole process....I made Jenny come over and bring her boxes of apples and we made a triple batch together....it's always more fun that way anyway, right? I think so!

Once we cored, peeled, and sliced the apples (with one of those handy Pampered Chef tools) we were ready for yummy syrup! I was really easy to measure up and make. Here is the recipe:

APPLE PIE IN A JAR

Peel, Core, and Slice apples into quart jars, cover with syrup

*Be sure to leave head space (@ one inch)

*Burp the jars (run a knife along the inside edge of the jar to get the bubbles out)

TO PREPARE SYRUP

4 1/2 cups white sugar

1 cup corn starch

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

10 cups of water

Cook syrup until thick and bubbly-stir often. When syrup in ready add 3  TBSP of lemon juice.

Pour the hot syrup over the apples, burp, and seal jars.

Process 20 minutes in a hot water bath, or pressure can @ 5 lbs. pressure for 20 minutes.

Note: I did the hot water bath option. I heated up my lids before putting the ring on and then found that 30 minutes was the magic number for my stove.

Amount of syrup makes 7 Quarts.

One jar is enough for one large apple pie.

Don't they look so pretty all canned up!!

I made the best EVER apple crisp with this pie filling yesterday!!!! (I had a couple cans that didn't seal for some reason.....good excuse to use them!) I made my crisp topping with granola instead of oatmeal for the first time...WOW!! My hubby said I have to make it with granola every time from now on!

MY APPLE CRISP

Spray a 9x13 pan with Pam

Pour two of the quarts containers into the pan

TOPPING:

1 1/2 cup of granola

1 cup flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup of any nut you pick (optional)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/2 cup of cold butter

Combine all the ingredients and cut in the butter, the mix should then be crumbly

I cooked it @ 375 for 20-30 min. until bubbly

Mini Baking Day

I really wanted to bake some things for the freezer......so I did an inpompt to baking day!!!

I cooked up a double batch of whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes, a double batch of apple pouches, and a big pot of chili. I also made a double batch of english muffins..no picture though. I am hoping to sneak in a few more baking days in the near future. Now that the weather is cooling off, I am feeling the need to be making yummy things, now I just have to carve out the time to do it!!

From Scratch~Lotion Bars

 Last week, along with making homemade lye bar soap, I made lotion bars. What are lotion bars you ask? Lotion bars are WONDERFUL! You shower like usual washing with your soap and then right before you get out you rub the lotion bar over your skin. You use your towel to pat dry you skin. Lotion bars are used in place of putting lotion on. I LOVE mine, and it leaves my skin feeling amazingly soft!! Some people also refer to these as massage bars. The recipe is simple and the supply list is short. Making these a fun do-it-yourself project!

Here are the need ingredients:

3oz. Beeswax
3oz. Shea Butter
3oz. Cocoa Butter
3oz. Jojoba Oil

I doubled this recipe to fill my molds. You simply melt the ingredients together in the microwave. Then pour it directly into the molds. Let it sit for several hours. Mine only took about 2 hours. I would recommend some a silicon mold like this one...they slide out super easy! I totally LOVE these molds....THANKS to my friend Jenny for the mold! Aren't these adorable!!

Again I am linking up to 8 Muddy Boots' series "From Scratch" and Good, True and Beautiful's series "Just for the Joy of it"

Next week I will be linking up on how I made Body Butter.....aka: The best lotion EVER in my book!

DANIELLE

Making Homemade Bar Soap.....

Last fall I attempted to made home made lye bar soap. It was a failed attempted, which was very disappointing because of the time and the supplies I had invested. I have come to the conclusion that the failure was a result of a bad recipe I had acquired. So it was no surprise to my Hubby, that I jumped at the chance to go to a soap making class when a girlfriend asked me if I was interested. I went and then felt inspired to give it another try! This process of soap making was somewhat different from what I tried in my first go around. This process involved cooking the soap in a crockpot! I won't go into total detail of how every step is done (because I realize some of you could care less), but here is an over view for those who wonder how it works.

~~Not shown in this picture~The first thing I did was mix the lye solution with the distilled water. In this step you have to be so careful. When the lye is mixed with the water is gives a chemical reaction that actually heats the solution to somewhere around 120 degrees F. I did this step outside where there was plenty of ventilation, and no kids present. Then I left the mixture to cool off while I continued on with the process. (You are wanting the solution to cool to 80 degrees F.
~~In this picture~ The next step is to carefully measure each ingredient and put it into the crockpot. Once all the ingredients are all melted check your temp on the lye solution.

 You can see in this picture that it is a nice creamy color once all the ingredients are combined. Now it's time to stir. Your aiming for a consistency that resembles thick vanilla pudding. The term they use in "soap talk" is trace. You have reached that when you can remove the spoon and move it across the mixture leaving a "trail" that in only a few seconds sinks into the mix....Make sense? After reaching that point you "cook" the soap in the crockpot until it reaches roll over. The soap will cook from the outside inward in the pot, and when it collapses on itself it is done cooking.

 The gal I took the class from recommended two mini loaf pans to use as molds for the soap. I have been unable to find metal ones at the point. Instead I decided to use yogurt cups from my stockpile. I poured the soap into the cups and then put them inside my biggest roasting pan. I then covered the cups with one big sheet of wax paper, and put an old bath towel on top, finally the lid. Then two more blankets were placed on top.

 It will look something like this! The point of all that is so the soap will cool slowly and set up properly. You then let this set for 24 hours. Then I removed all the towels and took out the cups and ran scissors down the side to cut them open and then removed the soap from the molds. Then I sliced them into individual pieces of soap. At the end of process mine looked like this!

 I was able to get 29 bars of soap from one batch. I added a strawberry fragrance to the soap, and it smells pretty good, but not overwhelming. After cutting the bars of soap you place them on brown paper and turn them once a day for one week. When you use it is up to you, but the gal that taught the class said the longer you wait to use it the harder the soap will be....because the more it drys the better and long lasting the soap will be.

I am just thrilled that is turned out like it was suppose to. Feels like redemption to me!! I am very excited to provide my family with a soap that is all natural and something I was able to make. HOW FUN!!! I was able to complete the whole process of making the soap in 2 hours. Then I had a little extra time in cutting the soap. Over all I feel it was worth the time and effort.

If you want more details and the recipe I used you can leave me a comment with an email and I will do my best to get it to you in a timely manner.

I am linking up with Good, Beautiful and True (Just for the JOY of it!) and 8 Muddy Boots (From Scratch) to share my homemade soap adventure. Stop in and say Hi to them...tell them I sent you...smile!

DANIELLE