DIY and Snow

This week we got our first real snow, it only amounted to a couple of inches, but it still counts. Building up to the snow, we did a new DIY project, and made a new recipe, but most of the week was old favorite meals in the comfort food category. It's winter people, it's what you're supposed to do.
First off, our DIY project. Home made fabric softener. We learned that plain white vinegar is just as or more effective a fabric softener than store bought. We thought we would be going out in public smelling like a feminine hygiene product, so Big Man tried plain vinegar on a load of his own clothes first. There was no residual vinegar smell what so ever. We used plain white vinegar for most of the week, but decided we wanted to add a little scent to our wash. We bought a couple bottles of hair conditioner from Wal-Mart. The conditioner cost less than a dollar and added a nice apple smell to the mix. We figure our home made conditioner cost 1/4 of the price of Downy. It's a keeper here at The Acre.

When the snow forecast came in, Big Man whipped up a batch of "Energy bars" he found a recipe for on one of our prep-er blogs we follow. The recipe was simple, peanut butter, oats, flax seeds, chocolate chips and honey. Toss it in a mixer and then spoon it out into balls. It's a healthy snack that we enjoyed.

 

Our snow came Friday night, Saturday morning our new birds first snow. They were not impressed, and wouldn't even come out of the coop until Big Man shoveled a path for them.

Wild birds still getting a few sunflower seeds

  Big Man spent the week in the kitchen, and the meals turned out pretty well this week. It's a hobby we both enjoy.

Monday, home made lasagna and fresh baked bread

Tuesday, home grown greens, scallop potatoes and raspberry cobbler

And a smoked chicken

Wednesday was smoked ribs, slow cooked bake beans and deep dish apple pie

Thursday, home made chicken pot pie (leftover smoked chicken)

Friday was date night, so Big Man took a day off from the kitchen, but Saturday we made home made butter pecan ice cream and a peach cobbler from the canned peaches in the pantry. We ended the week with "Chicken Wing Sunday" as always.
K&K

All Food All Weekend

This weekend we spent either cooking or eating. It was a good weekend. We were proud of Deadshot, who wanted to get in on the act. We like to think the kitchen bug has bitten her.

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She asked to bake a batch of cookies, and they turned out really well. We think she's a chip off the ol cookie.

Fresh eggs make everything better

Deadshot working the rolling pin

She elected to go with deer shaped cookies, we eat some deer around here

While Deadshot was whipping up her cookies, Cupcake made a batch of home made pretzels. Big man loves him some pretzels.

Home made, hand rolled. YUM!!

She also tried a new recipe that was a big hit. Home made chocolate chip cookie pie, in cast iron, of course. It was quick and easy, and home made ice cream to top was a special treat this weekend.

And of course the Big Man tinkered around in the kitchen as well. We had about half of a brisket left from last weeks smoke, so he whipped up a huge pot of veggie beef soup and canned it. He also made another batch of laundry detergent, we gave a batch to Pops, who reported good results as well.

We ended the weekend with "Chicken Wing Sunday" as always. Hope everyone has a great week, since the forecast includes snow, we know we will.
K&K

More DIY

We made a couple things this week we wanted to share. One was a double batch of cranberry sauce. We have made two batches before, but we have been having it with Sunday breakfast every week, so we figured we might want to double down on a batch. We put this round in pint jars. It made six, but we lost one in the canner, it burst when it hit the boiling water. Teach us to can during a "Polar Vortex".

We tried a new thing as well. Cupcake cut the label off a can of condensed milk to make caramel over the weekend, and on the back was a recipe for home made butter pecan ice cream. The recipe was simple, and only four ingredients that we had on hand, so we whipped (see what I did there?) up a batch.

Roasted two cups of pecans, in cast iron, of course

Two cups of heavy whipping cream

Whipped until firm

One can of sweet condensed milk, mix in pecans and three tablespoons of melted butter

Fold heavy cream into pecan/milk mixture, pour into freezer safe container

Place in freezer for five hours, enjoy

With home made ice cream, one really needs a home made blackberry cobbler to put it on. So Big Man had a big meal waiting for Cupcake when she got home Monday evening. Smoked brisket, roasted potatoes, fresh collards, canned turnips and a blackberry cobbler. All from the pantry, the hard work over the summer is paying off. We are blessed here at The Acre.

Remember in earlier posts, we predicted a harsh winter??

K&K

Follow Up to Laundry, and Recycling

We thought we would share a few "action" pictures of the home made laundry detergent from last post. We were lucky enough to have Speedy out in the woods while we were making the batch. He came home with a butt full of ground in mud. And Big Man had a towel with dried blood from shaving. Both stains were knocked out with just a spoon full of our detergent.

And for an added test, Big Man steam mopped the floors Friday, this is the mop cover before and after a wash in the new stuff.

So we decided to make another batch, Pops wants to try the stuff anyway.

And on a related topic in a Sheldon way of thinking, we hit on recycling last post. We do recycle just about everything we can here at The Acre. This is a shot of the recycle center

Plastic, metal and glass goes to the recycle bin. Junk mail, cardboard boxes and paper towels go into the plastic garbage can, and ends up in the burn hole. Food scraps go in the chicken run, so we really don't have anything going into the dumpsters/landfill.
We even recycle our coffee grounds and egg shells. We dry the egg shells, then break them up into small pieces and keep them in a bag. We add the grounds and shell fragments to the garden as fertilizer.

And we added to our decor at The Acre this weekend. While we were out we found a couple of bottles of wine to add to our kitchen. We don't drink the stuff, but when we find something that reminds us of The Acre, we buy it and display it. Plus ya never know when the Perron's will stop in for a visit.

The two new bottles are below. One is for Speedy, the other is in honor of Big Man's new In-Laws and their pet name for him.

Stay Classy Steve and Cookie.....
K&K

New Year, Closer To Going Off Grid

The dust is starting to settle from all the Christmas excitement around The Acre, so we decided to get back to some basics. Cupcake found a recipe for home made pretzels, and Big Man loves him some pretzels, so it seemed like a good fit.

The last day of the year is always the busiest and most hectic for Cupcake, so I thought of an extra special treat to greet her with when she got home Tuesday night. Individual blackberry pies. Cupcake loves her some blackberries, and we have a basement full of blackberry pie filling from the spring. It seemed like a good fit.

New Years morning, Speedy wanted pancakes, so we had a Saturday breakfast, then took down our decorations and tree. After we got the decorations squared away, we got started on our first DIY project of the new year. Home made laundry detergent.
The process takes about 10 minutes (not counting the dissolving the bar in water part) and the cost breakdown is about one penny per load of laundry. We figured $1.50 per two quart batch, and two quarts does 128 loads of laundry. Compared to the Tide we last bought at Wallyworld, that only does 96 loads and cost $20. Plus the plastic jug that needs dropping off at the recycle bin.
Here's how we made it.
First we got the ingredients from Wallyworld, all three were together in the laundry isle, and cost about seven dollars combined.

We chopped up the bar of soap into inch size squares, then placed them into a gallon size ziplock freezer bag with two cups of tap water. Take the air out of the bag, and leave it along for at least 48 hours, longer will not hurt it, might even be better, but we were kind of excited to get started.

After two days of soaking, we added one cup of Borax and one cup of the Arm and Hammer washing powder to a large bowl, and added two cups boiling water. Then mixed the powder and water until it dissolved.

Then we cut a corner out of the bag with the soap bar, now dissolved and mushy, and added it to the powder/water mix, stirring till you get a good mix.

The next step is probably the coolest part of the operation. We poured the mix into two, one quart jars, filling each about half way. We topped the jars off with tap water, leaving about two inches of room in the top of the jar. Then we took the blade part of our blender off the blender container, and screwed it on to the quart jar. Put the jar on the blender base, and whipped at high speed for about one minute.

When you take the jar off, you have a mix that has the consistency and look of mer-naise. But the smell is clean and fresh. You use one table spoon of mix to one load of laundry, and it is safe for top load or front load, and HE washers.

We figure we spend around $40 on laundry detergent every month (two big jugs of Tide) now we will be spending around $1.50, and without having to hump giant plastic jugs to recycle. The Borax and A/H powder will make at least one dozen batches, and the bar of soap is around one dollar, so the price for today's batch is just "start up" cost. Another side note to off the grid laundry, we take a handful of aluminum foil, wad it up into a ball, and place it in the dryer. This eliminates all the static electricity from the laundry.
We will be having Chicken Wing New Year tonight, but right now we are busy washing everything in the house.
Happy New Year to all.
K&K