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
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