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

Christmas Morning

We got to bed early Christmas Eve, knowing Deadshot would be up early. We were not disappointed. At 0500 girlfriend was up and going, making sure the rest of the family was too. Speedy came down stairs on auto pilot, we're not sure he woke up for about an hour

But the Chirruns soldiered up and got through their packages pretty quick

Even Fraidy Mutt got a present, and got to play dress up

After we opened our packages, some assembly was required for Cupcake's present

The Chirruns went back to bed, but we stayed up prepping for the family visit. Some baking and some cooking, but we kept to our schedule and got everything done

Around noon, Cousin Eddie and the fam arrived, and a good time was had by all

And to answer the question on everyone's mind....Yes, there was chicken wings on the buffet.
We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Lets get on to this happy new year.
K&K

Pink Eggs and Ham

A short follow up to the smoked ham and chicken post from last Monday. Big man had our country ham in the smoker at the time, and it turned out well enough we thought we should share. The smoker was working just right, just a whisp of blue smoke, and Fraidy Mutt enjoyed the smoke time to grab a nap by the fire.

While the ham was smoking, Cousin Eddie and the family stopped by for a photo op

After some picture shenanigans, the ham hit an internal temp of 140*, so we took it off and gave it a slice

Tender, Juicy and a little salty, just like a country ham should be.  We also whipped up a batch of potato soup for Christmas as well. The potatoes and carrots came from our garden, we even dug the carrots the morning of Christmas eve. Now that's fresh.

And we thought it was funny that we had just mentioned how the ladies had just started laying eggs again, then we found a HUGE egg Tuesday morning. As you can see, a large egg is nothing compared to this egg.

We couldn't even get the carton closed with this one in it. We hope the poor girl who left us this one takes a day off.
..."And now you know, the REST of the story"
K&K