DIY Washing Powder and Hand Soap

 My friend Kath is a self-confessed greenie and has been reading Wendyl Nissen's "A Home Companion" which has lots of ideas on how to live like your Nana used to live.

I have been called a Nana many times, mainly by my Partner and mainly because of my incessant need to make jams and preserves. And I am ok with this! I have embraced my Nana-like qualities!! So making some recipes from this book is right up there with my values.

The washing powder was rather easy and extremely cheap to make. I bought a bag of baking soda for about $5, a box of washing soda crystals for $4 (both from Moore Wilson's) and a box of sunlight soap (6 pack) for about $3. I already had some essential oil. So here it is:

Washing Powder
1) Mix 3 cups of baking soda and 3 cups of washing crystals together.
2) Grate in 1 bar of sunlight soap
3) Add 10-20 drops of essential oil (I used rose).

Ready to use! I did two loads of washing today with a 35ml scoop per load and both came out clean and fresh. I'm not very good at math but I usually buy the EcoStore powder at around $7 for 500g. Roughly I made about the same amount for less than $3. One day I will get really good at maths and work it out properly!

Liquid Hand Soap
1) Grate 1 bar of soap
2) Add 1 cup of boiling water and whisk until combined. Leave for 1 hour.
3) After this time the mixture should have solidified again. Add another 1 cup of boiling water and whisk a bit more this time. Leave for an hour.
4) The soap should be more of a liquid consistency now. Water it down with more boiling water or heat up in the microwave or in a pot if it is too runny.
5) Pour into hand pump bottle ready to dispense.

My mixture was quite runny as I think my bar of soap was a bit on the small side so I heated it up a bit. It is still cooling at the moment and I've decided that if it doesn't thicken I'll just add some more soap to it and heat it up again. This is a probably a good way to use up those old bits of soap that you never seem to finish. I'm sure you could add essential oil to it too.

DIY Washing Powder and Hand Soap

Holy Gherkin Batman!

At the end of last year I grew pickling cucumbers from seed so I could make gherkins. I have 4 plants and they have grown rather large but have taken awhile to fruit. Finally today I had enough to pickle!

It is a rather simple process. Basically you soak the gherkins in salt and water for a day, rinse, pour boiling water over, drain,  put in a jar and then cover with a vinegar/spice concotion that you boil for 5 mins. Thank-you very much Edmonds Cookbook. 

I didn't have any pickling spice so I made that from scratch too. Now I wait. In 3 weeks time they will be ready to eat and will taste extra good in my ham sandwiches. 

Holy Gherkin Batman!

Eggs-cellent!

My Partner said to me "nobody wants to read a post about eggs".

But it's not just about the eggs. It is about that awesome feeling you get when you can exchange fresh produce with someone else.

I quite often give my preserves, jams and vegetables away and expect nothing in return so you can imagine my excitement when I get something back!

In this case it was fresh eggs from my friend's "girls" - 3 beautiful chooks hiding in a piece of converted council wasteland opposite their house. Not only do they produce top quality eggs they also keep the bugs at bay around the vege garden.

Chickens are popping up all around suburban Wellington and you can see why. Chicken's make great pets, are easy to keep and produce eggs. Eggs that you can keep for yourself and give away. 

Egg-cellent idea don't you think?

Eggs-cellent!

Fabric Brooches

I have been experimenting with making different types of fabric brooches.

Today I made one for my work colleague and one for my friend who is going to help me out with html this weekend. Just real simple hand-sewing and my new best friend the hot glue gun.

There is just something I really enjoy about making something for someone else.

Fabric Brooches

Jack Daniels and Christmas Cake

This morning I set about making Christmas cake.

Strange I know to be doing this post-holiday season but I have had a real craving for it. I used my father-in-law's secret cake recipe and the alcohol of choice was Jack Daniels - to put in the cake of course! It was a bit early at 10am for a JD's and coke but perhaps if I had used sherry it would have been one for me one for the cake.

Anyway it was super easy to make and has been cooking for the last 2 and 1/2 hours. It sure smells delicious and I cant wait to try it with my cup of tea tomorrow.

My Mum used to always make people Christmas cakes as gifts and what a great idea. Something that lasts (depending on whose eating it!!) well into the holiday season. Great for taking away with you camping or to the bach. And what a great feeling to make something for someone.

And if you would like the recipe you can get it here.

Jack Daniels and Christmas Cake

Meat and 3 Vege

There is a new gourmet butcher in Wadestown that opened just before Christmas. They only sell free-range and organic meat.

One of the best things about the place is that the butcher wears a traditional blue and white apron with a straw boater hat. They also use paper bags which is awesome. It feels really good to support local business but also to eat organic meat.

Tonight we are having sirloin steak with mushrooms, beans and new potatoes another A.L recipe. The potatoes I just dug up about half an hour ago. I have 6 different varieties growing and I can't quite remember in which order I planted them. They taste delicious either way.

Oh and I can't not mention the wine that accompanies the dish. It is from South Australia and is a Shiraz. Quarisa, 30 Mile. Had lots of gold, silver and bronze stickers on it and its rather tasty.

Meat and 3 Vege

Domestic Goddess

There is nothing like the smell of beetroot cooking.

We had a couple of beetroot in the fridge leftover from some other recipes so I cooked them up this morning in some salty water and have preserved them in vinegar ready to use in 3 weeks time. I also had a marmalade disaster.

I have made marmalade about 4 times now and each time I can never work out the setting point. I either bottle it too early or leave it too late until it blackens the bottom of my pot. It seems like its one of those split-second decisions between perfection and disaster!!

However I decided to bottle it and have it as a caramelised version. Perhaps not the one I give away!!

Thanks to the neighbours for their generous supply of grapefruit and lemons. I have been a bit of a preserving queen lately. I tried Annabel Langbein's recipe for preserved lemons. Very quick and easy so I'll let you know what they taste like in one of her "delushious" recipes!!

Note: ways to get burnt jam off bottom of pot - boil vinegar and baking soda on top of it. If the stain is still stubborn try soaking it in washing powder.

Domestic Goddess