This is a very simple recipe for laundry detergent that you can make yourself, and save a lot of money. It works very well, and is especially good for front load washing machines because it is low sudsing. The ingredients you will need are: 

1 bar of Fels Naptha or castile soap

Borax

Washing Soda

Baking Soda

To start, you need to grate your entire bar of soap into a medium sized bowl. Use the fine side of a cheese grater. You want it to be a powdery consistency.

 To this you add 1 cup each of the Borax, Washing Soda, and Baking Soda.

Mix all together, breaking up any lumps that might be in the Borax or Washing soda.

That’s it! This is your laundry detergent. Wasn’t that easy? You just store in a container with a lid. I use a recycled candle jar. Use 1/8 cup per load. That is all it takes.

You could adjust those amounts slightly for extra large, or small loads. This stuff really does work beautifully. My laundry comes out clean, and smells very nice. You can get these ingredients at various places. Our local grocery and hardware store carries all of them, but I can also get them all at Wal-Mart. The money savings is the really great part. You will get multiple batches of your homemade detergent from just 1 box of the Borax, Washing soda, and Baking soda. The price for each of these per box will vary slightly, depending on where you purchase them. The Borax and Washing soda were both a little over $3 a box, the Baking soda I found at $2 a box, and the Fels Naptha I got for .97 cents per bar.

A word about Borax. I’m sure someone is going to say they’ve read Borax isn’t safe. After doing some research, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is just as safe as Washing soda, and I have no problem using it. Here is a link I found that covers the subject pretty good. If you disagree, don’t use it. You have to decide for yourself. I believe that especially today, we have to be diligent in researching many of the products we use and consume. We cannot take it for granted that because someone is selling it, a product is safe. I also believe that you have to look at who did the research, because research can be skewed, depending on how you want the results to be. Unfortunately, this is the world we live in today.

Happy Laundering! 

I saw a picture of these wonderful little beauties somewhere on the internet, and I knew I had to try them. These little edible bowls could be filled with so many different things. I chose fresh strawberries, whipped topping, and shaved chocolate.

This is a scrumptious pound cake recipe that I found on allrecipes.com. It is great by itself, but it’s also wonderful with vanilla ice cream, whipped topping, or plain yogurt with fresh fruit. As I often do, I changed the recipe a bit to better suit with the ingredients I prefer to use.

The Recipe:

3 cups all purpose flour (I used unbleached)
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
3 cups white sugar (I used Sucanat)
6 eggs
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used all vanilla extract instead of lemon)
1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

  Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease one 9 or 10 inch tube pan (I used two bread pans instead). Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

  In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar. This is much easier if you set your butter out ahead and allow it to reach room temperature before starting. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. (I added mine all at once cause I’m impatient! ).Stir in the lemon and vanilla extracts. Mix in flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Pour into prepared pan.

  Bake in preheated oven for 90 minutes. Do NOT open oven door till after at least 1 hour. When cake begins to pull away from sides of pan it is done. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and cool completely. YUM! Enjoy!

I also made a wonderful Salisbury Steak recipe from fellow blogger Cindy. It was delicious, and I would recommend it! I did make one substitution in the recipe. I used ground venison instead of ground beef. My husband and I both hunt, and I had some in the freezer. Thanks Cindy!