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Thursday, March 15, 2012

making my great grandmas proud, (I hope) I just had a do it yourself weekend!

 Ok I don't know about the rest of your households, but in mine even with just 2 girls, we go through the detangler like crazy, so I looked up how to make your own detangler. Well as crazy as it is, it was simple and cheap. just take any conditioner, I always have some conditioner left after I use all my shampoo, I don't know why, fill a bottle 3/4 with warm water, then the rest with the conditioner, there ya go, detangler! So I no longer have to rush off to walmart for it, I will make my own!
 The second thing I made (actually this is the second time I made it) was homemade baby wipes this is kinda fun, I don't actually use them as baby wipes, although you could, we just sipmly use them for whatever, washing faces, cleaning up spills, washing our hands, whatever we need to use them for we do. You take a roll of paper towels, cut them in half with a serated knife, thats the fun part. pull out center cardboard round thing of the paper towel so you can pull the paper towels from the center. put it cut side down in some type of tupperware. I found one pretty cheap at walmart. then you boil 2 cups water, let it cool a bit. add in 2 TB. Baby wash, and 1 TB baby oil, also if you want to you can add 1 tsp lavendar essential oil. pour over the paper towels let it soak in for a couple hours, you are ready to go, they smell so yummy!
 Homemade laundry soap! This was kinda fun to make. I have been wanting to try this for a while, I have just been too lazy! First I bought the Irish spring soap, you can use any brand soap you want to use, you can grate it up, I just gave the soap to joey and let him whittle it with his knife, it kept him busy for a while. But the ingredients you need are: 1 bar of soap, arm and hammer super washing soda,  and borax! and now I am sounding like a commercial, but yes, I found all this at..... walmart! so to make 2 gallons of soap, you grate, or in my case whittle 1 bar of soap, put it in a large pot, or pan, pour 1 gallon of water over it, and bring to boil, continue to boil till all dissolved. once dissolved, add 1 c. borax, and 1 c. washing soda. bring back to boil. It will coagulate. Turn off heat. Add 1 gallon cold water. Stir well, pour into whatever container you choose, I just used old milk containers. to use, pour 1/2 c. into wash. It works great. p.s. it is safe for h.e. wahsers :) less than pennies per load!!!

 Ok, so I also decided to make my own mozzarella cheese. so here is the way easy recipe: citric acid powder, rennet,whole milk salt!!! thats it :) disolve 1 1/2 tsp citric acid powder in 1/4 c. cool water set aside, also disolve 1/4 tsp rennet in 1/4 c. cool water, also set this aside.
pour the gallon of whole milk in large stockpot. sprinkle the citric acid over the top and stir gently. heat milk to 88 degrees. dont panic when it starts to curdle, thats the idea. while pot is still over heat. stir in the rennet. heat to 100-105. shut off heat. walk away from the pan for about 5 min. do not touch the pan!! when you come back the curds (the white part) should've pulled away from the sides of the pot and you should see lots of whey on top and around the sides. now for the fun part. scoop the curds out with a slotted spoon into a microwave safe bowl. press the curds against the side of the bowl with your clean hand so the when squishes out dump the whey back into the pot. do not throw the whey away. microwave the cures for 1 min. using your hands knead the curds and drain the whey back into the stockpot. put the curds back into microvave for 30 seconds, knead curds, drain, repeat 1 more time. at this time you can either stretch it into a smooth ball and eat it warm , drop the ballin ice water to cool the curd quickly for storage or pull off little pieces of mozzarella between walnut size and golf ball size and stretch and roll it to form little balls. drop little balls into an ice water bath and repeat with the remaining curd.
 I just made mine into logs and we just ate them!! I will be making more real soon!
 and here is our little buddy hanging out while we do all our work!
I had to throw this Pic in cause I thought it was so cute, it looks like Zander is hugging his daddy while he is sleeping! its so adorable! And for those of you interested, we are blessing this little guy on march 25. we would love to have our family and friends there with us! call me if you have any questions.

5 comments:

Shannon said...

Wow - you had a busy weekend!!!

Marilyn said...

Love the ideas. I have made my own oxy-clean using washing soda and hydrogen peroxide. But I am having trouble finding the washing soda. Our walmart doesn't have it. As for the wipes, using viva towels makes them a lot more durable. BTW, that baby is so cute.

Goodwin Family said...

You are wonder woman! I'm going to have to try all your awesome ideas!!

Cathy said...

Way to go super Mom! I might just have to try these. Your little guy is a cutie!!!

Jodi said...

I'll bet your great grandmas ARE super proud!

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