February 2, 2014 by Cindy-just-living

Laundry Detergent

We started making our own laundry detergent about a year ago and then suddenly it just became easier to buy a “green” detergent and fabric softener. So, for the last couple of months that was what we were using. However, I have recently had eczema reappear. Whenever this happens, I try to evaluate what I have had to eat or what I have contacted that could have set it off. After carefully ruling everything out, it has come down to the detergent and fabric softener. So, I have once again mixed the ingredients of the homemade detergent and I am using vinegar as a fabric softener. I have seen almost an immediate improvement. The detergent that I mix is dry, but it dissolves easily and does a very nice job cleaning the clothes and making them smell fresh.

I wish I could give credit to the website where I long ago found the recipe, but I simply do not remember.

Laundry Detergent with Borax

2 cups of borax
2 cups of washing soda
2 cups baking soda
1 bar of Felsnaptha (grate using a cheese grater).

Simply mix all the ingredients together in a container. Use 1/8 cup for a regular (medium) load of laundry.

During our Hippy Weekend, I saw my little granddaughter after her bath. Unfortunately, she seems to have inherited the sensitive skin gene and she had several patches of eczema. We decided to research some websites that had recipes for laundry detergent without the Borax. It appeared that most people were substituting the borax with the baking soda. We followed the suggestions and mixed the following detergent.

Laundry Detergent without Borax
2 cups washing soda
3 cups baking soda
1 grated bar of Felsnaptha.

Mix all of the ingredients and use 1/8 cup for a medium load of laundry.

Another Hippy Weekend Success!!!!

February 2, 2014 by Cindy-just-living

Granola

When you have a Hippy Weekend, you must make some really good granola. This recipe made our Sunday morning healthy and tasty.

3 cups organic oats

1/3 cup wheat germ

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup organic raisins

1. preheat the oven to 325 and line a baking sheet with parchment

2. combine the oats, wheat germ, cinnamon, salt, and brown sugar in a medium bowl.

3. in a separate bowl, combine the honey, molasses, oil and vanilla. Pour over the oat mixture and stir until the oats are thoroughly coated.

4. spread the mixture on the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

5. remove the pan from the oven and stir the granola.

6. add the raisins

7. cool and store in an airtight container.

On this morning, we combined ours with some of our homemade yogurt and fresh strawberries.

(We thought that we might add some flax meal and substitute the molasses with sorghum. We may also decide to use other dried fruits)
Another Hippy Weekend Success!!!!!

February 2, 2014 by Cindy-just-living

Big Mom’s Sauerkraut

Our dinner of soup beans and corn bread must have sauerkraut if it is to be a true southern meal. I had canned some sauerkraut last fall and brought it to add to our meal. Again, if I can anything, Big Mom is always in my memory talking me through the process.

Canned Sauerkraut

I usually use 2 or 3 heads or cabbage. I put these in a big bowl and use a cabbage chopper to finely chop the cabbage.

I very tightly pack the cabbage into hot quart jars. I add 1 tablespoon of canning salt and 1 tablespoon distilled vinegar on top of the cabbage. Then, I fill the jar with boiling water.

Insert a butter knife into the jar to work out all of the air bubbles. If the water level falls below 1/2 inch, add additional water.

Seal the jar with a lid and ring.

This next part is very important. I store these in my shed with a plastic container under the jars. The jars cannot be disturbed until they have “worked” or fermented. They will smell badly during this process and it will usually take several weeks for the entire process to be completed.

Cooking Sauerkraut:

Open the canned sauerkraut, drain and thoroughly wash the kraut.

In a skillet, add enough canola oil to lightly cover the bottom of the pan.

Add the kraut.

Serve hot on top of your soup beans.

February 2, 2014 by Cindy-just-living

Big Mom’s Corn Bread

Soup Beans must have old fashioned southern cornbread. I taught my daughter-in-law the way that I was taught. Without measuring spoons or cups and by sight and feel. She did an awesome job. I had two big pieces.

1.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

2. Put a rounded scoop of Crisco in an iron skillet, about the size of a rounded tablespoon. Place the skillet into the preheated oven.

3. In a medium bowl pour a pile of corn meal and a pile of self rising flour of equal size.

4. Add 1 egg

5. Add salt poured into a finger measure of approximately 1 teaspoon. (Sheila is demonstrating in the above picture)

6. Add enough milk to make a batter that is similar to cake batter in consistency.

7. Pour the batter into the hot skillet with the hot oil. This should sizzle a bit when you pour it into the skillet.

8. Place the skillet back into the oven and bake until golden brown and when a toothpick is stuck into the middle of the loaf and comes out clean.

9. Turn the bread out onto a plate. The bottom is the top on the plate.

Another Hippy Weekend Success!!!!!

February 2, 2014 by Cindy-just-living

Homemade Yogurt

To make your yogurt you will need

1/2 gallon (room temperature) organic milk

3 or 4 tablespoons (room temperature) plain organic yogurt that has a live culture. (We used Stoneyfield)

a thermometer that has a clip and will register 185 degrees

an 8 or 10 quart pan and a

4 or 5 quart pan with a lid that will fit inside the 8 or 10 quart pan

metal or plastic spoon

heating pad with a medium setting.

1. Sterilize the pans, spoons, and thermometer with a dishwasher or by boiling water.

2. place the milk in the smaller pan

3. fill the larger pan with enough water so that when the pan with the milk is set inside, the water is to about the same level as the milk.

4. When the water is boiling, set the pan with the milk inside and bring the milk to 185 degrees. 5. Maintain the 185 degrees for 30 minutes. Stir frequently.

6. Fill a sink with enough cold water so that when the pan of milk is immersed, it will be at about the same level as the milk inside the pan.

7. Cool the milk to 110 degrees.

8. Remove the pan of milk from the sink of water and add the 4 tablespoons of room temperature yogurt.

9. Stir to fully mix the yogurt into the milk and cover with a lid.

10. On a cutting board, lay a heating pad on a medium setting.

11. Set the pan of yogurt and milk on the heating pad and cover with a bath towel.

12. Let the milk and yogurt work for seven hours. (Do not disturb the pot)

13. After the seven hours, thoroughly mix the milk curds until the mixture is creamy.

14. Place in air tight containers and chill in the coldest part of your refrigerator.

Sweeten the yogurt with fresh fruit.

Another Hippy Weekend Success!!!!

February 2, 2014 by Cindy-just-living

Non-Toxic Deodorant

Our next Hippy Weekend project was to make some non-toxic deodorant. This recipe is again, largely from the mymerrymessylife.com blog with some modifications. I would encourage our readers to please check out the mymerrymessylife.com blog to see this recipe without the modifications that we have made.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons beeswax (pastilles)
¾ cup arrowroot powder
¼ cup baking soda
1/2 cup coconut oil

1. Combine all the ingredients in a pan.

2. Melt and stir the ingredients on medium heat until fully combined. (You could add an essential oil after the ingredients have melted. We chose to not add a scent.)

3. Pour the contents of the pan into the plastic deodorant stick containers. (We purchased ours from amazon.com; however, you could recycle your used empty containers from commercial deodorants.)

4. Let the contents cool until firm.

This made 3 deodorant sticks.

Hippy Weekend Success!!!

February 2, 2014 by Cindy-just-living

Pickled Squash

One of our family favorites has become the pickled squash recipe. We have run low on our reserve stock so what better time to replenish the stock than on Hippy Weekend!

You will need:

6 to 8 yellow summer squash

6 or 7 onions

1/3 cup of canning or kosher salt.

* Cut the squash and onions into 1/8 inch slices

* Layer these in a large bowl with the salt.

* Put a layer of ice on the top and cover with a towel

* Allow these to stand for about 1 1/2 hours.

* Drain and rinse the squash and onions.

Combine in a saucepan:

3 cups distilled vinegar

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons mustard seed

2 teaspoons turmeric

2 teaspoons celery seed

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon peppercorns.

Bring to a boil.

Add the squash and onions to the saucepan and return the mixture to a boil.

Pack hot into hot pint jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Remove air bubbles. (we use a butter knife to move the contents around until the air bubbles are gone)

Clean the tops of the jars with a clean dry towel and seal with the lid and rings.

Process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

This made 7 pints!

Another Hippy Weekend Success!!!!!!!

February 2, 2014 by Cindy-just-living

Baby Lotion Recipe

This recipe was taken from mymerrymessylife.com blog with a couple of modifications. We substituted arrowroot powder in place of the zinc oxide powder. As mentioned in a previous post, the zinc oxide powder may have some toxicity. We also melted all of the ingredients in the jars instead of in a double boiler. The author of mymerrymessylife suggested web sites to purchase the ingredients. We have omitted them here.
Baby Lotion:
1 cup shea butter
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup almond oil
1 1/2 tablespoons beeswax
1 tablespoon arrow root powder
Optional: 1 tablespoon vegetable glycerin or pure aloe-vera (optional for added skin protection)
Optional – 10 drops of lavender or other essential oil of choice for fragrance

1. Place all of the ingredients into a glass jar or container.

2. Place the glass container into a pot that has simmering water. (Make sure that the level of the water is not higher than the level of the ingredients in the glass container. Also, make sure that the container will not allow the water to splash inside with the ingredients.) We used a pint jar.

3. When all the ingredients have melted together, remove from the boiling water pan.

4. Stir the ingredients to make sure it is completely mixed and allow the containers to cool and the lotion to set.

(This lotion is not pour-able, but more the consistency of a lotion bar.)

A tiny bit of this lotion will go a long way. It also will take some extra time to completely rub into the skin. It leaves your skin very silky. We like it!! A Hippy Weekend Success!!

February 2, 2014 by Cindy-just-living

Diaper Rash Cream Recipe

As every mom knows, diaper rash is one of the things that must be treated and you always worry about the toxicity of the ingredients used in some of the most popular commercial remedies.. This is the recipe we used during our Hippy Weekend.

1 cup organic, raw unrefined shea butter
1/2 cup organic, raw coconut oil
1 tbsp. pastilles (beeswax)
3 tbsp. arrow root powder
2 tbsp. vegetable glycerin

1. Using a double boiler method, melt the shea butter, coconut oil and beeswax together. This takes less than five minutes.
2. Remove these from the double boiler and add the arrow root powder and glycerin.
3. Using a mixer, beat the mixture for 5 minutes.

4. Pour the mixture into your containers and allow it to set. Ours took about 2 to 3 hours before it was completely set. This will be a stiff cream consistency.

(We found that using a pint jar might be a way to store the cream. but it was not an efficient way to access the cream. The wide mouth 1/2 pint jar was much easier to use.)

This recipe is mostly taken from the blog, mymerrymessylife.com. However, we modified the recipe listed on this blog by substituting arrow root powder in place of the zinc oxide powder. After researching the zinc oxide ingredient, my daughter in law found that it has been thought to contain some toxicity.

February 1, 2014 by Cindy-just-living

Hippy Weekend

A few weekends ago my daughter in law shared that she had been looking at several web sites to find recipes for baby products. She was interested in using ingredients that she knew would not hurt her children. Of course this is right down my alley and somewhere inside of me, I was doing the happy dance. I immediately volunteered to help her begin this endeavor. As that conversation progressed, she informed me that I was turning her into a hippy. After that our plan to meet for a weekend of making natural products for the kids would be dubbed, our hippy weekend.
This past weekend, we finally were able to get together to make baby lotion, diaper rash cream and some deodorant for us. In addition we made yogurt that was organic and GMO free, granola and we canned pickled squash. I also taught her to make corn bread, the way Big Mom taught me, and we made soup beans with a can of homemade sauerkraut. Of course we did all of this with the grand-babies under foot. This old hippy sure does have a happy heart.