Homemade Cleaner

This is a pretty awesome potty chair.
Ours is just the standard plastic variety.

In honor of Potty Training Tuesday, I thought I'd share my homemade all-purpose cleaner recipe. As you can imagine, we've gone through quite a bit of this stuff so far. I love that it cleans everywhere, especially carpet. That means I only have to chase Gwenny around with one spray bottle instead of one for each surface type she walks over. (Oh yeah, it streaks glass, so I use vinegar on a coffee filter for that). It's especially brilliant at removing coffee stains from our bright white  counter tops (yikes).

Really I love this cleaner because it's effective and safe for the girls. They can lick the still wet floor, and it won't hurt them. In fact, the ingredients won't even hurt them. I came in the laundry room the other day to find G finger painting in the Borax. I wasn't happy about it, but it didn't hurt her either.

Ingredients

2 cups warm water

1 cup white vinegar

2 T Borax (if you don't have any, you can use baking soda. Just add the vinegar slowly to avoid Mount Vesuvius)

1 T Castille's Soap

1/2 t essential oil - use eucalyptus, citrus, tea tree, peppermint or lavender for best antibacterial action (unnecessary if you buy castille's soap with essential oil)

Spray bottle

Directions

Dissolve Borax in warm water. Combine all ingredients in spray bottle and shake to mix. Freely spray all over the house and wipe away with rag or paper towel. Then stand back and inhale - no strange cleaning fumes. Ahhhh....

Amendment to Frozen Baby Food

The baby food doesn't just pop out of the ice cube trays like ice cubes do, probably because they don't freeze as hard, so they just flex with the tray. I suppose you could spray them with non-stick cooking spray, but I felt like that would defeat the purpose of all natural baby food. Oh well. Instead, I portioned several days worth into a freezer bag and have just defrosted that as I see fit.

New food of the week: Bananas!!! They were a hit. No surprise there.

Sarah's Cough Drops

Kudos to my sister, Sarah, for making cough drops at home. You might wonder why any sick person would take the time and effort to make cough drops. What can I say, Sarah and I come from the same faulty gene pool.

Here's the scoop:

Brew a 1 1/2 c of herbal tea - this needs to be really strong, so use 3 or 4 teabags.

Mix with 1/2 c of sugar and 1/2 c corn syrup or honey

In a saucepan, heat to 300 degrees. For those of you without a candy thermometer, a hard boil until clear (clear is different from colorless; clear means no sediment; you shouldn't see any sugar granules).

While your syrup is heating, take a 9 x 13 pan and cover in powdered sugar approximately 3/8" deep. Using your thumb, make cough drop sized indentions in the powdered sugar. When the mixture is hot, pour it into the powdered sugar molds (Sarah insists that this process is very forgiving).

Let cool. Once the cough drops harden, remove them from the powdered sugar. You can then run the powdered sugar through a sifter and store again for another use - no harm done to your sugar.

Thanks Sarah for sharing with me.

My favorite muffins

I made these muffins this morning. On a funny note, because Alex is asleep in the living room, I didn't want to use the food processor in the kitchen and wake him up. I ended up carrying the chopper and the bag of carrots and G out to the garage and using the outlet on the workbench. Silly, I know.

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c flax seed meal
3/4 c wheat bran
1/2 c rolled oats
1 c brown sugar
2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
2 t cinnamon (I also throw in some allspice and nutmeg)
2 c shredded carrots
1 1/2 c shredded apples (you can also use applesauce)
1 c craisins
1 c chopped nuts
3/4 c milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 t vanilla

Mix dry ingredients with whisk. add carrots, apples, craisins and nuts and mix until covered with flour mixture. Add liquid ingredients and mix just enough to involve all the flour.
Bake at 350 for 18 - 20 minutes.
This recipe makes 20 - 24 muffins. Try with cream cheese - oh my.

Thanks to Bob's Red Mill for the recipe and the flax seed meal.

A Dinner to blog about

Does anyone remember the "Ab Roller" commercials? I know where they got the idea. Tim and I made ravioli tonight. Hand rolling pasta dough is intense. My abs haven't worked that hard in years.

Was the work worth it? Oh my - fresh pasta is totally worth it. Although, I'm really hoping for a pasta roller before we try this again. But seriously, I wondered how people ate pasta everyday without rampant obesity. If you work that hard to produce it, you can handle the calories of the pasta.

The recipe:

4 c of all-purpose flour

6 eggs (use 4 if you use semolina flour)

1 T of olive oil (you can use more if it's really flaky)

2 t salt

You can't overknead this. Work it until it's glossy, then roll it as flat as possible. If you're going to take it on by hand, enlist some help.

Tim relieved me of duty.

The finished project - totally amazing.

Yogurt Whole Wheat Bread

Here's an idea to try with your homemade yogurt (or store bought) - Yogurt Whole Wheat Bread

Yogurt whole wheat bread is one of my favorites because it tastes like sourdough but doesn't require starter. Also, it keeps the bread really moist.

1/2 c warm water
4 t yeast
1 c yogurt
2 T olive oil
2 T honey
2 t salt
4 c whole wheat flour
1/4 c wheat bran (or wheat germ)

I list the yeast with the warm water because Mollie taught me how to make your yeast explode. Mix the yeast in the warm water at the onset of your recipe. Let it sit while you measure and mix all the other ingredients together. When you add it, the yeast is already awake and looking for food. Your bread will rise much better. Thanks Mollie!

Can you tell that I'm supposed to be setting out the family budget this morning? I'm really procrastinating because I don't like deciding the best way to spend our money. Instead, I'm wasting another resource, time.

G and the Giant Avocado

Avocado is still a big hit at our house.





She loves those toes. Only today did she realize that they were still feet even when she's wearing socks.

I might have inoculated myself with salmonella

Today's project was not for the faint of heart or the immunocompromised. I made chicken sausage, both breakfast and Italian.

Tim's favorite food group is sausage. I think his RDA for ground meat and spices is around 1/2 pound. In search of a healthier way to satisfy him, I stumbled upon chicken sausage from Trader Joe's. Oh my. They are delicious. While cooking a particularly yummy sausage with dried apple, I started thinking that I could make this myself with the grinder attachment for my mixer. So I picked up some chicken and went to town.

A few weeks ago, I saw a TV host making sausage. It looked really simple. Take some ground meat, mix in some spices. I can handle that. The actual grinding process, however, was a mess. Raw chicken flecked the counter, the sink, the mixer and my shirt. I'm not usually concerned with germs, but today I freaked out a little. I sanitized the whole kitchen counter, even the surfaces I didn't use, twice.

The Italian sausage is good but nothing out of the ordinary. However, I think the breakfast sausage might end up being quite spectacular. I added dried Bartlett pears and cranberries as well as rosemary and sage. I can't wait to try it when my family visits next week.

Overall, I'd say this is kind of neat if you have a sausage loving carnivore sharing your kitchen table or company you really want to impress. For everyday use, I'm going to stick to Trader Joe's.

Yogurt in a Crockpot

My crock pot occupied a dusty back shelf of a corner cabinet for years. I registered for one because I felt obligated to scan everything on the "suggested items" list. Now I know the lists are just another marketing tool aimed at a vulnerable target group - brides.

All I knew of crock pots was my mom's delicious bar-be-que recipe and lots of dishes involving cream of mushroom soup. I have nothing against mushrooms, cans or cream, but combine the three, and my lip creeps up into a half snarl. I just hate cream of mushroom soup. So, I used my crock pot once a year to make bar-be-que.

Until recently... I was looking for a recipe to make yogurt at home. My mom used to make yogurt. I can still see the quart jars sitting next to the milk in the refrigerator. My sister and I gave my poor mom so much grief over that yogurt. Lesson to be learned - don't start your kids on the processed stuff, and they won't know the difference (until they visit a friend's house for lunch).

Anyway, I decided to make yogurt but didn't really have all the necessary tools (gas stove or oven that heats as low as 110 degrees or even a candy thermometer). Then I stumbled upon directions for making yogurt in the crock pot. Here's the gist.

You need: a crock pot, milk, starter yogurt (live, active culture), a heavy towel or two, a timer

Pour 1/2 gallon of milk into crock pot (you cannot use Ultra Pasteurized milk, but you can use soy. The more fat, the easier). Turn the crock pot on low for 2 1/2 hours. Then turn the crock pot off for 3 hours (Do set a timer - I really screwed this up the first time using my faulty postpartum memory). The goal here is to heat the milk to about 180 degrees to kill any bacteria you don't want, then let the milk cool to about 110 degrees. You can speed up the three hour cool down by setting your crock in a sink of cool water. Just check the temperature of the yogurt (a clean! baby thermometer can measure this high).

After the yogurt cools to 110 degrees, add 1 cup of starter yogurt and mix throughout. Wrap the crock pot in a heavy towel or two to act as insulation and leave over night. The good bacteria you just added need heat and sugar (lactose) to react and make yogurt. The temperature must remain fairly constant. I found that turning the crock pot on low for 10 minutes before I go to bed helps the temperature stay high enough for the bacteria.

The results: the first was a mess. I ended up with warm milk because I didn't keep the crock warm enough. Now I use two towels and give it an extra jolt. The second, I didn't add enough starter yogurt, so it was runnier than I wanted. You will see recipes that read half a cup for a half gallon. That didn't work for me. Third attempt: perfection, well close to it. I got the kinks worked out, and we now have two quarts of really delicious yogurt in the refrigerator. Now, I don't have to buy anymore starter yogurt because I can just use my own.

In case you're thinking that this is too much work for something you can easily buy at the grocery store, I  see where you're coming from. Until you taste the homemade yogurt, you might not be able to wrap your mind around how much better fresh yogurt tastes. Also, it's cheaper, and you know exactly what went into your yogurt - nothing but milk! Then you can add fresh fruit or honey or vanilla. I even like it plain. Did I mention it makes terrific smoothies? This is a must try.

Marshmallows

I made marshmallows the other night (recipe at www.prudentbaby.com). Wow - they were easy and good. I didn’t even have a candy thermometer for the sugar, and they still came out great.

Check it out:

I used these as prizes for the game winners at my friend’s baby shower. They would also make great gifts, especially if you have a bunch of people to make for. Best part of making them to give away is keeping the rounded edges.

Our first "real" meal

Today marked a big milestone in the Ellis house - Gwennan’s first non-milk meal.

I knew what was coming when my little girl’s eyes doubled as I lifted the lid off the crock pot. Cumin, cinnamon, apricots, chicken - she realized that she’s missing out with her single-item menu. Her early interest made sense coming from a mom who considers food one of her favorite art media.

Introductions needed to be made soon between Gwennan and the world of vegetables. She has her first avocado-stained bib. Why avocado? That’s a reasonable question.

For the full case, check out www.wholesomebabyfood.com. My brief version is this: if you could only eat one food to sustain you, breast milk makes sense because it has all the nutrients and vitamins you need with plenty of protein. If you are only surviving on two types of food, I’d still keep breast milk as number one, but it makes sense to have something nutritious and protein-packed as your number two food as well. Enter the avocado.

At any rate, Gwennan literally wrestled the spoon from Daddy’s hand to eat more. She is still licking her chin and hands thirty minutes later. Avocado is a big hit.

Everyone told me before she was born that “I would just know.” I figured it must be true as millions of women throughout history and around the world become moms without so much as a Lamaze class, and they do a fabulous job. Still, I really didn’t know what they were talking about.

Then Gwennan came along. Miraculously, I know what she wants when she cries. All the frustrated years of babysitting, staring at a screaming baby thinking, “if you only had words, intelligible words.” Now I understand that moms really don’t need them, at least not at first. Later when your teenager just wants to know you respect him, you’d like more than a dissatisfied grunt - words would be nice. But right now, her eyes widening when she smells dinner is all she needs to let me know that she is ready for big girl food.