4 Soups, 15 minutes, less than $5.00!

black bean and vegetable chili

This post is to accompany my talk on BTO for Monday 6/21/2010

I told Nancy and Elena this week I wanted to do a talk on making soups and stews in the crockpot, and that each one would be, under $5.00 (for the whole pot), take less than 15 minutes in prep work to make, and be made in the crockpot. I let them know I would take them some of the soups to taste for themselves.
The reason I wanted to do this is because I just know that if the people who don't cook, knew how easy it could be, so simple, and so inexpensive, that perhaps they may give it a try. I thought doing it in the crockpot would work well since you can leave it unattended. Perfect for us who want delicious food with very little effort. The crockpot (or slow cooker) allows you to leave your dinner cooking away unattended while you are away at work. To come home after working all day to a delicious and healthy meal hot and ready to be eaten is a wonderful thing.

These soups are really the definition of alchemy itself. Which is turning something of little value, into something of great value. I love that about cooking with simple inexpensive ingredients.
The great thing about these recipes specifically, is that they are based on dried beans and peas, and canned tomato products for the most part. Since these are good food storage items, you can learn and feel comfortable about using them. Also since you may store these items in the pantry, if you don't have alot of fresh food in the fridge, you can throw together a great pot of food! And if fresh vegetables aren't readily available, dried garlic, or dried onion can be used instead of fresh. Dried celery or celery salt and dried carrots may be used, instead of fresh, or be omitted altogether.

Here are some points I want to make before getting into the recipes.

1. Broth or soup base- The best broth available to you is broth you've made yourself. I buy chicken with the bone so I can freeze the bones until I have enough to make chicken broth. Also when I have celery or carrots that are wilting, I freeze them to make vegetable broth in the future. I figure since these items would be wasted anyway, the broth is basically free. You'd be surprised how much flavor you can coax out of a few vegetables. Once I only had some celery and some onion to make a broth out of, this time I used the celery leaves as well. (You normally wouldn't use the leaves because the flavor is very strong in the leaves and it might overpower your broth.) So I basically made a celery broth. I used it as the base of a chili recipe.
So the cool flavor of the celery worked well with the boldness and spiciness of the chili.
If you don't want to make broth, you don't need to buy it. Canned broth doesn't add very much in my opinion. On the other hand, you can make a broth with bouillon, (there are many good makers of bouillon these days, natural stores are a good place to find them.) You can also purchase a soup base. In the bulk spice section (locally the Olympia Co-Op is a good place for this) they sell vegetable, chicken and beef soup base.
Also, sometimes you don't need bouillon or broth you just need water. I'll specify what I think will work best in the recipes.

2.Spices- The best place to buy spices is the bulk section of a local natural food store. Locally, for me it's the Olympia Food Co-Op. Another option is Fred Meyer also has a bulk spice section.The great thing about buying spices in bulk is if it's something you aren't going to use much of you can just buy a teaspoon of it. So many times in the past I've purchased a jar from the grocery store of a spice I never needed to use again until 5 years later. Spices are best if used within 1-2 yrs so this is such a great way to purchase spices. Also even if you buy a whole jars worth, it's going to be a fraction of the price of that jar in the store. I'm always shocked about how little my spices cost there.

Another local source for spices that you can't find at the co-op, is a wonderful place in Downtown Olympia called Bucks Fifth Avenue. They carry every spice imaginable at very low prices. They will also ship to you, no minimum. This is a wonderful little store! If you go into downtown Olympia often this is a wonderful place to check out.

If you don't have a store with spices in bulk nearby, in regular grocery stores they have a "Hispanic" section where you sometimes can find basic spices in packages for .99 cents.

Shopping-I noted where I found most items in the recipes and the price I paid for them, but another option if you want organic beans and peas, the Co Op in Olympia has organic lentils, split peas and beans in their bulk section for not a whole lot of money more.
Onto the recipes!

Black Bean and Vegetable chili (pictured above)

Ingredients
1-1lb bag of dried black beans, $1.55 at Safeway if you go to Walmart, it's under a dollar
1or 2 onions chopped, (I used 1 and 1/2 in mine) .33 cents. Based on 3 onions in 1 lb, at 1.00 a lb.
2 carrots chopped fine, carrots loose, were 60 cents a lb at Fred Meyer where I bought mine, there were 6 in a lb, so the price here is .20 cents.
2 cloves of garlic, chopped. garlic is cheap. My estimate is .10 cents.
2 stalks celery. chopped fine. Celery is usually 1.00 for a bunch. The estimate is .20 cents
1 large, (28 oz) can of diced tomatoes, or 2 smaller ones, Safeway large can tomatoes is $1. 69, but at Fred Meyer I bought some small cans (15 oz) of diced tomatoes for .59 cents each, so if I used those, this estimate would be even less!
2-3 tablespoons chili powder (I chose not to figure in for the spices, since most people have a basic spice cabinet, but if you need to purchase them in bulk separately, they will be very little.
2 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste

total cost for whole batch $ 4.07 serves 4-6 big servings

optional for more spice- a diced jalapeno, a canned chipoltle pepper, or dried chipoltle pepper, or cayenne, or crushed red pepper. Depending on how spicy you like it.
optional for more vegetables, you could add some diced squash or some bell pepper, corn would also be great in this.
optional for meat-add some browned ground beef or some browned stew meat. Or even browned ground turkey or ground chicken, shredded chicken would be good too.
optional for topping-cheese or sour cream
Directions

Soak dried beans overnight in water. The next day rinse beans and place in crockpot with 2 cups of water or water mixed with bouillon. Either is fine. Add all other ingredients and stir.
Cook on low for about 12 hrs at least, on high for probably 8-10 hrs, this recipe takes some time because the dried beans need time to cook. Sometimes that's a good thing if you have to be away all day. Like most soups and stews this tastes better the next day. It also freezes well.

split pea with ham

I grew up eating split pea soup, this is one of my very favorite things to eat.

Super cheap too if you don't need the ham. I made mine with the ham, (My husband is a meat eater) although I can take it or leave it personally.

Ingredients

a 1 lb bag of split peas at Fred Meyer where I bought these they were a whopping .85 cents!

1 carrot chopped fine, .10 cents

1 or 2 stalks celery .10 cents

one onion or 1/2 onion chopped fine .33 cents

bay leaf

ham -which is optional, 3.50 for a ham steak I found at Fred Meyer

salt and pepper to taste

Total cost for whole batch which serves about 4 people $1.38! without ham

with the ham, $4.88 (still under 5 bucks)

also optional- a ham bone for cooking to accentuate the ham flavor if you have ham lovers, if it has meat on it, you can shred the meat off of it and use it in the soup.

Directions

Throw it all in a crockpot, along with 5 cups of water to start if you want it thick, you will probably need to add more later, otherwise you can use 6 or 7 cups. (I like mine thick). As it cools it will thicken more, just add a little water to reach your desired consistency.

Cook on low for 8 hrs or high for 6.

Minestrone with ground beef

This soup is so hearty and flavorful. Since it is broth based, it is one that benefits from the use of homemade broth or a broth made with a soup base, or bouillon. The meat really is optional, it's great and filling without it.

Ingredients

2 Sm cans (15 oz) diced tomatoes. Mine were .59 cents each. so $1.18

1 onion, chopped .33 cents

1 can kidney beans or garbanzo beans or a can of each if you wish, I used kidney, .85 cents

2 chopped carrots .20 cents

2 celery ribs, chopped .20 cents

3 cloves garlic, chopped .15 cents

1/2 to 1 cup pasta (I used macaroni) and I used 1 cup, it's alot of pasta, if you don't want that much just go with the 1/2 cup. 1 cup pasta .50 cents (based on 1 box being 2 cups and 1.00.)

4 cups homemade broth or broth made with soup base or bouillon

1-2 tsp dried basil

1-2 tsp dried oregano

2 bay leaves

a pinch of dried crushed red pepper (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

total cost for whole batch $3.41 serves 4-6

optional for more veggies, add some chopped zucchini or other squash, or add some spinach

optional for meat, add 1 lb browned ground beef

Directions

Add all ingredients to crockpot except pasta. Cook on low for 6 hrs or on high for 4 or so. The last 45 min. of cooking add the pasta, and turn to high (if it's already on low.) And cook an additional 30-45 min. until pasta is done.

This is nice with Parmesan cheese on top, or even a spoonful of pesto.

Lentil soup with kielbasa

Lentil soup is so wonderful and nutritious. It's full of fiber and iron. This is another soup that doesn't need meat, but my husband likes to eat meat in most main dishes. (And all of these we ate as a main dish.) So that's why mine is shown with the kielbasa in the above picture. If you are also a meat lover, kielbasa is a nice choice for this soup, but sausage is good too.

Ingredients

1 lb bag of lentils .97 cents at Safeway

1 Sm (15 oz) can tomatoes .59 cents Fred Meyer

1 onion chopped .33 cents

2 ribs of celery chopped .20 cents

2 carrots chopped .20 cents

2 cloves chopped garlic .10 cents

4-5 cups homemade broth or water with bouillon or just plain water works too

1-2 tsp dried basil

1-2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried parsley

1 pinch of dried red pepper flakes (optional)

a splash of vinegar at the end for finishing

salt and pepper to taste

total cost for whole batch $2.39 serves 6 at least

optional for meat- add a diced browned kielbasa, or a pound of browned Italian sausage

optional for more veggies- add a package of chopped spinach

Directions

Add everything except vinegar to crockpot. Cook on low for 8 hrs, or high for 5 hrs. When done cooking add a splash of vinegar for a little brightness. Or lemon juice works for this too. You can't really taste it, it just wakes it up a little bit.

What to look for when buying hens and What to Do with an Abundance of Eggs

This post is to accommodate my talk on BTO for Thursday, June 26th, 2010.

****EDITED TO ADD 5/29/2010 the link for battery hens in the UK, down where the links are.
And at the end of this article, more things to do with an abundance of eggs!****

I wanted to talk about buying full grown hens, since I figure that many people must be like me, in that when they are ready for chickens, they are ready for eggs too! Meaning they don't want to wait 6 months for fresh eggs by raising chicks. The minute my hen house was ready I was out purchasing laying hens from anyone I could find. I made a few mistakes, so now that I'm a little wiser, (just a little) I wanted to share what I've learned.

I also want to mention that raising chicks, or buying fertile eggs and hatching them yourself is the safest way (less likely to have disease) by far. Also people have mentioned to me that it is rewarding raising them from chicks to hens.

1. Determine what breed suits your needs

Do you want hens only for the eggs?

Do you want them to be raised for meat and for their eggs?

Do you care what they look like, do you want them to be pretty? And what's your definition of pretty?

Do you want a rooster to eventually raise chicks yourself? I don't recommend getting a rooster at first, unless you are sure you are going to want to raise chicks soon. And if you do get one, I'd suggest reading up on the pleasures of dealing with a rooster.

If you do want to raise chicks you will want at least a few hens that will go broody. (Which means they will want to sit on eggs to hatch as chicks. If you don't want to raise chicks you will want birds that have the broodiness bred out of them. (A common example is a Rhode Island Red.)

Do you want them to be "nice" and let you handle them? Cochin's are good in that sense.

Do you care about the color of their eggs? Brown eggs and white of course are typical, but there are chickens (a popular type is an araucana) that lay "Easter egg" colors. Like pink and blue. That's a fun thing to have.

Here are a few guides to different breeds of chickens to look at.


Backyard Chickens-Breed Chart

Department of Animal Science, Oklahoma State University

The Omlet Guide to Buying Chickens A UK site

UK site for battery hens

another UK site for chicken adoption for battery hens



2. Find a local source that sells the breed you are looking for

call them and ask some questions.

How many chickens do they have?

How long have they been raising chickens?

What is their method of preventing bugs/worms?
If their answer is they spray the birds and the coop with Sevin, be aware that is a poison, and you need to wait 10 days or so after spraying to eat the hens eggs. That's how toxic it is.

A good way of preventing or doing away with worms is food grade Diatomaceous Earth. Read more about DE here Wolf Creek Ranch. Including dosage amounts for animals and humans.

Some will say they don't really do anything, and they've never had a problem. Be aware if they are free range chickens wild birds can come and bring in bugs with them.

Have they been vaccinated?

Note that if you want a more natural approach to the raising of your chickens, you might want to find a source that raises organic chickens.

You might not find a source that has everything on your list of criteria, but you can concentrate on what's most important to you.

3. Go and look at the birds in person

Now that you've found someone that has birds you are interested in, it's time to look at the birds for yourself.

Note that some farms have tight bio security, meaning they don't like visitors coming on their land and tracking in diseases that may spread to their flock. If this is the case, find out if there is a way to use plastic bags to cover your shoes, and if wearing gloves would be o.k.

Also if they are free range birds you are going to want to go when the sun is going down for the day and they are going in to roost for the night, it's not fun chasing after chickens.

Pick up the chickens. Look for bright eyes, make sure their eyes aren't watery.

You want them to be heavy, not skinny feeling at all.

You want them to be feisty, trying to get out of your hands, and flapping their wings. If they don't have alot of energy, I'd be concerned. Note that chickens are prey animals so they are good at hiding their sickness. Once they are showing sickness they have probably already been sick for awhile.

Look at their vent. This is where the eggs come out of. Make sure it looks moist. Make sure there are no signs of worms, this is where you see them usually. Also make sure their vent feathers are relatively clean.

Look at their feet. Make sure they are smooth. Not scaley. If they are scaley they might have scaley leg mites. also make sure they don't have swollen pads at the bottom of their feet, which is something called Bumble foot.

If you live in the city, here is a good site to refer to

City Chicken

I hope you find some great hens and that you enjoy raising them as much as I do!

What to do with an Abundance of Eggs

1. Make powdered eggs

It's pretty straightforward, you can do it in an oven, or a dehydrator. The video below is directions on how to do it in a regular oven. They will last 5-10 years at room temperature.
A video on how to dehydrate eggs

2. Freeze Them
There are a few ways to freeze eggs. All of them are without the shell.

*Freeze the yolks and whites seperately

*Scramble them and freeze them in ice cube trays. It will take roughly 2 "egg cubes" to equal one egg. After they are frozen remove them from trays and store in a container, or in a ziplock bag. Thaw at room temperature, or in the refrigerator. Don't thaw them in the microwave. This can cook parts of it and leave other parts still raw. If you are in a hurry, place the frozen egg cubes in a baggie, in some warm water.

*Cook them first. This can be done in a few ways. First you can scramble them and pour in a jumbo muffin pan to create the size used for a breakfast sandwich. You can do this with the eggs alone, or you can add chopped bacon or sausage or even veggies. Think of it like an omlet sandwich. You can store them in baggies to remove when needed. Or you can make up whole breakfast sandwiches and freeze those. You can also scramble them and cook them up and use them for breakfast burritos, then freeze the burritos.


Here are some dishes that use eggs

*Hard boiled eggs
*egg salad
*deviled eggs
*homemade mayonaise
*bread pudding
*french toast
*fried rice with scrambled eggs
*egg drop soup
*frittatas
*quiche
*custard or creme brulee
*crepes
*spaghetti carbonara
*egg nog
*pound cake

here are a few that use yolks only

*lemon curd
*custard based ice cream
*creme brulee

and whites only

*angel food cake
*pavlova
*meringues

What is your favorite thing to do with eggs? Let me know in the comments. Also let me know if I've forgotten any! I'm always looking for more ideas!

How to clean, green, easy and effectively!

On Tuesday, Jan. 26th, I will be talking about how to clean green and easy on my radio show on BTO.
This post is to put in writing what I'll be talking about, if you need names of products, or details etc.

Some of this information comes from my own knowledge, some of it comes from my friend Cindy Perloff who I interviewed for this article. Cindy has done cleaning professionally and is extremely good at it, I have seen her work!

How To Clean Green and Easy

Bathroom

To clean bathroom floors, first vacuum, then use warm water to clean the floor either by hand using a rag, or with a mop, or Swiffer type device using a rag in it. Or you can use a mixture of equal parts white vinegar and water to use if you feel water only won't do the job. If your floor is made of pergo, or wood, a general rule is to not let a lot of water sit on it for a long time. Just clean and wipe dry as you go.

mirrors- to clean the mirror in the bathroom use half vinegar and half water like you would Windex. Don't use paper towels, paper towels leave lint. When I worked as a nanny, the maids in the home I worked in used crumpled up newspaper for this job. If you don't have a newspaper, use an old rag that doesn't produce lint, or a microfiber rag, or a shammy type cloth.

bathtub or shower- the trick here is to clean it and maintain it. If it's quite dirty, use a mild cleanser or baking soda which is a natural cleanser and not very abrasive, or mix baking soda with a mild dish soap. A good cleanser is barkeepers friend or Bon Ami. Another cleaner that works well on tubs is Washing Soda.I mentioned in my post about how to make laundry detergent. The nearest place to buy this locally, is Fred Meyer in Lacey. It is quite useful in many areas of cleaning and natural.

A great tip Cindy gave me is after she takes a bath she uses the nylon mitts used for exfoliating or scrubbing your body, to lather up with soap (just whatever soap you've used to wash yourself) and clean the walls and tub with them. If you were to do that every time you took a bath, or even every other time, it wouldn't be much work to up keep. In the shower, Cindy uses a squeegee on the shower walls every time after showering to keep it clean, buildup and spot free. When you shower the steam helps loosen buildup, so why not clean while you're in there?

If you have a plastic shower curtain even the cheap ones can go in the washing machine. Wash it as needed. I use my nose to determine when it's time, when it smells of mildew. Don't put it in the dryer, just hang it to dry.

Toilet- to clean the toilet use the cleanser Barkeepers Friend, or another cleanser you may have, or even baking soda and vinegar. If you clean it regularly and keep the water in the toilet moving, (meaning if it's not used every day. just swish the water around every other day or so) it will prevent stains from building up. Once you have stains, it becomes a little more difficult. The two types of rings a toilet may have are either 1. stains, or 2. mineral buildup. Stains are a little easier to deal with, but the method for removing both are the same. If you have tried using cleaners and they haven't worked, use a pumice stone, (the kind to remove callouses from feet) or otherwise called a pool stone. Make sure the toilet and the stone are wet, and rub the ring. You can only use this method if you have a white porcelain toilet. Don't use this method if you have a colored toilet or a fiberglass or plastic kind of toilet.

A great tip comes from Shirley Jones (who is a friend of Cindy's) she owns a cleaning business called T and S cleaning, Shirley advises using something called an "Emery Cloth." Edited to add
my husband does not recognize this as Emery cloth, he says this is more of a drywall sanding screen. The guy at the hardware store told me it was called Emery cloth, so if it's a metal screen and flexible, and used to sand drywall, that's what you want.
This is a mesh looking weaved piece of metal material used by contractors for drywall. I purchased one a the local hardware store for a few bucks. The benefit of this over a pumice stone is that it is flexible, so you can get it in the grooves of a toilet bowl. The piece I bought was the size of a standard piece of paper. I cut off a small square to use to clean my toilet. Just make sure that it and the surface of the toilet is wet when using. Just rub it on the ring, and it will come off. I used mine on my toilet with excellent results. It didn't take much rubbing to remove a mineral ring, I am very pleased with it! With this method also, only use it if you have a porcelain toilet.

A very good discussion I found on the Internet about removing toilet rings is here at Thrifty Fun, if you are interested.

Showerhead-Unclog showerheads by filling a plastic baggie with vinegar, place the baggie over the showerhead and secure with rubber bands, leave overnight. In the morning use an old toothbrush to scrub it if needed.

Kitchen

Kitchen floors-know what your floors are made of. If they are Pergo, make sure you don't keep water on them, water gets in the seams and makes them buckle. Just wash and dry as you go. This is a good method for wood floors also which are usually laminated. Use plain water, or vinegar and water. Using a shammy or rag to dry. If you have greasy floors use anything that has a degreaser, such as dish soap along with the water.

Sink- Use a cleanser, whatever you have. Bon Ami, or Barkeepers Friend. Barkeepers Friend is good on Stainless Steel sinks.

Windows- a solution of equal parts vinegar and water, to dry use newspaper or a rag, or a shammy that doesn't leave lint.

Dishwasher- if you use a dishwasher here are some tips I have learned that I feel are useful.

-Only use the "normal" cycle. This is the cycle that has been tested the most by the manufacturer, and is the cycle that probably works the best.

-Don't use as much soap as recommended. Usually you can use about half that much with equally as good results. This will depend on what type of water you have. We have a water softener so we can use much less detergent. Too much detergent can also cause etching in glasses.

Don't put silver and stainless flatware in the dishwasher at the same time. You can however clean them separately in the dishwasher, just not together. The 2 metals react with each other and cause irreparable damage.

-Use a detergent that is labeled as "green". Or better for the environment. I buy the Trader Joe's brand I get from there. But I may start making my own, using Borax and baking soda, more on that here, at the Green Phone Booth. Traditional dish washing detergents contain phosphates which are hard on the environment.

Pots and pans- if you have a pan with caked on food, use baking soda mixed with a little water to make a paste and scrub. Use a little more water and boil it if needed and let sit for an hour. This method can also be used with salt, which is another natural abrasive as well as an antidote to grease.

Kitchen Sponges-If you use a sponge to clean dishes you probably already know how germy they can get. To keep the bacteria at bay you can microwave the sponge for 2 minutes (make sure the sponge is wet, because essentially you are boiling the sponge) or if you don't use a microwave you can throw it in the dishwasher when you do dishes, or you can simply boil the sponge in water.

Cutting Boards-My plastic cutting boards I throw in the dishwasher, however you cannot place wood cutting boards in the dishwasher because they may split. So for my wooden boards I use baking soda on them to rid them of smells from cutting garlic and other smelly things. Just make a paste with a little water and rub it on. Works almost immediately.

Misc. Tips

Cindy told me one of the smartest cleaning tips she knew had to do with mold. She said bleach does get rid of mold, but there is an essential oil based cleaner made by Young Living called Thieves that if you use it on mold the mold will NEVER come back.

Tortillas

Cinnamon Sugar flour tortilla chips with fruit salsa

I'm not Mexican, or Hispanic of any kind, so I'm not an expert on tortilla making. But I am a person who consumes tortillas. I think it is a good policy to know how to make some of the foods I buy. One reason for this is because there may be a day it won't be available at my local grocery store. Another reason is that I can decide if I want to keep buying it, or I can choose to make it from scratch from now on. It's a good feeling knowing how to make things, especially those things that come out much better than store bought.

My oven broke. Very sad for me, but alas, it will be repaired soon. Nevertheless, I had to decide what to talk about on my radio show on BTO. Anything that involved an oven was out. Last time I talked about flatbread and how wonderful it is. Elena did mention corn tortillas during that discussion, but I didn't know much about making them then. Now I do. I wanted to know how to make them, and now I want to share how wonderful it is to make them!

First I made flour tortillas. Flour tortillas are not that much different from the flat bread I talked about last week, pretty basic. You do need to roll them pretty thin to resemble tortillas. But it's easy and they make great chips. I fried these babies up, sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar and served them with fruit salsa. This dish is a real crowd pleaser. I think I'm going to make this for an appetizer for Thanksgiving dinner.

corn tortillas

Then I made corn tortillas. I am so happy I decided to make these. These are extremely easy as well. 2 ingredients, that's all it takes.Masa Harina which is corn flour, and water. You almost don't need directions, mix to make a dough, roll them up, cook them and they're done.

They have a great fresh corn taste, much better than store bought. My plan is to become a pro at making these. Never again will I have to run to the store for tortillas, with the Masa Harina in the cupboard, I will be ready at a moments notice to make these scrumptious treats.

Flour Tortillas

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tablespoon softened butter- or lard if you have it

3/4 cup water

Whisk dry ingredients together in bowl. Mix butter or lard into the dry ingredients with your fingers or 2 knives until it resembles cornmeal. Add water and mix until a dough forms.

Place on lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, just a few minutes. Then divide the dough into 12 equal portions. This is an easy task when you divide it into 2, then divide that one in half, then in thirds. Roll the portions into a ball.

On the floured surface, use a rolling pin, (or something that resembles a rolling pin) to roll out the dough into a thin round tortilla, about 6 inches across. If the dough is too sticky, use a little more flour. Repeat until you've rolled out all of the dough balls.

Preheat a sturdy pan to med high to high heat, or use a griddle. (I used a griddle on the highest heat it would go which was 400 degrees.) You want the pan hot enough so it blisters the tortilla to form little brown dots on the surface.

Cook the tortillas one at a time in a dry pan. (on my griddle I could do 2 at a time.)

On the first side cook 1 minute or so. Then flip it over and cook for about 30 seconds on the second side. Don't cook them too long, or your tortilla will become hard. If you aren't getting any color on them, (the little brown spots) you need to turn up the heat.

I made chips of mine by cutting them into triangles using a pizza cutter, then frying them in hot oil for just a minute or 2 until crisp. Then I sprinkled them with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar when just out of the oil. I flipped them over and sprinkled the other side as well.

Alternately, you can brush the tortillas with some butter, and sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar mixture then cut into triangles with a pizza cutter and bake them in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, or until crisp.

Fruit Salsa

This recipe is really just the fruit of your choice, try to use fruits that complement each other while being different, (i.e. sweet and tart) mixed with a little jam to bring the flavors together, some sugar if you think it needs it, and some lemon to keep the fruit from browning. Here's what I used this time.
1 apple
2 kiwi fruit
some strawberries
about 1 tablespoon of jam (whatever flavor you like that you think would meld well with the fruit)
1/2 lemon

Dice up the fruit into small bits. Add the juice of the 1/2 lemon. Add the jam and stir. Taste it to see if you think it needs anything else, it may need sweetener, add sugar or honey or whatever you choose. Let it sit in the fridge for an hour or so to let the flavors meld and serve.
This is wonderful the next day on yogurt or cereal.

Corn Tortillas

Since this recipe is only 2 ingredients, it's best to use good Masa Harina. I used the Bobs Red Mill brand which can be purchased at a health food store, or some grocery stores. Mexican or Hispanic markets will carry other brands as well. Try to get a brand where the only ingredients are corn and lime.

There are directions on the back of the package of the Bobs Red Mill brand, that's what I followed. I will put them here with some notes.

2 cups Masa Harina
1 cup water
a little salt (optional)
Mix them together in a bowl until a dough forms. Add a little water if necessary. Shape into 14 balls. and cover with moist towel to prevent from drying out. (they mean this, it does dry out pretty quick, but it's also forgiving. If you add a little water you can rehydrate it again easily.)
Place 1 ball between sheets of plastic (a gallon size heavy duty freezer bag cut in 2 pieces works well for this and is stronger than plastic wrap) and flatten into 6 inch disc. If you have a tortilla press, by all means use that. You will get more consistent results. I don't have one so I used a rolling pin. You want to get them pretty thin (especially if you are making them into chips) but if you are using for a taco or something else, reasonably thin is fine. The more you do this the more you will get the hang of it and how thin you want them to be.
You can work the dough over and over again if needed. Corn does not have gluten in it, so it's not like a typical dough where it would get tough if overworked.
Continue to roll out the tortillas and keep them on a plate between 2 damp towels. Or you can roll them out and cook them as soon as you roll them. Then roll another and cook it, etc.
Cook on a preheated dry griddle, or sturdy pan on medium high to high heat, one side for one minute, then flip to other side and cook for 30 seconds more. They should be pliable when done. If they are crisp, you've cooked them too long. Store them in a tortilla holder, or between 2 towels.
Tortillas freeze well and thaw quickly so it's a good idea to make more than you plan to eat and keep them in the freezer for the future.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

A few months ago I made my own laundry detergent, and I am super happy about it! Yes, this is a baking blog, and this subject is off topic, but it's something I really like to spread the word about.

Making your own laundry detergent has many advantages. The biggest of them all is how much money you save. A typical American brand of detergent, Tide, costs about 20 cents a load. Homemade detergent costs 2 cents a load. Big difference. Also compared to Tide, it works equally as well. I have been using mine solely for months now and I haven't noticed a difference in the quality a bit.

The second reason I love it so much is it really cuts down on my consumption of using plastic. I used to buy liquid detergent. Of course, it comes in a plastic container. I wanted to cut back on my usage of these plastic vessels. I know they are recyclable, but recycling takes energy. I just want to cut back where I can, where it's easy for me. And since I'm the do it yourself type of a gal, this seemed like something I wanted to do. I saved my last bottle of said detergent, and now I fill it up when I need more. (from the bucket I made it in.)

Another plus is the ingredients are relatively easy on the environment, especially compared to a typical in store brand.

It's really easy to make, and when you make it you won't have to make it again for months.

I found the recipe at The Simple Dollar. I did re write the recipe below, but I recommend you go to his website, he has a step by step detailed guide to making it here as well as the cost breakdown and a comparison test he did with both detergents.

I will speak about the details of the ingredients. He uses soap, plain soap. I used Fels Naptha. It's a bar soap used specifically for laundry. If you use another brand make sure it isn't a brand that has a bright color, or has moisturizing cream or oils in it.

Another ingredient is Borax. This is easy to find at most grocery stores in the laundry aisle. He claims it's optional, I used it.

The next ingredient is Washing Soda. Washing Soda is very close to baking soda but not the same. it's processed differently, and a few atoms away from baking soda. More about that here at Planet Green. Usually it's made by Arm and Hammer, it's in a yellow box and reads, "Super Washing Soda." For the locals, the only place I've found that carries it, is the Fred Meyer store in Lacey, I think most Fred Meyers carry it because I've seen it at different locations. It is located in the laundry aisle next to the Borax and Fels Naptha. I've asked the Yelm Food Co op to carry it, but they told me their distributors don't have it available. I've also asked Safeway, but haven't received an answer.

The Recipe
1/2 cup Borax
1 cup washing soda
1 bar soap
3 gallons of water
First thing, put about four cups of water into the pan and put it on the stove on high until it’s at boiling, then lower the heat until it’s simmering.
While it’s heating up, take a bar of soap and cut it up into little bits. I found a lot of success using our box grater, which resulted in a ton of little soap curls.
When the water is boiling, start throwing in the soap. I recommend just doing a bit at a time, then stirring it until it’s dissolved.
Stir the soapy water with a spoon until all of the soap is dissolved. Eventually, the water will take on the color of the soap you added, albeit paler.
In the end, you’ll have some very warm soap soup.
Next, get out your large container and add three gallons of warm tap water to it.
To this bucket add a cup of the washing soda, the Borax the soap solution you made and stir.
Let the soap sit for 24 hours, preferably with a lid on it. At this point I poured the soap into the old detergent bottle I saved, and stored the rest in other containers I had. You may also store it in the bucket you made it in, covered. Then add it as needed in the detergent bottle.
The soap after sitting for a while may become seperated, mine did, in the storage bottles. I do shake the detergent bottle a little before using. If the soap in the storage bottles seperates, just use a long spoon the stir it up.
More links on making your own detergent

Stretcher talks about using homemade detergent with HE machines

10 different recipes for homemade laundry detergent

Fabulous, Flexible Flatbread

Navajo fry bread type of flat bread

I am so excited about this bread! It's so easy and simple anyone can do it. It takes maybe 10 minutes (I'm being very generous here) from beginning to end, it's delicious and dirt cheap. (Well nothing is cheaper than dirt, but almost.)
Flatbread is the most elementary type of bread. It has hardly changed in thousands of years. When people started cultivating grain, flatbread was an obvious solution of how to turn hard grain into edible food. The grain was pounded into flour, mixed with water and cooked on a hot stone. The earliest method of cooking flatbread probably involved spreading the dough over a very hot rock then peeling the dough off the rock when done cooking. This method is still used by the Hopi Indians in making their blue corn piki bread.

mixing up the dough (seriously this took 2 minutes tops)

I'm going to post a basic recipe here, but really there is no recipe. If you add flour and water together to make a dough, roll it out to your desired thickness, heat it, you will have made flatbread.

The versatility of this is phenomenal. You can roll it out to any thickness you desire. Thinner it will resemble the middle eastern bread, lavash, or a tortilla, or Indian naan bread. Thicker, (about 1/4 inch thick), it will be like a Navajo fry bread.

It may be cooked in a pan like I did, with butter, oil may also be used, or it could even be heated in a dry hot pan. It may be grilled on a bbq, cooked over a camping stove, over an open flame, in an oven, or old school style, over a hot rock.

rolling out the dough to make a flatbread, this one is a little thinner, similar to naan or lavash

It can be flavored any way you can possible imagine. Just mix it into the dough. Here are some examples.
*Garlic and Rosemary
*cinnamon and sugar
*flaxseeds and sesame seeds
*Italian herbs, or oregano and basil
*Parmesan cheese and minced onion
*finely chopped kalmata olives
You can also experiment with different flours, use any type you like!

frying it up!

The uses for the bread are endless as well. My husband likes to use it to dip into stew. It can be served with dip instead of crackers, used as a taco shell, a pizza crust, or used to wrap a sandwich.

Basic Flatbread

this recipe makes 2 or 3, if you need more, just double or triple it.

Ingredients
1 cup white unbleached flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup water (to start, you may need more)
a tsp olive oil (optional, will make the bread more elastic and easier to roll and deal with as well as adding flavor)
oil or butter for frying
Directions
In a large bowl add all ingredients (except the butter or oil for frying, or course.) Mix with a spoon until it becomes a dough.
Take out the dough, on a cutting board covered in flour knead the dough a few times. If it feels too wet, add a little more flour, conversely, if it feels too dry, add a little more water. Roll it out into rounds, or the shape you desire.
Heat a pan to medium high heat. Add butter or oil (if using) (you can also cook these in a dry pan, if cooking dry, you will need a pan on high heat) If using butter, you need a med high heat, because butter will burn on high heat.
Cook in hot pan, about 2 minutes on first side, then flip and cook another 1 min. or so on the other side.
That's it! Eat and enjoy! Could it be any easier?

Triple Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Triple Chocolate zucchini muffin/cupcake

O.K. if you are lucky enough to grow zucchini or know someone who does and is happy to gift you with the lovely vegetable this bread is quite a worthy recipient.

I have been growing zucchini for the past 3 years, mostly to use for baking yummy items such as this. I shred quite a bit of it in my food processor, (you can also use a box grater for this task) and freeze it in gallon size freezer bags so I can use it for baking throughout the year.

This bread is delightfully moist, rich and very chocolaty due to the three types of chocolate involved. You would never know the zucchini is in there, you can't taste it but it adds moisture, fiber and nutrition.

Triple Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

2 (one ounce) squares of unsweetened chocolate
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (or whatever type of neutral oil you prefer)
2-2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (with the moisture squeezed out of it)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups white unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 Tablespoons cocoa
1 cup chocolate chips (plus more for sprinkling on top of bread)
1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (175 degrees C. ) Lightly grease 2 loaf pans, (or 1 big loaf pan plus 2 or 3 small loaf pans, or muffin tins if you prefer) If using a large loaf pan I recommend greasing the pan then using a parchment paper sling as show here. Grease the parchment paper also. The reason for this, is the chocolate chips like to stick to the bottom of the pan, no matter how much grease I use. It's not too bad with the small pans.

Melt the unsweetened chocolate in a pan over low heat, stir until smooth, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl combine eggs, sugar, oil, grated zucchini, vanilla and melted chocolate.
beat well with electric mixer. In another large bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and chocolate chips. Add to wet mixture, beat until combined well, 2 minutes or so. Add sour cream or yogurt mix until incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared pans 3/4 of the way full, sprinkle extra chocolate chips on top of loaves before baking if desired. Bake until toothpick inserted into center of bread comes out clean. For muffins it will take about 25-35 minutes, for small loaf about 35 minutes, for large loaf it will take about an hour, (give or take 5 or 10 minutes.)

When loaves have cooled, remove from pans and wrap with plastic wrap or foil to keep airtight.this recipe made one big loaf, the 2 small ones and one muffin/cupcake (above)
or it will yield 2 large loaves