Trying to be a good wife

Many thanks to Marcia and Jillyn who have each assisted me greatly in trying to be a better wife and homemaker...I LOVE this recipe combination!

Jillyn's White Bread Bowls

Recipe from Jillyn Nelson

(I halved the recipe)

4 cups water and 3 Tbls. yeast. Mix together and let sit for two minutes.

Then add and beat till smooth:

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup shortening

1/3 cup powdered milk

1/2 cup sugar

4 cups flour

Change the beaters to kneading attachment.

Add 4-5 more cups of flour a little at a time until desired consistency and dough

begins to pull away from sides of mixer. Knead for 3 minutes. Let rise in a greased

bowl until double in size. Pinch off balls and put on a greased pan. Let rise again. For bread bowls, they should be a large fist size. Cook at 350 for 20 minutes.

Butternut Squash Soup

Recipe from Marcia Schmitt

Ingredients:

4 T. unsalted butter

2 lbs. butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into ½ inch chunks

¾ c. chopped onion

¾ c. chopped celery

¼ c. apple juice

6 c. chicken broth

1 ½ t. vanilla extract

Instructions:

Heat butter in large saucepan until melted. Add all vegetables and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add apple juice and cook for 30 seconds. Add chicken broth. Heat to boiling. Then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until squash is tender (about 25 minutes). Remove from heat and add vanilla. Puree mixture with immersion blender and serve hot. Yields 8 one-cup servings.

Super healthy and so creamy you'd never know!

Make your own laundry detergent

When my wonderful sister (Marcia) was here over Christmas, we made our own laundry detergent and I'm totally hooked. I'm attempting to be super frugal and making your own detergent costs close to $.01 PER LOAD! Umm, ya, this is an amazing savings. I do so much more laundry with Lily and I'm so glad Marcia suggested we try it out. I tried to take pictures, but only ended up with a few random shots, so take this for what it's worth.

I started out needing a bucket to put the soap in. I went to the grocery store and asked for an empty bucket and they gave me an empty frosting bucket for free!


Marcia used an empty laundry container. She had obviously planned ahead better than I did. We used an empty water bottle for the funnel since I don't own a funnel.

Ingredients:

1. A bar of soap, like Kirk's Castile. I've heard Fels Naptha or Ivory work, too.

2. Washing Soda, in the laundry isle.

3. Borax, also in the laundry isle.



Put 1/2 quart of water in a large saucepan. Boil water. Meanwhile, grate the soap with a cheese grater.
Add the soap to the boiling water and stir until it melts.



Then, add 1 cup of borax to nearly-boiling water and 1 cup of washing soda. If you're Marcia and I, the water will boil over and make a HUGE soapy mess all over your entire kitchen.

Then, start completely over again. :) Ha! We cleaned up the mess and started over. This time, we took the pot off of the heat after the soap melted. We poured in the washing soda before the Borax and then poured the Borax in a little at a time. Marcia grated the second time around.


Stir the mixture until it's all dissolved. We didn't have a 5 gallon bucket, so we split it into two buckets (trash cans that we washed out). We put 8 cups of hot water in each, then added the cooked soap. We then added 16 cups of hot water to each and stirred.

We covered the mixtures and let them sit for 24 hours. Marcia has an HE machine, but this soap works for her. I use about 1/2 cup of soap per load. So far, it's great! The soap is a little funny. It's really just liquid with bits of gel in it. But, that's how it's described on lots of recipes, so I think we did it right. :) We didn't, but some people add essential oils to add scent. That also increases the cost.

Hurray! I am definitely going to do it again. Our clothes seem clean and I love that it's better for the environment, my wallet AND it's gentle for Lily's skin. Anyone else out there make their own soap!?

Carrot Cake

Due to the high demand for the recipe for the carrot cake I raved about, I thought I would post it!

Thanks, Alisa! (who doesn't read my blog...)

CARROT CAKE

3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 ½ cups corn oil
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbsp vanilla
1 ½ cups chopped walnuts
1 ½ cups shredded coconut
1 11/3 cups pureed cooked carrots (approx. 6 med. carrots – blender works fine)
¾ cups drained, crushed pineapple (1 20 oz. can)
1 ½ cups raisins coated in 1 tbsp flour

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2, 10-inch layer cake pans lined with wax paper.

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Fold in walnuts, coconut, carrots and pineapple. Fold in raisins.

Pour batter into pans. Set on middle rack and bake 40-50 minutes or until edges have pulled away from sides and a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool on rack for 3 hours (or overnight). Fill cake and frost sides with Cream Cheese Frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

8 oz. cream cheese at room temp.
6 tbsp butter at room temp.
3 cups powdered sugar (I sometimes need a bit more)
1 tsp vanilla
juice of ½ lemon (approx. 1 tsp.)

Cream together cream cheese and butter.
Slowly sift in powdered sugar and continue beating until fully mixed. Mixture should be free of lumps. Stir in vanilla and lemon juice.