Monday, August 31, 2009

A busy week-end


Wow, what a busy week-end! I did not have the best week last week, so I am hoping that this week will be much improved!

Jess brought me a box of peaches on Saturday, and they were just perfect to can; so I sliced some of them up to eat with cream and sugar, and canned the rest. I got a cooker full to that exciting, since I was completely out of canned peaches. I never thought that I would be asking my daughter about canning, but Jessica has been such a canner this year! She told me that Ben's grandma, Beverly Tanner told her, that her mother, Vela Mecham Brinkerhoff, used to leave one peach pit in each jar, because it gave the juice such a pretty color. So I left one pit in each jar and the juice is such a pretty dark red!

Saturday afternoon, we had to go to the grocery store, and since I only got 7 quarts of peaches, we decided to go get another box of peaches! I guess I am just a glutton for punishment! They're not ready yet so I will have a few days to let them sit and get ripe - but they smell so good every time I walk into the kitchen!

I can remember going to Utah as a child and getting peaches - you could smell them in the trunk all the way home, yum, yum!

Last week my oven went out, so we had to get a new stove, (the horrible week thing) but it won't be here until Tuesday, and can't be installed until Wednesday - I would really like to make a peach cobbler or a peach pie! I am watching Christian, Taylor Jo and Averi for 10 days, so maybe they can help. The peaches should be perfect by then.

After I canned, I decided that I would make a new recipe for laundry soap that I found - It was so easy and smells delightful, Just like grandma's. It was fairly easy, and you only use 2 tablespoons per load - more if you are washing work clothes or heavily soiled clothing. Here is the recipe for anyone interested:


Powdered Laundry Soap


3 bars of Fels Naptha bar soap - you can buy it in the laundry section
(You can also use Ivory, Castile, which I haven't seen for years, or Pink Zote - although I have never heard of Pink Zote)
1 - 4 lb. box of Borax
1 - 3 lb. box of Washing Soda
1 - 3 lb. box of Baking Soda

Mix the Borax, Washing Soda and Baking Soda in a large container - I used my cold pack canner. Grate the Fels Naptha using the smallest grate on your grater or your food processor grating device. After I grated the soap, I put about a cup at a time into my food processor, with the blade attachment and about 1/4 cup of the dry mixture and processed it until it was powdery - just took a minute or two. after that was all done, I mixed it altogether and put it in old ice cream containers to store it. I can't wait to wash my sheets with it and hang them outside to dry!




Sunday was such a gloomy, cloudy day, so I decided that I would make chicken and dumplings. You know, I don't know if you are like me, but I have hundreds of cookbooks! Some I have bought, some I collected at second hand stores and others have been given to me. I cherish each one, but I seldom use them. I get really used to going to the computer for a recipe, instead of getting out a cookbook. I took out an old Good Housekeeping cook book for the recipe - I got this particular book at a second hand store. The copyright was 1963, and there were some old recipes cut from a newspaper and a magazine inside. I found the best recipe for dumplings! In my opinion, we depend on the computer way, way too much. I'm going to start using my old cookbooks more often - they were very useful for so many years, and I have some really good and interesting cookbooks to read again ( I read them like novels!?) and maybe find some of the old recipes that I used to love to make. Have a wonderful day everyone -

Blessings, Barb





1 comment:

Mrs. U said...

Wow, hundreds of cookbooks?? That must be FUN! And you must have some seriously good food in your home!!! YUM!!!

His,
Mrs. U

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