Grocery Shrink

Baking soda has been toted as a great odor remover.  If you’ve tried it, most likely you’ve been disappointed.  That is because baking soda is chemically formulated (its a base) to remove acid odors and performs poorly with other types.  There is one acid odor that is specially troublesome (from the stomach), especially if it is created in a car on a long trip :).  A friend of mine keeps baking soda and water in a travel sized spray bottle (the kind you can purchase to put hairspray in).  2 teaspoons in the tiny bottle is enough.  Shake it up and spritz on the odor and it should neautralize.  If the odor returns reapply as needed.  This works really well on baby spit up or sour milk too.

The cake pictured was made with pears instead of apples.  The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of oil!  2 cups of sugar and white flour.  With all the goodness of the fresh fruit, I couldn’t bear to do the recipe as written.  I removed a full cup of oil and added an extra cup of fruit.  Then with the added sweetness from the extra fruit, I removed a half cup of sugar and replaced the white flour with whole wheat.  It was delicious and healthy enough for me to serve for breakfast.  Here’s the recipe:

Mix 1/2 cup oil (any kind you feel is healthiest), 3 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 1/2 cups sugar with an electric mixer. 

Add 1 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cloves and 3 cups of whole wheat flour.

Fold in 4 cups of chopped pears or apples.  Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

. . .a princess touch.

Our to do list is still in progress.  The dry erase marker did NOT come out.  Hairspray, Hand Sanitizer, and Goof-Off didn’t do a thing.  My mom says she can paint over the spots and make it look like normal.  I’m still thinking about it.  My mom is pretty amazing.

I did give that boy a love though.  We read as many books as he could sit for and his dimply smiles make it all worth it.

The patches went on the shirts well.  I used clear thread on the top and bobbin thread to match the shirt.  That way I didn’t have to change thread to match each patch.  The Daddy scout was so excited to get his finished shirt that he had it on before he was all the way in the door.

And we are still processing through the apples.  I finally gave up near midnight last night and will start again this morning.  We have 7 quarts and 14 pints so far.  And at least that many more to do.  It will feel so good to have homemade organic applesauce through the winter.

My recipe is to wash and quarter the apples, removing any bad spots or worms.  Cook the apples without water until soft and then process in a food mill to remove the core and skin.  I like to cook the apples with skin on.  It saves time, adds nutrition and a rosey hue to the finished sauce.   Then I fill clean jars with the warm sauce, secure a 2-part lid and process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes.  It’s so easy and so satisfying.  We prefer not to add sugar or any spices and just enjoy the natural flavor of the apples.  I leave most of the juice in, since we favor a moist sauce over a dry one.

My new favorite way to cook the apples is in a steam juice extractor.  I borrowed this one from my mom, but Amazon has reasonable prices if you plan to do a lot of home canning.  Tomatoes and grapes are also lovely in this.  It basically has 3 levels.  The bottom pan is full of water and steams the upper level.  The middle level collects the juice and the top level holds the fruit.  It’s impossible to burn the fruit with this method, even if you get involved in a stack of picture books with the cutest children in the world.

I also cooked a batch of apples while we were at ballet class in my slow cooker.  It took a lot longer than I expected, overnight would work.  But I could leave the house and still make progress on the apples.  You might wonder why I don’t just cook the apples in a stock pot like normal people?  Well, I have a tendancy to burn things, even with water in the pot.  When the smoke alarm goes off, the kids yell, “Come on, Lunch is ready.”  And I learned that one scortched apple will flavor the whole pot.  Not one jar of our slaved-over sauce from last year is edible due to the charcoal undertones.  That was the second year in a row so I found new methods.

This afternoon I’ll share another apple recipe that I modified for a healthy breakfast.  Tis the season for fresh apples!

P.S.  I snagged my powerful Kitchen Aid food mill on eby for $25.  But if you don’t have one, you can peel and core your apples and then puree them in the blender, or use a potato masher for chunky sauce, yum!

In lieu of an interesting post I am jotting down a quick to do list.  My kiddoes need me and are getting into trouble.  So in the midst of keeping tabs on themI will be trying to:

1.  Get dry erase marker out of a new Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Quilt …Grrr

2.  Put up about 60 lbs of apples into sauce–yum

3.  Sew patches on boyscout uniforms before tonight

4.  Teach homeschool lessons to 4 kiddoes

5.  See if I can find some clean clothes to put back into the drawers

6.  And hug this cutie who has been getting lost in the shuffle lately.

Catch you later when I emerge from the pile.

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In the process of remodeling our kitchen, we had to replace a nearly new oven.  It was a wall oven and our new layout used a range.  We planned to resell the oven on craigslist, but I knew it would need a good cleaning to get a fair price.  Unfortuneately, it was covered with baked on grease and carbon residue.

Thankfully there is a homemade softscrub that is non-toxic and chemically formulated to relase grease and dissolve carbon.  When the grime is baked on as well as in the example above, a scrubbbing pad makes everything go faster.

1.  Mix baking soda and dishsoap into a paste that resembles cake frosting.

2.  Spread the mixture onto the trouble spot.  Wait a few minutes for the baking soda to react with the carbon and the dishsoap to react with the grease.

3.  Use a scrubbing pad to remove the grime.  If you have to walk away and it dries out you can lightly mist with water to reactivate the mixture.

As you scrub, the mixture will absorb the grime and turn brown.  It will dry and roll up into a ball.  You can sweep this up and toss it and wipe with a clean rag to remove the remaining residue.

Notice in the above picture how you can start to see the blue around the glass again.  The window is becoming clear too.  A lot of elbow grease left to use and it will look barely used.

It’s not scrub free, but it works well.  Although it’s safe for hand contact, I found the mixture drying and liked to use gloves with it.

I’ve taken to wiping down my new oven after every use.  I don’t want to clean anything this bad again!

I have several recipes that call for bread crumbs–homemade chicken nuggets, baked onion rings, manicotti, and meatloaf to name a few.  When I make my own, I save money, but I also know the breadcrumbs are whole grain. 

It’s a double treat, because my family doesn’t enjoy bread heels (unless they are straight from the oven, yum!)  Sometimes I buy our bread from the day old bread store.  It’s not as good as homemade but it holds together great for sandwiches :).  I can snag a loaf of 100% whole grain bread there for less than $1 if I work it right.  I immediately pull out the heels and place them on a plate overnight.

The next morning, I put them in my vita-mix dry container.  A food processor works just as well.  Once they are blended,  I slip them in a baggie and label it.  It takes less than 5 minutes!

You can do this with homemade bread too.  It tends to dry out more quickly than store bought and once it’s no longer tasty, use a few slices for breadcrumbs and make French toast or croutons with the rest :).  You can Italian seasoning to the mix for flavored bread crumbs too. 

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