Eastern North Carolina BBQ Recipe

This post has been moved to my new blog!

http://mooremagnets.com/2013/04/13/eastern-north-carolina-barbeque/

Organizing Task - Recipes ... and other foodie books

For a while now I have wanted to get my recipe's and cookbooks out of my bedroom and into my kitchen where I use them.  You see, we only have one bookshelf in the house for adult books (the kids each have one in their rooms), so all of my books no matter the subject are in my bedroom.  Which means constant tromping between rooms when I am looking for a recipe.

I was inspired to get this done this week by the 52 Weeks of Organizing on Home Storage Solutions - Here's the post in case you are inspired too! http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/organize-recipes.html

Several years ago I made 2 binders full of page protectors, photo pages, and made fabric covers for them.  The fabric covers are showing their age now, but that is a project for another day!  I love the page protector sleeves because when I find a recipe that has been given the husband and boy stamp of approval, then I can just drop it in the page protector.

Generally I don't have a lot of recipes that haven't been given the hubby and boy stamp of approval.  I tend to keep a bookmark folder on my computer with potential recipes, and then I print them when I want to make them.  If they are no good the paper goes in the trash, and if they are winners they go in the binder.

So, I decided to clean out one space in one cabinet for my books ... this is the cabinet that I chose to tackle

 I decided that the spinning thing for plastic containers needed to go.  Sure, it is handy-dandy, but several of the containers have broken, most of the small ones are just too small, and the larger ones are all being used by food in the freezer and can be easily stacked with the other plastic containers.  So ... it is gone!

Next, I gathered all of my cookbooks and recipe books.  I have a few other gardening books that are an excellent resource for canning and preserving foods that I pulled out also to store with the cookbooks. I also got rid of some of the cookbooks that I really just felt repeated recipes from the other books, put my recipes in the binder into the sleeves, and tossed the ones that I have decided I don't like or will never make.

Unfortunately there was a glitch in my plan ... because the books were too tall for my shelf!  So I opened the cabinet next door and a larger space that was occupied by the bread maker looked like perfect real estate!

In the challenge it also talks about organizing your recipes, but luckily besides putting some away in my binder, my recipes are fairly organized already!

I have decided that I use the bread maker a lot more when it is on my counter and not in the cabinet.  Cause really it is too heavy to be on that top shelf anyway. 

Homemade Spray Starch Tutorial

I really dislike ironing.  However, since I work with lots of fabric, it is a necessary evil.

I tend to use a lot of spray starch, just because I do think that it adds a crispness to the fabric and ultimately makes my job a bit easier.

I do not, however, like the smell of spray starch that you purchase at the store.  So again ... in my quest to find more natural products and things that will save me money and I can make at home ... I have discovered the spray starch recipe!

This one is so easy!! 

Just one pint of cold water and one heaping tablespoon of corn starch!  You can add a drop or two of essential oil, but since I am sensitive to scents I do not add any smelly stuff.  Shake it well!!  and remember to give it a good shake before each use!

I had to try it out on some black cotton fabric, and I was pleasently surprised that there were very minimal if any at all white flakes ... which is almost always an issue when using store bought starch.

I had to make a pretty label for my bottle!

Other homemade recipes:

Weed Killer (White Vinegar and Dishwashing liquid)
Bathroom Cleaner (White Vinegar and Dishwashing liquid)

Homemade weed killers ... a tutorial and results

I really dispise spraying chemicals all over the place ... seems that you need a gagillion chemicals around your house for cleaning, pest control, weed control, and all sorts of other things. I have seen a lot of neat ideas for storing all of these bottles of stuff on Pinterest lately, but what I would really like to do is take a different approach.

First, I would like to reduce the number of chemicals in my house significantly! Second, I would like to take a more natural approach for tackling these things. Lastly, I would really like to have more space for things I actually want in my house and not so much space dedicated to stuff I dislike having in my house.

Therefore I have been really researching homemade remedies for things. Now, it would be wonderful to say that I could eliminate my need for weed killer 100% by mulching and pulling weeds. However, since we live on almost 7 acres and I love to garden veggies and flowers ... I am fairly realistic that I don't have what it takes to maintain all of that without a little weed killing intervention.

So ... I have seen several recipes for weed killers that are a mixture of distilled white vinegar and diswashing soap. Which is absolutely fantastic since it is the same two things that I am mixing together for tub, shower, sink, and general bathroom cleaner. You can find a post about that here: http://mooremagnets.blogspot.com/2012/01/skeptical-about-homemade-cleaning.html

So, I am trying out the recipe for 1 quart white vinegar with 1 tablespoon of Dawn dishwashing liquid.  I have to note that the mixture that I am using today has more Dawn dishwashing liquid because I am using my partially empty bottle of the shower cleaner mixture which is 2 parts white vinegar to 1 part Dawn dishwashing liquid.  However, at the moment I don't have another spray bottle empty.

Here is the weed ... I gave it a good spray

 

And this is 24 hours later - Please note that we have not had any rain and our temperatures just barely reached freezing, so no frost was involved.

 

I am actually pretty pleased with the results on this particular weed.  However, there were several others that I sprayed and the results were not nearly as significant.  So, this morning I poured more vinegar in my mixture to make it closer to the 1 quart to 2 tablespoons recipe.  I will update you again in a few days! 

Skeptical about homemade cleaning products ... But this one works!

For years I have been really sensitive to fragrances and cleaners, and I have had to change the types of things that I buy because of it.  This runs the gamut from laundry detergent, to lotions, to hand cleaners, and especially cleaning products!

I have seen many receipes for cleaning, and I have no doubt that dilluted vinegar does a great job cleaning windows, and lemon is a life savor for smells in the kitchen.  However, those hard to clean places, like tubs and showers ... well I confess that I have always just broken down and purchased commercial cleaning products.

I recently came across a pin on pinterest for a tub and shower cleaner - Tub and Shower Cleaner that used Dawn dish detergent and white vinegar ... and I just had to try it because even the commercial cleaning products just don't do too well on the soap scum and mineral buildup from our well water.

The mixture is a 1 to 1 ratio of blue Dawn dish detergent and white distilled vinegar.  They recommend hot vinegar, but I have mixed it with the vinegar cool and gotten the same results.

Update!  I recently mixed it as a 2 to 1 ratio with 2 parts vinegar to 1 part blue Dawn and achieved the same results.  I may try reducing it even more as it is very soapy!

I have to say that I am THRILLED with the results!  I will absolutely not be buying any commercial tub and shower cleaner again!  I can't say that I didn't do any scrubbing, because I did ... here's the picture to prove it ... But the amount of scrubbing I did was the same as I do when I use a commercial cleaner ... Only I wasn't gasping for air, running the bathroom fan, and had to sit outside for at least 30 minutes after I was finished.

My house does smell a bit like vinegar, but it must not be that bad because my son isn't complaining about it!

I only mixed up a small amount.  Instead of the 12 oz and 12 oz mixture they indicate, I only did 4 oz and 4 oz ... frankly cause I didn't want to use all the vinegar I had, and I also didn't want this strange mixture around if it didn't work to my satisfaction.

The mixture wasn't nearly as clear looking as the picture above - that looks more like glass cleaner to me.  Mine was thicker and milky looking.  I will try increasing the vinegar and lessening the Dawn next time.  However, I do think the thicker mixture allowed it to hang on the walls of the shower for a longer time.

Now, I can't wait to make my tub all sparkly and remove that film!