Homemade Bagels

I'm still (slowly) working on cardigans.  In fact I cut out I started the second this morning, but haven't done enough to post yet.  I'd be working on it now, but I'd have to go through my daughters' room to get my sewing machine and I'm not sure if the 1 year old is asleep yet.

I made bagels yesterday!  I'd thought about it before, but I thought it would be too hard.  Then I found a recipe at Diaries of a Whimsical Wife.  It really wasn't that hard after all, but I forgot that Fahrenheit isn't the universal measurement for temperature, and tried to cook my bagels at 220 degrees Fahrenheit.  I thought it was kind of low, but I'd never baked something that was boiled first.  I got to thinking about where the Whimsical Wife lives (Australia) halfway through baking, and realized I should probably be using a hotter oven.  I reset my oven for 350 when I flipped them over and after that did another 5 minutes on the first side.  They turned out okay...not too doughy, but I toast them before I eat them anyway.

Here are mine.  Oh, and half of my flour was whole white wheat.

Nestle Tollhouse Pie Bars

Nestle Tollhouse Pie has always been my favorite, so I was excited when I found this recipe for it in bar form...lots easier than rolling out and transferring a pie crust!  Here's how mine turned out.

I'm taking it to my in-laws' this weekend or you would be seeing this with a big piece missing...I can't wait to share!

Making Chai

I like to sit down for a bit during nap time with my bible and this...

The first time I had cream in my tea I didn't like it, but I've acquired a taste for it.  Most days I use 2% milk or non-dairy creamer (I heard somewhere that putting diary in tea cancels out the antioxidants in the tea and the calcium in the milk. Anybody know if that is true?)

Something else I've acquired a taste for is chai latte.  I think it's like cappuccino for tea drinkers!  A few years ago I looked around for recipes to make my own, but didn't come up with anything that was as easy as I would have liked.  I've tweaked what I've found and came up with this recipe.

leaves from 8 tea bags (or 8 teaspoons of loose leaf tea)

2t ground ginger

2t ground cardamom

1T ground cinnamon

1/2 t ground cloves

10 pepper mill twists

Mix and store in an air tight container.  I used a baby food jar.

I found a printable from Martha Stewart for the front of the jar.

I used a little less than a teaspoon of the mix in my mesh tea diffuser for 5 minutes like I would any loose leaf tea.  Add 1t sugar and 2% milk to taste (chai buffs will tell you that whole milk or cream will mask the flavor of the spices and the sugar helps bring them out). 

Because I used preground spices there were a lot of dredges that made it through, but it settled to the bottom of my cup so it didn't bother me much.  I think it would be better if I could get a hold of whole spices and ground them myself, but I'm not sure if I could justify the cost.  I haven't done a price analysis, but I think the cardamom was probably the most expensive part I put in...I think I used about 25 cents worth.

Enjoy! and let me know if you have any suggestions.

Granola

I've been making some homemade granola.  I'm saving packaging and trips to the store, and of course it saves money too (yea).

My prices:
Brown Sugar 2lbs $1.49
Syrup 27oz $2.98
Oil 96 T $2.69          
Oats 15 C $1.99     
Raisins 3 C $1.69        

With my recipe that comes to $1.12 for a 6 serving batch.  As opposed to $3.27 for an 8 serving package.

• Mix 1/4 C packed brown sugar, 3 1/2 C Oats, and 1/4 t salt.
• Mix 2 T vegetable oil (I use canola) and 1/4 C syrup.
• Combine mixtures, spread on lightly greased cookie sheet, bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through.
• After cooled,  put in airtight container with 1/2 C raisins.

We use it so fast that I double the recipe and store in an empty oatmeal container, and we still use it up before it gets stale.

Laundry Detergent

Here's the run down.

76 oz Borax $3.97
55 oz Washing Soda $2.98
Fels Naptha bar $0.97

1 batch of powder laundry detergent:
1 C Borax ($.42)
1 C Soda ($.44)
1 bar soap grated ($.97)

I tend to cut my hands up a lot, so this is as small as I felt comfortable grating my soap.  I thought I would use it for stain removal so it wouldn't be wasted.

My husband didn't think I should leave it out of the detergent.  Fortunately, he knows how to use a knife.  Actually, I think he saw it as a challenge.

Then I mixed it well. Hmm, sorry about the messy table.  I usually hide our piles on the bed when we have company.  I'm sure you don't have clutter on yours.

Total cost $1.83 for approximately 48 Tablespoon loads.  Even if I call it 36 loads figuring in for settling it's still around 5 cents a load.  In my quick look on soap.com and amazon.com I found Purex liquid detergent for $6.25/32 loads ($.20/load) and a 35 lbs bucket of powder detergent for around 10 cents a load, and you had to spend close to $100 to get that good of a deal!

I used it today.  I forgot to get a load out of the washer before it got stinky...usually pretty hard to get that smell out, but I couldn't smell the sour laundry after running it again with the homemade detergent and my picky husband commented on how good the laundry room smelled after rewashing and drying the load...we were more than satisfied!  If you decide to make your own laundry detergent, tell me how it works for you.

Saving Money in the Laundry Room

My husband's friend makes his own laundry detergent.  And we were thinking we would try it to save some money...but it has to be boiled and that just hasn't sounded very appealing (and I haven't needed any more until now), but I found this recipe for powder laundry detergent.  Looks pretty easy, and it's basicly the same stuff that is in our friend's liquid detergent minus the boiling water!  So while I'm out of town this week, I'll be off to the store.  I'll let you know how it all turns out.