Not so crazy

I finally found a natural recipe that I'm not so crazy about. It took me awhile to try because it's quite a leap...natural deodorant. I tried this recipe because I had all the ingredients on hand. Even saved my empty deodorant bottle (is it a bottle? can? jar? holder? what do you call that thing?). I knew I would have to refrigerate it because the coconut oil melts at 76 degrees and we keep our thermostat on 78. But I thought that maybe it would be refreshing to apply chilled deodorant.

Well, the first strike against it was the remembering to put it on. Once I'm out of the bedroom, I hit the ground running, meeting demands thrown at me by whoever is loudest. So I often forgot to use it until my pits reminded me that they were bare.

Then strike two and three came at the same time. I had put it on one day when I knew I'd just be around the house, trying to give it a good trial run before taking it public. I went in the bathroom and stopped in front of the mirror to re-do my pony tail. With arms above my head, I saw the verdict under both arms....huge oily circles on my gray t-shirt. It wasn't wet, I assure you. I think it must have been the coconut oil working itself into the cotton of my shirt. Of course, I looked like a sweaty construction worker with huge rings under my arms. I hadn't noticed before because I was wearing darker colors that camouflaged the circles. That shirt still needs to be laundered, but I haven't noticed any stains on other shirts. Nevertheless, homemade deodorant is dead to me. I've got to draw the line somewhere and I prefer to keep my dignity and modesty in tact, tucked out of sight under my arms, thank you very much.

More Natural Stuff

So, I've gone natural with shampoo, conditioner, and face cleanser. I also wanted to try some natural household cleaners, so I started with homemade dish detergent and laundry detergent. I used this recipe for dish detergent and so far, it's working great. One time I noticed some residue left on the dishes after the dishwasher had run, but I can't say for certain if it was a result of the detergent or the person who did the rinsing (hint: it wasn't me). I'm very much a rinse-it-almost-clean kind of girl. I have yet to find the right combination of dishwasher and detergent that will actually clean dirty dishes without having to rinse them first. If someone out there knows this magical combination, please share it with me for the love of all that is dishpan hands!! As a general (and rather concise, wouldn't you say?) review, I rate this recipe as effective as commercial detergent and certainly cheaper, more simple and environmentally friendly to boot.

Equally cheap and green, this site has some great recipes for homemade laundry detergent. I chose the powdered one, mainly because I don't have any two- or five-gallon buckets that I want to leave lying about in my laundry room full of tempting goo for a toddler and preschooler to happen upon. I did sub Ivory soap for the Fels Naptha because I couldn't find the latter. I haven't noticed any problems with it dissolving in the washer, but next time I will use the fine side of my grater to grate the Ivory, just for my peace of mind. It seems to get the clothes just as clean as the liquid All that I was using. I'm still using Shout as a spray pre-treatment, especially on all of C's stains. I'm not sure if it's the Shout or the detergent that gets it all clean. But I know I'm saving a load of dough on laundry detergent!

Cheer it with me....Yyyyyeeaaa, GO NATURAL!

Recipe Finds

I've found a few new keepers recently to add to my regular rotation and thought I would pass them on. I think coming up with meals that satisfy the whole family, meet reasonable nutrition guidelines, and don't consume vast quantities of money, time or energy is one of my toughest jobs and I always need fresh ideas. Please share yours.

Very Easy and Tasty Pasta with Tomato and Feta - name says it all. I have made it without the feta and it's just as good. Beats Carino's and is super easy. Will fumigate your house with garlic, though.

Take-Out Fried Rice - cheap and easy. I usually make a big batch of rice any time I cook it and put leftovers in the freezer. Then I can combine the leftovers into one fried rice meal.

Crock-Pot Cowboy Beef & Baked Beans Stew - for the meat and potato lover at your table

Easy Cubed Steak Crock Pot Casserole - I did not use nearly as many potatoes as the recipe called for or we would have been up to our ears in potatoes. But that's an easy way to stretch the recipe.

Sesame Peanut Noodles - another cheap one. I didn't care for the cucumber called for, so I omitted it. I substituted yellow squash once and that was good, but it didn't keep very well for leftovers. Next time, I'll just use the carrots and do squash on the side.

Bon appetit!

Maybe tomorrow

So I wanted to find an activity to occupy my girls while I got some stuff done on the computer. During nap, I found a recipe for no-bake playdough and thought we'd give that a whirl. I spent an HOUR making playdough!! That is the opposite of what I was going for. I needed the girls to be occupied for an hour, not me! Not to mention that my hands are now quite sore from kneading 2 cups of flour into 1/2 cup of water. And of course, by the time I got the food coloring worked into the last ball of playdough, C was consuming mass quantities of the first ball and A announced that she was done with it all. Needless to say, the budget did not get updated this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow.

Thanks for the dance

I feel the need to document the way I spent the last 45 minutes. I just finished a memorable, rather intimate dance with one 15-pound raw turkey. As I cut open the bag, I took one good look at him and said, "Allright, turkey, let's dance." (It was best the family wasn't home to witness the spectacle.) Tom was a rather silent dance partner; he even allowed me to lead. Though I should say he tried to get away more than a few times. I was not offended, but even more resolved to finish what we had started. I should have known he would be very accommodating when he put his neck on the line.

Okay, I have to break with the analogy now because I really did yank the poor thing's neck out of his body cavity. I didn't want the pun to be mistaken for his moment of death. Nevermind the backbone I demonstrated by doing it. Sorry, that one was awful; I'll stop now.

I'm actually pretty excited about the turkey. This is the first time I've done the whole shebang. I went with the Perfect Roast Turkey recipe from RecipeZaar and it sounds like it should be really delicious. If it doesn't turn out to be a keeper, well, at least I'll always have that dance.

Sit down

This is crazy huge. Are you sitting down?

Yes, it's a chicken. A raw chicken. A raw, whole chicken. Only thing missing is the head and feathers. Any one who has known me for any length of time knows that I have an irrational neurosis about preparing or eating meat that resembles its original source too closely. That doesn't mean I don't want my meat to be fresh. I just prefer to not be able to envision the poor thing that gave it's life for my pot pie.

That said, I have come to terms with the fact that roasting a whole chicken is much more economical than buying chicken breasts. Alas, my penny-pinching has defeated my animal-lover. I did of my own accord and by my own hand prepare, roast, and consume the aforementioned chicken. (J did help take the leftover meat off the bones, but I was perfectly willing to do it.)

I had planned to document the whole experience in photos, because this is a pretty big milestone for me. But digital cameras and raw chickens are not normally good co-workers. So you only get the one photo while it was still nicely wrapped and sanitary, and only vaguely in the shape of a poor little chicken body.

Once I unwrapped said chicken, well, there you go. No mistaking it now--that's a headless chicken. The directions were easy enough. Rinse, pat dry, remove giblets from cavity, season, roast. I can do this. I even allowed myself only 15 minutes to get it done so I wouldn't hesitate. Rinsing done, little wings getting slightly more flappy. We'll skip the patting dry business. Remove giblets from cavity. Hmmm. Now that it's over, all I can say is that the directions were just trying to be polite. What I really had to do was put my hand inside the chicken's southern-most body opening, locate and remove its internal organs--all easily identifiable from my freshman biology class. That was obviously the most traumatic part, but then came the Great Pan Debacle of '09.

After seasoning the chicken, I put it in my pan of choice only to find that the lid wouldn't stay on. Wash hands, find new pan. Try again. Same dilemma. Allow me to point out that I have a big roasting pan, but the recipe pointed out the importance of using a pan that was just big enough so that the chicken would stay juicy and not dry out. So, wash hands, find new pan. Rinse, repeat. Finally ended up with the original pan, held closed by foil. You can imagine by this point how floppy the little bird had gotten at being handled so much. I really wanted to try holding it by its pitiful little wings and making it dance, but I was afraid I would rip the bones out of their sockets and the whole thing would have gone in the trash.

I am happy to report that this post is so long because it was a cathartic experience for me to have accomplished this and knowing I could blog about it gave me the wherewithal to do it. I have since learned that summoning the courage to insert my seasoning inside the chicken will yield more flavor (hat tip to my big sis), so I am willing to try again. In a few months.