Dishwasher Cubes

I'll admit I was a bit skeptical if these would work.  A few years ago I tried a homemade dishwasher powder and I didn't like it but I have to say these homemade dishwasher cubes work pretty darn good.

I got the recipe from here: http://www.louises-country-closet.com/2013/03/homemade-dishwasher-detergent-cubes.html  I pretty much followed the recipe except for the bottled lemon juice, I used real lemon that I actually squeezed because I didn't have a bottle of "Real Lemon," lol.

I had bought the silicone mini ice cube trays to freeze food I was going to use in my blender for smoothies and they were a tad small but they work great for the dishwasher cubes.  I use one cube in my dishwasher and not only did all my dishes come clean but I didn't have the funky smell I usually get from my dishwasher, it was nice and lemony.

From the recipe I got 27 cubes, just make sure to really pack it down, let it dry overnight, and they will pop right out the next day.

Girlfriends!

Stewart, Russel, and Sam have girlfriends!  We started with four peahens and Pops had them in Grandma's chicken coop for about a week.  The boys were pacing and showing off all up and down the fence, it was ridiculous, but we all know boys when they are showing off for girls.



Pops let them out and they quickly migrated over to my house.  They spent time perusing my garden a few times a day.  After a few days there was only three and a body was discovered over in the Gully Field, sadly one had been killed but we don't know by what.  If it were coyotes they probably wouldn't have left a body, and feathers would have been all over the place.  I didn't see the girls for a few days, most likely they were hiding from fear, and now only two have come back, we haven't found another body.  The remaining two are now sticking very close to my back deck and my newly planted garden (grrrrh) but I think they know this is a safe place.

Raw Vegan Banana Bread Biscuits

Ooooh these are tasty little morsels!  They are uncooked and dried in a dehydrator.  I found the recipe on YouTube and she got it from ANI PHYO’s dessert book.  I had to make a couple changes to the recipe because Sydney and Hubby are allergic to cashews and pecans so I subbed out the cashews for peanuts and the pecans for almonds, I also added in about a 1/4 cup of chia seeds and a handful of dried craisins.  I don’t know if this still qualifies as “vegan” but they taste good.

Here’s the recipe, the original recipe ingredients are in red.

2 cups unsalted blanched peanuts (cashews)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 ripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or add some real vanilla bean
1/2 cup almonds (pecans)
I also added:
1/4 cup chia seeds
a handful of dried craisins (you could go with raisins, or dates, or dried fruit of any kind)

Combine the peanuts and salt in a food processor.  Blend until a small crumbled texture.  Add bananas and vanilla, blend until well blended.  Add almonds and pulse to mix.
Drop by tablespoon or use a small cookie scoop to drop batter onto dehydrator tray, I covered my tray with parchment paper.  Dehydrate at 104 degrees until well dried, mine were in for at least 24 hours.  Eat plain or with jam.  Store in the fridge, they only last a few days but the drier they are the longer they last.  Reheat them in the dehydrator if you like them warm.
If you don’t have a dehydrator you can drop them on a cookie sheet and use your oven on the lowest setting with the door open, but I haven’t tried that.

Here’s what they look like before you dry them:

New Labels!

I love my cougar cutter and vinyl.  See how much of a difference it can make in my kitchen?
Before: boring, blah, not me.

After: Wow, red, me, me, me!

One of the nicest things is you can cut out labels that you can’t buy such as chia seeds or xylitol, etc.  I use Make the Cut software to create the design, send it over to the cutter, and then use transfer vinyl to remove from the mat and apply to the canister.
Here’s the canisters I did today.

Ice Cream Maker

After reading about carrageenan, a carcinogenic derived from red algae, and finding out it’s in a lot of our foods, including ice cream, I bought an ice cream maker.  It’s nothing fancy and I’m surprised at just how cheap they are.  It picked it up yesterday but I couldn’t use it until today because you have to freeze the bowl for about 24 hours.  I tried it last night but it just wasn’t cold enough so I poured the ice cream mixture into a glass jar and made it this morning.  It turned out delicious, it’s vanilla with a handful of toffee bits thrown in.  Oh but the fat and calorie content in this recipe is through the roof so I told the kids to enjoy it because they would never get it this rich again, ever!

When I was in town I stopped at one of our local grocery stores and they had cookies on sale for a $1.00 a box.  They ended up as mini ice cream sandwiches with the homemade ice cream.  Forgive the melting picture but my house is pretty warm and I wasn’t that fast with my camera.  I also made strawberry-vanilla frozen yogurt popsicles, they are much lower in fat and calories than the ice cream and I substituted the sugar in both recipes for Xylitol, lowering the calories even more.  Jevan loved them!

Remember the bird seed wreath I posted awhile ago?  A downy woodpecker has made himself right at home with it.  You’ll notice just how much of the wreath has been eaten and it’s still holding strong but I turn it every now and again.  I also posted that you should keep it out of the rain but I really have no where else to hang it and it’s been rained on, snowed on, and had the wind banging it against the window but still seems okay.  I’m not sure how long it will hold up to the downy’s claws but I guess we’ll see.