When I was at home this summer, my Mom was on the homemade laundry soap bandwagon.  I tried some of it and liked it, so decided to join in the fun.

Here are the ingredients:

1 Box of Super Washing Soda 3 lb. 7 oz.
1 Box of Borax 4 lbs 12 oz. size
1 Box of Pure Baking Soda 4 lb.
3 bars of Fels-Naptha 5.5 oz. or you could also use Ivory soap
1 container of Oxy-Clean 1.3 lb
*optional: Purex Crystals 28 oz. for scent (or you could use Downy unstoppables )

Note: I did get the Purex Crystals in a fairly neutral scent.

The Ingredients!

First I cut up the soap into chunks and ground it with my blender. I have the world’s worst blender, so this wasn’t as easy as it seemed and I had to do it in little batches. Next time, I’d add some of the baking soda to keep it from sticking so much. I also will use my food processor.  No way I was grating all that by hand!

After grinding up the soap, I took it all outside and poured all ingredients into a big box, layering each ingredient by thirds to make later mixing easier. Then it’s stir, stir, stir. Try not to breathe in the dust. Wear a mask if you need to!

The final result is a huge box of laundry soap. I put a 1/8 cup scoop into the box and that is all you need for a load of laundry. For front loaders, just put the soap on top of the laundry.  It takes out dirt, garden stains, garage stains and best of all:   this soap takes out doggy smell from dog bedding!  I still use Tide for my good clothes, but for everything else, especially towels and sheets, this soap is perfect.  I have enough to last me a very long time and I spent about $25.  Not bad!

Houston, we have potatoes!

So, the tatie tower was a moderate success.  I’m not sure I rightly remember how many potatoes I planted in the tower, but from the harvest, it looks like I got at least 3 potatoes for one planted. Next year I will try to remember to fertilize more, although I did use Miracle Gro soil and lots of compost.  I can remember digging up potatoes as a kid, but don’t remember how many we planted.  I looked it up and you should get three regular size potatoes and some smaller ones for each seed planted, so I think we did OK.  I have lots of mini potatoes, for which I know you pay a mint in the grocery store!

I didn’t plant that many to begin with, not being sure what I was doing and how the layers would work. Next time, I can plant more layers within the tower and space the sets further apart. I think that will make a big difference in yield.  This was a live-and-learn experiment for sure!

All in all, a pretty exciting evening digging through the dirt and finding these little golden gems.  I plan to cook them with some green beans and smoked sausage here in a day or two.  What fun! We will plant two more towers next year, just to see what happens and try some purple potatoes.  It was a pretty stress-free growing method (read: I did nothing but water when it didn’t rain).  We did have a nice little black snake baby living under the tower. He was very confused when we took away his roof.  I’m glad he had a safe warm place to grow up. As long as he stays out of the house, ha ha!

  The Potato Tower goes down!

What we saw as we took apart the straw and dirt.

Lots of dirty gems!

Rinsed off and waiting for a skillet.

I just bought this cute dog treat cookbook to bake some healthy treats for Charlotte, keeping in mind my effort to be as wheat, corn and soy-free as possible. We have learned so much about canine nutrition from my sister who is a Veterinary Acupuncturist and practices Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine.  Charlotte is turning three this week and we feel like her diet is as fresh, healthy and grain-free as we can make it.  Below is the first recipe I baked from this new cookbook “Organic Dog Biscuit Cookbook” by the Bubba Rose Biscuit Company.

How can you resist this cute book?

The recipes are extensive and it was hard to choose the first one to try.  I decided on something simple that had a limited number of ingredients.  The biscuits call for rice flour and oat flour. I found rice flour at Safeway and knew I could make my own oat flour by buzzing some old-fashioned rolled oats in my food processor.  For each cup of oat flour, I ground 1.25 cups of rolled oats.  I filled the house with the lovely smell of cooking bacon and proceeded to bake the cookies.

I have some cute cooky cutters just for dog biscuits.

This dough is thick and a bit chunky with the bits of bacon and the cheese shreds. I found that the dog bone shape cutter worked the best, as a smoother dough would better show the patterns of the fire hydrant, paw and house.  Bone-shaped biscuits are classic!

I rolled the dough with rice flour dusting the work surface and pin. It is sticky, but did roll out nicely.  Roll to about 1/4″ thick and cut the bone shapes closely.  I re-rolled the scraps and cut more shapes once, then got lazy and just baked the scraps for the final pan of cookies.  I gave away the nice cookies to friends. Charlotte doesn’t care!

You can place the cookies and bake them fairly close together, as they don’t puff up much at all. I baked them for about 20-22 minutes and they really smelled good.

OK I admit it. I tasted one.  It was bland, but actually rather like a salt-free bacon cheese cracker.

Charlotte’s review: Two Paws Up!

The recipe from Page 96:  The Country Club

6 slices cooked bacon

1 1/2 cups oat flour

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour

1/2 cup shredded low-fat cheddar cheese

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup rolled oats (Old-fashioned, not instant kind)

1 egg

1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook bacon, then finely grind in a food processor.

Combine all ingredients (except water) in a large bowl.  Add water slowly and mix until a dough forms. If too dry, add more water; too wet, add a bit more flour.  You may not need all the water if you reach a good consistency first.

Roll out on a lightly floured (with rice flour to keep it wheat-free) surface to 1/4″ thickness. Use a cooky cutter or knife to cut shapes. Line a cooky sheet with parchment paper (or spray a pan with cooking spray, if you prefer) and place cookies on sheet. They can be rather close together.  Bake 22-27 minutes or until golden brown (my oven was more in the 20-22 minute range. You might want to check them early).  Transfer and let cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

I also froze a box of these cookies for future eating and sharing, since they have bacon and cheese and would not keep indefinitely.

These cookies will keep all tails waggin’ in your house, for sure!