Make It Or Fix It Yourself!

Jun11

Turn Your Girl Scouts Vest Into A Pillow!

My daughter will become a Cadette next year. So, I decided to make her Junior vest into a pillow that she could keep on her bed to remember the memories. It will end up hanging in the closet just like her Brownie vest if I don’t. I was searching online for other vests that were turned into pillows. I found a couple of Daisy vests that were turned into pillows. The Daisy vest has a rectangle shape already with the sides opened. I also found Junior vests that were made into pillows that were shaped like a vest. I didn’t find any that were made into a formal pillow with the white background attached. The Junior vest is like a regular vest with the front open. I found out after starting this little project that it definitely wasn’t going to be as quick to turn it into a square-shaped pillow as I thought. Of course, I didn’t let that stop me. So, these are the steps to turn your vest into this beautiful square-shaped pillow.

Using a seam ripper, take the front of the vest off. You will end up having three parts when you finish. Since the front is open, it will become two parts, plus the back.

Once it is apart, you will use some type of material (sheet, pillowcase, large t-shirt, fabric, etc.) to attach the vest to it. This is done because we need a square-shape for the pillow. Make sure that you put the two front parts close together because it will be sewn onto the white material into one.

Pin down the vest parts and stitch down. When sewing, remember to stitch around the shape of the vest. It will keep the vest neatly stitched to the white fabric.

The trimming on the sleeve opening will probably come off when you’re first removing the front part from the back. Make sure that you keep up with it because the material used to make this vest unravels terribly. So, when I was sewing down the vest on the white material, I had to pin the trimming and sew it down. This is also a good time to sew on any patches that didn’t get sewn on during the year. I also took some time to put my daughter’s initials on the back of her vest. (She’ll like that.)

Trim the edges when you finish sewing the vest down on fabric. Make sure that you cut the white fabric all the way up into a square shape.

Pin the two facing pieces together to sew down. ONLY sew the sides together on the sewing machine. The Top and Bottom will have to be hand-sewn. I did not sew the bottom together on the machine because the front piece is bigger than the back piece. The top and bottom pieces will match up better when filled with stuffing.

After sewing down sides, turn over. Start stuffing the vest.

Pin together the bottom. See how neatly it lines up now that it’s stuffed.

Now, stitch together the bottom with needle and thread. Since, this vest is two colors on the bottom, you will need to sew the green part with green thread and then switch to white thread.

Sewing the top of the vest is the most difficult part to do. Pull together as neatly as possible and repeat the same process with white thread and green thread. You’re done!

This is a pic of the front of the vest pillow. My daughter pinned her swaps to the front of her vest pillow. Loving this pillow!

Have you tried making one of these pillows yet? Did you make yours into a square shape or into the shape of the vest?

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Posted in Sewing/Craft | Tagged junior vest, memories, pillows, square shape | 28 Comments

Jun02

Yummy Bite-Size Ice Cream!

Today, I decided that I would make some ice cream bites with the remainder of the ice cream in the refrigerator. I like ice cream. Some people in my house love ice cream. I normally like ice cream in small doses instead of a bowl of ice cream. So, this seemed like the ideal thing to make today. However, when you’re working with ice cream, you have to work fast and it gets to the point where it is downright hilarious. You don’t get a lot of do-over shots and you can’t move your subject around to get the perfect shot. And, on top of that, I had the nerve to cover some in hot chocolate. I left some plain. Overall, it was definitely fun.

I decided to make it more interesting by making shapes with the ice cream. I used ice trays made out of stars. Probably a neat idea if you’re having a party and people want bite-size desserts, especially children. The chocolate ones were actually stars to begin….that is, until I dipped them in warm chocolate. (Imagine the humor in yelling at someone to hurry up and take the pic. Too funny!)

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon ice cream (Use whatever size you would like. I had about half of the 1/2 gallon remaining in the fridge.)
1 12 oz bag of semi-chocolate chips
3 tbs of vegetable oil
ice cube trays (optional…you can just make balls if you like)

Directions:

Put ice cream into a large bowl. I blended mines because I’m going to make star-shaped ice cream bites and I need to put the ice cream into a container to squeeze ice cream into ice trays.

I used a container that I have for frosting cupcakes and cookies. I filled the container with the ice cream. This makes it so much easier for getting into the ice trays.

Squeeze enough ice cream to fill each hole. Try not to overfill. Set them in the freezer for a couple of hours. Also, set a cookie sheet into the freezer to chill. You will use it later when emptying ice trays.

Now, silly me. Why did I think that I would freeze these and they would pop right out? Any way, I set them in some not-too-hot bowl of water. It only took a couple of seconds and I was able to to turn them over on a cold sheet pan that I had set in the freezer to chill.

Once you pop them out…this may require a little hitting the ice cube tray on the cold sheet pan to get them out…. (LOL), then set them in the freezer quickly to freeze again. I would say a couple of hours.

When you think that your ice cream has frozen long enough, begin making the chocolate to cover some of them. Don’t forget to put in your vegetable oil to make it smooth.

Keep stirring to get a nice consistency. Then, let it cool down until it is a nice warm temperature. Warm enough to dip or spoon over the ice cream stars.

This is where speed is a must. Laugh along the way because it definitely gets funny. I dipped some of my ice creams stars in and I spooned some of the chocolate on some of them. As soon as you get them covered, quickly put them back into the freezer to freeze again. I put some ice in the bottom of the dish so that the ice cream bites wouldn’t melt before I took a couple of shots.

I think I like the ones without chocolate. These small bite-size ice cream stars fills the spot when I need just the right amount of ice cream. This is a fun thing to do with kids…so much fun!

This reminds me of the Bon Bon Ice Cream that you could buy. Are they still being sold? So, what do you think? Would like you bite-size ice cream or a whole bowl?

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Posted in Recipes | 30 Comments

May26

How to Make Homemade Biscuits

Today, I decided to make homemade biscuits. Let me just say that I do not like thick biscuits. I’m the person that would cut out some of the middle of the biscuit if it has too much bread in the middle. It’s obvious that I like the top of the biscuit and the bottom of the biscuit. So, I have perfected this biscuit recipe to make it a thinner or flatter biscuit. If you make this and you want to have a thick biscuit, then just double the recipe. For me, I’m mostly looking for the crust on the top and the bottom.

I make my biscuits with all-purpose flour. I never buy self-rising flour. Also, I don’t buy buttermilk, I make mines. I have used regular buttermilk in this before but somehow it tastes better when I make the buttermilk. If you want to cut out some of the steps, then by all means use self-rising flour and buttermilk.

Makes about a dozen biscuits. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup milk
1 tbs vinegar
2 tbs butter (for brushing the tops of biscuits)
biscuit cutter or glass for cutting out biscuits
pastry blender (or use your hands)

(If using self-rising flour: 1 1/2 c self-rising flour, 1 c buttermilk, 1/2 stick of butter and 2tbs butter for brushing the tops of biscuits. You won’t need the other items.)

Pour flour into large bowl.

Pour in baking soda and salt into all-purpose flour. Stir together.

Cut unsalted butter and put onto bowl. Break up butter pieces into tiny pieces in flour. If you have a pastry blender, use it. However, my hands seem to work better.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator to chill for about 10 or 15 minutes.

While the mixture is chilling in the refrigerator, make the buttermilk. Pour in 1 tbs of vinegar into 1 cup of milk. Let stand for at least 5 minutes. I normally just let mines sit for the entire time my mixture is in the refrigerator.

Don’t pour the entire glass of buttermilk into the flour mixture. You might not need the entire glass. You don’t won’t the batter to get too thin. It seems that I always have about a 1/4 cup left over. Stir. It should look somewhat like the pic on the right.

Pour some flour onto a surface. Then, pour the batter onto the floured surface. Cover the batter with the flour and knead a couple of times. Try not to overwork the batter. Flatten out according to how thick you want your biscuits. As I said earlier, I like a flatter biscuit so my thickness when I roll it out is not very much.

This is something I learned from watching my mom fix biscuits. She would always pour a little oil, maybe a tablespoon or two, into the pan you’re using. Then, set into the oven and let it get hot. This helps with giving that crusty type of biscuit. Skip this part if you don’t won’t a crust. You would want to do this before cutting out biscuits.

Now, the fun part is always cutting out the biscuits. Mines usually lose that round shape and I’m sure this is due to the thickness of my biscuits. I’m using a glass to cut out my biscuits. If you have a biscuit cutter, go for it. When using the glass, make sure to dust the rim of glass with flour, so biscuits won’t stick to the glass.

After I cut out a biscuit, I will put it in the oil, then flip it over so the oily part is on top. (This gives me a crust on top and bottom. Yay!) Continue step until pan is full. If needed, make a ball with remaining batter and flatten out again to continue making biscuits.

Put into oven for 15-18 minutes, depending upon your oven and how brown you want them. When they come out, melt the 3 tbs of butter in microwave and brush onto tops of biscuits.

These are the best biscuits around! Of course, I don’t make these too often because I would end of having to run a marathon each time I ate these. But, oh, so delicious!

Do you have a favorite homemade biscuit recipe?

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Posted in Recipes | Tagged homemade biscuits | 34 Comments

May18

How to Make Homemade Air Fresheners

I am always trying to keep the house smelling nice and it is definitely not an easy task. The one place that I would like an ongoing nice scent is the closet, specifically my bedroom closet. It is a walk-in closet that seems to lose the scent that I place inside of it quite quickly. Replacing air fresheners on a regular basis can get quite expensive. So, of course, I wanted to try making my own. The only strange thing that I’m adding is sidewalk chalk for coloring. (The kind that kids use outside on the concrete or driveway). The other two ingredients are typical of what is added together to make an air freshener. If you don’t want to color yours, just leave out the chalk and just go all-natural or try some other type of product to color yours. Leave it to me to try something strange in a homemade item. So, let’s begin.

Ingredients:

baking soda
non-toxic sidewalk chalk (optional)
fragrance oil (use any type essential oil or fragrance oil of your choice)
containers

Instructions:

Before grating chalk, be sure to cover your surface. I am not sure if the chalk will stain the counter top. So, to be safe, I covered mines in aluminum foil and put a piece of wax paper on top. Begin grating the chalk or use any other type of substance that you think can be used to color a dry ingredient. I could’ve tried powdered food coloring but I didn’t want to spend much money. When grating, it should come out really fine.

Measurements of ingredients will depend on how large a container you will be using. Therefore, I am not going to give any specific measurements as it is not necessary. It will depend totally upon you. Mix in chalk until the color blends completely.

Add the amount of drops of fragrance oil that you would like. Of course, this too will depend on how strong the scent you would like. I added about 15 drops for mines according to the size of the container that I was using. Stir into the baking soda. It will form little wet balls at first. Just continue to stir and press down the little balls until they blend into the baking soda.

I’m using cheese shakers that I had and an air freshener container that no longer had any scent to it. The great thing about these two types are that they already have holes in the top so you won’t have to make any holes.

For the cheese shakers, I cut out a piece of thick paper to use as a divider when pouring in the baking soda. I also used a large mouth funnel to make it easy to pour into the containers. If the baking soda starts to get stuck in the funnel, use a regular straw to push it through. Just remove the divider when you’re finished and the colors will be nicely lined up beside each other. For the other container, it was much easier to fill because I am putting the colors on top of each other and do not need a divider. Try not to fill up the containers completely. I poured too much in the jar from the old air freshener. The reason for not filling completely to the top is that when the scent starts to fade, you can add additional fragrance drops and shake or stir it up. It will be hard to shake or stir if you don’t leave space at the top. Actually, I can’t wait for the scent to start fading because I’m curious as to what color will form when I shake up these different colors. That’s all it is to making the air freshener….simple as pie!

Have you tried making a homemade air freshener? How did yours come out?

Other pics:

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Posted in DIY | Tagged air freshener, baking soda, fragrance oil, homemade, sidewalk chalk | 46 Comments

May11

Medicine Cabinet Makeover!

If you’re like me, then you rarely go in your medicine cabinet. The only time I open this cabinet is when I would like to put on perfume some days, throw on a little makeup or use the scissors to trim my hair. The very reason I hate to open the cabinet is because stuff is always falling out when I’m reaching in for something. So, of course I try and minimize the times that I open it. We rarely keep any medicine in here. That NyQuil has been in there for a couple of years. All medicine is kept downstairs. This is more like a ME Cabinet Makeover. Why? Well, it has all of My personal stuff in it. No medicine.

This cabinet is not outrageously messy, but it definitely could use some cleaning and organization. For organizing help, I pulled things from other parts of the house to use in the cabinet. The only items I purchased was the container holding the fingernail polish and the candle holders from the Everything’s A Dollar Store. The fingernail polisher holder is actually a pill container. It worked perfectly.

So, let’s see what I did:

I took everything out of the cabinet. This medicine cabinet only has three glass shelves in it. In the makeover, you’ll notice four glass shelves. I stole one out of the children’s bathroom. They definitely don’t go in their medicine cabinet. They’ll never miss it. All of that black marking came from my eyeliner pencil…… I think.

I cleaned those dirty glass shelves. Looks fabulous now.

Then, I cleaned out the cabinet. Put the glass shelves back. By gosh, that looks brand new. Perhaps, I just need to leave it empty and clean. However, if I did that, then it wouldn’t look like this:

So neat! You’ll notice that I put little magnetic frames on the door part. They didn’t need to be on the refrigerator anyway. I put some family pictures in them. I have a little pink plastic container that I used as a cotton ball holder. You can attach magnets if you’re using a container that doesn’t have one on it. I didn’t put a glass shelf above the fingernail polish because I needed the extra space that the cotton ball holder would take up when I closed the cabinet.

I think my favorite thing is the pill holder container. It was a single container that had slots for days of the week. I cut off the tops on the pill container holder. It works perfectly in keeping my fingernail polish from sliding and moving around. Same goes for the the candle holders. They are great for holding my lipstick, eyeliner pencils, mascara, etc. Finally, those scissors will not slide out of the cabinet when opened.

I’m loving the cabinet now. What did the kids say? “Mom, can you do the one in our bathroom?”

So, what do you think? Have you done a medicine cabinet makeover lately? Or, is your cabinet already neat?

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Posted in Great Advice/Tips | Tagged makeover, medicine cabinet | 21 Comments

May05

Caramelized Tuscan French Toast!

This is mouthwatering good! I thought it was time to do another recipe post and what a great recipe this turned out to be. So, instead of the same boring old french toast, I thought I would kick it up a notch and try this delicious caramelized french toast recipe. The key to this recipe is using the right bread. I’m using a loaf of Round Tuscan Bread. I purchased the bread from Wegmans Food Markets. You can also use a round sourdough bread. It has to have a hard crust on the outside already. This is what gives it that really nice crispy crust.

Ingredients:

1 round loaf of crusty Tuscan Bread (or sourdough)
4 large eggs
1/4 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup of buttermilk
3 tablespoons of granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
confectioners sugar
unsalted butter
syrup (optional)

Directions:

Cut the round Tuscan Bread into large wedges. I was able to get at least 1o slices from this loaf. It will depend on how large you would like to cut your slices.

First, add eggs to the bowl.

Next, add the buttermilk and cream to the bowl of eggs.

Pour sugar into the bowl.

Then, put in the vanilla and cinnamon.

Whisk all the ingredients together.

Soak some of the slices in the mix. Make sure to let it get a good soak on both sides.

Slice about 2 or 3 tablespoons of the unsalted butter into the pan. Keep stove on medium or medium high. Put soaked bread into butter. Shake confectioners sugar over the bread. I used a small strainer to shake the sugar on top of the bread. Turn when it get a nice brown color. Then shake more sugar on that side. Add more butter if necessary. I turned the bread twice and shook sugar on top. The sugar gives it that nice hard caramelized feel on the outside. So, be generous with the sugar, but not over-generous or it may burn a little too much. Drizzle with syrup if you would like.

My teenager couldn’t wait to try this and she loved it! She kept saying, “How long will it be before I can try it?” Of course, taking photos is a long process.

This was so delicious to me! Now I have to go put in some running from eating all that french toast. So, what do you think? Think you would like a slice, or two slices?

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Posted in Recipes | Tagged french toast recipe, tuscan bread | 26 Comments

Apr26

Use Toothpaste to Whiten Your White Clothes!

(I can’t believe it worked! This looks great! I think I will wear it tomorrow!)

I know what you’re thinking. What is the world coming to now! Did she say use toothpaste to help whiten her clothes? I did. I was tooling around the house trying to come up with different stuff that I could try to whiten my white clothes. I thought, “Try some toothpaste. Why, not?” My reasoning is that if we use it to whiten our teeth, then why not use it to whiten our white clothes.

Seriously, this is a white shirt that I am so in love with and of course it had that dingy look. I have been trying for the last two years to whiten or brighten it back up. I refuse to throw it away. The last thing I tried was the lemon and salt mixture. (Squeeze about 12 lemons, add a cup of salt, mix and then soak the shirt for a while. Hang in bright sunlight until it becomes bright white. Umm…….no. Didn’t work. Save your time for something else.) That was just one of the things I tried.

So, sitting in the kitchen, I decided to stir some stuff in a bowl. Kind of a like a mixture of different stuff I have tried over the years, with the exception of the secret weapon….TOOTHPASTE! (I call it secret because it’s the new thing I added.)

Even my daughter was like, “Ma, we need that toothpaste for brushing our teeth. You’ve already used up one tube on that other shirt.” I had to test it out twice. Didn’t take before pics on the first white shirt. Plus, it wasn’t my favorite white shirt. Test out first on a non-favorite shirt and then when it works, test it out on the favorite shirt.

Ingredients:

1 6.4 oz tube of Colgate Baking Soda & Peroxide Whitening Toothpaste (paste, not gel)
1/2 cup of baking powder
1/4 cup of salt
About 2 cups of vinegar (depending on how large your clothing item)

Directions:

Squeeze the entire tube into a large bowl.

Pour in baking powder.

Pour in salt.

Then, again with the bubbly effect. Pour in the vinegar and wait for that bubbling explosion. Stir, quickly. After the bubbling stops, stir to mix together. The mixture of that toothpaste and vinegar causes it to rise again as you stir. It gets bigger.

Then, put shirt into the bowl and soak for a couple of hours. I let mines soak for 3.5 hours. No specific reason for that specific number. I had to leave the house to pick my teenager up from school and it took a while to get back. Soak it as long as you like.

Then, wring and hang outside in the sun. If you’re hanging on the deck, like me, put a towel or something down so that you won’t have the toothpaste mixture dripping on the deck. Though, I didn’t notice any at all, especially if you wring it out tightly. Try and do this experiment when it is hot and the sun is bright. Again, I am hoping to work with the sun. Remember that lemon and salt thing I tried. Hopefully, the bright sun and the salt that is mixed into this experiment will help also. I put mines outside when the sun was on the back of the house. After the sun went down, I brought it in and let it hang in the basement overnight. Don’t put it in the washer until in the morning. That way, it will be able to dry in the sun during the early part of the day. For your info, this toothpaste mixture has a smelly odor. That is why I’m hanging it in the basement. Don’t worry about the smell because it will not stay in the clothing after it has been washed. Actually, it is going to smell so fresh after it has been washed.

In the morning, put it in the washer. Throw in another 1/2 cup of baking soda, along with your regular detergent. After all, we bought a box of baking soda, might as well use it all up. Plus, I’m determined to give this white shirt all the help that I can.

Hang it back out in the sun. Let it stay in the sun until it dries completely. Then, check out the results! P.S. This shirt smells FABULOUS! I’m sure it’s the toothpaste that has it smelling so fresh. This seems like a long process, but trust me, you’ll love the results and you can now wear that white piece of clothing with a bright smile…..

Of course, you will want to use this toothpaste concoction on a shirt or clothing item that you just refuse to give away or stop wearing. Now, this is going to be the start of a bright summer!

Well….what do you have in your closet that you would want to try to brighten with this toothpaste concoction? Trust me, you won’t be disappointed!

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Posted in Great Advice/Tips | Tagged bright sunlight, clothes, whitening toothpaste | 37 Comments

Apr17

How to Make an Old Dress into A New Dress!

(This is the same dress that I have on in the above picture. The pic on the left was taken when I got up in the morning with no makeup, hair not combed and way too much light in the room. The second pic is the after dress. You guessed it…I combed my hair, made up my face and took this pic at night with a flash. Everyone looks good at night and with the right lighting.) LOL.

Okay. Everybody needs a black dress! So, if you don’t have one and can’t afford to spend a lot of money on one, then do like I did. I went to the Thrift Store and bought this not-so-cute black dress for $3.98. Now, all I need to do is to turn it into a cute black dress. This is going to take a little work, but not outrageous. It took me 4 hours to turn this dress into a classy, chic dress. So, let’s get started.

First, lay dress on flat surface. Cut off sleeves. We definitely need short sleeves for this to be a cute dress. Pin sleeve area. (This will be the toughest area to work with since I’m free-handing this and I don’t have a seam to follow.)

Remove that belt loop. We have no need for a belt. I want to keep the mid-section free from anything that will add to the waist-area.

I’ve got to find a way to get rid of those pleats. Ugh! So, the best I can do will be to top-stitch the pleats so that this area will lay as flat as possible. First, I will press down the pleats. Then, top-stitch. Much better!

Baste down the under arm area before working on the sleeve opening area.

Now, top-stitch the sleeve opening. (Did I mention that I won first place in the District and State competition in 11th grade for the top-stitch? I know. So long ago.)

Baste down the side seam after fitting it to your body. I want a snug fit so I’m basting about an inch or more all the way down. Then, sew down on the sewing machine, making sure to follow along right beside the basting. (Basting is your friend when taking in clothes. It’s a quick stitch with a needle and thread and can be easily removed after sewing with machine.)

I am not going to hem this dress, yet. I am just going to pin it into a shorter dress. I haven’t decided if I want it to stay short or maybe keep it long.

Press down the entire dress. You’re done! Check out some of the shots that my daughter was snapping. She was pretending she was a photographer and…oh yeah….I was pretending to be a model.

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Posted in Sewing/Craft | Tagged cute dress, remake, sewing, thrift store | 58 Comments

Apr10

How To Make Homemade Dishwasher Detergent Cubes

I definitely enjoyed trying this! How neat! I must say that this is one of my How-To favorites. Why? Well, this one comes in really handy for me. We don’t use the dishwasher to wash dishes that often. I, or the kids, normally do them by hand. So, I don’t usually buy a lot of dishwasher detergent. (That’s an item that is quite expensive.) We have tons of dishwashing liquid for handwashing. (I stockpile this when there is a major sale, along with using a coupon.) However, since we use our dishwasher for holding the dishes to dry, I have to run it at least once a week to clean it, plus run a load of dirty dishes while I’m at it.

So, I came across ways (most of them the same with a few minor differences) to make the dishwasher detergent and was definitely intrigued with making it into cubes. Looks like it would store better in this form. The websites that I saw made them into regular ice cube sizes. The ingredients are simple enough. You should have most of this in your home, with the exception of Borax. Most recipes seem to have added lemon essential oil. I just used unsweetened lemonade packets because I had that on hand at home. Love that smell!

Ingredients

2 cups of Borax (purchased at Walmart for $3.13)
2 cups of Baking Soda (or Washing Soap)
2 packets of unsweetened lemonade (or Essential Oils)
1/2 cup of Kosher Salt
1/2 cup of vinegar
ice cube trays (I used mask shaped trays from Everything’s A Dollar $1 each and regular trays that I already had at home.)
wax paper (optional)
1/2 cup Lemi Shine (If you notice that after making your batch that a film starts to get on your dishes after a short time, try adding this to the next batch that you make. Or go ahead and add now for your first batch.)

Directions

Pour Borax into a mixing bowl.

Add in the baking soda or washing soda.

Pour the kosher salt into the bowl with other ingredients.

I used 2 packets of the lemonade. I wanted a really lemony scent! (You may use essential oil if you would like.)

Stir to blend the ingredients.

This is the fun part! Pour the vinegar into the bowl. The vinegar will cause bubbling to began. (We have done so many experiments with vinegar for homeschool that I thought I was teaching another lesson.)

Your mixture should look somewhat like this. It should still be a little moist so that you will be able to press it down and mold it into the ice cube trays.

I used regular trays and the mask-shape trays. I couldn’t just stick with the simple/regular trays. You need to pack them really tight so that it binds better when it hardens. Notice how I began packing it down in the blue tray. How many trays you use will definitely depend on how hard you pack them down. Of course, my mask trays are smaller in depth, so I used a total of 2 regular trays and 3 mask trays.

Now, you’re suppose to set them in a sun-filled area (probably inside of your house) and let them harden for about 24 hours. Personally, after making this, I think that it takes a couple of days to really harden to a good solid feel. Of course, you should definitely remember to pack them down really tight. Since, it was almost 85 degrees yesterday, (Did I mention that I’m a winter girl?) I set mines on the steps until the sun went down and then brought them inside. The following morning, I set them back outside again. I’m sure these will continue to harden as time passes.

After they have hardened, remove from the trays. After emptying a couple of trays, I found that if I put wax paper around them while emptying, the cubes came out better. It was for more of a precaution, than a necessity. The regular ice tray cubes are actually too big for my dishwasher. Of course, you could always fill the tray half-way and pack it down to make smaller tablets for the dishwasher. Too late for me though. I filled mines to the top. The mask shape cubes are the perfect size for me.

These are some close-ups of the mask-shape cubes. So cute!

So, how did it work in the dishwasher? The first shot is a picture of my glass using a n0-name brand of dishwasher liquid that I had at home. The second shot is a picture after using the homemade cubes. That is not bad at all! Second picture of the glass looks great! Now, I must say also that I used vinegar in the Jet Dry rinse container when I used the homemade cube. I’ve never used vinegar in my rinse container. My mother told me to use vinegar a long time ago, but I never did. However, when trying the homemade cubes, I decided to and there is definitely a difference. These will definitely not go to waste. (I only used 1 cube in the dishwasher.)

There was something that I always wanted to know. Do you use your dishwasher on a regular basis? But, most importantly, do you use your dishwasher to hold the handwashed dishes until they dry? I don’t know many people that actually towel-dry their dishes. We did when we were growing up, but definitely not now. Oh, I guess I wanted to know if you spend a lot on your dishwasher detergent and if this is something that you may try?

I’ll have to post as time goes by whether or not I am still as happy about using the homemade tablets in a later post. Hope you try it! Really, would you want to miss the action where the vinegar causes the fizz…..

Update: If you find that yours do not cooperate now or does not work after a time period or leaves a film on your dishes, you may have to do a trial and error test and swap out some things until you get it to work exactly as you want it. (Lemi Shine is also a suggestion for stopping a film that may occur and has worked great for some people. I am going to play around with adding this in a new batch that I am making.) There are options listed in the ingredients that you can pick and choose from until you come up with the exact ingredients that work for you. I am still testing mines…..

I will be updating next month on how happy I am with the use of these homemade dishwashing detergent cube…..

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Posted in DIY | Tagged cubes, dishwasher detergent, homemade | 66 Comments

Apr01

How To Make Fabulous Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I was back in the kitchen again. My kids told me that I was supposed to bake them chocolate chip cookies last week. Well, of course, I used some of the chocolate chips in the Edible Flowerpot Cake and didn’t think that they would remember about the cookies. Of course, they did. So, my daughter, London, was in the kitchen early this morning to help me. We are on Spring Break this week…yay!!! So, she woke up early to help me.

I cut this recipe in half so that I wouldn’t have to bake so many cookies. I suppose I could’ve put the dough into the freezer for later, but I like to keep the sweets down to a minimum. The recipe halved made about 24 cookies. The listed ingredients will give you about 44 cookies. These are so delicious to eat when they are warm. Don’t wait for them to cool. Just pick up a glass of milk and some warm cookies and start eating. FYI: I overbaked the first set and had to bake a second set. So, the photos are from the second set. Well, don’t think that we didn’t eat the first set, because we did. They were just as tasty, too!

Preheat oven to 350. Don’t start preheating until you are getting ready to start laying the dough rounds on the cookie sheet. The key to this recipe is to keep everything chilled as much as possible. It’s a little time consuming because of having to put the bowl or items back in the refrigerator to chill again.

Ingredients:

2 sticks of salted butter (keep chilled)
2 eggs (keep chilled)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking s0da
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips! You can use less if you would like, but the chips help to bulk up the cookies.

Directions:

Make sure to keep butter in refrigerator until ready for use. Cut the butter into small squares. Put back into refrigerator for about 3 minutes to rechill.

In a bowl, combine the sugar and the butter. Blend until it becomes a grainy, doughy type of mixture. Put back in the refrigerator for another 3 minutes to rechill.

Add eggs right from the refrigerator and put into the sugar and butter mixture. Blend only as long as is needed as not to overblend. Put back into the refrigerator for 3 minutes.

Remove from refrigerator and add in baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Add in vanilla also. Blend as little time as possible. Put in refrigerator for 3 minutes.

Remove from refrigerator and add in flour. Blend. It will become very stiff. Try to work as quickly as possible.

Now, for the fun part! Pour in all of those chocolate chips. My daughter was like, “Wow! That’s a lot of chips!” Blend until your dough mixture looks like the last photo on the right. Of course, you know it…”Put it in the refrigerator to rechill.” Put your cookie sheet in the freezer to chill for a few minutes. If you have parchment paper, you may cover the cookie sheet before dipping out the cookie rounds. I didn’t have parchment paper, but it helped that I chilled the cookie sheet. It helps to keep the cookies from spreading too fast.

Dip out the rounds. I used a tablespoon. It worked out perfectly. Bake for 10 or 11 minutes. (This depends on your oven.) Keep an eye on the oven. You don’t want to overbake, as they will become too dark. Put the spatula into the freezer when you put the cookies in the oven. Most recipes will say to leave on cookie sheet to cool. But, take these off as soon as they come out of the oven. That’s the reason for the chilled spatula. It removes them without any breaking or cracking. Enjoy!!!!

Is chocolate chip your favorite cookie to bake? If not, what is your favorite cookie to bake or eat? Let me know by sharing a comment below.

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Posted in Recipes | Tagged chocolate chip cookies, homemade | 47 Comments

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