Classic CHK Laundry Soap
1/3 Bar Fels Naptha soap (grated)
1/2 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Borax (20 Mule Team stuff)
3 pints water (more water added later to make 2 gallons)
Stir gently over medium heat until it thickens like honey. If for some reason it does not thicken, it will still work! Just use it in its liquid state.
Add enough water to make 2 gallons.

Another Good Laundry Soap
2 cups pure soap flakes                                                                                                  A scoop of  Classic CHK Laundry soap …..
1 1/2 cups Borax
6 cups warm water
1/2 cup glycerin
2 teaspoons essential oil of either lavender, lemon or eucalyptus

1) In a medium saucepan, stir together the soap flakes, borax, and water. Heat slowly and stir until the mixture is clear. Add the glycerin and set aside to cool.

2) When cool, add the essential oil and stir thoroughly

3) Pour into a mason jar or other container and cover until needed. To use, add 1 cup of Gel per load of clothes, making sure the soap is dissolved well before adding clothes to the water. This gel works best with warm water, or dissolve it in a quart of warm water before adding it to the wash water.

Fabric Softener
1/4 cup baking soda
1/2 cup white vinegar

1) Fill the washing machine or basin with water

2) Add the baking soda, stir it around to dissolve, then add the clothes.

3) After rinsing the clothes, make a final rinse and add the vinegar to it.

The vinegar rinses away and does not leave an odor. To add a pleasant fragrance to the rinse, add 10 drops or so of Lavender essential oil to the vinegar/baking soda mix.

Another way to soften clothes is to add 1/2 cup baking soda to the wash water, or use 1 part soap flakes and 1 part borax in the wash water before you add the clothes.

Her is the list of seeds I have already purchased for this years garden:

West Indian Gherkin – This ia a very old varietyof cucumber that originated in India and has been used in making pickles for many years. I have never seen pickles made from them, so maybe they’ve fallen out of favor. I got them and most of my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange.

Star Of David Okra – Another heirloom variety. Named for the shape of the pod cross-sections.  I have my calendar marked to plant these seeds in late May, when the soil warms up thoroughly.

Blue Solaize Leek – Heirloom variety from France.  These seeds are in peat pots right now.

Listada de Gandia Eggplant – This variety is from Italy and has had glowing reviews from Seed Savers.  These seeds are also in peat pots.

Edmund’s Blood Turnip Beet – This is no longer listed on the Seed Savers site.  It dates to 1825 and is supposed to produce beets with dark red flesh and be good for canning.

Green Arrow English Pea – These are just your ordinary green English peas but are supposed to be heavy producers.

October Bean - This is a Native American variety that dates back to the 1830’s.  Its actually a bush variety which was surprising to me since most older bean varieties are vines.

La Ratte Potato – These are a french variety, fingerling potato. I really like cooking with them.  I served them the other night and my family looked at them with raised eyebrows, as if perhaps they’d been dug too soon!

The main reason that I chose heirloom varieties fromthis particular seed producer is that we do a lot of reenacting for the years 1830-1865 and these vegetables will be useful for those events.  But another reason I chose this producer is that their seeds are certified organic and organically grown. We try to have a completely organic garden and these wil help us continue that.

What are you growing this year?

Here’s how to participate:
1. First, make your entry at your blog.
2. Now click on Mcklinky where it says, “You are next…CLICK HERE to enter your link…Add your entry”, fill in your name, blog’s name with the url to your Homekeeper’s Journal entry this week.
3.Don’t forget to take the Homekeeper’s Journal image to put on your own blog, just right click and save the image to your computer.
4.A link back to this post would be very nice!

Hey, I’ve noticed that some of you are posting a link but not participating in the Homekeeper’s Journal …. come on and join me with a journal entry of your own!

Here’s What’s happening …..

In My Kitchen …. not much today.  Last week I cooked a lot and this week we are enjoying leftovers.

With Our Marriage …. Growing together. After all these years, trust and understanding is getting so deep and so sweet.

With The Children ….. school and more school, will it ever end???  We’re on the home stretch though and have even finished some of their books and workbooks.

What I’m Reading … John Calvin on the Psalms, lots of school books, tons of Easter and Palm Sunday scriptures so that I can build a Palm Sunday program.

What I Have Been Learning … that satan will try to get you from every angle. When you lean on the Lord, he will even try to undermine that.  Be on guard.

What I’ve Been Noticing …. that I am more fit than I previously thought

Something that pleases me … knowing that my children are walking in the Light

On The Back Burner of My Mind …. getting a room at Church ready to serve as a Sunday School classroom is harder than it figured it would be.

In The Deepest Darkest Recesses ….there are some things I am afraid of and those things seem to  involve other people. I need to let go and allow God to do as He pleases without interfering.  I need to spit out my fear and stop swallowing it.

Now its your turn …. click the Mcklinky link below to add the url to your Homekeeper’s Journal post

Favorite Disinfectant Cleaner Spray

12 oz water
20 drops lavender essential oil
20 drops Tea Tree oil
20 drops Rosemary or Thyme essential oil
Shake and pour into a spray bottle.

Antiseptic Spray

A handful each of dried lavender, rosemary, sage, rue and mint
A large glass jar
1/2 gallon organic cider vinegar

Place the herbs in the jar, cover with the vinegar. Cover tightly and let sit for about 6 weeks. Strain into a spray bottle. Be sure to label the bottle. It will store indefinitely. Use this spray to disinfect clean surfaces.

Lavender Antibacterial Spray
1 cup warm water
1 tsp pure lavender essential oil
pour water into a spray bottle, add essential oil. Shake gently to mix. Spray surfaces and allow to sit for 15 minutes before wiping or rinsing.

All Purpose Cleaner and Disinfectant

Homemade Soft Scrub
1/2 cup baking soda
Liquid soap
5-10 drops pure antiseptic essential oil such as lavender, tea tree oil or rosemary
Place the baking soda in a bowl. Slowly pour in liquid soap, stirring constantly, until the mixture resembles frosting. Add the essential oil.
If you have hard water, use a liquid detergent instead of a soap. I use a ‘green’ product because it has no synthetic dyes or perfumes. If you have soft water, you can use castile soap.

Store this mixture in a jar. Scoop out some on a cloth and scrub surfaces, then rinse.

Heavier Duty Soft Scrub

Straight washing soda mixed with a little liquid soap is a good heavier duty scrub.
You will need to use gloves with this because it is quite alkaline

Mirror and Window Cleaner
Use a pure cotton cloth so that you won’t get lint on mirrors and windows when cleaning them.

1/4 tsp all purpose liquid detergent ( a pure, non-synthetic soap is best)
1 cup water

Just combine the water and soap in a spray bottle. Spray on the surface and wipe clean with a cotton cloth.
Be sure to label the bottle. It keeps indefinitely.

Tile and Glass Cleaner
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 tsp mild liquid detergent
2 cups very hot tap water

Combine all ingredients in a spray bottle. Shake well. Spray onto tiles and glass surfaces, rinse with a sponge. Label the bottle. Keeps indefinitely.

Another Glass and Mirror Cleaner
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2 cups warm water

Put all ingredients in a large spray bottle. Shake well to dissolve the cornstarch. To use, spray liberally on the glass, wipe with a clean cloth. Buff to a streak free shine with a wadded up piece of newspaper.

Mildew Cleaner

1 tsp tea tree oil
2 cups water

Combine in a spray bottle. Spray onto the mildew, don’t rinse. Label and store indefinitely.

Clean The Toilet

Pour about 1 cup borax into the toilet and let it sit for a few hours.

Scrub the inside of the bowl using a toilet brush.

Spray straight 5% vinegar onto the toilet rim, seat and top. Scrub the rim. Wipe the seat and top.

Periodically, spray the toilet rim with your antibacterial spray and let it dry naturally.

Another Toilet Bowl Cleaner
1 cup borax
1/2 cup white vinegar

1) Flush the toilet to wet the sides. Sprinkle the borax all along the sides of the inside of the bowl.
2) Drizzle the vinegar over the borax and leave over night.
3) Next day, scrub with a toilet brush and flush.

Hard Water Stains and Scale Cleaner

Use an acid like vinegar or lemon juice. Just spray on, let sit for 10-15 minutes, then wipe off. For large areas, soak a wash cloth in vinegar and then lay it on the stained area overnight. Next morning, the scale should be easy to scrub off.

Soak shower heads in vinegar to remove hard water buildup. Use an old toothbrush to scrub it away.

Damp/Dust Mop

One part vegetable glycerin
One part vinegar
One old, clean, dust free cloth

Mix the first two ingredients. Soak the cloth in the mixture until it has absorbed all it will absorb.
Take the cloth out of the liquid, and gently squeeze an excess liquid from the cloth. Cover a mop with the cloth and use all over your hard floors, ceilings, walls and woodwork to pick up dust, dist mites and to repel mites, neutralize allergens.

Some Natural Cleaners and What I use Them For

3 percent hydrogen peroxide
good for lightening stains and as an antibacterial agent on clothing.
Baking soda
Good for gentle abrasive cleaning. Can also be used as a mild bleach and can neutralize acid based stains.

Citrus solvents
All purpose stain removal. Don’t use if you have cats.

Cornmeal
Good for absorbing oily, messy stains.

Enzymes
I use digestive enzymes like pepsin or papain. They are good for getting out milk and formula stains. Really any kind of carbohydrate stain.

The Freezer!
Freeze gum and candle wax before attempting to remove it, works better.

Glycerin
softens old stains

Laundry Detergents
There are some stains that I just can’t get out with natural stuff, like lipstick and makeup or other oily stains. Sometimes nothing works on ring around the collar except detergent.

Salt
salt kills some bacteria and is good to add to your cleaners to make a mild abrasive.

Soap
All around good cleaner but don’t use it on fruit stains of any kind, it can set them! (wine, jam, juice….)

Washing soda
I love this stuff. Its one of the heavy duty natural cleaners.
Good way to remove stains, deodorizes.

I use most of these cleaners on a weekly basis, but with a house full of children and a few pets, I find that every now and then I need to pull out chemical cleaners for a major cleaning. Be sure to check labels on commercial cleaners and do your research to see if they are acceptable for your home. I like the new Clorox Green cleaners, but when I look at the label….. I realize that its just about exactly what I’ve been making here at home!

You can find my  instructions for cooking dried beans Here.

Here’s a tip for using beans:  Cook a pot of beans using 1 or 2 pounds of dried beans …

* When the beans are cooked, separate them into three bowls full of beans.
* The first bowl will be frozen for future use, YES! You can freeze beans!
* The second one will be used for tonight’s dinner.
* The third one will be used for re-fried beans and rice for later in the week. Cooked beans will keep about 3-5 days in the frig.

Beans and cornbread are a delicious, complete and nutritious meal. I add a salad to it and we have it about once a week.

Any left over beans from tonight’s meal can be frozen or put with the beans destined to become re-fried beans.

Re-fried Beans:
Heat the beans in a medium saucepan. Mash them with a potato masher or hand blender, season to taste with tomato paste, salt, pepper, cumin, and cheese if desired.
Cook your rice, then top with the hot beans and serve!

Bean Soup
cooked beans and bean liquid
extra water if needed to make it soupy
bay leaf
chopped onion
chopped carrot
few peppercorns or black pepper to taste
salt to taste

If you like your bean soup spicier or more savory tasting, you can add thyme and oregano and a can of tomatoes. To make it a complete meal, just add some rice or pasta and cook til its done.

Beans and Rice Dish
Cook 1 cup of rice (try using brown rice)
Add a little oil to a skillet and fry up together:
1 med onion, 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper, fresh basil, 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar (or white vinegar) and 1 tablespoon fresh garlic, salt & pepper

Add your cooked rice and 2 cups of cooked beans.
Add some hot sauce if you like or some lime juice & lemon juice for a little kick.
This is great served with baked fish!

Garbanzo Bean (Chick Pea) and Tomato Soup
2 cups cooked chickpeas
4-6 cups tomato juice
1 vegetable broth cube or beef broth cube
1/2 cup rice
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp ground coriander
1 cup chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Add the rice to the tomato juice and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer til rice is done. Add chickpeas and all seasonings except lemon juice.
Simmer on very low heat for 10-25 minutes, reduce heat and add lemon juice. Serve hot!

Here are some recipes from my friend Shari ….

Many Bean Soup

1 big ‘ole ham bone*
1 bag of 15 bean soup (leave out the seasoning packet, if it comes with)
1 bay large leaf
olive oil – 1/4 C
1 large onion – chopped
5 cloves garlic – pressed
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 can green beans – drained
1/2 C barley
1/2 C millet (opt.)
basil – 2 tsp to 1 tbsp
cumin – about 1 tsp
cayenne pepper – several dashes
1 -2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Soak your beans using your preferred method. Rinse and cover with plenty of water (2-4″). Add ham bone, olive oil, & bay leaf. You may add your spices now if you’d like. Cook on low temp. until nearly done or about 1 hour before you want it to be done, then adjust water as needed and add everything else except vinegar, salt, & pepper; which you’ll add before you serve.

*if you don’t have a ham bone, use beef or chicken or ham stock you have on hand or equivalent amount of bouillon. Can also use the seasoning packet found in the HamBeens 15 Bean Soup.

Navy Bean Soup

For some unknown to me reason, Navy Bean Soup for Friday’s lunch is an Air Force tradition. I believe one of the houses of Congress also shares this tradition or is possibly the originator of this classic Friday lunch. It may very well be one of the reasons that Americans like to close up shop early on Friday afternoons!

1 lb great northern, white, or navy beans
smoked ham hock or neck bones
1/2 of a large onion – chopped
a stalk or two of celery (including the leafy part)
bacon fat – a spoonful
beef stock or beef bouillon
2 bay leaves
1 T basil
quick dash of cloves
salt & pepper to taste
side of squash pickles
bread

Soak your beans using your preferred method. (I prefer the quick soak).

Begin cooking the beans covering with an inch of your beef broth or water & bouillon. If using bouillon; add a whopping 1 Tablespoon. A whopping tablespoon is more than a heaping tablespoon. Place the hock or bones in your kettle of beans & cover. Go ahead and crank up the heat, but remember to turn it down to simmer once it gets hot because the high heat (boiling) will burst your beans. And we all know how embarrassing that can be!

Saute your onions & celery in the bacon fat and add to beans. Of course you may skip the sauteeing and add your onions & celery directly to your beans, but I rarely miss the opportunity to add bacon fat to my cooking.

Add bay leaves, basil, and cloves. It is very important that your cloves be only a ‘quick dash’ and not a regular dash, as they will quickly overpower your navy bean soup. You can always add more later.

Cook until done; adding more liquid and adjusting your spices as needed. Remove the bay leaves and the hock or neck bones. Pick some of the meat off the bones and throw it back into the kettle.

When time to serve, have a slice of bread in the bottom of your bowl, cover it with a ladle full of beans & plenty of juice. Top with a teaspoon of squash pickles. MmmmMmmmMmmm.

Minestrone
This recipe only calls for 1/2 C of garbanzo beans, but I always add red beans or white beans.

3 large carrots
5-6 stalks of celery
1 large onion
garlic to taste (2-3 cloves chopped fine)
3 T butter
1 can tomato juice, 12 oz can
1 can tomato soup
1 can tomato puree + equal amt of water
1 C orzo pasta, cooked
1/2 C garbanzo beans
seasonings:
1 1/2 T basil
1 T oregano
1 T thyme
salt & pepper

Directions
Chop your veggies and saute in the butter until onions are translucent, then add garlic and saute another minute or two. Add the tomato soup, juice, and puree plus 1 can of water and your herbs. Let soup slow boil until carrots are tender. Add salt, pepper, and garbanzo beans. Add cooked orzo, adjust amount of liquid with water, tomato juice or any broth on hand if needed and let soup stand 15-20 minutes before serving.

*If you don’t want to cook your orzo separately, add it when you add the tomato juice.
*I usually add red beans or lentils as well.
*Works equally well if you throw it all in a pot and let it slow cook for a couple hours.

Do you have any tried and true bean recipes to share?

Beans can be cooked in a pan over the stove, in the oven, on an open fire, in the microwave or in a pressure cooker.
All dried bean cooking consists of three components:
1. Water
2. Fat
3. Salt and other flavors

WATER
Beans will not cook and get soft if cooked in hard water. You can try adding 1/2 tsp baking soda to every big pot of beans to soften the water and help the beans get soft as they cook. I have lived in areas where the water was so hard that not even baking soda worked. You must cook beans in enough water to cover all the beans throughout the cooking process or some of the beans may dry out.

FAT
Any oil or fat will do. Some people like to cook beans with meat such as smoked pork or sausage. You can use olive oil though or even canola oil. The fats give the beans a richer flavor. there is another reason for using oils or fats in beans though; the fats keep the beans from foaming and boiling over.

SALT and OTHER FLAVORS
Salt should be added to the beans to bring out the flavor. I add salt at the beginning of the cooking process and have found that it does not keep the beans from getting soft while cooking and it makes for a more flavorful bean. If you have hard water you may want to experiment with adding salt at the end of the cooking process so that the salt will not hinder the softening of the beans. Be careful of adding too much salt if you are going to be adding salted meats to the beans.

If you are going to be adding acidic ingredients like tomatoes, add them after the beans have cooked completely. The acid will keep the beans from cooking and getting soft.

A phenomenon that occurs sometimes and keeps the beans from getting soft is called Hard Bean Syndrome. This is a genetic abnormality that occurs in some beans and it doesn’t affect people who eat them, just keeps the beans from getting soft. Old beans will also have a hard time cooking up soft.
These methods are for pintos, great northern and navy beans.

BASIC BOIL and COOK METHOD
Wash beans well. They are an agricultural product and all manner of dirt and plant matter can hang around in them. Strain them through a colander after you’ve washed them and picked out all the dried up, hard, off color and damaged beans.

Place the beans in a heavy bottomed pot and cover them by about 2 inches with fresh water. Add 2 tbsp oil. Bring to a boil. Boil hard for 2 minutes. Remove pot from heat. Cover the pot and allow to sit for 2 hours.

Drain the cooking water and discard. Cover the beans with fresh water, bring to a boil, lower heat, cover pot, and cook til tender.

BASIC SOAK AND COOK METHOD
Wash beans thoroughly. Cover with water. Place in refrigerator and soak for at least 8 hours or over night. Discard soaking water. Place beans in a large heavy bottomed pot, cover with water by 2 inches. Add 2 tbsp oil. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover pot, cook til tender.

Most soaked beans, and black eyed peas, usually take from 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours to cook. Limas however only take 45-60 minutes as do split green peas and lentils. Soybeans can take 3 hours or more.

Often, beans are baked in an oven. I have found this process to be laborious unless you have first cooked the beans a while in water. Don’t over-cook them though or they will be mushy after baking.
Preheat your oven according to the recipe you are using for baked beans. Then combine the drained cooked beans, seasonings, liquids and other ingredients in a casserole dish. Cover the dish and bake for 1 to 1½ hours. You can brown the tops of the beans by removing the lid and baking the beans 15 to 30 minutes longer.

CROCKPOT BEANS
Place washed beans in a large bowl. Add enough water to cover. Soak at room temperature overnight or for 8 hours. Drain off water, place beans in crockpot, add water to cover. Add a piece of ham if desired. Cook on High for 8 hours. Season to taste.

Denita, Karen, Margery and Patty offer a wide range of Simple Living viewpoints. Living simply doesn’t have to mean growing your own garden or raising farm animals for everyone… yet it does mean exactly that for some. Where you are right now, it is possible for you to live a simple life.

Drop by and read them this week, you’ll be blessed!

Breakfasts ~
Omelet with mushrooms, parsley, cheese, garlic, sweet bell pepper.
Cereal
Sausage, eggs, toast
Oats, dried fruit
Yogurt and fruit

Lunch ~
Soup and sandwiches
Leftovers
Beans and rice
Apples and peanut butter

Suppers ~
Shrimp bisque, salad, yeast rolls
Beef and broccoli with coconut milk
Chicken and dumplings
Beans and cornbread, chef salad
Homemade pizza, salad
Homemade chicken soup with noodles, cornbread
Leftovers

Here is how it will work and how you can participate:

* We will begin cleaning on April 5th
* We will work for 5 weeks, reporting in when a task is completed
* On May 8th we will end the event with drawings and prizes!

You will come to the CHK site for instructions on what room we’re cleaning and then during the week, report on your progress.

We will have some drawings for prizes and lots of encouragement along with check-lists and ideas for cleaning every area of your home.

Mark your calendars and join us on April 5th !

Rule #1 - Take off your shoes at the door. We haven’t always done this but when we do, there is significantly less dirt on the floors throughout the house. I don’t like shoes left at the door because the front door opens up right into the dining room. So the rule is, take off your shoes at the door and take them to your room. Oh, and I don’t ask guests to take off their shoes, that’s just something we do here at home.

Rule #2 - Eat at the dining room table. No food allowed in the living room, no food allowed in the bedroom, no eating at the computer, no food allowed anywhere but the dining room table. This one rule has itself given us a much cleaner house.

Now, if you’ve already got some dirty floors, here are some ideas for how to get them clean.

Most of the house has hardwood floors. Some time ago we got rid of all the carpet in the house and put down wood laminate. The very best thing to clean wood laminate in my opinion is the Swiffer Wet Jet. And no, I’m not selling them. Its just a great product for laminate. I can use it on my regular wood floors, too. So my usual routine is to sweep, run the dust mop because I have a dog that sheds, then use the Swiffer. I like using it because the cleaner is right there on the handle. No dipping, rinsing and squeezing involved. It uses paper pads that last a pretty long time depending on how dirty your floor is.

When we had carpet, I used baking soda regularly to keep it smelling sweet and clean. Just sprinkle it on and vacuum it off after about 20 minutes. To clean stains and spills I used OxyClean. Its the only thing that ever really worked on my pale colored berber carpet. There are other brands of Oxy cleaners that I have tried which work just as well, I think its the Oxy part that does the trick.

All day long when the children were very young, I found it easy to enforce the 2 Rules.  But as the children got older and with dearest hubby who is used to doing things the other way, it wasn’t quite as easy to do….  Its not a perfect plan, but its obvious that the 2 Rules make a big difference in the house.  When the older children want to have guests over, they realize that the 2 Rules make a huge difference. When hubby sees that it means less work for all of us, he’s in too.