Review - Glade Expressions

I don't normally purchase or use home fragrance products. The smells seems to be extremely fake and headache-inducing. But after receiving the new Glade products for free for testing, I gave them a chance.

So happy I went with the Cotton & Italian Mandarin scent!! It is very clean and refreshing. Effective at removing signature dog and kitchen odors without being overpowering. And its refillable!!

The difffuser I am less thrilled about - which I got in the Pineapple Mangosteen scent. It smells exotic and crisp, but the scent did not last. My husband, who hates fake fragrances, commented that he enjoyed this one. 

Both of these items fit into my minimalist decor easily. They are interesting to look at and affordable. If you regularly use home fragrance products, give them a shot!

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Filtering beeswax

How blessed I am to know someone who keeps bees and has given me the wax to work with! I was so excited to get this stuff, but needed to process it into a usable form. After some quick internet research, I learned I needed to perform a water extraction followed by filtering. Let's get to work! Start with your raw material, which is a mixture of wax, honey and other gunk.

Scoop onto a piece of cut unbleached muslin cloth or cheesecloth (I prefer muslin after trying both) and wrap into a tight bundle using rubberbands (I knew I saved those asparagus rubber bands for a reason!). After doing this a few times, I recommend forming a "sack" with the top of the bundle being tied together (like you would a garbage bag).

Boil the bundle/s in a large pot of water. Use a very large pot in case the liquid boils over if you aren't watching it closely, as the wax is flammable. I let it boil for an hour or so.

Remove the bundles using tongs, and squeeze out the liquid. The bundles reduce in size by quite a bit, so make sure your rubberbands are tighter than mine were. If you do your bundles in sacks, you won't have this problem.

If you are curious like me, take a peek at what you filtered out. It is mostly just brown "stuff".

The liquid in the pot will be a mixture of honey water and the wax will float to the top. Let it cool. This takes a very long time. Best to boil your wax in the evening, and let the liquid cool overnight. 

Remove your crudely filtered wax pancake from the top of the pot and let it dry on a cooling rack. Then break it apart into a glass measuring cup or some other heat resistant container with a pour spout. Melt in a double boiler, a pan/pot/crockpot filled with water, or microwave. 

Assemble a funnel/muslin filter above another glass measuring cup. I placed a metal tea diffuser/strainer inside of a wide mouth canning funnel, with  muslin cloth underneath the metal strainer. This forms a double strainer. Or simply place muslin at the bottom of a funnel. Once your wax is melted in the double boiler, you have to work fast. Pour it through your filter. Then take the filtered wax and pour into your mold.

The finished beeswax is a brilliant yellow color and has retained its fragrance. 

Cleanup is a tough job. Place your measuring cups in the freezer to cool the wax and make it easily removable from the glass. Use brillo pads and vegetable oil to remove wax from your metal pot and other utensils.

Best White Bread in a Bread Machine Recipe

Investing in a bread machine was one of the soundest financial decisions I've made. Found at a thrift store for 10 bucks, this gem was a steal. I highly recommend visiting your local thrift stores if you are thinking of purchasing a bread machine. Now that I look for them, I see them frequently and sometimes even cheaper than what I paid. Buying used is usually the best route anyway, but it also lets you try it out (bread machine bread-making) before splurging on a pricey machine you're not sure you'd use.

I found this recipe for "Best Bread Machine Bread" and wanted to try it. Only one other recipe was attempted before this one - not going back and no longer looking for a typical bread recipe. The first time I followed the recipe, the bread rose to the top of my machine and I spent a good amount of time scraping and cleaning bread gunk from the inside of the machine. I adjusted the recipe so it makes a smaller loaf. And......YES....you add the yeast/water/sugar FIRST. This goes against all directions and advice about using a bread machine but it works.

Best Bread

3/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar (recipe says white but I use turbinado)
1 3/4 tsp yeast

Combine in bread machine pan and let sit about 10 minutes, then add the rest:

3/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups bread flour (I substitute 1/4 cup flour for 1/4 cup wheat germ)
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Set it. Forget it. And you have delicious toasty bread in 3 to 4 hours.

This bread is similar to Spatz's white bread, made in Saginaw, MI. Makes great breakfast toast, garlic bread, sandwich bread and french toast. I haven't bought store bread since.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

This is a ridiculously easy, fast and good-for-you breakfast.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

1 egg
1/4 cup Bisquick mix (I use the heart smart variety)
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese

Makes 2 large pancakes.

Mix in a bowl.

Batter looks lumpy and non-appetizing.

Place half of batter in a small to medium sized frying pan. Use butter, margarine, or any kind of oil. I use grapeseed oil in a Misto sprayer, just enough to barely coat the pan.

Flip when bubbly.

Slam dunk the pancakes into your stomach.

Verdict: Sooooo good. My husband claims he tastes a sourness in them, but I disagree. This recipe makes 2 hefty sized pancakes and is very filling. Obviously, scale up if you are cooking for more than yourself.

Ideas: I recommend putting cinnamon and/or nuts and/or fruit in the batter. Top with maple syrup and raspberries, or peanut butter and nutella. I want to try them made with cardamom and chocolate chips next time.

Growing blueberries

Blueberries make superb container plants. After my first year of growing them, I'm convinced every home with a need for a lawn/landscaping/shrubbery should include blueberry bushes. Even if you live in a condo with a cement patio for a garden area, that's no excuse not to grow them! They're easy, forgiving and good-looking. I purchased mine at a bigbox home improvement store for $9.99. Worth every penny. The plants were big enough to produce berries that first year, which may appeal to you if you enjoy a quick payoff. 

When selecting blueberry bushes, be sure to choose at least 2 different varieties which will help with cross-pollination. This means more flowers get pollinated and more berries for you. I read somewhere that a gardener should grow 2 blueberry bushes per person in the household. Keep in mind some of the berries may be lost to bird-thieves who get up earlier than you do. My first year I grew two bushes. While we had berries all summer long, it was never enough. I added three more this year. If I had more outdoor space I would add even more. 

A good potting soil I can recommend is Fox Farm Ocean Forest potting soil. When planting your bushes, choose a big container. If you don't have one, you can always transplant later. But I prefer to go big right off the bat and then not have to worry about it. With the help of craigslist, I acquired several inexpensive large plastic pots. Leave several inches of bare space at the top. Some sites recommend 2 to 3 inches of a drop between the top of the pot and the dirt. If your container is big, you can and should get away with more than that. Maybe 3 to 4 inches. This will leave you for plenty of room to dump your coffee grounds.

That's right, dump your coffee grounds not in the trash but directly on your pots. Blueberries like acidic soil. When I first read this I wasn't sure I wanted the hassle of dealing with pH's in my lazy container gardening. But the blueberries are not going to whine about it. Both my mom and grandma don't do anything special for their lone blueberry bushes and that's fine too. My husband has been adding his daily coffee grounds to the pots for months now and the pH is still on the higher side of their preferred pH range (4-6ish). 

A few more notes about growing blueberries - the leaves turn a beautiful red color in the fall and will survive a winter in Michigan (zone 5) if left outside. No need to bring them indoors.

Mother-in-Law Cheesy Potatoes

Comfort food at its best. I've made some changes to my mother-in-law's recipe - waaaaay less butter and substituting greek yogurt for sour cream. This is a half recipe (to reduce tossing uneaten spoiled leftovers). Perfect for two adults for a meal, plus leftovers for the week.

Cheesy Potatoes

16 oz frozen hashbrowns
2 to 3 Tbsp butter or margarine
6 to 8 oz greek yogurt or sour cream
1 can condensed soup - cream of celery, cream of potato, or cream of mushroom
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup onion, diced (optional)
garlic, pressed our powder (optional)

Makes 9 servings

Place butter or margarine in your baking pan and melt in oven while preheating to 375 degrees. 

Mix the remaining ingredients in any order in a large bowl.

Remove pan and tilt to coat pan with melted butter.

Distribute butter on bottom of pan as best you can before dumping your potatoes mix in (not all in one corner). Leaving the butter in the bottom of the pan lets all the edges and bottom get nice and crispy - no more arm wrestling for the corner pieces.

Bake at 375 until brown on top. (I forgot to time it but will next time)

Verdict: Husband says "these are just like my moms, except there's not a puddle of grease on my plate". Exactly what I was going for. I would like to eventually come up with a healthier substitute for the can of condensed soup while keeping the flavor. Shredding your own potatoes may be worth the extra effort too.

Lemon Roasted Potatoes

A plain and simple recipe. Start with 2 lbs potatoes, 2 lemons, oil, sugar, salt and pepper.

Boil potatoes for 5 minutes in salted water. While that's happening, grate the peel of 2 lemons and squeeze the juice from one of them (about 1/4 cup). Save the other lemon for another recipe. Notice the stamp on the top lemon, which remained despite being scrubbed with a vegetable brush and fruit/vegetable wash. Yuck. I'm buying organic lemons from now on.

Mix lemon juice and zest with 1/4 cup (or less) oil, 1 tsp sugar and salt and pepper. Toss potatoes with the sauce and pour into an 8x8 or 9x9 pan. Roast at 375 degrees until browned.

These didn't brown as well as I'd hoped. I could have left them in longer but the lemon zest particles were starting to burn.

Verdict: The only feedback my husband could give on these was "they're different". I guess that's fitting. I probably wouldn't make them again as is because they lack that special something. Maybe garlic and rosemary would compliment the lemon taste. I like having a 'different' recipe to play with. We've been stuck in a pesto potatoes rut for quite time.

Source: http://recipesfrom4everykitchen.blogspot.com/2009/09/lemon-roasted-new-potatoes.html