Friday, April 24, 2009

A Homemade Life


The past couple of weeks have been busy and I haven’t done a whole lot of “extra” homemade stuff. Mostly just the usual bread, cookie and granola baking. One different thing I did last week was tried my hand at making my own dishwasher detergent, following the proportions given here. I didn’t have any citric acid in the first batch I made, and wasn’t very impressed with the results. I later bought citric acid at the health food store and added it to my next batch. It came out better, but I’m still not terribly impressed with the stuff. I have found that it doesn’t leave as much white film on the dishes if I use only a little bit, rather than filling the whole compartment. I do like the frugal factor of it, but the next time I can get Electrasol for free (or really cheap) at Rite Aid, I’ll definitely be buying some. It’s nice to know that I have a homemade option using cheap ingredients that I already have on hand, though, if I need it. :) Well, the citric acid wasn’t exactly cheap, but thankfully I don’t have to use much of it. It was also handy to have this past week when I had forgotten to buy gluten for making bread; I added a pinch of citric acid to the dough, which I’m sure was helpful! I may also get adventurous sometime and attempt making my own mozzarella using it. We’ll see!

I hope next week will be more profitable in the homemade life department! How did you all do this week?

2 comments:

Erika said...

citric acid is also good to make really "zingy" lemonade--i don't have the recipe accessible, but there's always google or allrecipes!

and about the dishwasher detergent--i've heard that one of the disadvantages to a homemade blend is that there are no ingredients to keep the machine running well (supposedly part of the commercial products). so long-term use could cause other issues. but i figure i use the name-brand stuff when i can get it free/cheap, and the homemade (i just use 1 T. baking soda and about 1/2 t. dishsoap) to fill in any gaps!

and thanks! i had forgotten about citric acid!!

Carrie said...

Erika, thanks for the tip about citric acid for lemonade--I'll have to look for a recipe!! I LOVE lemonade. :)

I was wondering about the effects of the homemade dishwasher detergent on the machine--I have noticed that ours doesn't look as clean inside after using it, and the trays kind of squeak more when I pull them in and out . . . so hopefully when I switch back to regular store bought stuff, that'll help!

And I totally owe you an email . . . which I've been meaning to write for several weeks now! Sorry it's taken me so long! I hope you guys are doing well. :)