Making It From Scratch, From Eats to Feets
Melody makes her own Kimchi using this video tutorial and recipe for about ten pounds of cabbage at a time. Kimchi is incredibly healthy and really pretty frugal to make.
Bernadette makes strawberry-Rhubarb Muffins
The Peaceful Mom turns leftover oatmeal into fluffy pancakes!
Emma makes sauerkraut from scratch, mmm, mmm. I used to think I didn't like sauerkraut, and then I grew up and had some good stuff, not out of a can.
We make our own yogurt. You can put a double layer of cheesecloth (or a clean nylon stocking) in a sieve and strain the yogurt slowly (reserve the thin whey that drips through for making muffins or bread)- then you have a product very much like cream cheese. Several years ago I used to put the yogurt inside a nylon knee-high, and use a rubber band to hang this from my kitchen faucet over a mason jar and let it drip overnight. In the morning we had 'cream cheese' for bagels or muffins.
Mama Squirrel makes no-bake brownies that sound like they must taste like candy.
You can also make your own vegan butter, useful especially if you have dairy allergies.
Valerie of Lion Face Studios makes her own:
Deodorant: 5 Tbsp. coconut oil, 1/4 cup cornstarch, 1/4 cup baking soda, 4 drops orange essential oil, 2 drops tea tree oil. You can use other essential oils. The baking soda can be irritating. Don't apply this directly after shaving. Applying plain coconut oil initially and then applying the deodorant after 30 minutes or so can help. Reducing the amount of baking soda can help, too.
And Cough syrup: Raw honey into a double boiler along with a raw onion, chopped. Heat this way for about 20 minutes, nice and low so as not to destroy the inherent properties in the honey. Strain out the onions and store in a glass jar in the fridge. 1-2 spoonfuls at a time. I have done this, too, only I juiced the onion instead of heating and straining, then warmed the onion juice and mixed with raw honey.
We have been making our dishwasher powder for several months now, and we really like it. It works better than commercial powders- we do have very soft water. I offer a couple suggestions that may work for those with hard water.
And feets? Make your own foot powder by putting 3 parts corn starch and 1 part baking soda (that is, try 1/2 cup baking soda and 1 1/2 cups cornstarch) in a jar and shake them up together. Add an essential oil if you like. Tea Tree Oil, Rosemary, Lemongrass and grapefruit allegedly have properties that are good for foot odor or athelete's foot. Shake very well.
Store this in a large salt or pepper shaker and sprinkle in your shoes and socks. To keep it from clumping, put some rice grains in the bottle- when you shake before you using, the rice will help bring up the clumps and it will also absorb moisture. I would store this in a ziplock bag or jar with a lid in order to keep it even drier.
What do you make from scratch? What's the most unusual thing you've ever made from scratch?
3 Responses to “Making It From Scratch, From Eats to Feets”
May 11th, 2012 at 6:02 am
Thanks for the link! Yes, the brownies do taste more like fudge than like a cookie. We don’t make them too often, but they are very easy.
What do we make from scratch? Pancake syrup, granola, birthday cakes and frosting (and trims), smack-and-cheese, sometimes yogurt, occasionally bread, tomatoes in the garden, crocheted hair scrunchies, afghans, doll clothes. My older girls make bead earrings and other jewelery for gifts.
What would I like to make? Socks. I just need to get some of the nicer kind of sock yarn to make them with.
What’s the most unusual thing you’ve made from scratch? We once built a TARDIS in the coat closet. (It was for a Dr. Who fan’s birthday party.)
May 11th, 2012 at 5:58 pm
I collect vintage tube radios from the 1930′s thru 1960′s. Just today I picked up a 1946 Victor Little Master which was missing the dial pointer. It took ten minutes to make one out of an old brass door jamb with tin snips,vise and my grinder. Mama Squirrel thought it was cool.
May 14th, 2012 at 9:33 am
I have made the foot powder for my husband and son’s shoes. I keep it in a used ‘cheese’ bottle. This keeps well, is always there in the room with their shoes and works like a charm. It is even less expensive than the brand of foot powder I was buying at the dollar store.
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