Homemade Laundry Detergent (cloth diaper safe!)

To prelude the up and coming Cloth Diapering posts, which will almost definitely be ever changing, here is how I make my own detergent, as well as some troubleshooting for different issues.  This detergent works wonderfully for our family, and is saving us a boatload of money.  After the initial investment, which was small anyway, we spend about eight dollars every 6 months or so on detergent, and I do at least one load a day.  That really can't be beat!  You can also choose any scent you like, or none at all for those with more sensitive skin.

Ingredients:
3/4 c. Borax (20 mule team)
1 cup Baking Soda
1 bar non-glycerin soap, grated
6 gallons of water

Materials:
A 4 gallon bucket (or a 35 lb bucket of cat litter, do I need to specify without the cat litter?)
Gallon jugs or old detergent jugs, rinsed out
A cheese grater

Steps:
Take any bar of non-glycerin soap and grate it.  Put in a saucepan on the stove with enough water to cover and melt the soap on low heat, stirring occasionally until the soap is dissolved.

Fill the bucket about 4/5 with hot water from the tap or tub.  Stir in the Borax and Baking Soda until they are dissolved.  Pour in the soap mixture from the saucepan.  Fill the rest of the bucket with hot water to the brim.  Leave to sit for 24 hours, stirring occasionally.  It will gel like commercial detergent, but lumpy or water spots are normal and fixed with stirring.


Pour into 1/2 a cup per load.  Safe for High-Efficiency frontloading machines.  I usually shake the jug before pouring as it tends to separate. 

Pretreatments are fine.  If you are not using this detergent for cloth diapers you can use Washing Soda in place of the Baking Soda, or you can always add a bit to each wash.  Using Washing Soda with each load of cloth diapers can cause a loss of absorbency and make diapers appear dingy.

My daughter is very prone to yeast infections, so we add 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar to each load and have seen a complete turn around using only this treatment.  Just make sure wipes are also being washed with vinegar. White vinegar will feed the yeast, so do not substitute!

Mmmm. Whipped cream

  I haven't posted in a while, and my first post back is going to be a quicky about breakfast.  What can ya do?  I just wanted to share this delicious and fast recipe with anyone out there who might want to try it.  It's meant to be for crepes, but if you're in a bind it can be used on nearly anything.  My husband who is gluten intolerant loves to just eat a bowl of it!  We also use this around the house for any desert dish that you would normally put store bought whipped cream on.
 
  You will need:

 A bowl

 Hand blender with whisk attachment or a hand held whisk

heavy whipping cream*

Jam/Jelly/ or fruit

*If you are using ultra pasteurized cream a metal bowl may make things go faster, but I used plastic and it worked just fine.  I put the bowl and the whisk in the freezer for 3 minutes before starting.

Just whip the cream, starting on your lowest setting.  You can work up through the speeds as you see it begin to thicken.  Stop once it maintains it's shape from the whisk.  You don't want to go too far and make butter!  The whisk is a great distraction while you get anything else ready. The cat can even enjoy it. :)

Many recipes recommend adding vanilla, sugar, splenda, etc. at this point.  I don't.  Go on and try a bite, it is plenty yummy all on it's own.  If you want at this point go on and add your fruit choice.    We put it on waffles this morning because the bean was too hungry to wait for me to make crepes and she loved it!

She was humming mmm mmmm mmm sounds as she ate.

If anyone thinks of other things to add, please, feel free to share!