easy kitchen tips Archives - Page 13 of 21 - One Hundred Dollars a Month

DIY – Homemade Soft Scrub

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 22, 2013 · 18 Comments

Soft scrub works great, but it has tons of harsh chemicals that I’m not super excited about. A couple of months ago, I stumbled onto a homemade soft scrub recipe, and although I’ve tweaked it a bit to suit my own tastes, it works AWESOME. No, seriously, this stuff is amazing. I clean my toilets and showers with it, and the best part is that there are literally NO harsh chemicals.

Ingredients {adapted from onegoodthingbyjillee}

An empty dish soap bottle
1 1/2 cups baking soda
1/2 cup tea tree castile liquid soap
2 tbsp. water
2 tbsp. vinegar {your mixture will start to bubble and foam when you add this ingredient due to the reaction with the baking soda}

Directions

Put all the above ingredients into empty dish soap bottle. Place lid on dish soap bottle and shake vigorously–like, you really mean it. That’s it, now go clean something!

*I have found that after it sits for a bit, it can get a bit cakey and dry, so I just add a little bit of water from the faucet and shake it again–then it’s good as new.

Are you concerned about the chemicals in your cleaning products? Do you make your own?

~Mavis

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How to Freeze Peppers

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 11, 2013 ·

I decided to freeze some of the peppers this morning that I got from Mr. Produce Guy this week. I like to freeze them both sliced and diced {mostly because slicing and dicing rhymes, but also for the convenience, ha.}. They are awesome to have on hand in the winter, when you only need a bit for a recipe. I like having the option of pulling out only what I need for stir-fries, soups, and omelets.

Here’s the 411 on how to freeze them:

You’ll need:

Knife
Cutting board
Pot {for blanching}
A bowl of ice water
freezer bags
cookie sheet

Directions:

Start a pot of boiling water for blanching*
Wash and dry your peppers.
Slice them in half and de-seed them completely.
Now cut them however you prefer {sliced, diced, etc.}.
Place them in a pot of boiling water{2 minutes for slices, 1 minute for diced} and then plunge them into the ice water bath.
Lay them out flat on a cookie sheet and freeze them.
Transfer frozen peppers to labeled and dated freezer bags. {They are best when used within 6 months, but they’ll keep longer.}

*If you are not going to cook the peppers, you can skip the blanching step, because they will lose their crispiness during blanching. I cook with mine, so I blanched them to preserve their color.

Want to know how to freeze just about anything? Check out my handy dandy how-to chart HERE.

The Complete Guide to Food Preservation

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How to Make Vanilla Sugar

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 10, 2013 · 5 Comments

Have you ever heard of vanilla sugar? If not, it is ridiculously easy to make and super inexpensive {my two favorite combinations}. I made another batch this afternoon and thought I would share the simple recipe.

I like to add a wee bit to my morning tea. It adds sweetness with a hint of vanilla flavor. If you aren’t a tea or coffee drinker, no worries, it’s great when making pastries, sprinkling on cupcakes, and sprinkled on a bowl of fruit.

Ingredients

2 cups of sugar
1 whole vanilla bean split down the center
A container to store it in {canning jars work great}

Directions

Place the vanilla bean in the bottom of a container and cover with the sugar. Put the lid on and shake the sugar {that sounds like a dance move} once daily for 1-2 weeks. When you open it up, you will have vanilla infused sugar. Easy right? Even better, you can just continue adding sugar on top of the bean as you use it–it’s like a never ending supply of vanilla sugar!

Do you make your own vanilla sugar too?

Mavis wants to know.

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How to Remove Berry Stains from Your Hands

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By Mavis Butterfield on July 10, 2013 · 8 Comments

Have you noticed that strawberries and blueberries have hit the stores? I don’t know about you, but after a day of making jam, slicing, and rinsing berries, etc. my hands are always stained.

Here’s a little trick I’ve learned to get the stains off of your hands, rather than scrubbing them until your skin comes off: Make a paste of cornmeal and lemon juice. Rub the paste on your hands, let it sit a minute or two and then rinse it off. Easy peasy and you didn’t have to commit chemical warfare on your skin. {Of course, you could always just wear rubber gloves, but those things make me feel like a fumbling idiot–funny how one thin layer of rubber can completely take away your slicing and dicing coordination.}

How about YOU, do you have a trick to remove stains from your hands?

Or do you wear it proudly, like a self-sufficient badge of honor?

~Mavis

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.