It's Still Winter in Texas

So Dearies, it's still Winter in Texas. Now I know that we don't have it all that bad when it comes to the winter months in Texas. In fact, most of the time we have very mild, noninvasive weather. That's a perk of Texas. I mean, when was the last time you heard someone say, "I think I'll move to Texas for the snowy winter weather they have down there." I'm going to hazard a guess and say never. You've never heard that. You've never said that. We freak out when there is a little bit of white on the ground because it's never ever there. In the winter, the ground is brown. Very ugly brown.

So! It stands to reason that Texans would hate the ice and snow. If hate is too strong a word, then perhaps strongly dislike. Let's face it, it's foreign to us. Thus the annoying, terrible, I-am-a-brand-new-awkward-horse style of driving. I roll my eyes every time I hear someone from out of state complain about the driving here. I'm going to let y'all in on a little secret: we all know. Many here can't drive on a good day, so why would you think that ice/snow would improve that? It wouldn't. Is it frustrating? Sure. But, I hardly think it's news to anyone around you. Just be patient.

Anytime I see anywhere in the north covered in snow, I just shake my head and say, "Bless your hearts." That much snow just suuuuuuuucks. It's pretty, but I wouldn't want to be out in it. Unless I was learning to ski. But that would mean I was on vacation. And, if I'm on vacation, I'd rather be at a beach. I digress! In conclusion, today with its one inch of powdery snow, is about all I can handle.  :-/

On a much lighter note, as part of my Spending Less Month, I'm baking bread. It's always scared me in the past. My mom bakes bread. My best friend Alison, her mom has always baked bread. Why should this scare me? Well, I'm not entirely sure, but I think it has something to do with proofing yeast. It sounds gross. It looks gross. But the end product of freshly baked bread...holy cow there is nothing better. So y'all cross your fingers and toes that it goes well. I want some warm rolls with cinnamon butter at the end of all this. Doesn't that just sound good when it's cold outside?   :)

Happy snowy day Y'all!

3rd Pin of Interest - Mouth Watering...Laundry Detergent?

Oh. My. Gosh.

My sister and I made homemade laundry detergent and it smells heavenly. I want to keep the jar open and use it as an air freshener in my room.

I avoided Pinterest for a very long time. I have been singed up for years, but I never got on. I always thought it was a time suck (it is), it's filled with loads of stuff I can't do (it is), it will steal my soul (it has). But! I gave in to the temptation and it has proven to be very interesting and handy. It's given me a project for the year! What more could I ask for?

Let's talk detergent.

It's necessary. It's costly. It's so much fun to buy. Is that just me? I love to buy laundry detergent. I love Downy and Tide. It makes my clothes and bed smell like heaven. But it is so friggin' expensive!

Pinterest to the rescue!

For this Pin of Interest, we have How Does She? to thank. I've read a lot of blogs on detergent. Weird? Maybe. It's really interesting to me for some reason. Anyways, I've read a lot about it, and this blog seemed to put it the easiest way. There are some things I changed (of course), but I really did try to stay as close to the recipe as possible. I've never made detergent, and if this is going to keep my clothes clean, I don't want to screw it up.
Your ingredients:

Box of Borax
Box of Super Washing Soda (different from baking soda)
Baking Soda-her recipe called for 4 lbs! I only had 3.
2 Bars of Zote Laundry Detergent
OxyClean- she called for 3 lbs, I used about 6 heaping scoops because we only had a HUGE box
Downy Unstoppables
One gigantic mixing bowl

So to start, you need to shred the Zote into tiny pieces. A lot of people that I've read about use the fine grater on the cheese grater. Or their food processor. I don't have the patience to grate. I certainly am not fancy enough to own a food processor. So I went with the 3rd option: Microwave. Yep, microwave. I cut up the first bar into chunks like this:

Then I put it on a plate and set the microwave for 30 seconds. I didn't know what was going to happen. Turns out, nothing did. So I added a minute. Then it started to bubble up like a marshmallow. It was awesome! 

Just a fair warning, it is burning (literally) hot when you take it out of the microwave. What you need to do is let it cool completely, then you can peel off the layers and crumble them. Danielle and I used a butcher knife and some other random baking thing my mom had lying around the kitchen to make the crumbles even smaller. We found that if you cut the bars into smaller cubes and put on several different plates, then it goes a lot faster.

See! Several plates and a butcher knife.

Then This hand little pastry utensil
helped us further. 

Once that you have grated, processed, chopped or pulverized all of the Zote, then you just dump in all of the other ingredients. Now. Let me tell ya something. It's important that you have the patience to make the soap fine. If it's too big, it won't dissolve in the water. If it doesn't dissolve, then it sticks to your clothes. If it sticks to your clothes, and you put them in the dryer, it will leave burn marks on your clothing. SO! Patience. I have told everyone that I've talked to about this to have someone help you with this part. It is time consuming either way you do it. Unless you have a food processor. Then you are lucky. However, I'm not sure I'd want to clean this soap out of the processor, it's tenacious. And, I wouldn't want my future food to taste like Zotey soap. Mmmmmmmm.





So! Dumping. Ingredients. Make sure that you incorporate all of the ingredients as uniformly as possible. That was there is enough of everything in every load of laundry that you do.

You will only need 1-2 Tablespoons of the mix per load, depending on the size of load you usually wash. I'm terrible and cram clothes into the washer, so I use 2 good Tablespoons. Actually, I just use my 1/8 cup scooper and scoop it out that way.

This recipe makes a ton of detergent! The fact that you don't have to use all that much per load is awesome! It's way more inexpensive then buying the brand name stuff. And, if you figure that you don't have to buy separate fabric softener, you will realize that by making your laundry detergent, you really do come out on top money wise. The cool thing is...it works!!  I've used it and so has my sister. I washed clothes, she washed towels. Smells good and clean! We ended up splitting the spoils because a) she helped with the tedious task that is Zote and b) it made so freaking much! Just store in an air tight container. I used some Mason jars, a Glad thingie, and an old Animal Cracker container.
 Well, that's all I have on Laundry detergent. If you want to make some, and need some help, just ask. :)

Later gators! -----do it--->

2nd Pin of Interest- Holy Guacamole! Errrrrr...Avocado!

So, I might have fibbed. I said I was going to write about something else before my next Pin of Interest. I really wanted this dip, so now I'm going to write about it. Lucky you!

Today's Pin is brought to you by the letter "A." Avocado Cilantro Dip Stuff (that's my name for it)

The Skinny Taste blog was kind enough to Pin this recipe for Avocado Cilantro Buttermilk Dressing. It's good. Really good. But I liked it as a dip instead of a dressing. I will let y'all know that I first made this a long time ago. Like a whole 3 weeks ago. Sooooo...yeah. Anyhoos, I followed (mostly) the directions.

On summer vacations to San Diego, we always visited El Puerto. I have written about this lovely hole in the wall place before. It's so awesome! They have this guacamole fluff mix stuff that they put on the rolled tacos, and this tasted very similar to that.

But, I wanted to make it better. I made up my first batch and took it down to my parents' house over Christmas. I wanted my sister, Danielle, to taste it. She's the guacamole maker in our family and I wanted her opinion. She really liked it. So much so,she requested I make another batch. I did. It was good. Really good. So she wanted another batch. But wait!!! We were fresh out of buttermilk. We decided on maybe using half and half. Would that work? I don't know. There was an ovoverabundance of sour cream in my mom's fridge. Would that work? Maybe. I thought, what if we mixed the two? That way we have some liquid and cream. Y'all. It was so much better. I don't know why, but it was.

So! On with the (new-ish) recipe!

2-3 Avocados
1 small jalapeno
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1 clove of garlic (I used close to a tsp of garlic powder instead)
2 scallions (green onions)
1/8 tsp cumin (you don't want to over do this...it's powerful stuff)
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup half and half
1 cup sour cream
1 Lime (this is SO important)

Put the half and half in the blender.

Clean and de-stem (?) the cilantro, then add that to the blender.

Cut up the jalapeno. Now, here's where it gets tricky. If you like spice then you need to leave some seeds. I mean,  let's face it spice is nice (eh, eh...see what I did there??). Yeah, I'm not really that lame. Well, maybe I am. I digress!! So what I usually do is cut the hat off the pepper, then cut about a 1/4 inch and leave it with the seeds. The rest gets gutted. Toss that into the blender too.

Cut the green onions up and...well you get the point.

Blend. And Blend. If I was cool and had a Magic Bullet or Ninja Bullet thingie, I wouldn't have to blend so much. But I don't. So I do.

You don't want a lot if chunks. Well, I don't. You may, and that's fine. I won't judge. Much.

Add 2 avocados to the mix and blend them until it's all creamy goodness.

Here you can either dump this mix into a bowl, or you can keep it in the blender.

Add the sour cream and the spices. Mix, mix, mix. Then mix some more.

Cut the lime in half and add the juice of both halves. It's ok if some of the pulp gets in there. So, remember when I said this is important? When I first made this, I used lemon juice. It was all I had. The taste was great, but the dip started to brown over night. So, it was only good for maaaaybe 24 hours. Limes are key to making it last...that is if you don't eat it all right away. It'll be good for about 2 days, maybe 3. I wouldn't keep it any longer than that.

Now taste. Too spicy? Add another avocado. I made this last night, and Oh. Boy. I'm just giving you guys a fair warning. This batch I made just about punched me in the face. It's a little joke with Danielle and me, because I never pick out the spicy jalapeno. They are always so mild you can just bite off a piece and it really won't phase you. Unless, of course, you don't like the flavor. Then you might barf a bit. But not this time. My lips were on fire for like 3 hours. It suuuuucked. So, to off set the spice, I added another avocado and a smidge of salt and that took the fire down a bit.

Enjoy with chips, on tacos or fajitas, or add some more half and half and use it as a dressing. Like I said though, I really liked it much better as a dip.

So! That's all I have for you for now, chickens. Hope y'all like it!!

If you want to ------>