Reusable Cleaning Wipes

If you read the post about reusable cloths/paper towels, then you will have a good idea how this one is going to go. Except these are even simpler. I started doing it when I discovered that the wipes I used no longer contained bleach and were no longer safe for food contact surfaces. Yeah, take a minute to read the containers. Anyways, I needed wipes with bleach, and that could be used to clean surfaces that may come in contact with food. In addition, I was spending quite a bit of money on these, and while I still use them for a few things, I don't spend anywhere near as much money on them now.

Now as to why I just don't grab a bottle of cleaner and a separate wipe, well the reason we buy these things is because they are convenient. The bottle of cleaner frequently isn't where I thought it was. And neither are wipes.  In this case, both are pre-assembled in one place that is easy to grab. I also tend to refill several containers at the same time and distribute them to different rooms in the house. The wipes are just the right size for most jobs and then I toss them in the laundry pile. (Warning: if they contain bleach, rinse them well before tossing in the laundry pile. Or just pile them separately and add them to a load that you would use bleach in.)

This project can recycle two things depending on what you have on hand, those containers from purchased wipes and old clothes.

I make these two ways. The first batches were done using some cheap white microfiber wipes that I grabbed off a clearance rack.  They are 8" squares.  I took a box of 16 and rolled them with one inch overlapping edges. Then I stuffed them into an empty container from the purchased ones.  Because I find the lids to be a bit frustrating, I take a razor knife and carefully cut out the sections meant to hold the wipes at the top. Last step was to add one cup of cleaner and give it a day for it to get completely soaked up. Then I pull from the center or outer edge. Either way works fine.

In the years since I started doing this I've also used squares cut from knit material to make wipes using various cleaners. The knit material comes from various pieces of old clothing and I use the 6 inch square from this pack. (https://amzn.to/2CroK1h)  I end up with a 6 1/2 inch wipe. I've also been known to use the 9" square for this as well. One reason I use knit material for these is because there is no need to stitch or serger the outer edges, which makes one less step for me to worry about. If you want to use woven materials instead, make sure to finish off the edges so they don't fray.

Anyways, I roll the squares the same way as the microfiber clothes and pour in one cup of whatever cleaner I want. Remember that some cleaners need to be diluted to the use strength first. The most recent set of wipes I made was Chlorhexidine wipes for my dog. But I've used them with most of the common cleaners for all areas of the house. Just make sure to mark the outside of the container with the name of the cleaner that you filled it with. I use a sharpie on the side and the lid.  And this honestly turns out to be a great way to reuse all those containers from the store bought throw away wipes, which still have their place and purpose.

One note here, if you are going to use bleach, or bleach containing cleaner, with the knit fabric squares be aware that the bleach will bleach them. I tend to save white or pale color squares for those batches.

When COVID popped up on the scene I had a few friends that found themselves in a pickle. And they didn't have time to make wipes from old clothes or clearance materials. They purchased the 24" x 24" microfiber wipes from Sam's Club and then used a serger to turn them into 8" x 8" wipes. So that's another idea if you want to do it. Microfiber wipes are useful in a lot of situations. Especially if there is a rice/quinoa/little bitty things spill.

A few bit of extra guidance, from experience, if you have an HE washer put the squares in a net bag before washing. For some reason HE washing machines will suck these into the system and they end up caught in a lower filter. Especially the knit ones. That is a pain to deal with. You can deal with it. But it requires a shop vac and towels. So a simple drawstring or zipper wash back will prevent that. I traded my HE machine to my brother several years back to get one of the older washing machines. I haven't had any problems in that machine.

When washing the microfiber wipes, don't put them in with items that tend to shed lint, like towels. Or clothes covered in lawn and leaf debris. They will grab that lint and debris and hold tight to it.  Oh, and hair, both dog hair and my 3 ft long head hairs.

And lastly, dry microfiber on a low heat setting to keep the qualities that make it so useful. For some reason, high heat dryer temps can cause the "hook" ends to melt/deform. The cloths will still work as cloths, but they aren't as "grabby" as most of us prefer microfiber to be.

Tomato Slices and Tomato Powder

This topic hadn't been on my mind until some folks asked questions about what to do with excess tomatoes. This was something I did one year in an effort to keep from completely losing almost 50 lbs of tomatoes when life threw a curveball that I just couldn't completely dodge. And actually found myself doing again today to finish off the last few tomatoes from the salsa box and two containers of grape tomatoes. 

Part one was that I wasn't going to have time to do my normal canning due to life. Part two was that while I could have cooked the tomatoes down enough, using the steam juicer, to make tomato paste, I didn't have near enough 4 oz jars for that quantity. And we just don't use tomato paste that often. For today, it's just that we don't tend to eat fresh tomatoes unless it's for tacos. And I don't want waste.

So for the first batch,way back when, I did some research and found no reason why I couldn't just slice tomatoes evenly and dehydrate them. As long as I didn't add oil, there was no reason the tomatoes wouldn't store just like my other dehydrated veggies.  And no reason why I couldn't use them in stew, roasts, etc later on.  So the first box got sliced on the mandoline and went into the dehydrator until I had no more room. I normally run the dehydrator ~ 120 degrees and I had nicely dried tomato slices within 48 hours. Those got vac sealed in a canning jar and used over time, including a nice batch that my SIL appreciated.

But I couldn't leave the remainder just sitting in the boxes. So I decided to do something that had been suggested for tomato canning leftovers - tomato powder. From prior experience I knew that if I wanted a powder after dehydrating, I needed as close to pure liquid as possible before canning. And while I couldn't store full boxes in the fridge for a few days, I could store a large bowl or two.  So I cored the tomatoes and ran them through the blender. Over and over until all the remaining tomatoes were pureed liquid in two large bowl. Then I put covers on them and put them in the fridge.

When the slices were done, I lined each of my dehydrator trays with parchment and spread out the tomatoes that I had pureed.  Again at 120 degrees, but due to the sheer volume of liquid I made sure to rotate the trays top to bottom twice a day.  Most of it was ready in 48 hours. I just let the rest keep going until it was done. I would consolidate it on fewer and fewer sheets as I pulled what was done. And, once it was dry enough, flip it over on the parchment paper itself. I did keep the parchment paper under it until it was completely done.  

As I pulled the dried portions, I put them through the food processor to powder them.  The end result looked so amazingly small. Twenty five pounds of tomatoes yielded approximately two cups of tomato powder. But boy does that powder pack a punch.  I don't buy tomato paste anymore. I don't really buy tomato sauce unless it is something like Rotel.  If a recipe calls for tomato paste or sauce, I just pull down the jar and add the tomato powder. And each year, whenever there's an extra tomato, or two, or three, I add more to the jar. I can't help you with proportions though because I'm one of those cooks who wings it most of the time. I can tell you that when a recipe calls for a can of tomato paste, I use about 2 tbsp of tomato powder and then about a 1/4 c. of water/stock/broth.

So I hope this gives you some extra ways to use those bounties of tomatoes and keep that flavor in your food all year round.

Washable, Recycled Cleaning Cloths

I wrote this post originally and I just felt like it was wrong. So I waited. And my brain finally told me why. So here's attempt two, or three.

I think in off the wall ways. And my brain can pull stuff together in seemingly random ways.  A few years ago I realized that I had a lot of random clothes that weren't really thrift quality, and I was going through way too many paper towels. I don't like waste. Paper towels have their uses, and I still use them. Making bacon will always require paper towels. But there are a lot of things that could be handled without paper towels.

But hand towels weren't necessarily the solution. One, they are too big for a lot of the jobs, so I always feel like I need to wash them early or keep using them until they are really dirty.  Two, I like my hand towels for things that need a lot of absorbing, like water/liquid spills. And lastly, three, I just like having some nice looking hand towels on hand and kitchen life can trash towels pretty quickly. When you add in pets, and my son, towels can see a lot of unusual things in my household.

Now, I used to have a rag bag. It was pretty full. But somehow whenever I needed a rag, I couldn't find what I needed easily in the bag. The rags were either too big or too small for the job. Or just the wrong type of material. I didn't toss the rag bag but it's a lot smaller nowadays.

So I decided to make use of the old clothes in a new way. When I first did this, I just took a piece of butcher paper and made a 12" x 12" square pattern. Easy peasy. Except I can't draw a straight line to save my life, so the less said about those impromptu patterns the better.  I ended up buying this set of quilters squares because I found so many uses for the pieces of fabric that I got from those clothes, including making new clothes. https://amzn.to/2CroK1h  Now when I have a pile, I just sit down and cut as many squares as I can, of all sizes, and toss the rest. I store the squares in a tote until I'm ready to use them. And I can tell you that there is a real shortage of the 7.5" and 9.5" squares right now.

Making the cloths is pretty easy. And I use them throughout the house. Because they are made from recycled materials I really don't stress it if they end up stained, torn, or holey. In fact I deliberately reach for them if I think that is a possible result of whatever job I'm doing. They aren't too big. They are rarely ever too small. And when they are dirty, they join the laundry pile rather than the garbage pile. When I finally use them so much that it's time to toss them I know that I have gotten full use out of that material.

First off, the materials. I try to do one side out of a knit and the other out of a woven material. For the knits, I've used old t-shirts, knit pants, skirts, sheets, etc.  If I no longer have a use for something in it's current form, I take a few minutes and use quilter squares and a rotary cutter to get all the squares out of it I can. I don't feel bad about doing this with clothes because if you donate clothes with any damage or holes they just end up in the trash. At least I'm going to get a lot more use out of them.

As far as woven materials, the best source so far, for us, is old pillowcases and flat sheets. But that is because we don't wear many things made of woven materials. Other people I know use old shirts, pants, etc.  But please note, I don't go buy materials for these cleaning cloths. I use whatever is on hand in the house.Every once in a while I end up with a dead bathroom towel. Either old age wear and tear, or holes, or whatever. And I'll cut those up to use as a side as well. I just make sure to use a tighter serger stitch to keep them from fraying.

For the cloths I use the largest square.  I don't bother with anything more than smoothing out the fabric, laying the square as close to straight along the grain as I can eyeball it, and then cutting. I end up with 12.5" fabric squares. When I get to the next step, I just grab a stack of knit and a stack of woven and sit down at the serger. There really is only one more step for these in my house. I take one of each and serge the outside seams. That's it. Then they get folded in half and added to the stack in the kitchen. They get use for whatever I want to use them for, including impromptu napkins or pot holders sometimes. If you want to hide the stitches, you could serge three sides, flip it inside out and then use the sewing machine to close it. But for what I use them for, that's too much trouble. If I need nice looking towels for some reason I have a stack of those. Keeping those towels looking nice is one of the reason why I make these cloths. The serger seam keeps the woven material from unraveling and I've yet to have one fail.

If you look around the internet you'll see suggestions to add snaps so you can roll them. I did that one time. It wasn't worth the time and effort. The snaps just don't hold up to the usage. And they can sometimes scratch things I don't want scratched.  If you want them rolled like paper towels, the most effective method I've found is to use a 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe piece and roll them around it with each cloth overlapping the next one by about 1 inch. I just prefer stacking them.

In my house the cloths tend to last a couple of years of regular use. Some will get stains. Some will get holes. Every once in a while, some will get tossed because they are used for something that I just don't want to wash in my washing machine.  I tend to grab the ones that are the most stained or holey when I know the cloth is going to be tossed after the clean up. One last good use out of it. When I notice I'm starting to run low on them, I make a new batch. And the bonus, the dressy/fancy hand towels tend to last longer.

Homemade Spiced, Breaded Pork Chops

Pork chops are kind of a staple at our house. It's something easy to cook on the stove top with the cast iron grill pan, or on the grill, or even in the oven. I play with all sorts of ways and flavors.  But my basic standby that makes a yummy, juicy pork chop that I got to by following some of the ideas here:
https://www.inspiredtaste.net/37062/juicy-skillet-pork-chops/.

But a few changes, of course. First, I pull the chops about an hour before hand. I salt and pepper them when I pull them, and then let them come to room temp. (about a half hour) Then I make the breading. It is really simple. Breading is 1 part spice mix to 2 parts flour.  In our case, Bob Red Mill's 1 to 1 GF flour.  I honestly don't remember where I got those proportions from but I picked them up somewhere in my lifetime.  For two fair sized chops, I use 1 tbsp spice mix and 2 tbsp flour.

 And I've used a whole variety of spice mixes. There is absolutely no shortage of spice mixes in my house. Right now we're working our way through a small batch of homemade BBQ spice mix that gives a good zing.

I drop the breading into the bag with the chops and shake. Then I give it another half hour for the spices to soak in. Then I follow most of the cooking instructions from Inspired Taste, except I use a cast iron grill pan or the grill. The results are great. Both my son and I love them.

And tonight, they get paired with fresh salad and fresh corn for dinner. I hope you get to enjoy some soon.

Winging it from the Pantry - Granola Bars

If you follow me for long you are going to soon learn that I am a strong believer in using what I have on hand. I have a large pantry due to many learning experiences in my life, but my pantry does not contain every ingredient in existence. Nor is it bottomless. Occasionally I forget to restock.

One of the things that I'm winging it on, out of the pantry, is granola bars. I took a hard look at how much we were spending on itsy, bitsy, tiny, tiny, store bought granola bars and decided to take things in hand and try making our own.  Step one, hunt for recipes.  Okay, step one made my brain hurt. I had no idea there were so many ways to make granola bars. Except the recipes aren't for granola bars, they are for granola. My son doesn't do granola, only granola bars.

During the hunt for recipes a friend shared her two tried and true (TNT) recipes. When she gets those recipes up on her blog, I'll share them. Until then, here's the link to her blog, please go say hi. www.fiveoaksfarmal.com/blog  But the biggest tip she gave me was to do it in two bake sessions, one lower and longer than the other.  But I didn't have a lot of her ingredients on hand, so here's where the winging it came in.

I'll put my version of the recipe below the story. Feel free to wing it yourself and share the results.  First, 3 cups of nuts. Yup, not oats yet. I keep forgetting to put them on the grocery order.  I did not have the nuts she listed, but I did have containers of Sam's Club Deluxe Nut Mix, both salted and unsalted. We can't have peanuts so I get him the deluxe mix. The reason why I have them on hand is a whole story in and of itself.  Back to cooking, I did half and half. One and a half cups of salted mix, one and a half cups of unsalted mix.  For chocolate granola bars, I shorted each of those by a quarter cup and add a half cup of Enjoy Life Mega Chunks. (Dairy Free, Gluten Free https://amzn.to/2ZkZcLU)

Whew, step one down. Now step two. Except I don't have flaked coconut. I have fine ground unsweetened. Well, in it goes.

Next is chia seeds. Yeah, I didn't have those either. I could have gone two ways. I have a variety of cereals that are used for different things. (Those little pellet style that you use for breading and stuff.) And I have sunflower seeds.  And it was sunflower seeds for the win.

The rest of the recipe I had on hand in the pantry, even if the honey was pretty crystallized. And then I added one extra ingredients specifically to help my son, protein powder.  Orgain has a vanilla protein powder that is safe for him. (https://amzn.to/2ZlVstK)

Batch one I did in a 9x9 pan. I was looking for thicker bars. That worked, except for two problems. One, none of my knives are sharp enough to cut granola bars, another long story. And two, differing ovens. When I did the second bake it turned out to be too long in my oven.

So there was a fix for both issues.  For granola bars, I went hunting online for granola bar molds, and ones that would make a bar that is roughly 1 inch thick. I finally found what I was looking for and ordered it. There are molds for smaller bars as well. (https://amzn.to/32caAfc) (Yes, I know. I need to learn how to sharpen my knives. That's a whole different story.)

So time for the second batch.  I pretty much used the same recipe except I accidentally added extra honey, and for the chocolate ones, I added a bit of black strap molasses.  Batch two came out decent except that they were sticky and super moist on the bottom. Super moist on the bottom was actually easily fixed. When I wrapped them in parchment paper for storage, I flipped the moist side to the top. Sure enough gravity took it from there and when he went to eat them they were moist all the way through.

As for the baking time, I watched careful for the last 15 minutes. Maybe it was the excess sweetener that ended up in them, but it wasn't a problem for batch two. The molds worked great and he was much more comfortable with something that looked more like "his" granola bars.

So batch three was yesterday. Raw, the flavor was great.  A bit much coconut for my preference but my son has no problem with it at all.  And I added one more extra ingredient as an experiment, matcha green tea powder. I'll have to let you know how that goes. But I can tell you, they turned out much more like normal granola bars, if a bit thicker. And the passed the taste test with my son this morning. (Oh, and for the second bake, I just shut the oven off at 45 minutes and just left the pans in the oven for the last 15 minutes.)

But if you want to join me in winging it from your pantry, here's the "recipe": (I have no idea on the calories, nutrition or otherwise.)

Vanilla Granola Bars                                                 Chocolate Granola Bars

1 1/2 c. Salted Peanut Free Nut Mix                         1 1/4 c. Salted Peanut Free Nut Mix
1 1/2 c. Unsalted Peanut Free Nut Mix                     1 1/4 c. Unsalted Peanut Free Nut Mix
                                                                                      1/2 c. Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Mega Chunks
   1/2 c. shredded coconut                                             1/2 c. shredded coconut
   1/4 c. sunflower seeds                                                1/4 c. sunflower seeds
   1/4 c. coconut oil (solid)                                             1/4 c. scant, coconut oil (solid)
   1/4 c. honey                                                                1/4 c. honey
   1/4 c. maple syrup                                                      1/4 c. maple syrup
      1 tbsp. vanilla                                                          1/2 tbsp. vanilla
   1/2 scoop Orgain Protein Powder                              1/2 scoop Orgain Protein Powder
      4 tsp. matcha green tea powder                                 4 tsp matcha green tea powder

1) Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2) Throw all the ingredients in the food processor. I like to do half the nuts, then the oil, sweeteners, and powders. Then the other half of the nuts.
3) Pulse to preferred consistency.  I got for most of the nuts chopped into easily chewable pieces with a bit around the edges that is almost nut butter consistency.
4) Pull out a cookie tray and put it under your molds. Fill the molds. And this is fun. I do the larger chunky stuff in each mold first. Then I got back with the more nut butter stuff and fill in all the holes and make sure the mold is full. I typically get 8 or 9 bars from each batch.
5) Slide them into the oven, on 200 degrees, for two hours.
6) Pull them and completely let them cool.  Really. Completely cool.
7) Put them back into the oven on 250 degrees for one hour.  This really is required to get them to keep the bar form. But given the variances on ovens, watch for the last 15 minutes so you don't burn them. (My final method is just to turn the oven off for that last 15 minutes while leaving the bars in it.)
8) Let them cool. Wrap them in parchment paper. Enjoy.


And because I still have yet to figure out how to add that associate disclaimer thing to the sidebar. I signed up for Amazon Associate, so if you click those links I might get a referral fee. But I won't put up links for items that I do not use and find useful in our lives.

Washed Clean

I got up today and my body didn't really want to move. It really didn't want to go for my walk. And then, when I opened the back door for the dog, I realized that it was pretty nice out temperature wise. So I quickly did all the prep things that are required in our life and headed out for my morning walk. My goal is two miles, six days a week.
At about half a mile, it started raining lightly. So as I passed by it, I stopped and got the umbrella out of my van. And kept going.
At one and a half miles, the sky opened up and rain just started pouring down.  Since I have learned the lesson of walking in wet shoes quite thoroughly, I finished that segment and headed back to the house. I did that last stretch a bit slowly because I love rain and storms and it felt so good.
Now, I could have grumped and grouched and been all irritated. My type A personality leans towards that. But instead I'm grateful that the garden is quite thoroughly watered. My son's pool has at least another inch of fresh water. There is a wonderful cool breeze. And it feels like the world, at least my little segment of it, has been washed clean to start anew. My only wish? That I had a covered porch where I could sit and watch the rain fall.

A Beginning

I asked and you all said yes. So here is the blog with all those little tidbits and more.

Since I don't know how to add the side widget that tells you this yet, if I do it right I will get the Amazon Affiliate referral fee for items I refer. I've got some digging and learning to do there.  What I will tell you solidly is that I will not provide links for items that I do not use and find to be of good use in our lives.

Today I'll start with salsa because that's what's cooking up in the kitchen.  I have a "cheater" way of doing salsa. It works for me because I don't like chunky, watery salsa.

I use the recipe from the Ball Blue Book. In my edition it's the Spicy Tomato Salsa recipe on pg. 82. If you are canning, you really should have this book. You can find it almost anywhere that you find canning supplies. If you are a hermit, like me, you can find it on Amazon.



Now, that recipe is my starting point, not my end point. And I'll share a few tips that I've learned over the years. I like a smooth, not to watery salsa. I think folks refer to it as a picante style. After years of experimenting with different ways of making it, I finally have a solid method for me. It involves the use of a steam juicer, and then a food processor of either the manual or electrical type. First the steam juicer, I use the one linked below. I have found it to be an amazing tool that saves me a serious amount of time in canning prep. But there are many varieties so feel free to find one that you are happy with. One thing to be sure you check, the clearance from your stove eye to whatever is just above your stove. These things are about two feet tall.


If you haven't used on of these dear devices, you are missing out. I can promise that it makes a lot of recipes so much easier, especially ketchup. Anyways, back to salsa. I can't share the recipe as it is not mine, but I can share my changes.

First step is pretty simple. I roughly chop up all the tomatoes, onions, and peppers. I don't worry about seeds or skins. I've never actually noticed them when I go to eat the salsa. I actually normally add a red bell pepper because I leave out the cilantro. Neither my son nor I like the flavor of cilantro. But remember that there is a balance between acidic and non acidic ingredients that you have to pay attention. Do not add non acidic ingredients in a larger quantity than already exists in the recipe. Another thing you could do is switch pepper types for the jalapeno but again watch the quantity.
Anyways, all of those yummy vegetables get dropped in the top of the steam juicer and I let it do it's job for two hours.

A few pointers for those two hours. First put a glass canning lid or a some marbles in the bottom pan with the water. You really don't want the bottom pan to run dry. I normally check every 45 minutes or so to make sure there is no need for more water. Two, there are going to be some yummy smells so you might get a snack attack. Three, after the water in the base starts boiling, turn down the heat. You only need a simple boil.  Four, expect the moisture, even at a simple boil. Have a towel handy to wipe down the cabinets over the stove or the microwave.

If you like V-8, you might like the "juice" that is made from this process. In one of my canning groups we call it tomato water. My mom and some friends like it so I'll generally save it for them.  But if not, like today, I'll just put that "juice" back into the bottom pan when it needs a refill rather than use plain water.

Now, after two hours, the steam juicer has removed a lot of the excess liquid. I pull the vegetables, dump them in a big bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. This is so that all of the ingredients blend well before they get in a canning jar. I also add 2 tbsp of lime juice. It just adds a flavor punch that I like.

One word of warning, unless you want fire hot salsa, do not use fresh raw garlic.  It's one of those lesson learned things.  If you put fresh raw garlic into an acidic based product, without browning first, it become hot. Very, very, hot. The hot ranks up there with habanero peppers. Great if you want it, not so great if you don't.  Have fun experimenting on combinations if you like the heat.  I just use store bought, pre-diced, fresh garlic.

At this point I do one of two things that both lead to the same end.  I pull out my electric food processor or I pull out my Victorio Food Strainer. It honestly just depends on my mood and energy level. Nope, there's no link to Amazon because Amazon doesn't sell the Victorio Food Strainer. I haven't used any of the versions they sell. I can tell you, based on feedback from other canners, do not get an all plastic style.  If you want an all metal style, look for Squeezo.  I will tell you that it is infinitely easier to use than one of those bowl style strainers. If you are going to be canning a lot, you will find it useful to make sure that you get all the screen sizes and spirals.  And replacement parts can generally be found at mendingshed.com if you are having problems finding them. (That little store was only on ebay when I first found it. And I just about went nuts when I thought it was gone. It has been the source for quite a few of my harder to find things for the Victorio.)

Anyways, back to salsa making, if I'm using the Victorio I use the largest opening screen. I think it might actually be called a salsa screen. If I'm using the food processor, I pulse it until I get the consistency I want. To be honest, the Victorio provides an overall better consistency and will remove those pesky seeds if they are a problem for you.

After that, just follow the instructions for filling jars and processing them. I give it a few weeks before I pop a jar, just to let all the flavors meld.

Just a side note. If you use the Victorio, you will get "leftovers". These can be dehydrated and powdered to provide a flavor boost in your recipes.