Gifts From The Kitchen: 30 Gift-Worthy Recipes & Mixes

Posted: 12 Dec 2008 11:17 AM CST

Homemade Bath Jelly Recipe

I love TipNut! It is always full of the best stuff.

Homemade Makeup Brush Cleaners: 7 Recipes

 1 cup water

 1/2 cup almond castile soap

 1/2 cup glycerine

 1/4 cup borax powder

 Mix all of the ingredients together and pour into a clean bottle or washed out shampoo bottle.  Allow the mixture to thicken overnight.  Shampoo as you normally would and rinse with cool water.

Check out this great article. It has a printable list and a pdf file you can download.

Grocery Stockpile List: Non-perishables

By Erin Huffstetler, About.com

Ready to start stockpiling groceries and other household essentials, but not sure what to include in your stash? Then, refer to this list of non-perishables for help. Just cross out the things that you don't need, and add the things that you do. Let the stockpiling games begin!

How To Make Wool Dryer Balls

Great tip . Saves money and no chemicals!

The Benefits of Using Vinegar as a Fabric Softener

Vinegar Will:

• eliminate static cling
• remove soap residue from your clothes
• soften your laundry
• make your towels more absorbent

Vinegar Won't:

• add harsh chemicals to your laundry
• imgregnate your clothes with synthetic fragrances
• cost you a lot of money

Tips and Warnings

1) To give your clothes a fresh scent, add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to the vinegar.

2) Have a fabric softener ball? Fill it with vinegar, and you won't have to watch for the rinse cycle.

3) Keep vinegar out of the reach of children and pets.

Did You Know?

 Made from Recycled Barrels!
 
Cut your water costs, lighten the load on your sewer and municipal
system, protect nearby rivers and streams, help recycle industrial
food grade barrels, keep water away from your foundation, and come
out with a great looking yard and garden to boot - all using the
rainwater that falls on your roof. Rainwater is oxygenated, un-
chlorinated and warmer than tap water, which makes the Rain Barrel
Rainwater Collection System preferable for watering your plants,
garden and lawn, and for adding moisture to compost. These rain
barrels are childproof and animal-proof.
 
Why Use Rain Barrels?
* Source of natural water storage
*Recycled Food Grade Barrel
*Fully enclosed unit to be child proof and for pest control (see lid
options)
*Expandable capacity
*Buffer storage for drip irrigation system
 
Many homes with downspouts in certain metro areas are now (or soon
will be) required to disconnect from the sewer and storm drain
systems to splash blocks by order of the municipal bureau of
environmental services. As in most urban areas, this will become a
mandated environmental protection policy to help protect our rivers
and streams. You can be proactive with the Rain Barrel Rainwater
Collection System.
 
The 57 gallon rain barrels (food grade barrels recycled from
caper/pickle/vitamin C factories) catch and store rainwater from
your downspout. A brass spigot at the base is ideal for either
connecting a watering hose or irrigation system. There is a 1.25"
overflow tube on both sides at the mid section of the unit to
connect a hose to redirect rainwater into flower beds, a garden, dry
well, other barrels for storage, or gravity-fed irrigation system.
Our linking kit connects multiple barrels for water storage that can
be expanded to 114 gallons, 171 gallons, or even more.
 
1 inch of rain on a 1000 sq ft roof yields 623 gallons of water. If
you multiply the square footage of your roof by 623 and divide by
1000, you will know your yield.
 
These are using a recycled 55-57 gallon commodities barrel (food
grade) made of 5/16" UV protected Plastic. Since recycled commodity
barrels are used as they become available, color and exact
dimensions may vary somewhat.
 
I would actually reccommend the black or blue ones as the white ones
might be more prone to algae growth. The black ones, if exposed to
direct sunlight will heat up via solar.
 
This is a from a site that sells rainwater barrel kits, but you may
be able to figure out how to make a set or series of them on your
own.

Abundant Earth

Collecting rainwater and saving water on the homestead should be on your priority list. Her is a good link to 100 Ways to Save Water.

It has a clickable map for your region and tips on how to conserve.

HUGS!!

This is a great Newsletter from Arcamax.

The Everyday Cheapskate

Keep Your Home and Utility Bills Cool This Summer
Mary Hunt

Worried about the cost to run your air conditioner this summer? Don't. Just make sure you follow a few wise tips, and you'll be able to keep your bill low and keep reasonably cool, too.

Using ceiling fans can help lower your cooling bills. In the summer, moving air gives a "wind chill" effect. This means you can set the thermostat at a higher temperature yet still have a cool feeling. For example, you can set the thermostat at 80 degrees with a fan running, and it will feel like 72 degrees in the room.

The direction your ceiling fan should spin in the summer depends on the type of fan you have and at which angle the fan blades have been set by the manufacturer (or you, if you altered them).

First look for a switch marked "Forward" and "Reverse." If the blades are angled properly, you want the fan to spin forward during the summer and in reverse during the winter. When it's set to go forward, the fan blows air downward, directly on you.

During the winter, you want to set the fan to "Reverse" so that it blows air upward to the ceiling, forcing the hot air down to warm the occupants of the room. Set it on a slow speed to make sure you are not creating a draft.

Another way to keep your home cool inside is to make use of your draperies. Open them at night, but as soon as day breaks or it begins to heat up outdoors, close the drapes or other window coverings to reflect heat from the sun.

And finally, the old question about whether to leave the air conditioning on when you are not home. There is a school of thought that says it's cheaper to keep your home cool than to cool it down from, say, 80 F or warmer. Is it true? Michael Bluejay, "Mr. Electricity," says it's a myth. Here's why:

Heat goes to where it's not. With the AC off, your house will absorb heat from outside, but at some point, it will be so hot it can't absorb any more heat. When you come home and turn the AC on, the AC needs to remove the accumulated heat only once. But if the air conditioning is on when you're gone, your house is absorbing heat constantly because your AC constantly is cooling down the house. The AC basically turns your house into a heat magnet.

Let's say you leave the AC off, and your house absorbs 20,000 British thermal units and then stops because that's all it can absorb.

Now let's say that you have the AC running instead. The house absorbs 5,000 Btu, so the AC kicks in and removes it. Then it absorbs another 5,000 Btu, and your AC kicks in and removes that. Repeat that process several times during the day.

Bluejay says this is not a gray area, and there's no question about it. Running the AC when you're not home wastes energy, period.

========

Mary Hunt is the founder of DebtProofLiving.com and author of 17 books, including "Debt-Proof Living." You can e-mail her at mary@everydaycheapskate.com, or write to Everyday Cheapskate, P.O. Box 2135, Paramount, CA 90723. To find out more about Mary Hunt and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

Check out this great article.

Build A Solar Food Dryer

Kid's Stepping Stones

Materials

Bag of cement (buy at hardware or home store, about $3.00 for a big bag, get the kind that says premixed - just add water. Nothing fancy, just the end line stuff)

Small, durable mementos to place in cement I like coins, old lockets and pieces of china. Buttons and marbles are gret also. A small matchbox car or even the dog tag of a favorite pet is good.

Round 9 inch disposable cake pans (check to make sure children's feet fit in these, if not, use a larger size)

Directions This project is easier than it sounds :) Do it outside, because it gets messy! Mix cement with water according to directions on bag. Pour in tins. Let it sit until it is firm enough to hold a print. Place child's foot in center of tin and smoosh :) Try to not go all the way to the bottom! Place small knick knacks around foot print like a toy, etc., as listed above. Cement is hard to write in, but we were able to do initials with aquarium rocks. Let set. Cover with water to cure according to package directions. Let these set for a few days before removing from the tins. These can be buried in the garden as stepping stones, left out on the deck, or anywhere outside. Once hard, they are quite durable!

Wow, TipNut really came had a good one today.Check out these great printables.

21 Free Kitchen, Household & Crafty Printables

 Are you plugged in? If you have ever left rechargers or unused appliances plugged into the electrical outlet, you may be in for a bit of a shock. The U.S. Department of Energy tells us that not only do appliances continue to draw electricity while the products are turnecomputers, and kitchen appliances all use energy while not in use. You may have noticed how a cell phone recharger can be warm even when not attached to a phone. The best way to prevent unnecessary energy expenditures is to do a clean sweep of your home. Here at the office, we’ve gotten into the routine of unplugging our water cooler at night. The process is a bit of a hassle at first, but hassle quickly turns into painless habit.

 In the average home nearly 75% of all electricity used to power electronics is consumed by products that are switched off.

VCRs, televisions, stereos, products can’t be designed to prevent this sort of passive energy use? Is it simply laziness on the part of the manufacturers, or is there a real design constraint at work?)

The good folks over at Ideal Bite have previously tackled this issue and suggest the following:

·         Use power strips to turn off TVs and stereos. You’ll save the energy equivalent of a 100-watt light bulb that is always on.

·         Unplug chargers (think cell phones and iPods) when not in use. Only 5% of the power drawn by a cell phone charger is used to charge the phone. The other 95% is wasted when it is left plugged into the wall.

How To Turn One Stick Of Butter Into Two 

From Choosing Voluntary Simplicity

During the World War II food shortages, people were forced to make the most of what they had. With today’s escalating grocery prices, one hint from that time still makes a lot of sense (and cents!)… how to turn one stick of butter into two. This extended butter has the same taste and texture as regular butter. It’s frugal… half the cost… but it’s also healthier… because it has half the fat and half the calories of regular butter. You can use extended butter almost anywhere you would normally use butter, but remember that it contains only half the amount of fat, so you cannot use it in any dish that depends on a certain fat content. This is why you cannot use it for baking.
 Extended butter is easy to make. Just beat one half cup of lukewarm water into one softened stick of butter. If you use a mixer, start slowly to prevent splattering. Add small amounts of water at a time and keep beating until the water is thoroughly incorporated into the butter. The mixture will be smooth and fluffy, and you will end up with one cup of soft butter. After this soft butter is refrigerated, it will become as firm as regular butter. I make up only one stick at a time and usually store the butter covered in a stainless steel measuring cup that lost its handle some time back. If your preferences run to something fancier, try shaping it or putting it in a pretty dish. This butter will also pick up detail nicely from a mold.For more frugal tips, visit Frugal Fridays

Coffee Creamer Recipes

French Vanilla

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla

Almond Orange Cappuccino

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1/2 tsp. orange extract

Amaretto

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. almond extract

Almond Cappuccino

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1/2 tsp. orange extract

Chocolate Almond

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
• 1 to 2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. almond extract

Chocolate Truffle Mint

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
• 3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. peppermint extract

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a glass container. It is best stored in glass mason jar. Remember to shake before pouring, as the condensed milk will settle to the bottom. This will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Tip: substitute low fat sweetened condensed milk for regular for a healthier alternative.

Liquid coffee creamer base can also be made by mixing 1 cup of dry coffee creamer with 1 cup of hot water. Mix until dissolved. Add 1 cup of cold water. Store in a mason jar in the refrigerator.

Try creating a powder from your favorite candy. Candy canes now come in many flavors. By adding bits of candy to your food processor and processing until the candy bits are a powder, you can add new flavors to your coffee creamer with a fraction of the cost of commercial flavored creamers. Simply add the powdered candy bits to your liquid coffee creamer and shake well to dissolve.

Source: Sent to me by a friend