First the soap... I did it differently than most recipes I've seen. They seemed awfully heavy on the soap, so I used more washing soda and borax. So far it's working. I grated one bar of fels-naptha soap (except for the sliver you can see in the background, thought I'd save that to pre-treat stains... if I ever remember to actually do that), and used a whole box of washing soda and an equal amount of borax.
And then the jam... I started making it before Elijah was down for a nap... that was where I messed up. It started boiling and I didn't realize it... and I think I 'killed' the pectin. So, it didn't gel right.
I had a pot that worked great for processing... no need to buy the kit.
And it tastes great despite the lack of gelling :)
The half jar in front was consumed in one sitting.
3 comments:
Yummy!! (the jam, not the detergent) So how is the detergent working....good? Does it smell good?
Ha! I didn't mean to imply that perhaps you hadn't thought of (or had experience with) toddler beds. Of course you have! I can't even fathom what life must have been like when your first three were little bitty and one right after the other at that! I'm sure whatever you decide will work out just fine. You'll make it work, right? :)
I started experimenting about a month ago with detergent recipes. That's so funny you are, too. I'm currently using one without borax in it, because I'm afraid of that stuff. So far, so good, but I'm going to keep trying different ones out until I find just the right combination. :) I would have blogged about it, had I actually been blogging.
Actually, soda ash is what the washing soda is. Sodium carbonate. There's controversy surrounding the use of Borax. I found this out back when I was teaching school and wanted to make some homemade slime with my class. I started researching different recipes and found a whole bunch of them that used Borax. Wanting to be careful about the the things I brought to use with kids, I started checking into the stuff. Here's an example of what I found: http://www.naturemoms.com/dangers-of-borax.html
I figure better safe than sorry. I did, however, use it in one of the detergent recipes...but I was nervous the whole time that I was still using that batch that one of my kids would get hold of it, etc. It's not worth the stress for me. :)
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