MYO: Orange Vinegar Cleaner

A couple weeks ago, a friend on Facebook (I don't remember who) posted a picture of a mason jar full of orange peels (I don't remember from where) with instructions on how to make Homemade Orange Vinegar Cleaner. 

Just the day before a friend (I actually remember who) had given me a gigantic mason jar that I had high hopes of doing something cool with. We also had a huge bag of oranges in the refrigerator, so I knew that Homemade Orange Vinegar Cleaner and I were meant to be. 

The instructions were simple: 1) Place orange peels in a jar. 2) Fill jar with white vinegar. 3) Put lid on jar. 4) Let jar sit for 20 days. 5) Pour liquid into bottle. 6) Clean with it. 

So...that's just what I did. 

 I'm no stranger to cleaning with vinegar. I've been using it for years for a variety of things (Mental Note: Write post about the many uses of vinegar.). But this, adding orange peels to vinegar, was completely new to me.


20 days later I am pleased to report that my Homemade Orange Vinegar Cleaner is marvelous. It smells fantastic and works really, really well. I'm loving it!

We had a bunch of grapefruits that had been hanging out in the fridge for longer than I care to admit, so after I bottled my cleaner, I cleaned out my giant mason jar, filled it with grapefruit peels and vinegar and it's sitting on top of my kitchen cabinets waiting for it's day to come (which is April 11th, in case I forget).

MYO: Playdough

If you've never made homemade playdough with your kids, you're missing out on a good time. You can use your friend Google to find one of a million recipes to do so. The no cook methods are the easiest. We've tried several recipes and this one is my absolute favorite. It's super easy, you can your kids can whip up a batch in a few minutes and it will provide hours of entertainment. It also smells divine and is the perfect dough consistency. 

Here's what you need: 

1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 or 2 packets of Kool-Aid drink mic
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil 
1 cup boiling water

Here's what you do:

Combine all of your dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.  Next add the oil and boiling water and mix it with a spoon until it gets nice and firm. Once the dough cools down (it only takes a few minutes), you can dig in and mix it with your hands. If it comes out feeling a little too sticky, you can roll it out on wax paper and add a little more flour.

That's it! Super easy and so much fun!

Homemade Oven-Fried Pertater Chips

Really, really yummy and really, really easy to make, I give you Homemade Oven-Fried Pertater Chips....

Here's what you need:

(4) Baking (Russet) Potatoes, washed, peeled and sliced as thin as you can get them
1/2 stick of butter, melted
Course salt to taste

Here's what you do:

1. Wash potatoes.  Peel potatoes. Slice potatoes as thin as you can. A mandoline would be realy helpful for this. I don't have one. Pat the potatoes dry between paper towels. Butter a cookie sheet (this is in addition to the 1/2 stick) or use non-stick cooking spray. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer on the cookie sheet. With 4 decent sized potatoes you'll probably have enough for two batches.

2. Brush the potatoes with melted butter. Bake them in a preheated oven at 500 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle them with course salt (I use sea salt).

Before:

After:

They're not exactly real potato chips hence the "pertater", but they're definitely just as addicting!

Tomorrow's Cinco De Mayo! - Make Your Own: Taco Seasoning

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo and White Moms all over America will be making tacos for dinner because tacos are the only Mexican food we know how to make.

It doesn't get much easier than browning ground meat in a pan, draining the grease from the pan, opening a packet of taco seasoning mix, sprinkling it on the meat, adding water and heating it up. 

What's in that taco seasoning mix? It's just spices and herbs, right? Wrong. Here is the list of ingredients from a packet of Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix:

*Maltodextrin
Salt
Chili Pepper
Onion Powder
**Spice
*Monosodium Glutamate
Corn Starch
Yellow Corn Flour 
Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil
*Silicone Dioxide (anticaking agent)
**Natural Flavor
*Ethoxyquin (preservative)

*=Say what?
**=Can you be more specific? 


Are you ready to make your own taco seasoning and never spend $1.00 on one of those sodium stocked, preservative filled packets again?

Here's what you need (and you probably already have all of it in your kitchen):

4 Tablespoons Chili Powder
2 Tablespoons Cumin
2 Tablespoons Paprika
2 TBS. Garlic Powder
1 TBS. Onion Powder
2 TBS. Dried Minced Onions
1/2 TBS. Cayenne (red) Pepper
1 teaspoon Oregano or Cilantro
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt 

Here's what you do:

Dump all ingredients into a jar. Put lid on jar. Shake vigorously. Voila, homemade taco seasoning mix. Store in an airtight container (I use an empty spice bottle). Add 2-3 tablespoons of seasoning per 1 pound of ground meat and 3/4 cup of water.