Homemade Beeswax Peppermint Lip Balm

I recently tried making my own laundry detergent from happymoneysaver and wanted to try another of her recipes. The Burt's Bees copycat beeswax lip balm recipe seemed like an obvious winner. People obsess over that stuff, right? I hardly use chap stick at all but figured this item would make a great gift. And if people get hooked on it, they'll come back for more! 

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I recently tried this homemade laundry detergent recipe from happymoneysaver and it turned out really well. It cost me about 22 dollars from Walmart and will last me for years. It literally made a few hundred loads worth of detergent. I filled a Folgers container plus a large Earth Balance container and then at least half of a plastic grocery bag. And you only use 1-2 tablespoons per load.

Broccoli oh Broccoli

I just want to make a note that this year's broccoli crop continues to produce significant usable florets. They've produced vegetables consistently from the beginning of June through the end of September, giving me at least 4 full months of production. What a great crop!

Harvesting, Cooking, Freezing

I've done a lot of the following 3 things lately:

1. harvesting green peppers, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, basil, and oregano
2. preparing them in various meals
3. storing and freezing them in mason jars

I made a big batch of plain (no meat) tomato sauce with about 10 tomatoes, and I have at least another dozen or two tomatoes ready to go. It made over 4 pints of sauce, most of which I froze in mason jars.

4 frozen pints of tomato sauce

The other day on a whim I thought I would try to throw together a pizza on a tortilla because I had the fresh sauce I had just made plus fresh basil and green peppers and a chunk of mozzarella in the fridge. So I made 1 pizza with the sauce,  cheese, and green peppers and the other with sliced tomatoes and basil instead of sauce. I think they would have turned out a lot better on a pizza crust, but the thin wheat tortilla worked adequately :-) I froze two of those as well.

I've had frozen pierogies from the Italian store for a couple of weeks and I finally got around to makeingthem into mason jar meals to freeze. I used carrots, broccoli, green peppers and herbs from the garden. I boiled the sliced carrots in broth and fresh dill and steamed the broccoli over top of it. I sliced and stir fried a couple green peppers with onions and then added the pierogies after I boiled them. I also heated up two cans of blacks beans with a couple of chopped tomatoes from the garden with butter and Old Bay seasoning. I layered them in 32 oz. mason jars as follows: veggies on the bottom; then the beans, which filled half the jar; 4 pierogies each with the peppers and onions; and a small pat of butter on top to keep it moist when reheated. It made 6 jars, which I let cool and then put in the freezer.

pierogi, beans, and veggies mason jar meals

I've also made dozens of salads in the mason jars. You layer them appropriately, with the dressing on the bottom, then heartier veggies, lighter veggies, cheese, other stuff, and greens on top. I made my own balsamic vinaigrette (1 part olive olive, 3 parts balsamic vinegar, plus brown sugar and garlic) and used as many veggies from the garden as possible. The mason jars have amazing preservation powers! The salads can stay in the fridge for a week without the green wilting. Some of the veggies soak in the dressing and the flavor really pops.

mason jar salads stay fresh for at least a week

I thought all the cilantro going around this time of year might taste good in hummus so I've experimented a few times with that: chick peas, olive oil, lots of cilantro, garlic, lime juice & sea salt.

cilantro hummus

Check Out This Crazy Carrot

Check this bad boy out!

Another Typical Day

that looks like a meal right there

As we plow through these, the dogs days of Summer, and start to feel Autumnal clues in the air, the Bloomfield backyard urban garden aka yarden still keeps putting out hits! Like the Summer of Love, 1969, you can feel the love produced by my two little herb and veggie plots all Summer long. Broccoli continues to flourish. Tomatoes have begun to ripen. The basil, oregano, dill, and, of course, mint only get bushier as time goes on. Now, some fat little yellow worm ate through the stem of my zucchini plant, so that motherfucker died. The plant I mean, not the worm. Fat little worm gorged him or herself long before I figured out what happened. Oh well. The carrots turned out great, and the green pepper plant continues to put off nice little tennis ball sized fruits. Yarden 2014 for the win.

fat little worm destroyed my zucchini plant

New Candles!

I made a batch of candles recently -- orange color with some flower scent I can't remember. The little tins I used -- 3 Altoids containers and a McCormick black pepper canister -- turned out really well! The wooden wicks in the ceramic and glass containers came out great too. I also made candles in a mold for the first time: red spiced apple poured into aluminum foil molds. Tripling the foil worked best. I like the crinkly look and I've started calling them Rock Candles. I also made an incense holder by pouring some wax into a little candle holder/stand.