Orange Broccoli

So, I was fooling around in the kitchen last week and came up with a new way of doing Orange carrots. Put Broccoli in it! Here’s what I did:

Peel and slice a carrot or two. (This was just for my lunch, after all). Now, cut up a bunch of broccoli, stem and all. Kinda small pieces here, you want them to be able to cook in the same amount of time as the carrots. Chuck everything into a saucepan, add a half cup of orange juice, slap on the lid and gently steam until the carrots are tender and the broccoli is bright green and tender when stabbed with a knife. (What? it was lunchtime, and I was hungry! Niceties are for leisurely dinner making.) Now, crack the lid and throw a tablespoon of honey butter in there, put the lid back on and let it all melt together. Now, take the lid off, turn up the heat slightly and let the orange juice evaporate off for a minute or two. This will make a nice, slightly thick sauce to slick the vegetables with. Reheat some leftover rice, and you’re done.

Wait, what? I’m done?? Where’s the elaborate ingredients list? I thought this was for Orange Broccoli? Where’s the soy sauce? Where’s the minced ginger?

Forget the minced ginger- you don’t need it anymore! Just try this easy-peasy recipe (which is more of a technique than a recipe anyway, am I right?) and enjoy your lunch- guilt free I might add! All those veggies! And rice! No starch guilt here, no fattening sauces, no sugar slump after lunch!

What? You need a recipe for Honey Butter too? Okay- stir a tablespoon of honey into a softened stick of butter. Boom! Oh, I’m on a roll today folks. Who needs a recipe? I got your recipe right here…

The World’s Biggest Meatloaf

Did I ever show you this?

I don’t think I did. This is the quilt I made for the new baby in the family. A nice, simple, basic, old-fashioned Winnie-ther-Pooh print, and some soft cotton flannel. Yummy and soft. Easy-Peasy to make, and done in a flash. Well, okay- it took me two weeks to make, but that’s because I took my time and broke it up into steps. And the binding gave me some trouble, so I had to rip out the stitches and do it again. ahem.

Now I need one. No, seriously- this is the best thing I’ve ever made, and I want one in my size, pronto. Except it’s summer, and 80 degrees in the shade, and I am running the air conditioner just to bake a meatloaf for dinner tonight. Ack!

Meatloaf you say? Yes, I did. Want to know how to make one? Here’s how:

2 packages of ground beef- this can also be made with ground turkey, it’s yummy either way. I bought a 1.75 lb and an 1.80 lb package. We are making enough meatloaf for two weeks- it’s part of the Summer Plan. You’ll see how later on.

1 large onion, minced.

4 medium carrots, minced.

2 large stalks of celery, minced.

2 packages sliced white mushrooms, minced.

I washed, peeled, sliced and chopped all these as appropriate to it’s condition, then threw them into the food processor and blitzed them a few times, then dumped it all together into the biggest bowl I could find. And yes, I washed my mushrooms- they were dirty! Let them sit over the sink in a colander, and they don’t get mushy.

4 slices of bread- including the heel, and the crusts. I like the crust! It adds color, and tastes good. Blitz them too into fine crumbs, add a quarter of a cup of milk and stir until all the crumbs are good and soaked, then add them to the bowl of vegetables.

Now, stir everything together well, divide into two equal parts and put them into two separate bowls. We’re working with a lot of meat, and it’ll be too big to fit into one bowl- plus, it’ll be easier to combine.

To each bowl of vegetable/bread mixture add two beaten eggs, a quarter of a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, a teaspoon of steak and chop spice mix, and a half a teaspoon of dried thyme. Add a package of ground beef to each bowl, and mix thoroughly. I like to take off my rings, wash my hands, and just get in there! It will be really wet at first, but just mix everything together well, then shape it into a ball.

Now grab a cutting board and lay out your foil onto it- about double the length of the board should do it. Turn the meat out onto this and shape it a long rectangle, about two inches thick. You want a big long shape, to take advantage of the amount of meatloaf mix, but not too high or it will crack and cook unevenly. Wrap the extra foil over the top and seal all the edges. Leave the whole thing on the cutting board, set the two packages side by side, and place the whole kit-and-caboodle in the freezer. Voila! Dinner in the freezer.

So, what do you do with two gigantic meatloaves? Well, first off it will take almost two hours to cook them, so plan accordingly. I start them at 45 minutes, then start basting them with the pan juices (make sure you give them a half a cup of water in the pan to get those lovely juices going, too). My first one was done in about an hour and a half. I like to cook them off in the cool of the morning, then slice off servings and pan fry them in the evening. Served with mashed potatoes and orange glazed carrots, that’s your basic meat-and-potatoes-meal. Next, I fry slices in a pan and serve them in sub rolls with cheese melted over the top and drenched in marinara sauce for meatball subs. Then, I use some slices for spaghetti and meatballs. Ohh, I’m getting hungry! And that’s three meals from one recipe!

Now, I paid about 12 dollars for two packages of meat this Sunday. Yikes! But- that made enough meatloaf for 6-7 meals for two people! That’s about a dollar a meal. And that’s pretty good for the first week of summer, I’d say! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a meatloaf sandwich to put together for my lunch…

Lavender fresh

About the time I was deep in the heart of dressmaking (did I really just say that? Am I a dressmaker now?) I had to make a new batch of laundry soap. Has anyone reading this made their own laundry soap yet? It’s fun, and I love how easy it is to whip up a batch any time I need to. Here’s how I do it:

First, I gather my ingredients- Dr. Bronner's vegetable oil based soap. I use two bars; plain old baking soda-I love Arm & Hammer so that’s what I use; washing soda, and now we’ve come to a crossing of the streams (name that movie!). Borax powder. I’ve used it for years, and never had a problem with it. I’ve made laundry soap with it, and my basic spray cleaner has it in it, and I’ve even knocked out flea infestations at a few of the places we’ve lived with it. But I’ve been doing my research and discovered a few unsettling facts about Borax powder.
Mainly, that it can kill a child if ingested. *This sentence has bothered me ever since I wrote it- Boric Acid is poisonous. Borax Powder might be. Do the research for yourself and make an informed decision if you want to use it or not in this recipe.
So, I don’t use Borax powder any more. Because we have a little kitty living here with us, trusting me to keep her safe, happy and healthy. I use a lot more soap and vinegar, with baking soda and water and lots of elbow grease, with the occasional spot of commercial laundry soap when I’m not too confident of how clean my stuff is getting. It’s not perfect, but it’s perfect for us.
So! Get out your grater and make some grated cheese! That’s how soft this soap is:

Two bars is a lot- I was just using one, but found since I used this mixture for laundry soap and household cleaners, it was going pretty fast, so I doubled the recipe. I started with the recipe I found at Soulemama and tweak it according to my needs. The place we’re at now has hard water, so I added a bit more baking soap to help soften it up a tad.

Then I take a giant wooden fork and crumble those shreds even more. This makes the soap dissolve faster. I don’t have the storage for a huge tub of liquid soap, plus I love the old fashioned look of a container of laundry “powder”, so I make the dry stuff. It lasts a long time, and is multi purpose. At this point you just dump all the ingredients together and mix it up really good. My recipe is:
2 bars finely grated castile soap
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
2.5 cups baking soda
I don’t add any essential oils because I find that the Dr. Bronners soaps are smelly enough for my family. See? Really easy. And it works! Clean, soft, non-icky-commercial-smelling clothes. My washer doesn’t get all mildewy any more, and since I use this mixture to clean with, my whole house smells lavender fresh (that’s the soap fragrance I use the most, although the rose and citrus scents are good, too!) I still need to evaluate a non-Borax mixture, so stay tuned for more pseudo-science updates in the future!