Homemade Laundry Soap

     Well here it is ya'll! My recipe for homemade liquid laundry soap. I got the original recipe from the Duggar family but have through the years changed it up a little and it works great for us. I have been making this for about 6 years now and have saved us a small fortune by not buying laundry soap from the store.

     It will cost you around $4 for a box of borax and the same for the Super Washing Soda but one box will last you over a year. The bars of soap will vary from $ .50 to $1 each so that will be your big expense. Once you have it all together it will run you about $3 to make a batch!

     You need:

• 1 (14 oz) bar of Zote brand soap. This is normally found in the laundry isle. There are two kinds, one bar is white and one bar is pink. (Naturally I use the pink because I am a girl and I love pink! lol) You can use Fels-Naptha bars but you need about 2 1/2 to equal the soap in one Zote bar. You can also use Ivory because it is pure soap, just realize you need about 14 oz of soap.

• 3/4 cup of Borax. You can find this in the laundry isle too. I pour mine out of the box it comes in into an airtight container simply because it helps keep it from clumping up between rounds of making soap. Borax is used for so many things, the box has some great cleaning ideas too!

• 3/4 cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda. This can be hard to find but I have noticed more places carrying it because alot more of us are making laundry soap at home now! Look in your laundry isle at the grocery stores or even at the hardware store. You can get it online it will just cost to get it shipped.

• 1 clean 5 gallon bucket with tight lid

• Hot Water

       The first thing you will need to do is grate your soap. I have an old cheese grater I keep in the laundry room just for this purpose. Depending on what soap you use, when you grate it could look like grated cheddar cheese or like Parmesan cheese, just depends on how hard or soft your soap is. Either way grate all the soap into at large saucepan. On a side note, do not try to save time by using a food processor. It will end badly for the appliance and no, I will not be saying where I got this info from!

    To your soap you will want to add 6 CUPS OF HOT WATER and set aside for about 15 minutes. I found out quite by accident if I let the soap sit in the water and soften up, it melts so much better! Be sure to give it a stir when you add the water so it all get wet.

    Next you will place the soap on the stove and slowly melt the soap. It will become clearer as it melts. Be sure you do this step slowly, stirring often. You want to get any big lumps of soap melted down. This is what it looks like before you start melting.

And this is after!

   Take the 3/4 CUP EACH OF BORAX AND ARM & HAMMER SUPER WASHING SODA and add it to the melted soap. Continue to heat until powders are dissolved and you have broken up any clumps of powder. It will resemble thin honey at this point.
  

   Fill your clean 5 gallon bucket about 1/2 way with HOT WATER. Pour the soap mixture into the water and stir. Add more hot water to the bucket to get to about 2 or 3 inches from the top of the bucket.

  
   Place a tight lid on your bucket of laundry soap and let it sit over night. In the morning you will find that you have this.....

   The soap will be in kind of a gel like state with liquid around it and you will need to mix it up to break up the huge gel mass. This is where having a paint auger comes in so very handy! I used to use a yardstick to help me mix it or my hands but that is icky feeling and kinda mess! I bought this paint stirrer at the local hardware store for about $5. It fits on my drill and works like a charm to mix the soap all up. AND everyone knows it is the soap mixer and therefore falls under the "that's Mom's don't touch it" rule so it is always ready when I need it! LOL

Get yourself a container and add 2 parts soap and 1 part water. You can do 1/2 and 1/2 but I like this mixture best. I have found the spout type of containers don't do that great if you have any lumps in the soap so I just hung onto an old color safe bleach bottle and refill it as needed. Also, if you don't do laundry everyday you will need to give the bottle a good shake before you use it just to mix the soap and water up a little again.

Let me know if you make some! If I live close enough to ya, I'll be more than happy to come over and help you make a batch! If not, well......message me if you need me!

Sandy's Super Simple Super!

Hoss and I were childless today, (whoo hoo!!) and eventually we grew hungry. It happens. After searching the cabinets I decided to use a little of this and a little of that and came up with this yummy super for us! You can add whatever veggie you want, decrease the pasta even. Make it your own!

Here's what I used:

butter, margarine (whatever you have. I was cookin' with butter long before Paula Dean made it so darn popular!)
1 large onion, cut in half then sliced thin
2 small yellow squash, sliced thin (you can use zucchini if you want)
1 can of petite diced tomatoes with sweet onions, DO NOT DRAIN!! (any tomatoes will do)
1/2 lb of leftover grilled smoked sausage, sliced thin
garlic to taste ( I use chopped garlic from the produce section but powder works well too)
a healthy sprinkle of Nature's Seasoning (see picture at bottom if you have no clue what this is)
1 box bow tie pasta

Make bow tie pasta by box directions and have it going while you work on the rest!
In a large skillet, saute your onions, squash & garlic. Add a sprinkle of the Nature Seasoning at this point. Add your smoked sausage to the veggies, then add the canned tomatoes. Simmer until warmed through. Drain your pasta then add it to the sausage/veggie mix. Mix well and enjoy! Top with some Parmesan cheese if you so desire!


                           Lets just call this beauty, Sandy's Super Simple Super!!

Morton's Nature's Seasoning, good stuff!