Favorite Green Cleaning Products

We also use more chemically-enhanced cleaners for icky places like the toilet bowl or raw food on the counter, but in general, these eco-friendly cleaners do it for our family.

You buy the containers (which come labeled with pouring lines for the at-home ingredients) and the "essential oil" blend which is naturally disinfecting. You add only a drop of the oil to each batch you mix up, so it's never greasy.

They are cheaper than cleaners you buy in the store (DIY mixing), smell awesome, and are made of ingredients you have around the house, ie, vinegar & baking soda. Plus the micro-fiber cloths that come with the kits put paper towels to shame. They have many kits online- www.eco-me.com - and I'm thinking about trying the baby kit.

Professional Looking Cake Design

In my spare time (ha!) I've been working on improving my bakery skills, i.e., baking cakes & decorating them. Ideally, I would like to have a part-time job of making cakes for friends and family, but at the moment, I am just refining my skills. A "practice" wedding cake:


This cake is from a class I took last fall at the local community college. It's covered in fondant, which is all the rage in cake decorating. While my instructor suggested that we use Wilton fondant on our cakes, a classmate of mine told me about a recipe for marshmallow fondant that has saved me time AND money. Good combo, right?

Check out the recipe & let me know what you think. It tastes waaaay better than traditional fondant, and certainly costs a whole lot less. And if you were going to make your own fondant with that whole gelatin method, let me save you a lot of hassle, and say that this is the way to go...

I hasten to add that this type of fondant is best for sculptural type decorating, i.e., making a bow to put on top of the cake. The marshmallow fondant is generally too stiff to use to cover a cake- that's when you invest in the Wilton.

"Secret" Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

The main "secret" ingredients in this recipe are lemon juice (to activate the baking soda) & ground quick oats (oats put into a food processor) added to the dry ingredients.
Here's the whole recipe if you want to do a taste test & compare to your own... sounds like a good day to me!!

From Easy to Bake, Easy to Make:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats, regular or quick
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (10- 20 secs in microwave- pressing lightly on stick leaves fingerprint, but shape of butter still intact)
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 eggs
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (I skip the nuts)

Makes two dozen cookies.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. I use aluminum foil. Place rolled oats in blender or food processor and process until finely ground. Combine ground oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a mixing bowl.

2. In another bowl, cream butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice together using an electric mixer. Add eggs and beat until fluffy.

3. Stir the flour mixture into egg mixture, blending well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix well. Using 1/4 cup of dough for each cookie, scoop round balls with an ice-cream scoop and place 2 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

4. Bake until cookies are lightly browned, 16-18 minutes (the first time, I timed it to 13 min, and I've used that ever since).

Let me know what you think! Happy baking!