maple cream

On a weekend trip to a local sugarhouse we discovered a great new treat. When sharing samples with us, the owner suggested a unique way to use the maple cream that we were purchasing. She suggested putting a piece of cheddar cheese on a cracker and topping it with the maple cream. It is a very unique hors d'oeuvre and we love it. I plan to serve it at Wine on Wednesday this week. Saturday continues “Maple Syrup Weekend” in our area. Why not go out, buy a jar and try it for yourself?

We used All-Bran Multi-grain crackers, Cuba cheese and Maple Grove Farm Maple Cream.

carrot cake

A colleague at work brought this cake that her husband had baked to share with us. I am not usually a fan of carrot cake but this cake was to die for. We recently made it to celebrate a friend's birthday and it was again a big hit. I do caution you to cut the pieces small as it is very rich. It is definitely for special occasions as you will see when you read the recipe it is not a low-cal dessert. Thanks Ilene for sharing! Find recipe here.

uncle dick {terrell owens}

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: oldest son
Date: Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 4:17 AM
Subject: T.O. to buffalo

To: family
As I tried to digest this story and tried coming to grips with terrell owens on the buffalo bills, I was confronted by the program from uncle dick's funeral falling from it's perch on my wall.....and Dick said to me: "he's a real son of a bitch, but a hell of a ball player!" Let's go Bills!!!!

laundry soap

I have recently read about homemade laundry soap on several blogs that I visit and became interested in trying it out. I then searched the internet for more information and have actually combined a couple of different recipes. I was lucky enough to find all the ingredients at Wegman's and have included the prices. The entire recipe cost $11.24 which translates to less than 4 cents per load.


Laundry Detergent Recipe

Makes about 22 cups dry powder
3 Bars Fels Naptha Soap Grated ($3.27)
1 box Borax 4lbs 12ozs ($3.39)
1 box Arm & Hammer Washing Soda 3lbs 7ozs ($2.19)
1 box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda 4 lbs ($2.39)

Grate and chop the soap with a food processor, one bar at a time.

Mix all ingredients together.

Store in a airtight container.

Lightly soiled clothes use 1 Tbls
Heavily soiled clothes 2-3 Tbls

Notes:

Fels Naptha is found in the laundry section of the store.

After grating the soap it was not quite as fine as I wanted it so I then chopped it in the food processor until it was the consistency of coarse cornmeal.

When pouring and mixing ingredients there was a fair amount of soap powder in the air so you may want to do it outside.

The soap does not become sudsy in your washer.

Some bloggers say they add 1/2 cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle to soften fabric and brighten whites. The vinegar clears the last bit of soap remaining on your clothes and there really was no vinegar smell left on the clothes. I still used a dryer sheet to eliminate static cling.

I shared samples of the soap with my Wine-on-Wednesday friends so will be awaiting their "market research" comments.