La-La-La-La-Laundry

My husband's been laid off and we have a dryer that vents INTO the house AND we don't have air conditioning.  So, I think hanging our laundry out on the line would be a good idea for the summer. 

Here's my cute, artsy picture that represents doing laundry on the line:

Did you know that when clothespins stay out in the rain that they turn grey?  Neither did I.  Now I do...although I doubt that the ones made during the 50's and before did.  They probably made the clothespins out of better wood back when they figured people would actually use them outdoors.

Okay, here's my sweet little "I'm hanging my laundry out on the line!" Picture:

Aww....it looks so sweet, so idyllic, so...out of balance!  Why didn't I stick the pants in the MIDDLE of the two shorts?!  How is it I didn't notice that?!  Okay, anyhow, wouldn't you like to believe that my laundry line looks that cute and sweet out in the dappled sunlight like that?  Yeah, I'd like to believe that too.

Here's a picture of what my laundry line REALLY looks like:  (Brace yourself)

Crazy, huh?  We literally just strung line from deck post to tree to tree to deck post to tree and back again to deck post.  There's no symmetry, no balance, no attention to asthetics.  It looks like someone did it while in an...um..."altered state".  It's the junkiest thing!  But, hey, whadda you want me to do?  Spend $150 on a laundry "tree" (just as ugly in my opinion) or $450 for a set of laundry "T's"?  I'm doing this to SAVE money, so I gotta hang the line wherever I find stuff strong enough to hold it!  

Ugly but functional.  What can you do? 

Num Num Black Bean Dip

Another slam dunk recipe from "Honest Pretzels":

2-15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed (or 3 cups)
Juice of 2 limes
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp salt
1/2 c tomato juice/V8
chopped cilantro

Put beans, tomato juice, garlic, cumin, salt, and lime juice into food processor and blend until smooth. 

Serve with corn chips/pita wedges/tortillas/veggies and sprinkle cilantro on top for flavor.

Homemade Yogurt... it's not as hard as it seems

Homemade yogurt sounds like one of those intimidating things that you need special skills and a "yogurt maker" for.  I have a recipe that is nice and simple and you can do it without a bunch of special anything!

Here are the supplies and ingredients that you will need:

-1 quart whole milk (recipe calls for non-homogenized but I don't know if that's necessary)

-1/2 c good quality commercial plain yogurt

-candy thermometer





Heat the milk to 180 degrees on the stove.  A double boiler is recommended but I don't have one and we do fine without it.  I set the burner to med-high and check the milk's temperature every 5 minutes until it reaches 180.

Pull the milk off the stove and let it cool until it reaches 110 degrees.  This can take a while.  I would check the temperature every twenty minutes or so until it reaches 110.  Once it gets to 110 put in the yogurt and whisk.  (Don't rush this step, if you put in the yogurt when it's above 110 you could kill the enzymes and you won't get good yogurt.)

Next, place the yogurt in a shallow glass, enamel, or stainless steel container.  Cover the container and place in a warm oven (a gas oven with a pilot light or electirc oven pre-heated to warm and then turned off) overnight. 

In the morning, transfer to the refrigerator.

Homemade Hashbrowns

Store-bought hashbrowns have artificial ingredients added so we make our own.  Making hashbrowns is a great way to use up leftover cooked potatoes.  How often have you tossed leftover potatoes because they're too much of a pain to reheat and aren't as good the second time anyhow.  When you turn them into hashbrowns, it's like eating for free!

What you'll need:

-leftover baked or boiled potatoes
-onion
-olive oil/butter/bacon drippings
-salt and pepper

 Here's the basic rundown: take leftover baked or boiled potatoes and grate them.  Grate an onion and get your griddle nice and hot.  Generously coat the griddle with the fat of your choice (if olive oil, don't heat the griddle as high), sprinkle on the potatoes, then the onions, then salt and pepper.  Seperate them into squares that will be easy to flip with your spatula.  Let 'em sit and sizzle for a while until nice and brown on one side, then flip them and fry the other.

As you can see, I left a gap for eggs.  I'll throw eggs on the griddle close to when the hashbrowns are done.

One little thing, if you want to prepare potatoes exclusively for hashbrowns the next morning, here's what I've found works the best...but I'm not a cook, so take this with a grain of salt:  cut up and put the potatoes in a pot of water and heat to boiling.  Once it begins to boil, shut off the burner and go to bed.  In the morning, drain them and pat them dry and you'll have nice hashbrown-ready potatoes.