Salt & Pepper Potato Crisps

So I recently found out I had an ulcer and have been experimenting with different foods to find things that aren't irritating. Potatoes work, but they get boring after awhile. I found this recipe on Foodgawker.com this morning and gave it a shot.


Potatoes
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 400. Slice potatoes very thin. A mandolin would work best so they are even! Spread on baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes, turn and sprinkle with salt & pepper (I added a little seasoned salt too). Bake for another 5 minutes or until crisp.


The finished product....they were actually really good! Very crispy and crunchy. I would cut down the initial baking time to 10 minutes, then flip and bake another 10 minutes, just to even the browning a little bit.

April Fool's Day

Our April Fool's Day started with Daddy finding a snake in his sock drawer. At lunch, this was our centerpiece. The kids knew something was up, but couldn't quite figure it out. They kept asking why there were gummy worms in the dirt of the plant. The pot is filled with chocolate pudding and topped with crushed Oreos. They pronounced it their favorite lunch EVER.

Multicolr Search Lab

Multicolr Search Lab lets you search Flikr by color. Useful? Maybe. Fun? You bet!

Possibly stupid ways to save money

There is no logic to what I will spend money on and what I hate to buy. For example, I don't think twice about buying DiorShow Mascara at $25+ a pop, but I think $5.00 is outrageous to spend on laundry detergent. And $5.00 is basically the low end, cheap stuff, we're not talking about my favorite, Gain. As I'm trying to save money wherever I can, I decided I could make my own laundry detergent.

There are 2 kinds I found-the dry powder kind and "liquid" which is actually more like a gel. I chose dry because all the recipies for the liquid seemed like a giant pain in the behind.

Ingredients:
1 bar Fels Naptha Soap, grated ($.97)
1 cup Borax (whole box was $2.50)
1 cup Washing Soda (NOT baking soda) (whole box was $2.97)

Grate soap. (Picture #2) Mix with Borax and Washing Soda. (Picture #3) Use 2 Tablespoons per load. (I mix my 2 tablespoons with a little water and let it mostly dissolve before I put it in. Not supposed to use powder with my septic tank)


The hardest part was grating the soap...the beginnings of carpal tunnel and grating soap do not go together very well. A normal person would probably find this easy, but it took me probably 15-20 minutes to get it all grated. I washed a test load of towels this morning, will report back tonight with pictures and the results!!!


Update-I've done several loads now and I have to say it seems to work well. I have really really hard water and this stuff doesn't leave any kind of residue. I use vinegar in the bleach dispenser when I use regular detergent, plus an additional rinse cycle. I haven't had to use any vinegar and have been able to cut out the additional rinsing. It definitely does not smell like normal laundry, really it has no scent at all other than clean smelling. I'm giving it a thumbs up!

Depression Cooking with Clara

Depression Cooking is a very cute video series starring 93 year-old Clara showing how to cook some of her family's meals from the 1930s. I love how she cuts everything right in her hand. That's how my grandma did it, too. I'm not sure I need to rush and make any of these meals right now, but in another year we may all be needing Clara's advice! I've watched about 3 of them so far and they're definitely worth a few minutes of your time.
You can find all of the episodes on the Depression Cooking page on YouTube.

Cake and Yogurt-a quick review

So Yoplait has all kinds of new flavors now and they all seem to be baked goods related. I find this to be weird, but I gave them a shot anyway.

Cherry Cobbler-this was a weird pinky-red color and tasted worse than Maraschino cherries, which in my book is pretty bad.

Cinnamon roll-this was the color of a Flesh colored Crayola crayon. Terrible color aside, it wasn't bad, sort of a combo of weak cinnamon and cream cheese icing.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake-Strangely enough, this was the winner of the bunch. It actually smelled like pineapple and cake and even tasted a little cakey. The pineapple is what made it good, though. This one I would definitely get again.

Apple Turnover-not a new flavor, but one of my favorites. Another weird yogurt flavor, but very tasty apple & cinnamon

Lemon Meringue Pie-very important, you have to get the Yoplait Light Thick & Creamy version, NOT the regular texture light yogurt (which is actually Lemon Creme Pie flavored). My favorite yogurt EVER. It's not exactly lemon curd, but still a little tart and yummy. I need to get some graham crackers and try mixing it with the yogurt.

Almond Coffee Syrup

I've been looking for almond coffee syrup in stores near me for a while and cannot find it. Many have sugar free almond coffee syrup, but I've tried a few different brands and they all taste terrible. The sugar free vanilla and sugar free caramel taste fine, so I don't really understand why the sugar free almond is terrible, but it is. I've looked online and one can certainly order regular almond syrup from many different places, but shipping is just as much or more than the cost of the syrup. So, I decided I'd try making my own. I couldn't find a recipe so I just made simple syrup and added almond extract a little at a time until it tasted strong enough to flavor my iced coffee. I'm so glad I did this! It's fast, easy and cheap. I'll be making my own vanilla syrup from now on, too. I think the vanilla syrup may take a bit more than 1 tsp vanilla. I'll post an exact recipe once I make it.

Almond Coffee Syrup
2 c sugar
1 c water
1 tsp almond extract

Heat sugar and water on medium until liquid is clear (3-5 minutes). Do not boil. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Allow to cool. Pour into a bottle using a funnel. Store in refrigerator.

UPDATE:
After a few iced almond lattes, I decided that it wasn't almondy enough. So I upped the almond to 2 tsp and I think it's perfect. It's quite almondy, so you don't have to add so much syrup to your latte. You get a good almond flavor without it being sickeningly sweet.

Almond Coffee Syrup - UPDATED
2 c sugar
1 c water
2 tsp almond extract