Blogging Blitz #5

Who Talks About Laundry on a day set aside for freedom? I do. I enjoy sorting laundry, pretreating and placing it in the washing machine. In a time past I would hang my laundry on a clothesline and watch it flap in the breeze. I would sniff the fresh odor like a crack addict once the dried laundry was taken inside.

Fast forward to 2011. I no longer have a backyard and outdoor laundry is frowned upon in this community. I know for a fact that some of the folks around here with wooden fences have ventured to put in a clothesline as long as it can't be seen from the street.

Since my back strip (not backyard) is pretty secluded I have often used my folding wooden dryer to dry laundry outside.

mcguckin.com

Winn Dixie was offering a special on laundry items . With it there was a free sample of Purex 3-in-1. This is a laundry sheet that washes and softens in the machine It also has an anti static strip for the dryer.

I had items from winter that I wanted to pack and store so I decided to use the 3-in-1 product.

The instructions were to run the water in the washer, drop in the laundry sheet AWAY from the water flow, then load the laundry and let it wash.

After all cycles are complete toss the laundry and the laundry sheet in the dryer where the anti static strip performs its duty.

I can't really tell you how well the product performed because most of the clothes were dark clothes and I dried them on my wooden dryer and let the outdoor 95 degree heat on my back strip dry them. Why heat up the dryer when you can dry them for free.
The light blue line is the anti static treatment.

I plan to use this sheet again in the dryer only after I do my next load of laundry with my regular detergent.

Let me be clear (as the President says)

• Ironing is not necessarily a part I enjoy. I will snatch an article out of the dryer as soon as a cycle is completed so it won't get wrinkled. I don't apologize for that. I have been known to dampen an article of clothing and put it back in the dryer if I missed the finishing point and it has wrinkles. SIDEBAR: I miss the gas Maytag dryer I had at the other residence. When the clothes finished drying they stayed warm for a good amount of time. No need to run a marathon to get to them before they cooled.

• I enjoy doing laundry in the present. I would not have enjoyed doing washing in a cast iron wash pot ,sitting on a bed of fire in the backyard, stirring clothes with a stick and washing with lye soap. Oh yeah, and in the summer or winter either for that matter.

I enjoy doing laundry so much that I plan to attend the Alabama Folk School in November so that I can learn to make laundry soap and goats milk soap.

That's It***

blogging blitz #3

This is a meaningless post that I've surrendered to BLOGGER

Visited  Detroit, Michigan a couple of weeks ago to visit a relative who'd been ill.

Since blogger continues to sabotage my posts, I won't bother to elaborate here.

Going Green

I said I wasn’t going to but I had to see something green and growing. Something green and moldy wouldn’t do. I took out my pots and planted herbs and an experimental potato.

The sage was planted before all of the rest. Apparently there’s something I’m not doing that’s causing this dwarfed growth.

This same rosemary plant has been with me for almost three years. It winters over very well.

I chose to try lavender this year. There was a recipe for lavender lemonade. There have to be blossoms to steep before it can be made into lemonade. As you can see, I have no blossoms.

What I do have is a bounty of mint. I’m not that fond of it but I like seeing it grow. Now what do I do with it? This plant flourishes and needs to be contained or else it will take over like kudzu.

 

I pulled one of the eyes, no larger than an M&M, off of a potato I had and planted it. I guess I’ll see what happens by September.

Basil is once again plentiful. Here you see it after I made the big chop. This is another plant that multiplies like crazy.
I’d seasoned baked chicken in foil with a large quantity of basil once. The chicken was good but so was the basil. The chicken juices had flavored it so well, I ate cooked basil as my green veggie. Maybe someone has already done this but, I decided that when I next had an abundance of basil I would cook it like spinach and see how it tasted. That day was today.

Cooked BasilIngredients:* Approximately 3 ½ cups washed basil leaves (Yields about one cup cooked greens )
* ¾ cup water
* 1 chicken or vegetable flavored bouillion cube

I had photos for 2,3,4 but blogger keeps %&(*_) up my upload.

1. Pick leaves off of stems. Discard blossoms and stems. (blossoms  are bitter)2.Wash the leaves in cool water and drain.

3. Place the leaves in a cooking utensil. Add one bouillion cube and 3/4 cup of water.
4. Cook at a medium heat until the leaves are tender the consistency of cooked spinach.
blogging blitz #2
***That's It