A Quiet Little Woman

Homemade Hair gel

I've been browsing the posts over at Biblical Womanhood's Frugal Friday and I thought that I would share with y'all a recipe that I came across for homemade hair gel.  It's made out of flax seed and sometimes a little gooy, but what storebought gel isn't gooy/goopy!?

Flax Seed Hair Gel

2 TBL. flax seeds

1 c. water

Optional: a few drops of your favorite essential oil

Place flax seeds and water in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil and remove from heat.  Let stand for 15-20 minutes.  Strain (I usually do it through a washcloth since the seeds are so tiny).  Allow to cool completely.  Add essential oil, if desired, to give the gel a nice smell.  Store in a bottle/jar and ENJOY!

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I have REALLY curly hair and lately I've been having a problem with it being more frizzy then curly... BUT since I've been using this gel I've had the most beautiful hair!  I don't ever remember it being this curly!  One of my sisters keeps coming up to me and saying that she can't believe my hair, it looks like I got a perm!!  Well, enjoy this frugal tip and have a most wonderful winter day!! 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shortbread

Last night I made the most delicious treat for my family!!  I actually found it in kind of a funny way... 2 of my sisters and I clean house for our aunt and as I was dusting a bookcase I came across a "Amish" cookbook, but there was nothing amish about it besides the pictures on the front!!  BUT it did have some delicious recipes in it!  So I borrowed the book and wrote them down.... and I think that I just discovered a new family favorite!  EVEN my dad likes it and he is pretty particular about my "experiments".  Now I just have to try making it with honey, since I used sugar, BUT I did use organic cane sugar which is a better choice!! ;) 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shortbread

Chocolate Shortbread:

1 c. butter, softened

3/4 c. sugar

1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa

1 t. vanilla

2 c. flour

Peanut Butter Layer:

1 c. butter, softened

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. peanut butter

1 egg yolk

1 t. vanilla

1 1/3 c. flour

1 c. rolled oats

1) Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2) to make shortbread: in a bowl cream butter sugar, cocoa and vanilla.  Mix in flour til smooth.  Set aside.

3) to make peanut butter layer: cream together butter, sugar and PB.  Add egg and vanilla.  Mix in flour and oats.

4) Grease a 9x13 pan, pat 1/2 chocolate shortbread into pan (thin layer).  Spread Peanut butter layer over the chocolate.  Carefully pat the remaining shortbread dough evenly over the PBL to cover completly.  Gently pat chopped nuts (I used walnuts) into shortbread.  Bake for 1 hour.  Check after 45 minutes.  The shortbread will be done when the sides look dry.  Cut into squares while still hot.  Let cool before removing from pan.  

ENJOY!!  I would post a picture of it... but alas, our camera is broken!!  Be careful not to eat too many of them... they are so good that they make you kind of sick if you eat too many!!  

a story of plums...

Once upon a time there was a family who was blessed with a multiplicity of plums...

They had dehydrated about 10 bottles of plums and were a little sick of dehydrating them!  SO... the oldest daughter looked in a book called "Keeping Food Fresh" to see if they had any ideas.  They had two ways that you could lacto-ferment plums, in salt brine and in apple cider vinegar (can you tell which one is which??). 

THEN after they had given away bags and bags of plums... yet another person gave them a tree of plums!  Now, this family LOVED plums and was very grateful to the Lord for blessing them with such a bounteous harvest... but they were fresh out of ideas.  SO, once again the Lord blessed them with a new idea...

JUICING!!!

(Byetheway, if you haven't used one of these... you are missing out on one of the best inventions ever!!)  Even the littlest sister who didn't really like anything LOVED this juice and said that it tasted like store bought grape juice! 

After the juicing there was a bunch of pulp and skin left over...

So... not wanting to waste anything the oldest daughter read in a cookbook that you could use the pulp to make something a little like apple butter... PLUM BUTTER!!!  Once again the littlest sister LOVED this stuff!!  (I think that she would have eaten it all if I would have let her!!  ;) 

 Now this was the first thing that the oldest daughter had ever canned by herself and she was so filled with JOY!!

SO... through being blessed with a HUGE amount of plums, they learned SO many other things that you can use plums for, PLUS they learned that God is good to those who seek to follow HIS counsel to "lay up in store"!!!

Alex

canning kitchen... can anyone relate????

We've been really busy with "preserving" (as we like to call it) lately!!  Isn't our kitchen lovely!!?? (HA!!)  Quite the mess... ;) my mom said that once she gets canning she enjoys it, but the cleaning up part is what she doesn't like!!  We are dehydrating a TON... peaches, pears, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, apples, pineapple... pretty much everything!  We were doing applesauce today, I think that we got about 20 quarts... more to do tomorrow!!  Enjoy the harvest season!!!

Alex