Last minute change of plans: Lenten Salmon patties!

Hello, everybody! 

  So, originally I planned to post a recipe for home laundry soap. My friend Mindy came over and FORCED ME to confront my procrastination on learning how to make my own. 

   I just love Mindy. She's one of those friends that says, "You know you want to. You know you do. Here, let me prove it to you." And she's always right! Next, I have to start watching Dr. Who. She tells me it's amazing and since she's always right, I know it will be!

   Anyway, she came over to my house one day with all the ingredients to make laundry soap. I'd kept meaning to.... but had somehow never found the time or remembered to buy the ingredients. But I sure remembered it whenever we ran out of regular laundry soap and had to run to the store.

    But after I was done writing up this blog post, I found the tag "laundry soap" in the labels and realized that Jan had already covered this! (Whooops! Last minutes change of plans. Enter salmon patties.)

I'll leave a few pictures here so you can see what a great friend Mindy is (no, she's mine, you can't steal her away) and then we'll move on to salmon patties. I'm not looking in the tags to see if those have already been done because it's all I have right now! Ha! I shall proceed in willful ignorance. 

Another shot of the goods, which I think is very close to Jan's recipe.

And the cute little grater she brought.

She even brought two containers and I got to choose between red or teal (they both match my decor, so hard to decide) and the measuring spoon for the bucket!

Now, it's Lent so I was making a meatless meal tonight. We don;t eat that much meat, usually. We're more pie and ice cream people. (I'm just kidding. Please don't call CPS.)
So, this recipe is probably pretty standard for salmon patties but instead of cracker crumbs, I added flavored croutons. A friend of mine said she always made them that way and once I tried it, I liked it better!

1 can of salmon (or fresh salmon, which I had, so I used that)
1/3 cup minced onion
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp Old Bay seasoning or other Cajun seasoning (or, seasoned salt, which I used this time because one of my kids asked for "plain" salmon patties)
1 TBS fresh parsley
1/4 tsp fresh lemon juice (my friend uses zest but I never have)
1 cup of crushed crackers (about 20) or a cup of crushed croutons
1 egg
3 TBS of water or chicken broth

 I boiled the salmon instead of roasting it in foil with lemon and garlic like we do sometimes. reserve a half cup of the salted water if you don't use a can of salmon.

 Break into smaller chunks.

 Add onion.

 And croutons and spices and eggs.

 Form into patties. And this is where I left the kitchen since I hate hot grease. My husband took over and look what a great job he did!

 Obviously, this is his plate since it has a big serrano pepper. And beets. I'm not a fan of beets. I had plain salad, some sliced tomatoes and a few slices of fresh lemon..

I had trouble taking this picture because it was steaming up my camera lens.

Wishing you a prayerful Lenten season, everyone!

Homemade Laundry Soap

Do NOT try to eat this recipe!

BUT, it may very well be your favorite concoction ever.

Would you believe me if I told you I haven't bought laundry detergent for at least ten years? And I spend less than 75 cents for 64 loads of laundry?

And yes, I still do laundry :)

No, this is not a hoax, and no, you don't hear Billy Mays's voice in the background.

Using a few easily found ingredients and about 20 minutes a month, you can live in my frugal world.

(Don't you just love "frugal"? It's a much nicer word than "cheap", isn't it?)

Here are the four ingredients you need:

1/2 bar soap (I use Fels Naphtha, but you can use any soap - Ivory, home made, Artisan, etc. Just make sure it's pure soap)

1/2 cup Washing Soda (Note: this is not the same as Baking Soda. They are different chemical compounds)

1/2 cup Borax (Yes, the stuff that used to sponsor the TV show "Death Valley Days". Did you love that show as much as I did?)

2 gallons water

This is so easy....

First, shave your soap into small pieces. I use a knife, other people use their cheese grater. You want the pieces to be small so they'll melt easily.

Heat one gallon of water and dissolve the soap in it.

You can either do this in a big pot (I have an old 2 gallon stock pot that I use), or you can pour hot water into a large bucket (at least 2 gallons) and dissolve it there.

In any case, stir the soap pieces in the hot water until they're mostly dissolved (I'm never patient enough to get them all the way there...).

Add 1/2 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup borax (make sure there aren't any lumps in these powders), and stir until the powders are dissolved. The mixture will thicken while you're stirring.

Now add another gallon of water - cold water - and stir it all together.

Pour it into containers (I use old ice cream buckets), and there you go.

I use about 1/4 cup soap per load of laundry. It worked great in my old top loading washer, and its low-suds is perfect for my new front loader.

The consistency is kind of a watery gel that separates, but just scoop up the gel and liquid together. I keep a small plastic cup in the bucket to use to measure it.

In case you're wondering how well it works...well, my boys are Eagle Scouts. They camped year 'round for six years. You know the drill - mud, dirt, wet, fish guts, mud, more mud, and {{shudder}} boy sweat.

No problem.

And if you use powder, you can use the same recipe, but just mix the dry stuff together (make sure the soap is in very small pieces) and use two tablespoons per load.

So, lets talk frugal living today - What's your favorite frugal tip?