I've Been Making STUFF!

Okay, this has been a really bad school week. When things don't go the way I plan, I clean, and I make stuff.

First off, I made my first batch of laundry detergent. I couldn't find Fels Naptha or Zote laundry soap at Wal Mart, Harris Teeter, or Food Lion, but I did find Colgate Octagon, and used it. It gives it a funky khaki color but it smells great. And I test drove it on some whites. They look good to me. Here is the recipe I used?

1 cup Borax
1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 bar Laundry Bar soap, grated (Fels Naptha, Zote, Octagon, etc.)

I did grate the soap in my food processor. I think next time I will shred it with my Kitchen Aid on the small grate setting.

The other thing I made is falafel. When I was nine, my family moved to Tel Aviv, Israel. We lived there for almost a year and a half. Being the healthy eater that I was (aka. chubby), I developed a love for the food of the Middle East. They had falafel stands all over the place. Kind of like hot dog stands in the North East US. Falafel is made of ground chick peas mixed with onion, garlic, cumin, cilantro, parsley and sesame seeds. The paste is formed into balls and fried, and served in a pita pocket. In Israel they would fill the pocket with falafel, salad, tahina (a dressing made with ground sesames), pickles, and sometimes french fries or a yogurt dressing. Even though they are fried, they are relatively healthy. They don't really absorb much oil, and although filling, don't leave you feeling heavy and bloated.

I found this very cool blog , The Hummus Blog. http://humus101.com/EN/ Along with all kinds of cool info, they have several recipes. I followed their recipe for making falafel from scratch (with dried chick peas). I put mine in pita pockets, and covered them with tomatoes and tzatziki sauce that I bought at Costco. Yummy!!! Everyone but Kasi, my five year old, loved them. Of course, she prefers, but rarely gets, chicken nuggets. I also discovered she had a fever, and she didn't eat anything but bread.

~Wow - spell check does not like Arabic!