Finally! Laundry detergent, homemade edition.

I'm posting this today without photos because my editing rig is on the fritz. I'm going to edit the article to add the photos tomorrow. If you follow at twitter.com/KJManBlawg you can hear as soon as I've finished the edit tomorrow!

Hey everyone, I've been saying over the past couple days I was going to post my laundry detergent recipe, so here it is! I've been making this since 2006 and it has saved me hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to date. I've lived in a few states in the past four years so at times the ingredients for making this have been harder to come by. That said, here's what you'll need to make this awesome stuff.

• Fel's Naptha Bar Laundry Soap. This isn't sold in any stores local to me so I had to order it online and have it shipped to a local Ace Hardware.
• 20 Mule Team Borax. A general laundry booster, even if you don't like the end result of this detergent you can use borax to clean many surfaces and to help your regular detergent.
• Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. Again, a general laundry booster, you can use it pretty for most of the same things as Borax.
• 2 Gallons of water. I usually throw my gallon jugs away on accident so typically I buy new ones each time I make this. If you save your jugs you can save even more money with this.

You start out by put six cups of water into a very large pot and set it to medium heat. While this is warming up, cut 1/3 off the bar of Naptha and either grate it or chop it down into smaller bits and throw it in a food processor. I do the second method because it's so much easier. Grind it up until you've got a fine powder with a few larger chunks of soap left. Mix this into your heated water until it is completely dissolved.

Now that's all dissolved, measure out ½ cup each Borax and Washing Soda. Slowly, without increasing the heat, stir these in. If your water is simmering at all it is too hot and this stuff will foam up like mad. Take your time stirring it in as if you stir too violently it'll also foam up. Once foaming starts it's really hard to work with this mix.

Anyway, once you've got everything mixed in let it settle down for a couple minutes, then slowly increase the heat until the mix is boiling. Boil for 15 minutes. While it's boiling heat up another quart of water until it's somewhat hot. When the mix is almost done pour the hot water into a bucket (something 3-5 gallons will work) then add the mixture and stir. Then add enough cold water to bring it to two gallons. Mix it all until it's well blended then let it set for a full day. If done correctly the whole thing will gel!

That's pretty much it! You'll use ½ cup per load and it won't get all sudsy but it works really well. It will separate when it's sitting around since we don't add any stabilizers or anything to the mix so you'll need to shake it up before using. Like I said before if you don't like the end result you can still use the borax and washing soda to aide your regular detergent and you can rub the naptha onto stains to help remove them.

Thanks for dropping by everyone, sorry to keep you waiting on the topic for longer than expected!

tl;dr?

• 1/3 bar Fel's Naptha, ground to powder or grated
• 1/2 cup Borax
• 1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
• 2 gallons water

• Heat 6 cups water, mix in Naptha until dissolved
• Mix in Borax and Washing Soda until dissolved
• Bring to a boil for 15 minutes then remove from heat
• In a 3-5 gallon bucket put 1 quart hot water, add soap mixture and stir
• Add enough cold water to make two gallons, mix thoroughly and let sit 24 hours
• Enjoy!

-- The only constant is change --

Roast Chicken!

So I wrote this post last night everyone, since I was roasting a chicken and felt I should share my tactics because a roasted chicken is delicious and something everyone should know how to cook.

Hey guys! So, I'm roasting a chicken for dinner tonight. Roasted chicken is one of my favorite foods and it's so cheap! It was on sale the other day for about 77 cents per pound, so I grabbed two, one of them being almost 7 pounds! A bird this size will feed me and my wife for a few days which is great because we are broke. Anyway, here's how I roast a chicken!



Firstly, thaw this baby out ahead of time. I had planned on making chicken for an early dinner but had to push that back by, mmm, three or four hours! I hadn't anticipated this, so just keep it in mind for the future. Anyway, after thawing it I scooped the giblets and neck out (they usually stuff these things inside the chest cavity) and threw them in a small pot of water and set it to a low heat to steep for the next couple hours.

Next you rinse the beast down under cold water, inside and out then dry the outside off really well with paper towels - and make sure you drain the cavity, don't want to accidentally pour salmonella water all over yourself.



I follow a real simple way of preparing the bird - I take a cooking oil, canola this time but sometimes I use olive oil - and rub down the bird like you're giving it a really weak massage. After coating it with oil you probably want to wash your hands before handling spices and such. Next I sprinkle it liberally with pepper, a bit of salt, then some garlic and onion powder. Being Italian I think I put garlic on everything. Anyway, you've done one side of the bird, then flip it over and do the other side. Make sure you don't rub it or move it too much right now or you'll mess up the distribution of spices.

Lastly, I cook my bird directly on the oven rack. Some people might be like, "ewww gross" but really, if you clean it first it's no different than anything else. Put it on the middle rack BREAST SIDE DOWN with an 8"x12" pan underneath to catch all the drippings. We do it breast side down so all the juices will settle into the meaty part of the bird. Roast that sucker at 350°F for 20 minutes per pound. I crank the heat up to 450°F for the last 15 minutes of the cook time to help brown the outside of the beast.



While we wait for the bird to cook scoop the giblets out of the water where you've had them simmering for a while. Save this water because once the bird is done you're going to take the drippings pan and mix these two liquids together. Then you take flour and add it, I do it one spoonful at a time, to the liquid and whisk them together until you've got gravy. This will be the best gravy ever. Use it generously.

At this point turn the heat off and let it set on the rack for about 20 minutes so the juices can settle. Prepare some side dishes if you haven't already and after your time is up, carve into it and enjoy! Also, here's a chart to help with cooking times.

Cooking time (unstuffed)

2½ - 3 pounds | 50-60 minutes

3½ - 4 pounds | 70-80 minutes

4½ - 5 pounds | 90-100 minutes

5½ - 6+ pounds | 110-120 minutes

tl;dr?

• Buy chicken
• Rinse chicken with water, put giblets in pan with water and simmer
• Coat in oil, pepper, light salt, garlic and onion powder
• Roast on oven rack, breast side down, middle rack with a pan under it to catch drippings
• Mix giblet infusion with drippings, whisk in flour until gravy has formed
• Eat!

-- The only constant is change --