Prepped Living Blog

Are you not sure what to do with the small piece of soap left near the end of your soap bar's life? We don't like to be wasteful and toss the soap "ends," so we came up with a couple of ways to use them. We also looked into a few more ideas to use soap ends that we could share with you. Grafting to the Next Bar For the most part, we incorporate the small piece into the next bar by getting them both wet and smashing them together. Sometimes it takes a few washings before they stick well. Using a Soap Saver We recently received a soap saver bag as a gift. These are bags made of natural fibers. The idea is to put your bar of soap in it, use it as a washcloth or scrubby, and then hang it to dry. This is supposed to lengthen the longevity of your soap bar by using less soap to lather and by letting it dry well in between uses. Adding your pieces to your soap saver is another way to use up your soap slivers. Turning it into Shave Soap We have also saved a few pieces with t...

We tried a new-to-us drink that our craft bartender son made for us this summer - an Aperol Spritz. It is served chilled and is both light and refreshing, especially in the summer heat. Aperol Spritz is reportedly popular in Italy. It is considered an apéritif, which is a drink served  before  a meal that is designed to prepare the digestive system for the coming meal. This is different from a digestif, which is served  after  a meal and is believed to aid in digestion. This may be common knowledge to most of you, but I just learned it this summer. I love learning new things! Without further ado, here is the recipe: Aperol Spritz Ingredients : 2 oz. Aperol 2 oz. Prosecco 1 oz. Club Soda Ice cubes Directions : Measure and pour Aperol into a glass. Add ice cubes. Measure and pour in Prosecco, followed by the club soda. Stir slowly. Sip and enjoy!

We had been talking about getting a work table for the kitchen for quite some time. This summer, we finally made the purchase--and it was a great choice. Our kitchen has one long counter, at the end of which, at a 90 degree angle, sits the stove--right in front of the last set of cupboards. Yes, it blocks the cupboard and only leaves enough room to open the doors about 8 inches. It is a giant pain. Given its position, it also blocks the last couple of feet of what might otherwise be usable counter space. This leaves us with only one work area in the kitchen. With the number of projects and the amount of cooking from scratch that we all do, we felt like we could really use the extra work space. Deciding we could use a work table and choosing one were quite different matters, however. We couldn't decide on whether the work table should be stationary or have wheels. We went back and forth on size and material as well. Did we want a wood one or a metal one? Should it be 18", 24...

I love to garden. I don't always have the greatest success with it, but I do enjoy it. Here are the highlights (including both successes and failures) of our little garden. Plum Tree  After four years of wondering what the little thorny tree growing at the edge of the yard might be, we finally found out this year. It turns out it is some kind of plum, likely a cherry plum, but I am not sure. It finally produced fruit this year - tiny, yellow plums that have a sweet-tart flavor. Peppers  I planted peppers indoors this year from seed I saved from last year. Sadly, none of it germinated. We ended up ordering our peppers from Azure Standard this year. Their supplier offers heirloom varieties at better prices than the non-heirloom plants we found at Lowes. This year we put in three jalapeno and two Anaheim plants. They did not grow very tall (we have issues getting anything to grow big here), but they are producing very well!   White Beans  I saved seeds from our in-groun...

A couple of weeks ago we were given a bag of garlic scapes. We tried garlic scapes last year when we grew our own garlic. That first year, we cut them up into small rounds and used them in stir fry. They gave it a nice flavor. This year, we decided to try garlic scape salt. What are Garlic Scapes?  Garlic scapes are the long, curly central stalk that grows from the bulb of hardneck garlic plants. This stalk must be pulled or cut in order for the garlic bulb to grow larger. Garlic scapes have a mild garlic flavor and can be used to flavor dishes just like garlic. Garlic scapes Garlic scapes can be cut up and used in dishes such as stir fries, eggs, and casseroles. They can be used to make a pesto. They can also be used to make a garlic scape infused oil and garlic flavored salt. Because we love our food well seasoned, we opted to make a batch of garlic scape salt with the majority of the scapes and freeze the rest for later use. Making Garlic Scape Salt We followed the Homemade Garl...

It is always difficult to remember everything we do in between updates, but here is a decent representative list of the projects we have been working on since May: Gardening Harvested Parsley, Basil, Mustard Greens, and Tomatoes from the AeroGarden Harvested Strawberries, Jalapenos, and Anaheim Peppers Planted Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes) Growing (or attempting to grow!) a Variety of Produce in the Regular Garden Growing Tomatoes and Garden Huckleberries in the Greenhouse Canning Serviceberry Syrup Hawthorn Jam Serviceberry/Hawthorn Berry Juice Freezing Eggs (raw, scrambled)  Serviceberries Oregon Grapes Cherries Pear Butter Dehydrator/Air Drying Herbs for Tea - Mint (orange, sweet, chocolate), Rose Petals, Lemon Balm, Plantain Culinary Herbs - Basil, Parsley, Oregano, Tarragon Medicinal Herbs - St. John's Wort, Comfrey, Plantain, Calendula, Yarrow, Feverfew Other - Day Lily, Mushrooms Other Homestead Projects Rendering Lard & Tallow Vanilla Extract Sewing - modifying the n...