An easy home tip.

As the mother to four pets, I often fear that my home smells.... well... animaly.  I try to stay very on top of things in this area because, I'll be honest, I don't want to be that house that always smells vaguely of wet dog.

One trick we've worked on is a carpet freshener.  As you probably know, baking soda is a major scent absorber and the main ingredient in all commercial carpet fresheners. But once they put the baking soda in, what gets added afterward is probably not good for you. And they are expensive for being nothing but baking soda and chemicals!

So we handle it in house, like this:

1) Pour two pounds baking soda into a bowl big enough to get your hands into.
2) Add one cup of salt.
3) Add twenty or so drops of your favorite essential oils. (My favorite combo is lavender-lemon.)
4) Mix! I use my hands to make sure I do a thorough job.

The next thing you need to do is sprinkle, wait a few minutes or even overnight, and then vacuum. Your house will subtly smell of the lovely scent you choose and less of whatever awkward scent you'd rather it didn't.

The total cost of this project is around two dollars, and yields two and a quarter pounds of product. Compare this to the cost of commercial carpet freshener at 3.00 for a half pound. You won!

Garlic and Plato.

In our kitchen, I'm piecing together a way to save some garlic.

By processing two heads I have lying around, I am making my own variety of that pre-fab garlic you see in the store. In our co-op, it retails at 5.99 for the organic variety, appearing to be all together 3 Tbsp worth. No thanks!! We'll wind up with triple the quantity, a fresher taste, and a pinch of satisfaction for the bargain price of 1.17 approximately and a smidge of courage.

I will process a few cloves, cover it in oil and store in the fridge. For what reason would you have garlic "lying around", you ask. I thought you were into DIY... doesn't that require the use of garlic??

The reason is that this seasons local garlic is just coming up. Our stock pile of local garlic ran out half way through the year due to gross underestimations of how much we'd use. So the garlic I am grinding today is supermarket soft neck garlic we bought to get buy.

It is to garlic what boxed mashed potatoes are to common sense.

You may be thinking- hey! I love garlic, and I buy it at the supermarket. And that may be true. But the truest truth is that local heirloom garlic is the Platonic Idea of garlic, what all garlic aspires to be without knowing it. It is the self-actualiation of Garlic on Masow's Heirarchy of Needs. And it comes in so many varieties. Schmidts, Musik, and more... too many to try and wait! You may not have known until now, and we forgive you, but now you have no excuse to not go to the farmers market and try it.

So to make me feel less bad about not getting to the other stuff until it potentially goes rancid. I am storing it for those moments when peeling and chopping seem nearly unbearable, but you still want the punch.

Tah dah!!