I whipped up another big batch of granola this morning. After several years of experimenting with different recipes, I'm happy to say I've finally hit upon one that everyone really likes -- most especially DH, who eats it every morning for breakfast. I did make it a little differently this time around however. For the past several months, I've been saving the peels (carefully washed) of all the citrus fruit we've consumed (which is a great quantity) in a large bag in the freezer, and last weekend I finally cooked up an enormous batch of candied citrus peel. These will be used to flavor my future baked goods, and they were a delicious and attractive addition chopped and mixed in, right along with the other dried fruit, to the granola this morning. A by-product of my candied peel production was 4 delectable cups of incredibly rich and thick, bittersweet orange-y syrup -- very honey like. I've been enjoying it in my hot tea these last several days (especially orange herbal tea -- wow), but this morning I subbed some of it for the honey in the granola recipe. The house smelled yummily as it baked. Anyway, heh, I always get a perverse satisfaction out of making use of things we would ordinarily throw away.....

Another example of this would be the bread I baked yesterday in my bread machine. I got the machine as a gift from my folks several years ago, but until recently hadn't put it to as much use as I might have. While I'm not at all adverse to the old-fashioned method of bread baking, since I have the thing, and it's taking up precious counter space in my kitchen, I've re-resolved to make it earn its keep. So yesterday I tried a new bread recipe I found on the net. I admit it was all terribly convenient for me --- I simply threw the ingredients into the machine, left the house for several hours to take the kids to dance class while it did it's thing, and came home to fragrant, freshly baked bread to serve with our supper of soup - a lovely thing for this busy homeschooling haus frau. Anyway, the point here was that it was Dill Bread, calling for an ENTIRE CUP of leftover pickle juice....! Ok, who else here has jars of pickle juice in the fridge just waiting to be used up in some way??? Previously I've saved mine to flavor salads (potato, kidney bean, etc). But now, I know exactly where mine will be going, heh.....

Also doing laundry this afternoon, and I'm trying the method I've seen suggested here. I used less detergent than usual, but am letting the loads soak in the soapy water (after a little agitation) for a time before I continue the washing cycle. I'm intending to stretch our current bottles of (sale purchased) detergent as far as I can, and then research options into possibly making my own natural/environmentally-friendly and cost-effective alternatives. In any event, all clothes will be hung either on my basement clothesline, and/or on the wooden hanging racks I keep set up in our bathroom. With the air as dry and cold as it currently is here, clothes hung inside dry within hours, and we really need to reaccess our power bill -- it's got no where to go but dooooown ......