Cold Brewing Iced Latte's - DIY

There's coffee and then there's iced latte's.  For me, having a tall iced latte in the morning is much better than the hot stuff.  Of course if I were to buy an iced latte every day, I'd be spending a fortune and I can think of much better things to spend my money on like this awesome cheese making book I've had my eye on for a few days.

Iced latte's are made with espresso, or a concentrated brew of coffee.  Because it's basically 1/2 milk and 1/2 coffee, the coffee needs to very strong.  Through a lot of trial and error, I finally came up with a great recipe that resembles the latte's I love from Starbucks.  It starts with cold brewing your coffee.

What's Needed

Large bowl with lid or Ziplock Bag, gallon size

1/2 lb. coffee, ground

5 cups water

Start by placing 1/2 pound of coffee in bowl and mixing in 5 cups of water.  You can also use a zip top bag.  Stir this together, making sure it's blended well.  If using a bowl, cover with plastic wrap.  Store in fridge for 12-24 hours.

Figuring out this part included a lot of different things but what I found that works best is straining the muddy mixture through a cheesecloth OR in a traditional coffee pot.  

If you are using a coffee pot, simply set a filter in the basket of your coffee pot, place the carafe under and pour the mixture directly into the filter.  You may have to change out your filter 1 or 2 times during this process...but it really is the easiest way - well, for me anyway.  :)

If you don't have a traditional coffee pot, you can strain your coffee in cheesecloth over a sieve.  Cheesecloth can be found in your local Wal-mart or from here.

You'll be left with a coffee concentrate.  Use a 1:1 ratio adding milk for latte's and hot water for a traditional cup of coffee. 

Just keep your cold brewed coffee in the fridge and it'll last a couple of days.  I usually have 1 bowl brewing at all times - it doesn't last long in this house.  ;)

When you're ready, just add 1 part coffee and 1 part milk with whatever sweetener you prefer and that's it!  If you want to get fancy, you can add in flavorings.  They're pretty much available everywhere so get creative!

:)

Happy Brewing!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Our laundry time is just one of those things I put off until the very last minute.  I hate doing laundry.  I absolutely abhor it.  I would rather vacuum my entire house (with the ugly, thick emerald green carpeting) AND wash every dish in the cabinets than I would doing laundry.  I know, it may be a little overly dramatic - I just can't help it.  

Now, my mother would tell me (in all her infinite wisdom) that I should elicit the help of my children.  "That would take some of the work off of you, love", she would say.  Maybe it would...but (and just keeping it real here) I would rather do it myself than have something go terribly wrong like the time all my husbands khaki shorts came out of the wash a precious pink color.  He didn't think it was as 'precious' as I did.  

Having 4 grown children and a husband that changes clothes more than my 17 year old daughter, I found myself washing 5 or 6 loads of laundry a day.   Our consumption of laundry detergent was beginning to border on crazy!

So, I set out to try and save our family the laundry insanity and found several Homemade Laundry Detergent recipes.  Some were great, some were kooky - but they were all very cheap to make.  There were recipes for grated soap, not grated soap, some with dish washing liquid as a base, while others were a simple powder concoction of Washing Soda and Borax.  

For my family, I wanted something that would get our clothes clean, our whites whiter and a little fragrance. And, I needed a LARGE recipe. After looking at several, I decided to format my own.  Here's what I came up with.

On to the recipe...

2 Cups Borax 
2 Cups Washing Soda 
2 Ivory Bars 
Purex Crystals


Dump 2 cups each of Borax and Washing Soda into a big pail or bucket.  Add one gallon of hot water and stir until the powders have dissolved. 
Grate (or microwave) the soap. *If grating, grate the soap into a saucepan and cover with water.  Heat until soap melts completely, stirring constantly.  This will take about 10 or 15 minutes.

This recipe makes 10 gallons of laundry detergent.  That's right, I said 10 gallons.  And, I have plenty of ingredients left over to make probably 20 more gallons.  By my calculations, a gallon of laundry detergent made with this method will only set you back about $0.75 a gallon.  Now if that doesn't save you money, I don't know what will.  ;)

Clearer Instructions:

2 cups of each into a big bucket or tote.  For smaller recipes (5 gallons, use just one cup each).  

For this recipe, I used 2 bars.  For smaller recipes, just use one.

Now for most recipes, this step requires you grating the soap into a saucepan.  Grating soap is not hard but it's not very easy either.  I'm not very coordinated with small kitchen gadgets, and cut myself regularly trying to peel potatoes, so I had another great idea for this part of the recipe.  I microwaved it.  

Now I don't know if other soaps will perform the way Ivory does in the microwave but in just a few seconds, you're soap will look something like this.

Once you're at this point, the soap can be crushed into a fine powder.   Using your fingers, break the soap apart over a large saucepan.  Cook until all soap bits are completely melted.

Once your soap is completely melted, pour into bucket with Washing Soda and Borax.  (Hopefully by this point, you have already added enough hot water to the powders to dissolve them thoroughly )  Fill to the top with hot water.  

You're almost done!  Now would be the time to decide if you want scent added.  If you choose not to add scent, then you can cover your detergent and let sit.  You're done!  :)

I love this stuff.  Not only is it awesome for your clothes, it makes the house smell great when laundry is being done.

I added a 1/2 cup Purex Crystals to the Laundry liquid after topping off with water.  I also use a tablespoon with each dirty load.

After you've added your scent, cover and put it away.  By the next morning it will be a gel like consistency.  Don't worry - just stir before each use.  I use about a 1/2 cup each load, but you could use more heavier cycles.  

That's it!  I hope you'll love using this as much as I do.  It works great and honestly, I kind of like it better than the name brands.  It's way more cost efficient and cleans like a dream.  

If you use this recipe, come back and let me know how you liked it.  You can leave a comment below if you have another laundry recipe you'd like for our readers to try.