I've been refilling liquid soap bottles for a few years now, with a method I'll describe at the end of this post. Recently, however, I heard an "eco-minute" tip on Seattle's AM 1090 which recommended taking the slivers of bath soap, adding them to an empty liquid soap bottle along with a few marbles, and filling the bottle with hot water. Shake the bottle well, and let it sit for a few days, and voila! Liquid soap.
Always looking for new ideas, I tried it. The soap created was gelatinous and difficult to pump out of the bottle, and after about a month, the pumps on all three liquid soap bottles in my house (in 1.5 baths and a kitchen) stopped working.
OK, so back to my old method! First, I use my bath soap slivers until they're gone, by rubbing them into a washcloth. So I don't really need to use them to create liquid soap; they won't go to waste in my house.
Second, here is what I do to make liquid soap. I buy foaming liquid soap dispensers, which reduce the amount of soap you use by mixing soap, water and air to create foaming bubbles. (I've just purchased 3 new bottles to replace the now useless ones! I bought Kiss My Face peace soap, made from Castile soap; an 8-oz bottle costs $2.99 at Grocery Outlet)
When the bottles are empty, I refill them with the following mixture. I buy a 24-oz. bottle of Earth Friendly Dishmate natural dish liquid at Grocery Outlet for $2.49. I use dish soap instead of liquid soap because it's very difficult to find natural liquid soap in bulk quantities. (The exception is Dr. Bonner's Castile Soap, which you can buy by the gallon. However, a gallon costs about $45).
I empty my 24-oz dish liquid into an empty gallon-sized SoftSoap refill bottle, and then fill it with warm water. Here's the secret of foaming liquid soap: the ratio of soap to water is 1:4, which makes it much more cost-effective than using a regular liquid soap dispenser. So by filling a gallon (128 oz) refill bottle with water, I achieve close to that 1:4 ratio (24:96, or 120 ounces total).
I gently shake the bottle to mix the dish soap and water and let it sit. I have found that pre-mixing the soap and letting it sit for a while produces better suds than mixing the soap and water in one of the smaller dispensers just before use. When my small dispensers are empty, I give the big bottle a gentle shake, and then refill them. I can refill three liquid soap bottles for about a year with this mixture for only $2.49, along with the initial purchase of the foaming pump dispensers.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
Eco-cartoon for kids!
My daughter discovered a great show on Netflix: Fishtronaut, about a fish, a young girl and a monkey who solve environmental mysteries in a nature preserve in Brazil. It's actually very intelligent and informative, teaching kids about everything from the habitats and lifestyles of different animals, to recycling, to hydroelectric power. And due to my love for all things Brazilian, the show's Brazilian setting is just the icing on the cake. (Note: the show airs on Discovery Kids in the U.S., in English).
Perfect pancakes
Have you heard the joke about the woman who cut the end off her pot roast before placing it in the pan every time? When her husband questioned her about it, she couldn't explain the reason, other than that her mother used to do it. So she called her mom to ask the purpose of cutting off the end of the roast. Her mom didn't know either, except that her mother used to do it.
So the woman called her grandmother, and her grandmother explained, "I never owned a pan that was big enough to fit the whole roast."
I have a similar tale. My dad made pancakes every weekend when we were kids. At some point we started to help him, and one of the things I loved most was waiting until the pan heated up enough for a drop of water to roll around the skillet. Dad never explained why this step was necessary, however, so in my young brain I concluded that he did it because it was fun.
I followed the same technique until early in my marriage. That's when my husband freaked out about me turning on the stove beneath a skillet with nothing in it. "You should never, ever do that!" he insisted. And since I had no conscious rationale for doing so (other than the fun of watching a rolling drop of water), I stopped.
And that wasn't really a problem as long as I made pancakes in Teflon pans. When I got rid of Teflon, however, pancake-making became hit or miss for me. Sometimes I made perfect pancakes; on other occasions, they stuck to the stainless steel pan or completely burned. After more than two decades of making perfect pancakes, somehow I had become a failure at this task!
Finally, I decided that accepting my pancake failure was ridiculous, and I Googled "Pancake making in stainless steel" for help.
It turns out, my dad knew what he was doing! When you cook anything in stainless steel skillets (unless you're boiling or simmering the food in water or a sauce), you need to make sure the skillet is hot enough before you add anything (even oil) to the pan. How hot? Well, hotter than when a drop of water simply sizzles in the pan and disappears. Hot enough, in fact, for a drop of water to roll around the pan!
Only then do you add oil (if using it), and then let the oil heat a little as well (30 seconds to a minute) before adding your food. Now I am once more making perfect pancakes*, and cleanup is a cinch! And of course, since my daughter helps me now, I am trying to make sure she knows the reason for this trick.
*This works for scrambled eggs, too.
So the woman called her grandmother, and her grandmother explained, "I never owned a pan that was big enough to fit the whole roast."
I have a similar tale. My dad made pancakes every weekend when we were kids. At some point we started to help him, and one of the things I loved most was waiting until the pan heated up enough for a drop of water to roll around the skillet. Dad never explained why this step was necessary, however, so in my young brain I concluded that he did it because it was fun.
I followed the same technique until early in my marriage. That's when my husband freaked out about me turning on the stove beneath a skillet with nothing in it. "You should never, ever do that!" he insisted. And since I had no conscious rationale for doing so (other than the fun of watching a rolling drop of water), I stopped.
And that wasn't really a problem as long as I made pancakes in Teflon pans. When I got rid of Teflon, however, pancake-making became hit or miss for me. Sometimes I made perfect pancakes; on other occasions, they stuck to the stainless steel pan or completely burned. After more than two decades of making perfect pancakes, somehow I had become a failure at this task!
Finally, I decided that accepting my pancake failure was ridiculous, and I Googled "Pancake making in stainless steel" for help.
It turns out, my dad knew what he was doing! When you cook anything in stainless steel skillets (unless you're boiling or simmering the food in water or a sauce), you need to make sure the skillet is hot enough before you add anything (even oil) to the pan. How hot? Well, hotter than when a drop of water simply sizzles in the pan and disappears. Hot enough, in fact, for a drop of water to roll around the pan!
Only then do you add oil (if using it), and then let the oil heat a little as well (30 seconds to a minute) before adding your food. Now I am once more making perfect pancakes*, and cleanup is a cinch! And of course, since my daughter helps me now, I am trying to make sure she knows the reason for this trick.
*This works for scrambled eggs, too.
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