The neighbor's horses wandered to the front of their property yesterday, so I got to watch them from our kitchen window as I worked. This doesn't happen very often, but I love it when they do. They are beautiful horses and so well taken care of. They probably have 10-15 of them. I get so bummed when a loud car drives by and they get startled and run off. During the middle of the day, though, the vehicles that drive by mainly consist of slow moving farming equipment and the mailman.
I've been cleaning my sink and counters with a vinegar/water solution more and more lately. I started to wonder how effective this is, and if I could completely switch to it. I did a lot of research online. There are a lot of people who explain how to make cleaning products at home, but few actually back up their effectiveness with data. I needed data. I needed to see scientific results. So I searched using one of the sources I commonly use for chemistry. And good new, there is positive research out there. I was interested in one article in particular which looked at the effectiveness of both lemon juice and vinegar, called Effectiveness of household natural sanitizers in the elimination of Salmonella typhimurium on rocket and spring onion by Sengun and Karapinar. When they combined vinegar and lemon juice then left it on the vegetables for 15 minutes the amount of salmonella on them decreases to undetectable amounts.
This article inspired me to make a new cleaning solution, one in which I tried to match the pH of their cleaning solution. I simply combined:
- 1 1/4 cups of white vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice
- 1/4 cup of water
I mixed it up on a bowl and poured it into one of my old cleaner bottles. When I use it, I spray it on the surface I'm cleaning, set the timer for 15 minutes, and after timer goes off I wipe it off with a damp cloth. I've already used it a few times and I love it.
I also made oreo cream cheese swirl brownies yesterday for Michael to take to work. They turned out great. Very fudge-y and delicious. He was pretty excited and has been telling the guys all week that I've been planning on making them.
For dinner I made chicken enchiladas (Dinner #2 from the roast chicken) and I was really pleased how they turned out. I used crepes instead of tortillas because I'm weird and sometimes I really hate the taste and smell of tortillas. It sounds a little weird, but it is so good. I also snuck in some orange bell pepper, tomato, and green onions into the filling. Yum Yum Yum.
In fact, I think I'm going to warm up some dinner leftovers for lunch and enjoy the crazy thunder that is happening right now.
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