The Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household Catalog of tips, tricks & recipes!

Welcome to The Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household's (free) Catalog of Tips, Tricks and Recipes! 

Are you looking for easy ways to run your home with ease? Maybe a few frugal DIY work-a-bouts to use what you already have? How about actual working recipes to make more of the foods you want to eat, right there in your own kitchen? With less purchased from the grocery store? 

Or how about some great kitchen tips and tricks that will make your life easier, and help keep you on your household budget? I have no doubt you will find something right here, to help out in all the areas you need to keep your own home humming along smoothly...

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you have come to the right place! 

Below you will find household "how-to-s" for making laundry soap, both powdered or liquid, as well as how to quiet your downspouts when it rains! Along with instructions for making woolen dryer balls to reduce the static and help keep clothes soft. Or how about a homemade wedge pillow for comfort? We even have a hack to keep your tissues popping up, in that almost empty box of tissues!

You will also find a few tips and tricks like how to combine garlic and vodka (yep, stay with me here!) for chemical-free, ready-to-use minced garlic in a jar, and easy ways to make brown sugar, or how about a soft real butter spread?

 

And from there you will find actual recipes for so many good things, like a batch of Homemade Toffee that does not require a candy thermometer, or White Chocolate Peanut Butter, and how about a copycat version of Cafe Yumm sauce! 

So come and take a look at all that is offered here, as well as recently added, just for you! Because this is one catalog that will never be obsolete!

OUR LATEST UPDATE: 04.20.2025

Household How To's!

When ever loading a jar for homemade pantry mixes, sit the measuring cup right there in the jar funnel to measure the ingredients into. Saves a lot of mess on the counter!

No More Fallen Tissues, easy hack to keep tissues popping up!

How to Make Homemade Powdered Laundry Soap. 

The pink balls wore out, but all the remaining woolen dryer balls are still in use over 10 years later!

How to Make Homemade Woolen Dryer Balls. A fun recycling project from old wool sweaters. 

Rough and Ready Laundry Soap 

How to make Homemade Dish Soap, that works!

Upcycle a wooden box (with a hinged lid)  into a garlic storage box for your kitchen. 

From Photographs to a Garlic Storage Box. 

How to Make Super Simple "Easy Spray" Cleaner.

How to make Homemade Counter Wipes. 

How to Make Dandelion Salve.

How to Make a Homemade Wedge Pillow.

How to Make a Chicken Shovel, for when the hens lay outside of the nesting box!

Chickens can become an expensive investment if you purchase everything available in the marketplace for their care and feeding. We routinely repurpose household items for food and water. Chickens forage like most birds do, so food and water are needed, but not necessarily from an expensive system available to purchase.

Example: when our muck out boots were unpacked we realized that they had been used much more than we had remembered, because they were showing a few cracks and splits. No longer water proof, they were repurposed into chicken feeding stations. They can be mounted at a convenient height for your hens! And honestly this works perfectly, each pair can handle up to 4 birds at once, so everyone gets to eat!

We recycled this one gallon pitcher (which honestly is not strong enough to hold the weight of one gallon of liquid) into an egg gathering container. It is easy to carry, especially if your littles help gather the eggs!

Easy DIY Homemade Household Weed Killer!

How to Quiet the Noise in Your Downspouts. Who knew that plastic scrubbies from $-tree could help? 

Simple DIY Homemade Household Rose Care for beautiful roses!

Easy to Make Seed Starter Pots from Cardboard Cores. 

How to Make an Easy to Use Seed Vault to keep garden seeds organized. 

When you need to iron small items and don't want to set up the big ironing board. 

Use a couple of kitchen items, a large wooden cutting board, and a cotton towel, and quickly get that ironing done and put away!

Repurpose an empty thread spool, in a pinch!

Please ignore the horrible photo, but an empty thread spool makes the perfect shower caddy holder. Perfect for those showers with only a handheld shower or if you need more than one caddy, to hold all of the family's shower time products. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Kitchen Tips, Tricks, and How To's!

Save some cash on those in drawer knife holders. 

Use a small dish rack as an in-drawer knife rack.

Do you need to bake a bunch of muffins or cupcakes? Don't have enough muffin tins? Place canning jar rings on a flat baking tray, add baking cups, fill and bake!

How to make your own Brown and Serve Bacon. 

About those bananas, never have an overripe banana again!

For a easy and delicious dinner, brown some chicken thighs in a skillet, then cover with Broken Olive Antipasto Relish (we used the whole recipe, oh my gosh, so good!) cover and let simmer until chicken is done. Remove lid and let pan juices concentrate and serve with crusty bread for dipping!

How to Make Ready to use Minced Garlic.

Easy Pickled Beets From Leftover Sweet Pickle Brine!

Peel the cooked beets, cut into pieces, place cut beets into a jar, heat the leftover brine to hot, pour over the beet pieces, cap and let sit 24 hours before eating! Also works with the brine from Quick Pickled Onions. 

How to Dry Celery. 

How to Prepare Lacinato Kale for Tossed Salad. 

How to Make Homemade Soft Butter. 

How to Make Easy to Peel Hard-Cooked Eggs. Using a stovetop steamer method. 

How to Make Easy to Peel Hard-Cooked Eggs in Your InstantPot!

How to Make Roasted Garlic the Easy Way.

Diced and Ready to Use Frozen Onions. 

How to Cook Beets in Your Pressure Cooker. 

How to Make Sugar-Free Snipped Dates. 

How to Make No Boil Yogurt in your Instant Pot. 

How to Cook Brown Rice in Your Instant Pot. 

Avoid too much mustard on your sandwich!

Squeeze bottles of mustard are convenient, but sometimes, way too much mustard ends up in your sandwich! Next time, put the mustard on the knife you are using, that way you can see how much you got in the "squeeze" and can put just the right amount on the bread for your sandwich. 

How to Make Your Own Bread Crumbs.  Plain and flavored. 

How to Make Mashed Potatoes in Your Instant Pot.

How to Freeze Ready to Use Celery. 

Five Tips for the Kitchen, plus a bonus...

Tenderize meat before you store it, in the fridge or freezer! 

When you bring beef home from the market, package in freezer bags with a couple of Tablespoons full of red wine vinegar, making sure some of the vinegar touches all the surface of the meat. BEFORE you store it in the freezer. When thawed discard the vinegar and proceed with your recipe. You will have tender beef for stew or whatever you are cooking up! I do this with stew beef, chuck steaks etc. and usually label the bag with the code RWV. 

Easier to Peel Garlic, a simple process.

Do you have a bag of popcorn that doesn't pop up fluffy and crisp? No problem, turn it into cornmeal. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Great Recipes to Make and quick food ideas!

Homemade Bay Leaf Seasoning, a Penzy's Copycat!

How to Make (real) Vegetable Bouillon Concentrate. 

Our Favorite Dry Rub for Meat.

How to Make Brown Sugar.

How to Make Whole Wheat Ricotta Gnocchi.

How to Make British-style Mixed Spice for Cakes.

How to Make Whole Wheat Self-Rising Flour.

How to Make Gingerbread and Gingersnap Cookie Mix.

How to Make an Easy Red Wine Marinade for Beef. 

How to Make Toffee, no Candy Thermometer Needed!

How to Make Cafe Yumm Sauce, a copycat recipe. 

How to Make White Chocolate Peanut Butter.

How to Make Pineapple Raisin Sauce for Ham.

How to Make The Best Homemade Pizza Sauce. 

Let's eat more vegetables! You will love this easy, delicious snack. 

Offer this easy snacking plate of Jicama spears with lime and chili powder. Quick, easy and delicious! Squeeze the lime over the spears of jicama, and dip in the chili spice. 

#HomemadeGroceryStoreRecipe!

#DIYHomemadeHousehold

#wholefoodingredients 

Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household featured at Grammy's Grid Unlimited Link-up and Blog Hop!

Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household featured at Busy Monday Link-up and Blog Hop.

Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household featured at You're the Star Link-up and Blog Hop. 

Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household featured at Fnntastic Friday Link-up and Blog Hop. 

Thanks for stopping by!

We offer new and delicious recipes as well as DIY ideas for your home, regularly. Feel free to drop us an email request for any question or recipe you may be looking for. In addition, like all our guests, we invite you to come for a visit again and again for new recipes, and my down-home take on frugal ways to keep your home in tip top shape. 

Hey you, don’t miss a post! Please consider following Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household. To follow by email, and/or by RSS feed, complete the application located on the right-hand side of the blog. Please Note, some posts may contain affiliate links, thank you for supporting Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household.

 

PS, friends, and family who love good food and household ideas might love us too! Tell them about us, and thanks for the referral!

 

You may also enjoy, Creative writing from the heart... stories of life, living, and family.

Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household proudly shares with these generous link parties featured here.