My deodorant recipe

I haven't used commercial deodorant in over 2 years. The carcinogenic list of ingredients is just not something I'm willing to put on my body. I've used several different recipes over the past 2 years and have used some natural store bought deodorants. Those didn't' work for me. The only store bought one that worked sort of was the Crystal deodorant. Not so well during the summer though, winters it did well enough that I used it primarily. It was especially great when I was pregnant and couldn't handle smells, since it is unscented.
So here is my recipe, this makes enough to fill 3 empty deodorant containers:
0.5 oz beeswax (I plan to experiment with adding more to make the mixture even more stable in warmer temperatures now that it's hot, but so far I know this amount works for this recipe.)
1/2 Cup coconut oil
2 Tablespoons bentonite clay
6 Tablespoons each baking soda and arrowroot powder.
10-15 drops of Tea Tree oil (depending on how you like/dislike the smell, but it's a great for its anti fungal and antimacrobial properties)
20-30 drops of whatever essential oils you want to scent it. I've been doing about 10 drops of lemon, 10 drops of Sweet Orange, and 10 drops of Lavender. I'm thinking of dropping lavender form this particular blend though and just doing more citrus.

First melt the beeswax either in a double boiler or over low heat.

When the beeswax is melted turn the heat off and add the coconut oil, stir until melted. Since coconut oils has very low melting point there is no neat to heat it, the heat of the beeswax and the pan should od the job quickly. Then I start stirring in the powders, bentonite clay goes in first. Then I add the baking soda and the arrowroot powder, 1 tablespoon at a time alternating them so it's easier to keep track of how much has gone in. When stirring the powders in you want to remove the pan from the heated burner if you have an electrical that stays warm for a while, like mine. I use chop sticks to stir the mixture. It ends up being about the thickness of kefir, maybe a tiny bit thicker. Once the powders are stirred in add the essential oils and stir them in.

Then I let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes, I want it to cool just a bit before I pour it into the deodorant containers. I fill the containers and put them in the fridge to set up and usually end up leaving them there over night, till the next morning when I need them. This whole process takes me maybe 10 minutes, it's pretty easy and simple and very customizable. If someone tries this I'd love to hear if it works for you.

Grandma's buttermilk sourdough pancakes

I wish a had a picture of the pancakes my grandma used to make. She lived in a village with barely any electricity, and no running water or sewer system. The water was taken from a well in the yard, and the bathroom was an outhouse behind the barn. It was "rough"living, at least my mom recalls it being rough growing up there. I can certainly see how it probably was. But for kids it was glorious! We visited for a few weeks every summer in childhood until grandma passed away, around the time I was 10. Grandma did have a tiny fridge, and a gas stove but rarely used those. She mostly used her giant brick oven. In this brick oven she cooked the best pancakes I have ever tasted! She used to make them big too, probably 9"-10" we'd put one on the soup bowl and put a generous pad of butter in the center then run it all around till it melted and created a puddle of melted butter in the center. Then we'd tear off chunk of this delicious pancake dip them in the butter and enjoy. I so wish I had a picture of that.

For years my mom and her sisters tried to replicate the recipe, no one had it or thought to get it form Grandma before she passed. No one ever got even close! They all wrote it off on the lack of the big brick oven. Alas I think the problem was they didn't use sourdough starter. I started using sourdough starter 2 years ago and just randomly my mom mentioned that grandma used to have some bubbly mixture she kept going that she kept on a shelf in the brick oven, and she added this bubbly mixture to the pancakes. I figured it had to have been sourdough, test drove a recipe and what do you know, it tastes like grandma's pancakes!

The recipe I've come up with is rather basic, no eggs or oil/butter involved which works out great for those days when I'm low on ingredients. This batch is quite large but these freeze well and reheat well in the toaster. Anyways here it goes!

2 cups sourdough starter straight out of the fridge
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups flour
1.5 Tsp baking soda
1 Tsp. salt
3Tbsp. sugar (more if you like your pancakes sweet, I prefer mind pretty neutral)
Mix sourdough, buttermilk, sugar, salt and baking soda together. Stir in the flour and let the batter rest for at least 20 mins.

I cook them on cast iron over low heat, but proceed as you normal would with any other pancake. Enjoy!