Papalote Salsa Trading Company originates from the famous Papalote Mexican Grill in San Francisco, CA. They were even lucky enough to win a Throwdown against Bobby Flay. Papalote is proud to announce that you can finally Order Salsa online and ship it to your friends and family anywhere in the US.

It was a great honor for The Ecomaker team to meet one half of the Papalote team tonight while we were out at the local market. We happy purchased our jar of the Habanero variety and had it with our burritos tonight. This salsa makes a wonderful addition to almost any meal. Try it on anything that you think it would taste good on!

If you liked this article and would like to find out more about Papalote you can follow them on Twitter and ‘like’ them on Facebook.

This is a great bread that you can start just before you go to sleep in the evenings or to work in the morning if you plan ahead a little. We hare at the HQ used our stand mixer but all you have is a mixing bowl and a spatula, that works too. We’d put this recipe right up with the Baguette Recipe we featured a while back.


What You Need:

1 – 1 1/2 cups of lukewarm water (About shower temp, no hotter or you will kill the yeast)
1 teaspoon of yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
3 cups of AP Flour (All-purpose) or 2 cups AP and one cup of Whole wheat if you prefer).

Let the yeast bloom in the warm water for about 5 minutes and bubble up. If you’ve never worked with yeast before, if it looks like you shook up some soda or a nice head of beer, you’re doing just fine.

Combine the other ingredients into the mixing bowl and slowly add you yeast and water mixture while combining. When everything is nicely combined, let your dough rise 8-12 hours. If the dough is a little sticky, add a little flour until it’s just barely sticky. A good trick is spraying a mixing bowl with non stick spray, or a little softened butter and toss the dough ball a bit so that it doesn’t stick to the bowl as much before you let it rest the 8-12 hours.

When you’re home from work or wake up in the morning. Spray a baking vessel of your choosing, like a cast iron pan, loaf pan or even something like a cookie sheet if you have to. The trick here is it has to preheat with the oven. Put the vessel out just as the oven comes to temperature and place your dough on it as is and bake it just like that, don’t worry if it lands a little funny, it will bake evenly.

Let this bake at 450 fore about 30 min. Let cool for about 30 minutes before consuming. Enjoy!

If you liked this article and would like to view the original. Check out, Cold Antler Farm.

Here are a few ideas to turn these ordinary pallets into something useful and keep them out of the landfills! Have you ever wanted more space in your garden and just feel like you don’t have enough room for everything? Grow upwards! By using a pallet on it’s side you’ll have plenty of compartments to fill with herbs, leaf lettuces and anything else you can think of.

Want to make your studio apartment or garage less cluttered? Use some pallets to make some sturdy book shelving for the latest novels or all the mechanic and woodworking books in the garage.

One more idea for you to mull over. How about a space saving way to put up those bikes in a small spot by making a bike rack out of the pallets? These are just some of the great ideas to repurpose those wooden pallets. Can you think of more?

If you liked this article and would like more information, head on over to Apartment Therapy and Treehugger!

Photo Credit: daryl_mitchell

Here’s a great idea from one of our friends. Bev, runs a wonderful blog called Bev Cooks. We at the Ecomaker HQ are so happy to bring you this recipe so that you can enjoy it just as much as we do.

Did we forget to mention that you can also make this as a slow cooker recipe. What a great thing to come home to as wonderful start to a new week. If you have the time to make this on the stove, it would probably work as well.

The wonderful thing about cooking is that you can add or omit what ever you feel like, depending on what you have on hand or if some one doesn’t like one ingredient or other.

The Ecomaker team added Sriracha instead of the Jalapenos and had to leave out the sprouts, bell peppers,lime and rice noodles but, let’s just say the HQ Kitchen still smells amazing without these things the recipe called for.

If you don’t have noodles this will serve well with rice instead. Use what you have, right? Right! We hope that you have a chance to make and enjoy this soup as much as we did.

Did you like this article? Want the original recipe? If you would like more information on Bev Cooks, be sure to check them on out Facebook and Twitter.

When thinking of curry in America you may be more familiar with Indian curries rather than this Japanese version. This Japanese version differs because it is thicker than an Indian curry due to it being made from a roux of butter and flour first before any other ingredients are added in. Japanese curries are also sweeter than Indian curries as well. Japanese curries contain a fruit element like apples to make it this way. As a variation the HQ thought we’d mention the use of pears instead of apples, just as a thought as well.

When preparing the curry it is also very important to cut all the vegetables needed first before cutting up any meats or poultry. If you would like a little heat to your curry you could add a squirt of sriracha to the pot too.

One last thing we’d like to mention is, use any potato you have on hand or like as well. Traditionally here at the HQ we grew up just using russets as they were the most commonly available. Tonight version had Japanese (White) Sweet potatoes in it because they needed to be used up and it came out just as wonderful as ever.

If you liked this article and would like more information on this and other Japanese dishes, you can head on over to No Recipes for more information.

Here is a great way to use up extra jars or start saving them for a purpose just like this to de-clutter work spaces all around your home. Your sewing area,the kids craft area, your screws and other small PC parts. Those are just some really great examples. You can also use this same idea to keep loose leaf teas and a few cups as a shelf and all your culinary spices as well. Can you think of other great jar-shelving ideas that would be useful?

If you liked this article and would like more great ideas like it, head on over to Re-Nest.

Photo Credit: How Can I Recycle This

This is just one way to make Ham and Potato soup from scratch. Always adjust recipes to your tastes and what works for you. Cooking isn’t always about ‘following’ the book or recipe. Make additions, omit things and make things with your own flare. That’s what cooking is all about. Creativity, exploration and fun in the kitchen with friends and family.

We here at The Ecomaker HQ love this recipe and wanted to share it with you. The Ecomaker Team would like to thank Chef John for providing everyone with this fabulous take on Ham and Potato soup!

Speaking of additions, we added in a few things too. Mushrooms and a few other vegetables we had on hand to make it a little more hearty on filling during a cold spell we had here at the HQ a bit back.

If you liked this article and would like to view the recipe check out Food Wishes!

Photo Credit: sk8geek

If you’re looking for a green, eco-friendly alternative to killing those pesky weeds in the cracks of your sidewalk and garden too. Just be sure to not spray something that you want to keep alive. This recipe is so simple and will save you more money than buying those expensive and toxic bottles from your hardware and garden stores. Ready? Plain old, White Vinegar! Fill a spray bottle 2/3 full and spray away. Vinegar kills most plants in about 24 hours. Pretty simple and great idea, right?

There are many, many uses for vinegar than you might think. If you liked this article and would like more information, be sure to check out Lifehacker.

Photo Credit: Katerha

Have you ever had a good idea that you thought would take off and want to make it a reality? We found one such idea and thought we’d share it with you.

If you do have a really good idea that you think could take off. You can uses sites like KickStarter to see if people like your idea, fund it and make it happen. The Ecomaker team thought this idea was something that should really become mainstream. After all these years we still don’t have something remotely useful like this to make more uses out of all those Mason jars, right?

The caps are BPA-free as well which I’m sure you’ll agree is a great and much needed bonus. Can you think of other useful ideas like this that are also Eco-friendly?
If you liked this article and would like to learn more about his product, be sure to check out Kickstarter!

Photo Credit: Trekky Andy

Next time you finish that cup of coffee while you’re out and about, keep the cup and lid? Why? We have a great weekend project for you to charge your phone on the go. Check it out!

Here is just one of those ideas that you will wish that you thought of, but didn’t. Like we just mentioned, next time you look at your cup of coffee at any of the name brand chains, keep that cup! With a few things that you may around have in that garage or in the junk drawer you can make a solar charger that will charge you phone while enjoying the sun in the park or picnic bench.

Once your friends and family see what you’ve made, maybe they will want one too. This is a great idea to keep all that waste out of the landfills too. What a great green thing to do, right? Can you think of other devices that you could charge using this same idea?

If you liked this article and would like more information, head on over to Instructables.

Photo Credit: Instructables