Pesky Rust Stains Are Gone With "Magic-In-A-Bottle"

Before I begin I just want to say that I don't typically let my shower get this disgusting and dirty but for the sake of this blog post, I wanted it to be pretty bad in order to show the effectiveness of this product. So please don't judge me for these before photos. 

Living in rural New Hampshire, we have very hard water, which means our water has a high mineral content (in our house we have a lot of iron in our water). For those of you who don't have to deal with it - I envy you. Hard water leads to increase in soap scum, spots on our clean dishes, and anything that water touches eventually turns a lovely rust color. White things never stay white - they turn a dingy yellow color and then eventually turn a rust color (gross, right?)

So, I basically stopped buying white clothes because theres no point when I end up throwing them away after a couple months. But one thing that I can't throw out is my custom white shower that has white subway tiles and white grout. I typically have to do a deep clean of my shower about once a month in order to keep it sparkling white. (Again, please don't judge me for these before pictures. They are completely unedited and truly appalling)

See that horrid yellow stain, yeah - that's what we get to deal with.

Up close and personal with the yellow stained mess. 

Remember when I asked you not to judge me - I let my shower get this dirty for you so you could witness this magic!

Enter the most amazing cleaning product ever - Iron Out, Super Iron Out Rust Stain Remover.
If I could buy stock in this product, I would. Honestly this stuff is a lifesaver and gets the job done. There are two different types - a liquid and a powder. I started off using the powder and then tried switching to the spray which I figured would be easier for a shower cleaner but because the powder is much more concentrated I found myself liking it a lot more than the spray. Now this stuff can be used on tile, grout, sinks, toilets, and even laundry (although I have not tried laundry yet!). I will warn everyone though, it has some pretty strong fumes so make sure there a window open and vent going when you're using this stuff.

So what I typically will do is spray down the walls with really hot water, sprinkle Iron Out on a wet scrub brush and then go to town. When you're done just rinse with water and you can go on your way.  You will literally watch the stains go away in front of your eyes. Seriously, this stuff is true magic. 

Look at that! You can literally see it dripping away the stain. What did I tell you? Magic.

POOF and it's gone! Amazing, right?

Now I know you all are just dying to see the finished (and clean) product. It's an oddly satisfying thing seeing these stains completely gone. I took these pictures right after I finished scrubbing. It's already blindingly white but amazingly enough this stuff keeps working for hours. When I go to take a shower later in the day it looks even whiter (if that's even possible) then it did right after I finished. 

Ta-Da!

They pretty much look like newly installed tile.

I can practically see my reflection it's so clean. 

So now you understand why I posted those horrible before pictures - so you could see the amazingness of this product. Like I said, I also use this for toilet and sink rings as well and it works beautifully. But now I'm betting you all want to know where you can buy this magic-in-a-bottle. I've seen it at Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, and various hardware stores. The best part is that you can buy a little one pound bottle for around $5.00 or invest in a five pound bottle for around $20.00. Believe me, you'll use this once and be thanking me!

Orange Creamsicle Cookies

I discovered this recipe many years ago. I don't make it very often but every time I do I wonder why I don't make it more. This cookie recipe is not your normal boring cookie. Yes it has the typical cookie base (butter - lots and lots of butter, sugar, flour, egg) but it is loaded with orange zest and white chocolate chips. It really does taste like an Orange Creamsicle but in cookie form - so how can you go wrong! Now I'm not really a fan of white chocolate, but this seriously is an amazing cookie.

I start by combining my dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, and salt

Then I use a Kitchen Aid mixer to mix my other ingredients - softened butter, white sugar, brown and sugar.

Then grate your oranges for the orange zest - I doubled this recipe so I needed 8 tablespoons of orange zest and I ended up using 6 large oranges and had plenty of zest. 

Then add the rest of the wet ingredient to the mixer egg, vanilla, and orange zest (this is a SUPER thick dough so mixing by hand or even with a hand mixer might be kind of difficult - granted I haven't actually tried)

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the mixer.

Once the dough is mixed thoroughly - add the white chocolate chips. Since this dough is SO thick - I actually ended up adding the juice of one whole orange (for a little extra orange flavor) and the cookie came out great!

Place teaspoon sized drops onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in 370 degree oven for 8 minutes (I baked mine for 7 minutes because I like to SLIGHTLY undercook my cookies because I like them to be a little softer)

Enjoy fresh out of the oven or several days later (if they can make it that long!)

Orange Creamsicle Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter - softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons orange zest (more or less for flavor)

2 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

Beat with electric mixer butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Once well combined - add egg, vanilla, and orange zest.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until well combined.

Add white chocolate chips to dough (and extra orange juice if you want more orange flavor)

Place teaspoons sized drops onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes