Friday, 12/3/10:
I milked in the morning. Went well. Did some cleaning.
New Project: I had several years worth of pieces of both homemade soap and store soap slivers so I decided to remelt these and see what I could redeem. I would say it wasn't 100% successful. I should have asked my soap-making buddies about how to do this before I checked the internet and then sort of ad-libbed it.
First mistake: I should have chopped up the pieces more before I started the melting. I added some water and a little olive oil and they did begin melting quickly.
Second mistake: I should have placed the pan over hot water (like chocolate). It began to stick.
After what I decided was too long, I strained the pieces out and put them in the food processor. That made a sort of whipped stuff which is OK. Some soapers do this for a fluffy looking top. It does make for a very slimy cleanup job!
I added 1/2 cup cornmeal for a scrubby texture. I have sliced it, but is is still pretty soft. I don't know if it will cure out hard or not, but it is usable.
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| From soaping |
I am sure glad I didn't waste my fragrance oils on it!
Saturday, 12/4/10
Today has been brutally cold with lots of strong winds....I haven't been outside.
This seemed like a good stew day. I used my electric saucepan and just made a no-recipe version using stew meat, onion, celery, carrots and potatoes and 1 pint of my tomatoes with some added water to cook the meat first. The only seasoning was a little Worcestershire, a bay leaf and salt and pepper.
I completely forgot that I had half of one of our favorite casseroles left from when I used the already hot oven from cooking pizza. It is a great way to use leftover ham. You just layer sliced potatoes,onion, some cheese, cream of mushroomm soup (diluted with some milk for spreadability)and chopped up ham. I usually get at least two complete layers in the dish. Bake covered until potatoes are tender which takes forever, well over an hour. I should parboil the potatoes a little. I have been making this since we were first married.
I use pepper but no salt because of the soup.
I also made more granola. I can't believe DH is eating it so well. He sprinkles it over his oatmeal!!!! I couldn't find the blasted recipe. I know I got it from a blog where they called it the best granola that someone had brought to them. I hope I have it in my file. I found another recipe on Allrecipes that I kind of followed. I think it is very good, but it didn't make the little balls or pieces like the other one did.
I thought your little bars of soap were mini loaves of bread in the photo in my sidebar. I am curious to know how the soap turned out.
ReplyDeleteHey, girl, I have some small home-grown luffa sponges that I would send you if you want to grind some up and add to your soap! They really should've dried on the vine, but the vine was over at the Ponca house and we had to pick everything the day before closing. Many of them hadn't made sponges and the ones that had, they were small. But they'd be great for using in soap. There's a website that shows it, just google luffa in soap if you're interested.
ReplyDeleteThe granola looks really good. When you find that recipe, will you post it? I'd like to find one that's not so heavy on the fat and sugar but I don't think there is one. I bet Hubs would eat some on HIS morning oatmeal, too. But you never know about him.
The soap doesn't look too bad at all. I've seen worse. We use up the old sliver of soap by sticking onto a new soap bar. If they're both wet they'll stick together although sometimes it takes more than one try.
Hope you're having a good day. Hugs
I think your soap will dry out some with time. If not, it's still a good way to use those bits of soap. The olive oil might be what's keeping it soft. I have an old crockpot that I use for melting my bits of soap and also for melting the candles I reuse. That way I don't have to stand over the soap and candles they're melting.
ReplyDelete