late to the table

Soapmaking Drama

2011-06-22T09:45:00.003-05:00

Whew, checking in has been a long time coming. I have been keeping busy so why haven't I been posting? I don't have an answer, I don't know, I don't understand why, so I am not going to think about it anymore and just "go on with life".....I was driving myself crazy because I left this for so long and couldn't understand why (did I reallly need to "understand"?)....but no more, what happens happens blah blah blah. And I have been busy, sewing, crafting, spending the winter in Arizona...so, had I sat my butt down and blogged, I would have "talked" your ears off! Anyway, yesterday I made soap...my all time favorite thing to do! I only make soap about twice a year....somewhere between 30-50 bars and that lasts us through the Summer, Winter, Spring and then it's time to stir the pot again...I love it!! So I have always made colored soap, or swirled soap, or soap full of herbs...it has never really mattered if my attempts to create "pretty" soap didn't work, because we will use it no matter what...it is soooo much better than anything you can buy! I can't remember the last time I bought a bar...it must be 10 years or more! But I had a vision yesterday of a picture perfect, bright colored two layerd soap and I was excited to get going. The bottom layer came out fine....but I decided to pour my three colors for my top through a funnel. The colors were a peach, a bright blue and dark green....OMG, it all swirled together to make the ugliest color of gray.... it is sooooo ugly that I won't even post a picture!! I knew this could happen, I have heard of the dreadful gray many times, but I am running out of "safe" colorants to use, so I was using what was available and it was awful...actually, I think I may have swirled too much but i wanted to get that fluffy frosting look and I think that is where I went wrong...I fluffed and swirled too long and it ended up mixing too much and now it is sooooo ugly!! The fluff turned out great, the layers are nice and defined, but somehow a swirled grey, with hints of orange and blue do not invite you to hold and caress the bar. But here is the good news...I used fabulous oils that I had infused with wonderful herbs and so this will be one of the most luxurious, good for your skin soaps I have ever produced.....and it's all mine!!! yup, I had infused olive oil with rosemary, some with calendula and chamomile (which is my favorite) and I added mango butter, cocoa butter, castor oil to the usual coconut and palm oil...........oh this soap will be the best!! I scented it with essential oils of Spearmint, Patchouli and Ylang Ylang and the smell is divine!. So, I had a ball mixing this batch up and trying a new technique and even though it is hard to look at, it will be loved by me!

Where Have I Been?

2009-02-08T15:33:00.005-06:00

Ingrid, over at Raw Epicurean, was sweet enough to email me with a "hi, how are you and where have you been?" email. Ingrid, thank you...I really don't know why I have been ignoring my blog...I knew, knowing me, that I wouldn't be consistant with it...that is my M.O. This is what I do....take for example, soapmaking. I bought a home-made bar years ago, fell in love with the smell, the texture, everything about it. So I go out and buy a book on soapmaking...I ended up buying a great book, the bible of soapmaking...but was that enough for me? No, I had to go out and buy four more! Then I have to read them all, before I even start...THEN I go crazy buying everything a person could possibly need (or not) and, finally, sometimes months later, I begin. Now, this was all ok to do with soapmaking..I fell in love with the process and I continue to make my own soap to this day (5 years later!) and I will always make soap. My point to all this is: I have a tendancy to go into something (like my blog) full force, with all the optimisim and promises to keep it going, and, sometimes, not always but sometimes, I fall short or move on to something else. I have done so with my blog....I was having an absolute ball with it, and getting feedback from the likes of Ingrid and my daughter was realllly gratifying. I don't remember, but I imagine I began my Christmas planning in October and got crazy over finding just the right recipes for cookie making and pretty soon time went by, and I kinda checked out of the blog. By the way, Ingrid I did keep checking in on your blog and over at tastespotting etc. and found many, way too many, recipes that I have clipped and piled on top of all the others I have clipped and promised myself to start trying!
So, thanks for the nudge Ingrid and I am going to check back in. But now that you know, don't be surprised if I am AWOL every so often....just seems to be the thing I do. I have been eating much healthier and much more vegetarian and feeling great. In January, I started juicing again on my days off . Trying, a couple of days a week, to give my body a rest from digesting heavy foods...a day of green juices and tea and then a light dinner or salad if I want to do a "raw" day. I stop at the Whole Foods and buy kale, spinach, beets, parsley, cucumber, broccoli, carrots, apples, ginger, limes and juice 'em all up and drink to my health! I just love it and, I think, the main reason is that I feel I am feeding my body exactly what it wants and needs!
Spring is finally just around the corner...no more 30 below zero days and I can hardly wait. I'll get back to you soon!

Raw Treats

2008-09-25T13:28:00.004-05:00

I still consider myself a "flexitarian", but definitely more vegetarian than a carnivore. I never have a craving/wanting for steak, but maybe twice a year I will really crave a well done, with blu cheese on top, hamburger. On my days off I continue to stir up new vegetarian recipes and I am finding more and more that I love it and how it makes me feel, physically as well as mentally. I could go this route entirely, but when I am also cooking for others, I find myself throwing in a chicken or turkey now and then, along with fresh fish when available. I grew up living and eating off a garden...my mom and dad were farmers at heart and always had a huge garden full of tomatoes, carrots, asparagus, potatoes, peppers, beans, peas, etc., and so we ate GOOD! Best food memory? My moms fresh vege soup. She would cut up all the veges and serve it up in a warm milk broth and oh yummm, I can taste it now! My mom never preached good eating of good food...it was just what she did and how we ate and (like I always warn my daughter) what you see as your growing up is what you end up doing! My dad was a big hunter and I have eaten more than my share of venison and steak (he was, after all, a butcher)....but somewhere along the line (sorry dad) I was easily able to give up those choices! Now I continue to look at different eating options, and recently I have looked over a few of the raw food blogs. I have a lot of reading to do on raw food, as I don't know even the basics of it yet. One of the blogs, the Raw Epicurean (rawepicurean.net), is a favorite and this last weekend I made her Hazelnut Truffles. They are light and slightly sweet and satisfying and they went together fast. I am usually much heavier on the sweet side of a recipe, so these took a little bit of getting used to for my sweet tooth, but I will be making these again. They are a great ending to a meal and I even have a few with me at work to bite into at snack time. Her blog has gotten me looking into other raw blogs and articles and it seems like all these raw foodies loose weight eating that way!!! That right there is enough to start me introducing raw food into my everyday meals...why not....and if I end up a combination vegetarian/raw foodie, well, I think that would be just fine.

Bookmaking Urge

2008-09-19T16:50:00.006-05:00

A few years back, I took a community ed class and learned how to make a "basic" book. I have loved the process ever since and have gone on to make a few more and ventured from there to papermaking. I have never blocked out a lot of time to concentrate and get "really good" at it. Instead, once a year I will sit down and make a journal or book, or spend an afternoon making paper. The problem with doing something like that so sporadically is that I always have to spend hours going over the steps to get started. Well, I have a small pile of beautiful pink, green, white and blue homemade paper and I have been reviewing bookbinding instructions, so I am going to try and dedicate these Fall months to bookmaking! I'm a funny duck, I am fascinated by the love I have for paper (and I passed that on to my daughter, who grew up wanting to sell tickets, or take orders, play office...anything to do with paper!). Seriously, I will find a sale on blank notebooks or on paper and I will buy them and then just "look" at them!! Crazy!! Actually there was a time that I did the same thing with chocolate....I would buy it, put it in a drawer and leave it....I felt good just knowing it was there!! I digress.............back to bookmaking. Cutting and covering the boards for covers, selecting paper for the body, gluing , cutting, pressing, sewing...it really is time consuming but to end up with this book that you created and put together....well, it is a joy. BUT, I never write in them!! I think am going to start giving them away....also, I do want to start journaling, but I've been saying that for years now, so whether it will happen or not is another thing. I understand the whole catharsis feel associated with journaling and I believe it, yet I really hesitate at putting my thoughts down on paper......I wonder why? I do, to some degree, here on the blog....and maybe that is enough for now. Anyway, art books and travel journals also interest me so I may put my energy into one of those and see what happens...maybe I need to stick to the "creation" of the book, and leave the "writing" to another time. Well, those are the thoughts for today......

Summers last cold soup

2008-09-12T12:39:00.005-05:00

I love cold soups...probably cuz they taste more like dessert than dinner, and I love dessert! I had a cold cantalope soup at a restaurant a few weeks back and it wasn't sweet nor did it taste like dessert, and I loved it!! It had mint in it (I grow mint!) and I always have cantalope at home so I whipped some up the other day and it was really good! Cantalope has such a mild taste so the mint really kicked the taste up a notch, along with the lime. This is really a compilation of a couple of recipes that I looked at before emptying my fridge.

Cold Cantalope Soup

1 medium, ripe cantalope

1 individual serving of plain yogurt

1 individual serving of Stonyfield Banilla yogurt

2 T. mint, chopped fine

juice from 1 lime

zest from 1/2 lime

Macerate the zest and the mint in the lime juice. Blend all the ingredients in the blender and refrigerate. Makes about 4-6 servings.

All the ingredients can be played with...I used Banilla cuz I LOVE it, but plain or vanilla would still give a great outcome. Mine ended up sweet enough for me, but you could always add some agave nectar if you wanted to make it sweeter. The Fall has moved in and the temperatures have dropped. I find that I really do cook according to the season, so I think this will be my last summer soup. In fact, last night I found myself salivating over the thought of some black bean soup. My darling daughter and myself just came back from a cruise in the Caribbean and I bought two cookbooks that look GREAT!!......one of the first recipes I plan on trying is the black bean soup...and being a Caribbean recipe, they, ofcourse, add rum!! What can be bad about that!!?!

Lavender Sugar

2008-08-20T15:59:00.005-05:00

I have been moving my lavender plants around my garden for a few years now, in search of the spot they will love to grow in. I knew they liked soil with drainage and since we have sand for soil, I wasn't too fussy about first planting them. But nope, they needed something more....long story short, they are now in a spot that is rocky, gravelly, sandy, elevated off the ground and they are happy little guys! This is my favorite herb...I really don't care if I didn't use if for anything except smelling...that would be fine. There is nothing like the fragrance of lavender....at least for me. So, this year one of my plants favored me with three flower stems which I cut, inhaled deeply, photographed and stared at. Not enough flowers to cook with or dry so I decided to make lavender sugar! I took about a cup of organic cane sugar and broke up the flowers and stirred them into the sugar, covered them with cheescloth and, as I do with anything herbal and infused, put it into the sun for a couple of hours. Since then I let it sit on the counter for a week or so and this weekend I sifted the flowers out of the sugar and now I am ready to use the sugar in teas or on top of cookies or strawberries or........just stick my finger in and take a taste!

There was a time when I would get a migraines alot and if I could catch them before it got too bad and if I would rub lavender oil on my temples, I could avert alot of hours of suffering. Fortunately, I don't have the headaches anymore but I always have lavender oil in my medicine cabinet. It is fabulous on burns or a dab on the pillow to relax you at bedtime. I infuse it in olive oil by the quart and then use that for soapmaking. Gosh, now that I think about it, if I could be buried in a bed of lavender I would be a happy, happy corpse!!

Summer Bloom

2008-08-16T14:27:00.005-05:00

Summer is coming to a close.....it's a sad fact, but it's true and you can feel it, at times, in the air already. It rained a few days ago and the smell it created in the woods was no longer that crisp smell of Spring but the heavier, engulfing, woodsy smell of crushed leaves and the decomposition of everything that has fallen on the ground in the last 5 months. I actually love that smell.....been a Northerner too long not to anticipate the colder months coming. That anticipation quickly turns to dread after a few days of below zero weather, but whatever....! So, here is a photo of the loveliest of flowers that showed up this summer. I bought this at one of the greenhouses and quickly lost the tag so I don't even know what it is...although it must be in the Zinnia family. Lots of leaves all summer long and then slowly this tall, green stalk unfurled itself and opened up to this beauty. One flower only, and since taking the picture, it is slowly fading and, happily, I see another stalk starting its way up through the leaves, so hopefully I will get to enjoy another! I can really get lost in the intricacies of any and every flower......I get a kick out of myself when I find myself enjoying "little" things...I think I can thank my mom for that ability.

To Die For Brownies!

2008-08-08T14:40:00.005-05:00

I love all things chocolate...always have, always will. The brownie in the picture is now my number one favorite chocolate "thingy". To me, it is better than a Hershey Bar with almonds, even better than a fresh from the oven ooey, gooey chocolate chip cookie! The recipe for these delish brownies came from Recipegirl and it will never be lost or thrown away or misplaced cuz it is a keeper!! Not to say I will not continue to try, and maybe even find, another chocolate recipe that even surpasses this one and I can go ga-ga over it!

They are called Cappuccino Brownies and the flavor combo of espresso and cinnamon and chocolate..........oh, I wish they were in front of me now! I did not put any nuts in and I didn't miss them at all, although the next time (and there will be a next time soon) I think I will add some big, chunky walnuts and see what they add to the experience.

It is just such a pleasure when, among all the recipes I continue to try out and experiment with, I come across a recipe that is the best in its category and, for me, these brownies are one such recipe. I have a tendency to follow recipes to the "t".....I have, up until very recently, never taken a recipe and changed it up, down and around and see what comes out. In this instance, I am glad I had that anal tendency, cuz this recipe needs no improvement.

Just to mention, I have begun to "tweak" recipes and now I wonder why I was so afraid of doing so for so long!! I just made some energy bars that I added chcolate and ginger to and they turned out great and are another recipe I will never lose. So, it took me 50 some years to loosen up and play with the flour, at least I've made the turn.

Rose infused oil

2008-08-08T11:41:00.003-05:00

I should have taken this photo earlier. I used red, yellow and pink organic rose petals and they looked gorgeous when I first covered them with the oils. I left them in the sun for a couple of days...we had blue skies/sunshine and perfect temps for days in a row and I did not want to miss a second of that energy! Anyway, the roses definitely lost their vibrancy with the passing of days and as their essential oils were being released. I covered the petals with Grapeseed oil, Sweet Almond oil, Olive oil and then I broke open a bunch of Evening Primrose and Vitamin E supplements and added those. I strained the rose and the chamomile oil and added the essential oils shown in the picture.....all, of which, are geared toward anti-aging. Rose oil can sometimes be a bit heavy and old lady smelling, but that Chamomile oil has a smell so sweet and divine that I went back to the garden, picked some more stragglers and have more oil infusing.....this time I think I will make a body butter with it....in preparation for the winter winds.

So, I am now using my new facial oil and it feels silky smooth on my skin. Before I started making my own oils, I would have to coat my face with the heaviest cream, not lotion, that I could find....a couple of times a day! I wanted to use Crisco sometimes, my face would feel that dry. I did use Vaseline a couple of times, which now makes me cringe, since I now realize I was coating my face with petroleum......gross!!! Anyway, there is a definite change in my skin....it should be getting drier as the years pass but I no longer EVER feel like I need to apply those old heavy creams. I use my facial oil and follow that with an Origins lotion that I have fallen in love with and I am good to go. If it's "all in my head" I'm ok with that too.....but the difference is there. Hasta Luego Amigos!

Chamomile oil infusion

2008-07-27T12:34:00.005-05:00

Each summer I make up an oil that I use in place of "store bought moisturizer". I infuse organic rose petals in olive oil as my base. This summer I am going to add chamomile oil to the base also. Chamomile is so soothing (this is the tea you drink before bedtime to relax you!) and, once planted in the garden, will visit you every year whether you want it to or not! This summer I had a handful of plants pop up so I picked the flowers and stems, cleaned them off and put them in a small chair, topped them off with sweet almond oil and olive oil and set it in the sun to infuse. While some will do their infusions in a crock pot or on the stove, I gotta go for the sun! It was the way I started and I feel those plants drink up the sun's energy when I place them outside for a day or two. Within minutes of being in the sun, the oil warms up and the plant starts to release it's precious essential oils. Every time I walk by, I give a little shake, put it back in the sun and....smile. Once out of the sun and open, the sweet smell of chamomile permeates the oil.

I have not infused the roses yet, but once that is done, and oohhhh you should smell that one!.., I will combine them together and add some essential oils that are good for skin of "my age".... Carrot seed oil, rosehip seed oil, rose, lavender, and frankinsense all have benefits they add to help in our anti-aging fight, so I will add a drop or two of each. I end up with an oil perfect for my age and skin and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg! My skin drinks it up....and is very happy!

Ginger Zen homemade soap

2008-07-23T13:15:00.004-05:00

Whoa, I am going to try my first attempt at uploading a photo. This should be worth a few giggles. It was a gorgeous day Tuesday, so I took my soap, a flower from the garden and put them on a pretty plate, on top of the barbecue and snap! This may encourage me to dig into the process of taking a better picture...........sometimes, I look (for hours) at the food photos over at Tastespotting and they are beautiful.......so I know there is a method to the madness. In the meantime, here's what I ended up with.

This is my Ginger and Zen bar that smells delicious! The fragrance is a replica of Origins Ginger Essence and it is spot on.............yummmmo! The swirl in the bar was created with the directions from David over at About.com. Next time I am going to make the green color more blue....more Zen-like.

The soap has coconut, palm, and olive oil plus cocoa butter, shea butter and castor oil. Very creamy smooth and NO preservatives or chemicals.................Love it!

First blog

2008-07-19T16:51:00.000-05:00

OK, my first posting. If you read my profile, I think it summed up "where I'm at" right now. Weird, getting to a certain age, feeling the pressure to try everything before the eyes don't focus and the body wants to sit more and more. Living in the North, I have plenty of months to curl up by the fire and read books, and I excel at that. Sometime in the last 12 months, the feeling of urgancy to try more, not necessarily "do" more, has come on strong.
I got into herbs and soapmaking a few years back. I make natural soap, the old fasioned way, with lye and vegetable oils, adding wonderful, creamy, good smelling butters, and oils infused with rosemary or lavender, chamomile or peppermint, infused in the sun for days until the oil smells delicious with the aroma of the herb. Yummmm, there is nothing like homemade soap on the skin! Something happens when the soapmaking process begins...I just feel so good about it! I may give up some of my other interests, but I will ALWAYS make soap. So, on that note, I will excuse myself and leave to trim and wrap my latest batch...Ginger Zen I am calling it, and I can't wait to get it in the shower! See ya...