Wishing you joy, peace and salvation.
 |
| Click to watch. |
From the Foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains
See you soon, the Good Lord Willing.
Monday, December 23, 2013
Friday, December 13, 2013
Reclaiming Old Bars of Homemade Soap
The baby chicks are growing, in fact they've graduated from their container in the kitchen to a stock tank in the basement. I turned off their brooder light for a few minutes and shined an LED flashlight to show off the Lavender Orpingtons pretty color.
I began cutting pieces for Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery quiltalong, but I'm not sure I'll put my triangles together the way they're supposed to be for the quilt. I'm pretty sure these are components for colonial stars which I'm just not crazy about.
So I tucked them in a box until I decide how I want to arrange them in the quilt.
I make our soap from beef suet and had a batch turn slightly rancid before we used it all. (It probably had a bit too much fat for the amount of lye and water.) I didn't want to throw it out so I milled/grated it with my yard sale SaladShooter and added some herbs and food grade oils to make it smell good again.
Peppermint leaves and oil really perked up these bars.
I added some cocoa powder and gingersnap flavoring to make chocolate/gingersnap bars. I can't wait to use this one.
I use the recipes in Norma Coney's book, The Complete Soapmaker for my basic soap and for the hand-milled bars. I added water along with the oils and herbs to all of these bars and will have to let them dry a bit before using. If you have homemade soap that you're not crazy about consider hand-milling it to give it new life.
Hope you're enjoying the season. See you next time, the Good Lord Willin'.
