Good Clean Fun

This summer to celebrate our anniversary, I signed us up for weekend classes at the John C Campbell Folk School deep in the mountains of NC. Jason signed up for a Blacksmithing class, something he's always wanted to do. I finally kind of reluctantly settled on a soap making class. We both got waitlisted. I got into my class and the more I thought about it the more I looked forward to it. Jason never made it into his class, so I was very disappointed to have to withdrawal out of mine.

Last week I saw an add for a local soap making class and I jumped on it. It was alot of fun! The instructor is Blaire Bothayre from Good Karma soaps (standing in the grey sweater)



This was a Lego mold, I snatched it up to make soap for the kids.



I made the lego soap and the diamond shaped soap in the class. The others were gifts from the instructor.



I left the class and decided to come home and give it a try on my own since I needed to make a gift for a friend for the next day. I went with a brown and blue color theme and a standard bar shape. JW helped me every step of the way and LOVED it. He told me I needed to quit making medicine and start making soaps to sell.

These soaps were made with an Avocado and Cucumber white glycerine soap. Glycerine is an all natural soap that is a humectant, meaning it draws moisture from the air to the skin. The avocado and cucumber are good for the skin as well. I added a cucumber/melon fragrance which has a smooth, calming effect.











This is a bar I made with oatmeal, which is also great for the skin.



Here is a 2 layer bar with a layer of poppy seeds (for exfoliation) in between.



The final product.

I think this is the beginning of a new hobby for me.

There are so many different ways to be creative with this, I love it!

For those of you on my Christmas list this year, you did not see ANY of this.

Random Kitchen Thoughts

This is my kitchen.



For those of you who have seen my kitchen on any day other than a special occasion, you know that my kitchen NEVER looks like this. See that major structure there that some would call an island? I call it a junk collector. It took me about an hour to clear it off tonight.

Here is a partial list of what I had to find a new home for:

1. Half of a toy dinosaur egg and the dinosaur that recently hatched and other random toys.

2. About 264 pieces of mail.

3. About 46 catalogs and magazines.

4. 126 pieces of schoolwork, notices, calendars, etc.

5. 6 glasses, 3 plastic cups, 5 empty snack food wrappers.

6. Approx. $7.55 in change in 5 different piles.

7. A tire gauge, random bolts, unidentified parts to a transmission?

I should have taken a "before" picture. One thing that I can guarantee is that all of the above items will collect here again within 24 hours. Which brings me to my most recent idea to solve this problem. Here it is. Ready?

I want to redo my countertop in some sort of metal. Stainless steel won't work for reasons I will soon describe. I want the countertop to be sloping at about a 30-45 degree angle. This way things that don't belong will slide right off. Things that do belong like cutting boards, bowls, utensils will all need to be magnetized so that they will NOT slide off. So stainless won't work because magnets won't stick to it. I'm not sure how to keep the actual food from sliding off, still trying to work out the bugs of my plan.

Here is another idea I'm kicking around that is slightly more feasible.

It seems like I spend 25% of my life loading or unloading the dishwasher. It is a never ending cycle: sink -> dishwasher -> cabinet -> sink -> dishwasher -> cabinet. My idea is to have TWO dishwashers. One for the clean dishes, one for the dirty and use only enough dishes/glasses/silverware to fit in a dishwasher. This eliminates the whole cabinet step. Dishes will just go back and forth between the dishwashers. The cabinet space I will lose with the 2nd dishwasher, I will gain by not having to store dishes/glasses in a cabinet. I honestly think I might do this. I'm going to experiment by trying to live on a dishwasher full of dishes/glasses first, to see if we can do it.

These are my random kitchen thoughts for the day. Gotta go, a pile of stuff was just thrown on the counter by my husband who just walked in the door and there are dishes in the sink.

A Peck of Pickled Peppers

It is November and I am still being overrun with banana peppers from the garden. I have never been so successful at growing anything in all my life. They just keep coming and coming. So after our harvest this week (hopefully our final harvest), I decided to make sweet pickled peppers.

Seed the peppers just like I described for hot pepper butter and remember to wear gloves! I got brazen and wore only one pair of gloves and my hands are burning as I type this.

Slice them into rings.



Stir together 4 cups vinegar and 1 1/3 cup sugar in a large pot. (This will make about 5 pints, make more or less of the brine depending on how many peppers you have)



Add 1 teaspoon mustard seeds.



Add 1 teaspoon celery seeds. stir and heat to a boil.



Pack sterilized pint or quart jars with peppers and fill with vinegar mixture leaving 1/2" headspace.



Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

I promise my next canning post will not involve peppers.

Apple Jacks

A good friend of mine mentioned a few weeks ago that she was craving "Apple Jacks" that her mom used to make for her but she didn't know how to make it (not the cereal or alcoholic variety Apple Jacks). I'd never heard of this before so I was intrigued. Later that week at the state fair, I found an apple concession stand that advertised Apple Jacks. I talked to the woman behind the counter and asked her how to make them and I also did some searching on the internet. It is basically like a flat apple pie, kind of like a cross between an apple pie, a turnover and a pop-tart.

Here's how to make them.

Start with 3-4 good tart apples like a Granny Smith. Peel and slice thinly.



Roll out a pie crust (I use a pre-made crust) onto a cookie sheet.
Press it out as far as you can stretch it without tearing it.



In a small bowl, mix together 1 Tablespoon flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg



Spread the apples over the pie crust, sprinkle with the sugar mixture to coat the apples.



Cover with another pie crust and pinch to seal the edges.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

The final product. Delicious and easy to pick up and eat.



If you want to go over the top, make a glaze by mixing 2 1/2 T melted butter with 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/4 tsp vanilla. (I was out of powdered sugar when I made this one but if not I would have definitely done this)

Drizzle over top of the Apple Jack. Yum!

Halloween Ho-down 2009

This weekend we had a Halloween Ho-down horse show at our farm. We had horse trailer trick or treating, a pumpkin carving contest, a horse/rider costume contest and a silent auction to benefit a fellow barrel racing family who is battling cancer. It was a lot of fun!

JW was an Indian brave and Casey was a princess. Jason made JW's costume after my failed attempts to find one in a store and after I told them my idea to make one out of a pillow case and felt. This was not acceptable. We had some spare leather and cowhide from when we made our cow chair that worked out perfectly. I am so glad I married into sewing skills.



He even made him some moccasins.

After the photo op, it was on to the horse trailer trick or treating.



My poor children had to settle for a Walmart and Michaels bag because my last minute attempt to find their halloween pumpkin buckets was unsuccessful. I vaguely remember back in June getting tired of looking at them in my pantry but have no idea where they wound up. I'm sure I will run into them in time for Easter.



This is a good shot of the back of JW's costume.



There were lots of trailers to visit.





Getting ready for the costume contest. Jason was my goto guy all day. I threw him the unicorn horn so he could figure out how to get it to stay on Lulu and he did! Lulu is such a trooper.

Lulu was a rare black unicorn, you don't see many of them. She looks thrilled.

Walker was an Indian pony, we put feathers in his mane and tail and painted him up for battle.

JW rode him bareback, Indian style. He won 2nd place in the Youth class.



Here I am dressed as Pacman, on my horse named Pacman.

This is Brooke and Missy as Ballerinas.



Little Bo Peep - the winner of the adult costume class.



2nd place, a dalmation and a fire hydrant.



I think you know who these two are.

Here are a few of the pumpkins in the carving contest. JW stuck with a dinosaur theme.

And finally the silent auction, we had a ton of nice stuff donated and raised a lot of money!