Homemade Soap

I made this soap last year, and only recently realised that I hadn’t posted about it!

All made by me on the stove!  I think I now have enough soap for us for the next few years!  LOL!  It was pretty easy and good fun.

The basic recipe is a mix of oils, I’ve used all vegetable oils, with Caustic soda added to saponify the oils.  Then they have spices, clays, essential oils or synthetic fragrances added to make the different varieties.  I did have one failure, tried making a coffee soap and it ‘burnt’ when I added the caustic.  Smelled like a coffee pot that had burnt dry so had to throw that one out.

I started making them using tupperware as the molds, then swapped to using 75mm pvc pipe which works a treat!

Centre (grey) is shaving soap with bentonite clay.  Works better for shaving than plain soap.  I made a heap of this in plastic jars for DH to take overseas on his deployment and the rest of it I’m using.

Clockwise from top: Solid shampoo bar, spice (cinnamon, clove and nutmeg), chocolate, Eucalyptus (can’t smell it though), Sweet Vanilla Sugar, plain basic soap, a mix of some small bits and failures all remelted and molded.

And then there were Eight!

I have “Sucker” writ large on my forehead. I can’t see it in the mirror, but I know it’s there. And any stray animal in my vicinity is granted the ability to read and understand that here stands the biggest sucker around.

On Friday the 13th we found a stray kitten at the neighbours. He was there in the morning and still there in the afternoon. We asked around the houses in the street and no-one knew whose he was. I rang the pound and they said I could drop him off that afternoon, they’d try and find him a home.

And all this while, Dian is pleading to keep the kitten. Eddie said no. Dian emailed him an impassioned email with eight reasons she needed to keep the kitten. She spoke to him on the phone. I took photo’s of Dian and the kitten asleep together, and emailed them after he had said no, so they wouldn’t sway his decision. And in the end he changed his mind.

As I write this, the kitten – now called Friday – is asleep on my lap. He has a purr to rival Suzy’s, which was always one of the loudest I had ever heard! The two cats get on reasonably. Suzy is learning to share her space and Friday is learning that she doesn’t like him jumping on her. He chases the chooks (chickens) and gets squirted with water. Sleeps on Dian’s bed. And is the sweetest, friendliest cat I’ve ever met!

So our pet count is now at eight. Four chickens, two cats and two guinea pigs.  Full house!

And did I mention it’s only 38 days until Eddie comes home?

Sourdough Wheat & Spelt Bread recipe

I’ve been making this bread for awhile now and thought I should finally post the recipe!  I don’t remember where I got the original recipe from, this has been changed, amended and played with for about two years to end up with this very simple final version.

Sourdough Wheat and Spelt Bread

Ingredients

1 cup plain sourdough starter (that’s starter made from just flour and water)

1 cup lukewarm water

2 tspn salt

1/4 tspn baking soda

1 cup organic white plain flour

2 cups organic wholemeal spelt flour

(Proof your starter before making this, that is, mix the starter with about one cup of warm water and a cup of plain flour and leave in a warm place for 4-8 hours.  Then measure out the cup of starter and put the rest in the fridge for next time)

Method

Sift and mix together all the dry ingredients.

In a large pyrex or ceramic bowl mix the water and starter together.

Add most of the dry ingredients and mix well.  Keep adding the dry ingredients until you can’t stir with a spoon any more.  Tip the dough out onto a floured bench and knead.  Add more dry ingredients as necessary, however keep in mind that sourdough needs to be moister than ordinary yeast dough.  It should end up as moist as possible, but not sticking to your hands and the bench.  I usually don’t use all the dry ingredients, mostly I end up with a few tablespoons left.  I put any excess away and use it next time.

Knead for ten minutes.  Use a timer, you really do need to knead for the full ten minutes to get a good texture to your bread.

Scrape any loose flour out of the bowl, oil it lightly and place the dough back in.  Oil the top of the dough, cover the bowl and put in a warm place until it has doubled in size.  This could take from 2-6 hours depending on your starter and the temperature.  I keep mine in the oven with the light on – just enough warmth to help it rise.

Take the dough out, turn it onto the floured bench again and punch it down.  I then divide it into two, as I have two small loaf tins, or you can leave it as is for one large loaf.  Flatten it out so it’s about as wide as your tin, then roll the dough up and place into your oiled/buttered and floured loaf tin.  Place the edge where you rolled it on the bottom.

Cover the tin/s and place back in a warm place to rise until doubled in size again.  I’ve found this takes about the same amount of time as the first rising, sometimes a little bit faster.

Bake in a pre-heated moderate oven (mine is 170 deg Celsius) for about 40 minutes, until browned and sounds hollow when tapped.  Remove from the oven and leave in the loaf tin for about 15-20 minutes, then turn out and let cool.

This bread freezes well and will last a few days without refrigeration.  It has a strong sourdough taste and is very filling and healthy!

If anyone makes this and discovers an error in my recipe please leave a comment and let me know!

Saying goodbye to a wonderful friend

A very good friend of mine went into palliative care last monday.  She’s been my good friend, confidante, teacher, mentor, advisor, support and strength for eighteen years.  She taught me to have confidence in who I am, to see life in a positive light, to see the best and have belief in people, how to laugh and enjoy living.  I owe her so much.

For seven years she has fought cancer.  She has done everything she could to beat this revolting disease and in the end it has won over her body.  Her mind will never be conquered.  Even when I rang her and asked how she was she answered “Great”.

I heard that she went into palliative care last tuesday and flew down to see her on the thursday. Thursday was a good day/bad day. I started it on only about 4 1/2 hours sleep, which was not good but unavoidable.

I arrived at the Palliative care unit just after 9.00am I was able to spend about three and a half hours with Paula, just holding her hand and talking.  I went down there thinking that I had so much to say, and in the end what mattered was simply:

Thank you

I love you

I’ll miss you

I’ll see you again one day

And a lot of swearing and crying in private over how unfair it is. She’s only 52 and will never see her sons get married, know her grandchildren or any of the other things that she should still have time to do. And they won’t get to meet an amazing lady.

I didn’t fly out of Melbourne until after 6.00pm, so had a bit of time sitting in the Virgin Blue lounge (almost as good as Qantas Club) before the flight. I was emotionally and physically exausted by the time I got home and am still feeling quite wrung out for a few days.

Update: Paula passed away two weeks later on 22 Jan 2009.