Not about soap.

The happy couple, caught stealing a kiss after the ceremony.

This post is not about soap.

My younger daughter was married on Saturday.  The wedding day was absolutely perfect.  I honestly think it was the most perfect day I have ever lived...and I have had some truly wonderful days in my life, but this... Nothing could have prepared me for this day.

I hoped that we could fit the 90 or so close family members into the house and garden for coffee and cakes.  I was confident that the weather would be nice in spite of a rainy forecast.  I knew that it would be nice to grill hamburgers for the immediate family at dinner time, but I have to admit that I had doubts about the party for the couples friends in the evening - I had thought that we would retire and let the kids do their own thing.  But no!  We were there with some family mingling with their friends dancing and talking and laughing and hugging right till the end.  And we had the time of our lives.  What a wonderful group of friends my daughter and son in law have.  They rehearsed a music number that had a goose-bump-start and just got better.  And my older daughter caught it on video, even if we missed the start.  I was in tears and speechless - that doesn't happen often.  But the song was so great.  It's called Home and the original video is just great, both to listen to and to watch.

We didn't have crystal chandeliers, but these flea market finds
were just as good, either rusty or painted. The wheelbarrow
later served as a beer cooler when we grilled hamburgers.

I knew how the wedding would look, sort of.  The physical surroundings we had thought a lot about.  We had to remove furniture from the house and bring in small tables and chairs, still knowing that we couldn't seat everyone.  We had lots of old china, old silver, embroidered table cloths, candle chandeliers, old books and lots and lots and lots of Cow Parsley in vases all over the house and garden.  And a ton of cakes (really handy to have most of the recipes on the blog in one place :), baked by me and a many other women.  And we had pink Aquilegias and of course the Peonies, Honeysuckle and Lady's Mantle for the bouquet.  The dress was her own design and there were several women in the families that worked on it. The whole preparation was like an Amish barn raising.  Everyone seemed to come together to help.

But in spite of all the preparation I don't think that I was prepared for how truly wonderful the day was.  And I think the reason that everyone was smiling and pouring out love was because we could all see how genuine their love for each other is.  Like my husband said at the end of the day:  It was like a dream, the whole day, just like a dream.

And now that the young couple is on their short honeymoon, driving in the country with a tent in the trunk, I can't wait to start soaping again.
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Flora and Fauna (To lard or not to lard...)

I am not a vegetarian, so I use animal products in some of my soaps, both milk and milk products, honey and fat.  I have no problem with that, seeing as I eat the animals without any moral dilemma.  Being an omnivore I think it makes sense to use as many parts of the animals we kill to eat as possible and I think it is great that I can easily get hold of lard fairly cheaply and easily.  It is already rendered, pure white and practically without any smell.  Lard has many really nice qualities in soap, it is pure white in colour, it gives hardness to the soaps, it gives a soft and long lasting lather and is conditioning for the skin.

I also tried to use sheep's fat.  Probably the most common animal fat here, but the fat that I could find had a bit too much meat smell for my liking.  Although I did make a laundry soap with it (and used it for the first time yesterday).  It still smells a bit, but it has cured to a nice hard laundry soap that seems to clean well. The blue Alkanet colour had completely vanished, replaced by a very, very slight pink tinge.  Rather disappointing, but it's just for laundry so it doesn't matter.

I have also made soap using milk and yoghurt.  The soap was really nice and creamy so I want to do some more experiments.  I use cows milk and milk products only.  Goats milk sounds very tempting to use, but we do not have many goat farmers and you can't buy the milk in stores.  Goats milk here is used almost solely for premature babies and I wouldn't dream of trying to take some away from them.  But I like the challenge of making soap with milk.  I freeze the milk products and try to dissolve the lye without burning the milk, but I usually get a tan colour from my soaps anyway.  As I understand it, the goal for many milk soapers is to get the soap to be as white as possible.  I may achieve that one day.

Honey in soap is another favorite and I have read that others are using a little bit of beeswax.   I have never tried that but think I might since I use that in the creams I make.  I have read that it makes soap harder, so that might be a good additive to the Sea Buckthorn soap that was a tad too soft.  Honey smells great and gives the characteristic honey colour to soaps and is supposed to be moisturizing.  I have suggested to my husband that we get a beehive, but his enthusiasm was underwhelming, to say the least.  So we are not doing that.

The strangest animal products that I have used (or rather am contemplating using) is eggshell.  I read about it's use in a book and I thought "What a great idea. Lets try that".  So now I'm waiting to try it.  I have amassed a large quanty of egg shells from baking for the wedding and I have pounded that in my mortel to make it into tiny pieces.  I will post the results as soon as I am done.

I really enjoy using local ingredients where I can.  I'm planning to head to the shore (somewhere far away from the city) to gather some seaweed and kelp.  I need to read up on those plants since I don't know them like I do land plants.  I have planted Comfrey in my allotment garden and have started to dry a few leaves.  I need to get a nettle to grow close to home too.  Just haven't figured out where to plant something like that.  Both are fantastic plants to have access to.  I did sow a lot of Calendula, but didn't have much luck with the seed.  Im hoping to get a few plants to flower and to macerate a few petals and use in soaps.

The garden is getting to it's best at the end of June and I'm getting a bit excited for the wedding on Saturday.  There is a lot to do.  The wedding ceremony is to be outdoors and the reception is at home and we are having 80 people over for coffee and cakes.  And then some 30 for dinner and about 40 for a party into the night.  The house really isn't all that large so it will be a bit crowded.  So I'm hoping and praying for nice weather so that the guests can sit outside too.  Right now the forecast is for a bit of drizzle, so please send you warmest sunniest thoughts :)  But I know that even if we need umbrellas it will be lovely.
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Pure and white, this is the best soap.  It sits on a flower pot that has a lovely rose pattern.  I have three of them and they hold some of my summer flowers.

Homemade Ginger Ale

I loved Ginger Ale when I was a little girl.  I got it infrequently, only when my grandparents held grown up parties where my mother and her sister would help to serve.  I think it started with me wanting the nice coloured drinks that were being served.  Those were alcoholic so not so suitable for a 4 year old and someone had the idea to give me Ginger Ale which looked like the whiskey that was served (I have a feeling that I howled until I got it).  It amused the adults that I really liked it, but I still do.
I came across some recipes for making your own Ginger Ale quite some time ago while browsing the Internet so I started to experiment with that.
There are a lot of recipes on the internet for this, but this is my recipe.  It's a result of many, many trials.  I like it very much.  It's a great thirst quencher.  My husband likens it to moonshine and says it's disgusting!  Having led an innocent life I can't say.  I never tasted homebrew.  But I'm just really  happy that I don't have to share.  If you are interested in trying it out here's the recipe:
- I have tweaked and tried and now I have a delicious drink.

Ingredients:
Ginger, about 45 grams, finely grated (don't bother to take the skin off).
Sugar, 180 grams.
Lemon, juice of one.
Yeast, 1/4 teaspoon.

And... this is according to taste, but I love to add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla sugar and a few red pepper seed OR a small pinch of chili pepper.

How to:
Take a 2 liter plastic soft drink bottle, clean it thoroughly out and fill with cold water up to the "shoulder".
Put everything except yeast in a saucepan.
Heat to boiling while stirring.
Remove from heat, put a lid on and let stand for at least an hour.
Sieve the content of the saucepan through a fine sieve or muslin cloth.
Add that to the bottle.
Add the yeast to the bottle and put the cap on and shake it.

Then wait:
Put the bottle in a dark place, perfect temperature is 10 - 15°C.
Best result in my experience is with the cooler temperature - it takes a little longer (up to 5 days) but has less yeasty taste.

Check the bottle after 48 hours, and then regularly after that. It can explode if left too long!

When the bottle is quite hard to the touch it's ready.
Put it in the fridge.
This should stop the germination and helps to settle any sediment.
When the botle is cold, open it to let out the fizz and then check it every day or it might explode in the fridge - which I imagine is very messy.

I siphon it to another bottle to get rid of the sediment, but you can just pour gently if you don't have a small hose.

It is now ready to drink and is wonderful served quite cold.

NOTE: About the explosive nature of the brew - the yeast produces carbonation and if the pressure builds up, something has to give. That something is the bottle!
DO NOT EVER USE A GLASS BOTTLE FOR THIS RECIPE.
An exploded plastic bottle is annoying, but broken glass is DANGEROUS!!!! 

I have never had an explosion because I can't wait to see if it's ready, but I'm told that it is a possibility. So just keep touching the bottle, you'll know when it's done.

The photo:  Next to my shed I have this space for mint, perfect because it can't spread.  I have to cut it mercilessly to enable the white violas to survive. They have an adorable scent.

Soap with teas and oil infusions

I like novelty and I guess one of the things that I like most about soap making is the endless possibilities to experiment.  I sometimes get almost an itch to make soap.  Most often late at night and usually I'll have had an idea that I need to test immediately.  One evening I was rummaging in the cupboards and came across my Celestial Seasoning teas.  They are made in Boulder, Colorado where I used to live, way back in the old days.  Wonderful place!  Tension Tamer and Sleepytime are favorites and I just had to try to use those in a soap recipe.  How lovely to sip the tea in the bathtub using a soap made with the same herbs, both as tea and infused oil.

This is what I made.  It turned out to be one of my "everything but the kitchensink" recipes.  The soaps are lovely, they retained the scent of the herbal tea in a very gentle way.  The colour is a yellow tone.

This is a small recipe, only 313 g / 11 oz.
The figures are a bit strange because I just sloshed this that and the other thing on the scale and wrote it down.  I use grams, the oz. come from the Soapcalc lye calculator.  I suggest to always double check all recipes by running it through a lye calculator.

33.5%  Coconut oil  -  105 g / 3.7 oz
32%  Almond oil  - 100 g / 3.5 oz
12%  Lard  -  38 g / 1.34 oz
8%   Sunflower oil  -  25 g / 0.9 oz
4.8%  Avocado   -  15 g / 0.5 oz
2%  Castor oil  -  10 g / 0.35 oz
2%  Jojoba wax  - 10 g / 0.35 oz
2%  Shea butter  - 10 g / 0.35 oz

45 g / 1.6 oz of lye.

For the water I used 4 tea bags in 110 g / 3.7 oz of water and infused it until cold.
I also cut up 4 tea bags and poured sunflower oil over it.  This I heated up gently over hot water and let it infuse for about an hour.

I have already made tea with the Sleepytime tea and the oil has been infusing at room temperature for a few weeks, so that one I need to make soon to see what difference there is.  Then there are all the other teas that I haven't tried.  I am determined to try a licorice tea and maybe Roobois and ...

The photo: Almond oil and avocado oils really are nice in soap. I use them in facial soaps and also in face creams. The glass thing was my grandmothers and I never knew what it was for when I was a child, but it is to hold flowers nicely arranged in a vase.

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Cetraria islandica - Iceland moss

It is fun to use all sorts of plants in soaps.  I love to make teas and infusions with herbs that I grow in the garden and I also love to pick some fresh plants from nature.  Foraging, I guess it is called.  To me it is wonderful that one is able to walk around and pick things for free.  I guess that for those who are brought up in countries where fruit grows on trees that is just very common, but here we don't have that.

I am always careful not to pick endangered species.  My parents were both biologists and both specialized in plants so I have been brought up with a healthy respect for nature.  We don't have such variety of wild plants as more southerly countries, but we have some really nice ones.   Alpines are of course right at home here, but I don't pick those since the habitat is really delicate and it is better to pick some of the plants that grow in lower altitudes, some of them weeds.  Nettle grows here in abundance.  Angelica too.  And we have a wonderfully fragrant variety of thyme that I would love to try and capture in oil.


All plants are not equal, though.  Some plants here are foreigners that have gotten quite out of control.  They are strong and robust plants that run over the more delicate local flora.  Good examples of these thugs are the Alaska lupin and Cow Parsley.  Pretty plants, but quite a nuisance in our nature.  These two I am picking in great quantities for my daughter's (fast approaching) wedding.  Two flies in one...  Flowers for free and preventing them setting more seed.

But this post was supposed to be about something local:  The Iceland moss.  This curious plant is really a lichen.  It was traditionally been used here to feed starving people (that was the general condition back in the old days) and it is supposed to do really good things for you when eaten.  It was used in cooking for soups and stuff, but also very commonly boiled in milk and drunk that way.  It is considered antibiotic and was used for coughs and tuberculosis among other things.  Topically it was used to treat boils!  But use it in soap and you have this really nice, abrasive scrub.

The recipe I used is very simple.  For something so natural and lovely I thought Olive oil is perfect and with a bit of Coconut. So the recipe turned out to be:

73% Dark Olive oil
27% Coconut oil.

The liquid (standard Soapcalc 38%) is Iceland moss tea and crumbled Iceland moss in the soap.  SF 5%.

The stuff on top is dried Iceland moss, but that isn't such a good idea because it is very brittle.  But it looked nice!

The photo: I was very happy to get my first real soap mold. It's small,but I don't make large batches. The trivet is a 1$ find. It looks worn, but I like shabby. I really like second hand stuff I love to think who owned it before me and why they let it go.

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Soap for dry and delicate skin

I have used soap on my face since I was about 16 years old.  Or not soap really, detergent in a bar form.  Back in those days soap was considered drying to the skin.  And the stuff that has been depleted of glycerin probably is and was.  Natural soaps were unheard of in those days.

But I have just always felt comfortable with cleaning my face with a soap bar rather than with cleansing milks, cold creams or liquids of any kind.  I like to rinse stuff off my face with water.  Tissuing off some cream just doesn't feel like cleaning the face to me.  But then I never had particularly dry skin.  But now I guess my skin is a bit dry and I like to treat my face gently.  So I like to do experiments to make gentle soaps for the face.  That is not to say that they don't end up being used in the shower as all over soap.

I tend to make these recipes up as I go along.  Very often I get one fairly simple idea ("I should make soap with honey and coconut milk and almond oil for the face") and then it gets a bit more complicated as I open drawers and find all my oils ("O o o, I really should add some Jojoba oil!" and "Rose hip is really nice for older skin, I should try that").  So here is one of those rather complicated recipes.  I tend not to put any fragrance in facial soaps since I like them to be as free from allergens as possible.  But I can just imagine that this recipe would be nice with a soft feminine scent.

I love the soap and I have to admit that I use it all over in the shower.  It is also a nice size to take to the gym and I do that.

Facial soap for dry and delicate skin:

30%  Coconut oil  -  150 g / 5.3 oz
20%  Olive oil  -  100 g / 3.5 oz
20%  Almond oil  - 100 g / 3.5 oz
10%  Avocado   -  50 g / 1.8 oz
8%  Castor oil  -  40 g / 1.4 oz
5%  Rose hip oil  - 25 g / 0.9 oz
5%  Jojoba wax  - 25 g / 0.9 oz
2%  Shea butter  - 10 g / 0.35 oz

For the liquid I used semi-frozen Coconut milk to which I added 1 tsp honey dissolved in a bit of water.  This together should amount to  165 g / 5.8 oz
Lye 69 g / 2.5 oz

This time I used 5% SF (but check in a lye calculator as always, especially the ounzes,  they are approximate since I use the grams myself).

I dissolved the lye in the half frozen Coconut milk/honey liquid and watched it turn a bright red.  This then turn into a beautiful yellow when the liquid had been added to the oils.  The soap hardens pretty quickly so don't wait too long to pour into molds.  I poured this into my pastry molds that had been covered in cling wrap (they are aluminium).   The soap doesn't stay a sunny yellow unfortunately, but turns that nice honey colour when it is cured.

The photo: This is one of my favorite soaps.  I is just lovely for the face. The little bowl is one of those things that I keep picking up at flee markets and that lovely little bottle broke, but I do have pictures to remember it by :)

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Caramel cake - a sweet thing.

This cake was in every birthday party that my mom held for me and my sister when we were kids and I have made it for my daughters birthdays every year.  I've never had anything remotely similar anywhere else and I don't know where the recipe comes from (altough I think it comes from the USA through my aunt).  This is one of the things that I've always meant to ask my mom about.

My younger daughter  just graduated from what would be junior college in the US (the older one is graduating in a few days with a bachelors degree from a school in Switzerland),  we had a "kaffiboð" last weekend:  Closest family members over for coffee and cakes.  The Caramel cake is a nessessity, although I've noticed that some guests eye it with suspicion and don't dare to taste it.  I'm such a lousy hostess that I love that.  Then there is some left over for me at the end of the day!

The cake is very, very sweet.  It really is like candy, so be warned.  This is no healthy treat.  Just a delightfully childish and sinful calorie bomb.

2/3 cups sugar  /150 g. 
2 eggs
Whisk together well and add:


2/3 cups melted butter  /120 g. - 

Combine and then add:

2/3 cups flour  /75 g. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Put in a small (7-9 inch/ ) round baking form. Bake at 175 C / 350 F

Caramel on top:
2 dl cream
1/2 cup sugar  /125 g.
2 tbsp syrup 

Heat in a pot with a thick bottom and stir continuously until it thickens. Test by dropping into a cold glass of water.  When it forms a ball it is ready to pour on the cake.  Decorate with "thousands and thousands" if you like.  Or use something completely different according to taste.  I serve this with whipped unsweetened cream,  but that's just because I like whipped cream a lot.

Bon appetit (once a year is just about right for this sweet thing).

The photo: This is just memories for me: Childhood birthday cakes. The candle holders are a Christmas present from my mother in law and the doilies for the dress are hanging from the branch I have in the living/dining room.